D&D 5E concentration in 5th edition, whats your fix?

Gladius Legis · Jan 23, 2019

The one change I'd make to it would be to require something to deal 20 or more damage in one instance before triggering a CON save. Keep everything else about it the same.

Fevvers · Jan 23, 2019

I really like the concentration mechanic. It requires casters to pick one powerful spell at a time, encouraging co-operation between casters if the party is going to stack a whole set of effects. It also encourages casters to avoid taking damage, in case of breaking concentration. This adds a level of wariness and caution to gish characters in comparison to pure melee characters, thinking particularly of Bladesingers and Hexblades.

Gish: "I can inflict xdx damage, with my insane AC, resistances and extra blah."
Fighter: "I don't throw a massive huff because I took a little damage and all my blah evaporated..."

wardler · Jan 27, 2019

House ruled it out immediately because it retcons every D&D fantasy story ever written by competely changing how magic users have always operated. Played AD&D with no such limitations and the paladins, barbarians, rangers, and fighters had just as much fun as magic users.

As a fighter you didn't worry about getting one shotted by an assassin or turned into a pin cushion by rangers and fighters. Magic users needed to be overpowered to survive in a fantasy world where a single silence spell might mean the end of your character.

There is no need for pseudo incentives and balancing to work as a team. The wizard had to sleep and study his spellbooks to get his Utley back after expending it. He wasn't a one man army at all times, but could also be devastation when prepared for a situation. Try killing a beholder with a group of wizards and tell me the game has no balance.

Class balance just makes the game boring by turning aesthetic into the only differentiating factor between the classes. If I wanted balance is play an MMO. I won't pretend to know what happened in 3e, but from what I hear this is largely the fault of that edition and the meta-game style of min max play that was adopted with it.

It is almost laughable thinking about what my AD&D paladin would do to a lich who had to abide by the concentration mechanic. It would be over in minutes. There would be no flying away while the paladin was surrounded by a wall of fire--you can only do one of those! No going invisible and flying in for the surprise attack from above... Thinking about going invisible? You'll have to give up your fire shield and then you're mince meat. But 5e nerfs a lot of spells like magic missiles and fire shield anyway.

While I was at it I threw out attunement rules as well. You can use as many magical items as you can find, cart, and equip. Two rings at a time, protection not stacking with armor.

Guest 6801328 · Jan 27, 2019

wardler said:
House ruled it out immediately because it retcons every D&D fantasy story ever written

Wait...you modify D&D rules to more accurately reflect the novels?

I'm...I'm...stunned. (But only until my next turn so get your critical hits in quick.)

What other rules have you changed for this reason?

Gladius Legis · Jan 27, 2019

wardler said:
House ruled it out immediately because it retcons every D&D fantasy story ever written by competely changing how magic users have always operated. Played AD&D with no such limitations and the paladins, barbarians, rangers, and fighters had just as much fun as magic users.

As a fighter you didn't worry about getting one shotted by an assassin or turned into a pin cushion by rangers and fighters. Magic users needed to be overpowered to survive in a fantasy world where a single silence spell might mean the end of your character.

There is no need for pseudo incentives and balancing to work as a team. The wizard had to sleep and study his spellbooks to get his Utley back after expending it. He wasn't a one man army at all times, but could also be devastation when prepared for a situation. Try killing a beholder with a group of wizards and tell me the game has no balance.

Class balance just makes the game boring by turning aesthetic into the only differentiating factor between the classes. If I wanted balance is play an MMO. I won't pretend to know what happened in 3e, but from what I hear this is largely the fault of that edition and the meta-game style of min max play that was adopted with it.

It is almost laughable thinking about what my AD&D paladin would do to a lich who had to abide by the concentration mechanic. It would be over in minutes. There would be no flying away while the paladin was surrounded by a wall of fire--you can only do one of those! No going invisible and flying in for the surprise attack from above... Thinking about going invisible? You'll have to give up your fire shield and then you're mince meat. But 5e nerfs a lot of spells like magic missiles and fire shield anyway.

