D&D (2024) YOU are in charge of the next PHB! What do you change?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

By reading this thread, you are agreeing to an unbreakable NDA. If you admit to knowing this thread exists, I will know and come to your house and shave your eyebrows off.

So, WotC finally comes to their senses and asks you to be in charge of the new PHB, to go on sale in [REDACTED]. The new PHB should be compatible with the other non-PHB 5E books, but otherwise, you're free to go nuts.

What do you change? Do you eliminate darkvision for most races? Do you revamp the ranger and monk? Do you replace all the halfling art?

What do you do?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What do you change? Do you eliminate darkvision for most races? Do you revamp the ranger and monk? Do you replace all the halfling art?

Well yes to all of that for starters. Let's bullet-point this shiz:

General:

• Alignment is barely mentioned
• Short rest is down to 10 mins

Races:

• Lineages replace races
• Darkvision becomes low-light vision by default
• Variant Tiefling is default Tiefling
• Dragonborn use the new Dragonborn approach
• Halfings inexplicably missing from index/table of contents and last in race chapter despite beginning with H in effort to give halfing fans a heart attack
• Gnomes replaced with 4E-style gnomes
• Fairies are in
• Half-Orcs are out
• Orcs are in

Classes/archetypes:

• Loads of +stat mod or usuable stat mod times stuff changed to proficiency (no brainer) - would need some tweaks in a few places
• All "major" customizations moved to L3 (I could be argued into L1).
• In most cases different subclasses but we'll be here all day if I list them all.
• Clerics broken into two customization parts - major customization is whether they're a melee, zapping, or support/utility-spells Cleric, minor customization is god (which just influences spell list). God is L1, major customization is L3.
• Wizards customization changed so specialist wizard is just one thing, but the best-designed specialist broken out into their own subclasses (Diviner hilariously). Reduced to sane number of subclasses as result.
• Fighters redesigned so Battlemaster stuff is part of core Fighter design - every Fighter archetype in the PHB gets access to manuevers/dice, BM just gets a lot more
• Monks redesigned and refluffed to clearly just be martial artists, core Monk chassis severely stripped down, most of the weird features removed and given to a sort of Shaolin Monk equivalent subclass. Better alternatives to stunning strike provided. Design space from removing weird Shaolin-esque features used to make archetypes work better.
• Sorcerers redesigned to use purely points-based casting - no more weird mix of slots and points.
• Ranger made less rubbish, Tashas options made default assumptions for the most part, totally different subclasses default

Skills

• Skills mechanics heavily re-worked
• Plot-point style mechanic built in to game to allow people to "take 10" on skills pretty regularly but not constantly
• Detailed guidance on what pass/fail on skills actually means
• Social skills particularly detailed re: default assumptions about when you can use them, and what they can achieve, and what pass/fail is likely to actually mean in a given situation
• Clear information that suggests DMs should not be asking you to roll the same skill repeatedly
• Default situation is that failure is not catastrophic clearly stated

Combat

• Surprise changed to not be dumb and make no sense.

Gotta go now but maybe more later.

 

[Argyle King]

I'm not sure how the changes I would want to make would be possible given the established limitations in the OP.

I would like to see structural changes to how monsters and encounters are built.

I might consider pushing the game back out to being 30 levels and spreading the idea of bounded accuracy across more decision-making points for players.

Proficiency dice would likely become the standard way of doing things rather than a flat proficiency bonus. (Gaining double proficiency in a skill would have the effect of upgrading your proficiency die for that skill. For example, a d4 would become a d6.)

Tool proficiency would be done very differently. (I'm not sure how yet. Currently, it just seems kinda tacked on without much thought toward how it actually functions in-game.)

There would be three types of rest: quick (5-10 minutes); short (1 hour, like now); and long (8 hours).

I would try to find a middle ground for racial ability scores. I like some of the flexibility of Tasha's, but I also believe that -in a world with tangible physical differences between species- there are also tangible differences. So, I might do something like give each race one ability which is set and also give them a floating point to place into a choice of abilities. I think late-4E started doing something like that, and it worked.

Alternatively, I may decide to get away from ability score bonuses at all and simply give racial abilities (i.e. Dragonborn breath weapon) to each race.

