D&D (2024) Asians Represent: "Has WotC Fixed the D&D Monk?"

[Charlaquin]

It's not like they couldn't get BOTH. They wouldn't have to be the same person. More eyes would be better anyhow.

Indeed!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Making martial arts more like the real world isn't the answer though. In the real world MMA often devolves into two dudes rolling around on the ground grappling, as opposed to suplexing a train!

You're totally right, but I swear it often seems to me that the designer's lack of martial experience tends to have them limit what a martial character can do, just as often (if not more; or at least, to me, more annoyingly) as they allow them to do something fantastical.

I think the hope would be that the design would start at a base in "realistic" and move to fantastical at higher levels. Frankly, you could get a martial artist to influence the design from L1-9 and an expert on traditional lore/wuxia to work on L10+. (With a good mechanical designer getting the D&D mechanics to work right, as well, naturally).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You're totally right, but I swear it often seems to me that the designer's lack of martial experience tends to have them limit what a martial character can do, just as often (if not more; or at least, to me, more annoyingly) as they allow them to do something fantastical.

I think the hope would be that the design would start at a base in "realistic" and move to fantastical at higher levels. Frankly, you could get a martial artist to influence the design from L1-9 and an expert on traditional lore/wuxia to work on L10+. (With a good mechanical designer getting the D&D mechanics to work right, as well, naturally).

Personally, I want to play a Multi-Class Attorney/Monk.

That way I could declare MARTIAL LAW.


....here all week. Then on to the Poconos!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, unless you're trained in wearing armor for extended periods, it wears on you (no pun intended). More than people think.

The truth is, IMO, weapons and armour tend to be both more cumbersome AND less combersome than people imagine. AND there's a big difference between what you can do with (and in) them early in your training (low level) and after years of getting used to them. A BIG difference.

Practical experience is really quite an amazing thing, IMO. Often, I find, a little bit of knowledge will have a person thinking that some things are easier than they are, and others are impossible, that turn out to be wrong when you keep learning.

 

[overgeeked]

But they're so afraid of losing  anyone that might give them money that they won't explicitly state what their design philosophy actually is, leaving the door open for people to complain that they're not being designed for, because they refuse to say they aren't.

It’s not hard to see. You state it outright here. Their design philosophy is maximizing profits. Whatever makes them the most money is what they’ll publish. If phone books made more money, they’d publish those. PC options sell, so PC options in every book…especially books that traditionally only referees buy. Trouble is, that makes for bad game design.

 

[Incenjucar]

Any conversation about spellcasters and armor needs to keep in mind how spellcasters can get magic armor that doesn't hinder them.

 

[overgeeked]

I would question the statement "fail", as I find 5e to be both elegant and versatile (with a few warts).

Fail in the sense that their design fails to fully serve either those interested in verisimilitude or those who want to be completely free of verisimilitude. In trying to be all things to all gamers it fails to be really good at anything.

 

[SkidAce]

I don't think you can be completely free of verisimilitude, but I understand your point about folks in those positions.

 

[mamba]

But if I'm playing a campaign set in Rokugan or Kara-Tur, I don't want to play the exact same thing I'd play on the Sword Coast. That's just incredibly dull to me.

no one is asking you to, there are plenty of 3pp books.

I would not expect WotC to create a D&D East and a D&D West however, if anything they will go for sufficiently generic to work for both - and it is the right choice for them

 

[mamba]

Two people cost more than one...

that very much depends on the persons