Various questions and sorry for the organization of it.
Backstrory: I have had a long absence from D&D/D20 for a long time. I recently started painting minis and found I enjoy it. I've also succeeded at getting my friends gaming again with HeroQuest. We've been enjoying it but myself and my old D&D gaming friend agree it has too many limitations. If you've played it you probably know what I'm referring to. Having gone over it we decided to get back into the groove of D20 with v3.5. My biggest issue was the several game breakingly bad designs and gamers whose every intention was to exploit them. An example problem was (Improved Crit + Keen = Crit every hit). Same with Dex focused dual wielding flanking rogue for handfuls of D6 meatgrinding fest. I know ways of getting around that with non-crit monsters like undead, oozes, constructs. But when the dual wielding rogue or monk pulls out disrupting saps the Disruption http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/weapons.html#weapons-disrupti on enchantment has an assuredly high change of succeeding on a low DC roll and even the toughest undead is now gone. Granted much of this was during teenage gaming years and power gaming was the front runner before any roleplaying but I know it'll come up again. I don't want it to become an arms race between GM and players since new players will be involved. I start with D&D3.5 and pull in much of what I've liked from the reading I've done about Pathfinder - What D&D 3.x should have been IMO.
TOO LONG DIDN'T want/care to Read:
1) What do you use to speed up gameplay and keep it simple while gaming? I'm thinking about using 3x5 Index cards and printing spell info onto them for easing spellcasting and more specifically for status effects.
~~~ 1.1) Anyone have good examples of using status effects?
2) Has anyone shifted from D20 to 2D10's or even 3D6's for combat rolls to standardize out the randomness more? If so how have you liked it and any suggestions for it. I've read quite a bit on pros/cons
3) Suggestions on helping new gamers get into game without inundating them? I plan on easing them in with simple combat and gradually adding more rules as they progress.
4) Any other helpful suggestions are wanted to help me be a better GM.
I've more questions but will wait for input. Thanks!
