3eish: a closer to 3e hack

Heaven help me, I'm about to make a "why I haven't been posting as much recently," post, aren't I.

I won't dwell on it because no one cares, but honestly the reason I haven't made many posts is that instead of rapidly flitting from idea to idea I stayed relatively focused on a couple of projects. For a while, this was hulk rats, which I just posted, and then I moved on to my current obsession which I am calling 3eish.

No, I won't be posting a draft (even an incomplete one) of a second whole-ass game today. I just want to talk about the project a little bit.

3eish

So, I've worked on hacks that have said they're based on 3e or d20 modern before but their relationship to those systems beyond my invocation of their names have been, uh, unclear. For Target 20 Modern, it was basically the names of the stats, and for my previous 3e-based hack it was basically just the words "Fortitude, Reflex and Will," which were used in totally different ways than before.

Having recently regained possession of my old 3e books, however, I was poring over them and realizing how much I genuinely do like about the first DnD I learned; especially knowing what I know now about the history and motivations of a lot of its pieces. And, inveterate tinkerer that I am, there are simply so many points of pain in the system that I can't help tearing it apart and rebuilding it.

This is not a small project; I'm basically rewriting the entire SRD from the ground up. I'm about thirteen thousand words deep already, big beefy chunks remain more or less unwritten (the arcane spell list, to name a big one). So like, watch this space? But don't hold your breath.

Nevertheless, I feel like I do have a distinct vision for the game, here's my attempt to articulate what I'm doing with it:

• It's in the vibes. Vibes are extremely difficult to nail down. However, even as I'm changing lots of things, there are a few things I'm unwilling to change because the result wouldn't feel like 3e to me:
  • The names of the ability scores and the saving throws.
  • A core mechanic of d20 + modifiers vs target number.
  • The basics of character assembly: you still choose a race and apply class levels on top of it. There are still skills that you invest points in and feats that you select at certain levels. There may even still be prestige classes.
  Though I'm revising their uses significantly, the lineup of the standard six abilities is basically the one constant mechanical through-line of DnD-branded games. Furthermore, distinct fort/ref/will saves that you roll unambiguously identify a game as 3.x rather than any previous (the classic death/paralysis/breath/wands/spells) or later (4e had static fort/ref/will defenses, 5e has six ability saves) edition.
  And as much as I feel that d20-roll-under and target 20 are conceptually cleaner than the 3.x core mechanic, that's the problem; they feel too distinct from the material I'm working with, and make it feel too much like something made of whole cloth.
• Simplify pain points. As much as possible, sand down the rough edges, trap options, fiddly bullshit and everything that makes people groan when they try to run 3e as written.
• Broad numerical compatibility. This probably seems like nonsense, especially given the previous point, but I want numbers to stay in at least the rough range that 3e has them in. In many cases I'm totally changing the ways these numbers are calculated, but trying to keep the typical range of the values that result from it the same.

All that said for faithfulness, now here's a partial list (subject to extreme changes) of things I've been willing to change, in rough order from more settled to least:

• Revising the uses of ability scores:
  • Strength applies to all weapon damage (except crossbows), Fortitude saves (!) and the anearobic athleticism skills.
  • Dexterity applies to AC, Reflex saves and all hand-to-hand or thrown attack rolls.
  • Constitution applies to carrying capacity and physical endurance. I haven't worked out its exact interaction with HP yet, but it'll have one.
  • Intelligence gives bonus languages, training points (see below) and applies to arcane mastery (caster level) checks (which replace most magical skills).
  • Wisdom applies to Alerntess (passive perception vs being surprise, there are no active perception checks anymore), shooting ranged weapons (now an Aim check) and many skills.
  • Charisma applies to Will saves (!), social skills and magic damage/spell save DCs.
• Races are called natures now.
  • Halfling eliminated.
  • Elves and gnomes merged, now distinct cultural groups of the eldar nature.
  • Added natures corresponding to most formerly enemy humanoid types:
    • Cobold (from kobolds, with elements of troglodytes and tieflings)
    • Goblin (merging goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and bugbears)
    • Gnole (elements of lizardfolk and tiefling)
    • Merfolk (elements of kuo-toa, locathah and sahaugin)
  • Class list streamlined
    • Barbarian folded into ranger, rage fetures is now a chain of feats.
    • Bard dissassembled for spare parts.
    • Clerics now randomly roll for their spells instead of having access to the whole cleric list.
    • Druids are now called witches, and get the paladin's lay on hands instead of animal companions. Their prepared spells are now arcane spells, but they get a random selection of divine spells as well, based on the environment they are in.
    • Fighters are virtually unchanged, except they can improve martial arts (see below) with their bonus feats now.
    • Monks have been disassembled for spare parts.
    • Paladins are now rebranded as gallants, and have taken on some monk features.
    • Rangers get the barbarian's fast movement and uncanny dodge, and their favored enemy ability is always specific to people and giants.
    • Rogues are virtually unchanged.
    • Sorcerers and Wizards are folded together into a Mage class, distinguished by alignment. Chaotic mages are still spontaneous casters like Sorcerers, but they're the exception to the general pattern of arcane spellcasting (which now includes the witch as well).
  • Calculation of fighting mastery (BAB), arcane mastery (caster level) and saves are greatly streamlined, especially for multiclass characters.
  • Skill points are now training points and they can be invested in several different things. Characters get about a third as many fewer bonus points for high Intelligence and have more things to spend them on, so there are more tradeoffs
    • Martial arts replace weapon proficiencies, and unlock combat options at greater levels of familiarity (familiar/skilled/expert, each requiring a higher fighting mastery). Fighters get free progress in certain martial arts as they progress.
    • Arcane sciences are new, and affect how a character learns and casts spells. Mages get free progress in certain arcane sciences.
    • General skills work as skills did before, but there's none of this 4 ranks at first level nonsense. Instead, max 1 rank per level in class skills, half that in other skills. When allowed at all, untrained uses of skills carry a -3 penalty, like untrained weapons.
      Profession is now something that is chosen as part of character background for characters old enough to have a profession; the craft skill is now tied to the character's profession. Additional professions cost a feat, rather than training points, because characters really need those points for things they're going to use on adventure.
    An effort was made with the training point system to make it impossible to build characters who are bad at the things their classes are meant to be good at; this one reason why martial arts still use the fighting mastery [BAB] scaling that already exists, rather than being weapon skills as in some classless games. As another example, you can no longer make a wizard who neglected to take points in concentration, that's now an arcane mastery (caster level) check since it's core to being a powerful wizard. Rangers, for example, automatically get ranks in Find Path and Live Off The Land, because those are core to what it means to be a ranger; whatever skill points a class gets represent their voluntary skill points.
  • Combat action economy is now a three-beats-per-round system after Pathfinder 2e, with short, standard and long actions taking 1, 2 and 3 beats respectively. Reactions are short actions.
  • Thoroughgoing efforts to describe spells with less and more natural language. This includes regularizing durations (based on order [spell level] unless noted otherwise) and casting times (based on components) as much as possible and moving the details of complex effects out of spell descriptions to give better single points of reference for them.
    Consequently, making item descriptions and creature stat blocks do all the work of describing their own abilities instead of name dropping to spells.