Take 3.5 D&D

Take 3.5 D&D.
Subtract the Player's Handbook.
Add Tome of Battle, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, and the better ideas from Tome of Magic.
And design an entirely new game around that.
Like if Dreamscarred Press broke off from Paizo and Pathfinder and went in their own separate, competing direction.

What would it look like to you?

Wasn't most of the content outside of the core book supposed to be more balanced in general like with Weaboo Fightan Magic making martials competent? Because if it made the game playable that would be a real bonus.

I just like the idea of a game being based around characters having psionic powers and all warriors using crazy spells and abilities. To me, that sounds like a lot of fun and it would actually be an original concept in a sea of games that stick to traditional fantasy.

>Take 3.5 D&D.
>Subtract the Player's Handbook.
>Add Tome of Battle, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum, and the better ideas from Tome of Magic.

It would still suck unless you drastically change the core concept of 3.5.

Don't get me wrong, those books are the better books of 3.5, but they still are D&D 3.5. You would need to overly remove all of the things that make 3.5 sucky.

The level system fucking sucks. The concept of it just destroys the game because by level 10, you are already so far ahead of level 1 that you are basically a god. There is a reason why a classic fix for 3.5 is stopping at level 6. Every aspect of the game is tied to the level, both out of combat and in it. Add to that feats, poor monster design (CR), stacking modifiers vs. static difficulties,

You would still need to fix the skill system, fix the CR/XP/WBL system and all its assumptions, because even without the PHB, we still have the 13.33 encounter treadmill.

>It would still suck unless you drastically change the core concept of 3.5.
Hey, guess which book we just banned!

Seriously, though, you're not wrong. 3E needs a significant rework from the base up, from the way saving throws scale to the stupid goddamn decision to make monsters be built with the same system as PCs and therefore get vastly inflated hit dice (due to needing stats it wouldn't normally get from its type, like Fey having awful BAB and fort saves), hit points (due to con bonuses and aforementioned hit die inflation), masses of useless and fiddly feats (Toughness x10 is common for a reason, and it really shouldn't need to be), dumbass skill checks (why do I need to know the jump check of a goddamn elephant?), and... yeah, there's a bunch of issues on a core level of the system.

The problem is, well, that that's not going to attract the 3E crowd at all. The people who wanted a fixed system already moved to 4E, 13th Age, 5E, and some lunatics even went to Pathfinder for that reason.

Personally I'd move things right the fuck around and head back in a more TSR D&D direction, but I know that's not for everyone. (Also, I've already got the OSR for my fix.)

Fixing the treadmill should probably be as "simple" as just moving all the inherent bonuses to be based on level itself rather than magical items, a la 4E Dark Sun. (Or, well, an improved 3E Vow of Poverty.)

The problem isn't WBL in itself, I don't think (you could even make a similar table for B/X if you really wanted to, since WotC were surprisingly transparent with it [DMG p.54]), as much as the system being built with the assumption that you'll have the appropriate magic items for every level.

Decouple treasure from the math and you could give more or less treasure per encounter without fucking stuff up.

Well, how about these for a few semi-compatible kludges:

>Weapon Damage
Weapon damage scales as you level to keep up with HP inflation. This prevents combat from getting more grindy at higher levels.

>Poison
Poison is cheaper, more accessible, and harder to resist. This allows low level mooks to use it as an equalizer against higher-level opponents. Makes fluff-sense too; if you can't defeat a god in a fair fight, then you have to resort to trickery.

>Flatspelled?
We already have conditions that deny characters their Dexterity bonus to AC.
What we need is a condition that denies casters their ability bonus to save DC. Martial characters need to be able to easily impose that condition on casters.

>Replace Feats with Soulmelds
Soulmelds are like better versions of feats that you can power up by binding them to a chakra or investing them with essentia.
Suppose we convert the more popular feats into soulmelds, and let everybody take soulmelds in place of feats?

You could do that. Or you could just play another game.

Or basically play 5th edition.

Or do something else, because we lack the ability to create a better system from a fucked up one.

It's like hot-rods.

There is a particular kind of fun to be had in fixing up a rusted old clunker into something fast and stylish.

In what way?

>this thread again
mfw