Which D&D "cow" is least sacred?

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Inspired somewhat by the 4th Edition thread, which of the poll options do you think could be removed from D&D without making it completely unrecognizable?

 

[Dark Jezter]

What poll options?

EDIT: Ah, there they are.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Check it out now. Is polling clunkier than it used to be?

 

[Dark Jezter]

I voted Vancian Magic. Even though I consider it an important part of D&D, I'd rather have it go than any of the other options.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Agreed, Dark Jezter. It seems to have the least to do with the flavor of the game or its gentle learning curve.

 

[Nifft]

Likewise on Vancian. There are many genres that D&D draws from which it cannot model due to the Vancian magic system.

-- N

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm going to play a small bit of devils advocate and say Tolkienian races.

I think it's possble to run a D&D campaign w/o them. Just have an all-human party. How difficult is that?

A LOT of the literature that D&D draws from doens't have demi-humans.

 

[Eolin]

I said tolkeinian races. Why?

Because those races arn't those of Tolkein. Those halfings might look like hobbits, but come on! They don't act like hobbits, and they don't seem to have any of the characteristics of hobbits.

The elves arn't Eldar, that's for damn sure. Eldar are immortal, and probably have bonuses to nearly every stat.

(ok, tolkein elves are unplyable. Not the point. Point is, they arn't Eldar)

The dwarves arn't quite cool either enough. Need something.... but i know not what.

Half-Elves ... don't get me started.

I think races in DnD are close to what they should be (because they should only loosely resemble lotr), but what i want is seven non-ECL races. That's right, seven. I don't have names for them all, either. But in general ...

humans: leave the same. Love 'em.
Other six: One for each of the six stats. So you can have a bonus to whatever stat is most important for your character. I get annoyed that the fighters can have a 20 str or a 20 con, yet a paladin can only have an 18 CHA.

I'm not quite sure what those races would be -- but we certanily already have them for the physical stats. We just need ones for the mental stats.

Does anyone think this is a good idea besides me?

 

[DrZombie]

I have to agree on the vancian magic. That's about the only thing I don't like about D&D anyway, and I think it was rather neatly solved in the "Wheel of Time" setting.
The "normal" magic system is clumsy and rigid at best, imho. I love the freestyle of ars magica (and mage the ascension)

 

[Li Shenron]

You forgot another sacred cow!

CASTING IN ARMOR difference between arcane and divine casters.