Standardize language. Here's exactly what I'm referring to: I can make rolls, throws, and checks. Why? Why???
Just delete saving throws. Those are ability checks now. Delete attack rolls -- those are also ability checks. Fighters are proficient in ability checks using weapons. Wizards aren't. Rogues are proficient in Dexterity checks using weapons.
Bless adds a d4 to every ability check made to attack or resist enemy creatures. Diamond Soul makes you proficient in all ability checks made to protect yourself.
Or call them ability rolls, even.
You can probably also clean up AC and DC and Spell Save DC, but I'm short on time right now.
I would like to see a more formal tool or guidance for 5e convert to to a OSR / hardcore style of play. Mainly to limit the HP/dmg etc, Maybe also limit the set of spells / items to a set of "core" spells /items. I think there is still a desire for OSR style and I know a party can do this on their own (or use another system) but maybe taking the legwork out of limiting the 5e system might be desirable for those who prefer the OSR style of play?
Could probably just be a section with tables for classes / items / spells / monsters allowable for 5e OSR play. Maybe folks can think of it akin to how adventuring league play is controlled but with more limitations.
I wouldn't expect a ton from the first pass at this, but maybe its something that can grow through play testing.
I currently play five games of D&D - two games alternating every other Thursday with each other, a new one booting up on Tuesdays, a game on Sunday, and an ongoing play-by-post. I'm currently a third-level foxkin warlock in Exandria, a third-level Umbragen paladin in Eberron, a ninth-level furling rogue/cleric in Urth, an eleventh-level tiefling artificer-wizard in Tursk, and a thirteenth-level tabaxi wizard in Faerun-and-FR-adjacent. The artificer started at fifth level and has been seeing more-or-less continuous play for close to two years. All of my games tend to average between two and a half to three and a half hours per session, so on the shorter side, but still. I've also DM'd a game for 'bout eight months, from third to eighth level, and both run and participated in a series of one-shots.
So no. Despite the scornful dismissal inherent in the question, I am not an armchair sideliner who talks the talk without ever walking the walk. I'm playing so much D&D I had to turn down a couple newer games offered to me recently, as well as a request to DM, because I've hit my comfortable limit with the number of games I can participate in. My Thursday and Tuesday group is also remarkably regular - we missed maybe half a dozen sessions last year, and before that we only missed a session once every three or four months. The Sunday game is flakier, but honestly it has a better than 50% record so far so I'll take it.
None of which should really be remotely necessary for anybody to fish for. My credentials don't matter to my discussion points, ne? If someone can't answer another's words, attacking their validity as a player seems a very poor second indeed, hm? Something to remember, perhaps
I did not ask if you ever played the game. I asked if you spend more time learning to optimize than you spend playing the game. You didn’t answer that question.
As for why it matters, I believe DND is two games in one. One is an optimization game and one is a roleplaying game. There is no BADWRONGFUN. Both are good. Play what you enjoy. But, I think DND suffers by trying to be both. It is like a car-boat. They exist. Some people even like them. But, there are more people who own a car and a boat then there are people who own a car-boat.
This proverbial “car-boat” we call 5e is currently the most popular Table Top game on the planet. How does that jive with your theory?
Honestly, most of my players don’t optimize all that much, they play the character. If they want to play a pre-Fizban’s Black Dragonborn Assassin Rogue, that’s what they play. The fact that Pre-Fizban’s Dragonborn are meh (especially the chromatics) and that the Assassin is the worst Rogue subclass in the game has no bearing on their decision making. One of them is currently playing a Berserker who uses a Greatsword instead of any other Barbarian using an Axe because that’s the character. Another player actually chose the Grappler feat because it fit her character. 🤷♂️ Every table is different.
Oh, I thought of another one. Excise all the spells that replace class features and skills. I'm sure my opinions of which spells fall into this category won't be universal, but here are some examples: Create Water. Pass Without Trace. Charm Person. Booming Blade. Knock.
You could keep the fun ones in by making them class features. I think a sneaky Rogue or Ranger ought to be able to give their party a Stealth bonus similar to PWT. Maybe not +10 because that's insane, but even if it had to be +10, you could cost it similarly to a spell slot. Maybe there's a Rogue Die that a Rogue can use on his special features such as Group Sneak or Having Extra Money, and he gets three per rest. I feel as though I've heard this one before...
