12/09 Design & Development [Archive] - Wizards Community

12/09 Design & Development [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
WotC_Bart
12-09-05, 01:07 PM Hi folks,

12/09 Design & Development's column will be up at: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20051209a: "Development Doesn't Like Much."

As part of the column, Jesse Decker asks: If there’s a feat, a spell, or anything else that’s worked well in your game, drop us a note on this thread. And no, it’s not just to pad our egos (although we’re very sensitive, you should know). If something’s made your game fun, it’s likely to make other groups around the world a little better as well. Next week, we’ll start in on the things we don’t like quite so much, also known as “House Rules.”

Thank you,
Bart Carroll
CC Shade
12-09-05, 02:20 PM I think the Fiend Folio broke alot of ground in this area. The creation of swarms, symbionts, and grafts has greatly expanded the game and allowed for many monsters that simply didn't fit within the existing groundwork.

The deathless type introduced in Book of Exalted Deeds is another innovate and well-designed addition to the game. Finally, we have a method for making monsters like baelnorns that don't make sense as undead shying away from the light of positive energy.
MindWandererB
12-09-05, 05:06 PM The "theurge"-style prestige classes are hugely popular in my game, and I don't just mean the dual-casters, but stuff like the Arcane Trickster as well. The lack of a true multiclass mechanic for casters in 3.X makes these pretty much mandatory. The lack of them in 3.0 hurt badly. When 3.5 came out, I created a large number of these myself, many of which WotC subsequently duplicated (or even did better... sigh), but some of which, like the Predator, which combines stealth and sneak attack with wild shape, the Forestwarden of Corellon, which combines cleric spells, animal companion, and favored enemy bonuses, and the Soul Champion, a paladin/psychic warrior.

Similarly, the Devoted and Ascetic feats are extremely cool, and also prompted my to design several similar ones for other classes (most notably the Soulknife).

Psionics. The on-the-fly versatility just can't be beat, and spell focus is a great idea (although Psionic Meditation is a FSBNBNR).

The LA system, while still extremely buggy (WotC: look at The Hive Guardian's system for LA, it works much better than yours!), is a great idea and allows players to play just about anything in any book as a PC, or at least a cohort.

The custom cosmology system, as described in MotP, was very well done, a useful tool in any campaign where planar travel occurs, or even where planar events occur behind the scenes.

Power Attack, in its 3.5 form, is a perfect example of what a feat should be--useful but not overpowering, a logical prereq for many other feats, great for some builds but less so for others. The current incarnation of TWF is pretty similar as far as quality goes.

Other favorite feats: Nonlethal Substitution (in the BoED form), Practiced Spellcaster, (Greater) Heavy Armor Optimization, Metamagic Song.
Amadan
12-09-05, 05:08 PM Symbionts & Grafts top my "don't like" list.

Best improvement over 2Ed has to be Feats -- allows for endlessly unique character options
Nom
12-09-05, 10:57 PM Relating to Jesse's column:

I'd argue that PrCs are simply a working out of multiclassing rules that make sense. Once "class" becomes a more fluid concept then you can mix and match and "advanced" or "specialised" classes are a natural development. WFRP has had them for decades (well, a couple of decades).
Banes
12-10-05, 09:19 AM Skills

I really like the unified mechanic of skills (with DCs). Obviously the development team likes them too, since a greater emphasis has been on skills with each Edition of D&D (from no skills in 1E to 25 pages of skills in 3.5E).

I can't wait for the day when BAB (weapons) and Spells also become skills. This would allow any class to pick these up easily (thus solving allot of multi-classing problems, for example a rogue who just wants to learn a few healing spells but does not want to be a cleric or bard). Afterall, Mr Decker did mention that D&D should be about options and not restrictions.
Mordred
12-10-05, 04:51 PM I'll add combat mastery styles from Oriental Adventures (such as empty hands and mighty works) to the list of really cool things we got so far. In fact, I was quite disappointed that those rules never made their way into other books, such as Complete Warrior, and we got no chance to see a 3.5 take on them.
johnkretzer
12-10-05, 05:07 PM I really liked the addition of swashbuckler, favored soul, spell thief, scout to the game. These core classes allowed for more concept styling. I enjoyed the changes to psionics from 2ed to 3.0ed and finally to 3.5ed. I always liked the idea and each time you have improved it and made it more balanced.
Baptor
12-10-05, 05:07 PM Ok, does anyone notice something off here?

