Author Topic: What nice things should melees get? (3.5/3.P)  (Read 6086 times)

Offline Chemus

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Re: What nice things should melees get? (3.5/3.P)
« Reply #20 on: October 24, 2012, 01:46:43 PM »
Let Weapon Focus and the rest of that line speed up the rate at which iteratives are gained, so that Weapon Focus makes it 1 in 4 (rather than 1 in 5), Greater Weapon Focus makes it 1 in 3, and Weapon Mastery makes it 1 in 2.  This boosts an otherwise crappy feat-chain (and possibly provides additional benefits to TWF-fanboys) that's nearly fighter-specific, and hearkens back to earlier editions, where only the fighters could get multiple attacks.

Yeah, the additional attacks would be nice on one hand, but I shudder to think how many dice a TWF dervish-type character's player would be rolling every round...though some have a fetish for that. Honestly, since attacks equal damage, increase attack and damage bonuses from Weapon Focus and Specialization feats. Also, make them two or three feats, not one for each individual weapon. Close combat focus; light and one-handed weapons in melee, heavy weapon focus; 2-h weapons in melee, Ranged combat focus; what it says on the tin. Then just increase the bonus for Focus to +1 to hit, plus an additional 1 per 4 BAB. Specialization could go the same way; +1 to damage, plus an additional 1 /4 BAB. It would increase power attacks a lot...more RLT.


The thing is, those are the same sorts of items everybody uses, not just melee characters. I don't think changing their prices would have any serious affect on the power disparity. If everybody can get teleport for cheap, all that would mean is that spellcasters buy the item and use their precious spell slots and spells known on something else, and they'd be ahead of melee characters by exactly as much as before.

I think what really needs to be examined is the very concept of a "mundane character". The truth is, high-level D&D characters are far from mundane, spellcaster or no. Yes, some people have difficulty swallowing that, but it is just a fact of the tier. You can jump over a building, swim through lava, bench-press a cathedral, kill a dragon with your bare hands (unbelievable, isn't it?) all without casting a single spell. Its just that by the time you can do that, the spellcasters can do it too but in less time with less risk, and they can do a whole lot of other things besides. Yes, many people don't like the superhero theme, but the answer to that is to not play high-level D&D, as calling yourself a "mundane hero" at that point is wilful ignorance.

What I'm saying is, at some point in the progression you should just start giving everyone magic because that's what they are. You don't need them to depend on items, as everybody gets items.

I see your point on the items, FlaminCows, and I tend to agree. However casters will want the fighters to have the increased mobility/other items to reduce the non-casters dependency on spells. You're right that it would reduce the casters' dependency on those same spells. And if casters can outmaneuver the enemies, then the non-casters are unnecessary. This harkens back to 'every man an island' thing; CO tends to show up with individual characters and what they can and can't do. That is not the whole D&D game for many folks, but it is much easier to build one character rather than 3-6. For me anyway ;)

I'm quite interested in trying E6 or E6 PrC+ (the latter has a lot more flexibility...) as this seems like it could be a fun game. Stopping some parts of character's numerical growth is reasonable, and magic does not seem to drown out everything else so badly. Fixing some of the 'growth' feats would be needed (Draconic, Psionic, Fiendish, Feytouched etc.) that stack bonuses by number of feats...or fix other feats to do the same thing.

Apathy is ...ah screw it.
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