Suggest Your "Rule of Three" Questions for Next Week (4/17)

[Minigiant]

Tradionally having high Armor Class and healing hit points are the main methods of defensive in D&D, making it a "hurt and heal" game. In the next iteration of the game, will other defensive measures be heavily supported in the core such as having a buffer of temporary hit point to absorb damage, using percentage based miss chances to avoid wounding, or utilizing damage reduction and resistance to minimize injury?

 

[Astrosicebear]

One of the dividing factors for many older edition players moving to 4e was the schism of magic spells into powers/utility/rituals. Many older players enjoyed the ambiguous and albeit often vague wording of many spells, and enjoyed adapting those spells in play, using interpretation and ingenuity to enhance their gameplay (maybe giving the DM a headache, though). These players often reply that 4E's magic system takes away the 'freedom' of magic and replaces it with hard coded, mechanically sound but stale magic users.

What is D&D Next's approach to the iconic magic spells of D&D, and how is designing the magic system/core system taking into account iconic spells like Wish, Silent Image, Grease, Time Stop, Gate, Polymorph to name a few?

 

[Astrosicebear]

One of my favorite additions to 4E has been Minions. It has been mentioned that Minions may not be returning in D&D Next. One of the problems of mid-high level gameplay has always been DM tracking of many small enemies' HP. Monsters of a certain level are required to challenge a party of PC's, which in previous versions meant a healthy dose of HP. This in turn means that large scale combats often dragged as each enemy was tracked, or adventures and DM shied away from such encounters.

What approach is D&D Next taking to solve this often time consuming issue while still allowing the system (and DM's) the speed and freedom it needs to make the game fun?

 

[Ellington]

Q.Are your current plans for martial maneuvers/powers class restricted/universal, and will we need to spend feats to get them as in 3E or will they come every level like they did in 4E?

 

[Shieldhaven]

How much importance does having the best ability scores have in 5e? Does "flattening the math" make it more important than ever to start with 18s in your attack stat?

Is the math of skills likely to be flattened in the same way that the math of attack and defense is?

 

[GX.Sigma]

There's been a trend of having each class represent only a very specific archetype--Ranger has to be a two-weapon or archery guy with an animal companion and priest spells; Cleric has to be a radiant anti-undead guy--and these don't always match our vision for our character.

In the next version of D&D, will classes be broader? Will niche features be optional (e.g., if I don't want my Ranger to have a pet, can I choose something else? If I don't want my Cleric to turn undead, can I choose something else)?

 

[CM]

1. We have heard a lot of tidbits regarding combat statistics already. What sorts of mechanics are you looking at implementing to support exploration and roleplaying, given the revelation at PAX East last weekend that skill challenges will likely not be a core rule?
   
2. One of the goals of 4e was to achieve combat parity between classes. Will that goal continue in the next iteration or will will return to seeing some classes noticeably more capable in combat while others are more capable out of combat (exploration, roleplaying)
   
3. Feats in 3e and 4e tend to vary greatly in power level. Is anything being done to curb the appearance of "must-have" feats such as Expertise in 4e, or terrible feats like 3e Toughness? What is the baseline power level of a feat?

 

[howandwhy99]

1. What are your current working definitions of Adventure and Campaign for the D&DNext rules set?

2. Is D&DNext individuals each playing a different version of D&D together at one table or a group's particular version of D&D played the same way by everyone at a single table? If both (and perhaps more), how do you plan on promoting to and connecting players with potentially conflicting expectations?

3. If a players elects to play a more complex (a.k.a. more difficult) rule set, will they receive greater rewards in game for overcoming these increased challenges?

4. What exactly is a "bounded accuracy system" for combat and spellcasting?

5. Is anything besides magic items not "part of essential progression mathematics"? For instance, mundane items, location modifiers, or even other characters?

6. "Basic is 4d6 drop the lowest for ability scores, but other options are available." What is the game design reason for randomly generated ability scores? How would that change with different options?

7. Do Saving Throws improve with level? If this means they are different from Ability Score totals, why use such varying (3-18) target numbers as the default?

8. It was mentioned in regards to class balance that the goal wasn't always to balance each and every aspect. So is an 80% damage / 20% exploration Fighter 80% effective during combat and 20% effective when exploring?

9. Are multiple combat actions, like those mentioned about the Fighter, the balancing mechanism for multiclassing Vancian spellcasters with non-Vancian classes?

10. How many different types of rolls are there? Is this D20 with d20+modifer for almost every roll, some odd alternate dice rolls - usually for damage - and then the occasional percentile roll?

 

[RangerWickett]

4. Teleportation. Pre-3e you could only teleport long distances and only at mid- to high-level. In 3.5 a few spells and psionic powers let you do the occasional short-distance Nightcrawler-esque bamf! In 4e some classes can teleport round after round, and eladrin can teleport as a racial ability. How will D&D Next manage to make optional magic of this type which might turn off some gamers?

17. Adventures! Adventures are an RPGs opportunity to show people how the game is expected to be played. What do you envision the first few adventures of D&D Next looking like?

417. Whips and Other Weird Weapons. No, it's not really possible to slice a dragon's arm off with a whip, but it's cool. How will D&D Next handle unorthodox weapons so that players who want to be stylish won't be penalized for doing something that's unrealistic?

 

[Verys Arkon]

Gamma World and the Adventure System board games were a place to explore mechanics outside of the main D&D line, something like Saga Edition was for 4e. What insights were gained that may translate into D&DN?