D&D General The perfect D&D edition (according to ENWORLD)

[Dungeonosophy]

Perfect D&D 6E:

• WotC adopts Pathfinder Second Edition more or less in whole cloth. haha (Just adds Tiefling, Dragonborn, Warlock, etc.)
• At the same time, WotC produces a super-streamlined but fully-fledged TRPG which is way simpler than even the existing 5E Basic Rules. Something along the lines of The Black Hack and Heroes & Monsters RPG or even Tails of Equestria. As a separate game line which is compatible or convertible with the usual "complex" D&D. See: ND&D (Novellic D&D) and SD&D (Simply D&D) and CD&D (Chainmail D&D).
• The D&D Multiverse is made into a full-blown world-hopping meta-setting via a Crisis on Infinite Oerths storyline, which brings back all the D&D Worlds in a big way, and synchronizes all of the timelines. Everything from Pelinore of TSR Uk, to Mystara, to Council of Wyrms, to Mike Mearl's Nerath, to the world(s?) of D&D Movies (e.g. Izmir), to the Dream World of the Hebrew Basic D&D modules, to the Motherland of the LJN AD&D Action Figures, and QuestWorld of the TSR Endless Quest Gamebooks.
• Brings back the Realm of the D&D Cartoon Show as a campaign setting, and the players play themselves! As we escape from the Realm, we explore other D&D Worlds.
• Produces gigantic telephone-book sized series of reference works, right out of the gate: Spell Compendium 6E (all the spells from all editions), Encyclopedia Magica 6E (all magic items from all editions), Monstrous Compendium 6E (overseen by ENWorld's Echohawk!)
• Hires a linguist (e.g. Mark Okrand, creator of Klingonese) to flesh out all of the key languages of the D&D Multiverse.
• Hurries up and opens up all of the D&D Worlds to DMs Guild fan-publishing.
• Let Bruce Heard write the 5E Mystara worldbook, like WotC tapped Keith Baker to write the 5E Eberron book on DMs Guild. Do the same for the other D&D Worlds...tap a team of grognards: for Greyhawk worldbook: A. Grohe, Luke Gygax, and/or Eric Mona.
• As has been done with DMs Guild and the new D&D fan-crafting site, open up a site for fan-authored D&D Fiction (novels and short-stories), D&D Comic Books, and D&D Music.
• Alongside the D&D Multiverse meta-setting, each DM is encouraged to build their own campaign setting from the start, instead of shoehorning everyone into the Forgotten Realms. For example, all proper names in the 6E Starter Set are enclosed in brackets: [Phandolin], [Neverwinter], [Oghma], which signals that you're supposed to choose your own name. And there's an appendix in the back with a table of alternate names to randomly choose from, and suggestions for how to invent a name: Like: "For Oghma, write in the name of the God of Knowledge in your world."
• A Worldbuilders Guidebook is released from the start, which actually reverse engineers all previous D&D settings, so that a DM could randomly roll them up, or a gonzo mixture thereof...or a world with a theme which has never been seen before. Even the campaign setting names and logos can be rolled up: e.g. Dragonhawk, Greylance, The Known Realms, Forgotten Sun, Dark Coast, Hollow Oerth, etc.
• Issues an LARP / cosplay D&D rulebook.
• Brings back Blackmoor.
• Releases the second place winner of the WotC Setting Search (after Eberron).
• Open up homemade settings to DMs Guild.
• For a modest fee, DMs can register their world, which then exists as a crystal sphere within the official D&D Multiverse. Otherwise, all DM's campaigns are considered to be a separate Multiverses.
• Include James Wyatt's worlds in the D&D Multiverse, and also the other worlds of past and present TSR designers. E.g. John Eric Holmes' "World of Peril."
• Release an Atlas of the D&D Multiverse which shows a world map for all of the existing D&D Worlds...even if they didn't have a full planetary map before! And which shows the official placement of all existing modules, D&D Fiction, and D&D video- and board-games.
• Reduce the cost of the Classic PDFs - and offer cheap bundles/subscriptions which literally include everything ever written for each D&D World. And get it all set up for print-on-demand.
• Get print-on-demand fully rolling for DMs Guild fan-writings.

