The old rules had that too, I just never played it (either as a DM or as a player). Although I have a lot of experience going to level 20 in the last 2 years in all those cases I was ready for something new and there was no desire to continue on.
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D&D (2024) Are single class martials still going to be viable in 2024?
- Thread starter ECMO3
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The old rules had that too, I just never played it (either as a DM or as a player). Although I have a lot of experience going to level 20 in the last 2 years in all those cases I was ready for something new and there was no desire to continue on.
Sure. Take Dara, the Damphir Monk I linked above. At games end she was a Long Death Monk 18/Death Cleric 1/Shadow Sorcerer 1
An abreviation of her backstory is her spaceship was taken by Vampirates. She was bitten and cast overboard to drift in the Astral sea and presumably die. But she did not die, she washed up on a peice of a dead god who happened to be the God of Death. She became a cleric devoted to him (even though he was dead) and survived in a semi undead form.
Her connection to shadow sorcery is based on being bitten by a Vampire and being turned into a creature of Shadow. Her Cleric level is reflective of her strugle to survive before she found out her diety did not actually exist. She spent her career as a Monk studying the effects of death.
The abilities she got with that are all very thematic.
Another example is Janthistlauria (Janet). She is a servant of the Queen of Air And Darkness in the Unseelie court. She came to the prime as a Fey Warlock 1. Long story short - she is on Holiday after brokering a deal for the queen. It is a 2-week vacation .... but on the prime material that is around 137 years. She started vacation as a 1st level Fey Warlock representing her devotion to the qad. She picked up a second level in Warlock and then went as a Glamour Bard going forward (again Feywild connection) leveraging her Fey Charms while she is adventuring. Her Bard class really represents her "vacation" class while she is on holiday, even though it is 14 of 17 levels. While adventuring in the 9 hells she picked up her order cleric level based on some negotiations and legal proceedings she did with a Fey that was in Avernus and the devils.
Those are two examples tying backstory to class choices, but there are also mechanical elements. Particularly when playing non-casters, picking up a caster level brings spells and the flavor that comes with those spells. One PC I played Tazzi was a Rogue. But she picked up a Fey Lock level and the Hex spell. This was a major theme to her character - her calling down a curse form her patron onto on an enemy she was about to attack .... as well as being able to use Hex and Fey Presence to talk her way in or out of almost any situation. Really Hex was her signature move, her eyes turned jet black when she cast it and both the DM and other players got into this because it happened so often on a PC that was otherwise a Rogue. Could she have done it as a Rogue with other abilities? Sure but it would not have been as flavorful.
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fluffybunbunkittens
Hero
Epic boons are a bit weird - how are these an element that needs to be in the PHB, rather than a little tool tucked away in the DMG?
They'd serve a purpose if they were meant to be the balancing tool for martials, who'd start getting them every level 10 levels early...
They'd serve a purpose if they were meant to be the balancing tool for martials, who'd start getting them every level 10 levels early...
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
They're in the PH because they fall under the category of "cool super powers" for PCs, and 5.5 seems to value players over DMs this time (otherwise, they would have made some effort to get DMs excited about the new edition).
mellored
Legend
Cool super powers for the DM should be in the monster manual.
fluffybunbunkittens
Hero
I have to say, as long as I have to individually move/roll/act for every single goblin, I'm not feeling particularly super.
mellored
Legend
I would still really like to remove the attack roll. Just do damage, and armor is some kind of Reduction or extra Hit Points. You can even keep the d20 roll.
i.e. 1d20+1d6+Str - 18 AC.
Magic Missile still does 1d4+1 damage, ignoring armor.
Rogue's Snake Attack probably does too. Just a flat 1d6+2d6 damage.
Not needing to say "does X hit" every 30 seconds would speed things up considerably.
That said, with the current rules, the DM doesn't need to do all the work. I regularly assign one player to track initive, and another to tack how much damage each monster took. No reason you couldn't assign a player to roll for the goblins.
Heck, wouldn't take much work to make an attack DC for the monsters, and players roll defenses. Goblin has a 15 attack DC, roll 1d20+8 to defend.
TwoSix
Everyone's literal second-favorite poster
I like that system (that's how the Odd-like games work, as an example), but I don't think it would ever pass the "That's not D&D" barrier. Rolling a d20 to hit, and then other polyhedrals for damage, is "core" to the D&D experience.
Clint_L
Legend
It seems like it would heavily favour high damage weapons.
mellored
Legend
+2 damage from a big weapons . (D8 to d12).
Vs
-2 damage from a shield
vs
2 attacks at -2 damage, which would be better against lower AC foes.
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