Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 3783580" data-attributes="member: 710">D&D 3.x rewards a character for choosing many different, but stacking, bonuses. A Ring of Protection +1 and a Amulet of Natural Armor +1 are cheaper than a Ring of Protection +2 or a Amulet of Natural Armor +2, despite both having the same net effect (except in a few corner cases which come up approximately equally often).I think that lead quickly to the "Christmas Tree" effect, because people needed a lot of these items to get the highest benefit.I think the basic idea of defining types of bonuses and allow only different types to stack is good, but the number of types must be precisely defined and never be opened up.If someone wants to add a new name for a modifier, he can do so, but: The modifier must replace an existing modifier for any given character. The new modifier (or the ability granting it) specifies which existing modifier it can supersede/replace/overlap with, or the character affected by the modifier decides. Anyway, you can never benefit from more than one.Ability Modifiers and Level derived modifiers can never be replaced.So, the base modifiers could be like this (only "replaceable" modifiers are listed)Ability Score: Racial, EnhancementAC: Armor, Shield, Enhancement, Deflection, Dodge, CircumstanceAttack: Competence, Enhancement, Morale, CircumstanceSkill: Competence, Moral, CircumstanceSave: Enhancement, Morale, CircumstanceModifiers like Dodge or Circumstance can stack with themselves (provided they have the same source) but no additional bonus types overlap with these. Circumstance and Dodge Modifiers can never be granted as a spell effect (so no spell could say "grants a +2 circumstance bonus to AC", though it could create a summoned monster that can use Aid Another to grant a +2 circumstance bonus to AC)This doesn't address the complexity of keeping all the varying modifiers in mind, though. Maybe the special abilities in D&D 4 will work in way to reduce the amount of variation of buff abilities active at the same time. Though I doubt this...</blockquote>

Verification