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I'm wondering if 5E might include an option, available to all characters, to "Switch on AoO" for a turn, by expending some resource, or perhaps as an alternative to fighting defensively. Characters who are supposed to be good at it, could get better deal on the trade, and better results from a...

Wow. One player dislikes 5E because it is too like 4E. Evidently 5E has too much of 4E "gamist" play . . . The other player dislikes 5E because it is too like 3E. Evidently 5E goes too far in reversion to 3E. What, exactly, am I seeing here? Edition wars moving to the trenches, with 5E as No...

To answer the OP, no I don't need one over-arching version, and I think this will be very hard to do in practice (pretty much any major part of every version out today is someone's pet love or hate) However, I think the community of table RPG gamers as a whole benefits from there being a big...

I would play that game. I'm not convinced that is where D&D 5E is heading. I think we might see a variant on 4E's skill challenges. Never know, they might make them a bit less experimental, maybe provide a few example frameworks ("wilderness chase", "stake the joint", "intrigue at the castle")...

So far it's uninspiring for me. I'm probably least happy about return of Vancian magic, and the very "old school" spell descriptions that require DM and player negotiation to resolve. However, I am waiting for two big things: 1) Character creation 2) Rules for tactical board game combat If...

Sorry, I probably shouldn't have used story. I mean "narrative", and also not specifically to protect the wizard. The DM and player can control the combat options in a much more flexible way if they ignore the strictures of a grid. Contrast: A narrative approach: "You are all backed up against...

IMO the current 5E playtest material does not stand as a separate (and confrontational) playable game on a battleboard, nor does it stand up to either DM or players wanting to use the rules to their full extent for advantage. The story-based reasons for not squishing wizards, not having...

It can be very unclimatic to have a lose-by-plot-device due to running out of time. If the DM presents a Sophie's Choice of "push on, at lower power" versus "rest now, but risk losing the race to win", then many players I know will choose to rest and trust that the DM would not go for the lame...

Hopefully they mean to flatten character wealth? Or was it a Freudian slip by WotC design team? ;p

My angle on liking a silver standard is that it would be nice to have the variety of different coins, but without having to track individual purchases of sacks, chickens and pieces of chalk! Definitely in 4E, but also in 3.5E for anyone not tracking minutiae, coins smaller than a gp are...

"Must" is an absolute, and "deal with" a bit fluffy? I'd like PCs to have some choices, and consequences for the choices, for this part of the game. The challenge then is to keep these simple, and ideally during your own turn. So I guess I'd like the controlling player to decide what "deal...

This is something very easy to homebrew Come up with a coin system in your game world Create a simple conversion table. E.g. 1 game world copper = 0.01 gp 1 game world silver = 1 gp 1 game world gold = 100 gp Give out treasure in your currencies, and either you or the players convert to...

I've always thought of a class as "someone else's idea of what my character is like",much more so than stats, skills, feats and other more modular parts of the character. So I would like to see a strategy of putting more weight on themes and backgrounds, wherever it makes sense, and works for...

I quite like the OPs suggestion, it has the interesting side effect for me of forcing a theme-like quality to the casters choices, as you get three different intensities of the same in-game effect. IMO, we are *not* going to see 5E core do anything other than strict Vancian casting with spell...

I think the problems occur with players used to taking advantage of options on a battleboard, and who are playing the playtest on a battleboard. This is not currently *excluded* from core, and in fact seems to be assumed as OK, since the feedback form for stage 1 playtest asks if you are using a...

That is a good catch, and if it remains in the game as-is, I look forward to the OOTS parody on that :-)

Definitely, the overkill in Magic Missile at will was mentioned in public Q&A by the deign team very early on. Their response was basically that they'd rather err in setting the power level high and turn things down for balance, than approach character power levels from the other direction.

The Essential model of stances and "once per encounter, on a hit you can add this effect" would seem to me to be the best compromise between giving martial characters extra stuff to do (and making them as fun as spell-casters), but without making them as complex to play as spell-casters. Edit...

The one thing I *do* remember about wearing armour (from LARP, but I borrowed some re-enactor's full chain, and sometimes ran around in this heavy armour, and sometimes in lighter leather armour) is that you can seriously overheat. I was glad of the rain during the big battle.

Advantage and disadvantage are nice tools to play with. The combination of flanking for advantage, and AoO only for moving away will indeed allow Rogues to get sneak attack a lot more often. I would consider three interacting rules covering AoO: 1) All movement adjacent to an enemy costs 5'...