- Familiars way too familiar You used to need to cast an elaborate spell to get a familiar. Now every man jack wizard can have one. And where's the imps, quasits, and pseudo-dragons? Today's familiars are more common and more lame.
- New initiave system What was wrong with the AD&D 2 initiative system? Someone please tell me, cause I don't know. Anyone else miss weapon speeds? Or rolling initiative every round?
- Map-based combat Attacks of Opportunity and 5' Steps drive me crazy. Crazy, I tell ya! Crazy!
- Too many damn spellcasters Rangers, paladins, and bards I can maybe take. But assassins? Assassins?
- Cantrips, cantrips, cantrips These were more fun back in the original Unearthed Arcana. And I don't like 1st level casters starting play with so many spells. Will someone please think of the children?
- Magic items as commodity I know this started with the original DMG, but it is entirely out of control now. Looking at the chart that shows how many GPs of magic items an average PC should own just makes me ill. Can someone tell me the GP value of Excalibur? How about Stormbringer? How much would the Eye of Agamotto fetch on eBay?
- Magic Item Creation is Hozzored Hey kids, start making magic items at much earlier levels than grandpa! It'll just cost you your precious, precious experience points!
- Why can't I play a 1st level half-orc assassin, dammit?
- CR/EL/XP Just put an xp rating in the monster entry. I hate those stupid charts.
- Monsters and NPCs are a pain This is the big one for me. Managing critters and people with levels in PC classes is a huge pain. The chargen rules as written allow for a lot of nifty PC customization. As a DM those same rules feel like a millstone around my neck.
This list isn't exhaustive, by the way. It's just the first 10 things that came to mind.
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Posts
responses in no particular order:
ReplyDeletejust about every feat/class compedium has some way of juicing familiars.
Construct, undead, stitched, infernal,
apply a template, level based, etc.
Despite this I still don't give a rat's ass for them. If someone pops
my spectral, half-dragon mechaimp,
I still lose xp. grrr.
Initiative & map based go together for me. All the feats that boost initiative, just to give the chance at a shot before the other guy. Now I won't complain about getting the drop on a balrog, but having to manuver for the rest of my attacks keeps me out of the rogue business.
there are a couple of non-spell variants of the paladin and ranger,
from comp. fighter I believe.
On the magic items front, I still favor the resource points from UA.
For the half-orc assassin, I'd jury-rig the assassin background from Q. rogue (+1D6 to humanoids, -2 Cha based skills)to a ranger,
(good sneak, best bab) and ride out
the levels until qualification
for the prestige.
PS. I can write this much, but never update.
I knew that there were fixes for many of my complaints. And I knew that you would have several of them off the top of your head. The magic item making system in UA is pretty tasty, I must admit. And a half-orc ranger with the assassin 'background' does sound pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteBut let's say we implement all the various fixes. Are we still playing D&D? I dunno. How many changes can you make to a system and still be playing the same game? And if you need to make so many changes, why are you playing that system to begin with?
Note that I would still _play_ the latest versions of D&D. Hell, I'd jump at the chance to get into a good D&D campaign. But some days DMing seems like a friggin' nightmare.