I'm being asked to run a 4th Edition game--House Rules?

[Archmage]

All of the new races in PHB3 have one fixed stat boost and one flexible stat boost--it's Stat A +2 and Stat B OR Stat C +2, your choice.

I'm not sure that's going far enough, but it's a step in the right direction as far as race/class straitjackets go.

[Orion]

I noticed that, archmage. I was going to re-write the PHB races to the PHB3 standard but decided, fuck it, I'll just give all three.

1/5th the playspace is a much more reasonable place to be than 1/15th

[Username17]

All of the new races in PHB3 have one fixed stat boost and one flexible stat boost--it's Stat A +2 and Stat B OR Stat C +2, your choice.

I'm not sure that's going far enough, but it's a step in the right direction as far as race/class straitjackets go.

That's a huge step towards making races that have some breadth in build possibilities. After all, a 1 stat fixed + 1 omni stat can generate 5 different stat arrays - and there are only 15 stat arrays! So Wis + Any will take care of any of the options that have Wisdom as a Primary or Secondary. So you could be a Bow Ranger (Dex/wis) or a Pit Fighter (Str/wis) or an Orbizard (Int/wis) or a Laser Cleric (Wis/cha). Fully one third of the possibilities are yours to fuck around with.

What it doesn't address, is how many builds don't play nice with each other at all and cannot be made to do so. You can't mix any kind of Rogue with any kind of Wizard, because Rogue variants all have DAD and none o the available Stat arrays give any allowance for Intelligence. That shit be fucked up.

And I point out: again and still, if you reduce all the builds to SAD from DAD bullshit you do allow people to play Wizard/Rogues. And coincidentally, having the Races provide the same +2 to two stats still lets a character o a specific race play in one third of the play space without feeling like a retard.

I don't even have to care if the system only allows 12 unique PCs because only 6 of them will get played. I mostly wanted to shore up the obvious trap options (tiefling fiendlock, elf swordsman, halfling archer, etc.)

There is absolutely no excuse for the Tiefling to get a Charisma bonus instead of a Constitution bonus. That's just absolute utter insanity. It's wrong on every level. There are already too many fucking races with a Charisma bonus even in the PHB. There is already a shortage of races with a Constitution bonus. And Constitution is the stat that powers inernal magic - which is the Tiefling entire backstory. It's bad conceptually, mechanically, and aesthetically. I can't even understand why they did that.

But I point out: your system addresses those trap options, but it doesn't address the trap options like wanting to multiclass Rogue and Wizard or Avenger and Warlord.

-Username17

[Orion]

Undoubtedly. But I don't think my players will need or want to multiclass.

If they're desperate to gish it up, a straight Chaos Sorcerer can shiv people with knives and throw boom spells. A

in any case, a wizard multiclassing into rogue doesn't need or want STR or CHA because he doesn't have rogue tactics, he doesn't have Sly Flourish, and he only gets one encounter power which will be the one that stuns people.

Rogue/Wizard would be shitty in 4E statless anyway, because their abilities have no synergy or interaction.

[Orion]

I've hit on an even more elegant solution: Make the fuckers learn 3.5

[RandomCasualty2]

But I point out: your system addresses those trap options, but it doesn't address the trap options like wanting to multiclass Rogue and Wizard or Avenger and Warlord.

Yeah, pretty much the only way to address that is just to remove ability scores entirely or at least ability score based attack bonuses.

The idea that you can choose an attack power and suck with it is really one that needs to be eliminated from D&D, and indeed gaming entirely. If you chose that power, then you should be good with it.

[ggroy]

[DeadlyReed]

Once, in 3E, I played a 15th level half-giant fighter and fought sixteen yuan-ti halfbloods.

Each exploded in one hit.

Good times.

Which reminds me of the time I played a thri-kreen dart specialist in 2E and I slaughtered twenty ogre mages.

Which reminds me of the time I played a high-level paladin in 1E and slaughtered handfuls of barbed devils.

Which reminds me... not every opponent has to be challenging in order for fights to be fun.

[Username17]

When you have a big attack and the enemy goes down in one hit, that's fun. When you have a minor accounting gimmick that does 2 points of damage and some undamaged enemy explodes... that's just really underwhelming. It doesn't make me feel like a badass, it makes me feel like my character is fighting guys who are made out of talcum powder and hope.

The solution should be to hand out large damage bonuses, and have minions have smallish numbers of hit points. When I do 27 points of damage, and a demon soldier goes down in one hit, that's fine More than fine even. But it breaks immersion for me if I know that I could have done the same with a 3 point conditional effect.

4e's fetishization of tiny accounting attacks of 3 points or less is genuinely insulting. And enemies actually dropping from that shit is bad.

-Username17

[Doom]

That's not the only reason minions are bad, however.

There's no real 'role protection'...nearly every character class (besides 'controller') has at least one, if not multiple, area effect attacks.

Five such characters, means 5 such attacks, minimum. You can easily catch 2, if not 3, minions in such attacks, so the first 10 minions of an encounter are completely pointless. By RAW, you generally won't have more than 20 minions. Even if minimal damage attacks didn't kill them, the preponderance of burst/blast effects make them pointless, also.

NOW factor in auto-damage killing a few minions a round, or paragon paths that deal minor autodamage everywhere, or warlock powers that do about the same....it's totally ridiculous.

Just for fun, I had an 80 grimlock minions and half a dozen 'real' monsters, encounter, roughly level +20....players didn't break a sweat, even with doubling the damage, minions are just that badly designed with respect to character development.

So, to rewrite the rules to make minions not stupid-bad?

1) the first 10 minions come for free (don't count against the EP budget)
2) auto-damage/damage that doesn't come via a to-hit roll doesn't kill minions (maybe daze them, instead?)

That should make them fun to kill in droves, without it just being pure stupid.