D&D 5E Can 5e Be Mythic?

[Garthanos]

Of note Paladins in 5e a class with casting of course would be the ones best able to use that Cleaving Feature.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

OK instead of being such a disser.... here are some of the available rules for making 5e a bit more epic.

EPIC HEROISM
This variant uses a short rest of 5 minutes and a long rest of 1 hour.
This change makes combat more routine, since characters can easily recover
from every battle. You might want to make combat encounters more difficult
to compensate. Spellcasters using this system can afford to burn through spell
slots quickly, especially at higher levels. Consider allowing spellcasters to restore expended spell slots equal to only half their maximum spell slots (rounded down) at the end of a long rest, and to limit spell slots restored to 5th level or lower. Only a full 8-hour rest will allow a spellcaster
to restore all spell slots and to regain spell slots of 6th level or higher.

HERO POINTS
Hero points work well in epic fantasy and mythic campaigns in which the characters are meant to be more like superheroes than the average adventurer is.
With this option, a character starts with 5 hero point at 1st level. Each time the character gains a level, he or she loses any unspent hero points
and gains a new total equal to 5 + half the character's level.

HEALING SuRGES
This optional rule allows characters to heal up inthe thick of combat and works
well for parties that feature few or no characters with healing magic, or for
campaigns in which magical healing is rare. As an action, a character can use
a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent
in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character's Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total.
The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.

CLEAVING THROUGH CREATURES
If your player characters regularly fight hordes of lower- level monsters, consider using this optional rule to help speed up such fights.
When a melee attack reduces an undamaged creature to 0 hit points, any excess damage from that attack might carry over to another creature nearby.
The attacker targets another creature within reach and, if the original attack
roll can hit it, applies any remaining damage to it. If that creature was
undamaged and is likewise reduced to 0 hit points, repeat this process,
carrying over the remaining damage until there are no valid targets, or
until the damage carried over fails to reduce an undamaged creature to 0 hit
points.

MINIONS and SWARMS
this is not an official one but something I have seen many DMs recommend and could combine with the previous and buffed individual attacks to support one man army profile.

I use the cleave variant but ignore the “undamaged” part, starting around level 9 or 10.

I was very surprised to learn that so many people view the jump distance and stuff like it as caps, rather than “what you can do without any special effort.”

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Of note Paladins in 5e a class with casting of course would be the ones best able to use that Cleaving Feature.

Rogues and Barbarians do enough damage to reduce undamaged mooks to 0 more regularly than Paladins.

Also, so what? It isn’t a competition.

 

[Garthanos]

Rogues and Barbarians do enough damage to reduce undamaged mooks to 0 more regularly than Paladins.

Also, so what? It isn’t a competition.

Just a note that a caster again has advantage over the fighter on this functionality again and rogues cleaving is a style mismatch. Barbarians nods sure.

 

[Garthanos]

I was very surprised to learn that so many people view the jump distance and stuff like it as caps, rather than “what you can do without any special effort.”

It's what you can do without requiring the dm to make a special house rule... ie it does not really scale out of the box.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's what you can do without requiring the dm to make a special house rule... ie it does not really scale out of the box.

It’s not a special house rule, though. It’s just how the game works. If the campaign is meant to be epic and mythic, there’s no reason a DM will say no to making a check to exceed the default jump distance. A houserule would require that to be normally against the rules, which it isn’t.

Just a note that a caster again has advantage over the fighter on this functionality again and rogues cleaving is a style mismatch. Barbarians nods sure.

The rogue is thematically making many lethal attacks, throwing a brace of daggers, dancing through enemies, etc.

 

[Mad_Jack]

The concepts of animism and nature beings are important to my setting.

Often this is surprisingly easy to do.

<smipped>

The D&D character is effectively an avatar of the mountain.

I once came up with a 4E warforged druid character, just to annoy someone who claimed that "robots" shouldn't be nature characters. They couldn't conceive of a way to "justify" it narratively. Since it stated in the fluff that warforged were made of stone and wood as well as metal and animated by magic, I simply wrote the characters backstory to be that there was a specific battlefield where countless battles had been fought over the ages until the ground was ruined and thought cursed, fertile ground for necromancers seeking to create undead. So much pain and suffering had occurred there that the land itself had awoken and become sentient - an actual genius loci... It eventually became so enraged over the wanton destruction inflicted upon it that when an army of orcs once again fought a battle there it caused vines and branches to grow up through some buried armor to form a humanoid body for itself, and, armed with weapon and gear discarded on the battlefield, it strode forth to seek vengeance on those that had harmed it. The part of the genius loci's power and consciousness that resides in its humanoid creation now adventures in order to protect the land from those who would destroy it.

Even in a non-"mythic" game, I've always tried to let a good narrative justification override the game rules when it made for a nore enjoyable game.

 

[Garthanos]

It’s not a special house rule, though. It’s just how the game works. If the campaign is meant to be epic and mythic, there’s no reason a DM will say no to making a check to exceed the default jump distance. A houserule would require that to be normally against the rules, which it isn’t.

House rules are not just "against the base rules" ... they include you adding "beyond the functional rules" ... you are going beyond what you will see at another persons house. And when base rules provide no scaling you are adding your own and claiming that means it supports scaling.

The rogue is thematically making many lethal attacks, throwing a brace of daggers, dancing through enemies, etc.

That is not what a cleave is normally described as being about, and we have mechanics for multiple attacking reminiscent of that like the Hunters archer barrage. But I will give you that yes it could be flavored that way the 5e rogue goes from single enemy attacker to multi-attacker of a form it alters its tactical nature, but admittedly in a narrower circumstance. And why not let every fighter type potentially have "one many army" . I think a shielding/defender needs more open ended reactions so he can get in on it too.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

House rules are not just "against the base rules" ... they include you adding "beyond the functional rules" ... you are going beyond what you will see at another persons house. And when base rules provid no scaling you are adding your own and claiming that means it supports scaling.


That is not what a cleave is normally described as being about, and we have mechanics for multiple attacking reminiscent of that like the Hunters archer barrage. But I will give you that yes it could be flavored that way the 5e rogue goes from single enemy attacker to multi-attacker of a form it alters its tactical nature.

I’m not sure it alters it’s tactical nature. It still has to qualify for Sneak Attack to get big damage. To kill the group of mook guards, the Rogue has to ambush them. This just allows the Rogue to do that solo, in one turn.

I don’t really care about the classic image of what a “cleave” is.

And why not let every fighter type potentially have "one many army" . I think a shielding/defender needs more open ended reactions so he can get in on it too.

Then give the fighter legendary actions instead of Action Surge. 1 at level 2, then 1 more every time they gain an additional extra attack.

 

[Larnievc]

I’ve been reading up on Heroes of Tara supplement that seeks to make a 5e game that is mythic in the vein of Irish mythology and folk lore, and I wonder just how mythical you can make a 5e game without a ton of new rules.

Has anyone here run a 5e game that hewed closer to folklore and mythology than D&D normally does?

I’ve started running a game similar in style to traditional European fair tales. It’s heavy on the morality tale angle and more sinister than any of my previous games.