While I was at it I threw out attunement rules as well. You can use as many magical items as you can find, cart, and equip. Two rings at a time, protection not stacking with armor.

... what did I just read?

GothicEmperor · Jan 27, 2019

wardler said:
It is almost laughable thinking about what my AD&D paladin would do to a lich who had to abide by the concentration mechanic. It would be over in minutes. There would be no flying away while the paladin was surrounded by a wall of fire--you can only do one of those! No going invisible and flying in for the surprise attack from above... Thinking about going invisible? You'll have to give up your fire shield and then you're mince meat. But 5e nerfs a lot of spells like magic missiles and fire shield anyway.

Just... give the lich magical items? Or just a natural levitate ability? There's nothing in the Concentration mechanic that limits what abilities a GM can give to monsters.

Guest 6801328 · Jan 27, 2019

GothicEmperor said:
Just... give the lich magical items? Or just a natural levitate ability? There's nothing in the Concentration mechanic that limits what abilities a GM can give to monsters.

Seriously. It's not hard.

Or even give the monsters a multiple-concentration ability, if other options are too hard for you.

Mistwell · Jan 27, 2019

wardler said:
House ruled it out immediately because it retcons every D&D fantasy story ever written by competely changing how magic users have always operated. Played AD&D with no such limitations and the paladins, barbarians, rangers, and fighters had just as much fun as magic users.

As a fighter you didn't worry about getting one shotted by an assassin or turned into a pin cushion by rangers and fighters. Magic users needed to be overpowered to survive in a fantasy world where a single silence spell might mean the end of your character.

There is no need for pseudo incentives and balancing to work as a team. The wizard had to sleep and study his spellbooks to get his Utley back after expending it. He wasn't a one man army at all times, but could also be devastation when prepared for a situation. Try killing a beholder with a group of wizards and tell me the game has no balance.

Class balance just makes the game boring by turning aesthetic into the only differentiating factor between the classes. If I wanted balance is play an MMO. I won't pretend to know what happened in 3e, but from what I hear this is largely the fault of that edition and the meta-game style of min max play that was adopted with it.

It is almost laughable thinking about what my AD&D paladin would do to a lich who had to abide by the concentration mechanic. It would be over in minutes. There would be no flying away while the paladin was surrounded by a wall of fire--you can only do one of those! No going invisible and flying in for the surprise attack from above... Thinking about going invisible? You'll have to give up your fire shield and then you're mince meat. But 5e nerfs a lot of spells like magic missiles and fire shield anyway.

While I was at it I threw out attunement rules as well. You can use as many magical items as you can find, cart, and equip. Two rings at a time, protection not stacking with armor.

Why not just play the older edition rather than using those older edition rules with the new edition? I understand wanting to go for an old school FEEL with new rules, but actually blanket inserting old edition RULES without any concern for the impact it has on other things in the game seems to be asking for unpleasant results. How has it played out since you started doing it?

ad_hoc · Jan 27, 2019

wardler said:
House ruled it out immediately because it retcons every D&D fantasy story ever written by competely changing how magic users have always operated. Played AD&D with no such limitations and the paladins, barbarians, rangers, and fighters had just as much fun as magic users.

Sounds like you want to play AD&D.

Game is still there. Nothing stopping you.

GothicEmperor said:
Just... give the lich magical items? Or just a natural levitate ability? There's nothing in the Concentration mechanic that limits what abilities a GM can give to monsters.

No need for magic items. Just let them ignore Concentration. Like you said, nothing stopping you from changing monster's abilities.

5ekyu · Jan 27, 2019

Gladius Legis said:
... what did I just read?

A rules-nado - it flies across the land sweeping up stuff from all over and then just touches down now and again to fling a flurry of them on some poor unsuspecting forum.

Efforts to detect rules-nados before they touch down are still in the early stages and so many are just appearing out of the blue.