Your Personal "3.75"

[Arkhandus]

That, and cutting down the skill list through combination. This one isn't hard in and of itself, but it requires a lot of thinking about how it impacts other parts of the game.

Oh, and, from 4E, one idea (we haven't seen anything more than an idea at this point) I really like is not having prestige clases but instead having "paths" that open up new abilities. For example, you could have a "Dwarven Defender" ability tree (maybe eating up fighter bonus feats) that is accessible through getting the "Dwarven Defender" feat, which has the same prerequisites as the class. Switching progressions not only messes up the numbers -- ooh, look, a big fat Fort save bonus! -- but it can screw concepts if suddenly certain skills are no longer class skills (or the like).

Hrm. I've tried condensing the skill list a bit before. Frex:
[sblock]Acting - Cha - Bluff, Disguise, Perform (Acting)
Agility - Dex - Balance, Escape Artist, Perform (Dance), Tumble
Beastmaster - Cha - Animal Empathy, Handle Animal, Ride
Chirurgeon - Wis - Heal, also involves anatomical knowledge useful for attacking
Cipher - Int - Decipher Script, Forgery, Innuendo, Read Lips
Climb - Str - Climb
Concentration - Con - Concentration
Craft (variable) - Int - Appraise, Craft
Influence - Cha - Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Perform (Vocals)
Knowledge (variable) - Int - Knowledge
Language (variable) - Int - Speak Language
Manipulation - Dex - Disable Device, Open Lock, Perform (Instruments), Pick Pocket
Mysticism - Int - Alchemy, Scry, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Perception - Wis - Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot
Profession (variable) - Wis - Profession
Sneak - Dex - Hide, Move Silently
Striding - Str - Jump, also used to improve running
Survival - Wis - Intuit Direction, Use Rope, Wilderness Lore (Survival in 3.5)
Swim - Str - Swim[/sblock]

I've also been working on my set of 'ultimate' 3E classes, using the PHB, PsiHB, and OA as the base; samurai renamed and expanded as a 'knight' class, sohei similarly tweaked as a 'zealot' class, and each class gaining several Path abilities. They can change Paths when desired, but some of the Paths have minor or intermediate prerequisites. Each Path has some automatic benefits for those who take it, but changing Paths in a particular class can only be done once every few levels or so, and only with the DM's permission since each Path represents undertaking a different kind of training, study, devotion, or practice.

Each class has numerous Paths, and the Paths for each class are separate (a multiclass elven Bard/Fighter, for example, might simultaneously pursue the Bladesinger Path with their Bard class levels and the Weapon Master Path with their Fighter class levels). Each class gets a Minor Path Ability at 1st, 3rd, and 7th-level, and a Major Path Ability at 11th, 15th, and 19th-level, but otherwise they vary in how many Path abilities they gain (Fighters, for example, gain the addition of Path Mastery at 20th-level, if they stick with the same Path all the way; otherwise they just get another Major Path Ability at 20th; whereas Bards get a Least Path Ability at every level, which could be spellcasting or something else).

I've nearly finished a few of these classes too, though I haven't worked out the details on the Path ability choices that will be available to every Path just yet. What I do have done will be posted in Houserules at some point when I finish enough for it to be worthwhile. Soon.

But in general, since I'm kinda poor and don't own many 3rd-party books, I don't really integrate 3rd-party material into my 3E games, except when I'm actively using those 3rd-party books wholesale. I generally run 3.0, 3.1, or 3.25; in other words, I run the 3.0 D&D rules as written but sometimes tweak a few of them with houserules, and other times I integrate major changes to classes, races, and other material, but even then I still keep the core mechanics of 3.0. And occasionally I integrate a tiny bit of 3.5 material, like the Book of Nine Swords in my most recent campaign.

 

[jdrakeh]

What 3rd party rules would make it into your personal 3.75 (assuming you were staying with 3.x instead of moving to 4E)? What rules or subsystems or variants make the game more fun, easier to play and DM, or otherwise "better"? What parts of 3.x need replacing and what parts absolutely must stay?

