Small Fighters

You know, small characters really do get the shaft.

Not only do they have to use smaller weapons than other characters, which do less damage (Both of which make sense, except that the ranges of ranged weapons should also be reduced...) , not only do small characters have a reduced movement rate (which makes sense), and not only do they have reduced carrying capacity (75% of Medium characters, which again makes sense), but both Halflings and Gnomes suffer a -2 penalty to Strength because "they are small and therefore not as strong as other humanoids".

This, of course, means that they suffer a net -1 penalty to hit (which counters the +1 size bonus they get), -1 to damage, and have even more reduced carrying capacities (and, therefore, movement rates). This in turn makes them less suitable for a lot of classes:

Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger (dual-wield), Monk: for reasons that should be obvious.

Cleric: Harder to use heavy armour, and less suitable for use as a secondary combatant, the Cleric's role in a small party.

Rogue: Low movement rate makes getting into position for sneak attacks difficult, not to mention the problem of scouting when the rest of the party are all faster than you.

Frankly, it's just not good. The only competitive small fighter concept I could see easily was the finesse fighter, but that means using a rapier, which drops the base damage to only 1d4! It's just ridiculous.

To be honest, I don't think the -2 Strength penalty is needed. The reduced carrying capacity, movement rate, and damage from small weapons all take care of the issues thus involved. Instead, I propose the following:

Halflings: No ability adjustments. Halfling dexterity is represented by their various skill bonuses.

Gnomes: +2 Con -2 Wisdom. This plays to the archetype of the gnome as the trickster, a role not noted for great wisdom. Sadly, this also makes them more succeptible to magic, but I guess you can't have everything, can you?

So, what do you think?

Addendum: I also think there should be a martial equivalent of the sling. Essentially the same stats, except that the damage should be two steps higher (1d8 for Medium, 1d6 for Small). The Halfling bonus to using slings should apply. This would give Halfling fighters a missile weapon to use that isn't a bow. And yet they wouldn't automatically choose it - the bow still has a better critical multiplier. Call it the staff-sling, the hoopak, or whatever takes your fancy.

The Next Campaign

Once again, I'm pondering the next campaign. I generally try to work about 8 months in advance, so I have plenty of time to prepare - the current campaign has a long way to go anyway.

I've been musing about house rules, as always, and am considering the following:

• Wizards don't need to spend money to add spells to their spellbooks. The great strength of the wizard is versatility, and being able to freely add spells will increase this. However, the wizard will still need to get access to those spells, and so may have to find other spellbooks, or pay other wizards for access to their spellbooks, before adding spells.
• Mundane ammunition won't be tracked. Nor will bar fees, encumberance, and so on. I honestly don't think such things really help the game any. If I were running a low-fantasy game of struggling heroes, this would be different, but I won't be. Of course, this only applies to mundane ammunition - masterwork and magical equipment will need tracked.
• Equipment is sold for half its market price. This is actually the rule as written, which I misread as applying to mundane equipment only.

The use of supplements will depend entirely on the circumstances of the game, of course. In the event that I am not hosting the game, it would be a matter of core rules only. If I were to be hosting the game, a select few carefully chosen supplements would be permitted (most likely Arms & Armour 3.5 (in part), the Complete Book of Eldritch Might, the Book of Iron Might, and the Expanded Psionics Handbook).

Any thoughts?

One more thing...

My last word on customising characters (unless someone raises a counter-argument):

The biggest way of customising characters has absolutely nothing to do with ability scores, feats, weapon choice, or anything else. The biggest and best way to customise a character (of any race, class or level) is through background and role-playing. If your 8th level Paladin has exactly the same skills, feats, weapons, armour and deity as Bob's 8th level Paladin, but one was a priviledged son of the nobility, raised with the constant knowledge that he was destined for righteousness and glory, while yours is a former slave boy, embittered by the loss of his family in a war perpetrated by selfish nobles, and reluctantly given the mantle of paladin by a deity who needs a champion, I suspect that you will see markedly different characters in play.

