make many changes you collectively would disagree with. I'd get rid of races, in a heart beat. I'd probably compress the game down to four classes and then make everything else a subclass. I might consider axing the rogue completely and maybe all skills too. I wouldn't make warlocks a class, instead, pacts and pact magic could be something that anyone could get (if they made a pact with a powerful being). Maybe sorcerers get the axe too. Or maybe they get transformed into something actually unique with completely different capacities from wizards.
I'd make an emphasis on strategic play and things to invest money in. Maybe a whole system for running a mercantile network. I think it should be a natural extension of an adventuring career to transform from a single skilled blade on the battlefield to a person who inspires others to fight for your causes. Not universally true, but it should be the general rule with exceptions, unlike the other way around.
I'd also restructure combat to be a bit more deadly and have monsters be fearsome beasts that you can't let your guard down against. I always feel it a shame that combat is, more or less, an aspect of the game you can brute-force. Ideally, every part of the game at every level should require some thought and deliberation. After all, that is the foundation of role-playing games-- that you engage with the world and through that engagement make it real.
I'd probably also establish a character database that people can search and use real player characters as NPCs in their games. Maybe have like players describe a character's history and which world they lived in and where (and when) and then use that to help create a shared game space. Also have the ability for players to write if they used a character and what they ended up doing with them. That'd be pretty cool.
- My top one would be more classes. Warlord, swordmage, psion, summoner, playtest sorcerer (renamed as something else) and potentially a few more.
- All martials get manoeuvres and superiority dice. (Different ones for each class).
- Backgrounds become much more mechanically impactful.
- Aasimar, tieflings, and genasi become templates which can be applied to any race.
- More mundane weapons. Like a martial spear without thrown, but with reach.
- More classes get warlock type options to make builds more varied.
Probably some other changes too which I just can't think of right now, but inevitably will the second I hit 'post reply'.
- Make feats not compete with ASI's.
So, what was this Playtest Sorcerer? Where can I find it?
I'm not sure that I'm allowed to post the link. But I'll give a summary here.
Some background first. Back in 3.5, all casters used vancian casting. They had to prepare spells for each slot individually. Sorcerer had the unique mechanic of being a spontaneous caster, where it could cast any of its spells known from slots of the correct level. This made sorcerer far more flexible than other casters. Metamagic meanwhile was just a feat. Any caster could access it by taking that feat.
So when the original DnD 5e playtest came around, all casters now had spontaneous casting. Which left sorcerer in a weird place as its signature mechanic was now standard for all casters. To solve this, they decided to kill two birds with one stone, and combine it with the arcane half caster class.
The result was a half caster, which used will points to cast instead of spell slots. It had a d8 hit die, and access to martial weapons and all armour. However its signature ability was becoming more and more like its source of power as it 'spent' its will over the day casting. So a draconic sorcerer would grow claws and scales and become more melee orientated over the day.
The reception was mixed. With some people liking how unique the class was, while other disliked it due to it straying so far from the sorcerer's roots. After the initial playtest, it vanished for the next ten of so playtesting packets, only to appear in the final game as a ****** wizard with the metamagic feat glued onto the side with duct tape. Along with the ranger, it had received by far the least playtesting, and 'coincidently' both classes have been the worst received and most complained about this edition.
As a secondary effect, what happened with sorcerer also is the reason why DnD 5e had no arcane version of the paladin and ranger. As sorcerer was meant to take that spot, when it got reverted to being a full caster at the last minute, there was nothing to fill that gap.
That sounds way more interesting than the Sorcerer we got! Tefawk?!?
Sorcerers would be CON based casters when it comes to their magic, considering it is written all over what a Sorcerer is with the fact the magic comes from within them basically.
Also I would focus on either more classes themselves or more subclasses rather then coming up with some other race to add to the already ridiculous number of races that 5e has become plagued with.
Nowadays, races are for all practical purposes only skins. So WotC already fixed that for you.
You get several abilities from your race that help make your character stronger. Just because there are floating ASI's in M3 does not mean that "races are for all practical purposes only skins".
Faeries still let you fly and yuan-ti still give you magic and poison resistance. Those abilities are powerful and they come from your race.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Fold the champion into the battlemaster. Basically, gets both.
