D&D General 6E But A + Thread

[Reynard]

I want something interesting and useful at every level, otherwise why call it a level at all? This is huge for me, empty levels are not fun/interesting at all to me.

What classes still have empty levels?

 

[Chaltab]

I think it's part of the problem that every D&D edition design team has: D&D is such a broad audience that there's no agreement on what people want.

4th Edition was some players' sweet spot and others wanted to nuke it from orbit.

 

[Zaukrie]

What classes still have empty levels?

I wasn't asked what I'd change! Probably none, just making sure they don't (and I think subclasses being the key to differentiation is a mistake. I want like 20 classes .......).

I'd also add that clerics and paladins and other servants of gods should have different abilities/skills/whatever based on their god a lot more than they do now.

 

[mellored]

This is a bit of a tangent but:

Those spells absolutely have a place in the high fantasy that is D&D. The solution is not to eliminate them, but for GMs to know that the party has access to them and actively incorporate them into play. The speak with dead scene in D&D:HAT is a perfect example of how to make that work.

Do you expect a DM to memorize every spell a PC could possibly have before setting up a campaign? What if you expect it and the Cleric dies or multiclass before they get it? What if someone joins mid way and has that spell?

You can keep them in the game as a magic item or something, but remove them from the player.

A DM can easily drop a bag of unlimited food or coin of speak with dead if it won't be an issue for the campaign. But shouldn't be expected to rework everything just because a player decides to grab Sending when they leveled up.

 

[kermit4karate]

Here's my wish list for 6e:

• It should be simpler. The are to many fiddlely bits, to much micromanaging, too many niche bonuses and obscure rules. Things should be light and simple.

What's this...? Someome asking for simpler? Careful, blasphemer!!! That's unacceptable 'round these parts.

 

[Parmandur]

True, but I also can't think of a game where it doesn't come into play. At the very least, most games have health, stress, or other "damage tracks." Lots of games that don't have traditional D&D style "uses" on things still have pools of play currency.

Well, because it is on my brain, the Cosmere RPG notably doesn't: resources like money and ammo are firmly in the realm of narrative handwavium, and in-game resources are strictly per Encounter. Which is interesting, since the moment to moment vibe is heavily channeling 5E, but there is zero attrition element to the larger picture of the game.

I can't see D&D ever being that.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

WISHLIST ITEM

State plainly, in all the Core Rulebooks, that the purpose of Magic is to break the rules (a.k.a. The Game’s Basic Laws of Reality) so that a Character can achieve exceptional results.

How each setting deals with these anomalies is what makes them distinctive.
Will there be an arms race among sentients? Will the setting itself fight back (Dark Sun)? Are the Powers imposing limits (Krynn)? …

I can think of artifacts that are “garbage” if brought into the context of a different edition, because the rules that they are designed to break have been changed.

Breaking the rules is what makes magic exciting.

 

[payn]

Thinking more on the social pillar, I'd love to see something baked into the A,B,Cs as Paizo folk call it. Or, in D&D terms Species, background, and class. Some examples off the top of my head;

Species; Gnome
Haggle; Get advantage on identifying value and haggling over price of gems, artwork, and other luxury items.

Background: Criminal
Exploit: Get advantage on intimidation when dealing with criminals and other shady associates that run afoul of the law.

Class Bard
Entreat: Advantage on persuasion rolls for those who have seen you perform recently to gather info or request basic favors.

Develop a social encounter skill challenge in which a character tries to win favor or get info out of an otherwise unmotivated person. The above examples would obviously give a leg up to a PC in the right situations.

 

[Reynard]

Do you expect a DM to memorize every spell a PC could possibly have before setting up a campaign? What if you expect it and the Cleric dies or multiclass before they get it? What if someone joins mid way and has that spell?

You can keep them in the game as a magic item or something, but remove them from the player.

A DM can easily drop a bag of unlimited food or coin of speak with dead if it won't be an issue for the campaign. But shouldn't be expected to rework everything just because a player decides to grab Sending when they leveled up.

This is just personal opinion, but I think if a GM is planning out a whole campaign before they start playing, they are doing it wrong and making their own lives extremely unpleasant.

Adventure designers absolutely should know what abilities are typically available to characters of levels the adventure is for, and should design FOR those abilities -- maybe with sidebars reminding the GM about them and giving suggestions.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Minimum is +5 or so to hit that's AC 24.

Unless you're an idiot (12-14 prine ability) or less with an A hat DM this isn't a realistic scenario.
.

That....has...nothing whatsoever to do with what I was talking about???

In 5.0, Champions get one and only one source of bonus damage: They crit when their attack roll die says 19 (more at high level, but my math was focusing <11). That's it. That's their one bonus. Everything else is non-damage, or is versatility, not damage. As a result, on average, the Champion is getting...+[W] once in every 20 attacks that the Battle Master isn't. And this, of course, is assuming the Battle Master never holds onto bonus dice to add to a crit, since in 5.0 those maneuver dice get doubled just like any other dice involved in the crit.

As a result, for the Champion's bonus damage to kick in, on average you need to get 20 attack rolls. That's 9 rounds of combat + 1 action surge, once the Champion is 5th level (which doesn't seem like much of a stretch, considering you can't even be a Champion until 3rd level anyway). So, for the Champ to keep up with a BM, they need to get, on average, a number of bonus crit dice equal to the amount of bonus damage dice the BM gets, per short rest.

Using the best possible option (Greatsword + GWF style), the math works...exactly as I've shown. You need TONS of rounds of combat to make the Champion be even REMOTELY as good as Battle Master.

And then Paladin is simply better than that.

There's an exceptionally good reason the Champion was one of the worst-rated subclasses in 5.0, beaten only by the Berseker (which was actively harmful to itself, as opposed to merely being weak) and Beast Master (which was like the Champion, but more actively obvious about it).