Goodman Games

Later editions of D&D completely removed the balancing factors that keep wizards from dominating the world. The D4 hit die, making saving throws scale with the caster, ridiculously high int scores, easy access to scrolls and magic items, and exponentially increasing the spells per day a wizard c...

A stealth check is an opposed check in the game. I do not want to change that. It would really be unbalancing to have a thief be 100% successful at a stealth check against a dragon because they rolled a 3 or higher on the extra die. I don't see it as unbalancing. Remember The Hobbit? "Well, th...

I think the Thief "skills" make them standout. Maybe they get STAs like you mentioned. That could be cool. I think DCC's take on what Thief skills mean could be helpful too. As in, "anyone can hide behind something... but a Thief can Hide in a Freaking Shadow!!! Anyone can try to mov...

I like the 1e thief, except as you mention, backstab sucks. I propose making backstab do no extra damage, but instead impose a save or die. This way the thief can do his job - sneak in and dispose of the guard. It should only work if the target is completely unaware of the thief, none of this flanki...

Where I can't merge this model with D&D is that healing is so darned slow. If a hit point means you have gotten tired, why don't you regain HP faster. Um... I find that I enjoy D&D combat/healing a lot more if I don't actually try to think about it. :P I always look at it as actual damage. ...

I've had "Lawful Good" characters kill innocent NPCs. Just because "evil" was in the NPC's nature and that's what the player thought "Being Good" meant. He's evil? I kill him! I've had more jerkwads explain, well, being jerkwads by saying "I'm Chaotic Evil" o...

You still have to track everyone's alignment that you heal. Which means that dirt farmer the dm was using to dispense information? He has to know his alignment. And how is the cleric to know whom he can and can't heal? An evil person falls and breaks his leg, is the cleric supposed to just walk by a...

Hamakto wrote:Healing Matrix:

For a cleric to determine how well she heals someone with a successful Lay On Hands, they have to map everyones alignment in the party.

Yeah, there's no way I'd ever keep track of that. That's way too fiddly. Enough to make me never play a cleric - and I LIKE clerics.

positives: 1. A cleric does not have to ration his heals 2. You are not wasting spell slots on heal spells (i.e. not just a heal bot) 3. Turn any number of times per day 4. Plenty of class abilities to choose from. I don't see 1 and 2 as positives. Tracking spell slots is a resource I like managing...

Not playable for six months = dead IMO. The problem with D&D is that a high level character can survive such a fall and then go about his day like nothing happened. The overwhelming majority of people that fall 30 or more feet end up dead. Well, he also didn't have clerical magic at his disposa...

This is why I like lowering the Massive Damage Threshold. Also solves the falling damage issue. Falling damage is definitely one of my pet peeves. Falling should be handled something like lava. Anything over 30ft should be instant death. A friend of my dad's would disagree. He was a paratrooper in ...

I understand your reasons, I just don't think it's necessary. I just think hit points do the job as well as anything else and do it with less complexity. Other methods can do the job as effectively, but always at a cost. I prefer the KISS principle.

I think these add unnecessary complication to gameplay. What's wrong with dying at zero hit points? Or even at -10? It's simple and does the job.

If you have that compiled into a document, I'd love to see it. I've been wanting to run a playtest with my group, but I'm 900 miles away from the nearest con and besides that, I'm lazy.

SoD is one way, though I recommend there also be traps that just plain to a lot of damage. Disintegrate is a spell that does piles of damage on a failed save. For most it will be SoD, but it's not automatic. The first thing I did in my Pathfinder game was revert disintegrate, et al back to save or ...

Yeeeeaaahhh.... meh, to me that seems boring. I don't want to do math, I want spells to be organic, different. Yeah, Mr Goodman's original table has a lot more flavor, I don't deny that. But pair that with say, 10 spells per level x 9 spell levels, and the spell section of the core book will be HUG...

Why not? Something like: Natural 1: Spell takes effect on random creature or area. 1-11: Lost. Failure. 12-13: Spell Does minimum possible damage. 14-17: Spell has standard effect. 18-19: Increase damage dice by one step. 20-23: Increase aoe or targets affected by 50% 24-27: Increase range by 50%. 2...

I was just thinking about the magic missile table. It's a bit oppressive. If every spell looks like that, it's gonna take up a lot of space and seem overwhelming. I'd prefer one table for all spells, kinda like the wild magic table from 2e. Put the table on the gm screen and call it a day.

30-31: These missiles have limited ability to defy magic shield and other protections; compare this spell check against the spell check used to create the magic shield. If the magic missile check is higher, the magic shield has only a 50% chance of absorbing the missiles (roll individually for each...

I think Save or Die should be included. DCC is going to be a badass game, not one made for weaklings who need three failed saving throws to die. :lol: What I never liked is level drain. I have no problem with permanent ability damage, but level draining is simply a pain in the ass. Put in more ways...

Well, if save or dies are prevelant throughout the campaign and it comes up 3 or 4 times a session, then yeah, the pc mortality rate will skyrocket and that's no fun for anyone, player or dm. If used rarely, it really raises the drama level. I like to put a sod trap in the very first room of a reall...

On crits: Why attach crits to the attack roll? attach it to the damage roll. max damage dice are rerolled - once. Yes, a dagger will crit more often, but 2d4 isn't gonna break the game. Just stay away from weapons that do 4d4. That could get interesting.

Climbing for non thieves is in the dungeoneer's survival guide. I think it's also in the dmg, but a cursory look failed me. I asked a sage and consulted the sage knowledge table, he overcharged me and said to come back in a month. Thieves, however, are the only ones who can climb a surface without h...

I like save or die spells and poison. They make adventurers cautious. Overused they can piss off players and wreck a campaign, but used rarely they bring a lot of tension to the gaming table. Disintegrate should, well, disintegrate you. Flesh to stone should turn you to stone, not slow you. If you d...

I agree 100%. For instance, in my 30 years of playing rpgs, until 3e, no one ever tried to trip or sunder. Disarm only happened with warp wood or heat metal. On rare occasions, a wizard got grappled, or a party member who was charmed. We wanted to slay the giant, not roll around in the dirt with him...