Isn't the game less like a "car-boat" and more like having a car that you race on the weekend, and do tune-up mechanical work on in your spare time during the week if you're into that kind of thing? Both activities can be done separately, but they're both relevant to how well you race.
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This proverbial “car-boat” we call 5e is currently the most popular Table Top game on the planet. How does that jive with your theory?
For real!
It is a strange discussion when it comes to 5e. A system designed very specifically to allow players to have many options, with the intent to have some level of system mastery and optimization and then to claim that "optimization is bad" and the game is about role-playing.
Why can't it be both? How does one detract from the other? I do get it, some DM's and players don't like optimization but the only way to not have that is to use a different system, one where optimization doesn't exist. You can't say "let's play 5e" then tell players, ignore what the system does and make unoptimized characters because of "role-playing". Its a pretty ridiculous expectation and I suspect one that is largely theorized by people that don't actually play D&D and their participation in the hobby is just that.. theory crafting about what D&D should be.
Anyone who actually plays the game understands that if you use 3e, 4e or 5e, your players are going to optimize their characters, they are supposed to, the game is designed for it, its not a bad thing, its part of the game and has no impact on role-playing at all.
I'm happy with the level of granular optimization that exists in the game right now. I do think it's close to too much. The optional class features are the thing putting it juuuuuust about there. It's why I'm worried about these feat trees they're talking about lately. And that's basically why, right there. It can become a real drag!
I'm someone who will optimize. I'll spend the time outside of the game, figuring out the progression path I want, and crunching numbers. I'll regret following a narrative if it means compromising my build, and I'll regret following my build if it means compromising a narrative. There's no winning with me.
I won't feel good if I'm outperforming someone else due to my build, and I will feel resentful if someone's outperforming me because of theirs. And I've seen people try to backseat build other people's characters to be more optimal, and that sucks too.
A certain amount of customization is vital, to make players feel connected to their characters. I think it's in a good spot where it is. Everyone I play with seems to enjoy their characters, and these optimization problems I described are kept to a minimum. If a book comes along that changes this, I hope it's a new edition, because otherwise it effectively enters the meta for me. I can choose not to use it, but then I'm choosing to nerf myself, and that sucks. Psychology is weird.
"Dumbing down the game"? Or, are they streamlining the game?
Adding complexity to a system is easy. Any amateur can do that. It takes skill to make something simple.
It takes skill to make something simple without losing any important functionality. Making something simple by just eliminating functionality isn't hard. The question is which parts of the system actually represent important functions, and the reality is that people don't agree on what's important.
I absolutely don't want to alienate the newer players from DnD because it is too complicated, but I DO want more meaningful character creation past third level. The system is literally designed to be limiting so it is easy to learn, and I don't feel that I can do many of my character ideas justice with the limited flavour from a single subclass. Not to mention that any character built with a single subclass in mind is often tropey.
I think a good way to make everyone happy is to have a really good 'core' system which is super streamlined and easy to understand, but have optional extra character creation rules which allow greater customization. Think pregen classes versus build-your-own classes. I would even put the character options in a fourth core rulebook instead of the PhB. I also think that the rules should be backwards compatible so that tables don't have to decide what rules they are using and instead just have each player choose which system they wanna use.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually think this would REDUCE powergaming in some aspects, as it gives players another option to feel fulfilled with their character each level instead of them trying to 'break' the very limited game, however I also fully acknowledge the fact that more complicated rules would make the game easier to break.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
And yes, streamlining = dumbing down. Less rules make it palatable to a more casual, less sophisticated consumer base, which Hasbo thinks means more sales.
I mean the sales have boomed with 5e, so you also cant say they are wrong...
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
And yes, streamlining = dumbing down. Less rules make it palatable to a more casual, less sophisticated consumer base, which Hasbo thinks means more sales.
I mean the sales have boomed with 5e, so you also cant say they are wrong...
And they will double down on that with 6e. Expect the game to extend more into the setting where the chars are cartoon-like in their abilities.
