D&D 5E Spellcasters and Balance in 5e: A Poll

[Maxperson]

I think a few minor tweaks to the skill system would have been beneficial:

- Codify 'Expertise' as a thing, and just have it be a flat bonus. Rogues get a bunch of them, the Champion gets Expertise in Athletics or Acrobatics, the Wizard gets Expertise in Arcana, some subclass could give it out, etc. It'd be pretty useful. I dunno if the bonus would be a flat 2 or a flat 3 (like it was in 4e)... Heck, you could even replace the Archery Fighting style as 'Expertise in X weapons with a specific property' or something like that. So you could have a true Swordmaster who has better attacks than anybody else while using a Longsword and stuff.

As a flat bonus, it would probably be +5. The Observant feat is only worth half of an ASI and not only gives +5 to passive perception and investigation, arguable the best skills in the game, but also perfect lip reading if you understand the language. Is a class ability worth half an ASI? I would think so.

- Better skill use examples in the PHB. Maybe help get people to stop declaring what skills they want to roll for before they explain what they want to do?

This is already the case. RAW says that the players just describe what their character is doing. The DM calls for a check if one is necessary.

- Better emphasis on the idea that Stats and Skills aren't always linked and that sometimes your DM will call for a different roll like Strength Intimidate or Intelligence Insight. Give ACTUAL examples of how that would work. Really lean into the concept for more than a fleeting paragraph ya know?

I agree with this.

- Not skill related, but mention that more tools than those listed in the PHB can exist. Emphasize that 'tool proficiency' can sub for almost any profession or craft you can think of. Then introduce a few setting specific ones as time goes on. Like if there's a setting where you need to use a special kind of compass and coded map to navigate parts of it, etc.

I agree with this as well.

 

[Maxperson]

It’s more that mental skills apply to a diverse set of problems. Social ones tend to as well. These kinds of skills can help in any situation including physical situations.

Yeah. I understood. The smartass in me couldn't resist tossing in the Yogi Berra comment in response.

 

[Undrave]

This is already the case. RAW says that the players just describe what their character is doing. The DM calls for a check if one is necessary.

I know, but I feel like it's easy to skip all that in the skill section.

And speaking of the book, Feats really needed their own chapter to be easier to find in the book >.> but I could complain a LOT more about the PHB layout.

 

[Undrave]

As a flat bonus, it would probably be +5. The Observant feat is only worth half of an ASI and not only gives +5 to passive perception and investigation, arguable the best skills in the game, but also perfect lip reading if you understand the language. Is a class ability worth half an ASI? I would think so.

+5 feels really high at first level... With a stat at +3 under the current system it nets your +7, but with yours it becomes +10. Compared to +5 for the non-experts.

 

[FrogReaver]

+5 feels really high at first level... With a stat at +3 under the current system it nets your +7, but with yours it becomes +10. Compared to +5 for the non-experts.

Yea. I would have done +3 flat bonus personally. Proficiency is still the primary scaling. Reliable talent is the higher level ability to help ensure success.

 

[Maxperson]

+5 feels really high at first level... With a stat at +3 under the current system it nets your +7, but with yours it becomes +10. Compared to +5 for the non-experts.

At first level it is a bit high, but it evens out pretty quickly. +3 is good, but it's not even as good as half a feat, and I think class abilities should be at LEAST half a feat. Maybe expertise can be +2 and advantage.

 

[FrogReaver]

At first level it is a bit high, but it evens out pretty quickly. +3 is good, but it's not even as good as half a feat, and I think class abilities should be at LEAST half a feat. Maybe expertise can be +2 and advantage.

Rogues get sneak attack, thieves cant and 2 expertise skills. That’s not half a feat worth of stuff. It’s a ton more.

 

[Maxperson]

Rogues get sneak attack, thieves cant and 2 expertise skills. That’s not half a feat worth of stuff. It’s a ton more.

Not from one single ability they don't. That's three abilities. Sneak Attack(worth a full feat), Thieve's Cant(worthless, I mean worth less than half a feat), and Expertise with 2 skills(worth less than half a feat until you hit 14th level, then worth half a feat).

I think each ability should be half a feat or better.

 

[Minigiant]

How?

They give mental ability score access to the blatantly supernatural but make the physical ability scores jump through hoops and give what fantasy physical abilities do have to the mental abilities.

Or in laymans term's, the mind can get access to 5+ types of magic and psionics whereas the best the body can do is rage and manuevers. Very few features key off STR, DEX, and CON and the ones that do almost all have scaling that doesn't match the mental abilities's scaling. D&D doesn't have CON based warlocking or bloodmagic anymore. And there is no DEX based gesture magic nor demigod feats of STR/DEX/CON in the base game.

That's what broke 3e and what 4e attempted to fix. 5e attempted to solve it by killing all the combat buffs so you'd have to be a warrior already to benefit.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It’s more that mental skills apply to a diverse set of problems. Social ones tend to as well. These kinds of skills can help in any situation including physical situations.

The physical skills apply to very specific situations. Jumping/running/climbing etc. These are useful tools to have. But they tend to only solve very specific problems.

The problem with this claim is that the most reliable way to get over a physical barrier (fly) is based on mental abilities for almost all characters. So for that matter is building walls fast. If you want to solve significant physical challenges in D&D you want mental not physical abilities. Even when it comes to running a wizard can outsprint a fighter thanks to Expeditious Retreat.