Standard Litany of Complaints: d20 System (Part One)

    It's probably past time for another one of these

When reading forums and other material on the internet, there are complaints that are levied against this or that RPG. Upon reflection, it seems that many of these complaints can be compiled into standardized lists, and addressed generally. This is an attempt to do so for some of the complaints levied against the d20 System; by no means do I expect the advice to suit everyone (or even most) or to be without flaws.

• "One of my players just made a Bard/Paladin/Sorcerer/Some PRC/Some Other PRC/Half-Troll/Half-Dragon."
• They're also getting docked a minimum of 40% of earned XP.
• If Bard, Paladin, or Sorcerer is one of their favoured classes, *And* the prestige classes don't count for multi-classing penalties.
• That last one's somewhat vague. One edition specifies it, the other does not.
• Otherwise, they're getting docked anywhere from 60% to 100% of their earned XP.
• Look, they put in a mechanic to cut down on crazy multi-classing and encourage themed class/race builds. For example, Halflings can multi-class Rogue with any one other class at no XP penalty. Elves the same for Wizard.
• If you don't use it, and don't replace it with anything...
• ...It ain't the rule's fault. :)
• With one base creature and two half-creatures, that's 1.5 halves.
• "Perfect gaming group" GM'ing advice aside, sometimes you just have to put your foot down and say "No." if you ain't got time or energy to come up with some sort of Quarter-Troll and Quarter-Dragon templates.
• It's still a good idea to be generally willing to negotiate on that point if they come up with a compelling enough character.
• Just make sure their "compelling character" isn't set to take over the campaign.
• They're still munchkins if they optimized for Charisma.
• "Level adjustment is a poor solution because..."
• "...most of the abilities you get don't scale with level."
• Level adjustment buy-off fixes that fairly well.
• So does scaling the abilities with level, although that's more work.
• "...it's a blunt instrument."
• True. They did try to size it to different power levels, though.
• "...some level adjustments seem to be inflated for how 'weird' the monster is."
• Check that the monster doesn't have odd-ball abilities such as flight, some form of teleport, or at-will spells that PCs don't normally get at that level.
• Quite possibly. If you check, and find no reason to deflate the LA, go ahead.
• No deliberate 'weirdness inflation' needed; with hundreds of monsters, there's bound to be a few errors, and it would be natural to assume a 'weird' monster is more powerful.
• "CR is a poor solution because..."
• "...it's too weak/too powerful."
• You're probably running something other than "One from the divine caster category, one from the fighting category, one from the skill-monkey category, and one from the arcane caster category" and/or who spent something very different from 40% of their gold on a primary weapon, 20% on armour-equivalent, 20% on shield-equivalent, and 20% on miscellaneous.
• And yes, that's what the developers playtested on (AFAIK), and that's what they recommend (AFAIK).
• Play something too different, and you'll have to rely on eyeball much more than CR.
• Either that, or your players are either much better or much worse at optimizing than the playtesting team.
• Again, you'll need to rely on eyeball much more than CR.
• Check the chapter on creating challenges. +/-5 levels from the party's average, and slanted towards the lower end.
• And a shorter range at low levels.
• d20 is actually fairly harsh and deadly if you run RAW for wandering monster check frequency and danger levels.
• You and your players may have differing expectations.
• "My Wizard keeps running out of spells at low levels."
• A 1st-level Wizard gets the Scribe Scroll feat for free.
• Yeah, I know *you* read the chart. That still doesn't explain searching the internet and finding threads full of people who don't know this. :)
• Given adventuring income, you should be able to afford to carry some extras.
• Making magic scrolls is a *Lot* easier in d20.
• If your GM doesn't give you the spare time, you're probably on a gruelling, epic quest, and everyone's strapped for supplies.
• Including food and water.
• You can also buy them cheaply, including a few from some villages.
• Check the DMG rules for a settlement's spare cash, or ask your GM to.
• "Costs are ridiculous."
• Yes; all adventuring gear is sold at 20x the price. If you want a fairly "realistic" economy, just divide the cost of anything "adventuring" by 20.
• Wealth by level is similarly inflated by 20x, so if you do make the prices "realistic", divide that by 20, too.
• Also treasure values such as gems, art, found coins...Those are inflated, too.

 Well, we ended up having too many questions for just one update. Tune in later for Part 2.

The d20 System is (c) Wizards of the Coast, inc., and is used here solely for review purposes.
The d20 System SRD is (c) Wizards of the Coast, inc., and is included or referenced here solely for review purposes.