What mechanics do you like?

[Howling Coyote]

If only they could make 3E versions of the Player's Option books. Skills & Powers would make this system almost perfect.

Btw. Does anyone know a good conversion of the S&P?

 

[mmadsen]

If only they could make 3E versions of the Player's Option books. Skills & Powers would make this system almost perfect.

I never played 2E, so could someone explain what Skills & Powers offered. My vague impression is that it opened up more ways to customize your character, but these avenues were ripe for min-maxing.

In 3E, Feats and Skills allow for quite a bit of customizing. As I've said a few times, I wouldn't mind more Feats (vs. set-in-stone Special Ability progressions).

 

[mmadsen]

Likes:

AC goes UP.
THAC0 is gone.
Multiclassing is intuitive.
CR
Alphabetical spellists
Linear ability score modifiers
Cyclical initiative
Streamlined saving throws
Streamlined advancement charts
Feats

Yeah, I think those are pretty universal likes. I agree with all of them.

Dislikes:

PRCs
"Guidelines" for magic item pricing
Class skills
Skills are too specific (Use Rope. Yuck. Appraise different than Profession: Merchant? Um...why?)
L1 Ranger/Lx Fighter/Lx Barbarians (I see way too many of these)

I really agree about Use Rope -- who's using that skill? -- and the Profession skills that overlap with "real" skills you might use. (And, again, if we moved some of those class Special Abilities into Feats, we wouldn't need to see so many multiclassed characters.)

 

[mmadsen]

The skill point system is very good, they just made it too easy to get high bonuses in certain skills. The skills really need to be addresses with higher DCs.

Any particular skills bother you? I guess I'm not bothered by high skill bonuses when those same characters can take on dozens of armed troops without fear.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I will add a few more favorites...

--(Almost) consistent resolution system, i.e. add your <base/ranks> + <stat> + <misc> + d20 for attacks, saves, and skills. No more charts and numeric gymnastics to figure out if you hit the orc.

--Named bonuses. Clear stacking rules allow proliferation of bonuses while giving the DM strong control over upper limits. In other words, there can be a dozens of ways to get, say, a "+2 enchancement bonus to Str" without worrying over whether they will break the game collectively.

 

[mmadsen]

It seems like the big hits are: Feats, Combat Maneuvers, Multiclassing, and all the little bits of cleaning up (Saves, Unified Experience Chart, Unified Ability Bonuses, Named Bonuses, Unified Resolution System, Unified Skill Mechanics, etc.).

People still don't like (or could imagine improvement in) the inflexible classes, Prestige Classes, and the lack of guidelines for "rolling your own" crunchy bits (classes, spells, feats, etc.).

 

[Piratecat]

Mike Curry, at European Motor Sports in South Boston. He's a great mechanic!

 

[hong]

Mike Curry, at European Motor Sports in South Boston. He's a great mechanic!

Speaking of which, who agrees that "Mike and the Mechanics" would be a pretty good name for a rock band?


Hong "if a tad unoriginal" Ooi

 

[Falcon]

Honest ones.

 

[Chaldfont]

I am pretty much happy with all mechanical changes to D&D. Combats are so much faster now that we don't have to constantly refigure what we have to roll to hit with the chart/thac0 system.

What I would really like to see is a magic system built from the ground up that allowed you to construct a magical effect on the fly, during game play. WoT gets close to the idea with overcasting and casting the same weave at different levels. But I want to see a character more like something from Mage: The Ascension.