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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4454521" data-attributes="member: 467">Every edition of D&D has had its strengths and its failings -- even 4E <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> . If you could (and you can!) kitbash together things you like from every edition of D&D, what would it look like? What would you use as the "foundation" system?  What subsystems or elements would you take from other editons?  What would you eliminate?  In short, what would "Dungeons and Dragons: [inster your user name here] Edition" look and play like?Dungeons and Dragons: Reynard EditionFoundation: I would start with 3.0, if for no other reason than the clean d20+modifier core mechanics is intuitive and efficient. Also assume anything that is not listed below or explicitly removed stays.From 1E: The DMG. Or, more specifically, the DMG's advice, tone and super awesome tables.  All of those little simulationist bits -- diseases and insanity, followers and stronghold construction, wandering monsters and random encounters -- make D&D for me.  i like a world that feels, if not "real", then complete.  Because it was the last book of the core to come out and built on years of experience, the 1E DMG is the best of them all for these purposes.From 2E: The monsters.  Of course, they'd have to be "converted" to the d20 system -- that's mostly a process of flipping ACs and THAC0 -- but the "black book" 2E monster manual is 100% pure awesome.  Of course you have stats and combat suggestions for the monsters, but you also have discussions about ecology and society that allow the DM to put the creatures in the world in a logical, or at least internally consistent and plausible, manner.  I like "# appearing" and "treasure types" and all that for each monster, and I like having a MM that includes evil creatures and good, mundane animals and fantastic.  I always find when looking at the MM annuals and such that I don't like them very much, and I think it is because the 2E MM is complete like no other MM before or since.Also from 2E: Non Weapon Proficiencies.  Now, I would keep skills from 3E, as well, but they'd be paired down and would be inherent to the clases.  In other words, the 2E theif skills would be translated to the 3e rogue with set skills and a number of points to distribute, and this system would be applied across all the classes.  "Class skills" would literally be that.  But, outsieof those class oriented abilities, I prefer the NWP system.  The values would be reversed to work with the d20 mechanic, and anything that is essentially a "class skill would be removed.  But all of those background, secondary abilities would be NWPs -- characters would be good at them and they'd say something about who the character was and where he came from before embarking on their adventuring career, but they wouldn't necessarily increase very much over the level spread.From 3.5: Not a lot, really. Mostly I'd use the 3.5 core classes to inform how to fix a couple of the 3.0 core classes -- classes the like ranger, for example. Im not a fan of the drection 3.5 took -- it was the first step toward 4E's fetish for "combat balance, damn the rest" IMO -- but i'm sure if I poured through the PHB, DMG and MM there'd be a few bits that serve as "3.0 house rules".From 4E: The math, or at least some of the math.  I do agree with the notion that 3E and 3.5 required too much reliance on buffs and stat adders and bonus stacking.  I'd like to level out that part of it and while I am not a fan of the design philosophy nor the implementation of 4E, the math seems to work.  So while i wouldn't necessary bolt on the 4E math, the concept is sound and I'd tweak the 3.0 d20 engine to get a similar result.So, what would your ultimate D&D kitbash look like?</blockquote>

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