TornadoCreator
First Post
I've been thinking about the bad points of 5e...
There are three big flaws with the system, and I think there's a simple way to fix all three.
1. Player characters are all the same. You have the same attributes by point buy, you have the same proficiencies, you have the same equipment, you have the same class features.... so where's the character flavour?
2. There are no skills anymore. You have proficiency or you don't. That's it, so no fine tuning your character to give them that extra flair; hell there's not even any feats (not really, the few feats that do exist are bare bones at best and you have to give up the attribute increase).
3. With no magic item economy, the players are easily finding themselves with literally thousands of gold and having little of tangible GAMEPLAY reward to spend it on. Sure they could buy a keep in the mountains but that's flavour, not tangible gameplay bonus. Even if they do buy magic items, there's FAR less magic items.... which would be fine if every damn character didn't get magic, and loads of it. Rangers and Bards get far more magic now, and Rogues and Fighters both have an arcane spellcaster archetype; so making magic items rare and difficult to source makes no sense now.
So... here's my house rule. Tell me what you think.
Characters need DOUBLE the XP stated in the book in order to level up, and all player characters start at 2nd level. The idea behind this is simple; player characters need to stay at lower levels for longer. Characters who gain proficiency in weapons no longer gain them in the same way. If your class grants you 'Martial Weapon Proficiency' or 'Simple Weapon Proficiency', you get to choose ONE weapon in that category that you are proficient with. This means fighters will have to carefully decide what weapons they have trained with... and it makes racial proficiencies more important and thematic.
During gameplay you can spend 250gp to learn a new tool proficiency or language, this takes approximately 6 months of in game time to achieve. This is already in the main rules in the PHB, I intend to expand on this.
If you wish, you can use this same method to train in the use of a weapon, armour, skill, save, or spell. You gain proficiency in that weapon, armour, skill, save; or learn that spell. If you don't have spell slots, you cannot learn the spell as you would be unable to cast it... so in effect you're limited to cantrips for none spellcasting classes (nb. Eldritch Blast cannot be taught, attempts to do so always result in the students confusion... those that finally understand and learn the spell find they have inadvertently made a pact and must level up next level as a Warlock, such is the dangers of trying to harness raw magic). Learning spells does mean sourcing either a wizard willing to teach you, or a scroll containing the spell. This means spells above third level will likely be far more expensive than the 250gp needed for basic training, and spells of 7th level and higher will cost as much to gain tutorage in as buying a small castle. Wizards are not quick to trade away their most potent magic.
You can speed up this learning process, halving the time to learn to only 3 months, but you must be in seclusion and doing nothing but studying. Learning over 6 months can be done while travelling and living a normal sedentary lifestyle. All learning requires either a tutor, or access to resources, such as a library.
If you already have proficiency, you can still train. Doing so costs the same amount, 250gp and 6 or 3 months game time depending; at the end of which you gain Expertise (as the Rogue class feature), in your chosen tool, skill, or weapon; granting you double your proficiency bonus when using this tool/skill/weapon.
If you already have Expertice in a tool, skill, weapon etc. you can train further and gain Mastery in your choed field. This last stage of training costs 1000gp and takes a minimum of a year (GM discretion), to master; it may even require an adventure in it's own right. Going to a long forgotten ancient library to gain mastery in History, finding a magical portal and travelling to the Feywilds to study first hand for mastery of arcana, travelling to the most inhospitable part of the natural environment and living off nothing but the land for months for mastery of Nature etc...
In the case of skills and tools, gaining mastery in them gives you TRIPLE your proficiency score; while with weapons training you get to add your proficiency score to your damage (as well as the double proficiency to hit from expertise), making mastery of a weapon especially potent. Mastery of combat spells is in theory possible, though there's no real recorded examples of someone having managed such a thing.
This change gives players a way to "level up" there characters without actually leveling up and the time frame means players have to actively show in gameplay or state during downtime that they're taking this extra training. This will also allow for lower level characters to specialise more, and for well complimentary teams to take down things of higher than normal CR which will naturally feel awesome.