IDK man, WotC has been listening to the community a lot more recently....
I am a relentless optimist though so maybe I am just looking too much on the bright side.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
And yes, streamlining = dumbing down. Less rules make it palatable to a more casual, less sophisticated consumer base, which Hasbo thinks means more sales.
I mean the sales have boomed with 5e, so you also cant say they are wrong...
And they will double down on that with 6e. Expect the game to extend more into the setting where the chars are cartoon-like in their abilities.
What does 'cartoon-like' mean? The only notable streamlining I've seen them do over the process of 5e (i.e. after the edition was created) is the realization that giving monsters a list of a dozen spells is annoying.
Further, who do you think Witchlight and Strixhaven are geared for? In one, we have a fair and a module with no violence. In the other, we have 30 pages dedicated to a fashion show, and the rivalries between the participants in the fashion show, plus rolls on cleaning an espresso machine.
Have you read Witchlight? Because it's not an adventure with "no violence," it's an adventure with no mandatory violence. There are multiple different ways supported in the adventure to approach every single encounter in the book. If anything, that's the opposite of "dumbing down" D&D. Having to add different possible outcomes to every encounter in an adventure based on how the players choose to approach it (hostilely or diplomatically) makes the books more complex, not less.
And yes, streamlining = dumbing down. Less rules make it palatable to a more casual, less sophisticated consumer base, which Hasbo thinks means more sales.
There is such a thing as "too complicated" or "complex for the sake of being complex". D&D 5e is filled with these types of rules minutia. An attack with a melee weapon is a normally type of melee weapon attack, but not always, and not all melee weapon attacks are attacks made with melee weapons. Natural Weapons sometimes count as Unarmed Strikes, except for very specific lineages/class features that don't and instead count as Simple Weapons. Most spells require you to be able to provide Verbal, Somatic, and Material spell components, meaning you're not holding a shield or wielding a weapon in at least one hand, unless you happen to be holding a spellcasting focus (every spellcasting class can use different items as a focus), which lets you perform Somatic components with the same hand that you're accessing the Material components with . . . unless the material components of the spell are consumed or have a listed cost in gold.
All of these weird mechanical quirks of the current system could be "dumbed down" in a way that is good. There are parts of the game that should be simplified for the purpose of making the game open to a larger amount of people. There are parts of it that absolutely shouldn't be simplified like this . . . but there also are quite a few notable parts of the hobby that really serve no purpose other than being complicated for the point of being complicated.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I am not going to link anything from reddit here, but go on there and look up "redwyrmofficial", then get back to me. Now, this kid must be some kind of savant, given the language the his dad attributes to the kid, but if you scroll through, you will find the post from the WOTC lead designer thrilled with this.
Further, who do you think Witchlight and Strixhaven are geared for? In one, we have a fair and a module with no violence. In the other, we have 30 pages dedicated to a fashion show, and the rivalries between the participants in the fashion show, plus rolls on cleaning an espresso machine.
And yes, streamlining = dumbing down. Less rules make it palatable to a more casual, less sophisticated consumer base, which Hasbo thinks means more sales.
Funny, because I think needing a crutch in order to be able to role play your character is dumbing it down.
The grognard in me wants to point out that back when I started playing the game, we didn't have or need all this bloat. We could role play quite well using our little, soft, blue dice and our weapon and nonweapon proficiencies.
Then, you youngsters came along and added so much bloat that, instead of cramming three books into our backpacks and running off to meet our friends, I saw some of you needing a dolly to carry all of your books.
Well, guess what? You are a grognard now. Third edition is dusty on its bottom shelf at the local gaming store. Make way for a new bunch of players.
Funny thing is Mr. Grognard, I seem to only need to carry my laptop. You have fun with your three books, let me have fun with my... dolly.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
The point here is that its good to have a simple, straight to it baseline, a starting design space that is easy to work with, teach and learn, but ultimately as players gain the experience they will want more and more options.
