Level Up (A5E) What would you do to simplify A5E and/or speed up combat?

[Tessarael]

I'm fine with the A5E version of Counterspell. We've only used it once so far in this campaign. I'd generally prefer to have Dispel Magic memorized instead of it, unless you know that you're going up against another spellcaster.

 

[Xenolith234]

I haven’t played A5E yet but have read it…don’t expertise dice just make PCs even more powerful and competent than they already are? It feels unnecessary.

 

[Tessarael]

A5E expertise die are at a basic level a replacement for the 5E D&D expertise double proficiency skill bonus. It is a bit more complicated than that, but that's a significant portion of it. Expertise die stack, d4->d6->d8 maximum, unless you have certain class features like the Rogue to go beyond d8.

One very good thing about A5E is that all the classes have some good utility features, so there's more that everyone can do outside of combat. In that sense, A5E did improve utility capability of many of the classes, so you can consider it a power up in that sense. That said, I've played both 5E D&D (2014) and A5E, and I haven't found A5E to be over-powered, either from a combat or utility view point - I would just say that it is more balanced outside of combat.

 

[Tessarael]

I'd disagree with the full-hands spellcasting without the Battle Caster feat, but I can understand how that would speed things up

The problem with the existing A5E and 5E D&D rules on spell casting requiring a free hand for somatic/seen and material components is the following:

• Two-handed weapon user: I temporarily hold my weapon in one hand while spell casting, then resume using two hands.
• Weapon and shield, or dual wielder: I sheathe my weapon, then spell cast; or spell cast, then draw my weapon.

That's it, there's almost no cost to weapon-shuffling for spellcasting. The only loss is for the weapon and shield user, where you may not be able to make an opportunity attack on the round where you sheathed your weapon to cast a spell. Moreover, it is not really needed for combat balance between spellcasters vs. non-spellcasters anyway, at least in my experience.

If you really want to stop this, then you specify that sheathing or unsheathing a weapon, or using a somatic/seen or material component counts as your free object interaction on your turn. Hence, you cannot do both on the same turn.

I'd prefer to tackle it from a different direction, with items like Wand of the War Mage and Rod of the Pact Keeper. If you're holding your attuned magical focus in one-hand, then you get some mechanical benefit for it, such as +1 to spell attack rolls or save DCs. That's a much better motivator for not using weapon + shield, dual wielding, or a two-handed weapon. You can use a wand or rod as an arcane focus.

 

[Morrus]

I haven’t played A5E yet but have read it…don’t expertise dice just make PCs even more powerful and competent than they already are? It feels unnecessary.

They are often used where O5E would use advantage.

 

[Distracted DM]

They are often used where O5E would use advantage.

Yes, but advantage is still available in A5E via Help etc. 5e would result in a lot of redundant Advantage situations, but advantage doesn't stack... So even if you had advantage from three sources, the best you can hope for is a good d20 roll.

One can have both Expertise and Advantage.
Expertise raises the ceiling of possible roll results... I think the important thing to remember, to rein in Expertise being too crazy, is that in most cases with ability checks a 28 gives the same result as a 16 (assuming the DC is 15).

Expertise is everywhere with A5E characters, so it's not uncommon to see someone with d6s and d8s to skills, especially if you include Specialties giving Expertise.

 

[Tessarael]

A5E is not particularly different to 5E D&D in that regard. In 5E D&D, Guidance gives +d4 and then something else, such as someone helping, to give advantage to roll twice. In A5E with Guidance + advantage, if you already have d4 expertise in a skill, you're getting +d6 and advantage rolling twice.

In contrast with skill expertise in 5E D&D, you're getting double your proficiency bonus, which really stacks up at high levels. A5E doesn't have that doubling of proficiency bonus, so from what I've seen the rolls are often lower than we'd have in 5E D&D.

 

[Tessarael]

Another possible simplification: Everyone gets an inspiration at the start of a session. It is optionally refreshed after a long rest (depending on how often this happens in your campaign).

 

[noodohs]

I am also generally of the mind that if I wanted it to be simpler, I wouldn't play A5e in the first place. I specifically picked it because I donn't like how simple o5e is. However, I do think it's possible to speed it up. VTTs definitely help a LOT. We've been using Foundry for years now and the one time we played in person, every round took 2-3x longer. Not because it's any harder to know what your character can do (though having every feature, maneuver, etc fully detailed in one convenient place on the VTT is handy), but because rolling real dice and adding them up and then doing math to figure out how much HP you have left after that and so on really adds up. That's all instant on a VTT and it saves way more time than you might realize.

Static expertise is also a good solution, though I think that only really matters playing in person. Since math is instant in a VTT, it really makes no difference. But that's essentially what Pathfinder 2 does. Each level of "expertise" in a skill gives you an additional +2 (IIRC), which is roughly equivalent to taking average on an expertise die (if you also take into account that the numbers go much higher in PF2e generally).

 

[Tessarael]

I'd be inclined to make it +1 to a skill to replace expertise in a skill specialty, or +2 for the first expertise die followed by +1 for subsequent increases (up to +4 max, roughly equivalent of d8) if it is a flat bonus to all uses of the skill.