Ok, so I decided not to buy 4th Ed. That doesn't mean I have sworn it off competely, if for some reason my game group really wants to play it I will, but I'm certainly sticking with 3.5 for the vast majority of my gaming Most likely 4th will be at best like my intermissions into Shadowrun and goofball games like KAMB! and others, which means I will be running it at the gameshop and not at my home.
I have a problem though, some of the stuff from 4th I really like. It's a small group of things but I think they sound solid:
1) Bloodied. This seems like a cool mechanic to me. I would love to work this into my campain.
2) Saving throw vs melee stuff for melee classes. I always felt like the melee classes really got screwed by not being able to mix it up like the spellcasters. I am currently comming up with my own little system to fix this, changing the combat abilities (trip, bull rush, maybe even cleave grapple, etc) into attack that effect saving throws instead of attacks vs AC. The biggest problem I have encountered with this is what mod I should use for what, and also what bonus I should give to the size modifiers. (I'm still going to use skillchecks somehow to assist or avoid...ie, escape artist will still avoid grapple, bluff can still be used to set up feign).
3)Leveling bonuses for race. This doesn't facinate me as much but it is something I kind of find an interesting option(and don't really like the level'd monster-class ideas as much).
These mechanics in themselves do not overshadow the vast dislike I have for the change in core classes, the change in core races(GNOMES DAMMIT), the pitiful Pit Fiend example that I suspect the majority of monsters will follow, the save mechanic(biggest loser in my book...EPIC FAIL..EPIC), the partitioning into 4 roles for everything, and the new spell list for the wizard and cleric.
If 4th included the new (and slightly more powerful & interesting) mechanics for the melee's, the minor action mechanics, leveling race stuff, the bloodied mechanic, toned down the spellcasters a small bit (without neutering them, making them considerably more boring, and stuffing them in a niche roll), and left the rest be I would be all on board and singing the praises of the system. Hell, I would even accept the new casting system, which I'm not thrilled with but I don't hate just because it's different.
Sadly that's not the case.
Now here is my question...how could I houserule these things into my game? I am currently working on the first and second on my own but I'm having difficulty. This may be put in the wrong forum and if so I apologize, but since it relates to things directly in 4th I thought it suiting.
anybody?
I don't forsee any problem in adapting any or all of these ideas into a third edition game. The basic architecture of the game is unlikely to change much and (much like you could with 2nd edition) you can feel pretty free to take parts of 4e and pretty much use them as written.
I like your idea about "feat" attacks working off of saves. That's a kindova' cool idea. As far as the racial level advancement, a good idea for that I heard batted around on the boards here was to basically combine the character's race and class into a gestalt class (as per Arcana Unearthed--and available for free on the SRD). That way the flavor of an elven paladin versus a dwarven paladin have a really nice mechanical backbone. It seems like a nice way to keep the idea of race affecting character advancement without the dippy 1st edition idea of "leveling up" in the elf class--which has always been a bit jarring.