I had hoped, as I read his column, that I would find developers complaining about things they'd done they didnt like (such as the introduction implies).

Instead, I find himself stroking his own ego for most of the column, going over all the things he likes.
When I get to the bottom, I get a glimmer of hope.."ah, next week they will tell us the dislikes" but then he lists the topic of this dislike post.

House Rules...

WotC doesnt create House Rules, no developer does...we, the consumer, the players, do.

So basically after telling us...the people that are giving you money...how great and wonderful your ideas are, your next plan is to tell us how stupid and terrible ours are?

God forbid we, the consumers, the people that play your games, come up with a few ideas of our own. God forbid we actually try to improve on what the almighty WotC has done...for you can do no wrong apparently.

This has got me mad...very mad indeed. I will reserve making any dangerous oaths such as (I will never buy WotC material ever again) until I read this thread, but already it doesnt look good.
Grug the Just
12-10-05, 05:39 PM House Rules...

WotC doesnt create House Rules, no developer does...we, the consumer, the players, do.

So basically after telling us...the people that are giving you money...how great and wonderful your ideas are, your next plan is to tell us how stupid and terrible ours are?

God forbid we, the consumers, the people that play your games, come up with a few ideas of our own. God forbid we actually try to improve on what the almighty WotC has done...for you can do no wrong apparently.

This has got me mad...very mad indeed. I will reserve making any dangerous oaths such as (I will never buy WotC material ever again) until I read this thread, but already it doesnt look good.
Firstly, he gave no info as to why he doesn't like house rules. You know what I don't like house rules either. It's best to use rules and ideas that have been thourougly play-tested. Even though every campaign I've ever been in has had house rules, I've oftened wondered why this concept wasn't previously covered in a sourcebook. Maybe, he feels that House Rules are like a slap in the face to him. He's spent copiuos amounts of time and effort on something just to have it brushed aside, I'd be ****** too. Or maybe, it's that he feels he's let us down in some department, because he has not covered some situation that comes up once in a blue moon. Give him a chance to post his opinion before you flip out.

Onto the matter at hand.
I own the Special Edition Player's Handbook. As compared to the 3.0 PHB the information is quite concise on Grappling Rules. My problem lies in the fact that grappling rules cover a lot of situational rules and every time grappling comes up I gotta go back and check specifics.

Also, I have a bit of a problem with the slew of swift action spells in the Complete Adventurer and the Spell Compendium. Wraithstrike for example, I understand that since a great enough number of people want to play spellcasting/fighter types that Wizard goes out of their way to create stuff for those players, I still don't see Wrathstrike as a 2nd level sorcerer/wizard spell.
Jesse_Decker
12-10-05, 06:04 PM I enjoy house rules whether made by me or anyone else. Next week's column will identify some of my pet peeves with the D&D rules and detail the house rules that some of the in-house folks have created as work-arounds in their own games.

If the article implied that I, or anyone else in R&D for that matter, doesn't like house rules, then it's a simple mistake in the writing. This sentence: "Next week, we’ll start in on the things we don’t like quite so much, also known as “House Rules.”" Was just a rather poorly worded attempt at saying that there are things that don't work so super-hot in D&D and that we, just like other players and DMs, invent house rules as a response.

Sorry for the confusion,
MindWandererB
12-12-05, 02:19 PM I had to make a double-take before I figured that out. Now that will be an article I'm dying to see... but I'll also wonder why those developer house rules aren't core by now. But it's good to know that development doesn't just sit on their laurels praising each other on how cool they are--SC proved that, and there are so many aspects of the game that are clearly broken that they'd have to be blind not to noice them. It will be very good to see an article where they own up to their mistakes.

