Worse Rules that game designers have made?

[Set]

Dibluffmidate isn't the only skill that could use merging to streamline things. Hide and Move Silently could be one skill, and Listen and Spot really don't need to be two skills (after all, it's not like they have skills for 'smell' or 'taste' or 'feel.') Why do I have to have a seperate Open Locks skill to 'Disable Device' on a padlock?

Polymorph stuff. Good grief, how hard is it to have the spell swap out the physical characteristics of your racial template for that of the creature whose form you are taking? Elf Druid becomes a brown bear. He loses his +2 Dex and -2 Con and replaces them with a +16 Str, +2 Dex and +8 Con. If he's a freakishly strong elf with a 16 Str, he turns into a stronger-than-normal bear with a 32 Str. If he's a 98 lb weakling with a Str 6, he's weaker than your average bear with a 22 Str.

Full Action, Standard Action, Attack Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Immediate Action, Free Action. Oh, just stop the madness already.

And my biggest pet peeve. The Metamagic system. I love the idea of being able to tweak spells, I just hate the implementation and the inherent limitations. I learn Extend Spell, and I can Extend *all* of my spells. I can't just learn to be really good at Summon Monsters, or really good at Cure spells, I have to be able to enhance *all* of my spells in one specific limited way, even the ones I never use and shouldn't be suddenly amazingly good at, and pay a feat to do so, and oh yeah, it costs extra spell levels anyway!

I especially hate how it's proliferated out of control, with Empower Spell, and Sudden Empower, and Empower Spell-like Ability. Crazy, and I imagine 'Empower Supernatural Ability' and 'Empower Invocation' and 'Empower Psi-like Ability' and 'Empower Shadowmage Mysteries' and 'Empowered Barbarian Rage' and 'Empowered Bardic Music' and 'Empower Turn Undead' and 'Empower Magic Item I'm blasting you with' and ''Empower that power Bob's Ranger got from that magic fountain' are going to be right around the corner. Crazy, I tell ya! We don't need a dozen feats to do the same darn thing to different class features!

 

[Nyaricus]

Dibluffmidate isn't the only skill that could use merging to streamline things. Hide and Move Silently could be one skill, and Listen and Spot really don't need to be two skills (after all, it's not like they have skills for 'smell' or 'taste' or 'feel.') Why do I have to have a seperate Open Locks skill to 'Disable Device' on a padlock?

I agree with all of the above 100%

My question is: what's the skill to smell something? Exactly. All the more reason to have one skill called 'notice' which is the "sensory skill"

Locks are devices - why isn't this one skill?

Move silently and hide into one skill would just be the icing on the cake; sure you could be doing either at one time, but mostly they go hand-in-hand.

cheers,
--N

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

One of the worst rules game designers have made I originally know from Shadowrun: Giving some characters extra actions per round. This always leads to unbalanced combat, and it doesn't matter how you try to resolve it (the SR 3 and SR 4 ways were quite fair, allowing even the slow characters to act at least once before the extra actions happened).
It was the same mistake that created the 3.0 Haste spell.

Maybe, if you used some action point mechanic (not the roll some extras to add on your total result, but something where you spend x points for action one, and y points for action two), it might work, but only if you stay within a very small variation (Maybe vary by 20% around the standard value).

 

[Brimshack]

Missiles in general: It's not that i can point to a specific rule that is obviously broken, but I do find it frustrating to build a missile specialist. Working the system for all its worth, you end up with something that is not as useful as a pourly designed meat shield. And I would much rather that it was harder to get a missile off in melee, so you have to protect your missilers, but let them be more dangerous when firing. Multishot boes me. I would much rather characters could make a regular missile shot more effectively than that they can do stunts like that.

I see the question of balance at work here, the idea being that a missiler that is truly dangerous at range would be out of balance with comparable characters specializing in melee, but I'm inclined to think someone with no cover at range against a competent missile specialist should be in trouble. And as it stands, missile specialists are always a disappointment.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Working the system for all its worth, you end up with something that is not as useful as a pourly designed meat shield.

*blink*

*blink, blink*

Wow. This isn't my experience at all...

 

[Brimshack]

Magic items can compensate a bit, but I have yet to get an archer that could compete with a two Handed Weapon, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave. What are you doing for your archer build?

Crossbows are another matter entirely.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Magic items can compensate a bit, but I have yet to get an archer that could compete with a two Handed Weapon, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave. What are you doing for your archer build?

Well, it wasn't my build, so much as a build one of the other players used in a game I played in.

But if you've got a decent Strength, and a composite bow, that's some extra damage right there. The proper feats give you extra attacks without any corresponding penalty to attack rolls. There are actually more ways to get bonuses to hit on missile weapons than on melee weapons, thanks to things like Point Blank Shot. True, there's no equivalent to Power Attack, but that extra shot counts for a lot, and you can still get all the other damage-increasing feats like Weapon Specialization, Improved Crit, etc.

(BTW, I've never once seen a game where Great Cleave was worth taking as a feat. It comes up way to rarely, IME...)

 

[Brimshack]

Different campaigns, I guess. Great cleave has done wonders in the games I've been in.

The extra shot and the PB Shot, etc. do help, but then you end up with a character that nickles and dimes his enemies to death, or half way down until the meat shield reaches him. I think an equivalent to Power Attack is what is missing for me. I was experimenting with a variant that involved a full round action, and double benefit at PB range, 1 for 2 after taking 1 range penalty, 1 for 3 the next one, etc. Still use it occassionally.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I'll add one here -- 1e Initiative. While I never actually had a problem when playing it, and while I think that the base system worked fine, I have been convinced that all of the add-on systems (which often used different die roll curves) could cause problems for some.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I've been in enough bar fights to see the difference between Cha-based Intimidate and Str-based, particularly in San Antonio's Back Room Metal nightclub back in the 1980's.

Str-based is exemplified by the bouncer (former college lineman/weightlifter) who throws your buddy 15 feet and asks you to leave.

Cha-based is the 5' tall Asian bouncer who, when he's called, asks you to leave...and everyone around you evaporates.