D&D 5E What Does the Game Need Now?

Oh, man.

I want more ways to spend gold. Give me a book about domain play - raising armies, creating new creatures, building a stronghold, establishing a religious order, carving out a niche for a guild, turning wilderness into civilized, workable land, creating a druid circle/grove.

A psion class, ideally based on short rest mechanics.

More boons, for ALL levels, not just epic. Things I can give my players for undergoing special tasks, like a mechanical reward other than a new level or loot.

A book on world building - your settlements, creating factions, odd setting conceits (like, say, Dark Sun removing divine beings), and alternate rules. In other words, Unearthed Arcana, but playtested and fundamentally alternative instead of additive. Like 3.5's Unearthed Arcana.

All that said, I'm not dissatisfied with 5E at all. In fact, the complete opposite. 5E is officially my favorite edition of the game so far and I could not be more pleased with where the game is. Third-party support is incredible. Between Kobold Press, Middle Finger of Vecna, and all the other publishers doing stuff for 5E, life as a 5E DM/player is awesome. Honestly, my only big issue with 5E is the focus on the Forgotten Realms, and that's no big deal. I can still pretty easily use all the FR stuff in my other settings without too much tweaking. Dragon Heist is going to be the one that's toughest to port over, I think, and I've already made a start on that. I've dropped Chult into Eberron, put Tales From the Yawning Portal into Spelljammer, and will continue to move stuff between settings.

Elfcrusher said:

Yeah...and I think it grows tiresome. An indicator of weak storytelling skills, in my opinion.

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I don't get it. They've had 3 big events that the continent might take notice of, IMO. The death curse was the biggest threat, the demon incursion mostly threatened the underdark and increased the threat of the Blood War meaning Asmodeus gaining a strong foothold in Faerun by putting himself forward as the best hope of defeating the demons (bad, but not Time of Troubles bad), and the Dragon Queen...honestly I didn't even read that one, much less play it.

But we also have dungeon delves, a heist, some fun in a mine, and a scary romp in a demi-plane. Oh, and some giantish politics?
All pretty wildly different, IMO.

I'd love to see more adventures that take place primarily in another plane, and/or some adventures where the power level of the mortal enemies you are fighting is why you need to powerful to beat them, rather than extradimensional threats, a race against time treasure hunt with more personal stakes like the goodly king of some place dying unless you get the treasure, etc.

But APs will probably just always tend to either epic narratives or immense death trap dungeon crawls, to some degree, because that is what DnD is built for, in terms of narratives that can work easily for thousands of different groups.

A Greyhawk boxset.

Satyrn said:

Did anybody actually use anything from 3e's Book of Erotic Fantasy?

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Two of my female friends at the time bought it and were using it in the campaigns that they ran.

The only thing I need is more time to play.

I would buy a book for Eberron*, Dark Sun, or Spelljammer if they published such a thing. Likewise, as the OP mentions, the Artificer and Psionics (whether attached to the above settings or otherwise).

* Yes, I'm aware of the "Wayfinder's Guide". For Eberron, feel free to read it as "another book".

I personally don't have any need, or any particular desire for, and more general-use monsters, character options, or spells - I would buy a setting-specific set for the three settings mentioned, but that's probably all.

A Baldur's Gate style videogame that uses the 5e ruleset.

VR adventures...

sim-h said:

A Baldur's Gate style videogame that uses the 5e ruleset.

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Man, rather than that, I'd practically kill for a turn-based D&D game.

What D&D 5e really needs is a few iconic low and mid tier adventure boxed sets for beginners after the Starter Set. Something like this...

Four different boxed sets for DMs:
Starter Set > Advanced Set > Expert Set > Heroic Set

The Starter Set was really, really good. It was easily one of the best modules ever published. Younger players who are just starting out don't get to experience the heyday of TSR's module releases. I've converted some older 1e and 2e classics like "The Village of Hommlet", "Return to the Keep on the Borderlands", and "Isle of Dread". Back in those days we had several different paths to take a campaign just by getting the next set of modules or the next boxed set (Basic, Expert). Using the Starter Set as a template WotC could give us the outline for a full campaign with maps, handouts, adventures, and stories, a campaign that could stop at any level or continue with the next boxed set.

At this stage, probably a planar adventure seems obvious.

Otherwise I would support an Advanced DMG, just for completeness purposes. I do most of this myself, but it would be nice to have this in published form.

MAGIC: Reflecting on lower level magic settings, equitable cantrip replacement, introducing spell-casting costs, additional and/or hardcore sorcerer wild magic table/s, protection scrolls, magic recovery

ENCOUNTER DESIGN: Interesting terrain features, continuously changing combat landscape (remorhaz bursting up through tundra causing ice fractures, dragon tails causing collapsing columns/corridors, giant tearing out trees and earth...etc), updated encounter mechanics.

MONSTER MODIFICATIONS: Additional traits, minions, mooks & swarms, hardcore alterations (increasing movement, incorporating shove/pull/grapple, spell and melee attack...etc), mechanics pulled from description, additional legendary lair actions

SKILL EXPANSION: Skill challenge/complexities and various examples, modular option - subskills, new lore skills.

MONEY TALK: Uses, Building and Maintenance, Taxes

HIGHER LEVEL PLAY: Adventure design, Upping the Stakes, Supernatural vs Mundane.

Sadras said:

At this stage, probably a planar adventure seems obvious.

Otherwise I would support an Advanced DMG, just for completeness purposes. I do most of this myself, but it would be nice to have this in published form.

MAGIC: Reflecting on lower level magic settings, equitable cantrip replacement, introducing spell-casting costs, additional and/or hardcore sorcerer wild magic table/s, protection scrolls, magic recovery

ENCOUNTER DESIGN: Interesting terrain features, continuously changing combat landscape (remorhaz bursting up through tundra causing ice fractures, dragon tails causing collapsing columns/corridors, giant tearing out trees and earth...etc), updated encounter mechanics.

MONSTER MODIFICATIONS: Additional traits, minions, mooks & swarms, hardcore alterations (increasing movement, incorporating shove/pull/grapple, spell and melee attack...etc), mechanics pulled from description, additional legendary lair actions

SKILL EXPANSION: Skill challenge/complexities and various examples, modular option - subskills, new lore skills.

MONEY TALK: Uses, Building and Maintenance, Taxes

HIGHER LEVEL PLAY: Adventure design, Upping the Stakes, Supernatural vs Mundane.

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Since it seems that they no long do dedicated DM (or Player) supplements, but combine both in one, this sort of book would need player-facing material. I'd say an "advanced" book with these options would also be a great place for alternate class abilities (as discussed in the latest ranger thread).