Hello mrswing,
Excellent idea on the sacred cows discussion!
As I mentioned, I've penned together a small amount of material that I'm slowly corraling into a form appropriate for discussion. However, I'll detail the cows I've currently saved and which ones I'm looking at to become McCows. This is all speculative and opinion and is in no way definitive (the whole idea of this board is to express options and opinions, not rule them out).
Sacred Cows
Levels - yes but with a but. I like the idea of breaking things down a little bit more than current. This is so when you level, you get more of what you want, rather than getting a couple of things that don't fit the character. I like the idea of several smaller "skill packages" attained at a level, rather than just a single ability or feat.
Classes - yes but also with a but. I think most classes can be imagined fitting within 3 core "destinies". Martial, Arcane and Divine (also allowing for a 4th in No Destiny, normally for NPCs). Imagine accumulating a certain number of skills sets (classified as: Destiny/Primary/Secondary) to create a character (combined with Racial/Background Skill Sets at 1st level). I think this might allow for a more natural progression of ability.
Feats: Or at least something approximating it (for example the skill sets above). I agree that feats should not stop a character from trying something where you can only do that action if you have the feat. Feats should assist you do something better, not having the feats existence stop you from attempting it at all.
Hit Points: Kept but split into the two entities they are trying to represent. Hit Points become the actual physical damage taken by a character. Combat Points represent the luck, skill, divine favor, ability to turn a serious blow into a lesser one and so on. Combat points are quickly recovered after a combat where as hit points need to be healed. See my thread on Making Hit Points work for further details.
Critical Hits: I'd keep these. If you have a look at my discussion on hit points and combat points, a normal hit takes points off of one's combat point total until this is evaporated, then you start taking points off your hit points. However, a critical hit takes points off of both tallies. If you critically hit someone, you are guaranteed that you have hurt them. If a hit takes you below zero but not on or below your death mark (-10 for humans), you take a critical injury. I imagine a tracking system similar to how disease is treated in 4E.
A corollary of this is keeping the Critical threat mechanic. The more skilful you are, the greater your chance of confirming a critical.
Different types of actions: While I agree with you mrswing to an extent, I think I've devised something that's interesting, intuitive and most of all, allows for lots of fun and tactics.
Actions include:
- Standard Action (you could also call this a primary action): It's the main thing a character does in their "6 seconds" - be it attack, charge down a door, cast a spell or whatever.
- Movement Action: In 6 seconds, you are most likely going to move while you are doing other things. However, movement is the only thing encompassed in a move action - nothing else. It simply determines how you move about the battlefield - even if it is "sprinting" and thus losing your standard action.
All characters have a Standard and Move action. However, while a starting character has only 1 minor action to begin with, more skilful characters will have more.
- Minor Action (or secondary action(s)): These are the interesting ones and are the ones that differentiate the skilful from their staid opponents. For example, if you have an unused minor action - you are then entitiled to use this to make an attack of opportunity/opportunity attack. Or alternatively, you can move through a closed door, using a minor action to open the door in the middle of your movement. Or, if you are able to cleave, you can use your minor action to make a cleave attack. Or if you are entitled to a second attack during your turn, you can use this minor action to make it. Hopefully you get the idea. As characters get more skilful, they may choose to acquire bonus minor action(s). Oh and by the way, you can use a "free" action as part of any other action (usually to speak or drop something).
McCows
Vancian Magic - There are many things I like about Vancian magic but I think it's time has come. The restrictions on the casting of magic should be far more interesting than either this or the daily/encounter/at will options currently available.
BAB: Not really dead, but changed around significantly. If you are a novice at something, you should remain a novice. Having a high level wizard attack better than a low level fighter always seemed a little odd to me. This is related to a discussion of mine relating to the core mechanic [d20 + modifier to equal or exceed a DC]. I'll quote something of mine below so you can see what I mean.
Extreme weakness of first-level characters: This is an interesting one. I'm still a believer in a 1st level character being a novice rather than a hero. A novice with an awful lot of potential though.
Fighters not getting any specific class features: I think with what I'm envisaging, a fighter can have a bit more variety than just getting thrown a feat every other level.
Magic working every time: I'll just leave this at see my future thread on this topic. Magic is special, and while Wizard's have been able to devise "magical recipes" that seem to consistently work, other magic can be far more fickle.
Different bonus types stacking or not stacking: I think the simplest thing here is to try and have a system where all bonuses stack. In other words, don't have too many bonuses. I envisage "buffing" working in a different way than just getting "plusses" to certain rolls or skill checks.
Template frenzy: I agree from the point of view that mosters shouldn't need to follow quite the same rules as the humanoid PCs. The specializing of monsters should be easier and more logical than the whacking on of a ridiculous number of templates.
Grappling: I think the easiest way of dealing with this, is to have it as a conventional attack that leads to the "Grappled" condition. Need to give this a little more thought though as to how it would actually work in practice.
Skills and feats for monsters when there is no need for them: Exactly, monsters don't follow the same creation rules as humanoid characters.
A Quick Discussion of the Core Mechanic
The core mechanic has several natural limiting factors, the range of DCs possible and the fact that we roll a d20 (which only has 20 levels of variation). The situation where DCs are either automatic successes or failures for the group (with minimal chance of changing this) is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, and hopefully in a more elegant way than giving a half level bonus to everyone for everything.
- Imagine that a complete novice has a +0 modifier to perform a skilled action
- What they can achieve ranges from a DC of 1 or lower (always successful) to a DC of 20 (the very limit of their capability) to a DC of 21 or above (impossible).
From this, a lot depends on scale but let's follow this through:
- A master (the highest level of ordinary achievement and capability in something) is defined as someone who can consistently do what a novice finds impossible (that would be a bonus of +20 or higher).
- What is the ceiling of achievement, even for a master? If you try to keep things as compressed as possible (having a master at +20), then your ceiling is a DC of 40. Anything over and above this becomes meaningless (at least in terms of what is mortally possible within the game structure).
- Using your 70/30 psychological success preference (rather than the 50/50 I had scribbled down), a master will expect to be successful up to a DC of 27, after that things start becoming difficult/frustrating even for a master.
- Now lets think of all the DCs involved in the game in terms of this scale: armor class, knowledge check DCs, skill check DCs, saving throw DCs and imagine this being standardized across the range.
- Also imagine having modifiers somewhere between +0 and +20 for everything.
I think if you do this, you have a system that can cope with it's own scale, and the fact that a d20 is your random factor (and not a d30 or 3d6 and so on). The d20 naturally restricts your range.
This was in response to Rangerwickett's post on the intro thread but is most probably worth mentioning here as a "new sacred cow" that needs a little loving to make it right.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
