Magic items are gone, with few exceptions (most notably artifacts and legacy weapons). This is to remove entirely the "christmas tree" character, who has to pay strict attention to piles of gold pieces and delve into huge magic item lists, a large amount of which don't offer meaningful changes outside of the stat block. Instead, all magic items are intelligent (and often times at odds with your character) and/or meaningfully powerful, and thus do not cost gold peices (they are obtained through roleplay and slaughtering equally powerful beings). The flavor text? The ability to permanently enhance an item with a portion of your soul is a material-consuming and fortitude-consuming process that isn't undertaken lightly.
Prestige classes are also gone. There were a great amount of "good" prestige classes with interesting options and concepts, and more often than not I find myself looking at two, three, or four going "ugh, now I practically need a cost-benefit analysis."
Numerous skills have been merged, with hide and move silently being the most famous example. A less famous example is the combination of Appraise, Craft, and Knowledge [architecture & engineering] (not as scary when Craft only comprises four major skills: woodcraft, stonecraft, forgeworks, and alchemy). Profession is also no longer a skill at all, but a special check made with any skill that could potentially earn you money in a civilized society (a knowledge check working at a library, craft with as a blacksmith, etc etc).
Feats have been reworked into Combat Training and Heroic Transformations. It works a lot like feats, except it's much easier- there are several types of combat training, and by taking "ranks" (earned through class levels) you get better in various types of fighting styles (there will be different martial arts styles, two weapon fighting, etc.) I've also applied the weapon group feats from Unearthed Arcana, with greater ranks in weapon groups giving you weapon focus, specialization, etc. in those groups.
Heroic transformations, however, come once every 6 or 8 (have not decided yet) levels (no you don't get one at 1st) and give very unique and powerful benefits. Some examples include infusions of particular planar energies into one's body (fire, positive energy, and poison being some examples) grafting a construct or undead body for yourself (giving you the traits and extra benefits) gaining a soul-mate (not necessarily a lover, but a cohort with whom you get nifty morale abilities with) and legacy items that grow in power and reputation with you.
Among those major changes are some more minor changes (hit points being less important to how easily you cling to life and charisma being more important- mind over body approach) physical ability scores being easier to upgrade (and more tied to your class) than mental ones, mental ability scores having new importance with the inclusion of unique attributes of heroes who are especially intelligent (analyze a battle more quickly), wise (fear? what's that? I'm running away because I know better than you), or charismatic (even the gods love you), and your height and weight being more of a factor. In addition, I'll be sure to re-work the base races to fit with the rule changes and make race a meaningful choice in both roleplay and stat-block.
What I'm looking for in all this is both interest in my odd ideas (if any) and comments/criticisms. Either is much appreciated- thanks for reading/skimming through that
Magic items are gone, with few exceptions (most notably artifacts and legacy weapons). This is to remove entirely the "christmas tree" character, who has to pay strict attention to piles of gold pieces and delve into huge magic item lists, a large amount of which don't offer meaningful changes outside of the stat block. Instead, all magic items are intelligent (and often times at odds with your character) and/or meaningfully powerful, and thus do not cost gold peices (they are obtained through roleplay and slaughtering equally powerful beings). The flavor text? The ability to permanently enhance an item with a portion of your soul is a material-consuming and fortitude-consuming process that isn't undertaken lightly.
I do the same thing, though I allow high quality items to mimic some magic items. +3 masterworks add a +3 to attack and damage, keen weapons can be made, etc.
Prestige classes are also gone. There were a great amount of "good" prestige classes with interesting options and concepts, and more often than not I find myself looking at two, three, or four going "ugh, now I practically need a cost-benefit analysis."
Also a good idea, though you may want to allow some class abilities of prestige classes to be taken as feats.
Numerous skills have been merged, with hide and move silently being the most famous example. A less famous example is the combination of Appraise, Craft, and Knowledge [architecture & engineering] (not as scary when Craft only comprises four major skills: woodcraft, stonecraft, forgeworks, and alchemy). Profession is also no longer a skill at all, but a special check made with any skill that could potentially earn you money in a civilized society (a knowledge check working at a library, craft with as a blacksmith, etc etc).
Wait, how does appraising a gem and having knowledge of engineering equate to the same skill. I have been thinking of doing the same thing with profession.
Feats have been reworked into Combat Training and Heroic Transformations. It works a lot like feats, except it's much easier- there are several types of combat training, and by taking "ranks" (earned through class levels) you get better in various types of fighting styles (there will be different martial arts styles, two weapon fighting, etc.) I've also applied the weapon group feats from Unearthed Arcana, with greater ranks in weapon groups giving you weapon focus, specialization, etc. in those groups.
Heroic transformations, however, come once every 6 or 8 (have not decided yet) levels (no you don't get one at 1st) and give very unique and powerful benefits. Some examples include infusions of particular planar energies into one's body (fire, positive energy, and poison being some examples) grafting a construct or undead body for yourself (giving you the traits and extra benefits) gaining a soul-mate (not necessarily a lover, but a cohort with whom you get nifty morale abilities with) and legacy items that grow in power and reputation with you.
