D&D General What are the coolest/most innovative mechanics D&D could take from other games?

[dave2008]

How do those mechanics work? That sounds cool.

I don't know how Frontier Space does it, but PF2 does something similar by making a Crit Success/Failure a +10/-10 to the hit roll. It makes monsters of a higher level/CR much more deadly as they crit a lot more.

 

[Blue]

I've forgotten, does the escalation die apply to both PCs and monsters or just PCs?

Escalation die applies just to PCs.

Except when it doesn't. For instance, Dragons get to add the Escalation die as well.

But in general monsters start at a math advantage, and the Escalation die adds to the players to offset and then flip that the other way.

 

[dave2008]

Similarly, I seem to recall that one of the Warhammer-like games had adding dice to a pool and totaling them, but since magic was fraught with peril any doubles (or more) would attract chaos and bad stuff. You could voluntarily use less dice, but then you were less likely to succeed.

That sounds interesting. I wonder if there is an easy way to adapt that to D&D?

 

[dave2008]

Blades in the Dark's clocks are an elegant evolution of the skill challenge mechanic

PF2 has the VP (Victory Point?) system which is similar. I plan to use a similar mechanic in my next 5e campaign, but haven't settled on the rules yet.

 

[payn]

I like PF2's three action economy.

 

[Blue]

Another mechanic I really like a Conflicted Gauges. Basically, something which is both good and bad just in different ways whatever your rating. The ur-example of this is Lasers & Feelings, where you have a single score between Lasers (tech, rational thought, etc.) and Feelings (persuasion, charisma, interpersonal relations, etc.) If you are doing one, you need to roll above it, if you are doing the other roll under it.

 

[Bill Zebub]

It's too bad the whole d20, pass/fail thing is so iconic to the brand, because it's just about the least interesting dice mechanic there is. Heck, rolling for ability scores is more interesting than actually playing the game (from the perspective of interesting math).

I'd love to see them give the Sorcerer the casting mechanic from Five Torches Deep: you can cast all day long, but each time you do you have to make an ability check, and if you fail that checks bad things happen and you can't cast spells of that level until you've had a long rest. Now that would make the Sorcerer more distinct from the Wizard.

I'd also like to see them implement a 'signature ability', which exists in lots of games. One for each class, powered by Inspiration. You could still use Inspiration the normal way, or you could spend it to power your class's unique ability.

 

[Blue]

That sounds interesting. I wonder if there is an easy to adapt that to D&D?

OneD&D's more granular Exhausion system might make a good penalty, but with D&D usually being a single roll and advantage being a big bonus it's harder. I've seen some people talk about playing with multiple dice to change the d20 to a bell curve. Say a d20 was replaced with 2d10. Allow players to add an extra d10 when they want to push themselves and use the top two, but any doubles gives a level of exhaustion, and if they are triples (1 chance in 1000) you are also stunned until the end of your next round. Not the best, but something off the top of my head.

 

[Blue]

I like PF2's three action economy.

Agreed. Especially as there are interesting a useful things to do with the third instead of just more attacks.

 

[dave2008]

I like PF2's three action economy.

I go back and forth on this and though I have heard mostly positive things, I have heard some negative ones as well. Like most things, depends on the group.

From a design point I mostly love it (I don't like that it doesn't include reactions), but I also love having the independent move action in 5e. I also don't really like the complexity of reducing efficiency with more actions, but then that is the incentive for not just standing there and waking away. I am actively work on some house rules and this rule, or a version of it, is one I am currently struggling with. So, @payn: what do you like about it.