5. Can’t agree more, especially with 3e and 3.5, do I really need to roll to scratch my ass?
4. Alignment strict gaming is only good if you’re certain the character you made will always follow that path…..unfortunately there are times even good folks do bad things when pushed far enough, and same goes for evil characters, just as capable of pulling off a good act without warping their psyche for life, I’ve had evil characters in goody two shoes parties, saving the world…because it served their purpose, alignment strictures have always annoyed the hell out of me, who gives a damn what a neutral/good or whatever would do in that situation, what would MY character, in THAT situation, under THOSE circumstances, choose to do?
3. I’ve played level progression, and skill progression type rpg’s…and I really don’t have a preference here, it’s what works for DND, not a perfect system to be sure, although I find it hard to imagine any other method being accepted by the die-hards
2. Two Book System, that’s funny, if you want to get to 20th lvl on nothing better than 4th lvl monsters and the occasional 25th lvl dragon, be my guest, but I’d get bored as hell of the same 11 monsters you get with those two wonderful books, and what the hell is with the monster book price hikes? oh and by the way, “if you want to know how this works it’s covered in *random book you don’t own* chapter7″. taking the important information you actually NEED and chopping it up amongst all your random and “not neccessary to play” release books….ingenious marketing.
1. Rabid followers that blindly and incoherently defend something instead of making rational responses, I’ve seen too many of. If something is broke, it’s broke, don’t judge and criticize just because I voice my opinion on the brokeness of a part of a game. Why else are house rules formed by so many people? Because the game is broken in some way and needs a better interpretation, or way of dealing with whatever situation/action is taking place. example: 3e making an unarmed attack such as a punch while not being a Monk character class, your oponent gets a free attack if they are holding a weapon….wouldn’t someone trying to punch a person with a weapon already taken the weapon into account and looked for an appropriate opening? or would a lvl 16 fighter with 4 attacks a round be humiliated by any 1st level character with combat reflexes feat and a dex bonus of 4 by getting smacked 16 times for throwing 4 punches? really?? longsword is a common weapon ingame, a 1st lvl char doing 16d8 damage(16-128pts) in a round, not counting his/her normal attack….tho unlikely….doesn’t change that it’s possible, or that it’s broke

If the five things in the OP are your biggest issues with D&D, you might check out one of the retro-clones. A lot of the stuff you guys are mentioning is pretty strictly problems about the later, kruftier WotC editions of the game (And to a much lesser extent 1st and 2nd ed. AD&D).

Retro-clones are games that basically use the OGL as an excuse to republish the older versions of D&D in more readable books. Given the reasons listed in the original post I would stay away from OSRIC (It’s 1e AD&D, which can gets stupidly complicated as written). However, Labyrinth Lord (http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.htm) and Swords and Wizardry (http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/?page_id=4) might suit you well, and best of all, are available free online. There are far FAR less dice rolls and finicky rules; most of them use a Law vs. Chaos alignment setup that’s more for labeling your allies and enemies than for defining how your character acts; and almost all of them are either one or two books (which, I repeat, are free on pdf – everything tastes better free!). And unlike 3e and 4e, most of the rules are pretty easy to mix and match, or to tinker with if you don’t like some of the minor ones. You can also use adventure material from up to 2e AD&D or pretty much any retroclone almost entirely interchangeably.

A few of the logic holes stick around, but 99.5% of the stupid combat shenanigans that let you deal a million damage a round with shurikens are also gone. Most of the rules for weird scenarios are centered around letting the referee actually exercise common sense instead of depending on silly charts.

Levels are sorta integral to D&D – you could ditch them, but you might as well being playing another system at that point – so there’s not much you can do about those other than vary the XP rate and starting level of the game. Probably the best thing for Higgin to do, for example, in his constant-power-level game would be to issue a starting level, then award no XP at all. Bam! Constant levels.

As for games where different characters have different power levels? Just about any level system kinda handles that already. It may not be terribly common to meet players willing to play sidekicks, but I think it’s fair to say that the system’s not really the issue there. And incidentally, even in 3.x you can use better spell slots for weaker spells. Besides, the hypothetical wizard who can throw five magic missiles per day is a genuinely stronger character than that original guy who could only hurl three. Which is why giving Fiver an extra level or two makes sense. If you need a bigger change that that, just do it and damn the consequences. Most RPG systems are robust enough to handle quite a lot of house-ruling.

Mystery-killing is a tough one to answer in any published system (especially one where the players all own the rules), but only if you never create any original content yourself. And when a fairly complete monster statblock looks like this…

Firedrake: 3HD, 13 hp, AC15, bite 1d4+1, fire breath (2d6, 30′ cone) 3/day.

