D&D (2024) Brainstorm features that reduce complexity / speed up play.

[mellored]

So the game is full of features that let you do more stuff, like making more attacks, or rolling more dice. But what are some good ways that making you more powerful also makes things go faster?
*not saying all the features need to be simple, I still want to roll a bucket of d6 with meteor swam, but we could use some more of them.

Max damage for instance. Skips all the dice rolling.

Maximize metamagic. 1-18 SP
Spend a number of SP equal to twice the spell level (1 for Cantrips), and take the maximum of any damage or healing roll.

Or something that would reduce multi-attack.

Power Attack: (part of Great weapon master?)
When you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your attacks in order to deal a single devastating strike....

Cleave could also be simplified to not roll as much.

Make an attack against a creature within 5' of the first, dealing half the damage on a hit.

Power word stun/kill are also powerful options that resolve quick, that could be used elsewhere.

Death Stike: if you hit a creature with less hit points than your level, they fall to 0.

Cantrips and other spells could scale with less rolling

Firebolt: 1d10
At higher levels, increase the damage by 5.


Any other ideas?

 

[kilpatds]

Per a comment of a wizard somehow maximizing Meteor Swarm and ORKOing a BBEG fight...: maximize as you have it needs some rebalancing. I want it to exist in some form, but maybe not there. (Maximize a number of dice equal to SP? Equal to 2*SP?)

+1 on a Cleave simplification that avoid more attacks. "make an attack roll against a creature within 5' of the first, except that you replace the d20 roll with a 10" might be an alternate way of doing it.

Some balanced way of replacing extra attack with advantage? "If both d20 results would have hit, do double damage. If only one does, treat as a normal hit".

Explicit 4e-style minions?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

A weird idea would be to have weapons attack be instead a ''damage pool'' generated at the start of the turn. Like, at the start of the turn you have a damage pool of (weapon average) + (class bonus) x level or PB, you then make a single attack roll. Advantages and critical hit adds X to the damage pool. You then can split your damage pools against all creatures whose AC is hit, however you want.

Spells I'd move to only Saving Throws and fixed damage/Healing.

 

[tetrasodium]

Any other ideas?

• You can not use extra attack if you move more than 5 feet on your turn
• Give the thrown property the option of drawing one for each attack as part of the attack rather than trying to weave that into the attack action itself. From there change the attack action so you get one free draw or sheath a weapon & have it consume a bonus action in order to draw or * sheath a weapon
• All attacks must be declared before rolling even a single d20. "I'm going to attack this guy twice then move & smack that one for my third attack" not "I'm going to attack this guy... does x hit? ->yes give me damage->... ... stare at the gm waiting for status update or wait for yet another status update to be given ->decide to attack again with this weapon switch weapons or move to attack something else but maybe only after switching weapons - repeat with the next one or two attacks"

* or means one or the other, not both... not "but you can drop it as a null action & glare at the GM if a monster you are trying to kill steals or breaks your precious"

 

[mellored]

maximize as you have it needs some rebalancing. I want it to exist in some form, but maybe not there. (Maximize a number of dice equal to SP? Equal to 2*SP?

Changed it to 2x spell level. Exact cost can be tweaked.

except that you replace the d20 roll with a 10" might be an alternate way of doing it.

Auto-damage is a possibility.

True strike:
The targets next attack automatically hit, dealing normal damage.

Witch Bolt
Target takes 1d10 damage. You can spend an action to repeat this damage on following turns. If you don't, the spell ends.

 

[Gorck]

One simple idea off the top of my head:

When you use Cleave, instead of making an additional attack roll against the second target, just use the result of the attack roll against the original target.

 

[mellored]

Speaking of power word...

If the target is unaffected, you regain the spell slot used to cast this spell, but not your action.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Changed it to 2x spell level. Exact cost can be tweaked.


Auto-damage is a possibility.

True strike:
The targets next attack automatically hit, dealing normal damage.

Witch Bolt
Target takes 1d10 damage. You can spend an action to repeat this damage on following turns. If you don't, the spell ends.

While I hate spell points with the fury of a thousand candles, your True Strike and Witch Bolt ideas are pretty interesting. I think a good trade off for True Stike being that you don't get to roll at all. No chance to crit.

 

[Vaalingrade]

All spellcasters have a Spells Known, spell points and no spell preparation.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

So the game is full of features that let you do more stuff, like making more attacks, or rolling more dice. But what are some good ways that making you more powerful also makes things go faster?
...
Any other ideas?

Stop telling players it's not their turn to talk yet: abandon cyclic initiative.

It's okay to have some kind of order to when you will RESOLVE action declarations ("archery before move-and-melee" for example) but there's nothing good that comes from telling the players they're not allowed to ask questions and begin actions yet.

One method that works well for PBP is to resolve actions in the order they were declared, using speed or initiative (whatever exists in your game system) to break ties, and being fairly liberal about what counts as the same time. If the GM says "the BBEG begins casting a spell" and you say, "oh yeah? Then I shove a foot of cold steel in his guts", the GM should treat that as a tie and break it with initiative, along with any other players who immediately barked out a response. Players who declare an action later, while the BBEG is still in the process of resolving his spell, are guaranteed to resolve those actions before the BBEG declares a new action even if they have a low speed (or initiative roll/score/etc.).