doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Also see; the new “Survivor” stats in VRGtR, for a similar experience, IMO.
D&D (2024) YOU are in charge of the next PHB! What do you change?
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
- Start date
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Here's something I'd do with a new PHB since I'm considering doing it now. Anyone who has ritual casting, either as a class ability or through a feat, is able to add any ritual to their ritual book. The ritual book essentially acts similar to a wizard's spellbook in that any ritual can be cast that is in the book. I'm also thinking of adding in a small monetary cost for ritual components, though that is still being considered. Classes like clerics, druids, and bards add all 1st level ritual spells on their spell list to their ritual book at 1st level. Wizards still have to add them as normal by choosing spells on level up or scribing scrolls. At higher levels, clerics and druids can automatically add any ritual spells to their book when they gain a new spell level as long as they spend the time and money to do so.
The reason I'd do this is that I thought rituals in 4e were a cool addition and I think they should have kept something similar in 5e with more spells being rituals and any with the ability able to learn them all instead of being restricted to a single class.
The reason I'd do this is that I thought rituals in 4e were a cool addition and I think they should have kept something similar in 5e with more spells being rituals and any with the ability able to learn them all instead of being restricted to a single class.
teitan
Legend
1. I would not do much to change the base game, focusing on maintaining compatibility with 5e books, but reinterpreting how things are defined but a few changes listed below
2. refine the rules from Tasha's and then include the original base races as optional examples or quick build versions.
3. Bring in the most well received sub-classes, one or two for each class and beef up the ranger classes already in there. While designed to be important to the exploration pillar, they suffer in combat. Modify the animal companion rules to make them a wee bit less useless.
4. Introduce a streamlined action economy. Not a complete theft of PF2's three action economy but I would strip out bonus actions and just give everyone 2 actions and a move or the option to double move. This requires a tweak to the spellcasting system so that spells are 1 action with heightened spells costing 2 actions. This would require some thought but the action economy is still kind of complex, I have a cleric player who insisted she had no bonus actions but when we looked at her she did and didn't know what that meant. Just make it 3 actions and run with it.
5. REDUCE hit points. Go to a 10 level hit point system. They always want to speed up combat with each edition and think it is about the number of actions or dishing out more damage when it's about the bags of hit points. Long battles can make for epic encounters and while 5e has helped with the 5 hour combats, it is still a slow combat system and it's those bundles of hit points. Level 10, cap the hit die. Then give Con +1 or Con +2 per level. Monsters can have those higher hit points based on role, bring back mook rules for the hordes, Smaller hit die for average monsters and bigger for the monsters. Cap them at 10 with a +N based on that role. You want Orcus? 10d12+100 HP, Demogorgon? 10d12+120. Ancient Red 10d10 + 50. Goblins? Mooks, 0 hp, one hit eliminates them.
6. Alignment... have it as an optional rule. I like it, I have my own way of interpreting it that is more in line with old school approaches such as Moorcock. Law vs Chaos is a cosmic struggle and Good vs Evil is a personal moral choice. The only part of Alignment that represents an Align...ment is Law vs Chaos. Keep it optional and have side bars on how the struggle of Law vs Chaos could play out in a setting in the campaign books. Theros? No need for alignment. Forgotten Realms? optional but Dragonlance and Greyhawk? Alignment has a place in those settings. Greyhawk is at its core more about Law vs Chaos with its roots in Moorcock, early D&D. Mordenkainen & the Circle of 8 are very much modeled on this sort of cosmic conflict. Meanwhile Dragonlance is very much of the Moral scale, good vs evil. Similar concepts but representing very different styles of conflict and story. Let DM's have it as a tool. It doesn't need to be in the MM. We know what is supposed to be evil and what isn't. Lolth worshippers are evil but they are a powerful sect in aspects of Drow society, influencing their culture but not individuals. Gruumsh is evil but some of his followers are not. Orcs are portrayed more like Vikings, hordes of raiders as a way of life but not all are evil or villainous. Some have stepped away from the evil or just don't see it or live in that religion because they were raised in it.
7. Eliminate half races as... half races. Have them "breed true" meaning be a race.
8. Move optional rules, like Feats, mini based combat options and the like to the new DMG book. Keep the core simple, moving the optional rules to their own book will eliminate some of the arguments etc we see by making what is the "core" of the game 100% clear. To the savvy in 5e we know that there is the "Basic" PDF that is just the CORE game but people coming in with the 5e books directly have expectations and don't realize things like Feats are options and not CORE to the game like they were in 3.x-4e. Just move it over. It doesn't do anything to compatibility to do that. AL isn't the end all be all. Move some of the rules of the DMG over to the PHB: magic items, encounter building etc.
9. work out the three tiers of play better and clearer or abandon that model as a way of talking about things altogether. There was a lot of conversation around the three tiers when they were testing 5e and then they wound up being very... minor outside of a few class options that were clearly designed when the different tiers were a more prominent element in the playtest phase. They've become an unwritten aspect of the game (PF2 handles it a lot better) rather than being actual modes of play clearly delineated.
9. The new DMG would be the rules module options. Throw in the expanded combat rules for minis, the monster creation rules, vehicle rules, flying rules, seafaring rules. Throw in some NPC examples, rules for making subclasses and the like.
10. MM... as is but a section of Demon Lords, Archdevils, also important NPCs from D&D history. Vecna, Acererak, all the good villains and a section of organizations.
2. refine the rules from Tasha's and then include the original base races as optional examples or quick build versions.