…There’s not really any reason not to (other than maybe not wanting to do the creative part of the work). Tweaking old classes, abilities or spells, or building new ones for characters that don’t quite fit an existing mold is a bit harder, but really not all that much.

So yeah. Admittedly, I’m a Rabid D&D Fan but I think about 2/3 of the complaints here have answers, even if sometimes that answer is “Play an less complicated version”, “Ignore that rule”, “Take ten minutes and write a more suitable class”, or “Look for a DM less crappy than the one you played with”. I highly encourage anyone who’s never tried early D&D or a retroclone to give them a shot. If all you’ve ever tried is the Wizards editions, you may be pleasantly surprised.

that was a great piece.

Cheers

Anyways, here is the list of reasons why I don’t use D&D:

1. Power level.
I’d like to define a certain power level and stick to it throughout the game. In D&D it’s impossible, because if you want to improve your character in any way, you get a damn package of abilities with every level. The guard dogs you feared in the beginning of the game will be helpless pups after a couple of “adventures”.

2. Restrictiveness.
Rather than make the character you want, you have to mix and match options to get the closest idea you were striving for. If you want to be a proficient brawler, you have to take a level in a certain class (monk). Character progression is pre-set — why did my back-street brawler suddenly become immune to all diseases (monk class ability)? And why can my witchdoctor take animal forms now (druid class ability)? If you take riding lessons for example, you cannot increase the Riding skill until you gain a level (which can take months in-game, or more, if you’re higher level). You cannot make up your own spells. Many character concepts are banned at starting levels (this is especially true with magic-users). And no, you cannot be a good singer because you chose the Fighter class.

3. Mystery killing.
How many times have you seen or thought yourself: “The guy touched my sword and it rusted and crumbled to pieces. This must be Rusting Grasp spell (which the group wizards Spellcraft check confirmed), which means we’re dealing with at least 7th level druid. His Wisdom must be at least 14 to cast that spell, so, his Will save bonus is +7 or greater. He also has a good Fort save, so we better use some spell against him that requires Reflex, which is probably his worst. We gotta keep him away from the bushes too, as he’s got no movement penalties there and he can Entangle us if we follow. He also leaves no tracks behind. Druids also have animal companions, so we better be ready for surprise, and if he starts to lose, he’s got an ability to turn into eagle and fly away. Better watch out for that one, as we need information for him.”

Okay, I must state I don’t do this on purpose, but this kind of information just comes to me. In essence, one single detail tells me VAST knowledge about the character we’re dealing with. No mystery at all — I know pretty well of what the character is capable of. And if GM modifies things that it isn’t as I think, this is to possibly cause scorned reaction from players: “Hey, why didn’t you tell you allowed such class? I would have really liked to play such a character,” etc.

4. Logic holes/silliness.
Weapons have damage caps. Roll 1d4 point of damage for hit using a hand crossbow. WTF!? This is a really dangerous weapon, and this doesn’t even account for a scratch on most non-starting characters.

Okay, while never mentioned in the books, I can understand that Hit Points are meant to represent also stamina and dodging, not just taking wounds. However, this makes an arrow just as easy to avoid as a punch. Although it’s better than having barbarians running around with a dozen of arrows in their chest, it’s still silly. But hey, that’s what D&D is — silly. A friend of mine explained me once how he can make a character who dishes out 1d6+4 damage with a random twig picked up from the forest (don’t remember the mechanics, sorry, but it didn’t require exceptional Strength). It was also amusing that a single shuriken can CONSTANTLY make just as much damage as an average longsword (1 damage + 1 point blank shot + 2 weapon specialization = 4 automatic damage). Have fun combining it with the Flurry of Blows and you get a character whose biggest problem is that he cannot physically carry enough shurikens… They just run out before the combat ends. =D

Have you ever-ever seen any PC take cover in D&D against a single archer? Their defence trait vs. bullets/arrows is the same as in melée, so it would be stupid to take cover, as there’s no additional danger in charging ahead to hack the archer down. (Some firearms-based settings have upped the base damage of ranged weaponry to address this issue, but it’s not evident in D&D.)

This chapter also covers the impact of a the d20 roll has on a skill/ability checks. In case of the latter, your characters capabilities make up a diminiscule part in the final result. Yes, this means that people with no training can outshine professionals time-to-time, and that arms wrestling contests between Strength 8 and 18 characters are mainly resolved with luck.

And as someone has very wisely said — though the skill ranks certainly help to succeed in tasks, they have more to do with qualifying for a prestige class.

There are more and more detailed issues on it, but they tend to fall into the four categories presented above.

Besides, where did Halo come into the conversation? It’s a linear story line in a video game. D&D, I would presume, plays differently in your group (which evidently incorporates a Spelling Bee?)