Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 5035332" data-attributes="member: 29398">Good summary, Celebrim; and though I don't agree with all of your ideas I think we have much in common, starting with......this.  I'm still playing it.I'm so used to the lower-is-better AC I'd never want to flip it.  But I do allow AC to go below -10 if someone manages to get there, and above 10 should someone be so pathetic.  Crits and fumbles are almost something each DM should probably tailor to their specific game and player tastes, with a basic idea for such suggested in the DMG as a default.Agreed, except Barbarian should not be a class at all - rather, it should be a sub*race* of Human.  Bits of UA are worth saving; you just have to carefully sort through the chaff.  I'd also suggest ignoring Oriental Adventures unless you're going for an Eastern-theme campaign.Making Humans playable can be rather easily done via setting.  Non-Humans are shunned, cannot find training, are thrown out of most settlements on sight, etc., etc.  Make this clear going in, and let the players decide what to play.Disagree.  I likes my Assassins! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Unified and simpler init. system - convert everything to a 6-segment round, then roll d6 each round for initiative.  Simultaneous actions all resolve at once (thus, two melee combatants on tied initiative *can* kill each other simultaneously, something that cannot possibly happen in 3-4e).  In cases wehre something gets multiple attacks e.g. a claw-claw-bite or a high-level Fighter, each gets its own init. each round.Not sure about this.  Ex. Str. is an attempt to recognize that while strength *can* go off the charts, the 3-18 range is paramount.  3e solves this by letting stats go crazy, such that 3-18 becomes mostly irrelevant.  But there has to be a way to allow for the Hercules' and Conans of the world, while retaining the idea that 18 Str. is the best a normal Human can hope for...and while not throwing out the 3-18 system.What we've done is take the 18.01-18.00 range and break it out into integer numbers (thus, 18.41 = 19, up to 18.00 = 24) with Hill Giants checking in at 25 and Storm Giants capping it out at 30.  We kind of had to do this becuase we took the percentile stat increments introduced with Cavaliers and gave them to all classes (which is a change I'd make again in a heartbeat), and it just doesn't work when Str. is already on its own percentile.Close to what we've done.  Clerics are completely "wild card" in what spells they can cast; I've recently done the same with wizard-types and so far I'm pleased with the result.  I'm just too lazy to design different spell lists for each deity, which would be the ideal solution.I've messed with the attack matrix and smoothed it out for all classes.  The original has odd jumps and gaps for all classes.  Wizards still suck at it, though, and Thieves aren't much better.Monsters have explicit attributes, I just don't care what they are until it becomes relevant e.g. when I need to know how dumb this Orc you just charmed is, I roll d% behind the screen and let that be a guide.  But strong monsters get their to-hit and damage bonuses, and dextrous ones get the AC/missile bonuses if not already listed.We introduced Body Points, that all beings have.  Normal rolled hit points become Fatigue Points.  The mechanics work similar to Wound-Vitality points in the Star Wars game.  End result: 1st-level characters have a few more h.p.Keep Illusionists, and add Necromancers.  All the others are too similar to bother breaking out.One of the best things about backstab was that it took effort to set up.  3e's sneak attack is far too easy for the Thief.And drop ExP for treasure, replacing it if desired with story awards or mission bonuses.  In any case, slow the advancement.Interesting.  I usually use a d20-roll-low for perception, winging the difficulty every time.  Secret doors and trap finding I usually use the Thief tables.  Surprise is and always will be on a d6; "six-sided!" being one of the game's canonical sayings when trouble is afoot.Done.Easier to just get rid of weapon vs. AC modifiers.  Life's too short.Or just be more creative on what poisons etc. can do to you.  Strongly suggest *not* venturing into ability damage like 3e does, it's a pain in 1e where *any* stat going to 0 means you're dead, and there's no mechanism at all for recovery of lost stats.We have a very simple AoO system and I'd not want to take it any further, having seen what happened with 3e.  Messy!Or have both available.  Use as desired.I ended up solving the psionic problem (after many failed attempts) by dropping psionics as a PC ability entirely.  I kept them in the arsenals of a few iconic monsters (Mind Flayers, Demons, etc.) but that's it.Lanefan</blockquote>

Verification