Unless, of course, you're playing the game purely as a video-game in which case, do you really care that your characters are essentially the same?

The Grand Experiment

For my next trick, in January I will be running a one-off d20 Modern-Cyberpunk game in real time. A kind of Gibson meets 24 thing.

At the moment, my thinking is running at between 8th and 11th level, using two house rules - low hit points on a par with Babylon 5, and the corresponding use of Constitution to determine chance to stabilise - using the cybernetics rules from d20 Future, the firearms from Ultramodern Firearms (or at least using some of them for inspiration), and with a wildly complex plot.

Of course, knowing my luck, the party in question will work out the mysteries in the first five minutes, and then it'll just be a case of going through the motions.

Customisation

It's worth noting that if players, either individually or collectively, fail to take advantage of facilities of a game system, it is not a weakness in the game system itself. Rather, it a weakness in the players. If all Fighters in your game wield longswords, and have exactly the same feats, that's not because the system enforces cookie-cutter characters, but rather because they have failed to differentiate their characters from the masses.

What would be a flaw in the system, and a fairly massive one, would be if one set of feats and abilities were significantly superior to all others, as with the longsword in 2nd Edition. In such a case, you can still differentiate your character, but it is very costly to do so. However, this is not the case with Fighters in D&D, at least in the current edition.

On the other hand, there is a degree of justification in the argument that all Rangers, Paladins, Barbarians, Monks and Rogues start to look alike...

But even then, it is possible, or even easy, to build several different character types for each, by focussing on different aspects of each class (e.g. the mobile barbarian, the damage-soaking barbarian, and the raging berserker).

A Tale of Four Fighters

We had a debate last night at the game about Fighters. It has long been Roger's contention that all Fighters rapidly start to look much the same as they increase in level, due to the relatively limited range of feats available. I dispute this. Therefore, I set out to create some different fighters, and can now present four fighters which I think go some way to proving the point.

These are each created using only the core rulebooks, with 25-point buy for stats, and the standard starting cash. Each retains a small amount of unspent money, and so hasn't allocated the full 27,000 gold for 8th level. It should also be noted that Telak is Gary's fighter in the current campaign, and is therefore the standard against which the others are judged.

Baralan

The scion of an ancient dwarven line, Baralan is a heavily armoured warrior. He focusses purely on melee combat, focussing on tricks rather than on causing lots of immediate damage, and using expertise and armour to avoid damage.

Dwarf Fighter 8

Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 8

Skills: Climb +3, Craft (weaponsmith) +12, Intimidate +5, Jump +4, Ride +6

Feats: Combat Expertise, Greater Weapon Focus (flail), Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Iron Will, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (flail), Weapon Specialisation (flail)

Possessions: Amulet of Health +2, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Flail +2, Full Plate +1, Heavy Steel Shield +1, Amulet of Natural Armour +1, Ring of Protection +1, Masterwork Light Crossbow, 2,572 gp

Combat Stats:

HP 98, AC 25/24/12, Init +1
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +3, Will +3
Melee: +16/+11 1d8+8 (Crit on 20)
Missile: +9 1d8 (Crit on 19-20)

Baralan typically enters combat with a trip attack, then follows this up with repeated melee attacks. Against powerful opponents, he uses Expertise extensively (to get AC 30!), while lightly armoured opponents suffer repeated Power Attacks.

Jadeel

A bounty hunter from the South, Jadeel is skilled in the use of two blades. Like Baralan, his focus is on melee, but he is also skilled with the longbow, and not averse to tracking an opponent at range.

