Reaction table on 2d10

Charisma was the only ability score in classic D&D that didn't follow the standard progression of bonuses and penalties. Instead, the scores that normally gave a 2-point adjustment were held to 1 point, with 2 points coming only at the extremes of 3 and 18. That's because adjustments have an outsized impact on a 2d6 roll compared to their effects on the d20 rolls to which most of them are applied.

If that anomaly in an otherwise flawless symmetry ever bugged you, here's a solution: a 2d10 reaction table to accommodate the full range of ability adjustments. The odds of each reaction level are within a few tenths of a percentage point from the originals.

Roll (2d10 + modifiers)	Reaction
2-3	Immediate attack
4-8	Hostile; -2 to next roll
9-13	Neutral
14-18	Agreeable; +2 to next roll
19-20	Friendly

Encumbrance simplified

Encumbrance is important if you really want to play up the physical resource management aspects of the game. A journey through trackless wilderness or being lost in the bowels of a haunted catacomb loses some of its suspense if a party can carry as many rations and torches as they can be bothered to write on their equipment lists.

It's also labeled as "Optional" for good reason. As written, it's one of the most tedious things to track at the game table, and a total momentum-killer.

Let's see if we can't minimize the drag and make encumbrance a practical rule to use.

To start out, forget that nonsense about calculating every coin of encumbrance. We'll use an increment of roughly ten pounds instead. Call it a carrying unit or a hundredweight (100 coins) or a stone (yeah, I know that's actually 14 pounds in the "real" world) or whatever you like.

Every character gets an allowance of 4 carrying units. If you like, modify it by the character's Strength adjustment. Up to this amount, the character is considered unencumbered.

Now, only tally up the really important stuff, and ignore miscellaneous gear, unless someone's carrying a really absurd amount of torches or holy water or something. Armor equals 1 carrying unit per point of AC (6 for plate, 4 for mail, 2 for leather, 1 for shield.) One large weapon, two medium weapons, or five small weapons are also 1 carrying unit. Two weeks of iron rations or one week of standard rations is 1 CU. A hundred coins, or anything roughly approaching it, is 1 CU. (If you prefer your coins a little less chunky, just set this to 200 or 500 coins to the CU, or whatever.)

Now here's the clever bit. Take the character's exploration movement rate, 120' per turn for standard human and demihuman characters. For every CU over the character's basic allowance, subtract 10 from this number. That's the character's encumbered movement per turn. When you need to convert to encounter movement, just round up, so e.g. a rate of 120, 110, or 100 is still 40' per round.

Every time a character picks up or drops some significant item, just add or subtract 10 from the base movement rate. Ignore the piddly stuff until it seems that someone's really accumulating a hoard of it, and then just tack on another CU. No tedious mucking about with a calculator; just add or subtract a factor of 10 from movement and get on with the game.

Assuming no Strength adjustments, an average character will hit 0' per turn at 16 carrying units. At a glance that's a little less forgiving than the classic D&D standard, which has movement at 30'(10') when carrying 1601 or more coins of encumbrance, and 0' at 2401 coins, but given the generous fudge factor built in to this scheme, it's pretty damn close.

Simplified spellcasting

Despite the game's overall simplicity, the spell memorization and casting rules of classic D&D have always seemed overly complicated and cumbersome. I get the rationale behind it. Just like choosing which supplies and equipment to carry on a given expedition, it adds an element of planning and resource management to magic which you wouldn't get in a system that allows free-casting from among all the spells a character knows. I just don't think it does it very effectively. It's a lot of referring to charts and tables and lists, a lot of extra bookkeeping for the player, and in my own experience encourages players to default to load up on multiples of a few high-powered combat spells and avoid other potentially useful spells.

What I'm looking at is essentially a spell-point system, but one that utilizes minimal math and dead simple tracking that eliminates the need to refer to charts and tables, while retaining an element of resource preparation and management.

A magic-user maintains a spell book with all spells known, but can only memorize one spell level per level of experience, plus or minus the Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 spell level in the event of Int penalties.) Thus, a 4th-level magic-user with Intelligence 14 (+1 bonus) could memorize five spell levels, in any combination the player desires. That could be five 1st level spells, two 1st and one 3rd level, one 1st and one 4th level, or any combination that adds to five.

A magic-user has two spell points per level of experience per day, which can be used to cast any memorized spell as often as desired, so long as the caster has enough spell points remaining. A full night's rest will restore all spell points, and lesser rest periods might restore them partially. Our level 4 MU from above would have eight spell points per day.

This ends up giving low-level magic-users a little bit of a power-up, and high level ones significantly less total firepower, as you can see in the table below:

Character Level	Standard Total Spells	Standard Total Spell Levels	Revised Total Spell Levels
1	1	1	2
2	2	2	4
3	3	4	6
4	4	6	8
5	5	9	10
6	6	12	12
7	8	17	14
8	10	23	16
9	12	31	18
10	14	40	20
11	16	47	22
12	19	60	24
13	21	69	26
14	22	73	28

This might seem unfair to higher-level characters, but I think the gains in versatility compensate for the loss of total power. How many of those extra spell levels are destined to go uncast because they're tied up in spells that weren't useful for situations faced in that day's adventure? In the standard system, if a player wants to be able to cast plenty of fireball spells, it comes only at the expense of the ability to cast other spells, especially of the niche and utility variety. In the revised system, the player can choose a single instance of fireball and a few utility spells too. If the latter prove useful, the character has access to them, and if not, the power can be channeled into extra fireballs with none going to waste.

You might also notice that a caster won't necessarily be able to memorize a spell of every level he or she can cast. Again, I think the ability to use every last spell point through the versatility of limited free-casting plus the ability to memorize any combination of spells (e.g. a  high-level caster could choose all 1st and 2nd-level spells if desired, or a mid-level mage could forgo low-level spells completely in order to take a single 6th-level spell, is sufficient compensation. It's an interesting resource management choice, while limiting the sheer bulk of decisions to make when selecting spells to memorize.

Bottom line, if you know your character's level and the levels of spells, you know exactly how many spell levels he or she can memorize and cast without consulting a chart, and within those limits you have carte blanche. If you can add and subtract single-digit numbers, the on-the-fly bookkeeping is a breeze. You don't have to keep track of which specific spells you've cast; it's literally as easy as tracking hit points.

A few consequences of this system that I think could prove fun, useful, and/or interesting:

• It makes the Intelligence adjustment relevant in ways other than XP bonuses, without making an 18 Intelligence virtually mandatory. A magic-user gains (or loses) a little versatility based on Int, but not overall firepower. 
• It allows for partial restoration of spell points, such as through less than a full night's rest or magic items such as potions that restore a point or three.
• It allows for magic items that aid in casting, such as a wand that reduces the casting cost of a particular spell or category of spells (fire, charm, detection, etc.) by a point, or a hat that allows an extra spell level to be memorized.
• You could easily add a rule for casting beyond one's ability using hit points (1d4 damage/spell level, cannot be restored magically but only by rest?) after the character's spell points are expended, and/or a rule for casting non-memorized spells from a spell book at a greater spell point cost. 
• The linear warrior/quadratic wizard conundrum is somewhat mitigated. 

This is what I'm going to use for my Goblins & Greatswords fantasy heartbreaker, but it seems that it should transplant pretty well into any old school edition of D&D without too much fuss.