It'll also be interesting to see how many mistakes are results of artifacts carried over from earlier editions (like polymorph--I'm sure the next revision of the game will have substantial changes there), and how many are from 3.X (like spiked armor).
dr_stevl
12-13-05, 05:14 PM I really liked a number of the Exalted Feats in the Book of Exalted Deeds, in particular
the Sacred Vows. These give substantial but controlled benefits to the character with
real roleplaying hooks. My favorite is the Vow of Poverty, which gives a tree of level
dependent bonuses, special abilities, and feats (and essentially adds a second class
structure in parallel with the main character class) but with a hefty offsetting set of character strictures (the poverty). It is not overpowered - I have been running an ascetic monk in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, current level 10, and despite my best efforts the character is in line in power with the other more traditional characters. It provides good flavor (the party is used to hearing a sermon on the evils of materialism after acquiring treasure). I even used the Risen Martyr prestige class after being killed and the character's mystical return from the dead was met by the party with appropriate awe. I would like to see these sort of feats built on further (one could see a similar mechanic for a strict knightly vow rather than as a PrC or standard feat tree). One problem I had was that I'm running out of appropriate exalted feats at Lvl 10ish, this would be a good area for expansion (or I will have to make my own in a few levels).
Milo HoBo
12-13-05, 06:27 PM I really like the new classes [and feel that the mechanics of Invoking should be used to create a new casting system (like with Magic of Incarnum)]. The artificer, the psionics classes (except the soulblade), and really just all of the other new base classes are great.The best thing about the new classes would be the fact that the class features are good enough to make you want to take the class all the way through instead of Prestige Classing out (some of the core classes lack this especially the sorcerer). The compendiums are great for refrencing things, and the spell compendium is awsome. I think that one of my favorate Prestige classes is the geometer. It only makes sense that a wizard would eventually figure out a way to make spells easier and cheaper to write down. Good gaming, and great writing.
Redstone
12-14-05, 04:14 AM I'd like to mention a sourcebook that I've used in my most recent adventures. The "Heros of Horror" sourcebook. I am DMing for a group that is on the cusp of being Epic and it can be a challenge to come up with new and interesting challenges for them. I found the Heros of Horror book very usefull in adding a new aspect to the game. It also proved a good way to introduce an evil artifact that had some rather disturbing side-effects. There is a list of omens and spooky side effects (like every mirror that a particular character looks in breaks - always in the same pattern). This proved a useful tool to convince my not-so-good PCs that they really did want to destroy this powerful artifact.

One of the players in my group decided to become a Saint as per the Book of Exalted Deeds. This Prestige Class has added much flavor to the character and the group as a whole. I have to say, motivating a Saint is as easy as dropping a wounded Solar at his feet! And you have to love easy and effective adventure hooks!
joeydogs
12-19-05, 03:56 PM I am a big fan of the way that WOTC has implemented rules for creating new Prestige Classes and the Prestige Class in general. Crafting a character concept has never been more flexible. The counterargument is that there is an overwhelming, mind boggling array of choices and decisions to make but you can always opt to stick to the basics.

In my freshman effort, I created a Prestige Class that melded elements of two different Prestige Classes with a Wizard specialist spellcaster to essentially focus very intently on a sub-sub class of magic. Nothing like this existed "back in the day".
Cennedi
12-19-05, 05:42 PM Skills
I can't wait for the day when BAB (weapons) and Spells also become skills. This would allow any class to pick these up easily (thus solving allot of multi-classing problems, for example a rogue who just wants to learn a few healing spells but does not want to be a cleric or bard). Afterall, Mr Decker did mention that D&D should be about options and not restrictions.

Have you looked at Lejendary Adventures? supposedly all about the skills.
sherretz
02-17-06, 09:07 AM Sorry to bump this thread back up, but I'm just catching up on things in the articles section of the Wizards site.

I just wanted to make a few comments. First off, I love the way 3.5 has worked out so far, and it is the most exciting, adaptive, and balanced version of the game to date.

Two recent house rules that I was able to implement recently with the group I game in revolved around a recent monk PC:
- I created another Ascetic feat so that my monk could revert to his original class and level up. Really, if a general Ascetic feat was created that let you level up in your original class, would be great. It would keep non-creative or first-time players from seeing the other Ascetic feats and saying, "aw man, I wish they had one of these for my other class...."

- I created a feat similar to Zen Archery (I believe I called it Combat Focus) that allowed the monk to use his Wisdom bonus in melee, similar to how he can use it for archery. I basically made a bastardized version of Zen Archery and Weapon Finesse. I didn't refine it, but if it were added as a feat to the general list, I would restrict it to only unarmed combat to keep it from being too powerful.
Archmagi1976
03-09-06, 01:07 AM D&D 3.5 has made a small break through with blood line classes, but I am wondering if it will stop here... :weep:

We have currently...
Warlock - Demon blooded
Sorcerer - Dragon blooded

It makes me wonder about the other groups out there, much like a Fey? Is D&D going to continue along this line of work? Or is it just sadly a dead end?

Secondly, we see a lot of how things are progressing and what changes are to be made but on a serrious note. If someone had a broad world design and wanted to bring it to wizards of the coast and present it, do we have guide lines for that? To sort of bring to light what players might possibly want out of D&D?

