Brand new DM to 5E and many concerns...

[TallIan]

One of my possible changes would be reducing the Prof Bonus from d6 HD classes by two.

The trouble with this is that proficiency bonus applies to a wizard’s spell casting. So you’ll end up making a multi tier proficiency table or revert back to the nightmare that was 3e skills

 

[DEFCON 1]

The trouble with this is that proficiency bonus applies to a wizard’s spell casting. So you’ll end up making a multi tier proficiency table or revert back to the nightmare that was 3e skills

Exactly. Just don't give the wizard any weapon proficiencies instead. They don't add the +2 bonus to using weapons, but still get the +2 to their spellcasting.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Actually, funny story

In the last 5e game i played the Gm was hung up on my sorcs 1d10 firebolt. not a game went by with him not commenting on how much damage it did just made no sense etc...

also had shocking grasp for those close-in moments. not a peep.

Also had dagger for d4+3 which averages the same as a d10 but without the low or the high - not a peep.

Got to be funny.

It's like some old-school DMs just can't handle the idea of low-level wizards actually doing any appreciable damage until they've reached a level where they have enough spell slots to pretty much cast real spells every round in every combat. To them, if a wizard is out of slots, they should just be doing like at maximum 1d4 damage a round, whether that be from cantrips or a using sling.

 

[5ekyu]

It's like some old-school DMs just can't handle the idea of low-level wizards actually doing any appreciable damage until they've reached a level where they have enough spell slots to pretty much cast real spells every round in every combat. To them, if a wizard is out of slots, they should just be doing like at maximum 1d4 damage a round, whether that be from cantrips or a using sling.

It was very much that sort of feel.

 

[Older Beholder]

If your players haven't played older editions (or any TTRPG) they won't be comparing it to anything, so don't worry too much about that. If you're concerned about it feeling like a video game, just emphasise what makes RPGs great, I'm sure the things that you loved last time you played can be given new life via a new edition.


And if you still don't enjoy it you can always get the older editions for cheap and just play that. Personally though I think 5E is as easy as the game has been for new players to pick up.


Also I just wanted to mention that I have played an Elderitch knight, (gnome) and I thought they were a great class, with action surge, second wind, some evocation magic like mm and shield added on top. He was MVP most fights. Fun, easy to run and effective.



Nothing like a fighter having a couple of magic missiles up their sleeve at the end of a fight when you know the big bad only has a few HPs left, and you can't afford to miss.


Anyway, Good luck with it.


Oh, and as for Ogre HPs from 1E to 5E, that's just inflation

 

[Oofta]

Well, a guy I work with and I got talking about it a several weeks ago. After asking around, a few others at work had never played but were interested. The guy was already looking into 5E through Beyond, and I checked out some of the OGL material. I found a great deal on the core books online, so decided to get them.

I stopped playing because I moved to Europe about 10 years ago and couldn't find any interest. When I moved back to the States, other things took priority for a while. Now, I find myself in a position to have both the time for gaming again and people I know interested in it.

The world is my own. I have several maps, etc., established kingdoms, blah blah blah.

The players decided to go a different route, very "anti-social" in racial selection I suppose (Half-Orc Thief, Blue Dragonborn Monk, Tiefling Warlock, Drow Elf Ranger, and Duergar Dwarf Fighter), and when making the character the fighter brought up the point about hitting and said he wasn't any better really (other than a slightly improved chance due to high Str) than the others. It reminded me SO much of the other editions and how fighters really never excelled at fighting compared to the abilities other classes got. 3E changed that somewhat, but became so convoluted in min/maxing it made me sick.

Hence, why I am here.

I thought the easiest fix would be modding the Fighting Styles to scale with level. So, the player could focus on archery, defense, damage, protection and naturally get better at those things as the level improved. I see after some of the posts a full Proficiency Bonus to AC would probably be unbalanced, and I would be fine with using 1/2 that, rounded down. Archery and Dueling could both add Prof Bonus to damage instead of straight +2, Protection could be used more than once per round at higher levels or something. I don't know, I'll have to see when we play if I think changes are needed and if the player is happy with the Fighter without them.