So what do people think? Interesting house rule or not?
There are three big flaws with the system, and I think there's a simple way to fix all three.
1. Player characters are all the same. You have the same attributes by point buy, you have the same proficiencies, you have the same equipment, you have the same class features.... so where's the character flavour?
2. There are no skills anymore. You have proficiency or you don't. That's it, so no fine tuning your character to give them that extra flair; hell there's not even any feats (not really, the few feats that do exist are bare bones at best and you have to give up the attribute increase).
3. With no magic item economy, the players are easily finding themselves with literally thousands of gold and having little of tangible GAMEPLAY reward to spend it on. Sure they could buy a keep in the mountains but that's flavour, not tangible gameplay bonus. Even if they do buy magic items, there's FAR less magic items.... which would be fine if every damn character didn't get magic, and loads of it. Rangers and Bards get far more magic now, and Rogues and Fighters both have an arcane spellcaster archetype; so making magic items rare and difficult to source makes no sense now.
So... here's my house rule. Tell me what you think.
Characters need DOUBLE the XP stated in the book in order to level up, and all player characters start at 2nd level. The idea behind this is simple; player characters need to stay at lower levels for longer. Characters who gain proficiency in weapons no longer gain them in the same way. If your class grants you 'Martial Weapon Proficiency' or 'Simple Weapon Proficiency', you get to choose ONE weapon in that category that you are proficient with. This means fighters will have to carefully decide what weapons they have trained with... and it makes racial proficiencies more important and thematic.
During gameplay you can spend 250gp to learn a new tool proficiency or language, this takes approximately 6 months of in game time to achieve. This is already in the main rules in the PHB, I intend to expand on this.
If you wish, you can use this same method to train in the use of a weapon, armour, skill, save, or spell. You gain proficiency in that weapon, armour, skill, save; or learn that spell. If you don't have spell slots, you cannot learn the spell as you would be unable to cast it... so in effect you're limited to cantrips for none spellcasting classes (nb. Eldritch Blast cannot be taught, attempts to do so always result in the students confusion... those that finally understand and learn the spell find they have inadvertently made a pact and must level up next level as a Warlock, such is the dangers of trying to harness raw magic). Learning spells does mean sourcing either a wizard willing to teach you, or a scroll containing the spell. This means spells above third level will likely be far more expensive than the 250gp needed for basic training, and spells of 7th level and higher will cost as much to gain tutorage in as buying a small castle. Wizards are not quick to trade away their most potent magic.
You can speed up this learning process, halving the time to learn to only 3 months, but you must be in seclusion and doing nothing but studying. Learning over 6 months can be done while travelling and living a normal sedentary lifestyle. All learning requires either a tutor, or access to resources, such as a library.
If you already have proficiency, you can still train. Doing so costs the same amount, 250gp and 6 or 3 months game time depending; at the end of which you gain Expertise (as the Rogue class feature), in your chosen tool, skill, or weapon; granting you double your proficiency bonus when using this tool/skill/weapon.
If you already have Expertice in a tool, skill, weapon etc. you can train further and gain Mastery in your choed field. This last stage of training costs 1000gp and takes a minimum of a year (GM discretion), to master; it may even require an adventure in it's own right. Going to a long forgotten ancient library to gain mastery in History, finding a magical portal and travelling to the Feywilds to study first hand for mastery of arcana, travelling to the most inhospitable part of the natural environment and living off nothing but the land for months for mastery of Nature etc...
In the case of skills and tools, gaining mastery in them gives you TRIPLE your proficiency score; while with weapons training you get to add your proficiency score to your damage (as well as the double proficiency to hit from expertise), making mastery of a weapon especially potent. Mastery of combat spells is in theory possible, though there's no real recorded examples of someone having managed such a thing.
This change gives players a way to "level up" there characters without actually leveling up and the time frame means players have to actively show in gameplay or state during downtime that they're taking this extra training. This will also allow for lower level characters to specialise more, and for well complimentary teams to take down things of higher than normal CR which will naturally feel awesome.
So what do people think? Interesting house rule or not?
