Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (d20)

One of the trends for the year appears to be the production of 'advanced' books for the d20 system. Both Sword & Sorcery Studios and Green Ronin are doing advanced books, and Wizards have already put out Unearthed Arcana, which seems to do a very similar job. Truthfully, I view these projects with a little apprehansion (insofar as I care; I'm well aware that I can just not buy these products. But it's hard to get a good rant going from a position of apathy).

There are, as I see it, two ways to do an 'advanced' D&D game. The first is to layer on more rules, more systems, and generally make things more complex. The second is to add more options, more customisation, and make character management/adventure creation more complex. Of these, my definate preference is for the second, but even then, I feel wary.

The last thing the d20 system needs is more rules. The game is complex enough without trying to add 'realistic' combat rules, initiative rules including speed factors or weapon reach as defining factors, detailed spell component systems, or whatever. If anything, I'd like to see systems being removed where they don't help the game in play. And, in that regard, I viewed 3.5 as a step forward; a lot of the special combat manoeuvers were adjusted in the new books to make them consistent with one another. So, it's safe to say that option 1 does not appeal to me at all.

The second option, adding more options, is something I could see myself liking. Certainly, Green Ronin's "Advanced Bestiary" appeals, as it's a big book of templates, which should increase the available range of monsters far beyond the gains achieved by adding, for example, Monster Manual II.

Likewise, I would like to see options for customising the skill lists for the existing classes, and the addition of one or two new base classes to fill gaps in the existing system (a skill-based Cleric, a spontaneous divine castrer, and a warmage spring to mind). Also, since many prestige classes are "a ranger (or whatever) with more focus on special enemies (or other power)", if a mechanism was in place for classes to be customised in this way, without recourse to the prestige class, I would be very happy.

The down-sides of this are that adding customisation of this sort makes prep time for adventures much greater (since adding templates can't easily be done on the fly), makes character management more difficult (so levelling-up requires more effort, and takes more time from actual play), and presents compatibility problems with existing material.

Here's what I mean by that last: a lot of the existing prestige classes are intended for specific classes to enter. There is also a background assumption that you shouldn't get into a given class until a specific level. However, this last is controlled not by assigning a minimum level, but by requiring a minimum BAB, of skill ranks, or whatever. So, perhaps there's a Cleric-intended PrC with a mimimum BAB of +5. This effectively requires the character to have 7 levels of Cleric before entering the class (or to multiclass with Fighter to get a quicker BAB progression). If you allow customisation, however, one of the options is likely to include a faster BAB progression, meaning the Cleric can get into the class more quickly. This may (or, indeed, may not) cause problems with balance.

Likewise, many of the Fighter-intended PrCs control access by requiring ranks in cross-class skills. If the Fighter can customise his skills list, these are likely to become class skills, and thus afford the Fighter much easier access to the class. Again, this might or might not cause a problem.

The last problem with adding lots of options, and it's a problem that already exists and is only getting worse, is that the DM needs to vet the material that is and is not in use in the campaign. In the latter days of 2nd Edition, it became near-impossible to keep track of what books would be used, what house rules governed the use of that material, and so on.

With 3rd Edition, the need to use house rules was greatly reduced (although not eliminated outright, alas), and it became easier to add new material. However, it remains the case that not all the available material is balanced and sensible (this is an inevitable result of the d20 license), so the DM must keep track of which options are used and which are not. 'Advanced' books will add to this burden, probably requiring additional house rules to retain the balance in the campaign.