5MWD has a supplement that folds superiority dice into EVERYONE. Advanced 5E by Morrus also has something similar.
I have LOVED sidekicks and completely agree- Champion can also be folded in here. Note: the 'mage' sidekick may use INT but its closer to a sorc than a wizard. Spell selection is like the Eldricth knight/ Arcane Trickster
I can't think of a single successful fantasy ttrpg where everyone has to be the same species.
I'd probably compress the game down to four classes and then make everything else a subclass.
Objectively awful. Classes are already one of the biggest flaws in D&D - this would make it substantially worse.
I might consider axing the rogue completely and maybe all skills too.
Getting rid of "Rogue" as a class is fine. Getting rid of skills entirely makes your ttrpg literally unplayable and no-one at all would ever play it. Characters have to be able to do things.
I wouldn't make warlocks a class, instead, pacts and pact magic could be something that anyone could get (if they made a pact with a powerful being).
This is fine, it just raises the power level of everyone, since now everyone, no exceptions, will be a warlock. But intended power level is simply part of game design, you can pick anything you want if you design the game around it.
Maybe sorcerers get the axe too.
Totally fine, just like getting rid of "Rogue". Class names don't mean anything.
Or maybe they get transformed into something actually unique with completely different capacities from wizards.
Or you could rename wizards "sorcerers". Like I said, class names don't mean anything.
I'd make an emphasis on strategic play and things to invest money in. Maybe a whole system for running a mercantile network.
Impossible without skills.
I think it should be a natural extension of an adventuring career to transform from a single skilled blade on the battlefield to a person who inspires others to fight for your causes. Not universally true, but it should be the general rule with exceptions, unlike the other way around.
Also impossible without skills.
I'd also restructure combat to be a bit more deadly and have monsters be fearsome beasts that you can't let your guard down against. I always feel it a shame that combat is, more or less, an aspect of the game you can brute-force. Ideally, every part of the game at every level should require some thought and deliberation. After all, that is the foundation of role-playing games-- that you engage with the world and through that engagement make it real.
See above notes about power level.
I'd probably also establish a character database that people can search and use real player characters as NPCs in their games.
Now we're into active boycott territory. If you take the necessary steps to ensure this database only contains actual player characters and contains every player character, no one is going to sign your EULA. It would end up far more draconian than anything e.g. Facebook employs.
I can't think of a single successful fantasy ttrpg where everyone has to be the same species.
I'd probably compress the game down to four classes and then make everything else a subclass.
Objectively awful. Classes are already one of the biggest flaws in D&D - this would make it substantially worse.
I might consider axing the rogue completely and maybe all skills too.
Getting rid of "Rogue" as a class is fine. Getting rid of skills entirely makes your ttrpg literally unplayable and no-one at all would ever play it. Characters have to be able to do things.
I wouldn't make warlocks a class, instead, pacts and pact magic could be something that anyone could get (if they made a pact with a powerful being).
This is fine, it just raises the power level of everyone, since now everyone, no exceptions, will be a warlock. But intended power level is simply part of game design, you can pick anything you want if you design the game around it.
Maybe sorcerers get the axe too.
Totally fine, just like getting rid of "Rogue". Class names don't mean anything.
Or maybe they get transformed into something actually unique with completely different capacities from wizards.
Or you could rename wizards "sorcerers". Like I said, class names don't mean anything.
I'd make an emphasis on strategic play and things to invest money in. Maybe a whole system for running a mercantile network.
Impossible without skills.
I think it should be a natural extension of an adventuring career to transform from a single skilled blade on the battlefield to a person who inspires others to fight for your causes. Not universally true, but it should be the general rule with exceptions, unlike the other way around.
Also impossible without skills.
I'd also restructure combat to be a bit more deadly and have monsters be fearsome beasts that you can't let your guard down against. I always feel it a shame that combat is, more or less, an aspect of the game you can brute-force. Ideally, every part of the game at every level should require some thought and deliberation. After all, that is the foundation of role-playing games-- that you engage with the world and through that engagement make it real.
See above notes about power level.
I'd probably also establish a character database that people can search and use real player characters as NPCs in their games.
