To streamline the system and maybe make it a little easier for new gamers to learn, how about making spells operate more like weapons?
For example, a wizard casting Charm Person would roll to hit vs. his target’s mental AC?
Wisdom would function like Dex. In the same way that Dex adds to melee AC, Wis would add to mental AC.
Spells which target area of effects would have the wizard roll one number and compare it to the victims’ relevant AC for all victims in the area of effect. -This would also make it a little easier for new GMs to calculate damage on mobs/hordes of monsters/NPCs.
Then a new player would have to worry about at least 6 different Armor Classes and when to utilize them (when a new player already has trouble occasionally telling you their singular AC value). Same beast, different story.
I say 6 because not every spell targets Wisdom. There's a saving throw for each Ability, so there would have to be an "Armor Class" for each Ability or else by that point you're playing such a watered down version of 5e that you should do a different system completely.
It really doesn’t streamline much because either way 1 person rolls a die and adds a number to the result, and then that total gets compared to another number. It doesn’t really speed anything up to switch it around, and the more confusion there is about which numbers to use when, the slower the process will be and therefore less streamlined.
Not to mention that your idea would throw the percentages for success and failure off. Currently, the way it works is whoever rolls the die wins ties. For attacks, if your roll + modifier is equal to or greater than the target’s AC, you hit. For saving throws, if your roll + modifier is equal to or greater than the source’s Save DC, you save. With your idea, in order to maintain the same success:failure % chances, then weapon & spell attacks that are currently already spell attacks would succeed on a tie, but your converted save->attack spells would miss on a tie. Either that or you keep everything hitting on are, but then your converted spells would “hit” more often than they are supposed to.
Plus, the spell attacks that are currently already spell attacks would still be against your standard AC which includes worn armor, Natural Armor, and Unarmored Defense. Meanwhile your converted save->attack spells would be against any 1 of 6 different AC calculations, none of which would include armor of any type, which would just compound confusion.
In addition, you would then open up the door for those converted spells to score critical hits, which would also throw things out of wack.
On top of all of that, with your converted save->attack spells, if you cast a spell with an AoE like fireball and hit a group of creatures, then you would have to make an attack roll against each and every one of them, which would get tedious. With the current system, each one of those targets would only roll 1 save, which they can pretty much do simultaneously, which speeds up gameplay, which is precisely part of the reason they designed it that way in the first place.
I could go on, but those👆should already be enough reasons to maintain the status quo.
To streamline the system and maybe make it a little easier for new gamers to learn, how about making spells operate more like weapons?
For example, a wizard casting Charm Person would roll to hit vs. his target’s mental AC?
Wisdom would function like Dex. In the same way that Dex adds to melee AC, Wis would add to mental AC.
Spells which target area of effects would have the wizard roll one number and compare it to the victims’ relevant AC for all victims in the area of effect. -This would also make it a little easier for new GMs to calculate damage on mobs/hordes of monsters/NPCs.
Then a new player would have to worry about at least 6 different Armor Classes and when to utilize them (when a new player already has trouble occasionally telling you their singular AC value). Same beast, different story.
I say 6 because not every spell targets Wisdom. There's a saving throw for each Ability, so there would have to be an "Armor Class" for each Ability or else by that point you're playing such a watered down version of 5e that you should do a different system completely.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
It is a lot easier to master six different applications of the same process than six different applications of two different processes.
It really doesn’t streamline much because either way 1 person rolls a die and adds a number to the result, and then that total gets compared to another number. It doesn’t really speed anything up to switch it around, and the more confusion there is about which numbers to use when, the slower the process will be and therefore less streamlined.
Not to mention that your idea would throw the percentages for success and failure off. Currently, the way it works is whoever rolls the die wins ties. For attacks, if your roll + modifier is equal to or greater than the target’s AC, you hit. For saving throws, if your roll + modifier is equal to or greater than the source’s Save DC, you save. With your idea, in order to maintain the same success:failure % chances, then weapon & spell attacks that are currently already spell attacks would succeed on a tie, but your converted save->attack spells would miss on a tie. Either that or you keep everything hitting on are, but then your converted spells would “hit” more often than they are supposed to.
Plus, the spell attacks that are currently already spell attacks would still be against your standard AC which includes worn armor, Natural Armor, and Unarmored Defense. Meanwhile your converted save->attack spells would be against any 1 of 6 different AC calculations, none of which would include armor of any type, which would just compound confusion.
In addition, you would then open up the door for those converted spells to score critical hits, which would also throw things out of wack.
On top of all of that, with your converted save->attack spells, if you cast a spell with an AoE like fireball and hit a group of creatures, then you would have to make an attack roll against each and every one of them, which would get tedious. With the current system, each one of those targets would only roll 1 save, which they can pretty much do simultaneously, which speeds up gameplay, which is precisely part of the reason they designed it that way in the first place.
I could go on, but those👆should already be enough reasons to maintain the status quo.
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