The most intregueing darned mechanics you ever did see

[drack]

OK, so I was wondering....
We have all seen some crazy homebrew that you just stop and say either "THAT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!", or if you're like me "Wow... that is... really interesting, how on earth did they ever come up with that?" Unique interesting systems. Mostly it's magic that gets the cool interesting systems, but you have some that apply elsewhere great!

So I suppose to put this in a coherent question... "What is the most interesting system you've seen in homebrew or in the books for any given set of mechanics that doesn't loose all semblance of balance as a result? :smallbiggrin:

[HunterOfJello]

I thought that both Runestaves and Eternal Wands were very clever. The only sad part about Runestaves is the fact that they're worthless to the fixed spell list spontaneous spellcasting classes like the Beguiler and Dread Necromancer.

I also liked the method of giving classes abilities that are used on a per encounter basis like the Factotum and ToB classes received. Not that the classes obtained abilities that were usable once per encounter, but that they're abilities were restored to full each new encounter they go into.

The Archivist class itself is pretty damn cool too. I love the spell list system, hate the double casting stat setup, and love the class feature list.

[Roguenewb]

My favorite mechanic in the game, is Psionics. It's an awesome system, very flexible, and before CPsi gave them a bunch of wierd spells, the flavor of the powers was different than spells, and it gave it a nice clear feel to it.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Psionics and Incarnum FTW.

[drack]

I' agree, psionic is defiantly cool, and incarnum has some interesting ideas. lets see, spell points were cool if you ditch the easy recovery variants. I also thought warlocks were interesting even though I've never really cared that much for them. :smallbiggrin:

Also feel free to drop in cool homebrew too, after all it does have a few more than the books. Oozdrin, and generalist type classes like evolutionist for example have interesting approaches for builds, and there are some fun spellcasting ones too like for instance the countless blood mage classes lying around. :smallbiggrin:

[Thiyr]

I thought that both Runestaves and Eternal Wands were very clever. The only sad part about Runestaves is the fact that they're worthless to the fixed spell list spontaneous spellcasting classes like the Beguiler Warmage and Dread Necromancer.

The runestaff is actually pretty much perfect for the beguiler, purely because of UMD. Emulate class feature of having wizard casting (and by association having it on your spell list), then use your normal slots to activate.

And anything involving making grafting easier is cool in my book :D