Now we're into active boycott territory. If you take the necessary steps to ensure this database only contains actual player characters and contains every player character, no one is going to sign your EULA. It would end up far more draconian than anything e.g. Facebook employs.
[REDACTED]
Spoilers: skills are not present in all editions of D&D. An, lo, characters could still do things. Imagine that, you can have a functional class based RPG without a skill system.
[REDACTED]
Notes: Please keep comments on-topic and respectful
Nowadays, races are for all practical purposes only skins. So WotC already fixed that for you.
Actually, that was the point where I arrived at my current position. In my estimation the ASIs were balanced against the traits a race received. Now, with floating ASIs, you have races with good traits and those with inferior ones. If we truly are going to adopt the position that no-one is stronger, smarter or faster based on their race, then we should not act with half-measures. Cut the whole system out of the game and be done with this vestige that now only serves to enable munchkinery. D&D was designed to be a human-centric game anyhow and the single most popular race to play is human anyhow.
Actually, I'm not opposed to the idea of races truly being a skin. Some people want to be dwarves or elves. They just shouldn't be mechanically rewarded (or penalised) for their choice.
I'd be giving the martials partial reworks similar to the star wars 5e book, including the expansion of fighting styles, the addition of fighting masteries, making maneuvers baseline for all fighters, adding a crap ton more maneuvers in general, the mechanic they have for their rogue class where they can sacrifice some sneak attack dice for extra effects based on subclass, etc. And all around giving every class an 'invocation' like secondary customization beyond their class and subclass.
I'd be making many a change to warlock invocations. I'm not a super big fan of how some of them are basically just nabbing features from other classes, like pact of the tome being able to have a book of ritual spells like wizards, or eldritch smite.
I'd keep floating asis, but keep the other race features, while giving a pass over some of the weaker races to make them better.
I'd personally like races to be more impactful, rather than less.
More unique features per playable race, more movement differences. And feats only accessible to some and not others. (like elemental feat lines for genasi).
Make background +1, race +1, and then the player gets a +1 and -1 floating to put anywhere.
I would make a few changes, mostly revolving around the Ability Scores. Most other changes I want to make are too heavily ingrained in the system to change, so this is what I would do.
1: All characters gain +1 Health/Level, and an additional Health/Level equal to half of their Strength modifier (rounded down). Point-Buy gives 4 less points. Constitution is removed from the game, everything that refers to Constitution is now Strength-based. This would require a slight rebalance of save proficiency, with Martials getting two of Strength/Dex/Wis, and Casters getting one of Strength/Dex/Wis and one of Int/Cha.
2: All characters gain additional skill proficiencies equal to half their Intelligence modifier (rounded down). This can be any skill.
3: Starting at level 3, all characters gain half-proficiency (rounded down) in all saving throws they were not already proficient in.
4. Fix the CR system and monster balance. Give a good pass at everything and make sure it lines up. No intentionally giving dragons a lower CR than their power level like is currently the case.
5: Crits are either on 20 or by hitting AC+10. Champion expands the AC+10 crit range by +2/+4.
First and foremost, we would learn some of the better lessons of 4e.
Screw Hit Dice, we're reimplementing Healing Surges. Surges heal 1/4 of your max HP, you have a small pool of them to be used throughout the adventuring day, healing effects allow you to expend a Healing Surge and maybe heal little more on the side, some traps and monster abilities will target your Surge pool instead of your current HP, if you lack Surges to lose, you lose 1/4 of your HP instead.
We're making Magic make sense again. Sure, every Vancian-caster fanatic can keep their cherished spell slots. But we're shifting and redistributing some things around to make things clear and concise. No more of this 9th level caster can only cast 5th level magic nonsense. You want Wizards to get access to Fireball at 5th level, good news, it's now a 5th level spell.
The Warlord and the Shaman are coming back! No good reason for this, other than I liked what the Warlord had to offer in the way of Martial Healing and making the party my Pokemon, and my wife was a big fan of the Shaman and the way it interacted with its spirit companion. It looks like WotC is sort of flirting with some Shaman-esque options in the new Druid UA.
Most of the rest of my wants have been discussed already. Sorcerer's should be Con casters, etc....
