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View Full Version : My major 3.5 rework (WIP)



zlefin
2011-12-19, 09:14 PM
I've been developing a 3.5 rework for balance. I don't expect to succeed, but the journey should be fun.

Goals: balance, between the classes. Will try to get everything to tier 3; though casters will probably still be tier 2.

Philosophy: having martial classes go beyond what a human can do in our world. e.g. one piece, naruto; this seems necessary given what high level casters can do.

Baseline: this will work off the 3.5 srd WITHOUT SPLATBOOKS. as alot of splatbook material was made to compensate for issues with the underlying system.

Prime problem: linear warriors quadratic wizards.
I note that technically, based on the cr formulae; growth on a per level basis is supposed to be exponential; with power ~ 1.414 ^ level; though how to assess actual growth rates of a class mathematically is difficult.

Core Solution: give classes a variety of bonuses that will be based off of BAB.

For instance, this system might be used: all classes receive the following bonuses for their BAB: damage bonus on attacks = BAB; init bonus = half BAB; dodge bonus = half BAB; move speed bonus = 2*BAB; DR/- = BAB/5;
monks and rogues have their init and dodge bonuses = BAB instead of half BAB;
Cleric and Druid BAB would go down to 10 @ lvl 20.
This is just one possibility;

Reasoning: to solve linear warriors they need better scaling; there's already quite a few different numbers to keep track of in the game; i didnt' want to add new progressions for each class's bonuses; that just makes it confusing for people trying to adopt this system. It's much easier to just tie abilities to BAB, and use a few tweaks; like the monk and rogue having better init/dodge per BAB because of the nature of their classes.
Also some classes BAB progressions might need to be changed since its' now a much more powerful stat; like not letting clerics get 9th level spells and +15bab @ 20.
Finally, one would simply expect a high level fighter/combat class to be better at dodging, and initiative and such; regardless of any specific feats/emphasis.

Other changes: thematically, i'm moving clerics from the 3.5 archetype, to something more like cloistered cleric/ white mage/ the priest lines from dragon warrior.
This is for straight up balance, you don't get max spellcasting and strong fighting. You get weak fighter/strong caster, an even mix, and you get mostly fighter with a bit of casting (which would be paladin).

This is where I am so far; the next steps are quite daunting; as the BAB changes alone radically change the balance of everything; though it should at least bring the classes a little closer; and cause fighting types to scale alot better into high levels.
So, let me know your thoughts, especially about what bonuses/BAB are best.

bobthe6th
2011-12-19, 09:36 PM
you know, I have a sugestion for this. toss Druids as they are, and create two new classes. the Leader and the summoner.

these each function as minion masters.

the Leader is leadership personified, getting a group of NPCs to run around with and some buff auras. thes NPCs will mostly be combat focused, each geting good BAB, all bad saves, and a d8 HD. they level slowly, and get a feat every 6 levels. the leader gets poor BAB, strong will bad all other saves.

The summoner is a master of magical mooks. he choses an archetype, at level one from a list like animal, construct, celestial, infernal, and elimental(one of the four). he gets a way summon/create/find them. the creatures will each be a generic creature with addaptions for the archetype. then at higher levels, the summoner gets another archetype based on the one he chose, and then another. make a three tiered crismas tree, and any summoner just needs to follow the right path.

Yitzi
2011-12-19, 10:12 PM
One idea that I came up with for a major rework (not my current one linked in my sig, although the new feats there might have some ideas you want to use) is to replace combat feats entirely with combat styles.

A combat style is sort of in between a scaling feat, a feat chain, and a ToB stance. Each style has a list of bonuses, dependent on BAB (which could range from numerical bonuses to feats like Power Attack to things like Sneak Attack), and would be based on a particular role or style. Fighters would get one style every few levels (and a special bonus when using the first style they took), paladins (and barbarians and maybe rangers, although in what I planned barbarians would be a type of fighter and rangers would be more rogue-like) would get one style period, and medium-BAB classes would get one style from a restricted list (e.g. a rogue could get either dirty fighting style or sniper style.) Using a given style, or a particular ability from a style, could also require a particular class of weapon or armor.

You could only use one style at a time; you could switch styles as a move action, or stop or start using a style as a free action at the beginning of your turn (so you could switch styles without using any actions, but would need to go one round with no style.) If you knew the style someone else was using, it would be possible to counter it in order to reduce or eliminate the other person's ability to use the style. (Some styles would be uncounterable.)

Feats would then be far harder to get (the idea in my rework was that feats and ability scores would be bought from the same pool, which would be added to as you gained levels), and reserved for miscellaneous abilities such as mobility and maybe noncombat abilities like item crafting (metamagic probably should be made either automatically available, available through a Spellcraft check, or unavailable.)

Not sure if that would fit what you're looking for, but it might.