D&D 5E Your 5E Hypothetical Variant

[Krachek]

I won’t have done anything good.

As final approval I would have make a veto on the -5/+10, and also a veto on the quicken eldritch blast. No way.

Bonus action is a mess, like say M Mearls, work a little more to get rid of it.

And a personal annoyance, concentration broken on damage. More annoying than useful.

 

[Undrave]

I frankly probably would have gotten rid of most daily ressources... Healing Surges would have stuck around tho. Would have looked a bit more 4e-SAGA-ish as well. I'd probably have experimented with talent trees, with talents that were class specific, but others that were open to everyone.

I'd probably have kept the 'you get to choose something at every level, no boring dead level' style, but would have kept the number of option per encounter lower so as not to bog down things as much.

Probably more flat bonuses that are always on, but to different things so you can pick what you prefer. Like, if you're a caster, instead of getting a new combat spell you get to pick one to upgrade.

You'd have options to keep your fighter a dumb 'I swing my sword', but you would also be able to make a spell caster that just shoots blasts of flame. Simple shouldn't be wedded to a single archetype.

Rituals would have been emphasized as the long form magic where the more complexe effects happen so as to divorce utility casting from combat casting entirely with Wizards getting features to make it easier on them to use.

Skill Powers to make skill choice more fun.

Would have kept the well defined power sources and the transparent design intent of combat role, with clear secondary. Probably giving a unique mechanic to each power source and a more obvious style to combat roles so that the intersections of two is always a different feel. Also a better explanation of why certain Martial Exploits can't be used all the time to satisfy the grognards.

Clear monster math would have been a thing.

A new paradigm for magic item where you can use ressources to customize them so you can find random items but they aren't utterly useless to you if they're outside a specific parameter. I personally like the idea of the abilities of a magical weapon being in magical gems or something that can be moved from one proper socket to another, possibly with specific planar power sources that can't be mixed together.

 

[Zardnaar]

I frankly probably would have gotten rid of most daily ressources... Healing Surges would have stuck around tho. Would have looked a bit more 4e-SAGA-ish as well. I'd probably have experimented with talent trees, with talents that were class specific, but others that were open to everyone.

I'd probably have kept the 'you get to choose something at every level, no boring dead level' style, but would have kept the number of option per encounter lower so as not to bog down things as much.

Probably more flat bonuses that are always on, but to different things so you can pick what you prefer. Like, if you're a caster, instead of getting a new combat spell you get to pick one to upgrade.

You'd have options to keep your fighter a dumb 'I swing my sword', but you would also be able to make a spell caster that just shoots blasts of flame. Simple shouldn't be wedded to a single archetype.

Rituals would have been emphasized as the long form magic where the more complexe effects happen so as to divorce utility casting from combat casting entirely with Wizards getting features to make it easier on them to use.

Skill Powers to make skill choice more fun.

Would have kept the well defined power sources and the transparent design intent of combat role, with clear secondary. Probably giving a unique mechanic to each power source and a more obvious style to combat roles so that the intersections of two is always a different feel. Also a better explanation of why certain Martial Exploits can't be used all the time to satisfy the grognards.

Clear monster math would have been a thing.

A new paradigm for magic item where you can use ressources to customize them so you can find random items but they aren't utterly useless to you if they're outside a specific parameter. I personally like the idea of the abilities of a magical weapon being in magical gems or something that can be moved from one proper socket to another, possibly with specific planar power sources that can't be mixed together.

I like a lot of SWSE as well but that's more for my hypothetical what if 4E especially on Fighter and Rogue.

 

[Undrave]

I like a lot of SWSE as well but that's more for my hypothetical what if 4E especially on Fighter and Rogue.

The biggest flaw with SWSE, IMO, was how many talents were like "Take this once to do it once per day, take it more to do it more" and that was just dumb.

I feel like your character's core aspect should be something you can do all the time whenever appropriate. It's why we got at-will cantrips: if you're a spellcaster, you need to be able to cast spell all the time.

I think that's probably he principle I would work from: identify the CORE of each archetype, give it a mechanic to do it as often as possible, if not at will then under easy circumstances to trigger (like sneak attack) and just build outward from there with features that either enhance or modulate that core aspect.

People liked the Warlord and its commander strike? Let's do that the core of a class. One archetype gives better bonus, one archetype offers other types of action, for exemple.

Another thing I forgot: I'd keep the 4e principle that all spells should be attack roll. This whole 'some spell you roll, some spell the target rolls, sometimes nobody rolls' thing is just weird. You want to affect someone you get the dice roll.

Plus, everybody liks rolling dice, right?

 

[DND_Reborn]

In many ways SWSE has been my favorite d20 game. 5E is close, but more so because it is fantasy-medieval-based instead of Sci-Fi. Many of the tweaks I want to implement stem from SWSE... I sort of hoped 4E would go this route, but alas...

 

[Zardnaar]

We played SWSEvand ad hoced in 5E proficiency bonus.

Also thought of SWSE for Spelljammer.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We played SWSEvand ad hoced in 5E proficiency bonus.

Also thought of SWSE for Spelljammer.

Umm... I have little idea what you mean by this??? Elaborate, please? It is late and maybe I just need sleep...

 

[Zardnaar]

Umm... I have little idea what you mean by this??? Elaborate, please? It is late and maybe I just need sleep...

We ditched BAB and the SWSE half level thing and used 5E proficiency thing.

We did change skill focused to expertise a'la 5E rogue class ability. It's a feat in SWSE.

 

[Undrave]

I wonder how a SWSE inspired fantasy game would handle spellcaster... I suppose a bit like Force Talent where you have to make a check to use it?

 

[Zardnaar]

I wonder how a SWSE inspired fantasy game would handle spellcaster... I suppose a bit like Force Talent where you have to make a check to use it?

Depends if you built it from the ground up as it's own thing or D&D.

The force powers would use charisma and be like Sorcerers and Warlocks I suppose.