Some people like to call this "bloat", another very silly concept. We hear this all the time how 3e had "power creep" and "bloat" which is nonsense. 3e players handbook is exactly the same today as the day it was released. What options you added to your game were up to you and your group. Optional content, expansion content, ways that we increase complexity should be optional and I see no reason to limit them. BUT... and this is a big but.. we need a base line D&D to start from
Couldn't agree with this more.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Hey, I’m one of those “grognards” that started in 2e and between all of the monster compendiums, “complete handbooks” and “player’s option” books it took 2 backpacks to bring everything and half the rules broke the game when used with the other half. The bloat and the optional rules shenanigans started way back when TSR still owned D&D, it’s nothing new.
Make Eldritch Blast a warlock class feature, not a cantrip.
Yeah would be a better fit.
Or go to route of letting agonizing blast add to any cantrip and then do invocations that affect other cantrips.
Make warlock the one who tweaks cantrips to do cool things
One thing, huh. Hm.
Standardize language. Here's exactly what I'm referring to: I can make rolls, throws, and checks. Why? Why???
Just delete saving throws. Those are ability checks now. Delete attack rolls -- those are also ability checks. Fighters are proficient in ability checks using weapons. Wizards aren't. Rogues are proficient in Dexterity checks using weapons.
Bless adds a d4 to every ability check made to attack or resist enemy creatures. Diamond Soul makes you proficient in all ability checks made to protect yourself.
Or call them ability rolls, even.
You can probably also clean up AC and DC and Spell Save DC, but I'm short on time right now.
I would like to see a more formal tool or guidance for 5e convert to to a OSR / hardcore style of play. Mainly to limit the HP/dmg etc, Maybe also limit the set of spells / items to a set of "core" spells /items. I think there is still a desire for OSR style and I know a party can do this on their own (or use another system) but maybe taking the legwork out of limiting the 5e system might be desirable for those who prefer the OSR style of play?
Could probably just be a section with tables for classes / items / spells / monsters allowable for 5e OSR play. Maybe folks can think of it akin to how adventuring league play is controlled but with more limitations.
I wouldn't expect a ton from the first pass at this, but maybe its something that can grow through play testing.
This proverbial “car-boat” we call 5e is currently the most popular Table Top game on the planet. How does that jive with your theory?
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Honestly, most of my players don’t optimize all that much, they play the character. If they want to play a pre-Fizban’s Black Dragonborn Assassin Rogue, that’s what they play. The fact that Pre-Fizban’s Dragonborn are meh (especially the chromatics) and that the Assassin is the worst Rogue subclass in the game has no bearing on their decision making. One of them is currently playing a Berserker who uses a Greatsword instead of any other Barbarian using an Axe because that’s the character. Another player actually chose the Grappler feat because it fit her character. 🤷♂️ Every table is different.
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Oh, I thought of another one. Excise all the spells that replace class features and skills. I'm sure my opinions of which spells fall into this category won't be universal, but here are some examples: Create Water. Pass Without Trace. Charm Person. Booming Blade. Knock.
You could keep the fun ones in by making them class features. I think a sneaky Rogue or Ranger ought to be able to give their party a Stealth bonus similar to PWT. Maybe not +10 because that's insane, but even if it had to be +10, you could cost it similarly to a spell slot. Maybe there's a Rogue Die that a Rogue can use on his special features such as Group Sneak or Having Extra Money, and he gets three per rest. I feel as though I've heard this one before...
I would add more classes to be able to play. The developers focus too much on making campaigns. I mostly want the summoner from Pathfinder 1e.
It pronounced Den Sake. It is not Japanese.
Website character sheet not working fix (Hopefully)
Semi-Expert at homebrew, just ask for my help.
Isn't the game less like a "car-boat" and more like having a car that you race on the weekend, and do tune-up mechanical work on in your spare time during the week if you're into that kind of thing? Both activities can be done separately, but they're both relevant to how well you race.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
I'm happy with the level of granular optimization that exists in the game right now. I do think it's close to too much. The optional class features are the thing putting it juuuuuust about there. It's why I'm worried about these feat trees they're talking about lately. And that's basically why, right there. It can become a real drag!
I'm someone who will optimize. I'll spend the time outside of the game, figuring out the progression path I want, and crunching numbers. I'll regret following a narrative if it means compromising my build, and I'll regret following my build if it means compromising a narrative. There's no winning with me.
