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This is my semi-finalized proposal for skills and skill training.  It’s based on the concept of bounded accuracy.  In this system, a character would gain the ability to roll additional dice as a representation of training to determine success of a task.  An untrained character would get one die; a trained individual would get two dice.  Additional training would grant three (skilled), four (Expert) and five (Master) dice.  To represent the “trained-only” feature of previous editions, this system will assign a difficulty rating to each check.  Most checks would be accomplishable with no training; they would be represented by a rating of zero.  A “trained-only” task would have a rating of one or higher.  The total number

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There was some discussion on the Wizard versus Fighter on the DDN forums over the past...  forever.  The developers have stated that they will go with a mixture of at-will spells and daily spell slots.  Some people fear that this will make the wizard overpowered in the DPR arena; however, I think they are wrong in their assumptions. 
For argument sakes, I parsed some numbers to illustrate how the wizard's DPR can be kept in check in relation to the fighter.  I'll operate off of the following premise: the fighter should be the best (well, one of the best) for single target DPR, and the wizard should be an excellent utility that shines against multiple targets.  With that in mind, I'm going to look at the potential single target DPR for each class.  The ...

Unlike my normal blog entries, this blog has very little to with mathematics.  This is my take on the fighter and isn’t based on anything from the developers.  I’m just throwing some general concepts onto a sheet of paper.  It’s not completely balanced; however, it does represent a direction that I would like to see the fighter go…

Fighter

Attributes: +1 to Strength, Dexterity or Constitution
Starting Hit Points: 1d12 + your Constitution modifier
Armor and Shield Proficiencies: All armor and shields
Weapon Proficiencies: All weapons

Progression:

Level      Weapon Attack           ED        Class Features
1            

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I was puttering around when I decided to recreate my favorite character using the DDN character creation guidelines.  I just wanted to see the differences between the two first level versions to get a better feeling of what my future primary character will be facing after the release of the game.

Cadwallon ap Bliedd
Male Elf (High) Fighter
Medium Humanoid
Armor Class 14 (Studded Leather Armor + 1 Dexterity)
Hit Points 11 (1d10+1)
Hit Dice: 1d10
Speed 30 ft.
Sense Low-light

Str 14 (+2) Dex 12 (+1) Con 12 (+1)
Int 16 (+3) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 11 (+0)

Alignment Neutral Good
Languages Common, Elven
Background Sage
Trait Free Spirit, Keen Senses, Trance, Elven Weapon Training, Researcher
Skills Listen, Spot, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Folklore), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Warfare)

Specialty

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I recently participated in a thread on the DDN forums concerning the concept of Bounded Accuracy when a poster, Lesp, suggested using the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic to simulate skill training.  That got me thinking about possible applications of the concept to fix the skill scaling problems in the current playtest. 

First, let me outline the general skill progression in the current playtest.  This table details the probabilities of success for a character with a full attribute bonus (+5).

DC07 - 95% at +0, 99% at +3, 99% at +4, 99% at +5, 99% at +6, 99% at +7 *
DC10 - 80% at +0, 95% at +3, 99% at +4, 99% at +5, 99% at +6, 99% at +7 *
DC13 - 65% at +0, 80% at +3, 85% at +4, 90% at +5, 95% at +6, 99% at +7 *
DC16 - 50% at +0, 65% at +3, 70% at +4, 75% at...

Parsing some more number, I decided to look at the rogue's skill mastery.  The basic premise of skill mastery seems to be to allow the rogue to dump stats and remain viable in skill checks related to those dumped stats.  I have problem with this premise from the get go.  First, a player that dumps stats should experience the consequences of dumping of those stats.  Mitigating the dump just eliminates consequences.  Second, it hampers the ability of other character to shine in fields despite being "designed" for it.

My main exception revolves around my tendency to play at least one wizard for every edition.  Usually, I build this wizard around the concept of being smart and extremely knowledgeable of arcane subjects.  My fear is that an Arcane ...