1) It’s hard for me sometimes to properly figure out what a monster’s AC vs. firearms should be.

2) I’ve read some things that indicate that historically, it wasn’t guns but the crossbow that really lead to the downfall of heavy armor. Since there are no special AC rules for crossbows, there probably shouldn’t be for guns.

So I’m going to drop the special AC versus guns rule. Now you’ll get your regular AC versus firearms. That being said, I think firearms as written are still a little weak for my taste, so we’re going to try a different, much easier to remember optional rule.

When a character rolls damage for a firearm, any damage dice that come up as a 1 are added and then re-rolled. Say you are shooting a gun that does 2d6. You roll a 1 and a 5. You take those 6 points of damage, and roll the die that came up a 1 again, adding the new result. So if it comes up a 3, you do 9 point of damage. If it comes up a 1 again, you’ve got 7 points of damage and continue re-rolling the die.

Easier to keep track of, still pretty deadly.

Races: For the most part I don’t think these changes are all that necessary. I don’t know if they hurt backward compatibility, per se, so I guess it’s fine if they are the standard for OGL products in the future. I’ll admit that some tweaks need to be made to elves to give them some specific benefit as spellcasters, since they are supposed to be good at magic, but overall I think this changes are a bit much. This is certainly not a part of the Pathfinder revision I’d be trying in our IK game, anyway.

Favored Classes: This I like, and I think I’ll toss this into the game (retroactively, even). Instead of making the “benefit” of favored classes be that you avoid an XP penalty in an obscure multiclassing situation that never really comes up anyway, Pathfinder gives you +1 hp per level in your favored class. This is especially nice for humans, who get to choose their favored class at first level.

Classes: Alright, here I like a lot, but there’s also a lot that needs quite a bit of work before it’s ready for prime time. I most definitely like the modifications to the fighter. I would say that “unarmored” should also be an option for the armor class enhancing ability they now get, and since there is no armor check penalty associated with being unarmored, a character choosing it gets +1 to AC and +1 to the Acrobatics skill. Also, some of the weapon categories are a little wonky.

The rogue looks better, too, at least after only a few days to think about it. I’m not sure how I feel about d6 hp for the wizards, but I do think giving the rogues d8 hp is a good idea. I can’t decide how I feel about sneak attack applying to all creatures. There’s part of me that thinks, “Yeah, even undead must have a weak spot,” but then there’s part of me that thinks that it might be a bit much. I would say if this were to be implemented in the IK, the bodger’s demolish ability would have to be moved up to d10 for its damage die, and I had already amped up to d8 damage dice from the listed d6.

I like the changes to the 0 level spells for spellcasters. Instead of being a number cast per day, they become a number of different spells prepared per day, and all of the spells prepared can be cast at will an unlimited number of times. Of course, they then remove cure minor wounds from the cleric spell list, because that would be totally broken.

I like the idea of getting rid of domain spells for clerics, and instead having the domains give a series of special abilities as the cleric goes up in level. However, I think in this case the cleric picking two of his deity’s domains is simply a legacy rule, and it should be changed so each cleric represents one domain.

So, wizards. I am a big fan of the idea of bonded item/familiar choice, it leads to a little more variety in style of magic. Wizards, without doubt, need some sort of consistent magical ability, ideally an attack. I like the general idea of basing this on the schools of magic, thereby simplifying the rules of specialization and making the option more appealing in general. I always felt, from a role-playing perspective, that there should actually be more specialist wizards than universal wizards in a game world, but the rules didn’t do a good job of backing that up. That said, as it is this system needs a lot of work. The powers just feel like to much of a hodge-podge list of a ton of different things, all of which need to be remembered. And the “universalist” progression, which should be the weakest because of their freedom in spellcasting, is probably the strongest. That’s just plain wrong. But, like I said, the underlying idea is sound. I’ll be interested to see how it evolves.

As far as class revisions in the future Alpha Releases, I hope they keep to tweaking and fixing things rather than change for changes sake; that’s why I don’t like 4th ed in the first place. The ranger needs very little work, it might be the most solid class in the game. On the flip side, something needs to be done about the barbarian. That is a class and concept that absolutely belongs in DnD (and Pathfinder is DnD in spirit, if not in name), but as it stands the barbarian class pretty much sucks compared to, oh, say, every single other class in the game.

