D&D 5E (2024) YOU are in charge of the next PHB! What do you change?

[Blackrat]

I take the 3.5e phb. I make the bare necessity changes to make it compatible with the other 5e books. Behold! My masterpiece

 

[hopeless]

So would hybrid be a good name to replace for half elves, orcs, etc?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Core rules is one book just like the D&D Cyclopedia. 4 races/4 classes. Then sell Advanced phb's with additional classes, advanced dmg's with additional magic items and optional rules, and advanced monster manuals with additional monsters.

That's literally the exact opposite model of the Rules Cyclopedia. Like literally the opposite. The Cyclopedia is... encyclopedic... it has all the rules and classes and monsters and so on.

That's why it was amazing:

Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So yeah, that's not "just like" it at all.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So would hybrid be a good name to replace for half elves, orcs, etc?

Probably not.

It sounds scientific and like it's treating the character in question as some kind of animal, freak, or curiousity. That's not a good look when talking about a living, thinking, feeling being with a soul.

It would probably be better to just note under Orc and Elf that you often had ones who were part-human and if so they might want to pick these options for lineage.

 

[akr71]

Split Ancestry into two pieces - or removing all learned things from Ancestry altogether and move it to Culture. Tool, skill weapon & armor proficiencies should come from culture and background.

Make a third tier of weapon proficiencies - militia maybe? [Simple-Militia-Martial]
Allow martial type characters to get better with their weapons as they progress. Something better than the feats presented in Tasha's but not so prone to abuse as weapon specialization of the past.

 

[Aldarc]

Probably not.

It sounds scientific and like it's treating the character in question as some kind of animal, freak, or curiousity. That's not a good look when talking about a living, thinking, feeling being with a soul.

It would probably be better to just note under Orc and Elf that you often had ones who were part-human and if so they might want to pick these options for lineage.

IMO, it might have been nice to provide a B/X game and then slowly build the complexity (e.g., levels, modularity, and classes) into the system over time, which would let them playtest this with greater granularity. Then come out with a Rules Cyclopedia that could also serve as both a collection of the rules and a soft reboot/errata version. But I think people would also be incensed about the idea of buying an "incomplete" game.

 

[TwoSix]

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.

Yea, that's where I am. The requirement to keep it compatible with existing books (which means we can't really change class structure) is too much.

 

[AtomicPope]

I would add a section for Optional Advanced Play where feats, weapon specialization, focus specialization, and human variant types would be found. I would slightly expand the weapon and focus rules to add a little more variety in choice. Just spit-balling but something like a mistletoe focus would would give a +1 DC to any "plant" spells in their descriptor but a -1 to damage. I like the idea of a fighter drawing a flail, and that means something, and the same goes for a wizard armed with an orb instead of a wand. So a wizard could specialize in casting with a wand, a barbarian could specialize in battle axes, and a bard could specialize in tooting his own horn. It would be like the 1e Unearthed Arcana but expanded to include casters. The Advanced Play would also contain fighting schools, casting schools, and psionics, each using the template found in the latest UA where players can choose a subclass that is tied to a theme rather than a single class.

 

[jgsugden]

I push out the release date for it, and the rest of the next edition, for 10 years.

 

[Maialideth]

• Reduce number of races (lineages) to Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human, and Orc, and use more space to describe what makes each different from the others.
• Place more emphasis on Backgrounds, maybe have ability score adjustments at character creation be more based on Background than lineage (or Background + Class for ability score adjustments).
• Reduce level cap to 9 or 10 and have 11-20 be epic levels.
• Darkvision out, or again based on Background.
• Heavily rebalancing of spells.