If I were king of 5e, there'd be no adjusting of ability scores other than through Feat, more of which would be available overall, more of which would adjust ability scores, and more of which would be earned at character creation and as you level. For example, if you wanted a higher Charisma score, you'd have new Feats such as "Attractive" or "Orator," but instead just adding to Charisma, the former would grant expertise in Seduction (a new skill check), whereas the latter would grant expertise in Persuasion. Each Race would have a few exclusive Feats it can take, as well as a few Feats it can't select from the general list.
I'd also have added three more classes to the game:
Summoner (with subclasses for specific types of summons such as elementals, fay, fiends, celestials, etc.)
Professional (a utility-focused class for the fantasy equivalent of jobs such as Archeologist, Journalist, Private Investigator, and Secret Agent)
Psionic (based on the scrapped Unearthed Arcana for Mystics)
Nowadays, races are for all practical purposes only skins. So WotC already fixed that for you.
I know, so sad.
Races are not just for practical purposes. They give you more combat abilities and can impact your characters culture, backstory, and where you grew up.
Were I the King of 5E, I would...
make many changes you collectively would disagree with. I'd get rid of races, in a heart beat. I'd probably compress the game down to four classes and then make everything else a subclass. I might consider axing the rogue completely and maybe all skills too. I wouldn't make warlocks a class, instead, pacts and pact magic could be something that anyone could get (if they made a pact with a powerful being). Maybe sorcerers get the axe too. Or maybe they get transformed into something actually unique with completely different capacities from wizards.
I'd make an emphasis on strategic play and things to invest money in. Maybe a whole system for running a mercantile network. I think it should be a natural extension of an adventuring career to transform from a single skilled blade on the battlefield to a person who inspires others to fight for your causes. Not universally true, but it should be the general rule with exceptions, unlike the other way around.
I'd also restructure combat to be a bit more deadly and have monsters be fearsome beasts that you can't let your guard down against. I always feel it a shame that combat is, more or less, an aspect of the game you can brute-force. Ideally, every part of the game at every level should require some thought and deliberation. After all, that is the foundation of role-playing games-- that you engage with the world and through that engagement make it real.
I'd probably also establish a character database that people can search and use real player characters as NPCs in their games. Maybe have like players describe a character's history and which world they lived in and where (and when) and then use that to help create a shared game space. Also have the ability for players to write if they used a character and what they ended up doing with them. That'd be pretty cool.
That sounds way more interesting than the Sorcerer we got! Tefawk?!?
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
If I controlled 5e, I would make Paladin even more clearly better than Cleric, to finally resolve the debate.
“Magic is distilled laziness. Put that on my gravestone.”
If I was king of 5e.....
Sorcerers would be CON based casters when it comes to their magic, considering it is written all over what a Sorcerer is with the fact the magic comes from within them basically.
Also I would focus on either more classes themselves or more subclasses rather then coming up with some other race to add to the already ridiculous number of races that 5e has become plagued with.
Nowadays, races are for all practical purposes only skins. So WotC already fixed that for you.
You get several abilities from your race that help make your character stronger. Just because there are floating ASI's in M3 does not mean that "races are for all practical purposes only skins".
Faeries still let you fly and yuan-ti still give you magic and poison resistance. Those abilities are powerful and they come from your race.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.I don't mind the floating points part.
But I kind of wish everyone got a floating negative too. I feel that starting level 1 scores are just too high.
Fold the champion into the battlemaster. Basically, gets both.
5MWD has a supplement that folds superiority dice into EVERYONE. Advanced 5E by Morrus also has something similar.
I have LOVED sidekicks and completely agree- Champion can also be folded in here. Note: the 'mage' sidekick may use INT but its closer to a sorc than a wizard. Spell selection is like the Eldricth knight/ Arcane Trickster
I can't think of a single successful fantasy ttrpg where everyone has to be the same species.
Objectively awful. Classes are already one of the biggest flaws in D&D - this would make it substantially worse.
Getting rid of "Rogue" as a class is fine. Getting rid of skills entirely makes your ttrpg literally unplayable and no-one at all would ever play it. Characters have to be able to do things.
This is fine, it just raises the power level of everyone, since now everyone, no exceptions, will be a warlock. But intended power level is simply part of game design, you can pick anything you want if you design the game around it.
Totally fine, just like getting rid of "Rogue". Class names don't mean anything.
