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D&D 4e: The buckler and the ballista
I was bored and I made some homebrew stuff. 

Ballista
docs.google.com/document/d/1ozPkAG87TM21...

Buckler
docs.google.com/document/d/19QJJbvTL3NZS...

I need a place to gather a couple of essays I wrote in the Homebrew Fighter thread, which for a time sort of acted like Ironblue General on the DDN forum.  Not only was it a dumping ground for every brain I was storming around with at the time, it lead to several not insignificant trains of thought and game design conclusions that I need to analyze further and whip into a reasonable semblance of shape.

Am I even kidding myself that anybody is reading this and cares?  Haha, nope.  Pro bono, biatches!  I'm just doing this for me.

Okay, here's the stuff:

[spoiler=Ability Frequencies]At-will abilities are roughly 1x the power of a basic attack.  Cantrips are meant to be the equivalent of weapons, and with a little less damage and a little more utility they succeed quite...

Finals at my college and final papers. Ugh. I got a part in a summer festival musical though. Looking forward to performing again in July.

Regarding monster design for my game in construction:

Whenever I DM'd for the local DnD Meetup Group, I got some of my most positive responses from players when I added narrative to the actions taken by enemies rather than just a simple "it hits you for X damage".

This reminded me of when I was first introduced to DnD through ADnD 2nd edition, when my brother would spout out awesome descriptions of what was going on during combat (it was always gridless when we played).

What if sample narratives were built into the design of monsters, for DMs to describe the action? This could benefit new and old DMs greatly and enrich the experience for the entire table....

Under the bounded accuracy system, an attack roll, a skill check, an ability check or whatever else has got three possible modifying points:

-Ability Modifier: from +1 to +5
-Class Bonus: from +1 to +5
-Proficiency Bonus:  Anything from +1d6 to +1d12, or in my dream +2 to +5 (prof. bonus from 4e weapons but more range to account for more diversity)

Now, each of those modifying points has its own idiosyncracies, but the very first important take away is this:

The bounded accuracy system can only handle TWO of those three at any time.  For ease of comprehension, they ought to be the same two.

Now, some points of interest about each:

Ability Modifier is the one the designer has far less control over.  Especially if those terrifying ability score bump feats get implemented, but lets...

[spoiler=Hit Points]Each creature has a hit point maximum, which is the total of its Hit Die rolls (or the average of those rolls), its Constitution modifier, and any other modifiers.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Actions in Combat]Block:
When you wield a weapon you are proficient with, you can use your reaction to block an incoming melee attack.  Roll your skill die and subtract its result from the damage against you.  If the damage drops to 0 or lower, you are still subject to any other effects of the attack.  When you wield a shield you are proficient with, you can use block against ranged attacks as well.

Charge:
You can move up to half your speed and make a single melee attack.  This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Physical Contest:
As an action, you can initiate...

Alright! I'm back! Well, kind of. I'm still busy, but hopefully less busy. Before falling off the forums, I had just about finished overhauling the core of my Psionics homebrew. My last blog post actually talked about the ideas I implemented. Reposting those here…

> No per-turn recharge in the base system.
> Manifesting the power doesn't cause the effect, it crafts the innate psychic abilities you'll have usable at-will. This is done during a short rest.

I have retyped the core rules going over exactly what that ended up becoming. A huge portion of my previous blog posts are now null, so I'm starting fresh here. Base rules/prose for my Psionics:
~~~

Psionics
Psionics are the supernatural powers a psychic individual is able to achieve with his or her mind. Unlike magic, which is about

...

Things are progressing a bit slowly since I've had a lot on my plate with my studies and being in a musical.

I figured out an "advanced concept" of accuracy which builds upon the concept of bound accuracy. Not going to reveal it yet since it still requires some major tweaks for testing. My inspiration for this "new accuracy" comes from the combination of some old ideas that I've experienced in different games. It will be simple, streamlined, and -------- (last adjective omitted so as not to give it away).

I've decided to keep monster design separate from PC design. It will be similar to 4e design up to a certain point but the differences will be very noticeable.

Designing adventures will be easy with a very facilitated ability to add depth to storytelling. Tools will be made to compensate ...

Something I've been meaning to talk about for a while that should lay the groundwork for a more elaborate reworking of class designs (as I intend to do).

There is a larger debate on the size and utility of discrete units of character design as they appear in the current packet, and how exactly balanced are feats in comparison to class abilities, and so on and so so.  I'm not really going to open any of that up for discussion.  Suffice that I have my solution to the problem, and these are the assumptions I will be working off here:

-Ability checks, a general list of possible actions springing from the six ability scores, improvised actions, and contests are the CORE of the game.

-A feat is roughly analogous to a major trait from race or background, and those are all benefits that...

ROGUE

Level    Attack Bonus   Sneak Attack  Class Features
1          +1                    1d6                Rogue Scheme, Skill Tricks (2), Sneak Attack
2          +1                    1d6                Scheme Benefit, Skill Trick (1)
3          +1                   ...