I really like the magic system from The Slayers d20 (and later from BESM d20: Advanced Magic). I also like the reputation and honor rules from the "Legends of. . . " line by RPG Objects (their magic system isn't bad, either).

 

[delericho]

There are plenty of things that I would change about 3.5e to produce my 'ideal' game. Some of these are quite minor, while others are very significant. Some of them are being addressed by 4e, but often in ways I just don't like.

Unfortunately, the net effect of all of these changes is that the whole game would need fairly carefully re-balanced, and that's not an amount of work that I really want to go through. It's pretty much a new system by the time I'd be done with it... and then my group's resident power-gamer would probably break it within half an hour.

Some of the highlights, though:

- Re-balance for per-encounter play. And no mix of at-will/per-encounter/per-day powers, since I fully expect that to just move the fight/rest cycle from "we rest when the Cleric is out of healing" to "we rest once we've used all our per-day powers".

- Remove the need for the 'big six'. Some of these bonuses should be inherent to the character; some should just be removed. I'm inclined to keep armour +X and weapons +Y, though, since they're just so iconic.

- Remove the battle-mat. Sure, 3.5e doesn't require the mat for play, but it generally works better with it. At this point, I would prefer a game that works better without the mat.

- Each character will have a Mana Pool (I'd call it something else, though). Each class would give out some Mana at each level, modified by the character's Cha. Mana is then used to do "anything impossible", be that casting a spell, using a class feature, or activating a magic item. In general, characters will start encounters with half their maximum Mana, and will need to use almost all of it to cast their most powerful spell. Of course, casting that spell will usually be an encounter-winner, so there's a trade-off there - do you cast weaker spells for the duration of the combat, or do you spend time gathering Mana before firing the big gun?

- Conveniently, the Mana pool also allows me to solve the "save or die" problem - spells such as petrification can attack a character's Mana, and take full effect once it is exhausted.

- Pull in saves-as-defences, second wind, combat advantage, the bloodied condition, and a few other things from 4e. Pull in the condition track from SWSE.

- Ability damage remains, but as with hit point damage it does not impact on a character's effectiveness until any attribute hits 0. Instead, a character who takes any ability damage moves down the condition track.

There's more, but this post is too long already.

 

[Voadam]

UA: spontaneous divine casters, recharge magic option, multiclassing uses advancement along strong weak charts for saves and BAB instead of starting from beginning for smoother math.

AU:AE multiclassing spellcaster spell slots and known spells stack, disabled condition extends for con bonus into negatives.

House rules: save or die is save or dying, natural weapons get iterative attacks same as manufactured ones, falling damage is cumulative, no massive damage save, no xp so levels are just granted and xp components are more expensive/require special items, no cross class skills, no multiclassing penalty, reduction of alignment restrictions.

 

[Psion]

It has to be broadly compatible with 3.5 material to me, or it isn't even worth the name 3.75.

A few things I've done in my house rules (or adopted optional rules) that I'd like to formalize:
- Action points
- Fixed XP to not be a) so fidgety b) so combat centric
- Replace "death penalty" and xp penalties with action point costs
- More ability by players to tweak skill lists
- More feats

Something I haven't done but I would love to do if I could find a slick way to do it:
- Replace iterative attacks with a different multi attack system or damage bonus or somesuch
- Make feats more comparable

Stuff from 4e I would love to pull back in 3.5 if I could find a slick way to do it:
- DCs instead of saves
- Reflex DC in the place of touch AC

 

[DaveMage]

The tweaks I'm thinking of making are:

1) Improved play at levels 1-4. After playing in a campaign that rose to level 26, I started a new campaign with level 2 characters. Some classes worked fine (fighter/rogue), but the spellcasters felt frustrated by their lack of magical ability. I'm considering adding an "eldritch blast"-like at will power for spellcasters. Or perhaps making magic missile an at will standard action. I'm also considering giving 1st level characers +10 hit points.

