Slim down the core rules *how to remove AoO's?*

[Grail Quest]

Fighting Fantasy

By slimming down D&D via taking away rules, we are altering the nature of D&D itself.

D&D presents a level of complexity that is somehow satisfying because it has a high level of control over the character by giving a certain level of detail to both a character and a character's actions. We describe actions in role-play through this "detail-interface". Below this level of detail, we ignore everything as inconsequential or automatically taken care of.

If you want super-simple, play Fighting Fantasy:

All characters have only 3 stats: Skill, Stamina, Luck. Monsters have only Skill and Stamina.

Ability Score Generation
Skill = 6 + 1d6
Stamina = 12 + 2d6
Luck = 6 + 1d6

Fighting Fantasy is highly abstracted, but it can still be fun because we shift the attention away from the character and onto the story instead.

What D&D has is a high level of detail on the character. And based on the resource material generated on feats and prestige classes (and, to a lesser extent, monsters and spells), I dare say that this detail has now come at the expense of the story.

When we talk about simplifying D&D by taking away rules, we are in a way really asking just how much detail we want.
Take melee weapons, for example. How much is lost if we switch to the Warhammer Fantasy style of weaponry, where weapons are either Common or Specialist, and all Common weapons do a flat 1d6 damage no matter whether they are sword or mace or club.
I think there will be different types of complaints against this. And it is in the type of complaint that we will see what it is that people want in a game system, and by extension, what "cannot" be left out.

 

[Grayhawk]

If you want super-simple, play Fighting Fantasy:

I don't want super-simple - I want D&D.

And for a certain type of game I actually like AoO's, battlemaps and minis. The thing is, that kind of game gets a much more wargamey feel - IMO - than earlier editions. Here combats were more abstract and the vivid descriptions of them made them live in our imagination, instead of on the battlemat.

So while I like the concept of AoO's, I dislike how they make me dependant on a battlemat, minis and the counting of squares, as I feel that dependency takes away from the flow of the game, player creativity and the ultimate roleplaying experience.

Please remember, there's no *right* way to play this game, there's just the way that's right for you and your group. This thread is not for the discussion about whether you can have a great roleplaying experience when using a battlemat, as I'm sure many of you have just that. But my group have had better experiences with earlier edition's more free-form combat and we could use a hand in figuring out how to go about removing AoO's, so we can play 3x in a way that suits us.

So, without AoO's and a battlemat, how do you handle spellcasters and ranged attackers in melee?