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IMCs, this is due to a number of factors. Powerful mages are rare. In my worlds, there are typically only a handful of mages alive at any given time who have the power to make a realistic attempt at taking over a nation. Most mages are more interested in the pursuit of cosmic power, as...

I think that one of the draws of fantasy games is often the more simplistic and child-like depiction of good vs evil, wherein good guys beat up bad guys because that's what good guys do. Obviously, in the real world things aren't so simple. To even know where to begin we often have to examine...

I'm not much for death spirals, but I would guess more gritty fiction where death comes cheap and easy?

I think that another important consideration is that realism isn't necessarily always going to be the top priority for someone playing a fantasy game like D&D. Some people prefer a more cinematic approach. I mean, imagine how much less awesome Boromir's last stand would have been if he got shot...

I think that would be fine if it were in addition to manuevers that you can just declare you are using, but not in lieu of.

My main issue with that is that the fighter should be the class least impacted by the fog of war. Not the only class that gets lost in the chaotic fog of war.

Technically, these are not mutually exclusive within the context of the game. In the context of any given campaign, obviously, they are. The default could be that HP loss doesn't have penalties. Which seems reasonable due to tradition. There could be an optional Heroic Death Spiral rule...

Yeah, I'd even be fine with MC leveling having it's own full progression table, if need be. It wouldn't even take much space. You could probably fit the tables for 4-6 classes on a single page. Then just refer to the features in the class writeup from there.

I see where you're coming from, and I agree that something like a bespoke subclass will often encapsulate certain concepts more synergistically than level-based multiclassing. However, both subclasses and feats do have some serious fundamental limitations. The biggest limitations of a...

I will say that if your intention was that this would be in addition to a system where you can declare a maneuver, then I think it has merit. For example, you can spend Grit to declare a Trip Attack, but when you don't spend Grit you might still get a randomly rolled maneuver. My responses were...

It isn't hyperbole. I'm basing this on the idea of replacing a Battlemaster Fighter's maneuvers with something like this. If you were imagining it more like adding this to a Champion fighter, then sure, you haven't removed any tactical complexity (because it had almost none to begin with). If...

I wasn't referring to the fiction of an encounter. I was referring to the game of an encounter. I mean, look at the wizard. What if any time they cast a spell they just rolled randomly on their entire spell list and that was what they cast? Hoping for Magic Missile at an enemy 30' away...

13th Age did something vaguely like this, wherein some abilities could only be used on an even attack roll and some on an odds. My understanding is that a lot of people didn't love that. When you want to trip an enemy, the master of fighting ought to be able to trip an enemy. He shouldn't have...

Frankly, the best option IMO would be to simply build a diverse and competitive set of attacks to choose from, such that a player who wants optimal output is required to think critically about which attack to use. Admittedly, that is easier said than done. This isn't significantly more an issue...

The first feat was generally well regarded by the pro-4e contingent. I don't recall anything but vitriol towards feat-based multiclassing from the con-4e faction. But yeah, the swap feats weren't particularly popular with either side. EDIT I think, ultimately, the designers recognized the...

By this I assume you were not around during the dung-storm that swirled around feat based multiclassing during the days of 4e. I actually didn't mind the 4e feat based multiclassing. I didn't think it was great, but it was... okay. A very vocal number of folks on these boards, however, had a...

I like this idea, but I think the real challenge is utility magic. Getting blinded or confused with a divination cast in your inn room is pretty meaningless. You can just try again until you succeed. Alternately, if you make the duration of the status meaningful in downtime (say a day or a...

Okay. Because you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are not a lot of other ways (that I'm familiar with) that produce satisfying results. There's 2e style multiclassing which is only available at character creation. If you remove that restriction it either becomes absurdly...

Ummm... you realize that you literally just admitted yours was a strawman? It's not the amount of straw that matters. If it's made of straw, it's a strawman. Also, in case it wasn't obvious, I wasn't seriously suggesting that spellcasting be fixed by removing casters. I was simply demonstrating...

I think a big part of that is (whether actual or perceived) systems that reward specialization over generalization. IME, people typically prefer having a narrow skill set that they can succeed with most of the time over a broad skill set with which they can fail slightly less often. If having...