3. Bring in the most well received sub-classes, one or two for each class and beef up the ranger classes already in there. While designed to be important to the exploration pillar, they suffer in combat. Modify the animal companion rules to make them a wee bit less useless.
4. Introduce a streamlined action economy. Not a complete theft of PF2's three action economy but I would strip out bonus actions and just give everyone 2 actions and a move or the option to double move. This requires a tweak to the spellcasting system so that spells are 1 action with heightened spells costing 2 actions. This would require some thought but the action economy is still kind of complex, I have a cleric player who insisted she had no bonus actions but when we looked at her she did and didn't know what that meant. Just make it 3 actions and run with it.
5. REDUCE hit points. Go to a 10 level hit point system. They always want to speed up combat with each edition and think it is about the number of actions or dishing out more damage when it's about the bags of hit points. Long battles can make for epic encounters and while 5e has helped with the 5 hour combats, it is still a slow combat system and it's those bundles of hit points. Level 10, cap the hit die. Then give Con +1 or Con +2 per level. Monsters can have those higher hit points based on role, bring back mook rules for the hordes, Smaller hit die for average monsters and bigger for the monsters. Cap them at 10 with a +N based on that role. You want Orcus? 10d12+100 HP, Demogorgon? 10d12+120. Ancient Red 10d10 + 50. Goblins? Mooks, 0 hp, one hit eliminates them.
6. Alignment... have it as an optional rule. I like it, I have my own way of interpreting it that is more in line with old school approaches such as Moorcock. Law vs Chaos is a cosmic struggle and Good vs Evil is a personal moral choice. The only part of Alignment that represents an Align...ment is Law vs Chaos. Keep it optional and have side bars on how the struggle of Law vs Chaos could play out in a setting in the campaign books. Theros? No need for alignment. Forgotten Realms? optional but Dragonlance and Greyhawk? Alignment has a place in those settings. Greyhawk is at its core more about Law vs Chaos with its roots in Moorcock, early D&D. Mordenkainen & the Circle of 8 are very much modeled on this sort of cosmic conflict. Meanwhile Dragonlance is very much of the Moral scale, good vs evil. Similar concepts but representing very different styles of conflict and story. Let DM's have it as a tool. It doesn't need to be in the MM. We know what is supposed to be evil and what isn't. Lolth worshippers are evil but they are a powerful sect in aspects of Drow society, influencing their culture but not individuals. Gruumsh is evil but some of his followers are not. Orcs are portrayed more like Vikings, hordes of raiders as a way of life but not all are evil or villainous. Some have stepped away from the evil or just don't see it or live in that religion because they were raised in it.
7. Eliminate half races as... half races. Have them "breed true" meaning be a race.
8. Move optional rules, like Feats, mini based combat options and the like to the new DMG book. Keep the core simple, moving the optional rules to their own book will eliminate some of the arguments etc we see by making what is the "core" of the game 100% clear. To the savvy in 5e we know that there is the "Basic" PDF that is just the CORE game but people coming in with the 5e books directly have expectations and don't realize things like Feats are options and not CORE to the game like they were in 3.x-4e. Just move it over. It doesn't do anything to compatibility to do that. AL isn't the end all be all. Move some of the rules of the DMG over to the PHB: magic items, encounter building etc.
9. work out the three tiers of play better and clearer or abandon that model as a way of talking about things altogether. There was a lot of conversation around the three tiers when they were testing 5e and then they wound up being very... minor outside of a few class options that were clearly designed when the different tiers were a more prominent element in the playtest phase. They've become an unwritten aspect of the game (PF2 handles it a lot better) rather than being actual modes of play clearly delineated.
9. The new DMG would be the rules module options. Throw in the expanded combat rules for minis, the monster creation rules, vehicle rules, flying rules, seafaring rules. Throw in some NPC examples, rules for making subclasses and the like.
10. MM... as is but a section of Demon Lords, Archdevils, also important NPCs from D&D history. Vecna, Acererak, all the good villains and a section of organizations.
Aldarc
Legend
This is kind of what PF2 does with paladins and rangers, who are both "spell-less" in terms of a proper spell progression but gain limited use Focus spells that are somewhat similar to the spells Warlocks can gain through their invocations.
Mercurius
Legend
I would emphatically state in the intro that there is no one true way to play D&D, no "morally correct" approach to the game, and that each group is encouraged to find what works for them - what brings them enjoyment. If you don't want to include something in your game, don't. D&D is a toolbox that can facilitate a wide variety of play styles and objectives, and that the D&D community is about a shared enjoyment of the game, not the enforcement of any single way or ethos onto others.
The rules would reflect this, with a big umbrella approach: lots of races, classes, etc, that reflect five decades of D&D, with no specific ideology imposed, just a shared enjoyment of the greatest game in the world. Big umbrella + toolbox = you make and play the game as you want.
Oh, yeah, I would fix the ranger and a bunch of other stuff.
The rules would reflect this, with a big umbrella approach: lots of races, classes, etc, that reflect five decades of D&D, with no specific ideology imposed, just a shared enjoyment of the greatest game in the world. Big umbrella + toolbox = you make and play the game as you want.
Oh, yeah, I would fix the ranger and a bunch of other stuff.
The Green Hermit
Hero
We really need a better list of what organizations are out there.
Rogue can already disengage & attack (in either order) thanks to Cunning Action.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I DM for kids, among others, and giving them something they perceive as the "baby D&D" is a good way to make many of them leave the table.
It's not so much "baby d&d" but just resolution mechanics that are simple and allow for creativity.
This is a good article about that: The Real DIY D&Ders - Questing Beast
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