Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Next playtest post mortem by Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. From seven years ago.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8768980" data-attributes="member: 42040"><p>5e doesn't answer questions like this. It places the responsibility for encounter balance, combat options, and skill usage in the hands of the DM (for better or worse).</p><p></p><p>So if I were the DM for that player, I'd ask them what kind of flexibility they'd want. Do they like the idea of being a charming swashbuckler? It wouldn't concern me to replace Athletics with Persuasion or Deception as class skills. Let them use Charisma for attack and damage rolls.</p><p>For flexibility, I let characters try different approaches for skill checks. An Athletics roll can work like a Thieves Tools roll to get through a locked door. Anyone who grew up in the culture can attempt History checks to remember legends and such (maybe not 100% factual).</p><p></p><p>The 5e PHB is the baseline. Even if it's unstated, a DM is expected to expand and alter the game to suit their players. In the past WotC created an edition that attempted to answer all questions with codified rules (3.x); then they tried to distil it to a unified experience and answer all the questions that could come up with that (4e). Now they are going back to a previous version of the game that requires DMs to extrapolate their own rulings (B/X).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 8768980, member: 42040"] 5e doesn't answer questions like this. It places the responsibility for encounter balance, combat options, and skill usage in the hands of the DM (for better or worse). So if I were the DM for that player, I'd ask them what kind of flexibility they'd want. Do they like the idea of being a charming swashbuckler? It wouldn't concern me to replace Athletics with Persuasion or Deception as class skills. Let them use Charisma for attack and damage rolls. For flexibility, I let characters try different approaches for skill checks. An Athletics roll can work like a Thieves Tools roll to get through a locked door. Anyone who grew up in the culture can attempt History checks to remember legends and such (maybe not 100% factual). The 5e PHB is the baseline. Even if it's unstated, a DM is expected to expand and alter the game to suit their players. In the past WotC created an edition that attempted to answer all questions with codified rules (3.x); then they tried to distil it to a unified experience and answer all the questions that could come up with that (4e). Now they are going back to a previous version of the game that requires DMs to extrapolate their own rulings (B/X). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Next playtest post mortem by Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. From seven years ago.
Top