D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

[Zardnaar]

I played it a loooong time ago, yeah.

So here's my big thought for the season arc/metaplot for an adventure so that it has some attainable goals and meaningful impact without 'destroying' the setting:

Prologue is the invasion. The war has begun, and your party is fighting back against it.

Act 1: You're the new Thundercats/Masters of the Universe/Silverhawks heroes of light/eternia/whatever. You're tasked with, essentially, guerilla warfare against the alien invaders. Fighting asymmetrically against their forces by targeting specific engagements to slow down their attacks. You go from place to place meeting new allies and old enemies and work towards being the big heroes. You face some setbacks but you're mostly successful. The big mid-season event is that you work with your allies to break some kind of super powered relay station to disable the Jump Gates/Wormholes/Portals/Whatever so the aliens don't have infinite reinforcements coming from countless other worlds.

Act 2: The aliens double-down on their attack. Cut off from reinforcements they instead try to make a decapitating strike against the leaders of the world including your party. Out come the Siege Engine Monsters and the Wrought Dragons and stuff to try and destroy you, the bad guys you've been allying with against the aliens, everything. Friends you made in Act 1 are in peril and might get axed if you don't work to save them in various new locations 'cause they've been helping you slow down the aliens. Malevar gets involved, -directly-, and gets disintegrated at least once, possibly saving a party member. He laughs as he's destroyed because he is -Eternal-.

Act 3: The final push against the aliens to take out their leadership and/or their engineering teams who are trying to get the uplink online so they can, once again, have infinite reinforcements. Malevar returns and helps to fight in order to secure more power for himself. After the big knock down drag-out with the aliens, you have to fight Malevar directly, as he once again tries to consume an energy source bigger than his inflated ego. Just like 800 years ago, the Heroes of Light kick his butt back to his castle to sleep it off and plot for his next campaign of evil.

Thoughts on the overarching structure?

Structures fine its always execution.

I dont plot things out to that extent. I'll do the overarching goal/theme and go from there.

Main thing is your players and your personal enthusiasm. I ran a norse themed game but shouldn't have as I wasn't into it as much as I thought. Mistake.

Im kinda thinking about a Radiant Citadel type solution.

 

[TwoSix]

It's cool. I asked because Laser Llama's Order of the Blade (formerly Order of the Bladedancer) Magus does receive an AC bonus at key levels whenever they enter their Bladedance trance. When they reach 15th level, this feature grants them a +3 bonus to AC.

The Laserllama Magus can replace Dex to AC with Int to AC, but it can't stack them, so even with the Blade Dance bonus it doesn't get crazy.

Ignoring magic items, it can get to Breastplate (15)+2 Int + 2 Shield +1 Fighting Style + 3 Blade Dance = 23 AC.

Very solid, but nothing gamebreaking at 15th level.

 

[TwoSix]

Also... If the Swordmage had good saves of Str/Dex, but used Int in place of Dex while armored up and Int in place of Str/Dex when using attack cantrips... Would that be really clever design or really bad design?

'Cause then at high end you could drop your 8 in Strength and your 10 in Dex and wind up with a saving throw matrix of:
Str +5, Dex +6, Con +5, Int +5, Wis +3, Cha +1

I'm a big fan of using stat replacement, especially for Dex, to open up non-Dex focused options for builds.

Also a big fan of giving save proficiencies in not-main stats for a more well-rounded save profile.

 

[Steampunkette]

Structures fine its always execution.

I dont plot things out to that extent. I'll do the overarching goal/theme and go from there.

Main thing is your players and your personal enthusiasm. I ran a norse themed game but shouldn't have as I wasn't into it as much as I thought. Mistake.

Im kinda thinking about a Radiant Citadel type solution.

I'm talking about writing an adventure to sell to others, not just run for my own table.

I'm a big fan of using stat replacement, especially for Dex, to open up non-Dex focused options for builds.

Also a big fan of giving save proficiencies in not-main stats for a more well-rounded save profile.

That's good! I'm happy there's others out there with the same kinda interests!

I'd back it!

Get more from Steampunkette on Patreon

creating Level Up and 5e D&D game content

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[Zardnaar]

I'm talking about writing an adventure to sell to others, not just run for my own table.

That's good! I'm happy there's others out there with the same kinda interests!

Get more from Steampunkette on Patreon

creating Level Up and 5e D&D game content

www.patreon.com

Ah gotcha.

For selling to others the hook is most important thing imho. What makes your adventure stand out or cool.

