trancejeremy said:
Since modern characters tend to be more skill full (ie more skill points), this means they pretty much nerfed the combat abilities of everyone but strong characters. Which leads to weird things like bodybuilders and martial artists being better in combat with guns than soldiers or gunmen.
Ditto Falkus. They'll hit more often, possibly, if they also have a Dex nearly as high as the Dex of the Fast-hero/Gunslinger, but if you're taking Strong/Martial Artist levels to be a gun expert, you're losing out on talents, bonus feats, and advanced class abilities that will make you better at shooting.
And my personal theory of d20M is that just being proficient at something only gets you as far as "mediocre". You're not any good at something until you've sunk at least three or four feats or class talents into it.
If you want to take a 10th level Strong/Martial Artist and put him into a gunfight with a 10th level Fast/Soldier or Fast/Gunslinger, the Strong/Martial Artist will get, as the kids these days say, pwn3d. Of those two builds, the Fast/Soldier will do a bit more damage, generally, and the Fast/Gunslinger will be better at trick shots and will probably have more combat options. In either case, if we're dealing with a quasi-realistic scenario -- a warehouse filled with crates to hide behind, for example, so it's not "standing 30 feet apart and standing still while shooting" -- the Strong/Martial Artist is at a massive disadvantage.
And because d20 Modern forces you to multiclass, and pretty much every multiclass has an average or bad BAB progression, this means that the more you multiclass, the worse you are in combat (though since most d20 Modern games probably don't involve 20th level characters, this effect isn't as huge as it would be in D&D)
That could be an attempt to get you to take more than one level of classes, in order to mitigate the badness. Personally, I just tell my players to add BAB fractionally. That takes care of that problem.
By not having to be compatible with D&D, Spycraft's classes only have to be balanced with themselves. And so you get soldiers that are actually good at fighting.
A Soldier
is good at fighting. I would argue that he's not as good at fighting as a D&D fighter, but he's not supposed to be. He's supposed to be good at fighting in d20 Modern terms -- and by those terms, he has a boatload of hit points and the best direct-damage-increase abilities in that game.
I'd be interested in seeing a quote on "d20 Modern characters are supposed to be balanaced against D&D characters" from someone official. I don't think that's the case, and I don't think it's supposed to be. Heck, their Advanced Classes from different worlds aren't even balanced against each other -- nor are they meant to be. (The Occultist is weak compared to the Mage, which is fine, since the Occultist is for a low-magic game, where even a bit of magic is scarily powerful, while the Mage is for a high-magic game, where magic is a bit more ordinary and not as overpowered.)
Also, while I don't mind them for fantasy, I just can't handle HP for a modern setting. And Spycraft's combat system is much quicker and cleaner than d20 Modern. And I like how it handles guns better, where it actually makes a difference what gun is used.
If you don't mind me asking, what is it about hit points that makes you fine with them in fantasy but not fine with them in modern? My only complaint is that healing times can be too fast, and that the flavor listed in some of the examples is a bit off from the mechanics of how something would actually work? (ie, if a 3rd-level hero has 14/24 hit points, he's not really injured -- he's a bit banged up and scratched. So "Surgery" would just be a few stitches or putting some ice on it.)
In terms of losing 'em, hit points have worked fine for me, but I pretty much rule them as grazes and tiny scrapes, just like I did in D&D.
As for your gun criticism, I'm having trouble getting anything useful out of your statement. It "actually makes a difference what gun is used" in d20 Modern as well. They have different ranges, different clip sizes, differences in being semi-automatic or single-shot, and so forth. Yeah, they standardized the damage, except that you can still choose a gun based on big-boom if you want -- one of my players has a grand ol' time with his Desert Eagle.
By "actually makes a difference what gun is used", are you saying that there is one gun that is clearly the best gun for you to use at each size or function category, so that using any other gun is making an inferior choice for roleplaying reasons?
canned in a fit of pique by a Hasbro bean-counter who notices that it doesn't make as much money as the latest neopets expansion.
!
. Everyone knows the stats for them in Blood and Fist are the best, not d20M RAW. That book raised the bar on "hitting people with something sharp" excellence.
