D&D General Weapons should break left and right

[GobHag]

So now I'm curious: in short form, what would your ideal D&D look like? What would its style be? How would it play at the table?

A combat and social focused game with more relational/narrative mechanic built-in. I want a fun punch-up game where classes can do cool naughty word as early as possible, completely skipping the 'early game nobody' part to just be something that's optional with mechanics for either relationships or character arc built into the design of the game.

Alternatively, completely split the 'combat' and 'non-combat' capabilities of PCs so that now being a 'sneaky backstabber that uses advantage' is completely delineated from 'Stealth and trapmaster expert', with each character choosing one combat class and one non-combat class.

Also kill vancian casting

 

[GobHag]

I too want to cast spells. Big, flashy, reality bending spells that have a capacity to turn the tides and completely reshape the dire situation.

Not to sling a lot of weak spells all day long.

I want to cast mid spells all day long with one or two big flashy reality bending spells. The fact that I can cast them more than 3 times per day is atrocious.

 

[GrimCo]

Yea, 2/3ed low level wizards sucked. 2ed wizard had 1/2/3/5/7 slots per day. In 3.5 you got cantrips, so your progression with them was 4/6/7/9/10. Sure, you get slot or two for high intelligence. Wohoo. In effect, your slots dictated number of turns in combat you in which you can actually be spellcaster ( and if you used slot for casting something utility wise outside of combat, that number drops). Without spells, you had low hp, low ac, low to hit in melee with slightly better one in range (dex was solid secondary/tertiary stat for wizard). In combat heavy session, low level wizard player would fire off their few spells and then sit rest of the time, maybe trying to hit something with light crossbow. SO much fun. With unlimited cantrinps, you actually feel like you are wizard. You have some magic at your disposal always.

 

[Weiley31]

What is this, Mork Borg?

 

[M_Natas]

That's the 5e system (and I think 5e2024 is the same) and that why I proposed ways to fix it.

So, I found my mockup:

Your carrying capacity is your Strength score in Zent.

A Zent corresponds approximately to 10 pounds / 5 kilograms. 500 coins equal one Zent.

Overloaded
For every Zent over your carrying capacity, your speed is reduced by 5 ft / 1.5 m.
If you carry more than 2 Zent over your capacity, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
If you carry more than 4 Zent over your capacity, you have disadvantage on all saving throws, ability checks, and attack rolls. Attack rolls against you have advantage.

Lightly Loaded
If you carry less than half your carrying capacity, your speed increases by 5 ft / 1.5 m. (Round up carrying capacity ÷ 2)

Very Lightly Loaded
If you carry less than ¼ of your carrying capacity, you gain advantage on Dexterity saving throws. (Round up carrying capacity ÷ 4)

Just by putting items you have in the right size category in your inventory sheet, you super easily can see, how much you actually cary. And the Groupings inside a size category (under 1 Zent) add up to 1 zent. So this inventory sheet should make tracking encumbrance much easier.
II also added incentive to track your inventory, by adding positive things if you are lightly Loaded.

Here is a pdf with all (non magical) items converted to zent for reference and the whole system in one file.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I want to cast mid spells all day long with one or two big flashy reality bending spells. The fact that I can cast them more than 3 times per day is atrocious.

soooo.... warlock right? you want things designed like warlock, with EB and their invocations for continual use and a few big pop offs with pact magic.

 

[GobHag]

Yes, and the fact that its the only caster designed like that is a tragedy

 

[GrimCo]

soooo.... warlock right? you want things designed like warlock, with EB and their invocations for continual use and a few big pop offs with pact magic.

To be fair. 3.5 Warlock was first caster i played that actually felt like proper caster. Sure, it was limited, it didn't have flashy spells, but he could chuck magic round after round all day long and had few nifty tricks that were also always available. Add couple of levels of rogue and you are one mean sneak attacking ambushing machine.

 

[AlViking]

Talk about not reading your own articles:



Note, he states it right there. Your sword was your weapon of last resort. Of course it's indispensable, because you do throw your spear and your halberd does break. But, you use all those other weapons first, and THEN, if you still need to, you use your sword. Which is exactly what I said all the way along.



And, just to add, @AlViking, read more than one article on that site. It's absolutely fascinating. It has been a hot minute or two since I dived in there, but, there's just so much stuff. The article on Venetian Bridge Wars https://www.thearma.org/essays/BridgeWars.htm has featured in my Waterdeep and honestly most of any city campaigns that I've run over the years.

Yes, sometimes the sword was a backup weapon. But you didn't cherry pick all the other statements like "...it's more like 30 with spears and 10 with swords and shields and then another 10 with longswords versus more or less a combo of the same ... historical battle was almost always a combined-arms affair ... fighting men relied upon chosen personal arms with which they were intimately familiar ... we have ample evidence for use of all manner of single and double-hand swords in war. In ancient armies, short swords and large shields were a standard armament ... Late Medieval European armies were always a combined-arms operation whether in skirmish, siege, or full field array. The ascendancy of heavy cavalry of fully armored knights with long lance did nothing to discourage men-at-arms from continuing to develop ever more varieties of increasingly specialized sword designs ... double-handed "swords of war" found use for centuries ... the evidence for the sword in Medieval warfare outweighs that for the axe, mace, hammer, and flail ... Many Renaissance martial arts treatises describe the value of swordsmanship as the foundational training not just for all manners of single combat and self defense situations, but for the battlefield"

Did people use a sword as a backup weapon? Obviously. Was it also a primary weapon depending on when, where, what the person was familiar with and could afford? Also yes.

 

[AlViking]

I don't know about y'all, but if I'm playing a wizard it's because I want to cast spells.

Also, if you want to go OG, staffs are for amateurs. Daggers are where it's at: can be used both in melee and at (admittedly short) range, and when thrown you can make two attacks per round.

So you're saying you don't want to have to rely on darts for 3/4 of your attacks? Shocking. Except of course we can't be casting shocking grasp because we rely on magic so I guess we have to use a long stick instead. Oh well.

Cantrips lag behind the damage level other classes do all day long and unless you have a 5 minute work day, casters run out of the ability to cast leveled spells quickly. I have no issue with cantrips because as you say, I want to play a wizard, not a guy who ineptly throws around lawn darts.