What would you change for d20 Modern 2.0

[Ranger REG]

Get rid of the Wealth mechanic and replace it with monetary amounts (dollars, pounds, euros, whatever).

Okay. But the DM get to dictate what your paycheck is and how much you can afford, so long there is no hard formula (figuring taxes, medical insurance, FICA, bills, and whatnot) presented.

Oh, and no roleplaying for a raise in your salary.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Inspired by another thread, as the thread title says what would you do if you were making d20 Modern 2.0

I'd put in optional rules for VP/WP, and different magic and psionic systems and get away from the DND focus in the monsters.

How about you?

Completely rewrite the Profession skill. (I've hit it with a heavy nerf IMC.)

Redo vehicles from the ground up - along the lines of Spycraft, for instance.

I'm not particularly interested in a complete redo of the magic system - it's easy to sell magic systems - but balancing it with non-FX using classes would be kind of nice.

Reduce the size of the monster section, and SPIFF it to 3.5 standard. Same with DR.

Redo nonlethal damage.

Add some firearm feats. Melee damage goes up with level. Firearm damage should do, but with a delay (as it's better than melee at very low levels).

Reduce the FX section and replace it with campaign building tips, along the lines of stuff found in Urban Arcana.

Make a non-FX campaign setting and write some adventures for it.

Trim the first level class bonus Defense of the Fast Hero. I use the Martial Artist's Defense bonus +1. This way, a Fast/Infiltrator doesn't get a huge bump to Defense, then get a faster rate with Infiltrator. (IMO, a Fast 3/Infiltrator 6 should have the same Defense as a Fast 9, give or take a point.)

Tweak autofire. The save DC should scale with level, but BAB scales a hell of a lot faster than saves, so don't use the attack bonus as the save DC please.

Write examples for the following talents: Plan, Trick, Intuition*, Inspiration (flavor text), and maybe flavor text for Dazzle and Taunt. Dazzle should be made more powerful (basically shaken - right now it sucks) and a few talents such as Favor and Trick need a boost.

* I don't need Intuition examples - but I think other people do.

Class talents with a save DC need a small nerf.

Add some new uses for skills. I've been combing other D20 systems and Alternity for that.

Make the Gunslinger and Techie worth taking. Please. Or kill those classes.

(Although, as apparent defender of d20 Modern nonlethal, I can knock PCs out left and right by the core rules. Either I'm one heck of a minmaxer, or people here are complaining about not being good at something they didn't put any feats into... which is pretty much the basis of d20 Modern.)

I don't like how, if you hit someone for 15 nonlethal damage and they make their save, they're still dazed. Furthermore, it's hard to knock out someone if you're a Tough Hero who does 1d6+2 nonlethal - it only works on a crit, or if you have Knockout Punch. It takes (IME) at least two feats to make brawling useful at all, whereas even martial arts takes only one feat.

This is apart from Melee Smash, of course, which still benefits clubs better unless you've got Knockout Punch.

Tweak melee weapons - why isn't a club a light weapon, for instance? Why do you need Archaic Weapons Proficiency to use a short sword but a meat cleaver, with identical stats, is a simple weapon? Huh?

I'd like to see no D&D monsters but Menace Manual monsters instead

Here here! And Menace Manual monsters adapted from Alternity should bear some resemblance to their Alternity counterpart.

 

[takyris]

Completely rewrite the Profession skill. (I've hit it with a heavy nerf IMC.)

Not to attack, but how is it bad? I haven't run into any problems with it in my game, but my players haven't tried to abuse it, so it's likely something I haven't seen.

Trim the first level class bonus Defense of the Fast Hero. I use the Martial Artist's Defense bonus +1. This way, a Fast/Infiltrator doesn't get a huge bump to Defense, then get a faster rate with Infiltrator. (IMO, a Fast 3/Infiltrator 6 should have the same Defense as a Fast 9, give or take a point.)

I'd agree with that, except that I've never run or played in a game where Infiltrator was actually an attractive class option. I figured the nice defensive boost was there to provide a reason for the class. (Note: I've run into the same thing with the Daredevil -- which looks like d4+1 to an ability score for a few rounds, expanded into an advanced class. It's just never come in useful in my game. I'm guessing my game lacks something that the Daredevil's class abilities would really make use of.)

Write examples for the following talents: Plan, Trick, Intuition*, Inspiration (flavor text), and maybe flavor text for Dazzle and Taunt. Dazzle should be made more powerful (basically shaken - right now it sucks) and a few talents such as Favor and Trick need a boost.

Awesome suggestion.

Make the Gunslinger and Techie worth taking. Please. Or kill those classes.

I've had players take both... although now that I think about it, the Techie guy appeared to do more with his few levels of Field Scientist... The Gunslinger's abilities came in pretty handy in firefights, though. How did he stink, in your opinion? (Again, not an attack. I'm guessing we focus on different things in our games.)

