D&D Rules Update
This is an exploratory discussion of a major, thorough revision of the D&D ruleset, to be used in future games.
Please see NARR for a work in progress.
Core Goals
These are the goals of the new system. Any rule changes should serve the purpose of these goals.
Challenge
- To establish a system by which DMs can create encounters which meet the following criteria:
- The hazards faced by the players should be appropriate, meaning difficult, but not impossible to overcome.
- Encounters meant to be of a certain challenge level should, in fact, be of that challenge level. The DM should be able to create an encounter meant to be a major challenge, and that challenge should reliably be major.
Balance
- To establish a system by which players can create their characters, sure in the knowledge that:
- Their character has a unique role, in which they will be effective, regardless of personal or "flavor" choices
- Their character will be neither too powerful nor not powerful enough compared to other players, and to the challenges
- Their character will consistently provide growth opportunities and a rewarding experience
Clarity
- To establish a rule set which is understandable and usable by players and DMs of all kinds, for example:
- Referencing a rule should be swift and decisive, as it is in the d20 SRD web site, and as it is not in the D&D expanded rules
- No rule should have multiple concurrent versions, such as a spell existing in 2 or more current-version books
- The core mechanics of the game should not be altered or expanded upon, as in the case of new "types" of feats or "new ways" of using spells
Enjoyment
- To limit the deleterious effect rules can have on gameplay, such as:
- Rules which seem only to limit enjoyment, rather than to serve another purpose
- Rules which add needless complication, reducing enjoyable play time
- Rules which complicate processes such as character and monster creation, taking time away from more productive tasks
- Rules which are either unclear or illogical, which lead to disruptive debate and feelings of resentment
A note about these goals
These goals are in many ways similar to the goals of 4e and 5e, but there is one important difference: challenge is now a primary goal. If one only removes unpleasant rules and adds pleasant ones, the game surely becomes more pleasant, but less rewarding in the long term, because the challenge is diminished. Addressing challenge itself as a primary goal should ameliorate this tendency.
Strategy
This discusses the proposed approach to meeting these goals.
Balance
Character classes should have the following traits:
- Role Based
- Every class should have a role which is unique and useful. Though there are truly only few roles in the absolute sense (tank, healer, damage-dealer, etc), it is possible to craft a variety of interesting classes, all of which have a well-defined role. Furthermore, a character's optional choices (feats, weapon selection, etc) should have a minor, rather than major effect on their role.
- Consistently Rewarding
- Every class should be fun to play at every level. A class' power and utility should not be concentrated at either end of the level spectrum, it should distributed the same way for all classes.
:Example: the sorcerer is quite trying to play at very low levels. Being able to cast only 1, 2, or 3 spells, even if it is many times per day, is just plain boring, not to mention you feel weak inflicting 1d6 fire damage in a 15-ft cone while the half-orc barbarian with a greataxe is doing 20-30 damage. Conversely, at mid-to-high levels, they become extremely powerful. However, at the highest levels, wizards once again catch up, neutralizing the sorcerer's spells/day advantage with the copious use of magic items.
Challenge
The system should support multiple challenge types, independent of level. All encounters should be of appropriate level. Adding levels to add challenge brings with it many problems; the classic example is a wizard many levels higher than the party having too few hit points, but far too powerful offensive spells.
====Level Ranges====
In this system, all fights should be within certain level ranges, and additional variability of challenge would be accomplished in another manner.
Proposed level range guidelines: (where PL = party's level)
- PL -5 or less
- A "gray" challenge. The encounter is inappropriately easy, and presents no opportunity to gain experience and minimal opportunity for treasure.
- PL -4 or -3
- A "green" challenge. The encounter is easy, and offers substantially reduced XP and treasure.
- PL -2 to +2
- A "yellow" challenge. The dangers faced are valid, but appropriate. Most encounters should take place in this level range. Normal XP and treasure.
- PL +3 or +4
- An "orange" challenge. The encounter is too difficult, and the party risks encountering inappropriate dangers. Slightly increased XP and treasure; there should be little to no incentive to pursue such encounters for the reward alone.
- PL +5 to +8
- A "red" challenge. While it is possible in some cases to prevail, this is an inappropriately difficult encounter, and should be used very sparingly, usually as an encounter in which the PC's have some other major advantage which mitigates the difficulty. Very slightly increased XP and treasure over "orange" encounters.
- PL +9 or greater
- A "skull" challenge. This is completely inappropriate, and is valid only in the dramatic sense, as in a fight the PC's are "supposed to lose" for plot reasons. That tactic itself should be used quite sparingly. No additional XP or treasure beyond the previous range.
These are only guidelines, of course. The actual numbers change somewhat throughout the level spectrum; at low level, the bands are narrower, and at high level, they may be wider.
====Challenge Types====
Independent of a the level of monster, there are other modifiers that can be applied to increase or decrease challenge. A monster can have one of the following challenge types:
- Normal
- An unmodified monster. This is the standard and most commonly encountered monster, and the baseline for which XP and treasure are calculated.
- Swarm
- A monster with unusually low hit points for its type. This is meant for an encounter requiring a large quantity of monsters, with level-appropriate abilities, who are nonetheless easily dispatched. Greatly reduced XP and treasure per unit.
- Elite
- A monster with unusually high hit points, and improved defense overall. The increased defense and hit points are meant to give the monster the ability to fight an entire party. A "yellow" monster of elite status should require the attention of an entire party, making an encounter with multiple elite monsters truly difficult. Increased XP and treasure.
- Boss
- A monster beyond even elite status, meant to truly test a party's abilities. A boss monster should be able to stand up to many rounds of the party's best offense, while continuing to output high, yet level-appropriate offense. Greatly increased XP and treasure.
- Epic
- A monster of epic proportions. Such creatures live up to their legendary reputations. This type should not be used frequently at non-epic levels, since only at epic levels do PC's have the kind of abilities they need to face such an encounter. An example of a non-epic-level yet "epic" encounter might be a legendary king, who possesses leadership abilities and equipment otherwise completely inappropriate for his level, with which he could easily overpower a party of his level. Artifacts are the only way other than epic levels for PC's to meet this challenge.
====Rewards====
The XP and treasure system should be calibrated as follows, to produce a gradual increase in challenge as the players progress in level, without requiring the use of level-inappropriate challenges.
- At all levels, the vast majority of encounters should be "yellow", or within 2 levels of the party's average.
- However, to keep up a linear rate of XP and treasure gain, the party's target challenge type changes, such that:
- At low level, the party needs only kill "normal" monsters to gain at a linear rate.
- At mid level, the party needs to kill mainly "elite" monsters to gain at a linear rate.
- At high level, the party needs to kill mainly "boss" monsters to gain at a linear rate.
- At epic level, the party needs to kill mainly "epic" monsters to gain at a linear rate.
"Gain at a linear rate" is defined as such:
- For XP, it simply means gaining the same number of levels per session of active adventuring.
- For treasure, it means that gaining the kind of items a party would want at a given level requires fighting increasingly higher challenge types. At high level, "normal" monsters almost never drop magic items that the party members would want to use; only the "boss" monsters do.
Clarity
- The system should exist in its entirety in a single place, preferably a web-based system with the following features:
- Database features such as searching and filtering
- Online maintainability, as in MediaWiki
- Export to high-quality PDF for printing
Enjoyment
- Every rule both extant and newly created will be thoroughly examined for appropriateness. A rule should not exist if it does not, in some way, further the cause of game enjoyment.