D&D 4E The 4e Inspiration Thread!

[Exen Trik]

Rather than lie with baited breath over 4e developments, are figured I may as well have some fun with what we know so far. And of course I invite you all to have some too.

While we may not have enough information to start making house rules for 4e, we do know of some of the types of changes made and the overall direction of it. With that we can come up with changes along similar lines, that either are made to work with 3e as is or create some kind of hybrid system.


I'll start of with a basic one: the 4e loss of the full attack action. Supposedly this is meant to get rid of the mess of iterative attacks with multiple hit bonuses and such. I'm all for that in principle, but that would be tough to hammer into 3e so here's a different version:

-Whenever you would get iterative attacks, they are replaced with a single attack with a bonus to damage equal to 1/2 the users BAB.
-Other attacks, such as by a standard action or AoO, are handled normally.
-Bonus attacks are also unchanged, such as when hasted or when fighting with two weapons. However, the feat Improved Two-Weapon Fighting is changed to give the 1/2 BAB damage bonus to the off hand weapon attack during a full attack. The feat Greater Two-Weapon Fighting is removed entirely.


Other inspirations?

 

[Branduil]

I've already simplified the skill system to resemble the Saga system. First I broke the skills into primary and secondary skills. Secondary skills are class skills for everyone, and everyone is trained in 2+Int mod secondary skills. Those skills include Craft, Knowledge(all skills taken individually), Perform, and Profession.

The Primary skills are Acrobatics(Balance, Tumble, and Escape Artist), Appraise, Athletics(Climb, Jump, and Swim), Concentration, Cryptography(Decipher Script and Forgery), Deception(Bluff and Disguise), Endurance, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Initiative, Mechanics(Open Lock and Disable Device), Perception(Spot, Listen, Search, and Sense Motive), Persuasion(Diplomacy and Intimidate), Ride, Sleight of Hand(includes Use Rope), Spellcraft, Stealth, Survival, and Use Magic Device.

You get a bonus equal to 1/2 your level to all your skills. Training gives you an additional +5 bonus.

 

[Archade]

I'm keen to create racial progression tables to make being an elf or dwarf significant at 20th level without introducing too much power creep. Advice would certainly be welcome!

 

[Exen Trik]

I'm keen to create racial progression tables to make being an elf or dwarf significant at 20th level without introducing too much power creep. Advice would certainly be welcome!

Sounds like a worthy goal, lets look at what we already know about the 4e approach here. One point is that bonuses don't make good racial traits, because they become insignificant at higher levels.

Now what you mentioned is using racial progression tables, so you could pull off just using bonuses. But you would still have the problem of either adding too much power, or not making a significant (or useful) difference. I suggest adding a kind of unique racial ability that is good at every power level, and that maybe get a greater effect with level.

I could probably come up with a few things, but it would be better if you could let me know what angle you wanted to come at this with. Do you want to the racial traits to effect skills, offense, defense, movement, or what?

 

[der_kluge]

Gnomes are a playable race.

Warlocks are not allowed.

Eladrin and Tieflings are not allowed.