Archmagi

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
WotC_Bart 12-09-05, 01:07 PM	Hi folks, 12/09 Design & Development's column will be up at: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20051209a: "Development Doesn't Like Much." As part of the column, Jesse Decker asks: If there’s a feat, a spell, or anything else that’s worked well in your game, drop us a note on this thread. And no, it’s not just to pad our egos (although we’re very sensitive, you should know). If something’s made your game fun, it’s likely to make other groups around the world a little better as well. Next week, we’ll start in on the things we don’t like quite so much, also known as “House Rules.” Thank you, Bart Carroll
CC Shade 12-09-05, 02:20 PM	I think the Fiend Folio broke alot of ground in this area. The creation of swarms, symbionts, and grafts has greatly expanded the game and allowed for many monsters that simply didn't fit within the existing groundwork. The deathless type introduced in Book of Exalted Deeds is another innovate and well-designed addition to the game. Finally, we have a method for making monsters like baelnorns that don't make sense as undead shying away from the light of positive energy.
MindWandererB 12-09-05, 05:06 PM	The "theurge"-style prestige classes are hugely popular in my game, and I don't just mean the dual-casters, but stuff like the Arcane Trickster as well. The lack of a true multiclass mechanic for casters in 3.X makes these pretty much mandatory. The lack of them in 3.0 hurt badly. When 3.5 came out, I created a large number of these myself, many of which WotC subsequently duplicated (or even did better... sigh), but some of which, like the Predator, which combines stealth and sneak attack with wild shape, the Forestwarden of Corellon, which combines cleric spells, animal companion, and favored enemy bonuses, and the Soul Champion, a paladin/psychic warrior. Similarly, the Devoted and Ascetic feats are extremely cool, and also prompted my to design several similar ones for other classes (most notably the Soulknife). Psionics. The on-the-fly versatility just can't be beat, and spell focus is a great idea (although Psionic Meditation is a FSBNBNR). The LA system, while still extremely buggy (WotC: look at The Hive Guardian's system for LA, it works much better than yours!), is a great idea and allows players to play just about anything in any book as a PC, or at least a cohort. The custom cosmology system, as described in MotP, was very well done, a useful tool in any campaign where planar travel occurs, or even where planar events occur behind the scenes. Power Attack, in its 3.5 form, is a perfect example of what a feat should be--useful but not overpowering, a logical prereq for many other feats, great for some builds but less so for others. The current incarnation of TWF is pretty similar as far as quality goes. Other favorite feats: Nonlethal Substitution (in the BoED form), Practiced Spellcaster, (Greater) Heavy Armor Optimization, Metamagic Song.
Amadan 12-09-05, 05:08 PM	Symbionts & Grafts top my "don't like" list. Best improvement over 2Ed has to be Feats -- allows for endlessly unique character options
Nom 12-09-05, 10:57 PM	Relating to Jesse's column: I'd argue that PrCs are simply a working out of multiclassing rules that make sense. Once "class" becomes a more fluid concept then you can mix and match and "advanced" or "specialised" classes are a natural development. WFRP has had them for decades (well, a couple of decades).
Banes 12-10-05, 09:19 AM	Skills I really like the unified mechanic of skills (with DCs). Obviously the development team likes them too, since a greater emphasis has been on skills with each Edition of D&D (from no skills in 1E to 25 pages of skills in 3.5E). I can't wait for the day when BAB (weapons) and Spells also become skills. This would allow any class to pick these up easily (thus solving allot of multi-classing problems, for example a rogue who just wants to learn a few healing spells but does not want to be a cleric or bard). Afterall, Mr Decker did mention that D&D should be about options and not restrictions.
Mordred 12-10-05, 04:51 PM	I'll add combat mastery styles from Oriental Adventures (such as empty hands and mighty works) to the list of really cool things we got so far. In fact, I was quite disappointed that those rules never made their way into other books, such as Complete Warrior, and we got no chance to see a 3.5 take on them.
johnkretzer 12-10-05, 05:07 PM	I really liked the addition of swashbuckler, favored soul, spell thief, scout to the game. These core classes allowed for more concept styling. I enjoyed the changes to psionics from 2ed to 3.0ed and finally to 3.5ed. I always liked the idea and each time you have improved it and made it more balanced.