The difference between a good and bad adventure is how much work it is for the DM to run it. Pretty cover.

I've heard the comment regarding sales. "If ou want a big selling adventure put a dragon or vampire on it".

Its about execution. A lot of the "good" 3.5 or Pathfinder adventures for example are mostly the level 1-7 parts.

Peopke will over look at lot of flaws if the premise is cool (HotDQ).

 

[Lanefan]

I played it a loooong time ago, yeah.

So here's my big thought for the season arc/metaplot for an adventure so that it has some attainable goals and meaningful impact without 'destroying' the setting:

Prologue is the invasion. The war has begun, and your party is fighting back against it.

Act 1: You're the new Thundercats/Masters of the Universe/Silverhawks heroes of light/eternia/whatever. You're tasked with, essentially, guerilla warfare against the alien invaders. Fighting asymmetrically against their forces by targeting specific engagements to slow down their attacks. You go from place to place meeting new allies and old enemies and work towards being the big heroes. You face some setbacks but you're mostly successful. The big mid-season event is that you work with your allies to break some kind of super powered relay station to disable the Jump Gates/Wormholes/Portals/Whatever so the aliens don't have infinite reinforcements coming from countless other worlds.

Act 2: The aliens double-down on their attack. Cut off from reinforcements they instead try to make a decapitating strike against the leaders of the world including your party. Out come the Siege Engine Monsters and the Wrought Dragons and stuff to try and destroy you, the bad guys you've been allying with against the aliens, everything. Friends you made in Act 1 are in peril and might get axed if you don't work to save them in various new locations 'cause they've been helping you slow down the aliens. Malevar gets involved, -directly-, and gets disintegrated at least once, possibly saving a party member. He laughs as he's destroyed because he is -Eternal-.

Act 3: The final push against the aliens to take out their leadership and/or their engineering teams who are trying to get the uplink online so they can, once again, have infinite reinforcements. Malevar returns and helps to fight in order to secure more power for himself. After the big knock down drag-out with the aliens, you have to fight Malevar directly, as he once again tries to consume an energy source bigger than his inflated ego. Just like 800 years ago, the Heroes of Light kick his butt back to his castle to sleep it off and plot for his next campaign of evil.

Thoughts on the overarching structure?

Overarching structure looks fine as a storyboard but it would take some significant player buy-in to keep it on track all the way through and not have them wander off chasing red herrings and-or going after unrelated-to-the-plot things that have piqued their interest.

 

[Steampunkette]

Overarching structure looks fine as a storyboard but it would take some significant player buy-in to keep it on track all the way through and not have them wander off chasing red herrings and-or going after unrelated-to-the-plot things that have piqued their interest.

Hmmm... like perhaps setting up a separate section, or even small book, full of 'sideplots' suited for specific level ranges but with the NPCs and such unnamed so that if the party does get sidetracked by a specific NPC or Situation, you can snag a sideplot in the right level range with a few pre-generated encounters and the bare bones of some NPC interactions and then apply the names of NPCs in and around the current area to those encounters and sideplots that allows them to be wrapped up, nicely?

That way the distraction gets to be explored to a conclusion resolved with social, exploration, or combat mechanics, and the players can then return to the main plot?

 

[renbot]

I'm not saying you should play a game you hate just to play. But people should be more open to playing the game that's in front of them and simply embracing what it's good at, rather than being annoyed at its flaws.

Finally got my die-hard "D&D or nuthin'!" group to try both Shadowdark and Daggerheart and they (surprise!) really liked both. Now SD is something we bust out when not everyone is available for the "primary" D&D campaign and it has worked really well.

 

[renbot]

Get more from Steampunkette on Patreon

creating Level Up and 5e D&D game content

www.patreon.com

D'oh! I should have assumed you already had one...sometimes I'm not very bright.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hmmm... like perhaps setting up a separate section, or even small book, full of 'sideplots' suited for specific level ranges but with the NPCs and such unnamed so that if the party does get sidetracked by a specific NPC or Situation, you can snag a sideplot in the right level range with a few pre-generated encounters and the bare bones of some NPC interactions and then apply the names of NPCs in and around the current area to those encounters and sideplots that allows them to be wrapped up, nicely?

That way the distraction gets to be explored to a conclusion resolved with social, exploration, or combat mechanics, and the players can then return to the main plot?

Are you familiar with Kingmaker AP?

I mine published adventures are lot. Saves me time and I've bought enough of them. May as well use them.