Skills: Meh. I like some of the skill combinations, but we had already done those. Some of their’s just don’t make sense to me. As far as the system of acquiring skills, I like our “keep skill points, get rid of cross-class skills” version better.

More thoughts to come later.

I mentioned in the previous post how much house rules talk and how many actual “house rules” supplements there would be in the d20 game design community as a result of 4th ed.’s more restrictive licensing and the fact that the 3.x license stands forever and ever, amen. One of the things a few major designers have mentioned, including some who helped create 3.x, is that characters should probably get more feats than they do. The general consensus seems to be feats as they are at 1st level, then another at 3rd, as the system stands now, but from there a feat every other level as opposed to the current every third level rule. Thoughts?

Matt was the only person to actually respond to the Death & Dying post, so if anyone else has any input, please comment. As it stands, I like some of what the rule does, but not all of it, and Matt really touched on some of what bothers me about it. So unless there is an outcry or other reaction, I am going to implement the system, as follows:

1) At 0 hp or less, you fall unconscious and are dying.
The disabled state only applies to characters that have the “Diehard” feat, which appears in a modified version later in this post.

2) Characters die when their negative hit point total reaches -10 or one-quarter of their full normal hit points, whichever is a larger value.

3) If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll a d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. You lose 1d6 hit points. If this would take you past your point of death (see #2), then your character is dead. If you roll this result (lower than 10) three times before you are healed or stabilized, you die, regardless of your hp. As per the Three Strikes rule, the first two times a character would be dead they are instead gravely injured. Adjust your hp total to one point above your point of death and consider your character stable but in need of extreme assistance.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to your character level. This gives a character just enough hit points, on average, to avoid death from another attack (although it will most likely knock them unconscious again).

4) If a character with negative hit points receives healing, he automatically stabilizes.
Beyond that though, it works like any other healing. You can still be unconscious and at a negative hp total after receiving healing.

5) A dying character who’s been stabilized (via the Heal skill)
doesn’t roll a d20 at the end of his turn unless he takes more damage.

And here is the modified feat:

Diehard

Prerequisite: Endurance.

Benefit

When reduced to between 0 hit points and your point of death (see above), you automatically become stable. You don’t have to roll a d20 to see if your condition changes each round.

When reduced to negative hit points, you may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn’t your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious.

When using this feat, you can take either a single move or standard action each turn, but not both, and you cannot take a full round action. You can take a move action without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other action deemed as strenuous, including some free actions, swift actions, or immediate actions, such as casting a quickened spell) you take 1d6 points of damage after completing the act.

Also, the restart game is going to be on the later week, Sunday the 24th.

Edit: I forgot you have to sign up to view that — it’s free, but to save time here’s the text:

Try It Now!

If you want to try out a version of this system in your current game, try the following house rule. It’s not quite the 4th Edition system, but it should give you an idea of how it’ll feel.

1) At 0 hp or less, you fall unconscious and are dying.
Any damage dealt to a dying character is applied normally, and might kill him if it reduces his hit points far enough (see #2).

2) Characters die when their negative hit point total reaches -10 or one-quarter of their full normal hit points, whichever is a larger value.
This is less than a 4th Edition character would have, but each monster attack is dealing a smaller fraction of the character’s total hit points, so it should be reasonable. If it feels too small, increase it to one-third full normal hit points and try again.

3) If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll 1d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. If you get this result three times before you are healed or stabilized (as per the Heal skill), you die.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to one-quarter your full normal hit points.

4) If a character with negative hit points receives healing, he returns to 0 hp before any healing is applied.
In other words, he’ll wake up again with hit points equal to the healing provided by the effect—a cure light wounds spell for 7 hp will bring any dying character back to 7 hp, no matter what his negative hit point total had reached.

5) A dying character who’s been stabilized (via the Heal skill) doesn’t roll a d20 at the end of his turn unless he takes more damage.

Skill Focus: This feat gives a +3 bonus to a skill, and can be purchased for 4 skill points. This feat can be purchased for any skill not listed under specific skill feats below.