Baptor 12-10-05, 05:07 PM	Ok, does anyone notice something off here? I had hoped, as I read his column, that I would find developers complaining about things they'd done they didnt like (such as the introduction implies). Instead, I find himself stroking his own ego for most of the column, going over all the things he likes. When I get to the bottom, I get a glimmer of hope.."ah, next week they will tell us the dislikes" but then he lists the topic of this dislike post. House Rules... WotC doesnt create House Rules, no developer does...we, the consumer, the players, do. So basically after telling us...the people that are giving you money...how great and wonderful your ideas are, your next plan is to tell us how stupid and terrible ours are? God forbid we, the consumers, the people that play your games, come up with a few ideas of our own. God forbid we actually try to improve on what the almighty WotC has done...for you can do no wrong apparently. This has got me mad...very mad indeed. I will reserve making any dangerous oaths such as (I will never buy WotC material ever again) until I read this thread, but already it doesnt look good.
Grug the Just 12-10-05, 05:39 PM	House Rules... WotC doesnt create House Rules, no developer does...we, the consumer, the players, do. So basically after telling us...the people that are giving you money...how great and wonderful your ideas are, your next plan is to tell us how stupid and terrible ours are? God forbid we, the consumers, the people that play your games, come up with a few ideas of our own. God forbid we actually try to improve on what the almighty WotC has done...for you can do no wrong apparently. This has got me mad...very mad indeed. I will reserve making any dangerous oaths such as (I will never buy WotC material ever again) until I read this thread, but already it doesnt look good. Firstly, he gave no info as to why he doesn't like house rules. You know what I don't like house rules either. It's best to use rules and ideas that have been thourougly play-tested. Even though every campaign I've ever been in has had house rules, I've oftened wondered why this concept wasn't previously covered in a sourcebook. Maybe, he feels that House Rules are like a slap in the face to him. He's spent copiuos amounts of time and effort on something just to have it brushed aside, I'd be ****** too. Or maybe, it's that he feels he's let us down in some department, because he has not covered some situation that comes up once in a blue moon. Give him a chance to post his opinion before you flip out. Onto the matter at hand. I own the Special Edition Player's Handbook. As compared to the 3.0 PHB the information is quite concise on Grappling Rules. My problem lies in the fact that grappling rules cover a lot of situational rules and every time grappling comes up I gotta go back and check specifics. Also, I have a bit of a problem with the slew of swift action spells in the Complete Adventurer and the Spell Compendium. Wraithstrike for example, I understand that since a great enough number of people want to play spellcasting/fighter types that Wizard goes out of their way to create stuff for those players, I still don't see Wrathstrike as a 2nd level sorcerer/wizard spell.
Jesse_Decker 12-10-05, 06:04 PM	I enjoy house rules whether made by me or anyone else. Next week's column will identify some of my pet peeves with the D&D rules and detail the house rules that some of the in-house folks have created as work-arounds in their own games. If the article implied that I, or anyone else in R&D for that matter, doesn't like house rules, then it's a simple mistake in the writing. This sentence: "Next week, we’ll start in on the things we don’t like quite so much, also known as “House Rules.”" Was just a rather poorly worded attempt at saying that there are things that don't work so super-hot in D&D and that we, just like other players and DMs, invent house rules as a response. Sorry for the confusion,
MindWandererB 12-12-05, 02:19 PM	I had to make a double-take before I figured that out. Now that will be an article I'm dying to see... but I'll also wonder why those developer house rules aren't core by now. But it's good to know that development doesn't just sit on their laurels praising each other on how cool they are--SC proved that, and there are so many aspects of the game that are clearly broken that they'd have to be blind not to noice them. It will be very good to see an article where they own up to their mistakes. It'll also be interesting to see how many mistakes are results of artifacts carried over from earlier editions (like polymorph--I'm sure the next revision of the game will have substantial changes there), and how many are from 3.X (like spiked armor).
dr_stevl 12-13-05, 05:14 PM	I really liked a number of the Exalted Feats in the Book of Exalted Deeds, in particular the Sacred Vows. These give substantial but controlled benefits to the character with real roleplaying hooks. My favorite is the Vow of Poverty, which gives a tree of level dependent bonuses, special abilities, and feats (and essentially adds a second class structure in parallel with the main character class) but with a hefty offsetting set of character strictures (the poverty). It is not overpowered - I have been running an ascetic monk in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, current level 10, and despite my best efforts the character is in line in power with the other more traditional characters. It provides good flavor (the party is used to hearing a sermon on the evils of materialism after acquiring treasure). I even used the Risen Martyr prestige class after being killed and the character's mystical return from the dead was met by the party with appropriate awe. I would like to see these sort of feats built on further (one could see a similar mechanic for a strict knightly vow rather than as a PrC or standard feat tree). One problem I had was that I'm running out of appropriate exalted feats at Lvl 10ish, this would be a good area for expansion (or I will have to make my own in a few levels).
