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

[Aldarc]

Grab Rob Shwalb and ask him: ''why are did you keep all your best ideas for your own system instead of sharing them with the team when working on the 5e PHB?!''

(1) Some of those ideas were cribbed from 4e, and D&D Next was trying to distance itself from 4e at all costs, no matter how good of an idea they were turning down; and (2) I suspect that Schwalb was overruled by designers higher up the totem pole (e.g., Mearls and Crawford). It's like how after the Beatles breaks up, George Harrison drops an amazing album filled with songs he wrote that Paul and John rejected.

I mean, take Shadow of the Demon Lord, make it a little more generic fantasy in terms of flavor and your all set:

• Ancestries with some weight behind it.
• Stackable Dis/Advantage that dont break the bounded accuracy.
• All combination of class/specialization/prestige class are possible. You can be a mage, specialized as a berserker with a diplomat mastery.
• Fast/Slow turn to make initiative a little less passive.
• Themed magic! You can now be a fire mage, or summoner or time traveler, or enchanter etc
• You Str score determines your proficiency with weapons and armors, not your class.
• Still remarkably close to DnD 5e.

But yeah, I think that my "new edition" that I mentioned would have veered pretty heavily towards Shadow of the Demon Lord or the upcoming Tales of the Weird Wizard.*

* Weird Wizard is his upcoming more generic fantasy version of SotDL.

 

[Stormonu]

Races
- add goblin, kobold, bugbear and tabaxi as non-standard races

Classes

• Move Eldritch Knight to its own base class
• Have at least 3 subclasses per class
• Split sorcerer into two subcomponents; Ancestry defines where your magic comes from and gives bonus spells and a singular ability, Subclass defines how your magic works and gives you special class abilities (example Draconic becomes an Ancestry, Wild Magic becomes a subclass)
• Make monk abilities more al la carte
• More battle maneuvers and out-of-combat abilities for Battlemaster
• Fighting styles for barbarian (with reckless attacker being a style)
• Rework the Ranger as a Fighter/Druid/Rogue hybrid
• possibly add Psionicist as a base class

Add more skills and the ability to add skill specializations (such as Pick Locks for Sleight of Hand, granting a +2 bonus when picking a lock using the Sleight of Hand skill).

Remove multiclassing and add feats that replicate it to a degree

Fix some issues with annoying spells (such as dropping Concentration on Barkskin)

And change the index to remove any "see section X" with the actual page number, then hunt down the original party responsible and mail them to Timbuktu.

 

[steeldragons]

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?

Oh gods, I wasn't even thinking about the halfling art. YES! Burn it all with fire... and the Blue and lavendar-skinned elves? GONE! Out. Just out. In fact...let's just throw out the entire art direction/all graphics and redo.

Well, just some current day housekeeping:

• Make "Races" into "Species." Subraces, I suppose, would become this "Lineage" or "Heritage" thing that everyone seems so stoked about these days. If they are included AT ALL (which I am pretty on the fence about) limit each species to two "subs" to begin. Any-/Everything else can be added through supplements/expanded Species book or what have you.
• NO DROW as a PC option, let alone the frickin' "Example of the Species" opening image for Elf. grrr.
• No "Dragonborn" or "Tiefling" as an individual species, but achievable by some "Half-something" mechanic or "Lineage" option.
• Alignment gets a long-needed reward/penalty mechanic to make it the pivotal part of character creation and roleplay that it IS and should universally be acknowledged as.
• Restructure the organization of Magic to include more than just "Divine or Arcane" and give palpable differences to practicing/following/training with each, beyond "access to healing spells or not."

Classes:

• We're scrubbing Magic out of at least half of the them. Barbarians? No magic. Fighters? No magic. Thieves? No magic. Base Ranger! No magic. Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are not immediate subclasses, but something like them is achievable somehow, through a feat or something.
• Like Species, all classes get equal/fair treatment. Each class gets...two subclasses in the PHB to begin. Done. Everything else is noise and space-eaters. Take the biggest, most acknowledged/known archetypes and use them to get the game rolling. Every other possible option for a subclass is what Unearthed Arcana, setting manuals, and other supplements are for.
• Oh yeah, so we're returning the "Rogue" class to it's rightful title, "Thief," btw.
• Ranger gets a total rework (NOT a half-caster, for starters).
• Bard gets a total rework (YES a half-caster, for starters).
• Fighter gets a rework.
• Druid gets a rework.
• Sorcerer class is eliminated, made achievable by background/trait or some game option.
• Warlock class is eliminated, made achievable by background/trait or some game option. Or, possibly, some "Advanced" class option in some later manual.
• Monk...hm...it's fine I guess. Gets Lawful Alignment tied to it, though.
• Reintroduce Ability score Minimums and Multiple Ability thresholds for the more specific classes -those more narrowly defined, the more fluff and crunch special specifics of specialness the more difficult the threshold should be to achieve (at least by natural rolling).