I don't like how, if you hit someone for 15 nonlethal damage and they make their save, they're still dazed. Furthermore, it's hard to knock out someone if you're a Tough Hero who does 1d6+2 nonlethal - it only works on a crit, or if you have Knockout Punch. It takes (IME) at least two feats to make brawling useful at all, whereas even martial arts takes only one feat.

I see your first point (Dazed even if you save) as somewhat countering the second. The reason it's hard to get to the massive damage threshold is that once you get there, you can take somebody out of the fight for a round automatically, even if you don't knock them out.

If you stuck with Tough Hero, I'd take four feats: Brawl, Improved Brawl, Streetfighting, and Power Attack. With Improved Brawl and Streetfighting, you're doing 1d8+1d4 before Strength or other bonuses (like Mastercrafted Brass Knuckles), and you've got a +2 to hit, which helps to offset the Power Attack you'll be making to add even more damage. That doesn't force a save every time, but it's not supposed to, since even FORCING the save has an in-game effect of making the guy lose a turn.

All of these feats are Tough Hero bonus feats. As for not being able to knock people out without buying a lot of feats, that one just doesn't bug me. My personal theory, and only my personal theory, is that in d20 Modern, you're not SUPPOSED to be good at something until you've put at least 2 or 3 feats into it.

Tweak melee weapons - why isn't a club a light weapon, for instance? Why do you need Archaic Weapons Proficiency to use a short sword but a meat cleaver, with identical stats, is a simple weapon? Huh?

Aside from wanting weapons to easily cross over from D&D to d20 Modern, I totally agree with you on this. The system is different enough that I'd like to see weapons that play to the strengths of the system. There are some, but I'd like to see more. Like, say, NOT the tonfa.

 

[Ranger REG]

Tweak melee weapons - why isn't a club a light weapon, for instance?

IMHO, doesn't look like a light weapon with all them weight is concentrated on the "head" of the weapon.

Of course, if you use the club stat for escrima sticks, that could be the longstick, while a light version of it is called a shortstick.

Why do you need Archaic Weapons Proficiency to use a short sword but a meat cleaver, with identical stats, is a simple weapon? Huh?

As abstract the stats are, anyone who holds both weapons can tell the difference and I don't mean just the look. All swords, be it long or short, is crafted to be balanced with the blade itself and the grip so you don't tire quickly. If the blade is heavier, the smith would add a pommel to the end of the grip as counterweight.

The meat cleaver is not balanced. All the weight is concentrated behind the blade itself to give it heft when you drop the cleaver unto a bone to cut through.

Try not to look at the crunch so much that you are blinded from the fluff. Besides, what are shortswords used in the modern world as everyday application?

 

[Eternal Knot Games]

Well, a 9mm can already drop a 20th level character about one time in 200 in one shot... Could be worse, just by dropping the Massive Damage save to 10, instead of CON. Trust me, try that for ONE game and see how it flies.

What do you think about these rules I've designed for instant kill?
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2717640#post2717640

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Try not to look at the crunch so much that you are blinded from the fluff. Besides, what are shortswords used in the modern world as everyday application?

That was pretty insulting. And why do you think the game has stats for a katana, anyway?

 

[takyris]

RangerREG, I don't think it's out of the question to expect Archaic Weapons, designed for fighting, to be better than Simple Weapons that are often just picked up as needed, one step up from Improvised Weapons.

You could easily fix this issue by saying that a cleaver large enough to do 1d6 is a medium weapon, and that it only threatens a critical on a 20, since it was designed to chop meat and veggies, not a dodging opponent, and the balance ain't right. Failing that, you could leave the cleaver as it is but say that it's an Archaic Weapon, since again, it's more complex than a club or baton, so you need Archaic Weapon Proficiency to use it properly.

Either solution gets rid of the problem, one by turning it into a slashing club, the other by leaving it as powerful as it is but requiring the same feat to get there that you'd need for everything else.

 

[wingsandsword]

Oh, and another thing. Get rid of the ridiculous Katana stats. Make them Archaic 1d10, 19-20/x2 two handed weapons, that you can take Exotic Weapon Proficiency to wield one-handed.

 

[Ranger REG]

RangerREG, I don't think it's out of the question to expect Archaic Weapons, designed for fighting, to be better than Simple Weapons that are often just picked up as needed, one step up from Improvised Weapons.

You could easily fix this issue by saying that a cleaver large enough to do 1d6 is a medium weapon,

Medium weapon? Are you statting a cleaver or a machete?

 

[Ranger REG]

That was pretty insulting. And why do you think the game has stats for a katana, anyway?

Why, it's obvious. Because I'm a Highlander fan.