I won't feel good if I'm outperforming someone else due to my build, and I will feel resentful if someone's outperforming me because of theirs. And I've seen people try to backseat build other people's characters to be more optimal, and that sucks too.
A certain amount of customization is vital, to make players feel connected to their characters. I think it's in a good spot where it is. Everyone I play with seems to enjoy their characters, and these optimization problems I described are kept to a minimum. If a book comes along that changes this, I hope it's a new edition, because otherwise it effectively enters the meta for me. I can choose not to use it, but then I'm choosing to nerf myself, and that sucks. Psychology is weird.
It takes skill to make something simple without losing any important functionality. Making something simple by just eliminating functionality isn't hard. The question is which parts of the system actually represent important functions, and the reality is that people don't agree on what's important.
I absolutely don't want to alienate the newer players from DnD because it is too complicated, but I DO want more meaningful character creation past third level. The system is literally designed to be limiting so it is easy to learn, and I don't feel that I can do many of my character ideas justice with the limited flavour from a single subclass. Not to mention that any character built with a single subclass in mind is often tropey.
I think a good way to make everyone happy is to have a really good 'core' system which is super streamlined and easy to understand, but have optional extra character creation rules which allow greater customization. Think pregen classes versus build-your-own classes. I would even put the character options in a fourth core rulebook instead of the PhB. I also think that the rules should be backwards compatible so that tables don't have to decide what rules they are using and instead just have each player choose which system they wanna use.
Contrary to popular belief, I actually think this would REDUCE powergaming in some aspects, as it gives players another option to feel fulfilled with their character each level instead of them trying to 'break' the very limited game, however I also fully acknowledge the fact that more complicated rules would make the game easier to break.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
I mean the sales have boomed with 5e, so you also cant say they are wrong...
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
IDK man, WotC has been listening to the community a lot more recently....
I am a relentless optimist though so maybe I am just looking too much on the bright side.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
What does 'cartoon-like' mean? The only notable streamlining I've seen them do over the process of 5e (i.e. after the edition was created) is the realization that giving monsters a list of a dozen spells is annoying.
Have you read Witchlight? Because it's not an adventure with "no violence," it's an adventure with no mandatory violence. There are multiple different ways supported in the adventure to approach every single encounter in the book. If anything, that's the opposite of "dumbing down" D&D. Having to add different possible outcomes to every encounter in an adventure based on how the players choose to approach it (hostilely or diplomatically) makes the books more complex, not less.
There is such a thing as "too complicated" or "complex for the sake of being complex". D&D 5e is filled with these types of rules minutia. An attack with a melee weapon is a normally type of melee weapon attack, but not always, and not all melee weapon attacks are attacks made with melee weapons. Natural Weapons sometimes count as Unarmed Strikes, except for very specific lineages/class features that don't and instead count as Simple Weapons. Most spells require you to be able to provide Verbal, Somatic, and Material spell components, meaning you're not holding a shield or wielding a weapon in at least one hand, unless you happen to be holding a spellcasting focus (every spellcasting class can use different items as a focus), which lets you perform Somatic components with the same hand that you're accessing the Material components with . . . unless the material components of the spell are consumed or have a listed cost in gold.
All of these weird mechanical quirks of the current system could be "dumbed down" in a way that is good. There are parts of the game that should be simplified for the purpose of making the game open to a larger amount of people. There are parts of it that absolutely shouldn't be simplified like this . . . but there also are quite a few notable parts of the hobby that really serve no purpose other than being complicated for the point of being complicated.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Funny thing is Mr. Grognard, I seem to only need to carry my laptop. You have fun with your three books, let me have fun with my... dolly.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Couldn't agree with this more.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
I'de put more dragons and dragon minions in, the game is literally called Dungeons and Dragons, but how many times have you actually fought a dragon?
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!
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HERE.Hey, I’m one of those “grognards” that started in 2e and between all of the monster compendiums, “complete handbooks” and “player’s option” books it took 2 backpacks to bring everything and half the rules broke the game when used with the other half. The bloat and the optional rules shenanigans started way back when TSR still owned D&D, it’s nothing new.
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