Milo HoBo 12-13-05, 06:27 PM	I really like the new classes [and feel that the mechanics of Invoking should be used to create a new casting system (like with Magic of Incarnum)]. The artificer, the psionics classes (except the soulblade), and really just all of the other new base classes are great.The best thing about the new classes would be the fact that the class features are good enough to make you want to take the class all the way through instead of Prestige Classing out (some of the core classes lack this especially the sorcerer). The compendiums are great for refrencing things, and the spell compendium is awsome. I think that one of my favorate Prestige classes is the geometer. It only makes sense that a wizard would eventually figure out a way to make spells easier and cheaper to write down. Good gaming, and great writing.
Redstone 12-14-05, 04:14 AM	I'd like to mention a sourcebook that I've used in my most recent adventures. The "Heros of Horror" sourcebook. I am DMing for a group that is on the cusp of being Epic and it can be a challenge to come up with new and interesting challenges for them. I found the Heros of Horror book very usefull in adding a new aspect to the game. It also proved a good way to introduce an evil artifact that had some rather disturbing side-effects. There is a list of omens and spooky side effects (like every mirror that a particular character looks in breaks - always in the same pattern). This proved a useful tool to convince my not-so-good PCs that they really did want to destroy this powerful artifact. One of the players in my group decided to become a Saint as per the Book of Exalted Deeds. This Prestige Class has added much flavor to the character and the group as a whole. I have to say, motivating a Saint is as easy as dropping a wounded Solar at his feet! And you have to love easy and effective adventure hooks!
joeydogs 12-19-05, 03:56 PM	I am a big fan of the way that WOTC has implemented rules for creating new Prestige Classes and the Prestige Class in general. Crafting a character concept has never been more flexible. The counterargument is that there is an overwhelming, mind boggling array of choices and decisions to make but you can always opt to stick to the basics. In my freshman effort, I created a Prestige Class that melded elements of two different Prestige Classes with a Wizard specialist spellcaster to essentially focus very intently on a sub-sub class of magic. Nothing like this existed "back in the day".
Cennedi 12-19-05, 05:42 PM	Skills I can't wait for the day when BAB (weapons) and Spells also become skills. This would allow any class to pick these up easily (thus solving allot of multi-classing problems, for example a rogue who just wants to learn a few healing spells but does not want to be a cleric or bard). Afterall, Mr Decker did mention that D&D should be about options and not restrictions. Have you looked at Lejendary Adventures? supposedly all about the skills.
sherretz 02-17-06, 09:07 AM	Sorry to bump this thread back up, but I'm just catching up on things in the articles section of the Wizards site. I just wanted to make a few comments. First off, I love the way 3.5 has worked out so far, and it is the most exciting, adaptive, and balanced version of the game to date. Two recent house rules that I was able to implement recently with the group I game in revolved around a recent monk PC: - I created another Ascetic feat so that my monk could revert to his original class and level up. Really, if a general Ascetic feat was created that let you level up in your original class, would be great. It would keep non-creative or first-time players from seeing the other Ascetic feats and saying, "aw man, I wish they had one of these for my other class...." - I created a feat similar to Zen Archery (I believe I called it Combat Focus) that allowed the monk to use his Wisdom bonus in melee, similar to how he can use it for archery. I basically made a bastardized version of Zen Archery and Weapon Finesse. I didn't refine it, but if it were added as a feat to the general list, I would restrict it to only unarmed combat to keep it from being too powerful.
Archmagi1976 03-09-06, 01:07 AM	D&D 3.5 has made a small break through with blood line classes, but I am wondering if it will stop here... :weep: We have currently... Warlock - Demon blooded Sorcerer - Dragon blooded It makes me wonder about the other groups out there, much like a Fey? Is D&D going to continue along this line of work? Or is it just sadly a dead end? Secondly, we see a lot of how things are progressing and what changes are to be made but on a serrious note. If someone had a broad world design and wanted to bring it to wizards of the coast and present it, do we have guide lines for that? To sort of bring to light what players might possibly want out of D&D? Archmagi