Human Fighter 8

Ability Scores: Str 19, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 9

Skills: Craft (bowyer) +5, Escape Artist +1, Ride +11, Survival +5.5

Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (two-bladed sword), Greater Weapon Focus (two-bladed sword), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Track, Two-weapon Defence, Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (two-bladed sword), Weapon Specialisation (two-bladed sword)

Possessions: Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Two-bladed Sword +1 of Flame/+1 of Shock, Masterwork Mighty (+4) Composite Longbow, Full Plate +1, Cloak of Resistance +1, 1,850 gp

Combat Stats:

HP 74, AC 21/20/11, Init +6
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +3
Melee: +13/+13/+8 (1d8+1d6+7/7/5 (Crit on 19-20)
Missile: +11/+6 1d8+4 (Crit x3)

Jadeel relies on his many attacks to weaken his opponents. At the next opportunity, he should increase his Dex to 17 and gain Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, for another off-hand attack.

Patromir

Patromir is the elven archer/finesse Fighter. Skilled with both sword and bow, he is more lightly armoured than the others, and does slightly less damage overall. However, he has the ability to punish foes far more effectively at range than the other characters, and he is quite lethal in melee combat due to his large critical threat range.

Elf Fighter 8

Ability Scores: Str 12, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 10

Skills: Knowledge (history) +3, Spot +5.5

Feats: Manyshot, Improved Critical (rapier), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)

Possessions: Elven Chain +1, Masterwork Light Steel Shield, Rapier +1 of Frost, Mighty (+1) Composite Longbow +1 of Frost, Ring of Protection +1, Cloak of Resistance +1, 1,871 gp

Combat Stats:

HP 74, AC 22/18/15, Init +4
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +4
Melee: +14/+9 1d6+1d6+2 (Crit on 15-20!)
Missile: +11/+11/+6 1d8+1d6+2 (Crit x3) or +9 2d8+2d6+4 (Crit of 4d8+2d6+8) (as a single attack action)

Patromir typically engages in missile fire for as long as possible, switching to melee weapon and shield at the last opportunity (as a free action, due to his Quick Draw feat).

Telak

Gary's character in the current campaign, Telak is the classic longsword-Fighter. He has lately developed some skill with the bow, and so is a dangerous all-round combatant.

Human Fighter 8

Ability Scores: Str 20, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 10

Skills: Climb +3, Jump +1, Listen +4, Ride +5, Spot +5.5, Swim +2

Feats: Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (longsword), Improved Initiative, Iron WIll, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialisation (longsword)

Possessions: Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Full Plate +1, Heavy Steel Shield +1, Longsword +1 of Flame, Mighty (+5) Composite Longbow +1 of Flame, 1,980 gp

Combat Stats:

HP 82, AC 22/22/10, Init +4
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +4
Melee: +15/+10 1d8+1d6+8 (Crit on 17-20)
Missile: +9/+4 1d8+1d6+6 (Crit x3)

Telak typically charges into combat, using his bow only if circumstances dictate this as the optimum choice.

Conclusion

Each of these fighters has a certain core of abilities. All four have Weapon Focus. Three have full plate armour, thre ehave Weapon Specialisation, three use shields, and three own Gauntlets of Ogre Power. However, they are distinctly different. Baralan will make heavy use of trip attacks and expertise, which is quite beyond the others. Patromir will use missile fire extensively, and in combat will rely on critical hits to make up for a relatively weak damage output. Jadeel uses the showy and difficult exotic weapon, while Telak is the classic fighter.

Truth be told, I think Baralan, Telak or Jadeel would make ideal Fighters for any group. They are all different, but fill much the same role. I think I might be hesitant to use Patromir as the only Fighter in the group, although he would fit the current group very well. But that's not really the point - these are four fighters that are reasonably distinct from one another. And all four are clearly distinct from the Barbarian, Ranger or Paladin of the group, even where they seem to step on the Fighting styles of other other classes.

Withdrawal

Damn, it hurt not to have the regular game on Saturday this week. I had a tough week, and could really have done with watching my monsters get minced.

And, to add to the pain, the commitment that I couldn't get out of turned out to be completely unnecessary. Life sucks sometimes :-(