 

[Lanefan]

Your should I will take that to mean "zero impact of choice, simplistic tactics only and zero impact of player ability" ... go play a game of heads or tails with a coin.

Games with celebrated lethality make for cardboard heros without personality and no player investment seen it.

Not at all - in fact I think they make for more player investment in the characters that survive. And presence or absence of character personality is not at all related to lethality; that said, if it is then the opposite is true to what you suggest - if a player thinks a character won't be around for long then whatever personality that player has in mind for it is going to come out now.

Less bounded - bounded accuracy makes heros less accurate. I want heros to be noticeably better at high levels instead of being stumped by chumps

Where I'd much rather see a far flatter power curve, such that low-level characters have at least a vague chance against mighty foes while low-level/HD foes have at least a vague chance against mighty characters.

So insisting being illiterate and not reading the game you are playing yeh. That must be the perfect approach. You cannot half assed read the players handbook and come away with that conclusion.

Note I never said anything about reading. Most new players learn the game by being told about it...and I repeat: if someone told me I'm the 'leader' in the party then dammit, I'm going to lead.

And if I'm then told (or later read in the PH) that's not what leader means in this case my first response would be "Then why call me the leader when I'm not?".

He said other players not other PCS now people do sometimes do that as a mistake but it is an entirely different reference

Ah, true - the reference wss to other players.

That said, my point stands. If you and I are playing in the same game and the DM has not told us our PCs know each other prior to char-gen then realistically we have no reason (other than metagaming, which is never a valid reason for anything) to tell each other what we're bringing in nor whether they're likely to get along or not.

An example: I roll up a character whose prime goal in life, for whatever reason, is to kill every dragon and dragonspawn she can find; and you show up with a Dragonborn. Quite realistic that something like this would happen in the fiction; also quite realistic to think one (or both?) of us will be rolling up another character before the evening's done, after we'd roleplayed out the results of their meeting.

 

[Lanefan]

Your first line...

WotC adopts Pathfinder Second Edition more or less in whole cloth. haha (Just adds Tiefling, Dragonborn, Warlock, etc.)

...makes this a game I wouldn't touch with a 10' pole.

That said, you're really on to something with some of the rest:

Produces gigantic telephone-book sized series of reference works, right out of the gate: Spell Compendium 6E (all the spells from all editions), Encyclopedia Magica 6E (all magic items from all editions), Monstrous Compendium 6E (overseen by ENWorld's Echohawk!)

Alongside the D&D Multiverse meta-setting, each DM is encouraged to build their own campaign setting from the start, instead of shoehorning everyone into the Forgotten Realms. For example, all proper names in the 6E Starter Set are enclosed in brackets: [Phandolin], [Neverwinter], [Oghma], which signals that you're supposed to choose your own name. And there's an appendix in the back with a table of alternate names to randomly choose from, and suggestions for how to invent a name: Like: "For Oghma, write in the name of the God of Knowledge in your world."

A Worldbuilders Guidebook is released from the start, which actually reverse engineers all previous D&D settings, so that a DM could randomly roll them up, or a gonzo mixture thereof...or a world with a theme which has never been seen before. Even the campaign setting names and logos can be rolled up: e.g. Dragonhawk, Greylance, The Known Realms, Forgotten Sun, Dark Coast, Hollow Oerth, etc.

Issues an LARP / cosplay D&D rulebook.

Release an Atlas of the D&D Multiverse which shows a world map for all of the existing D&D Worlds...even if they didn't have a full planetary map before! And which shows the official placement of all existing modules, D&D Fiction, and D&D video- and board-games.

These are all abolutely brilliant ideas!

I split this one out as I've a bit more commentary:

For a modest fee, DMs can register their world, which then exists as a crystal sphere within the official D&D Multiverse. Otherwise, all DM's campaigns are considered to be a separate Multiverse.

