D&D 5E Advanced D&D or "what to minimally fix in 5E?"

[Scott Christian]

Q. What things are weak in D&D 5E, and not just as a minor niggle, but sufficiently weak as to warrant a replacement subsystem?

Personally, I think this is a really difficult question. Most things in the game tie together so smoothly, that changing one thing leads to changes in others, which lead to changes in others. The independent lever isn't really a thing. This is especially true if we are talking about a game that exists across separate tables, meaning one player could just pick up their character and port it to a new table. That is why session zero has become soooo important as of late.

 

[Corinnguard]

why are you even grabbing third party content for your example? tyrannized -> scars gives you a resistance too, and that's in the AG alongside the dragonborn.

Why not? There is no commandment that says, 'thou shall reference only the source material when providing an example.' The design team for Purple Martin Games also helped design the core rulebooks for A5e. Plus I happen to like their Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete. It has my favorite class in it. The Elementalist.

When @Distracted DM mentioned how you can gain a resistance from a heritage and a culture, I immediately thought that a Dragonborn with the Desert Hierarch culture would make a good example for what they were talking about.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Why not?

well, we were discussing balance. not so helpful to bring up third party content when discussing the balance of first party (well, for level up anyway) content.

 

[Micah Sweet]

why are you even grabbing third party content for your example? tyrannized -> scars gives you a resistance too, and that's in the AG alongside the dragonborn.

Maybe because MOAR Complete us awesome?

 

[Micah Sweet]

well, we were discussing balance. not so helpful to bring up third party content when discussing the balance of first party (well, for level up anyway) content.

Content is content. Do you have any reason to believe MOAR is any less balanced than Level Up core?

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Maybe because MOAR Complete us awesome?

i mean, i won't dispute that.

Content is content. Do you have any reason to believe MOAR is any less balanced than Level Up core?

whether it is or not isn't particularly relevant. it's not helpful to bring up third party content when discussing first party content, because it isn't first party content. it was also kind of strange because...well, bringing up third party content wasn't even necessary to demonstrate the point in question.

it'd be like, if to demonstrate that pf1e casters are more (or less) powerful then 3.5 casters, you pulled up spheres of power. it isn't really relevant if spheres of power is balanced or even good - it's not first party pf1e content.

 

[Micah Sweet]

i mean, i won't dispute that.

whether it is or not isn't particularly relevant. it's not helpful to bring up third party content when discussing first party content, because it isn't first party content. it was also kind of strange because...well, bringing up third party content wasn't even necessary to demonstrate the point in question.

it'd be like, if to demonstrate that pf1e casters are more (or less) powerful then 3.5 casters, you pulled up spheres of power. it isn't really relevant if spheres of power is balanced or even good - it's not first party pf1e content.

Most 3pp for Level Up has been made, at least in part, by someone (or often several someones) who worked on the core product. I see no reason to treat it differently than the core books in any capacity, for my part.

 

[Shardstone]

4&5 are compatibility issues.

Once your Race+BG leaves the 2 to 2.5 feat worth, the DM has to seriously account for the PC's strength.

So most 5e compatible products don't move past that point.

Disagreed. 2014 doesn't assume 2 feats to start with, and the power of race is inconsistent across the edition. This exact formula is htus unnecessary.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Most 3pp for Level Up has been made, at least in part, by someone (or often several someones) who worked on the core product. I see no reason to treat it differently than the core books in any capacity, for my part.

but this isn't for your part. it's for the purposes of discussion - and for the purposes of discussion, it's absolutely important to note whether something is first or third party, even if people who worked on the core books worked on said third party product, because of the status that being first party confers on the product and culture surrounding said product.

i'd be happy to include MOAR Complete in any a5e campaign i run. it's still a third party product, and that still has different implications then if it were a first party product.

 

[Micah Sweet]

but this isn't for your part. it's for the purposes of discussion - and for the purposes of discussion, it's absolutely important to note whether something is first or third party, even if people who worked on the core books worked on said third party product, because of the status that being first party confers on the product and culture surrounding said product.

i'd be happy to include MOAR Complete in any a5e campaign i run. it's still a third party product, and that still has different implications then if it were a first party product.

Well, I really disagree, and don't see any reason to treat them differently. First party confers no special status on WotC to me, and I see no reason EN Publishing would be any different (as much as I live their work).