Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Hmm, so specifically focusing on something that would be recognizable as D&D, not some other fantasy heartbreaker.
There's a lot to take from 5e since it synthesizes both greatest-hits ideas from earlier editions as well as new options. Looking to other d20 games out there for solutions as well.
One important change I'd rebalance would be the class different resource recovery models. Probably go back to a 4e where options are at-will, per eno
er, or daily. Balance around a shorter adventuring day, say 4 encounters, but with the specific idea that some days will be shorter than that (with tougher fights) and some days longer.
All spells would be able to be upcast. And change slots so you don't just accumulate lots of low-level slots - rather you have a decent number of slots but they are clustered around your highest level slots. So a 9th level caster would have a couple of 5th level slots, bunch of 4th level slots, and maybe a few 3rd level slots. No 1st or 2nd. This reduction in total number of slots plays into the encounters-per-day rebalancing.
I'd roll cantrips into spells - each spell is either at-will, per encounter, or daily. In increasing order of effect. So a 3rd level at-will spell might do a level-appropriate damage, while a 3rd level daily spell might do a nice area of effect that also knocks people prone, or applies some other condition.
Both of those ideas are stolen from the d20 13th Age. But they would have to be adapted to include sane use of non-combat spells.
Basic characters would start at 3rd level, and there would be the equivalent of "+ECL" races from 3.x, though taking out the monster HD = level. Actually, every race could be a short class, some only 1 level long, that grants HPs and stuff just like the other classes that are part of that 3rd level. This would also give design room for those who want to start pre-class that's currently playing "0th level" characters. It also allows classes centaurs, half-ogres, and others that take a while to get into their full growth and it's an opportunity cost of not getting levels of another class. (Or maybe you can, playing a runt half-ogre who's focusing on caster levels.)
It would also have robust rules for starting at higher levels.
Important in the book would be sidebars about why various design choices were made, and the effects of tweaking them. Make it hack friendly.
Not sure if I'd keep 5e subclasses or go for a more customizable but less thematic method where you pick you main features. If I do the second I'd like a couple of features that any class could pick up, like pets that level with you. So you could be a ranger or druid with an animal companion, or a necromancer with some skeletons, a paladin with a special steed, etc.
I wonder if the same concept could be used by other classes, like the unified framework of 4e. If all characters have a few slots of high levels, and they could also be full of features. So a ranger would have slots full of things like animal companion boosts, or archery boosts, or terrain boosts. A druid might split them between some of the same, wild shape, and some for actual spellcasting. A fighter would have martial buffs, while a gish would split between those martial boosts and spells. Paladin would be the same idea, but also some holy knight options and lesser spell options. That would also allow the 9th ranger with a beast using a 3rd level slot and one using a 5th level slot - where do they want to focus? Might be too fiddly and just to fill a meta-design.
While there was room for improvement with the minion implementation of 4e, I like the concept. Play around with something to allow a DM to throw hordes at the players without engendering a "popping" mechanic for large-scale do a small amount of damage and kill them all. Also would need a way for martial characters to kill many of them in a round instead of wasting it all on overkill. Get away from one round=one swing.
Skill challenges are another 4e concept I like while disliking the implementation. Opened it up to more than just skills. Add multiple tracks, at the least a separate success and failure track, but possibly many of each. Clocks from Blades in the Dark might be a good visual for player engagement. For example, a scene in a duke's court might have a two-way track for impressing the duke/angering him (so soft successes and hard failures), a success-only track for convincing the duchess to forgive her sister and send aid to her, another success track for finding out who planted false evidence for something else, and finally a last failure track for getting challenged by the baron the party had previously angered, which would end the scene immediately so nothing else could happen.
There's a lot to take from 5e since it synthesizes both greatest-hits ideas from earlier editions as well as new options. Looking to other d20 games out there for solutions as well.
One important change I'd rebalance would be the class different resource recovery models. Probably go back to a 4e where options are at-will, per eno
er, or daily. Balance around a shorter adventuring day, say 4 encounters, but with the specific idea that some days will be shorter than that (with tougher fights) and some days longer.All spells would be able to be upcast. And change slots so you don't just accumulate lots of low-level slots - rather you have a decent number of slots but they are clustered around your highest level slots. So a 9th level caster would have a couple of 5th level slots, bunch of 4th level slots, and maybe a few 3rd level slots. No 1st or 2nd. This reduction in total number of slots plays into the encounters-per-day rebalancing.
I'd roll cantrips into spells - each spell is either at-will, per encounter, or daily. In increasing order of effect. So a 3rd level at-will spell might do a level-appropriate damage, while a 3rd level daily spell might do a nice area of effect that also knocks people prone, or applies some other condition.
Both of those ideas are stolen from the d20 13th Age. But they would have to be adapted to include sane use of non-combat spells.
Basic characters would start at 3rd level, and there would be the equivalent of "+ECL" races from 3.x, though taking out the monster HD = level. Actually, every race could be a short class, some only 1 level long, that grants HPs and stuff just like the other classes that are part of that 3rd level. This would also give design room for those who want to start pre-class that's currently playing "0th level" characters. It also allows classes centaurs, half-ogres, and others that take a while to get into their full growth and it's an opportunity cost of not getting levels of another class. (Or maybe you can, playing a runt half-ogre who's focusing on caster levels.)
It would also have robust rules for starting at higher levels.
Important in the book would be sidebars about why various design choices were made, and the effects of tweaking them. Make it hack friendly.
Not sure if I'd keep 5e subclasses or go for a more customizable but less thematic method where you pick you main features. If I do the second I'd like a couple of features that any class could pick up, like pets that level with you. So you could be a ranger or druid with an animal companion, or a necromancer with some skeletons, a paladin with a special steed, etc.
I wonder if the same concept could be used by other classes, like the unified framework of 4e. If all characters have a few slots of high levels, and they could also be full of features. So a ranger would have slots full of things like animal companion boosts, or archery boosts, or terrain boosts. A druid might split them between some of the same, wild shape, and some for actual spellcasting. A fighter would have martial buffs, while a gish would split between those martial boosts and spells. Paladin would be the same idea, but also some holy knight options and lesser spell options. That would also allow the 9th ranger with a beast using a 3rd level slot and one using a 5th level slot - where do they want to focus? Might be too fiddly and just to fill a meta-design.
While there was room for improvement with the minion implementation of 4e, I like the concept. Play around with something to allow a DM to throw hordes at the players without engendering a "popping" mechanic for large-scale do a small amount of damage and kill them all. Also would need a way for martial characters to kill many of them in a round instead of wasting it all on overkill. Get away from one round=one swing.
Skill challenges are another 4e concept I like while disliking the implementation. Opened it up to more than just skills. Add multiple tracks, at the least a separate success and failure track, but possibly many of each. Clocks from Blades in the Dark might be a good visual for player engagement. For example, a scene in a duke's court might have a two-way track for impressing the duke/angering him (so soft successes and hard failures), a success-only track for convincing the duchess to forgive her sister and send aid to her, another success track for finding out who planted false evidence for something else, and finally a last failure track for getting challenged by the baron the party had previously angered, which would end the scene immediately so nothing else could happen.
