D&D 4E What Changes Do You Hope They Make To The 4E Rules?

[Droogie]

I hope there will be.....

... a new magic system entirely. Backwards compatability would be an issue, but I'm over it already. I am sick to death of the quasi-vancian system, and for anything using the x/day mechanic for that matter.

Consolidated skills.

An end to iterative attacks.

Revamped level adjustment system for monsters.

Refined XP reward system.

Refined item creation system.

And an economic system that makes a little more sense.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

you sure are in a playful mood today Merric!

He's drunk.


I'd like to see backward-compatibility with 3.x (especially comparable power relationships), and changes to streamline DM prep time, NPC, and character creation, so CR/EL/level relationships stay the same.

It'd be great if classes and PrC's could be preserved as well. For example, I'd like it if a 3.x edition character could be run in the same party in the same game as a 4e classed character without any trouble. So long as the players do the bookkeeping, it could work. I really hope they keep the sacred cow class archetypes. It would also be nice if I could use monsters from my many monster books against both. Essentially, I don't want 4e to move away from the d20 system. It would be nice if they merely introduced alternate magic, feat, and skill systems but keep the universal mechanic. Probably won't happen though ...

I agree with other posters about chases, mounted combat, and wildshape.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Fixing mounted combat so horses don't die in 3 seconds or require you to spend 5 feats so you can stop them from dying so quickly is definitely needed.

Chase rules are another area that the core rules are almost totally silent on.

Another one I just thought of was the CR system. Changing it so that it takes into account whether the challenge is 1 tough monster or a whole lot of weak mooks would be great. At the moment, lots of weak creatures end up being underpowered for their supposed CR.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Allensh]

SIMPLER game. Stat blocks that take up a few lines rather than half a page or more.

Talent Trees like in Star Wars SAGA and making some classes (Ranger, Paladin, Bard, Druid) a function of those trees and multiclassing rather than separate classes all their own.

More concise rules, no "make a rule for every tiny thing" mentality. Making stuff up is fun. Put that fun back into the game.

Combined Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. There is just no need for these to be separate books.

Allen

 

[Connorsrpg]

Talents: where you choose from list of class abilities, so not every ranger has to have an animal companion. Much like streamlining all the options out there already.
Definately diminish prep time. SECR skill system goes a long way to doing this.

Easier at high levels. Too many spells, no iterative attacks.

Reflex and AC into one. Always wondered why there were two ways of dodging?

Love the threshold mechanic.

Basically a whole lot from Star Wars Saga (SECR).

C

 

[Michael Tree]

Take in some of the Bo9S concepts:

- Primarily per-encounter balancing
- Smaller number of spells/maneuvers/special abilities available at any one time; no more laundry list of 40+ prepared spells for high-level characters
- "Caster level" improving with levels in other classes

Those are what I most want, plus:
- Viable multiclass spellcasters without needing a cludge of various prestige classes and feats.

- Borrow the combat rules from Star Wars Saga Edition. Keep it streamlined.
- Classes are talent based, again like SWSE, but with the talents made to fit the D&D ethos and classes. Reduce the number of classes accordingly (like making Rage a talent tree in the fighter/warrior class)
- Actually, now that I think about it, make the core of it essentially SWSE, with added on per-encounter spellcasting based on a combination of Bo9S concepts and 3e D&D spells.
- Balance characters without magic items. Make magic items cool additions to characters, not neccessary boring buffs that all characters wear on them like christmas tree ornaments. Similarly, reduce the amount/complexity of buff spells to reduce bookeeping.

On a more meta level, I want high level play to be balanced and less ludicrously complicated. Make high level fights more interesting, and less "whoever wins initiative, wins".

 

[marune]

And an economic system that makes a little more sense.

IMHO, that doesn't belong to the D&D core rules books.

 

[Keldryn]

I'm in favour of a general streamlining of rules overall, but there are a few things I would like to see addressed specifically.

Characters classes should adopt the "Talent Trees" seen in Star Wars SE, which would incorporate all of the "alternate class features" from various recent rulebooks. Some built-in customization for the core character classes could eliminate many unnecessary prestige classes and feats. Could even take this as far as making Ranger, Barbarian, etc "Talent Trees" of the Fighter class and returning to the four basic classes, although it's not necessary.

Feats should scale with level, so that an early feat choice isn't a total waste later on. Characters don't get enough feats as it is, especially considering the number of choices. This would also dramatically cut down the number of feat entries for those in a chain or which are just improved versions of other feats.

Skills need to be streamlined. Some skills should be consolidated (such as the popular Move Silently and Hide into "Stealth"), and cross-class skills need to go. Perhaps another way of "enforcing" archetypal skills should take its place, but the current system makes it a nightmare to generate higher-level characters. I'm quite okay with losing skill points and just going with the Trained/Untrained system from SW, although a lot of gamers aren't.

Multiclassing needs an overhaul. We all know how well it doesn't work when multiclassing a spellcasting class -- to the point where we need specific prestige classes and feats to fix this. Not sure what the optimal solution would be; perhaps the PHB2 style classes like the Duskblade and Beguiler to represent popular "multiclassed" archetypes are the best way.

 

[Asmor]

I'd like to see everything become skills, using the skill rules from Saga. And I do mean everything. Skills for magic, skills for weapons (attack rolls become skill checks), skills for defenses, etc.

Talent trees for character classes, like in Saga.

Combat wise, balancing things per-encounter rather than per-day, a la Warlock and Book of 9 Swords.

Action points become core.

 

[Droogie]

IMHO, that doesn't belong to the D&D core rules books.

Sure it does, if the equipment and magic items are going to have prices listed.