Or you could rename wizards "sorcerers". Like I said, class names don't mean anything.
Impossible without skills.
Also impossible without skills.
See above notes about power level.
Now we're into active boycott territory. If you take the necessary steps to ensure this database only contains actual player characters and contains every player character, no one is going to sign your EULA. It would end up far more draconian than anything e.g. Facebook employs.
[REDACTED]
Spoilers: skills are not present in all editions of D&D. An, lo, characters could still do things. Imagine that, you can have a functional class based RPG without a skill system.
[REDACTED]
Actually, that was the point where I arrived at my current position. In my estimation the ASIs were balanced against the traits a race received. Now, with floating ASIs, you have races with good traits and those with inferior ones. If we truly are going to adopt the position that no-one is stronger, smarter or faster based on their race, then we should not act with half-measures. Cut the whole system out of the game and be done with this vestige that now only serves to enable munchkinery. D&D was designed to be a human-centric game anyhow and the single most popular race to play is human anyhow.
Actually, I'm not opposed to the idea of races truly being a skin. Some people want to be dwarves or elves. They just shouldn't be mechanically rewarded (or penalised) for their choice.
I know, so sad.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I'd be giving the martials partial reworks similar to the star wars 5e book, including the expansion of fighting styles, the addition of fighting masteries, making maneuvers baseline for all fighters, adding a crap ton more maneuvers in general, the mechanic they have for their rogue class where they can sacrifice some sneak attack dice for extra effects based on subclass, etc. And all around giving every class an 'invocation' like secondary customization beyond their class and subclass.
I'd be making many a change to warlock invocations. I'm not a super big fan of how some of them are basically just nabbing features from other classes, like pact of the tome being able to have a book of ritual spells like wizards, or eldritch smite.
I'd keep floating asis, but keep the other race features, while giving a pass over some of the weaker races to make them better.
Why is no one freaking out about this? Usually people start yelling at me… how strange.
“Magic is distilled laziness. Put that on my gravestone.”
I'd personally like races to be more impactful, rather than less.
More unique features per playable race, more movement differences. And feats only accessible to some and not others. (like elemental feat lines for genasi).
Make background +1, race +1, and then the player gets a +1 and -1 floating to put anywhere.
I would make a few changes, mostly revolving around the Ability Scores. Most other changes I want to make are too heavily ingrained in the system to change, so this is what I would do.
1: All characters gain +1 Health/Level, and an additional Health/Level equal to half of their Strength modifier (rounded down). Point-Buy gives 4 less points. Constitution is removed from the game, everything that refers to Constitution is now Strength-based. This would require a slight rebalance of save proficiency, with Martials getting two of Strength/Dex/Wis, and Casters getting one of Strength/Dex/Wis and one of Int/Cha.
2: All characters gain additional skill proficiencies equal to half their Intelligence modifier (rounded down). This can be any skill.
3: Starting at level 3, all characters gain half-proficiency (rounded down) in all saving throws they were not already proficient in.
4. Fix the CR system and monster balance. Give a good pass at everything and make sure it lines up. No intentionally giving dragons a lower CR than their power level like is currently the case.
5: Crits are either on 20 or by hitting AC+10. Champion expands the AC+10 crit range by +2/+4.
In other news, I recently learned about PF2E.
If I were king of 5e.....
First and foremost, we would learn some of the better lessons of 4e.
Most of the rest of my wants have been discussed already. Sorcerer's should be Con casters, etc....
If I were king of 5e, there'd be no adjusting of ability scores other than through Feat, more of which would be available overall, more of which would adjust ability scores, and more of which would be earned at character creation and as you level. For example, if you wanted a higher Charisma score, you'd have new Feats such as "Attractive" or "Orator," but instead just adding to Charisma, the former would grant expertise in Seduction (a new skill check), whereas the latter would grant expertise in Persuasion. Each Race would have a few exclusive Feats it can take, as well as a few Feats it can't select from the general list.
I'd also have added three more classes to the game:
Wait forgot a change I'd make.
Bard would get turned into a half caster. A 'Jack of all trades' class. Not a horny wizard with a guitar.
Races are not just for practical purposes. They give you more combat abilities and can impact your characters culture, backstory, and where you grew up.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.