D&D General Should ENworld Posters Design a D&D?

[Oofta]

 

[dave2008]

God no!

I 2nd this vote!

 

[Evaniel]

 

[el-remmen]

I say call it "Blind Elephant 5E" because the result would be like the story of the blind men and the elephant.

 

[Quickleaf]

As the title says. Basic idea name a 100 page document for an ENworld D&D.

Start off small eg 4 classic classes, 5 levels.

Basic idea is use 5E engine but mire streamlined tighter game drawing on previous editions to fix things l8
ike hit point bloat and saving throws.

Probably rewrite some spells as well.

Spell resistance returns flat number d20 roll has to beat it

3 saves vs 6

Saves scale better espicially on martials

Energy drain returns inflicts exhaustion vs level loss

Hit points and danahe are toned down

Damage dealing spells scale but capped

0 hp gains exhaustion level

Basic idea so far. 5E engine means round structure, skill/proficiency system etc. Tweaks xa be made or subsystems eg feats stripped out, replace, tweaked etc.

I would strongly recommend not doing an open contribution style of design where it's a freebie to post on the forums. Too much static, too many voices, too much potential for conflict without a defined issue-resolution procedure. Unless you get extremely lucky, that just sounds like a recipe for a disaster.

Since you already have some pretty defined ideas, I'd recommend using your thread to connect with like-minded folks and then setting up a Discord, or Slack, or dedicated forum, or whatever networking platform you like to really grind out the details with a more dedicated group who are already on-board for your big ideas.

Even then, it's a ton of work, it's hard to get people to consistently show up, it's hard to oversee everything – but your chances of success are way better than doing it as an open forum thing.

 

[DarkCrisis]

sliders Shadowdark book ever

"Read this. Simplification is better."

 

[TwoSix]

There are, individually, several ENWorld posters who I wouldn't mind seeing take a crack at producing a refined 5e engine.

As a group consensus, though....hell to the naw.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As man, I already did this when I did bugbears and borderlands. Sorry, my 5e clone design energy has already been spent…one way rocket to the stars…

 

[Micah Sweet]

Some ideas drawing upon 4e. I'd like to see the return of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will as saves but like 4e, you have two separate scores that can apply to them.

Level 1, I'd add constitution to the base hit points and remove the con modifier to hit points, as in, a barbarian with a 16 con has 28 hit points at 1st level. I'd then bring back healing surges, the number of which are affected by your Con modifier.

See, I'd want to go back to the TSR saves, because I prefer the idea that you're saving against something, not showing off your reflexes, toughness, or willpower in a general sense.

 

[Faolyn]

As the title says. Basic idea name a 100 page document for an ENworld D&D.

Start off small eg 4 classic classes, 5 levels.

Basic idea is use 5E engine but mire streamlined tighter game drawing on previous editions to fix things l8
ike hit point bloat and saving throws.

Probably rewrite some spells as well.

Spell resistance returns flat number d20 roll has to beat it

3 saves vs 6

Saves scale better espicially on martials

Energy drain returns inflicts exhaustion vs level loss

Hit points and danahe are toned down

Damage dealing spells scale but capped

0 hp gains exhaustion level

Basic idea so far. 5E engine means round structure, skill/proficiency system etc. Tweaks xa be made or subsystems eg feats stripped out, replace, tweaked etc.

I like Level Up, but it's really complex. In the sense that it has a ton of moving parts. I love the idea of splitting heritage and culture, heritage gifts, backgrounds, destinies, lots of choices in each class, and martial maneuvers, but it means that means that each PC has waaaay too many options.

So for a simplified version, I'd do something like each heritage has two-three traits (three if you consider something like darkvision to be a trait), heritage gifts that consist of a single trait, cultures that are two traits plus languages/skills, backgrounds and destinies that are one trait (if they're included at all), and highly simplified maneuvers and class choices. Instead of traditions with five tiers and three-four maneuvers per tier, maybe three tiers with two maneuvers per tier, and you automatically get them.

My personal choice would be to remove damaging spells but to keep damaging cantrips. I don't mind casters going pew pew with cantrips but I don't necessarily want them being bigger damage-dealers than martials.