An ode to a d40 system

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

I know it's D&D and so DDO would never move to a d40 system, but I think it would be quite good in my little imaginary world, and fix some stuff that pains me e.g.

'Rolling a 1' would be a lot less likely, thus making things like soloing a lot more fun - and make high saves valued more. Under a d40 system, Armor Class work again - it would extend the range of 'being hit every time' and 'never being hit except on a 40' to 38 AC points rather than just 18, e.g. it would make the AC range 30-70 valued rather than just 50-70. In a d40 world weapons could have more fine grained critical ranges - e.g. rapiers could be 35-40 and kukris could be 36-40 (example, I'm sure the numbers would have to be tweaked)

Of course in the d40 system we'd have to get double skill points, and all the DCs would have to be changed, along with all the armor bonuses, all the critical ranges, BAB, enhancement bonuses, in fact almost everything in the game would have to be reworked - it would be a huge amount of work, so it would never actually be done, but I think it would be quite cool.

Thoughts? how else would a d40 system change the game?

Garth

[Impaqt]

Hey, why dont we just change it to 2d20 instead? that way you can never actually roll a 1 and rolling a 40 would be much harder as well! Much easier game!@

[sirgog]

Both suggestions, IMO, would improve the game at the cost of it feeling like D&D.

It'd solve a lot of the balance issues caused by huge stacking modifiers (for instance, +5 weapon, +9 to hit from two bard songs, +3 luck bonus to hit, etc etc) that allow most characters to hit most foes on a 2 on at least their second attack, and it would also as stated reduce the number of 'bad luck' episodes.

But, it would feel less like D&D if this was done. And, IMO, it's too late to do it now.

[QuantumFX]

Both suggestions, IMO, would improve the game at the cost of it feeling like D&D.

It'd solve a lot of the balance issues caused by huge stacking modifiers (for instance, +5 weapon, +9 to hit from two bard songs, +3 luck bonus to hit, etc etc) that allow most characters to hit most foes on a 2 on at least their second attack, and it would also as stated reduce the number of 'bad luck' episodes.

But, it would feel less like D&D if this was done. And, IMO, it's too late to do it now.

It would be quicker and easier just to dump the +10 thru +20 to hit bonuses Turbine gives.

[Borror0]

From a mechanic point of view, it would clearly be better. Or a d100 system would rock as well.

But...

[RobbinB]

Definitely, a d40, d50, or d100 would be an improvement. I noticed in NWN that the d20 system simply didn't work that well as level 20 approached, and really broke down at the epic levels.

I don't agree that it's too late to change things. It's never too late to apply common sense to improve the game.

[krud]

If you're gonna do that, why not go all the way to a d100? Everything can be calculated in percentages. It's already used in quite a few instances in the game (not counting the raid loot roll ). Makes perfect sense when adding enhancement/feat/item percentages too.

metric D&D here we come!

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

hey - at least with Inspire's 2d20 system you don't need to buy new dice!

Garth

[Spisey]

hey - at least with Inspire's 2d20 system you don't need to buy new dice!

Garth

Unless you have a pleathera of d20's I know I have 5 I really like for pnp depending on what i need to roll

[Hambo]

If you're gonna do that, why not go all the way to a d100? Everything can be calculated in percentages. It's already used in quite a few instances in the game (not counting the raid loot roll ). Makes perfect sense when adding enhancement/feat/item percentages too.

metric D&D here we come!

I used to play a D100 game called "Arduin Grimoire". There was enough range that combat rolls could target specific areas of the body... say a 50 - 55 roll would hit the left leg, for example. The damaged area would be unusable until healed. There also were no vorpals, as a critical head shot always had a 1-5% chance, depending on your experience level.

More importantly there was room for "Critical Misses", that indicated that your swing with that broadsword missed the mob and hit the guy next to you, or that you whacked yourself in the back of the head with those nunchucks.

And hilarity ensued...

Also, since most rolls equate to a percentage, each number in D20 represents a 5% chance... D100 gives you a resolution of 1%.

[Uska]

what would fix things better would be a reset and then a nerf to loot and mobs then system wouldnt have to be changed.