D&D General 6E But A + Thread

[Lanefan]

Sure, as long as the character is in as much peril as usual.

That's the assumption, yes.

The thing is, lots of players don't want their character getting killed while they are not at the game, so their character is handwaved to be "watching the horses" or whatever. And last I check, watching the horses was not a challenge.

Round here, it's taken as a given that your character has about the same chance of dying etc. when you're not there that it would if you were there.

 

[Minigiant]

So PHB SPECIES

• Aasimar
  • Protector
  • Scourge
  • Fallen
• Dragonborn
  • Black (Acid)
  • Blue (Lightning)
  • Brass (Fire)
  • Bronze (Lightning)
  • Copper (Acid)
  • Gold (Fire)
  • Green (Poison)
  • Red (Fire)
  • Silver (Cold)
  • White (Cold)
• Dungeonborn
  • Eyedreamed
  • Mimicform
  • Flayercraft
• Dwarf
  • Hill (HP)
  • Mountain (AC)
  • Grey (Psionic)
  • Volcano (Resistance)
• Elf
  • High
  • Wood
  • Drow
  • Sea
• Gnome
  • Forest
  • Rock
  • Deep
• Goblin
• Goliath
  • Cloud
  • Fire
  • Frost
  • Hill
  • Stone
  • Storm
• Halfling
  • Lightfoot
  • Stout
• Human
  • Base
  • Variant
    • Elf Blooded
    • Orc Blooded
    • Death Marked
    • Stormborn
• Orc
• Tiefling
  • Abyssal
  • Chthonic
  • Infernal

 

[Lanefan]

I do like the idea of training, although after a while it gets a bit silly--there's only so many other people of equal or higher level. I'd stick with training for lower levels (10~ or lower). By the time you get to that level, you're good enough to truly self-teach.

Agreed about self-training at higher levels, but that self-training still needs facilities and-or spare gear and-or people to beat up spar with and-or whatever; meaning that even self-training can easily still be made to require downtime and expense.

 

[Scribe]

No. That would make me incredibly anxious. It would spoil the experience.


I cannot do that.

Interesting. I would recommend more one shots, but if you don't enjoy it. /shrug

 

[Lanefan]

Thinking back on rolling stats in 6E. I think for me to actually buck the trend of array and/or point buy id need some substantial system changes. A few I can think of;

• Remove initiative and AC increases from Dex
• Remove bonuses to hit and damage from stats and place them into class and/or level progression
• Remove perception from Wis

Totally agree with divorcing initiative from Dex (and from everything else); but otherwise each stat should come with something it helps everyone do:

Strength - hit things, hurt things, carry things
Intelligence - remember things, learn things, know things
Wisdom - perceive things, analyze things
Dexterity - dodge things, balance on things
Constitution - stay upright longer
Charisma - get along with people

Then, choosing where to put your good stats as opposed to your bad ones becomes a real trade-off.

I'd also like to see saves return to the 0e-1e idea where you're saving against the effect itself and stat bonuses don't always apply.

Saves for each stat works fine, but a reexamination and balancing of the spells is due. There shouldnt be any safe dump stats, nor should spells focus and exploit any above the others.

What's a "safe" dump stat would vary by class. Rogues don't need Wisdom: dump stat. Fighters don't need Charisma: dump stat. Clerics don't need Dexterity: dump stat. And so on.

 

[Lanefan]

D&D was sold to me as the ability to make my own characters, worlds, and stories in a way that allowed me to express my creative freedom.

Me too. Only, as a player, I took that as meaning I could do (or at least try) whatever the hell I wanted in the game - anything goes - and the DM would tell me if it worked or not and what happens next.

I've got other avenues for expressing more (relatively!) serious creative freedom, including what I do as a DM. Even then, however, I try to maintain that (try-to)-do-whatever-the-hell-you-want philosophy for the players.

D&D in the years since has moved in the direction of better helping me tell those stories. Creating nameless fighters to rush into a dungeon and die was the antithesis of that. Had I found your game instead of the one I found, I have abandoned D&D decades ago.

Nameless fighters rushing in and dying still help build the story of the party as a whole, as told later by the survivors.

And that raises the key question. Which is more important - the story of your individual character or the story of the party as a whole?

 

[Lanefan]

One of the things I was most disappointed about in 5.24 was the move back to Ability score bonus per day class features. Imho, class needs to be decoupled from ability scores so as to not encourage "race to 20" in your primary score.

I think Basic did this best; outside of xp bonus for higher score (13-15 +5%, 16+ +10%) no class got a boost based on their primary score. Fighters got a +1 to +3 to hit and damage, but so did everyone else. Wizards and clerics spells were not affected by Int/Wis (not number known, spell level, slots or saving throws) and thieves got no bonus to skills for high Dex. The net effect was that it actually wasn't bad to have A 13 Int wizard or a even 12 Dex Thief. All you were out was slightly faster XP gain.

Ideally, I'd like to see D&D return to something like that where the gap between a 13 Intelligence wizard and an 18 Intelligence wizard is miniscule. Anything that helps break the "must have a 20 ASAP" is good in my book

More or less agree here; though I don't mind there being some difference between 13 and 18 in one's primary stat, it should be possible to play a character with nothing but middling stats and still be able to keep up. What I'd really like to see is a return to there being minimal if any difference between about 7 and 14 (or at worst, between 9 and 12) in any stat.

That said, I'd also like to include a way for every stat number including the odd ones to be relevant. Roll-under-stat for some skills does this nicely, but people keep squawking about never wanting to have to roll low for anything.

Another factor, of course, is how generous your game's roll-up or point-buy or array is. If 16s are rare then a 16 should come with a benefit. If 16s are common then maybe reduce or eliminate that benefit and have it kick in at a higher number.

 

[Lanefan]

Magic: the Gathering is a game involving cards, and thus contains uncertainty. Nobody calls playing it gambling, because it...isn't.

In its early days Magic was played for ante: each player would shuffle then put the top card of the deck aside; the game's winner got both cards.

Sadly, they had to do away with this because it ran afoul of gambling laws in some places.

Again: no it isn't. It is uncertain. Not all uncertainty is a gamble. By being uncertain, it involves risk. Not all risk is "gambling".

Sure it is. Not all gambling happens in casinos where the house always wins.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I would say that there is the potential for going further outside your comfort zone, but there's exactly equal potential to go not even the slightest bit outside.

Conversely, with a chosen character, yes you can always choose to be something completely inside your comfort zone...but you can also choose to force yourself to be something you definitely know isn't. Seems to me that choosing, "Alright, I'm going to play something I know I don't normally do"--a guarantee of something outside your wheelhouse--is a bigger step than maybe possibly getting something there, maybe not.

Sure, but where is the fun in that!?

 

[Lanefan]

So PHB SPECIES

• Human
  • Base
  • Variant
    • Elf Blooded
    • Orc Blooded
    • Death Marked
    • Stormborn

Human
--- Foreigner
--- --- Hot Blooded?