A while back, I posted my proposed changes to the 3e rules over in the rules forum and got flamed for it. Seemed like everyone thought I was gonna sneak into their house, rip out the pages from their books and replace them with my house rules.
Anyway, my solution to bringing back a quicker, rules light feel, was to bring back old school multiclassing with separate exp charts, lose feats and AOOs. I redesigned most classes to mimic or resemble their 1e counterparts, yet ept the basic d20 mindset. I scaled the attacks back, so only fighter types got extra attacks - the fighter gaining the best rate. These attacks were all at the same base attack, but were staggerred, ala AD&D. I banned several spells and scaled back others to lower the power thresh-hold - no Cat's Grace, GMW, etc.
The fighter btw, had the following abilities that no one else got:
1st level: Weapon Specialization: A fighter gains +1 to hit and +2 to damage with one weapon of his choice.
5th: Weapon Mastery: The fighter gains an additional +1 to attack and damage with his chosen weapon.
9th: High Mastery: The fighter gains an additional +1 to hit and damage with his weapon of choice.
12th: Grand Mastery: The damage dice of the fighter’s weapon of choice increases one step. For example, a broad sword does 2d4 damage, but in the hands of a grandmaster, it woud do 2d6. A weapon with a d12 damage die does 2d8 instead.
15th: 2nd Weapon: The fighter gains a 2nd weapon that he may apply all his specialization to.
18th: 3rd Weapon: The fighter gains a 3rd weapon that he may apply all his specialization to.
Basically, I made my own version of C&C, and have since switched over to C&C entirely, as I am one of the playtesters, though I still prefer the 1e classes, or my homebrew classes.
I'll be using a hybrid once the C&C books hit the shelves. I like the old style rules, but I do like some of the new mechanics, such as grappling, bull's rush, etc. But using all the 3e rules, even just the core books, slows gameplay to a crawl imo.
Don't get me wrong, I'm one of those that waited breathlessly for 3e and even started running games with the rules from Eric's old site. I remember Henry's "C'mon August!", and I couldn't have agreed more. I really liked 3e for about a year or so, but then it suddenly became more of a chore than a game. I've seen a lot of threads lately about 1e or simplifying 3e, and I really think C&C is what a lot of us are looking for. I'm not completely happy with all of C&C, but it's close enough that I can make it the game I want without butchering half the game, which is what I did with 3e.
