D&D 5E How Far Could D&D Change--And STILL Be D&D?

[Vaalingrade]

The warforged are another matter. Even after playing 2+ years of Eberron, the concept of magic robots in D&D feels weird and out-of-place. I don't think they will ever feel "universal and accessible" to me.

I never got this.

We've had golems and shield guardians and collossi and sword gaunts, and modrons and the apparatus of kwalish (which in 5e is explicitly a giant mecha) and the thing those gnomes built in that one adventure for forever and people don't complain about them, but suddenly when people get to play one, now magic robots aren't D&D?

It's been magic robots the whole time!

Oh, and clockwork horrors and Primus.

 

[CleverNickName]

I never got this.

We've had golems and shield guardians and collossi and sword gaunts, and modrons and the apparatus of kwalish (which in 5e is explicitly a giant mecha) and the thing those gnomes built in that one adventure for forever and people don't complain about them, but suddenly when people get to play one, now magic robots aren't D&D?

It's been magic robots the whole time!

Oh, and clockwork horrors and Primus.

Yeah, I know. This is very much a "CleverNickName Problem," not a "D&D Problem." I've made my peace with never ever having any magic sentient robots of any kind, anywhere in my D&D game, and I'm much happier.

 

[Mort]

I never got this.

We've had golems and shield guardians and collossi and sword gaunts, and modrons and the apparatus of kwalish (which in 5e is explicitly a giant mecha) and the thing those gnomes built in that one adventure for forever and people don't complain about them, but suddenly when people get to play one, now magic robots aren't D&D?

It's been magic robots the whole time!

Oh, and clockwork horrors and Primus.

I ported warforged into my Greyhawk campaign (admittedly, initially as soul vessels for the BBEG and his army of minions) and the players loved it. They like Eberron though, so maybe not the best sample.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I ported warforged into my Greyhawk campaign (admittedly, initially as soul vessels for the BBEG and his army of minions) and the players loved it. They like Eberron though, so maybe not the best sample.

I mean they like Best Official Setting, so they are clearly the best sample.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Warforged and Artificer being added? Or Warforged and Artificer replacing things?

For the vast majority of people upset over it, there is no difference. Both produce equal amounts of outrage. The latter will of course offend fans of whatever didn't get put in as a consequence, but unless it's something extremely popular (we're talking dragonborn or tiefling here, not gnome or half-orc), the number of people put out by a replacement is going to be vanishingly small compared to the number of people put out by their inclusion to any degree.

As a fan of dragonborn, I can attest that this exact thing is what happened with them. You had TONS of people openly campaigning for dragonborn being excluded from the PHB during the D&D Next playtest. Now, a decade on, I will admit to feeling a bit of schadenfreude that dragonborn are among the most popular non-humans in D&D.

 

[James Gasik]

Back in 4e, when we were playing Living Forgotten Realms, a friend of mine was annoyed at the idea that you could play any race from any of the settings published in Faerun.

"What," he asked, "are Warforged doing in the Forgotten Realms? It makes no sense."

To which I responded with the following.

"So you recall that there was this Spellplague, that caused mutations and magical chaos throughout the land? For many years, outside a temple of Sune Firehair, the beloved goddess of beauty, there was a statue. It had been carved by a master artisan, who had once caught the merest glimpse of Sune herself. He made it from the highest quality stone, but over time, small cracks had begun to appear in it. It stood alone in it's courtyard, a place often visited by young lovers and Sune's faithful. Then the Spellplague happened, and temple was abandoned for many years.

A few months ago, a group of adventurers came upon the old temple, and as they explored, they came upon the statue. A beautiful nude visage of the goddess herself, seven feet tall, with tiny cracks marring her marble flesh. And the cracks were glowing with blue-white fire, as if it was barely containing some unimaginable energy.

As one of the explorers moved close to examine the statue, it turned it's head to regard him. It's lips moved, and a beautiful female voice could be heard. "Well met! I'd tell you my name, but I don't seem to have one. Perhaps you could help me?"

"This creature, you see, uses the same rules as a Warforged, but is a statue of a goddess animated by raw magical energy."

And my friend agreed, he suddenly had no problem with this character idea.

 

[Steampunkette]

6.

D&D could change by magnitude equal or less than 6 and still be D&D

 

[Krachek]

All the variant rules in the DMG fall into the still dnd.
The resting in the OP is close to the rest variant Epic heroism. So it is still DnD!
If you pick up all the variant and the hint give in the DMG you get a wide range of modifications and still be still dnd.

 

[MichaelSomething]

How much of Dungeon Crawl Classics could I jam into D&D before people complained???

They're both swords and socery based N appendix inspired TTRPGs!

 

[toucanbuzz]

what if I added two more ability scores would the game be truly different?

I think so. @Umbran 's suggestion that we're really asking about "sacred cows" is on point.

You can tweak how the rules work, but since the beginning, a character sheet for D&D has THE 6 ability scores, your race & class, AC, hit points, and saving throws. No matter how the rules have been tweaked since (e.g THAC0 vs. d20 plus), it's always come down to a core appearance that hasn't changed.