NCSUCodeMonkey
Explorer
Of course not...that's survivalFifth Element said:
What do you think D&D is missing?
- Thread starter Lord Zardoz
- Start date
Fifth Element
Legend
rycanada said:
First half made me chuckle...second half just plain confused me.
Prince of Happiness
First Post
Essays on physics, geology, and elf doom-ination studies.
Lord Zardoz
Explorer
I also think that the game needs a better way to scale multi-classed spell casters. Melee based classes handle it quite well. Bab and HP and saves just stack. A 5 Rog / 5 Ftr is a pretty decent opponent. Certaintly not as optimized as a pure fighter, and it lacks skill points that a pure Rogue would have, and has less Sneak attack damage. But it does get a nice combo of BaB and Sneak attack damage. It is a mostly competitive with a pure build of either class.
A Wiz 5 / Ftr 5 is not nearly as competitive. You can get around the crappy armour class with spells. You know your HP is going to suck, so you have to deal with it. But your only throwing around a 5d6 Fireball when a pure Wiz is throwing around 10d6 of the same spell. Ideally, your caster level should advance at least as well as the BaB does. Right now, it just does not.
Skill point advancement could also do with a bit of an overhaul. Especially when you factor in Int increases. If your Int bonus goes from +2 to +3 at level 4, you get more skill points. Not a big deal when your advancing one level at a time. But if your creating a high level PC from scratch, you have to work out exactly at what level you improved that stat. It just complicates an otherwise simple process.
I also think that the game needs a way for players to choose which classes are considered class skills for their character. A multi-classed character has to keep track of where the skill points come from. Again, it just screws with the math.
END COMMUNICATION
A Wiz 5 / Ftr 5 is not nearly as competitive. You can get around the crappy armour class with spells. You know your HP is going to suck, so you have to deal with it. But your only throwing around a 5d6 Fireball when a pure Wiz is throwing around 10d6 of the same spell. Ideally, your caster level should advance at least as well as the BaB does. Right now, it just does not.
Skill point advancement could also do with a bit of an overhaul. Especially when you factor in Int increases. If your Int bonus goes from +2 to +3 at level 4, you get more skill points. Not a big deal when your advancing one level at a time. But if your creating a high level PC from scratch, you have to work out exactly at what level you improved that stat. It just complicates an otherwise simple process.
I also think that the game needs a way for players to choose which classes are considered class skills for their character. A multi-classed character has to keep track of where the skill points come from. Again, it just screws with the math.
END COMMUNICATION
painandgreed
First Post
Chase rules.
Large scale combat rules.
Codified rules for for XP due to non-combat challenges.
Large scale combat rules.
Codified rules for for XP due to non-combat challenges.
GM-only rules for creating NPC's in 5 minutes (or 5 seconds).
If someone posts a thread asking for ideas on how to reduce GM prep time, all sorts of good ideas come out. But by RAW, the designers seem to think all characters, creatures, npc's, etc. should use the same intricate character design rules. Wrong.
Let's have rules for designing PC's (lot's of options), and other rules for designing NPC's by role (mentor, resource, opponent, flavor) that only focus on the elements needed and, most of all, focus on quick design. Nothing stops a GM from designing an NPC using the same rules as the PC's, but let's have something easier for the other 90% of the NPC's.
If someone posts a thread asking for ideas on how to reduce GM prep time, all sorts of good ideas come out. But by RAW, the designers seem to think all characters, creatures, npc's, etc. should use the same intricate character design rules. Wrong.
Let's have rules for designing PC's (lot's of options), and other rules for designing NPC's by role (mentor, resource, opponent, flavor) that only focus on the elements needed and, most of all, focus on quick design. Nothing stops a GM from designing an NPC using the same rules as the PC's, but let's have something easier for the other 90% of the NPC's.
brehobit
Explorer
Just talking about this. Here are the issues in my opinion. The solutions sorta follow
Game is way way way too complex. I'm playing with 4 others and we are a pretty smart bunch and have been playing together for 2 years. Fights take forever and it gets worse as levels go up. Much worse. It's silly. I can run a Rolemaster or Champion's fight in less time than I can in D&D at levels 10+. That's scary.
Social interaction rules are poor. I think I like the 2E ones (basically none as best I can recall) better. The idea of rolling rather than role-playing seems to be common in some groups (and the rules seem to encourage it).
Low-level play needs to work better One of the problems with low-level play is that casters are much weaker than their warrior companions. The desire to simplify spell durations (to something like 1 round/level from something like 3 rounds +1 / 2 levels) was nice, but really makes some spells useless (summon monster?). Another problem is that a "skilled" PC isn't really all that much better than an unskilled one at low levels. +4 on a roll is nice, but it seems odd how poor lower level characters are at their professions. This is where the d20 mechanic fails. 2d10 might make that +4 more useful...
Mark
Game is way way way too complex. I'm playing with 4 others and we are a pretty smart bunch and have been playing together for 2 years. Fights take forever and it gets worse as levels go up. Much worse. It's silly. I can run a Rolemaster or Champion's fight in less time than I can in D&D at levels 10+. That's scary.
Social interaction rules are poor. I think I like the 2E ones (basically none as best I can recall) better. The idea of rolling rather than role-playing seems to be common in some groups (and the rules seem to encourage it).
Low-level play needs to work better One of the problems with low-level play is that casters are much weaker than their warrior companions. The desire to simplify spell durations (to something like 1 round/level from something like 3 rounds +1 / 2 levels) was nice, but really makes some spells useless (summon monster?). Another problem is that a "skilled" PC isn't really all that much better than an unskilled one at low levels. +4 on a roll is nice, but it seems odd how poor lower level characters are at their professions. This is where the d20 mechanic fails. 2d10 might make that +4 more useful...
Mark
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Aus_Snow said:
The social combat rules of Exalted or Burning Wheel? Probably more like Exalted, of course, but the same general idea. I'd love that as it would make tactical social roleplay just as viable an avenue to pursue in D&D as combat (currently, combat gets about 98% of the love in terms of mechanical support).
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