Specific Skill Feats: These skills may not have skill focus applied, but the listed feat may be purchased for 6 skill points.

• Acrobatics –> Agile (+2 bonus)
• Athletics –> Athletic (+2 bonus)
• Perception –> Alertness (+2 bonus)
• Stealth –> Stealthy (+2 bonus)

While they can not be purchased with skill points, any feat a PC takes that provide a +2 bonus to skill not listed and to one of the skills combined into the above list now provides +2 to the unmodified skill and +1 to the modified skill.

* Skill can be used untrained (i.e., with 0 ranks)
# Armor penalty applies to skill (double penalty when swimming)

Acrobatics*#
Appraise*
Athletics*#
Bluff*
Concentration*
Craft (see list below)
Creature Lore
Decipher Script
Diplomacy*
Disable Device
Disguise*
Forgery*
Gather Information*
Handle Animal
Heal*
Intimidate*
‘Jack Handling
Knowledge (see list below)
Open Lock
Perception*
Perform (specific to type)
Profession (see list below)
Ride*
Sleight of Hand#
Spellcraft
Stealth*#
Survival*
Use Magic Device

Craft: Alchemy, Armorsmithing, Basket Weaving, Blacksmith, Bone Grinding, Bookbinding, Bowmaking, Calligraphy, Carpentry, Cannoneer, Clockwork, Cobbling, Demolitions, Gem Cutting, Glass Work, Gunsmithing, Leather Working, Mechanika, Metalworking, Ship Wrighting, Small Arms, Steam Works, Stone Masonry, Tools, Wagon Making, Weaponsmithing

Knowledge: Arcana, Architecture, Astronomy, Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law, Literature, Local, Mechanika, Nature, Nobility, Philosophy, Physics, Religion, Tactics, Urcaen

Profession: Archaeologist, Banker, Bartender, Clerk, Cook, Driver, Farmer, Fisherman, Herder, Innkeeper, Lumberjack, Miller, Miner, Printer, Porter, Rancher, Sailor, Stablehand, Tanner, Teamster, Tailor, Woodcutter

• Perception also incorporates the “Sense Motive” skill.
• Acrobatics also incorporates the “Escape Artist” skill.
• New combo skill, “Athletics,” incorporates Climb, Jump, and Swim.

There have been some decent ideas, there are a lot of things I strongly dislike (the utter elimination of penalties for arcane spellcasters in armor, the attempt to incorporate some sort of aggro system for monsters, and the terrible new critical hit system), but until this week I had yet to come across an idea that really jumped out as a clear, serious improvement.

Perception, in my opinion, is that “out of the park” rules improvement, although it stewed around in my mind for a day or two before I felt that way. Suffice to say, we will be using Perception when we start playing again.

So what is Perception? Basically, it is the official name for the combination of Spot and Listen that I had introduced as “Notice” last time we played. But it does not just incorporate Spot and Listen, it incorporated Search as well. So far nothing too special. Where the real improvement comes in is that the PC does not roll Perception like a normal skill. Instead, it works like AC for a character’s senses. A PC’s Perception is equal to 10+skill ranks+WIS bonus+other modifiers (feats, racial abilities, etc.). So when gobber tries to sneak up on a fighter, the gobber rolls his Stealth check, and if it beats the fighter’s Perception the gobber isn’t noticed.

Where I think this change becomes truly great is in the case of hidden treasures, secret doors, and traps. Under the old system, a rogue could be built to be the master of traps, with maxed-out skills and every possible feat to improve his trap-related abilities, but if the player didn’t tell the DM he was searching the proper part of the map, it was all for naught. Under the Perception system, the trap has its own Stealth bonus, and the DM rolls the trap’s Stealth check versus that rogue’s Perception to see if he notices it before walking into it. Same thing with secret doors, treasures, or what have you.

Essentially, this rule shift reflects a logical role-play assumption: adventurers are on guard and paying attention pretty much all the time. It’s what they do. Of course, rogues would receive a bonus to their Perception versus traps, dwarves would get +2 to their Perception versus stonework traps, elves a +2 to their Perception versus secret doors, etc.