I could probably be here all day. But let's get the team started with those and come find me when you need more.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Keep alignment, make it more important.

Get rid of hit points in favor of pools like in Cypher System.

Stop all retcon stuff, and include a box of tissues for the overly-sensitive.

Fix resting.

More skills needed.

Explain "Bounded Accuracy" in detail. Twice.

 

[Remathilis]

Add a lot of the options in Tasha as core elements. Update the phb races to bring l them in line with lineages. Add bonus spells to ranger and sorcerer subs. Downplay alignment. Tweaking vs reinventing.

 

[DammitVictor]

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.

Hey, your premise is your premise-- and I'll try to restrain myself-- but I just want to point out that's never going to happen. When WotC puts out 6e, likely several years from now, it's not going to look like 5e at all. They've put out three editions since they bought TSR and not one of them has been substantially compatible with the edition that came before it.

When they eventually publish a new edition, compatibility is not going to be a concern.

With that out of the way...

• Kill subraces dead. Every race-- let's go ahead and call them lineages-- has a small list of features and a larger list of options, and every lineage gets to pick X options from that list. The sole legitimate exception in the PHB, Drow, will be a separate playable race. Unselected lineage features would be available later using other decision points.
• Kill alignment dead and don't replace it with anything.
• Mainstream a lot of Tasha's elements.
• Proficiency Slots. Instead of screwing with Bounded Accuracy, proficiency slots would grant additional abilities in the skills you invest in; this would replace Expertise, for players who just can't live without their numbers go up. Rogues, Bards, and Fighters would get more proficiency slots than other classes.
• Bring back Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies, or some equivalent thereof.
• Standardize class decision points at 1st/2nd/3rd.
• Tie multiclassing into the Archetype/Path/Destiny system.
• Make "class feature" spells (like eldritch blast and hunter's mark) into actual class features.

There are a lot of my major gripes with 5e that I just can't address in a system that would remain compatible with 5e... but this, I think, would be several large steps to improving it.

 

[Remathilis]

Now taking this as a very biased an unscientific observation, I think it's fair to say the vast majority of people here don't appear to like 5e in it's current format. The changes are old chestnut (race/lineage, class list and design, alignment) and seem to fall into the "reverse this change to how it was done prior" or the "they didn't go far enough with the changes" boats. I'm not sure if that says more about the game or the community here at ENworld...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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?

Okay I’ll do a whole post later but the quick and dirty is; first I’d try to hire Tanya DePass, Dave B Walters, Gabe Hicks, Daniel Kwan, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Molly Ostertag, to help me write it.

Then I’d bring back low-light vision and sub it in for dark vision in like 90% of cases.

Next, Wild Shape, Beast Companion, Find Familiar, would all get scaling semi-generic statblock options.

Druid gets more Wild Shapes, and can use them for different things in the base class. Like casting summon Beast without spending a spell slot. Also it’s less limited, especially for Moon Druids. And I’d add a subclass with an animal companion.

I’d change the halfling art to be less bobbleheaded, gnomes to have normal head shapes, and increase the diversity of art.

Races don’t get ability score increases anymore. Most races are fine, but a few get additional features to round them out in the absence of ASIs. Mountain Dwarf gets powerful build.

Add Goliath, Orc (Eberron style), and maybe Tabaxi.

Gnomes all get animal speech, and I’d try to make rock gnomes more satisfying, because I do see room for gnomes that aren’t tinkers so I don’t want to just combine them into one thing and say “no gnomes subraces”.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hey, your premise is your premise-- and I'll try to restrain myself-- but I just want to point out that's never going to happen. When WotC puts out 6e, likely several years from now, it's not going to look like 5e at all. They've put out three editions since they bought TSR and not one of them has been substantially compatible with the edition that came before it.

If 6e happens, it will be backward compatible.

They aren’t going to mess with the most successful formula for D&D that has ever existed.

 

[Aldarc]

Now taking this as a very biased an unscientific observation, I think it's fair to say the vast majority of people here don't appear to like 5e in it's current format. The changes are old chestnut (race/lineage, class list and design, alignment) and seem to fall into the "reverse this change to how it was done prior" or the "they didn't go far enough with the changes" boats. I'm not sure if that says more about the game or the community here at ENworld...

A little of Column A, a little of Column B. I think it's a natural product of game evolution. We obviously have more years playing this game than the duration of the playtest, and obviously that has only grown with its expanded playerbase. We've learned a lot about the game during that time. We have seen areas of the game that could use improvement, and many have given their feedback on that. We have seen areas of the game that WotC also seems to believe needs improvement. The designers at WotC may themselves not be entirely satisfied with 5e in its current form.