Screw that - put 'em all in the same universe! If you're standing on Greyhawk on a clear-sky night and know where to look you can see the star Mystara orbits; ditto for the star hosting Eberron, and so forth. Then put out a star chart that shows how these all interrelate, much like the star charts used for the Star Wars universe.

And leave a whole bunch of those stars empty so DMs can put their own world(s) there.

Also, I don't think your fan-publishing ideas will get very far; mostly because it'd be too difficult for WotC to allow all that and still keep any sort of control on their IP and copyright.

 

[Garthanos]

if a player thinks a character won't be around for long then whatever personality that player has in mind for it is going to come out now.

Thinking about a character is a form of creative work ... that work is thrown out the window without opportunity to develop, which happens way too often with your coin flipping game. By the time random chance picks the character you actually get to continue to develop well he is Bob 10 ...

The initial investment is only going to part of it ... but it should be some of it.

Where I'd much rather see a far flatter power curve, such that low-level characters have at least a vague chance against mighty foes while low-level/HD foes have at least a vague chance against mighty characters.

Flat you mean like going up a level and instantly having twice the staying power? The real D&D flat Tilted to high heaven .

The chances heros have against mightier characters is teamwork but I guess you prefer flukes of dice not choice or tactics so that explains it.

Note I never said anything about reading. Most new players learn the game by being told about it...

apparently by an illiterate who themselves never read the game. Somewhere in your progression you get someone intentionally misrepresenting or not reading. (and you advocating for assuming it)

That said, my point stands. If you and I are playing in the same game and the DM has not told us our PCs know each other prior to char-gen then realistically we have no reason (other than metagaming, which is never a valid reason for anything) to tell each other what we're bringing in nor whether they're likely to get along or not.

Yup being considerate of other players who may have different tastes and tolerating them a bit... is totally metagaming and unfair. We probably should ask him what he meant though to be honest.

An example: I roll up a character whose prime goal in life, for whatever reason, is to kill every dragon and dragonspawn she can find; and you show up with a Dragonborn. Quite realistic that something like this would happen in the fiction; also quite realistic to think one (or both?) of us will be rolling up another character before the evening's done, after we'd roleplayed out the results of their meeting.

That encounter happens a lot in stories the goal is to have the characters find something to admire in each other. To develop... but since you have coin flipping combat guess that story can
never happen.

The technical phrase is Rocket Tag combat I hear.

 

[Garthanos]

Multiclassing should be *much* more difficult (I've not been a fan of it since 3E)

I think in 5e it deserves a feat cost to enable.

 

[Garthanos]

...makes this a game I wouldn't touch with a 10' pole.

But I want to experience 3e

No clue what changes they have made though so a largely unjustified assumption

 

[Garthanos]

Fans of every other class that was ever in a PH1 enjoy that privilege. Fans of the Psion and Artificer are in line to receive it, even though those classes were never in a PH1.

Pretty sure that without serious house rule hammers I cannot get anything approaching my 4e first level Swordmage character and it would be bloody impossible in paragon. And not because of power, but rather because of... I am not sure.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Put another way, it's a flat-out bad word-choice by the 4e designers to have called the role 'leader' when it really means 'supporter' or 'follower'.

There's a lot of that in D&Ds history, it was trying to get away from the D&D Cleric / MMO healer steroetypes, I'm sure.

Non-magical battlefield healing of any kind is a complete non-starter.

That attitude is a non-starter.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Pretty sure that without serious house rule hammers I cannot get anything approaching my Swordmage character

Wasn't ever in a PH1 that I'm aware of.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think in 5e it deserves a feat cost to enable.

It already has... more or less.

I might however say that every class should have a "level 0.5" a level where you get all the things that need training for a longer time or which are so specific that they can't be gained later. Not only proficiencies.
Now there are two possibilities. You either start the game with level 0.5 and 1 in a class or with two classes at level 0.5.
If you later multiclass you can't take level 0.5 anymore. You can later get a feat to grab a few things from that maybe.
If you start at level 0.5 in both classes, you might have some extra restrictions like being required to actually level each class to 1 individually so you are always a level behind. Or you might be restricted to level 15 in a single class at most.