The two things that I personally feel have always been terrible about the design of #DnD are the class-based character development system and the Vancian magic system.
These systems irrationally limit the choices players can make in designing and developing their PCs, and TSR/WotC/Hasbro has missed so many opportunities to do away with these systems over the past 50 years.
But, they can be fixed, within the existing framework of #Dnd5E. (more)
A few years ago, I finally developed a good Spell Points system to replace the spell slot system of D&D, but for some reason, it never struck me until the middle of last night that the way to fix the class system of D&D is Feats.
By simply converting all class-based mechanics to Feats, D&D could finally be freed of these irrational limitations.
I would have to rework my Spell Points system to fit a Feats-based D&D, but that's simply a matter of juggling a few numbers.
With my SP system, there's no longer any "spell preparation" or "spell slots". The caster has a certain number of SP based on their caster level, and can cast any spell they know any number of times, provided their have SP remaining, and can, if they wish, exchange HP for SP, once they run out of SP, even unto death.
Once a spell is learned, it is learned permanently, and is not "forgotten" after casting.
Spells cost the square of their spell level plus the spell level (min of 1) to cast.
So, a 0th Level cantrip costs 1 SP, a 1st Level spell costs 2 SP, a 2nd Level spell costs 6 SP, and a 9th Level spell costs 90 SP to cast, thus naturally limiting the number of high level spells any PC is going to cast, and heavily biasing the caster toward casting low-level spells.
The DM can also optionally limit the number of spells a caster can cast between rests, based on a factor of their ability scores.
Furthermore, SP and HP recovery happens on a time-based scale as a function of how much has been depleted, so no full SP or HP recovery after a short rest or a long rest.
A high-level PC who depletes all their SP or HP may take weeks to fully restore their SP or HP, absent magical or divine intervention.
@ericmpaq@gcvsa I tried to patch AD&D with house rule after house rule to get away from the design decisions that made the game unenjoyable for me. In the end I wound up with a thick binder full of rules that consisted, in essence, of "jack up the paint job, insert a new car, lower the paint job".
It's why I stopped playing D&D (any flavour) entirely in the end. Other games didn't need as much tinkering for me.
@zdl AD&D 2nd ed was very modular for good & ill. It had lots of mini games which didn’t interact with each other. That was making it easy for house rules but not easy to teach. #ttrpg
@zdl That document is 10 pages of rules, each page has around 1/2 the page with footnotes. Then there’s a 7 page example, 2 page summary chart, 1 page of sources. From a quick glance, it seems to use several optional rules.
Playing games you enjoy is great. It doesn’t have to be D&D. I love trying different games.
@ericmpaq That's a summary, recall. The grappling rules of AD&D1 were serious pain. I can't think of a single group that tried to use them more than once before giving up.
@ericmpaq It's a step-by-step list with footnotes showing where the information comes from, these forming, in bulk, the PH and DMG, and some Dragon columns that are more-or-less considered canon (including some of Gygax's ranting about how "clear" his rules are).
Add comment