D&D 5th Edition: Thread #7

[Stubbazubba]

Why not have a skill system of rolling under, skill points inflate the number, obstacles decrease the number?

If you switch that around, that's what we already have; a roll-over system where skill points decrease the number you need on the die and obstacles increase it.

Addition is marginally easier than subtraction, and the nice consistency of "higher is better, always" decreases the learning curve for the game.

So why not make every point of ability score count?

Why don't they do that? Does anyone know an actual reason besides the fact that it's a sacred cow thing? I don't know of any.

I think they should subtract 10 from Ability scores and just make every point count. It would look like Mutants & Masterminds, but that's frankly a better starting point for a d20 system than 3.5, IMO.

Subsystems aren't inherently good or bad. It depends on the implementation.

I look at it this way: Each subsystem in the game increases the learning curve and the number of rules that have to be memorized or else looked up in the middle of a game, the number of pages devoted to explaining rules in the book, and so on. So there is a cost for each additional subsystem regardless of implementation.

A subsystem has to not only just be good, it has to be so good that it outweighs that learning/rules bloat cost. Most do not qualify, in my book.