2) More automatic feats. I'm going to review the feats and add a few for each class similar to what 4E is doing. For example, all PC fighters will get Power Attack for free. I"m thinking of giving the True Believer feat to all divine spellcasters. Some arcane spellcasters (non-spontaneous casters, who use spellbooks) will automatically get the item creation feats at their minimum required levels.

3) No more magic wal-marts for items (although low level [1-3] potions and scrolls may still be available from temples or guilds). The tricky part is making sure that PCs still have things to spend their gold on once they advance to the higher levels.


The number one concern, though, for any changes I make, is that I have to be able to use the vast amounts of pre-published adventures I have without any cumbersome modifictions. If the change makes me slow down to update the NPCs in the adventure, I'm not interested.

 

[Greg K]

Oops! I forgot a few things.

1. Slower leveling
2. less reliance on magic items.

 

[The Lost Muse]

If I were to do a personal 3.75 instead of converting to 4e, I'd make the following changes:

-Ditch iterative attacks, giving combat focussed classes a bonus to damage instead
-Grant each class a level based bonus to AC
-Use a single progression chart (similar to the 4e one) for all classes, and have class abilities boost up the areas that class should be strong in. Each class with one or two good saves would get to pick which ones were good.
-Tweak legacy weapons to reduce the number of drawbacks. There's no reason to be constantly changing magic weapons as you level.
-Replace the diverse HD with a class dependant bonus added to a d6 roll. (Wiz/sor +0, Rog/Clr +2, Rgr/Pal +4, etc...)
-A combination of recharge magic and spell points, with possible wholescale replacement of the magic system with something more freeform.
-Give each class more skill points. Leave the skill list alone for compatibility reasons.
-To speed NPC creation, devise an adjective based rating system similar to fudge allowing for a narrative description of them, rather than a quantative one.
-More feats! Give out feats at every odd level, rather than every third level. For elite opponents, just add a couple of feats for every 2-3 Hit Dice
-No XP costs for crafting magic items. Also, tweak times so that a potion can be brewed in a matter of minutes/hours and a scroll takes at most 90 minutes to scribe.

 

[Flynn]

I put most of what I wanted out of a 3.75 into Fantasy Concepts, truth be told. I'm really enjoying Savage Worlds right now, but if I had to go back and do a 3.75, I'd probably start with FC and do the following:

* Add AC back in, as I like it being distinct from Reflex Scores;
* Streamline monster creation quite a bit, to make it easier to run "on the fly" and reduce GM Prep work;
* Change Death and Dying just a little, per Grim Tales;
* Drop class skills and let skills reflect your character's background instead;
* Maybe refactor the numeric progressions to all be based off the Character Level Modifier (half your character level), per 4E's direction;

And that would probably be about it. I might introduce some more talents and such over time, but otherwise, I think I'd let the system stand as it is. I integrated 3rd party OGL elements from a wide range of sources: Spycraft 2.0, Traveller T20, Grim Tales, Unearthed Arcana, D20 Modern, True 20, etc. This is in addition to the obvious Saga influences (which had to be reworked in some regards as derived from OGL sources, of course).

If you're looking for great OGL goodness, check out Grim Tales. I can't recommend it enough.

The only other option would be to rewrite everything from the ground up to a much simpler and streamlined system, like Basic D&D meets C&C meets OSRIC meets D20 Modern, and create a very simple class-based game that resembles a D20 version of OD&D with very few character choices and a very straightforward system. No muss, no fuss. Of course, that probably wouldn't be popular, so I doubt I'll ever put in the effort to do so.

But for right now, I'm doing Savage Worlds and all is good, so I doubt I'll have to face this kind of decision for some time.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[jdrakeh]

It is starting to look like my personal 3.75 will actually be the core rules of BFRPG coupled with the spell system of Slayers d20 and possibly some options from UA (which ones, I'm not quite decided on yet).