GX.Sigma
Adventurer
Nobody seemed to be talking about it, so I thought I'd start a thread.
Mike Mearls has been talking about Expertise Dice on Twitter:
He's also been talking about Skills:
In this world, only Fighters can spend ED to use maneuvers, just because Fighters are awesome. (Also Monks, because Monks are also awesome.) So for other classes, Expertise is not the mechanical core of the class, it's just a thing that the game does to scale damage. And then it can hook onto other things, like feats or optional rules. I am a fan of this.
It would also be cool to not have ability mods to damage. At 10th level, you're rolling 1d8 + 3d10 + 4. Is the +4 really important at that point? It seems more streamlined to just roll your dice and count them up. And if it leads to smaller numbers overall, great!
The skills comment is interesting as well... if skills end up being something other than "roll 1d20+X to see if you're boned," I'll be pleased.
Thoughts?
Mike Mearls has been talking about Expertise Dice on Twitter:
I'm about 80% sure that the fighter and monk will be the only classes that use the dice for combat maneuvers w/o spending feats.
Also, fighters will have a fighter-only list of maneuvers (same for monks, ki-based maneuvers) and a few unique mechanics.
[For other classes] It's a damage bonus [not used for non-combat things]. For non-combat, we have some idea for a change to how skills work.
Get expertise die at 1st level but don't add ability mod to damage OR add your mod but no expertise dice until 5th. Which do you choose?
In this world, stat mods apply only to attacks, not to damage...Ability mod to damage unbalances at low levels, is irrelevant at high levels.
He's also been talking about Skills:
Both of these sound good.Fascinating how much of the playtest feedback can be expressed as, "This mechanic removed a real chance of failure and is thus boring."
[That] sentiment...matches well with one, last bit of violence I'd like to do to skills before locking in the core system
[another user: "I don't like that the Thief in our group always succeeds on DC20 to 25 skill checks. Please fix this."]
A lot of playtesters agree, so that's going to change.
In this world, only Fighters can spend ED to use maneuvers, just because Fighters are awesome. (Also Monks, because Monks are also awesome.) So for other classes, Expertise is not the mechanical core of the class, it's just a thing that the game does to scale damage. And then it can hook onto other things, like feats or optional rules. I am a fan of this.
It would also be cool to not have ability mods to damage. At 10th level, you're rolling 1d8 + 3d10 + 4. Is the +4 really important at that point? It seems more streamlined to just roll your dice and count them up. And if it leads to smaller numbers overall, great!
The skills comment is interesting as well... if skills end up being something other than "roll 1d20+X to see if you're boned," I'll be pleased.
Thoughts?
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