Resistances would have more granularity. Right now, I believe it's too binary. It's difficult to measure degrees of resistance to something.

 

[Thunder Brother]

I would fix the Index, because whoever organized that damn thing is a sadist.

 

[Shiroiken]

Race

• Standardize choice of +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1 to ability score improvements
  • Human gain secondary ability to make up for change (feat equivalent)
• Add Culture, removing non-genetic abilities
  • All races have access to same cultures, based on setting limitations

Classes

• Remove frontloading
• Assume characters start at level 3, with 1-2 as apprentice tier
• Make Bard a half-caster

Equipment

• Balance the armor and weapons!
• Remove Potion of Healing from standard equipment
  • Replace with Medicinal Herbs, which take 1 minute for the same effect
• Remove Healer's Kit ability (used for Medicine checks instead)

Customizing Characters

• Balance Feats to be equal to +2 in primary ability (GWM and PAM level is the goal)
  • Reduce Sharpshooter to double short range and reduce cover bonus by 3 (min 0)

Combat

• Allow Bonus Action to be used as an Action
• Second Item Interaction is Bonus Action
• Donning Shield is Bonus Action

Spells

• Remove scaling on cantrips
  • Slowly add more low level spells slots to make up for it
• Expand Ritual spells
• Remove Concentration from specific (bad) spells

 

[Aldarc]

I have attempted to answer the OP about 4-5 times now, and I every time I ended up making a new edition, so I give up.

 

[Minigiant]

General
Alignment is changed
Wrestling, Masquerade, Dragon, and Humanity alignment added as options
Assumption based on completely new setting.
Base Assumption of 6-8 encounters a day. Rules for 1 and 15 encounter days.

Races
Races renamed as Lineages
Races become less Rubberforehead human.
Half Elf, Half Orc, Mul, and Quartling become sublineages of Elf, Orc, Dwarf, and Halfling respectively.
Goblin, Hobgoblin, and Bugbear added to PHB.
Kobold added to PHB.
Low light and nightvision added
Small lineages get +2 AC.
Variant rules for Shadowtouched or Feytouched.

Classes
Artificer in PHB.
Fighter split into 3 classes: Fighter, Weaponmaster?, and Warlord
Cleric split into Cleric and Invoker?
Subclass starts at level 2 for everyone.
Cleric, Invoker, and Paladin can share some subclasses.
Sorcerer and Wizard can share some subclasses
Druid and Ranger can share some subclasses
Fighter, Weaponmaster?, and Warlord can share some subclasses.
All classes have 3 options for resources.
Primeval Awareness replaced by TCOE variant.

Combat
Characters can get Expertise with weapons, cantrips, and armor
Certain classes can attack after making Dodge or Disengage Action
Can interact with a 2nd object as bonus action
Charge is an action
Brace is an action
Suplex is an action

Equipment
More Shields added
Armor AC go from 10-20
Adventurering gear grouped by high and low magic.

Monsters
Monsters have lower HP overall.
Monsters get Roles.
Warrior monsters have Expertise with their weapons.
Brutes get more HP
Minions get minimum HP
Spellcasters get Expertise with cantrips

Skills
Dungeoneering readded
Streetwise readded
Endurance readded
Nobility added
Engineering added
Weightlifting added

Options
Gifts are options as ASI replacement
Status are options as ASI replacement
Soul Weapons are options as ASI replacement

 

[hopeless]

Stop nerfing the Sorceror and let them decide what spells they want their caster to use depending on what they need not remove key spells that are actually useful!
Select your race and then which culture they were raised by thus certain abilities are counted as racial and others are culture related.
So a Dark Elf raised by a Wood Elf has wood elf weapon proficiencies but loses superior darkvision so they aren't effected by sunlight since they wasn't raised underground through to adulthood!
I wonder if a human was raised by an elf would they be treated as a half elf with the Skilled feat replacing their bonus Feat and they are treated as a Variant Human as a result?
I wonder how people would react to that?

 

[Aldarc]

Okay. Here are some general changes.

• Make Advantage / Disadvantage less ubiquitous as a miracle cure-all mechanic.
• Reorganize spells across 10 spell levels rather than 9 and adjust classes and spell lists accordingly.

 

[Bagpuss]

I would fix the Index, because whoever organized that damn thing is a sadist.

That would do for me.