Michael Waters's page

David Marks wrote:

One idea you could try out in 3E is having Wizard's have a usability range.

Like, you get X number of At-Will spells of spell level Y or lower. You get Z number of Encounter spells of spell level T or lower. And you get W number of Daily spells of spell level G or lower. So as a Wizard levels up, spells that were once Daily, or even Encounter, can become At-Will, and new tiers open up for Encounter/Daily.

The Tome of Magic Shadow Mages did this. Basically, your lower levels spells eventually become 3x per day then at an even higher caster level eventually became At-Will. Mid-level spells become 3x per day. You highest level spells are always by 'slot'. They also coupled this with spell lists so it was not totally crazy. I thought this was what 4e would be.

In my campaign I introduced a feat called "Spontaneous Substitution" that allows you to swap a prepared spell of a level at least one less than the highest that you can cast for a single pre-determined spell of the same or lower level. Then I gave Wizards this feat as a bonus feat every even numbered level. So at 4th level, a Wizard could choose to cast Magic Missile for any 1st level spell slot at will. Other spellcasters can take the feat as well, if they choose. My players love it.

But I can see the allure of making some spells "at-will" at higher levels. In fact, I originally thought that it would that way in 4E - as a character's level increased, daily spells became encounter spells and encounter spells became at-will spells.

I think that the idea of "at-will" spells evolved out of a desire to reduce the reliance of characters on staves, wands and scrolls, which are a pain to keep track of and don't really evoke the high fantasy of Tolkien, Howard or Leiber. In general, the reliance in 3/3.5 on a character's GEAR has always been a bit of a turn-off. Making wands, etc., into "implements" was a good step in the right direction - but didn't go far enough. Runestaffs, from the Magic Item Compendium, were more my idea of the way to go. Rather than giving you more power, it gives you options, and options make for fun encounters.

BTW, along the same lines, I like the idea of feats that allow you to re-roll an attack, skill check, etc. once per encounter/day. As Monte Cook said, they don't make you more powerful - they make you more successful.

Static saves (defenses) are also an easy retrofit into 3/3.5 that would speed combat dramatically.

Getting rid of iterative attacks would be a GREAT move. If possible, dropping attack and save progression entirely and going with 4E's 1/2 level + class bonus + Abililty Mod + ... approach would also make play at ALL levels a lot more fun, since the probability of success for the various actions for different classes wouldn't diverge so drastically. Epic Level handbook realized that when it froze the progression of BAB and Save bonuses at 20th level.

Finally, making monster creation and the EL/CR/XP system easier in the same vein as 4E would be a big help to DM's, as the current 3/3.5 system is positively byzantine.

Michael Waters wrote:

Regarding high level play - I hate to say this, but alot of changes made in 4E are quite well suited to fixing the complevity of play outside of the sweet spot, and Paizo could do worse than adopt a few.

I think there are a few aspects worth exploring - though I wouldn't suggest too much mining - otherwise whats the point of playing this edition - we could just play 4th. But I agree there's no point in being too close-minded and there are some aspects that are universally adaptable.

Another concept you didnt mention is a minions-like template (i've desingned one - compatible with 3.5 that works well), and could help make high level encounters easier to navigate - with the inclusion of easily discarded meat-shield fodder.

Robert

Well, one reason is that I'm sure no one WANTS to shell out for a new book every 2 months at $35 that simply regurgitates something from 3.5 using the 4E mechanics. Not if they can get the best of 3E AND 4E with Pathfinder. I look at 4E as a toolkit for modifying my campaign's house rules, which in turn will probably be based off of Pathfinder.

I agree, Minions are a great addition. But I figured that most DMs had already figured out that adding tons of dangerous cannon fodder really livens an otherwise dull encounter. Say your party has 6 PCs and is fighting a single bad guy 4 or more levels higher thatn the party's level. Given the asymetry of the numbers, and unless the bad guy has an encounter ending ability (Cloud Kill on 1st level charaters, Gating in a Balor, etc.), it's really easy for the party to gang up. But adding other threats, even easily defeatable ones, gives the main bad guy a few unmolested rounds to do his worst before the PCs waste him.

