DogBackward
First Post
psionotic said:
They have that already. A successful grapple check allows you to drag the guy you're grappling along with you as you move. Or did you mean something else?
D&D 4E Things You'd Like to See in 4e that haven't been mentioned yet
- Thread starter Hussar
- Start date
They have that already. A successful grapple check allows you to drag the guy you're grappling along with you as you move. Or did you mean something else?
Hussar
Legend
Oooh, I like this one. It would be nice to have some quick and dirty economic rules for when you have followers and castles and the like. Nothing too fancy, just five or six pages of goodies. Maybe something along the lines of "If you do X, you get Y percent profit - see modifiers on Table Z for profit percentages calculation".
Andor
First Post
I want to see a core away around the "I'm a decendant of heros who swore to use my ancestral weapon to slay my arch rival and I... Oooh. That one has an extra + and is flaming?" *chucks ancestral sword over shoulder*
Sure, we have Samurai and Kensai and Annointed Ones, etc, etc, etc
These are all workarounds for a problem that need not have been there in the first place. How about a talent tree for upgrading your favorite weapon so you don't have to keep swapping it out for a new model every 3 weeks?
Sure, we have Samurai and Kensai and Annointed Ones, etc, etc, etc
These are all workarounds for a problem that need not have been there in the first place. How about a talent tree for upgrading your favorite weapon so you don't have to keep swapping it out for a new model every 3 weeks?
In addition to many of the things specified in this thread so far:
1) Fix the Darkness spell. One possible solution: The Darkness spell darkens an area. It takes a lighted area to shadowy illumination. It takes a shadowy illumination area to total darkness.
2) Sundering items that are not weapons or shields is super easy. Make it more difficult.
3) Fix the Find Traps spell. It almost never works in game. One possible solution: It adds 10 + 1 per caster level (max 10) to a Search roll. Or, just flat out allow the spell to find traps. Spells that cannot be effectively used in the game are basically worthless.
4) Allow miss chance for the origin point for area effect spells fired into darkness or fog or other areas where the spell caster cannot see where he is placing it. This is similar to friendly fire rules (which also should be in the game).
5) Do not replace Turn Undead with the optional rules in Complete Divine. Find a third solution. Those rules are too powerful and Clerics become super undead killing machines (moreso than the normal undead rules). Possibly make Undead Turning similar to Diplomacy / Intimidate rules.
6) If the Orb spells are brought back, fix them. Conjuration energy spells should not be more powerful and useful than Evocation energy spells. 'Nuff said.
7) Make all of the duration area effect spells work the same way with regard to when damage occurs. For example, Ring of Blades, Blade Barrier, Wall of Fire, Evard's, etc. Does it occur on the caster's turn, or when someone enters it, or both, or what. It should be consistent and consider the fact that maybe the caster can move it (like Ring of Blades). A lot of time can be wasted looking up one of these spells because they all do not work the same.
8) If specialized wizards are still in the game, beef them up a bit. In 3E, they were played quite often. In 3.5, they were hardly ever played. There needs to be more of a balance.
9) Fix Holy / Unholy water. For 25 GP, it should do a lot more than 2D4 damage. Maybe 4D8 in a spread or some such, or maybe not even damage at all: possibly a penalty to attacks and such, so that it could even affect high level demons and undead (e.g. holy kryptonite). I cannot remember the last decade that anyone actually used Holy Water since weapon damage is generally so much better.
10) Simplify encumberance. A non-generic system can be used. If a specific (i.e. every item accounted for) system is used, lower the weights of many of the items. For example, clothing shouldn't be so significant in weight.
11) Make Tumbling and Casting Defensively an opposed roll of some sort or some other way to allow a defender to prevent them.
12) Make Aid Another dependent on the power of the opposition. A Wizard waving a dagger should not make it easier to hit a demon or make the demon have a worse chance of hitting. Like #11, in combat DCs that are not dependent on the power of the opposition should be the exception, not the rule.
13) Make Take 20 random in some way. As is, a PC either has a 0% chance of success or a 100% chance of success. That just seems inherently wrong for a game mechanic. The PC cannot have a "bad day" or "brain fart" when taking 20.
1) Fix the Darkness spell. One possible solution: The Darkness spell darkens an area. It takes a lighted area to shadowy illumination. It takes a shadowy illumination area to total darkness.
2) Sundering items that are not weapons or shields is super easy. Make it more difficult.
3) Fix the Find Traps spell. It almost never works in game. One possible solution: It adds 10 + 1 per caster level (max 10) to a Search roll. Or, just flat out allow the spell to find traps. Spells that cannot be effectively used in the game are basically worthless.
4) Allow miss chance for the origin point for area effect spells fired into darkness or fog or other areas where the spell caster cannot see where he is placing it. This is similar to friendly fire rules (which also should be in the game).
5) Do not replace Turn Undead with the optional rules in Complete Divine. Find a third solution. Those rules are too powerful and Clerics become super undead killing machines (moreso than the normal undead rules). Possibly make Undead Turning similar to Diplomacy / Intimidate rules.
6) If the Orb spells are brought back, fix them. Conjuration energy spells should not be more powerful and useful than Evocation energy spells. 'Nuff said.
