Spell Casting times & Weapon Speeds addition to Initiatives

[TheYeti1775]

All the old pre v3.x players I'm sure remember how casting times effected your initiatives.
Mainly the question is would you all like to see the Casting Time come back to your spells.
This effected everything from Initiative to when you were committed to casting the spell.

As well as the old Weapon Speed factor.

Would any of you like to see the return of either of these?

Yeti

 

[Zappo]

I'd play it, but only because I'm a gaming junkie and I'd play mostly anything.

Those rules force you to declare your action before the turn begins. This is a major break from 3E initiative, where you declare your action on your initiative count and immediately resolve.

As a result, they make the game clunkier; not only because knowing your initiative modifier becomes more complex, but most importantly because you have to keep track of declared actions.

Considering that I don't see any real benefits in terms of either realism or enjoyment of the game, I think it'd be a bad idea.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I would certainly play a game with those rules but I don't feel any burning need to have them in the game nowadays. At least in the form you are talking about. I do use a form of weapon speed that alters your iterative attack (based on the weapon you choose your second attack comes at -4/-5/-6 of your base attack.)

 

[sjmiller]

Frankly I as an old-time gamer I feel that those elements of the game are best left in the past. I do not think they are necessary, and the just slow down a game which can already be pretty slow. Those options of a bygone day were put in place to give flavor and variety to a rather limited set of actions available during combat. These days, with all the feats, special abilities, and what have you, that flavor is no longer needed.

Plus there's my personal belief that the weapon speed rules were pretty flawed to begin with, but that's a whole different message thread.

I would not play in a game that used those house rules. It would make the game less fun, and these days, for me at least, it's all about the fun.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I miss the weapon speed simply because it created a tradeoff between the huge, slow, crushing blows of the large weapons and the quick, low-damage dealing smaller weapons. I would gladly add weapon speed back in.

Casting times become a problem in the era of AoO. If you begin casting and a person moves up so you are in their threatened area, does your continued casting create an AoO for them? Not that it matters since they can just hit you and potentially disrupt your spell. While that has some "realism" it has the potential to really screw the spellcasters. I prefer the readied action to disrupt spells, so I would keep casting time out of the mix.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I wouldn't refuse to play in a game which had them, but I wouldn't use them in a game I'm DMing (and I DM most of the time). We never used them in 2e and I felt that leaving them out of 3e was a pretty natural step to make, since as far as I could tell most people ignored them.

 

[buzz]

Neither option fits with the current initiative system. Spell casting times are accounted for already, and rounds are long enough that modifying a PC's initiative due to weapon choice doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There are already advantages and disadvantages to using weapons of different sizes built into the system.

And, even though my beloved RuneQuest has a similar "weapon speed" mechanic in its initiative system, I've never liked the concept. If I'm not doing anything combat-related on my turn, why does the fact I'm carring a polearm affect when my action comes up in the round?

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I wouldn't refuse to play in a game which had them, but I wouldn't use them in a game I'm DMing (and I DM most of the time). We never used them in 2e and I felt that leaving them out of 3e was a pretty natural step to make, since as far as I could tell most people ignored them.

That was my experience as well. 1E & 2E games I played in rarely had them but most did use the casting time rules. I liked what i saw with the weapon speed rules from Everquest/Scarred Lands so i use them.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Neither option fits with the current initiative system. Spell casting times are accounted for already, and rounds are long enough that modifying a PC's initiative due to weapon choice doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There are already advantages and disadvantages to using weapons of different sizes built into the system.

What do you see as the disadvantages to carrying a greatsword as opposed to a shortsword, other than the overall weight?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I'd play with them if AoO were removed.

Too much stuff to keep track of.