D&D 5E (2014) Sneak look at 5E !

[Dice4Hire]

Wow, anonymous guy with 2 posts! That sounds extremely likely, and all my skepticism is gone!

-O

It is pretty cool to be red colorblind, and wondering what all those colorless flags are for, huh?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Parts I Like:

• Race and class are the same thing! They're all just "archetype!"
• I like how picking your "path" gives you a bonus that is instantly useful. It certainly eliminates the old "you must have a race with a bonus bonus to Strength to play an effective Fighter!" mindset.
• The Powers + Boosts motif is fun and interesting. Giving you a limited amount of things you can always do, and then letting you ramp them up, is much better than giving you 10 different things that you can only do once each. I never did like Vancian magic.
• Putting the races in the DMG seems odd at first, until you realize this means that the DMG probably thusly talks about including and excluding races from your setting, which sounds like an awesome antidote to 4e's "Everything Is Core!" philosophy, which, in extreme cases, leads to narmed things like eladrin in Dark Sun and Tieflings in Ravenloft.
• The "New Powers Level Up Your Character" is really interesting, and I'm pretty into the idea, but I wonder if you wouldn't run into the old "breadth vs. depth" problem where a character who does nothing but get powers that enhance his primary abilities are going to quickly outpace a character who dabbles in a few different things. Still, I could see how role-linked Boosts could ameliorate that problem.
• The idea of Action Triggers is interesting. I like the idea of adding support to a character's action and that being a strategy you want to use regularly. I'm a fan of anything that makes combat more dynamic than what 4e currently gives us.
• Condition Stacking was a good idea when they floated it early in the 4e rumor process; it's still got a solid backing for it.

Parts I Don't Like:

• Mixing races is dumb. Why not just have different "categories"? You can only choose one Race path (though you could pick it more than once), you can choose up to three Class paths, etc. I don't see why Templates shouldn't be part of the bundle, too. Let 'em start off with Vampire!
• The division of Boost Types reflecting 4e's roles is interesting, but I think it would be limiting given the "choose any three paths and go wild!" motif up above. You're basically limited to what paths you can choose based on your boost type. If you want to play a mage-dwarf, but Dwarves use Grace and mages use Mana, and your type is Effort, well...yer boned. That sounds counterintuitive. Still, the game benefits from roles, I just think tying them so tightly to power source is a kind of narmed idea. You loose more than you gain. It could be done in a way to avoid that, but it seems suspicious.
• Blood Elves are too videogamey.

I don't believe ya for a second, but I do think some of the ideas you float are worth talking about. Nice brain ya got there.

 

[Ryujin]

You're a few days early for April 1st

 

[666Sinner666]

Well, even if it is all a lie at least the poster did a few things right:

1.) He put his location as Seattle.
2.) Posted this after WOTC cut tons of books from their release schedule for the next year plus.
3.) Said magic items were in the DMG in lieu of the PHB which has been a common complaint I have seen.

If any of it is true character creation seems interesting to say the least. Not sure I like the way you just mix and match races.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Obviously we now need a 5E forum.

 

[Obryn]

Well, even if it is all a lie at least the poster did a few things right:

1.) He put his location as Seattle.
2.) Posted this after WOTC cut tons of books from their release schedule for the next year plus.
3.) Said magic items were in the DMG in lieu of the PHB which has been a common complaint I have seen.

If any of it is true character creation seems interesting to say the least. Not sure I like the way you just mix and match races.

It's all a lie.

The OP is trolling, and obviously so. If you want to convince yourself that this is true, I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it. Since he went to all the trouble to make all that up and type it, I'm positive he'd appreciate your vote of confidence.

-O

 

[TwoSix]

I think the focus on power choice as the method of character advancement is the most likely thing to come true from the OP.

The "3-path" concept is interesting, since it's a natural progression from the current "Race"-"Class"-"Theme" method of building characters we have now. I think it's too streamlined, though...5e, if and when it comes out, is going to try to steer a course between old-school and 4e. Building a character as a grouping of paths feels like too much of an evolution to me.

 

[666Sinner666]

It's all a lie.

The OP is trolling, and obviously so. If you want to convince yourself that this is true, I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it. Since he went to all the trouble to make all that up and type it, I'm positive he'd appreciate your vote of confidence.

-O

I am not buying into any of it but some of the ideas are certainly nice regardless and as such should/could be discussed. If you look at it from that side its no worse than any of the other "I dislike 4e because of X" threads.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

You're a few days early for April 1st

Warming up perhaps?

If you are going to try and do a thread like this it normally ends up being pretty lame. However, the OP for whatever reason or motive has done a pretty good job in my opinion of coming up with something interesting enough that I read it all the way through. Blast me if you like but I love the wholesale throwing around of ideas, regardless of the packaging.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Liar or not, I like a lot of those ideas!

But he's full of it. They won't have art ready in a bound book until just before release, which is clearly some time off yet.

If he'd said, "yeah he showed us a PDF on his laptop, and it had rough concept art..." then, maybe.

Still, nice ideas in there. If that's not 5e-in-the-making, I hope someone else takes those ideas and runs with them!