7) Make all of the duration area effect spells work the same way with regard to when damage occurs. For example, Ring of Blades, Blade Barrier, Wall of Fire, Evard's, etc. Does it occur on the caster's turn, or when someone enters it, or both, or what. It should be consistent and consider the fact that maybe the caster can move it (like Ring of Blades). A lot of time can be wasted looking up one of these spells because they all do not work the same.
8) If specialized wizards are still in the game, beef them up a bit. In 3E, they were played quite often. In 3.5, they were hardly ever played. There needs to be more of a balance.
9) Fix Holy / Unholy water. For 25 GP, it should do a lot more than 2D4 damage. Maybe 4D8 in a spread or some such, or maybe not even damage at all: possibly a penalty to attacks and such, so that it could even affect high level demons and undead (e.g. holy kryptonite). I cannot remember the last decade that anyone actually used Holy Water since weapon damage is generally so much better.
10) Simplify encumberance. A non-generic system can be used. If a specific (i.e. every item accounted for) system is used, lower the weights of many of the items. For example, clothing shouldn't be so significant in weight.
11) Make Tumbling and Casting Defensively an opposed roll of some sort or some other way to allow a defender to prevent them.
12) Make Aid Another dependent on the power of the opposition. A Wizard waving a dagger should not make it easier to hit a demon or make the demon have a worse chance of hitting. Like #11, in combat DCs that are not dependent on the power of the opposition should be the exception, not the rule.
13) Make Take 20 random in some way. As is, a PC either has a 0% chance of success or a 100% chance of success. That just seems inherently wrong for a game mechanic. The PC cannot have a "bad day" or "brain fart" when taking 20.
coyote6
Adventurer
I'd like to see a lot of what's been mentioned: Chase rules. Mass combat (ideally on multiple levels: from skirmishes between a few dozen all the way up to battles between Alexandrian armies). Naval combat rules. Fun & playable domain (running a territory) rules (which could maybe be generalized to "running an organization", so you can cover guilds, temples, etc.).
Of course, there's no way they can fit all that stuff in the core rules, and if they haven't already started some of it (or at least have some Really Good Ideas), it would be hard to do well in the few months they have left. So, really, I'd be happy if they put a bunch of that stuff out after the core rules (I want it sooner rather than later, of course, but I want it good most of all). So, WotC dudes, consider this brainstorming for what to do between Monster Manuals and campaign setting revisions.
One thing that I do want fixed in the core rules: the lighting rules. They're kind of silly right now.
"Shadowy illumination" is very obviously another way of saying "low light" -- yet low light vision doesn't help you see any better in it. If you're in a room lit by scattered candles, the whole room could be at "shadowy illumination"; yet the elves will have the same 20% miss chance the humans do, because all low-light vision does is let you see twice as far (and if you can already see the far wall...). Gah! Just say low light vision lets you treat areas of "shadowy illumination" as regular lighting, and adds an extra increment (equal to the base radius) where low-light vision lets you see as if it were "shadowy illumination".
(I'm not sure the "light source gives x feet of regular light and then x more feet of shadowy illumination" makes much sense, either, but I can live with it a bit as a simplification. Maybe just lower the fairly generous radiuses a bit? 20 ft. to 15 ft? <shrug>)
Oh, and it would be nice if rogues and assassins (without darkvision) lurking in dark alleys could actually use their abilities (i.e., sneak attack) to mug people effectively, too. Which isn't necessarily related to the lighting rules, but still. (Maybe the miss chance -- if that still exists -- is also a chance that the sneak attack just won't work?)
And finally, come up with a better name than "shadowy illumination". "Low light", maybe.
(And then they can fix the darkness spells, as KarinsDad suggested.)
Of course, there's no way they can fit all that stuff in the core rules, and if they haven't already started some of it (or at least have some Really Good Ideas), it would be hard to do well in the few months they have left. So, really, I'd be happy if they put a bunch of that stuff out after the core rules (I want it sooner rather than later, of course, but I want it good most of all). So, WotC dudes, consider this brainstorming for what to do between Monster Manuals and campaign setting revisions.
One thing that I do want fixed in the core rules: the lighting rules. They're kind of silly right now.
"Shadowy illumination" is very obviously another way of saying "low light" -- yet low light vision doesn't help you see any better in it. If you're in a room lit by scattered candles, the whole room could be at "shadowy illumination"; yet the elves will have the same 20% miss chance the humans do, because all low-light vision does is let you see twice as far (and if you can already see the far wall...). Gah! Just say low light vision lets you treat areas of "shadowy illumination" as regular lighting, and adds an extra increment (equal to the base radius) where low-light vision lets you see as if it were "shadowy illumination".
(I'm not sure the "light source gives x feet of regular light and then x more feet of shadowy illumination" makes much sense, either, but I can live with it a bit as a simplification. Maybe just lower the fairly generous radiuses a bit? 20 ft. to 15 ft? <shrug>)
Oh, and it would be nice if rogues and assassins (without darkvision) lurking in dark alleys could actually use their abilities (i.e., sneak attack) to mug people effectively, too. Which isn't necessarily related to the lighting rules, but still. (Maybe the miss chance -- if that still exists -- is also a chance that the sneak attack just won't work?)
And finally, come up with a better name than "shadowy illumination". "Low light", maybe.
(And then they can fix the darkness spells, as KarinsDad suggested.)
