removing size modifier for attack

[Theo R Cwithin]

There are literally hundreds of 'bugs' I'd like to squash in the 3.x 'code', but I've never been tempted to really try to make 3.X realistic. I might want to remove any unnecessary unrealism that I think hinders play, but for most of the unrealism my opinion is 'good enough for a game, and perhaps better than good'.

Fortunately, I'm not really after the ultimate in realism. I agree that 3e is probably better than "good enough", and despite the rules bloat, I do like the simplicity that comes with a more or less unified mechanic.

And it's precisely this simplicity that makes it easy to "tune" the game in question to the desired feel. Handwaving is easy enough, yet there's an extensive corpus of rules (and houserules) for pretty much anything if the mood arises. It's also good for cobbling together a target DC (or even entire mechanic) on the fly, without being too terribly unreasonable.
- Limited mana area? Tack a DC onto the spell casting action.
- Trip that towering titan elder? Grapple its foot, and good luck.
- You're all monster hunters and librarians? Knowledge +2 all around!
- Etc.

There are really just a few things that slightly irk me now and then, and the double accounting for size modifiers simply happens to be one of them. Oh well, we all have our personal demons

BTW, I hadn't seen GULLIVER. Just skimming the index tells me it's not a gaming engine; it's a reality engine! Something to sink the teeth into. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Ashtagon]

Now this is interesting. It certainly simplifies things, to just drop the modifiers in melee. I rather like it! Have you used this in play?

I might still give larger creatures a slight disadvantage in melee, perhaps just a straight "the bigger size category creature take a -1 size penalty to AC" and just leave it at that. It's easy, and works as well for dragons vs men, as for cats vs mice (with little swords and plumed hats, of course).

Grappling's still an issue, but that's another topic.

I have played this, and it works quite well. It speeds up play, and has the added advantage that, because larger creatures are also hitting more often than before, compensating for their artificially-low damage per hit.

I still use size modifiers for grappling and other special attacks. Those sub-systems need streamlining for other reasons, although they should probably retain a size modifier somewhere.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I have played this, and it works quite well. It speeds up play, and has the added advantage that, because larger creatures are also hitting more often than before, compensating for their artificially-low damage per hit.

It does sound like it addresses a couple weaknesses in the standard rules, including the damage output one that Steinhauser mentioned upthread. The result seems to be somewhat more lethal than RAW: based purely on added attack bonus, I'm guessing +5/10/20% damage for large/huge/gargantuan respectively, over an encounter? Lovely! Although hobbit/gnome-ophilic players may be a bit annoyed.

I'll certainly give it a whirl. Thanks for the suggestion.