D&D 5E Class equipment focus

[Zustiur]

I'm not sure which thread I read it in, so I cannot give adequate thanks to the poster, however:
Someone said "The equipment list is to the rogue, what the weapon list is to the fighter". That rang very true for me and got me thinking.

What if there was a way to give each class an 'equipment' focus that helped to differentiate it from other classes?

Fighters as mentioned, care about weapons and armour.
Rogues care about lock picks and other tools.
Wizards care about finding spells and spell components
Clerics care about holy symbols, holy water, incense, and other priestly things.
Rangers stand out by being able to make do without any equipment at all. Kings of improvisation.
Paladins... Gah, it gets hard after this point.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I really like this concept, but I'm struggling to expand upon it. Is it a dead-end?

 

[kerleth]

The idea sounds promising. I'm a devil's advocate kind of guy, though, so these are the pitfalls that would have to be avoided.

1) It can't turn into the Weapon/Implement enhancement bonus required thing of 4E. Avoiding that is already a design goal of next. So it would have to mean that you gain Abilities, not Bonuses.
2) It can't impinge on character customization. I want to be able to play a fighter that can use lockpicks, as an example. My biggest complaint about the 4E player's handbook (never saw any of the rest) was that classes were customizable, characters weren't. Every time I thought of an interesting character I found myself bending over backwards trying to make it work unless it was WOTC APPROVED (TM). Usually I had to twist the concept or make do with subpar choices. (If it hadn't been for that I probably would have converted).

Doing this seems like it would require more growth in the mechanics of weapons and equipment.

Spitballing Ideas
Rogue-
Tricks of the Trade:
You may spread caltrops and ball bearings on the ground once per turn without using your action.
You may apply poison to your weapon without using an action.
You never run the risk of breaking a lockpick or jamming a lock (would require rules for both of these things).

Fighter-
Arms and Armor:
Your maximum dexterity bonus when wearing medium armor is +3.
You suffer no speed penalty while wearing heavy armor.

Cleric-
Blessings of the Faithful:
If you spend an action to pray and administer a bottle of holy water to yourself or another creature it functions as a healing potion.

My examples don't seem too impressive, but I definitely think that your idea has merit.

 

[the Jester]

First, what would the effects of this be? What's the goal? What mechanics are you going to insert in there, how do you balance them between classes, and what's the payoff?

Second, is it worth the hassle and added complexity if there is no clear payoff?

 

[Zustiur]

Excellent questions. Let's see...
1) Not like implements. Hmm. I was thinking along the lines of 'you can't use skills without them. e.g. fighter can't fight without weapons. Rogue can't pick locks without picks. Cleric can't heal without holy stuff. Wizard can't cast spells without components.
2) I totally agree that's a requirement, and it's currently confounding my own FRPG design. On one hand I want everyone to be able to choose any skills. On the other, I want rogues to be thieves. Ultimately, I think to work as intended, most skills would need equipment. However, skimming the 3.5 skill list tells me that only about 8 skills could require that.
[MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION] I see two potential pay-offs. One is very minor, the other very significant.
The first is an added level of character customisation. The more detail there is in the equipment options, the more you can customise. "My rogue uses acids to melt locks, he doesn't use picks".
The second ties in more with resource management.

I'm playing around with ideas here, but the rough shape of this is that every class has equipment they need to maintain and/or restock.
The fighter needs to repair his armour and weapons (all melee combatants will, but fighters will notice it the most)
The rogue needs to replace broken picks etc (all users of certain skills will, but rogues will notice it the most)
The cleric needs to stock up on holy water (you get the picture)
The wizard needs to stock up on spell components
The ranger stands out by NOT needing anything.

I'm looking for reasons to drag the PCs back to the city. Something that stops them from doing back-to-back adventures, and which gives them cause to spend time at home. I'm looking at something less hand-waved than 1E DMG P25:

Each player character will automatically expend not less than 100 gold pieces per level of experience per month. This is simple support, upkeep, equipment and entertainment expense.

I want something that actually details that expense and can become part of the roleplay. This equipment idea is just one possible element that feeds into that overall expense.

To clarify; I'm thinking in terms of each item having the equivalent of hit points. When your sword reaches 0 HP, it breaks, and you have to get a new one. If you don't want to break it, you need to return to town and get is straightened/sharpened/repaired before it gets to 0 HP.
Each time you fail to pick a lock, you break a pick, meaning you have less picks left. When you run out of picks, you can't actually pick a lock.
If you run out of particular spell components, you can't cast that spell anymore. You might have components left for fireball, but not for lightning bolt.

And so on.

The other side to this is that I want encumbrance to mean something. There are several threads running on this theme at the moment, so I'll keep this short. I'm looking at ways to make 'wandering in the wilderness' challenging for reasons other than 'monsters might kill us'. Not being able to carry 6 weeks worth of rations plays into that. Not being able to use the same armour all month without repairs also plays into it. Not having a never-ending supply of spell components... and so on.


Note: Most gaming groups would balk at this idea as being 'too much work for too little fun'. I understand that. I'm not trying to push this into 'core'. At most it would be a module and perhaps a couple of extra lines in the equipment tables. More likely, it'll be something that goes in to my own personal game without affecting any other game groups.

 

[Zustiur]

In a similar vein, I have just been looking into rations.
I'll happily admit that I'm not really familiar with what rations contain, but having just skimmed through 4 editions, I cannot believe the figures I'm seeing.
My understanding is that 'rations are all the food you need' for a given period of time. In AD&D it's sold by the week (3gp). In 3 & 4 E it's sold by the day (5 sp). AD&D doesn't give a weight so far as I can find. 3 & 4 E both say 1 lb per day.

1 lb, for those of us living in metric countries that is roughly half a kilo. Half a kilo of food; per day. What? I'm sure I eat more than that in a day, and I'm underweight according to the body mass index. I also lead a fairly sedentary life, not a high calorie burning life like an adventurer. So what do rations represent? It took me several google searches to find anything about rations prior to the American war of independence. I finally came up with this: Campaign Rations - A Comparison, which indicates a galley slave had 2 pounds of rations. The time period isn't specified, but I presume that's 'per day'.

That's listed as 25 oz of bread, 1.4 oz cheese, 2 oz salted meat, 3.5 oz vegetables. While that seems like a more rounded meal than I was expecting, it still doesn't sound like something you can live healthily on for an extended period of time. Nor for that matter would you want to eat like that every day.
Throw in 4 pints of water/day, which is essentially 4 lb, and I think you're looking at 6 lb of food and water per day.

Can anyone help to confirm these figures? Am I on the right track?

If so, is this something you could live on for extended periods of time (Say over a month in army or slave situations)?

If you can't live on it for extended periods, how long is okay? What happens if you eat like that for too long? What conditions could I apply to characters who don't supplement their diets?

Have I completely missed the point of rations?