D&D 5E What most needs revision for the (hypothetical) 50th anniversary core books?

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Mystic works if they lean into the half-caster angle, which is the approach I would take, in addition to removing Asian specific tropes (other cultures have magical warriors who eschew weapons). Making Subclass a Level 1 choice also would open up the design space to let different Subclasses be different. There are more Subclass possibilities for "Magical Martial Artist" than "Brawler" too. "Brawler" sounds redundant with a Fighter using an unarmed fighting style.

I don't see them making subclasses a level 1 choice

Their reasons for doing still apply, When you're making a character you're already making a choice in race, class, background, skills, equipment, and possibly spells or another class feature. That's a lot
Locking in your character to a subclass before you've even played them is a bit much

 

[Parmandur]

I don't see them making subclasses a level 1 choice

Their reasons for doing still apply, When you're making a character you're already making a choice in race, class, background, skills, equipment, and possibly spells or another class feature. That's a lot
Locking in your character to a subclass before you've even played them is a bit much

The issue with that in practice, as I heard Mearls talk about in the Happy Fun Hour so many Moons ago, is that they've found that most players pick their Subclass at Level 1 anyways, so all that decision ended up doing was limiting the versatility of some Classes.

I kind of doubt that WotC will make any such radical change, but if I could wave a magical wand and dictate 6E, that's one of the few glaring issues with the game.

 

[Aldarc]

Based on Gygax's other naming conventions, I'm surprised he didn't call the monk the "punching-man" or "fists-user."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

As Aldarc sez, mystic really goes hand-in-hand with "mystical Asians." Still feels offensive

And "mystic" by itself doesn't give you the idea of a class that punches people. Feels more like an occult wizard
Mystic was the name of the divine healer in DRAGONLANCE SAGA and when they added the monk to 3rd Ed they changed the name from Basic DnD, likely cause "mystic" didn't work

Easier to call it the "brawler" and have one subclass option or choice of features be more monastic, but have other non-Eastern builds that will make it work better in Western Fantasy

“Brawler” is a fighter subclass concept, at most.

Even Martial Artist is much too narrow an idea. The concept is a mystical warrior who can do things other warriors can’t by focusing their inner power to enhance their body and what it can do.

If you remove that, you’ve eliminated the class entirely, and you’re better off just giving fighters an optional feature to use an Unarmored defense AC calculation rather than armor. The Battlemaster with that single change makes an excellent mundane martial artist.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

The issue with that in practice, as I heard Mearls talk about in the Happy Fun Hour so many Moons ago, is that they've found that most players pick their Sibclass at Lecel 1 anyways, so all that decision ended up doing was limiting the versatility of some Classes.

I kind of doubt that WotC will make any such radical change, but ifnI could wave a magical wand and dictate 6E, that's one of the few glaring issues with the game.

Mearls doesn't work on the RPG anymore so his opinion doesn't matter

Maybe for 6th Ed. But that's so far off its not worth speculating. The changes made for that edition will likely be problems weren't not aware of yet
And it will likely be driven by feedback and public playtesting again. When they start 6th Ed all the current players might vote to keep subclasses at level 2-3 because that feels like DnD to them

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Based on Gygax's other naming conventions, I'm surprised he didn't call the monk the "punching-man" or "fists-user."

"Fisters" has a nice ring to it

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

If you remove that, you’ve eliminated the class entirely, and you’re better off just giving fighters an optional feature to use an Unarmored defense AC calculation rather than armor. The Battlemaster with that single change makes an excellent mundane martial artist.

Guess we should do that then
Problem solved

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Guess we should do that then
Problem solved

No. Not only will that never happen, it would be ludicrous to go that way rather than actually do the work of reworking the class to keep its underlying identity while shedding the appropriative elements.

 

[Parmandur]

Mearls doesn't work on the RPG anymore so his opinion doesn't matter

Maybe for 6th Ed. But that's so far off its not worth speculating. The changes made for that edition will likely be problems weren't not aware of yet
And it will likely be driven by feedback and public playtesting again. When they start 6th Ed all the current players might vote to keep subclasses at level 2-3 because that feels like DnD to them

In this case, Mearls wasn't offering his opinion, he was reporting on the discoveries from actual play data. And that is unlikely change.

 

[Yaarel]

The issue with that in practice, as I heard Mearls talk about in the Happy Fun Hour so many Moons ago, is that they've found that most players pick their Sibclass at Lecel 1 anyways, so all that decision ended up doing was limiting the versatility of some Classes.

I kind of doubt that WotC will make any such radical change, but ifnI could wave a magical wand and dictate 6E, that's one of the few glaring issues with the game.

In addition to finetuning how race works, if there is one more "eyebrow raising" update that I want for the 2024 consolidation, it is that every class can express their archetype at level 1. (For example, that an Eldritch Knight has no magic at level 1 feels absurd to me. What were the high elves and githyanki doing for all of those years growing up training to be gishes?)

Perhaps, archetype at level 1 can be stealth-errataed by offering various feature swaps at level 1. The same kind of feature-swap options in Tashas that improve the Ranger, and so on, could appear in a future UA to swap in archetype features at level 1.