The Gaming Den

Hm, I suppose the question is what method of resolving mass combat encounters are you using? Then we can better analyze what the PCs' actions can affect.

Some people seriously advocate normative relativism. I don't think that is a sane position, but it is a real one. Near as I can tell, that's True Neutral as a positive position. Yes, but they've just taken that set of behaviors and called it their own kind of "Good." The fact that no beha...

Slightly off topic, but: "Neutral" should not be a positive statement. "True Neutral" means that you have no strong feelings one way or the other, not that you "seek balance" (which is nonsensical). There should not be neutral paladins, Talismans of Pure Neutrality, or...

And that's the thing; wall-climbing usually does not grant a significant advantage. It's little more than a "you-must-be-this-tall" stick to get to the good parts of the game. And dying because you fail a climbing check, slip, and fall on to the jagged rocks below is unacceptable for most ...

So D&D would be better off if it switched to opposed rolls wherever possible?

'S what people have said since forever. Every new edition makes 1st level characters (even the 4th level ones in 4e) a lot stronger than the last. But then they make the basic monsters stronger to compensate, because Orcs and Goblins can't be in the game unless they're a threat to someone . So you'...

I had that exact same idea; assign everything a progression and change the way multiclassing works, and after asking around this forum and others, people were generally of the opinion that it would still diverge too much as you progressed higher. You'd be better off giving fighter types a flat bonus...

I am not trying to argue that a real time refesh rates are the perfect resouce managment system. I was only pointing out that if something effects the players and not their characters they will change thier behavior more. Players will get closer to your expected resouce output because they don't co...

You talk about maximizing effectiveness; from a mathematical standpoint, maximization of anything is based on an already existing structure, like a function, and then you find said function's maximum value. When designing a resource management system for a game, you are designing that function, ergo...

I agree with you, Bihlbo, but there are some arguments against point buy systems like that. Frank or someone will be here in a moment to tell you that it's because point buy systems make it nearly impossible for the DM to know what a level-appropriate encounter is. A DC X wall is a moderate challeng...

Whatever power level is called 'Level 1' should be higher than what D&D 3.5 starts you as, I agree. Your average adventurer needs to be slightly more durable/capable. There should be an option for playing as an underpowered character, because those are great character concepts, too (a green recr...

You just have to take the different tiers of the game independently; if skills, in a theoretical better system, cap out at a reasonable-for-mortals level, then at lower levels skills can be a schtick, so long as at higher levels they are replaced with something greater. Low-level non-skill character...

So, we need Final Fantasy battle screens divorced from the dungeon map? The 'rest in pocket dimensions' problem is easily solved by not having the mechanics to do so present in your game; OP specifically mentions putting this in a D&D-like game, that doesn't mean it has to have all of D&D's ...

Someday the players might want to consider a bear to be nothing but a speedbump, and an arch-demon to be a worthy foe. The monsters' numbers should not be scaling with the players'. That's really just fluff, and has nothing to do with numbers, though. In fact, as has been pointed out, that distinct...

Or, to take a different tact, drop the idea of classes and give people 'attributes', 'backgrounds', 'powers', and 'levels'. [*]Attributes are a way to describe a character in a word or two. Like 'strong' or 'fast' or 'stoic' or 'scary' or 'friendly' or 'sharp-eyed'. [*]Backgrounds are basically, in...

I agree; assign XP costs to HP, AC, AB, and Dmg bonuses, Spells known, spells/day, and all feats, and then just have them be purchased a la carte. Your game would still get better if you balanced every feat or made them scale with total XP earned similar to RoW feats. At some point that really, rea...

I agree; assign XP costs to HP, AC, AB, and Dmg bonuses, Spells known, spells/day, and all feats, and then just have them be purchased a la carte. Your game would still get better if you balanced every feat or made them scale with total XP earned similar to RoW feats.

Making the transhuman implants a perfect upgrade is going to be far less dramatic than having them give some benefits but not be without a kink or two. The thing is that the transhuman character, and several other important POV characters, need to feel that dysfunctional prototype parts are no more ...

Including some kind of viable horizontal advancement option is definitely a good idea, but pass/fail mechanics is not.

So, ignoring all feats, tactical maneuvers, and magic, characters on a Full, 3/4, and 1/2 progression mechanic diverge to the point where any given encounter is a one-man show for the party member who is on the full track, and everyone else is best off just watching? OK, that's not really the game I...

K wrote:You could just give everyone a BAB equal to level and it wouldn't matter.

So there's no distinction between them whatsoever? Is that because 3.5e is really reliant on magic, magic equipment, and magic items to be competent, or because the proportions are not meaningfully distinct in a vacuum?

I'm developing a new idea I had for a progression mechanic wherein you roll Skills and Abilities into class mechanics a la BAB which scales with level, but having one for every major skillset (Base Stealth, Base Magic, Base Wilderness, etc.). I'd like to pose this question to the Den; Are the differ...

Karma Points actually does give you a reason to do a bunch of stuff before you take the fight to the BBEG, so I kind of like that, so long as it is mechanically interesting. But the tension in RPGs comes mostly from the RNG, in my experience.

Well, you could make that a possibility in the mini-game, then; you have yearly or quarterly turns, and when you complete the adventure segment, you roll a die with different possibilities for what happened to the homeland; your capitol was taken over by an enemy force; it's currently under siege; y...

While the basic "version" of AoO is straightforward, the fact that that interaction can change based on so many things that aren't spelled out in any one place makes it a very steep learning curve; the rules are many and varied, and they are poorly formatted.