D&D 5E D&D Q&A: 09/19/2013

[Plaguescarred]

D&D Q&A
09/19/2013
By Rodney Thompson

You've got questions—we've got answers! Here's how it works—each week, our Community Manager will be scouring all available sources to find whatever questions you're asking. We'll pick three of them for R&D to answer.

What do you think?

 

[Plaguescarred]

I expect attacks, skills and saving throws to get better as you go up in levels and i'm good with the proposed system of universal proficiency bonus to cover this. I hope not there will be variation between classes and that some classes will have higher weapon proficiency bonus than others for exemple. As for the skill list . i find it too narrow for my taste but i can work with that, and i love to hear that DMs will be able to customize and create new ones if they want to. I ddefinitly like the idea to tie in to the Ideal/Flaw/Bond system too and make it tie to your character even deeper.

Proficiency in saving throws sound weird to me at first, but if its another term to represent increasing bonus i see no problem there. I think a universal language keyword for such bonus sounds good as long as it doesn't bring too much confusion.

Glad to hear there will be ways to get new proficiencies most likely through classes, backgrounds and feats but also possibly during downtime by spending gold and time to learn them.

 

[variant]

Right now my major worry is still that obtaining expert gives you a flat +5 which with an ability score of 20 and proficiency, gives you +16 at level 20.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

"With one exception, proficiency is our catch-all term for “get your proficiency bonus to your roll when you use it.” "

Is the one exception armor?

 

[Paraxis]

I like the idea that armor proficiency might give you a bonus. But since it is not a d20 roll I doubt it.
But say light armor gives a flat 1+dex+proficiency, medium 2+con+proficiency, and heavy 3+con+proficiency as your AC that would be very cool. It would let your AC scale with level nicely.

 

[Echohawk]

What do you think?

I think it's interesting that Rodney has moved back to publishing the Q&A as a web article after more than a year of using the D&D Next blog as the place to publish. Maybe he's still annoyed that they lost his Sept. 5th Q&A in the transition to the new community

 

[pemerton]

I expect attacks, skills and saving throws to get better as you go up in levels and i'm good with the proposed system of universal proficiency bonus to cover this.

I didn't get the impression that there will be universal proficiency in saving throws - after all, Thompson says that "we’re renovating the rogue’s Slippery Mind class feature to give you Wisdom saving throw proficiency". To me, that implies that if you're a rogue who doesn't have Slippery Mind then you won't have Wisdom saving throw proficiency; and that there might be other classes who don't have access to that proficiency at all.

I'm also not that keen on reintroducing weapon proficiencies that create a strong incentive to avoid certain weapons at higher levels. This is a noticeable factor in many skill-based RPGs (where combat skill is weapon specific), in 4e (where high level PCs rely upon their magical weapons/implements and have feats and/or powers that further specialise in particular weapon/implement choices) and in AD&D especially when using weapon specialisation rules.

It would be nice for D&Dnext to hark back to a more classic D&D approach where a high level PC is viable with a wide range of weapons, rather than reliant on bonuses with particular weapons in which s/he is proficient.

In particular, making it level based doesn't contribute to balance. In a level-based system from +2 to +6, the cost to a 1st level wizard of using a non-proficient weapon is -2 to hit, but the benefit is potentially significant (spells saved, for instance). Whereas the cost to a 20th elvel wizard of using a non-proficient weapoin is -6 to hit, although the benefit of using such a weapon compared to a spell is negligible.

 

[Szatany]

"With one exception, proficiency is our catch-all term for “get your proficiency bonus to your roll when you use it.” "

Is the one exception armor?

I pretty sure it is armor.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I like hearing about the fluid skills list. It means that while some tables might default yet again to "Perception is the most useful skill!," tables like mine can say, "Y'know what? No Perception. No Stealth. No Athletics. Skills are not used to do basic things that everyone can attempt." and still be played just fine.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You know what I found to be the MOST interesting part of the Q&A?

For example, we’re considering an alternate rule that allows the player to name their own skills with a word or a short phrase

Change your skills into a short phrase. In essence... you take Aspects. For those who love the FATE method of story-based bonuses when applicable... you can get even more specific with what you are good at. Rather than Perception you have Eyes Like A Hawk. Rather than Persuasion you have Talk Rings Around People. Rather than Arcana you have Master Of The Planes.

Which I think lends itself rather nicely to being much more specific about who your PC, what they know, and when the bonus would apply to certain situations. It would definitely tap into the story-base game market for enhancing your D&D game, which I think would make quite a number of D&D players with new school sensibilities happy to have if they want it.