From: "Brad Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> First, I'd like to reiterate that I *like* games based around skills. I
> just happen to think that 3e D&D is one of them, even if they have been
> disguised in packages called classes and levels.
I don't care to discuss whether D&D3e is balanced or not, but I don't
agree that it's a skill-based system disguised in a package of classes and
levels.
Here's the difference:
Picture Old Jeric the Watchmaker. He's been making watches, clockwork
toys, and other devices for decades. His wrinkled eyes display a perpetual
squint from so many years of staring through magnifying lenses. His gray
apron tinkles with the sound of the tools of his trade, and his glasses rest
atop the wispy gray hairs on his head.
In a skill-based system, he's a weak old man with little remarkable
about him except that he's a world-class clocksmith. An orc could kill him
with a particularly loud sneeze.
In D&D3e he's a 20th level Expert (that's the only way to make his
Clockwork skill high enough), which means he has about 70 HP, a Base To Hit
of +15/+10/+5, and probably dozens of other very high-ranked skills, or else
he's a jack-of-all trades, since he couldn't put *all* his skill points into
Clocksmithing. Now that's one bad-ass old geezer. He could kill a tribe of
orcs single-handed.
Of course, you can ignore the rules and just say he's a 0-level
character with a +25 skill, but we're not talking about how the DM can
ignore the rules, we're talking about the rules themselves.
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