Regarding high level play - I hate to say this, but alot of changes made in 4E are quite well suited to fixing the complevity of play outside of the sweet spot, and Paizo could do worse than adopt a few.

For instance,

Describing "powers" as at-will, encounter, and daily allows for an effective mechanical accouting of power as level increases, especially as weaker powers are swapped out for either more powerful powers or more frequent uses of the power.

Ritual magic is a big step forward, making some of the more powerful spells (like scry) less of a sure thing and not as convenient for the caster.

The use of static FORT, REF, and WILL defenses is nice, since it involved less die-rolling on everyone's part and puts the illusion of power back in the hands of the guy who's DOING something, rather than the guy that is getting something done to him. (I hate 4E's new saving throw mechanism though).

The use of class specific bonuses for attack and defense (like PanthfinderRPG is using for skills in Alpha 3) in addition to (half) character level, and the dropping of the full attack option. These changes scale better with level, and if these bonuses are non-stackable, it opens the door for more balanced multiclassing. I would go so far as a "power bonus" for spell casters (perhaps delimitied by arcane, divine, and psionic) to help them with muti-classing, too.

Weapon groups and the new way that critical hits and the weapon rules in general work also reduce die-rolling and speed up play.

The Healing Surge mechanic is also a good idea, but I prefer the flavor of the Grace and Health rules in Monte Cook's Book of Experimental Might (which I think is covered by the OGL, but don't quote me). Either way, it helps keep the game going when damage is being dished out in larger and larger amounts.

Racial feats/powers (especially bonus feats that are automatic with level increase) are also a way to differentiat races so that there are some real differences in PCs as levels increase.

Fourth Edition isn't garbage. It may or may not be D&D as we know (or prefer) it to be, but there are some good ideas in there. Paizo should mine as much it as is legal for the Pathfinder RPG.

The problem with skills as I see it in 3E/3.5 is that as a DM, it is a major inconvenience to create NPC's accurately while accounting for cross-class skills and, most importantly, increases in Intelligence after 1st level.

I've seen the non-skill point variants proposed in SW:Saga edition and as suggested in the previews of 4E, and I'm not thrilled with the effect it has on (in)ability to customize a character build.

To that end, I would propose the follwoing with regard to (wrt) skills.

Retain skill points based on class + INT bonus per level.

Increases to INT bonus are RETROACTIVE wrt skill points, just like increases to CON bonus are retroactive wrt hit points.

Maximum skill points in a class skill are equal to your level.

Maximum skill points in a cross-class skill are equal half your level (round up).

It costs 1 skill point to buy 1 rank of a skill, whether it's a class skill or a cross-class skill.

When multi-classed, all class skills of one class are condsiered class skills of ALL classes when determining skill maximums.

Each class get's a class feature that gives a class bonus to skills on that class's skill list, and that bonus increases with class level (+1 per three or four levels or so). These bonuses don't stack, so a multiclass rogue/monk doesn't get the class bonus to Tumble twice - only the highest class bonus applies.

Adjust fixed DCs for Balance, Tumble, etc., as nescesary.

I'm a bit agnostic regarding the consolidation of skills. Certainly the Stealth and Perception consolidations make sense, but there is a difference between telling a lie and believing one (Bluff and Sense Motive) that I'd like to keep. What I DON'T want to see is that every 10th level rogue with a DEX of +3 is ALWAYS exactly as good at a chosen skill (like stealth) as any other 10th level rogue with a DEX of +3 and the same chosen skill. Sure, with skill points, the same thing can happen. But it doesn't HAVE TO BE.

As far as racial skills are concerned, I like the idea of certain races considering certain skills as always being class skills, or of providing racial class bonuses in addition. The more differentiation between races, the better, and skills are a great way to do it.

And as far as favored classes go, a +1 skill point per favored class level is more enticing to me than a +1 HP per favor3ed class level, but your mileage may vary.