We're meeting today to finalize characters and play-test some mock combats, etc. to cut our teeth on the system before we actually start the campaign. I'll discuss most of the feedback, explain the concept of Bounded Accuracy, and play RAW for a while with certain changes in mind. I mean, in glancing through the magic items, I found it odd things seemed capped at +3 given I am used to +5 from earlier versions. That isn't such a big deal, as more powerful magic items have always been pretty rare in my games, but I have to admit times when the party stumbled upon a +5 Long Sword at low levels made for some interesting encounters! Once word got out about the weapon, they had to struggle to keep it around with NPCs and monsters seeking it out for themselves LOL! I also noticed so many things in 5E seem to modify damage instead of attack, but now I get that is due to the whole Bounded Accuracy thing.

I've received several good suggestions, some similar to ideas I was considering anyway. So, thanks again to those who offered suggestions and feedback. Much appreciated!

I had a wizard that I planned to use a longbow for a while (elven proficiency) because it was his heritage and did a bit more damage than cantrips at low levels. However, the fighter archer would have done more damage, and probably have a better chance to hit since I didn't prioritize dexterity.

Did my elf in any way make the fighter less valid? I don't think so. After a few levels - and the first few levels go by quickly if you use standard rules - the fighter will greatly outshine the wizard at archery.

In other words, I think your fears of imbalance are overblown and I'd play a while before implementing house rules.

In any case, good luck and don't get too caught up in numbers or how the game "should" work based on experiences with other games. I like 5E, but looking at it from a prism of previous editions will skew things. In addition, not all games will work for everyone but I'd say that the issues you see based on a first pass read of the rules are not really issues.

 

[Dausuul]

If you don't give the Wizard any weapon proficiencies, they will always be at least 2 points behind the fighter and other weapon using classes in attack bonus. And the reason why you don't really have to re-balance anything is because you were probably going to find out soon enough that none of your Wizards were ever going to use their weapons anyway.

Yup. I've been playing 5E since release, and in all that time, I don't think I have ever once seen a wizard make a weapon attack. Stripping them of their weapon proficiencies would have minimal impact on the class*.

If you tell any of your players that Wizards in your game do not get proficiency in any weapons, what will most likely happen is that they will take their standard ranged cantrip (like Fire Bolt or Chill Touch), and then a melee ranged cantrip too (like Shocking Grasp) in order to have at least one thing to use in melee range that will add their proficiency bonus to the attack.

Alternatively, they could take a damage cantrip that targets a saving throw instead of AC. (This is much more likely if you allow XGtE material. The only PHB options are acid splash and poison spray; acid splash is decent crowd control but very weak against single targets, and poison spray only works at melee range anyway, plus 20% of monsters are immune. However, XGtE has a lot of excellent saving-throw cantrips, with toll the dead topping the list.)

[size=-2]*Except war mages and bladesingers; but I assume you wouldn't be stripping them of weapon proficiencies.[/size]

 

[Devilbass]

In 2e a wizard and a fighter both had THAC0 20 at level one. If the optional rule of weapon specialization was in use, and the fighter opted to use it, the fighter had a 1 point advantage to hit.

 

[happyhermit]

I started with Basic (which I still love), and I have to say the list of things in it and AD&D that don't "make sense" unless you squint pretty hard is... not short. If you can get past all of those I really doubt you would have trouble getting past similar things in 5e, if you approach it with an open mind. 5e is in the same ballpark in terms of gamist/realism as most D&D, with less arbitrary restrictions and more (IME) intuitive rules. You don't have to explain to players or houserule away things like when a wizard picks up a sword for instance, the wizard can use the sword now, they just aren't very good with it unless they have reasons to be.

You can focus on one particular thing; a very dexterous Wizard has the same % hit rate to stab with a Dagger but that's a very videogamey way to look at it and ignores all the things already mentioned ie; the Fighter can action surge to double his chances, use a better weapon, etc. In reality, which one is closer to making sense, after all professional melee fighters have a tremendously low % Hit rate (especially when using the D&D "hit" which means not only connecting) it's all about feigns and dodges and positioning.

 

[Satyrn]

LOL - seems like every edition someone complains that D&D is like a video game!

It's especially funny considering the numerous video games using TSR-era D&D rules. Even more so since the videogamiest of all editions (4e in my opinion) is the basis of so very few video games.