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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grayhawk" data-source="post: 1791433" data-attributes="member: 11288">Lord Vangarel, we seem to be in agreement on a lot of things. I too liked the simplicity of 1e rules and the flow of 1e combat, but I also am not just looking to go back, as 3e and d20 have brought many improvements.Naturally we may disagree on what should be kept from 3e and what should be made more like 1e. E.g. feats are to me one of the best new additions, whereas am not so fond of the skill system the more I think about it.fuindordm, thanks for pointing to my <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=100965" target="_blank">skills thread</a>. Lately, though, I've been contemplating removing the skill system altogether and instead give classes like the Ranger things like Track, Animal Empathy, Sneak (Move Silently & Hide), Alertness (Listen, Search & Spot), etc as class abilities that improve with level increases. A check would be d20 + class level + ability modifier (maybe with a +3 to account for existing DC's).Obviously, this makes for much more rigid character building, but since D&D is a class based system in the first place, I'm not sure this is so bad. Also, I'd remove a lot of skills like Climb (a Rogue would get Scale Walls instead), Jump and Swim. These are things that all chracters should be able to do with some chance of success (unless you specifically state that your character can't swim, which would be fine and which I know some would do for the sake of roleplaying without even expecting a benefit in return). Making a Jump check then just becomes a Str check, with appropriately lower DC's, etc.And here comes what I expect to be the most controversial change: No Bluff, Diplomacy, etc skills. Several times have I seen the argument that these skills are necessary for the low charisma player to adequately play a high charisma character, and while I understand the argument (a Fighter played by a very skilled and charismatic roleplayer may steal the spotlight from the Bard in both combat and in social interactions), I don't exactly see it that way.For one thing, the low Cha Fighter would be badly played by it's high Cha player if he doesn't play his character to match his attributes. Second, when I started out, roleplaying was a skill you as a player got better at. Improvising, BS'ing, fast-talking, etc was all things you had to try as a player to talk your way out of sticky situations and merely relegating this aspect of roleplaying to a dice roll seem to take away some of the game's greatest strenghts. Third, a good DM will reward the less capable roleplayer for his effort, which will hopefully spur him on to keep trying and in the process getting better at playing out social encounters.So for the kind of 'skill system without skill points' I'm kicking around, you would have class abilities that improves with class levels, and you'd resolve the other things by making an attribute check. I'd propably include some kind of feats to improve areas you would like to boost. Like an Athletic feat that gives you a +2 or +3 bonus on Str checks when Swimming, Climbing or Jumping.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101610" target="_blank">My thoughts exactly.</a>Here are some other threads I fielded in House Rules on <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101919" target="_blank">Streamlining advanced combat actions</a> and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101099" target="_blank">How to remove AoO's?</a>. For more on the removing of AoO's, there's also <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=102432" target="_blank">this one</a>.</blockquote>

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