Toying with reducing the number of named bonuses

[hong]

You could do what Neverwinter Nights does: allow all bonuses to stack, but limit it to a maximum of +10, excluding stat and base. It seems to work fairly well in that game.

 

[Darklone]

And just what is wrong with sacred, profane and titanic bonuses?!!

Too many different bonuses. I tried to minimize the number of available bonuses (ditched sacred and all that crap).

Usually, I have enhancement, natural, resistance, luck, dodge, morale and nearly all the rest is an unnamed bonus. I don't care for most of the others anyway...

 

[Red Baron]

You might consider this system: Get several sets of color-coded dice. Each color represents one type of bonus (e.g. green = natural AC; blue = deflection; etc.). Each player who has a bonus of any given type keeps one die of the appropriate color set on his or her character sheet (or nearby, or whatever), with the value of the bonus set upright. In this way, each player has a running total of current bonuses at hand, which changes as the game changes. Simple and effective.

The trick occurs with the DM: How do you keep track of all those bonuses for all of the monsters/NPCs in the game? Maybe a laptop+spreadsheet for the DM (only) isn't a bad idea?

 

[Plane Sailing]

You could do what Neverwinter Nights does: allow all bonuses to stack, but limit it to a maximum of +10, excluding stat and base. It seems to work fairly well in that game.

That's an interesting idea that might work well. I might give that one a try.

 

[Piratecat]

Yes, I like that. It would be a bit too powerful at low levels, but your PCs are past that stage.