D&D General Assumed Lore/Sacred Cows you've changed +

[Voadam]

For a while I ran alignment in my d20 games as alignment subtype connections to cosmic forces and not reflective of personal morality, so all mortals without special connections were neutral. Things with alignment subtypes had that alignment. Divine classes usually had a specific alignment like paladins being [GOOD] or clerics with alignment domains gaining that subtype. Sometimes it varied by campaign whether the god having the alignment domain was sufficient for clerics to gain it. Undead all had Subtype [EVIL] due to undeath being powered by Cosmic [EVIL] power, even if they were morally good ghosts. I added [CHAOS] to all fey, [LAW] to all constructs, and gave half-outsiders, planetouched, and such (fiendish/celestial/etc.) creatures alignment subtypes.

This made alignments more cosmic force and cosmic force connections and allowed morality to be a separate thing. Paladins detected [EVIL] supernatural things and not bad guys. It gave a feel I quite liked, keeping in alignment in a cool way but eliminating annoying things about policing or judging the moral worth of things. it also allowed classic bad guy cleric of a good guy church plots and overzealous inquisition style paladins.

 

[Voadam]

I really liked the optional 3e concept of godless clerics and divine power as a power source distinct from arcane, so in my d20 games clerics tapped into divine power and not gods even though many believed that gods granted divine power. This allowed for non-theistic divine magic traditions, as well as revering different beings as gods and still having clerics of them use magics. I quite liked the flavor of clerics and druids as different magical traditions that tapped a different magical power source than arcane casters.

 

[Voadam]

In some campaigns (primarily d20 ones) I made orcs subtype goblins, dwarves humanoid subtype giant, elves and gnomes humanoid subtype fey, and planetouched humanoid subtype native outsiders. I also made monstrous humanoids humanoid subtype monstrous humanoid, and giants as humanoid subtype giant.

Orcs was to make them more Tolkienish, and reduce subtypes for bane and ranger favored enemies.

Dwarves and giants sharing a type connection that both groups vehemently denied was just fun lore and tied into some lore from Dark Sun, Arcanis, and 4e.

Elves and gnomes seemed appropriate to get some increased mechanical fey connections but still be people.

The other type changes made lots more humanoidish things subject to humanoid only affecting effects like charm person that felt appropriate.

 

[Burnside]

I really liked the optional 3e concept of godless clerics and divine power as a power source distinct from arcane, so in my d20 games clerics tapped into divine power and not gods even though many believed that gods granted divine power. This allowed for non-theistic divine magic traditions, as well as revering different beings as gods and still having clerics of them use magics. I quite liked the flavor of clerics and druids as different magical traditions that tapped a different magical power source than arcane casters.

5E lore definitely supports non-theistic divine magic.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For a while I ran alignment in my d20 games as alignment subtype connections to cosmic forces and not reflective of personal morality, so all mortals without special connections were neutral. Things with alignment subtypes had that alignment. Divine classes usually had a specific alignment like paladins being [GOOD] or clerics with alignment domains gaining that subtype. Sometimes it varied by campaign whether the god having the alignment domain was sufficient for clerics to gain it. Undead all had Subtype [EVIL] due to undeath being powered by Cosmic [EVIL] power, even if they were morally good ghosts. I added [CHAOS] to all fey, [LAW] to all constructs, and gave half-outsiders, planetouched, and such (fiendish/celestial/etc.) creatures alignment subtypes.

This made alignments more cosmic force and cosmic force connections and allowed morality to be a separate thing. Paladins detected [EVIL] supernatural things and not bad guys. It gave a feel I quite liked, keeping in alignment in a cool way but eliminating annoying things about policing or judging the moral worth of things. it also allowed classic bad guy cleric of a good guy church plots and overzealous inquisition style paladins.

The project I'm working on now, I decided to take a similar approach to alignment, and make it more like b/x. There are only three cosmic forces: law, neutrality, and chaos. Those are just influences to intelligent beings, but within them are variations of good and evil, with nothing being a default, and the good/evil part not even being part of the mechanics, but rather just how you as an individual want to play that character.
So like you, most PCs would probably be neutral unless a specific cosmic influence was swaying them one way or the other.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

In some campaigns (primarily d20 ones) I made orcs subtype goblins, dwarves humanoid subtype giant, elves and gnomes humanoid subtype fey, and planetouched humanoid subtype native outsiders. I also made monstrous humanoids humanoid subtype monstrous humanoid, and giants as humanoid subtype giant.

Orcs was to make them more Tolkienish, and reduce subtypes for bane and ranger favored enemies.

Dwarves and giants sharing a type connection that both groups vehemently denied was just fun lore and tied into some lore from Dark Sun, Arcanis, and 4e.

Elves and gnomes seemed appropriate to get some increased mechanical fey connections but still be people.

The other type changes made lots more humanoidish things subject to humanoid only affecting effects like charm person that felt appropriate.

That's pure gold.

I love how the new ancestries proposed by WotC can have more than 1 type, but yours is pretty much better.

 

[GMMichael]

In my games, bards are cool.

 

[Horwath]

reduced abilities to 4: strength, dexterity, willpower, cunning,
only one weapon category, current martial power level, all are proficient with all weapons.

alignment still there but more flexible, always evil monsters just tend toward evil but not default for all,

 

[Laurefindel]

1) Alignment is gone/ignored.

2) Cleric (and druids) do not get their magic from gods, nor are they religious individuals (although many believe in various degrees of superstitions). In my homebrewed setting, cleric, Druid, and wizard are three different magic traditions drawing on the same power source; gods have nothing to do with it and all magic is drawn from “nature”. Druidic magic is a kind of proto-arcane tradition drawing from unrefined magic (and therefore limited to natural themes). Divine (cleric) magic is a withcraft-y tradition channeling the powers of (surper)natural beings. Arcane (wizard) magic refines the raw powers of nature to gain more control on magic.

3) Bards don’t play the lute on the battlefield; their magic is not dependant on music/danse/art.

4) “Races” are mostly cosmetic. You want to play an elf but use gnome stats? Go for it. You want to play a human with half orc stats? Sure! Your halfing is from a stout family and use dwarf as a base? Why not. Your human knows an ancient discipline allowing her to meditate to skip sleep? Take the elf race. Just make some sense out of it.

[edit]

5) weapon types are ignored. It’s physical damage or it is not (considering force damage to enter this category too)

 

[Dioltach]

My dragons aren't colour-coded. They're black or rust-coloured, and their breath weapon is whatever I want it to be (except lightning, because that just sit right with me).

Soon I'm going to be running the War of the Lance trilogy (so I suppose I'll have to go with colour-coded dragons then at least), and in my version a large portion of the population believe that the Cataclysm was the gods' attempt to rid Krynn of kender. It might even be true...