Among those major changes are some more minor changes (hit points being less important to how easily you cling to life and charisma being more important- mind over body approach) physical ability scores being easier to upgrade (and more tied to your class) than mental ones, mental ability scores having new importance with the inclusion of unique attributes of heroes who are especially intelligent (analyze a battle more quickly), wise (fear? what's that? I'm running away because I know better than you), or charismatic (even the gods love you), and your height and weight being more of a factor. In addition, I'll be sure to re-work the base races to fit with the rule changes and make race a meaningful choice in both roleplay and stat-block.
Hm, that's an interesting idea. I'd like to see how the mechanics work out.
I am currently undergoing an attempt to tinker with practically every aspect of 3.5 with the primary goal of reducing the amount of min/maxing required to be effective.
Good for you!
Magic items are gone, with few exceptions (most notably artifacts and legacy weapons). This is to remove entirely the "christmas tree" character, who has to pay strict attention to piles of gold pieces and delve into huge magic item lists, a large amount of which don't offer meaningful changes outside of the stat block.
Sounds good...I am pondering something like this myself.
Instead, all magic items are intelligent (and often times at odds with your character) and/or meaningfully powerful, and thus do not cost gold peices (they are obtained through roleplay and slaughtering equally powerful beings).
Sounds good...personally, I'd reserve the right to use magic items that aren't intelligent or super-powerful, but are cool and flavorful.
The flavor text? The ability to permanently enhance an item with a portion of your soul is a material-consuming and fortitude-consuming process that isn't undertaken lightly.
I take it this is to replace the current magic item creation rules, yes?
You might consider checking out "Magic Item Creation: Forging Legendary Power" by Mongoose Publishing...an interesting take on the standard item creation rules.
Prestige classes are also gone. There were a great amount of "good" prestige classes with interesting options and concepts, and more often than not I find myself looking at two, three, or four going "ugh, now I practically need a cost-benefit analysis."
Instead of killing them off entirely, I'd simply (1) drastically limit the number of PrC's available, and perhaps (2) require a mentor/heroic task/etc before a character could advance into a PrC.
Numerous skills have been merged, with hide and move silently being the most famous example. A less famous example is the combination of Appraise, Craft, and Knowledge [architecture & engineering] (not as scary when Craft only comprises four major skills: woodcraft, stonecraft, forgeworks, and alchemy). Profession is also no longer a skill at all, but a special check made with any skill that could potentially earn you money in a civilized society (a knowledge check working at a library, craft with as a blacksmith, etc etc).
I think the benefits of simplicity will far outweigh the minor downsides. I've been merging Spot+Listen and Hide+Move Silently for a long time.Feats have been reworked into Combat Training and Heroic Transformations. It works a lot like feats, except it's much easier- there are several types of combat training, and by taking "ranks" (earned through class levels) you get better in various types of fighting styles (there will be different martial arts styles, two weapon fighting, etc.) I've also applied the weapon group feats from Unearthed Arcana, with greater ranks in weapon groups giving you weapon focus, specialization, etc. in those groups.
Heroic transformations, however, come once every 6 or 8 (have not decided yet) levels (no you don't get one at 1st) and give very unique and powerful benefits. Some examples include infusions of particular planar energies into one's body (fire, positive energy, and poison being some examples) grafting a construct or undead body for yourself (giving you the traits and extra benefits) gaining a soul-mate (not necessarily a lover, but a cohort with whom you get nifty morale abilities with) and legacy items that grow in power and reputation with you.
Hmm...what about the vast plethora of feats that are neither weapons-related nor transformational in nature? I don't think I like this...but I'd have to see the details to be sure.
Among those major changes are some more minor changes (hit points being less important to how easily you cling to life and charisma being more important- mind over body approach) physical ability scores being easier to upgrade (and more tied to your class) than mental ones, mental ability scores having new importance with the inclusion of unique attributes of heroes who are especially intelligent (analyze a battle more quickly), wise (fear? what's that? I'm running away because I know better than you), or charismatic (even the gods love you),
Without knowing the specifics, these sound good.
and your height and weight being more of a factor.
Wait...what? Height and weight, unless drastically different from the norm, should (IMO) be flavor-related only. Why should my nimble swashbuckler take a penalty against a hulking barbarian, assuming equal levels of skill?
If you let the players choose their PCs' height and weight, expect each character to, mysteriously, be the exact size that provides optimal benefits for their class. For example, expect all spellcasters and rogues to be wee tiny folk, and all fighters, paladins and bararians to be huge. Conversely, if you make it random, expect the players to complain that their characters are suffering from unfair penalties.
Also, is this going to totally mess up halflings, gnomes and dwarves? It seems that these races will all get either an unfair advantage or an unfair disadvantage (on top of the inabilty of halflings and gnomes to use large weapons).
In addition, I'll be sure to re-work the base races to fit with the rule changes and make race a meaningful choice in both roleplay and stat-block.
Sounds good. I'd like to see race remain significant through higher levels (aside from fluff/flavor).