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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tbiaslorin" data-source="post: 4037542" data-attributes="member: 48175">I've messed with some of the nitty-gritty of the game for my new campaign.  My new rule is 'if it's simpler, it's better'.  For example, I've eliminated rolling for damage and instead use averages instead (So a monster doing 1d6 damage will do 3, 4, 3, 4 etc damage)  For low level monsters, I've converted their hit dice to 'hits' instead.  A 3hd monster has 3 hits.  Any damage done to it by a player counts as 1 hit.  Sure, it might make the fighter feel like he's been nerfed some, but when we can get through 3 additional encounters an evening due to the various simplifications, everyone is happy.  Premiere monsters and NPC's have normal HPs.  Messing with the base game a little more, I am trying to do away with saves altogether, though this is a work in progress (we're only through one session so far).  As this campaign I have eliminated direct damage spells and most wizard-base classes in favor of more classes with special abilities (a la Nine Swords), it's a little less drastic than it sounds.  Hold abilities, buffs/debuffs and the like are automatically effective, but they are typically very short-lived and some skills still have a chance of breaking them (Escape Artist).  I know this has the potential to break down at higher levels and will need to be modified, but so far it has worked ok.  Any ideas for this would be appreciated (and I've noted someone's comment above about making saves more like targets for monsters to hit)Character creation has many more options, and this is something folks have liked and is likely to be re-used in future campaigns.  We're running 28-point attribute buy, but in addition to ability scores, folks can buy additional skill points (8), feats (2), or 1 special ability for each attribute point.  Each character also has a spell-point like pool to run any special abilities or alternate class abilities they may take.  We've done away with almost all magic items, and most 'twinking' is done through 'factions, orders and covens'.  Instead of having a +3 sword, +2 ring of protection, and +2 armor at level 7, a character might be part of a faction (The Order of the Whitefeather Crane, for example; these are similar to prestige classes with just the special abilities) that at level 7 has granted 3 special abilities, such as +2 strength, +2 dodge AC, and blink 10' (displacement) as a swift action (using the spell-point like attribute).  The spell-point like ability regenerates much slower than spells (although the pool might start fairly large) so rationing becomes important.  This has gone over very well and we've really enjoyed the options it opens up, and monsters/NPC's are extremely varied also.  So far in-game we're at over 25 potential factions and counting (and I anticipate over 100 by the time the campaign is done), and each player is limited to 2.I've changed Diplomacy so it works more as I thought it should.  Move silenty and hide have become stealth (I think I got this from NWN2 or some other game).  Listen, Search and Spot have combined to become Perception.Some of what we're doing is pretty drastic and might not even be 3.5 anymore, and I know there will be some balance issues, as we're only through one session, but on first impression it's definitely pushed us to cooler characters/NPC's and simplfied gameplay.</blockquote>

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