D&D 5E Good-Bye, Ability Modifiers... Hello, Ability *TRAITS*!?! (+)

[Weiley31]

Goodness, I read that title as Ability Thirst instead of Traits.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Goodness, I read that title as Ability Thirst instead of Traits.

The vampires are drooling!

 

[dave2008]

I always find this interesting, since I seem to be alone IME:

I only had a handful of pages of house-rules for AD&D, but have about 60 or so for 5E... but it seems like everyone else is the other way around.

I don't know how you did it in AD&D, but I know you have mentioned this before.

For 5e we had less than a page of house-rules until we modified the lingering injuries table. That added about a half page alone.

IIRC, you have a lot of 5e house-rules about things we really don't care about, so they would never show up in a game we play. We don't need crafting rules, stronghold rules, retainer/follower rules, XP rules, economy rules, travel rules, etc., etc. Give me combat, health, resting, and that is about it!

 

[DND_Reborn]

IIRC, you have a lot of 5e house-rules about things we really don't care about, so they would never show up in a game we play. We don't need crafting rules, stronghold rules, retainer/follower rules, XP rules, economy rules, travel rules, etc., etc. Give me combat, health, resting, and that is about it!

Actually, a lot of our house rules revolve around character creation/ classes, combat and ability checks, and spells.

The stuff I was considering trying to develop a long time back (before A5E was started) did include crafting rules, etc. as you listed--but nothing we use now includes any of those things.

Frankly, the 60 pages we have is the hacked down version from 150 pages we had about 6 months ago.

 

[dave2008]

Actually, a lot of our house rules revolve around character creation/ classes, combat and ability checks, and spells.

The stuff I was considering trying to develop a long time back (before A5E was started) did include crafting rules, etc. as you listed--but nothing we use now includes any of those things.

Frankly, the 60 pages we have is the hacked down version from 150 pages we had about 6 months ago.

Classes can fill up a bunch of space, we don't see a reason to touch those either; or character creation, or ability checks, or spells. They all work well for us.

The only thing that needs very mild tweaking for us is combat, which is really about health and resting more than combat itself.

EDIT: We did make a custom Ranger early on in 5e, but we replaced it with the Rogue Scout when that came out. Our Ranger at least tripled our rules page count IIRC. So, I know custom classes can add a lot of bloat.

 

[Horwath]

This is very interesting idea.

I also like the idea to move away from d20 as default. IMHO biggest problem of any d20 system is the d20.

So, to somewhat keep the math, we need to get prof bonus wherever ability modifier would be:

1. Every ability check, saving throw and attack roll starts with proficiency bonus added.

2. If you are proficient you add 2×bonus

3. If you have expertise you add 3×bonus

4. You add your proficiency bonus to weapon damage rolls

5. If you are proficient with light armor your AC is 10+prof bonus + armor bonus

6. Use 3d6 as default die roll:
crit of 20(5%) becomes 16-18(4,63%)
crit of 19-20(10%) becomes 15-18(9,26%)
crit of 18-20(15%) becomes 14-18(16,20%)

 

[Faolyn]

So... GURPS, but roll-over?

Have you played GURPS Dungeon Fantasy?