D&D 5E (2024) How I would do 6E.

[M_Natas]

I think that, overall, I agree that the general concept of anime has become more mainstream. However, in terms of "wuxia" and such, I think the pendulum is swinging back the other direction and has been for a little while.

Much of the discussion that I see as to why some OSR games have gained moment is because they did not continue down the modern D&D path of pew-pew laser magic and kewl power (spelling used for dramatic effect to emphasize common complaints about WoTC's D&D, not to be derogatory to those who like anime.) By the time a 6E would be released, designing for that style would be designing a game that I believe would already be catering to an outdated style by the time it hits store shelves.

I believe you could still accomplish some of those alternative ideas by embracing less wuxia rather than more. Instead of powers and anime manouvers, warriors could push themselves with grit and determination. Mechanically, that might mean taking on fatigue or some other sort of temporary penalty for a risk/reward relationship with greater effects. Earlier in the thread, I had mentioned being able to sacrifice proficiency dice size (assuming dice were used instead of a flat bonus) in exchange for extra effects.

However, for that to be meaningful at the table, it also needs to be balanced out by reigning in some of D&D's magic system. Bring back an element of uncertainty and mystery to magic. Baldur's Gate 3 -which is built using D&D 5e- did a really good job of adding those things and making the game world and the characters feel more like they actually embodied the features that the tabletop game claims to have but for which the tabletop game offers no support. I would like a 6E to go more in that direction. A warlock making a deal with a devil (or some other otherwordly patron) should mean having a cost. That should be especially true when asking for higher level world-changing effects.

I'm in the minority and this "wouldn't be D&D" to a lot of people, but I would increase casting times for higher level magic. To speed up casting, you could jointly cast with other mages (or cultists or whatever) in a ritual, burning lifeforce (either Hit Dice or taking on something like fatigue,) having a special material focus -or perhaps, for especially powerful things, all of those.

For casting, I would totally add different Casting Times.
Like always Bonus Action, Reaction and Action, but also:
An action and the effect takes place at the beginning of your next round (so when you cast this, it can be interrupted by attacking you akin to concentration between the two rounds).
2 actions (so two rounds) or even 3 actions (3 rounds) for the strongest spells.

And now the Wizards and Sorcerers need to be protected, while casting the big magic. So we need to give the other classes more options of battlefield control (So they can stop creatures from getting into melee with the casters, for example).
And so we added some more strategic dimension.

Also I would add the option to upcast above levels you know - but that creates unstable magic that can backfire. So you have your reliable magic and more powerful unstable magic.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I would require all play testers to engage in 5 minutes of mixed martial arts combat before each play session. If you can't do it while half knocked out, it's too complicated!

 

[Horwath]

For casting, I would totally add different Casting Times.
Like always Bonus Action, Reaction and Action, but also:
An action and the effect takes place at the beginning of your next round (so when you cast this, it can be interrupted by attacking you akin to concentration between the two rounds).
2 actions (so two rounds) or even 3 actions (3 rounds) for the strongest spells.

this will not happen for simple reason is that is not fun.
same way that no matter how you rebalance crossbow, not one will like or use a weapon that you need 3 rounds to reload. No matter how realistic is. maybe it will be a 1st strike weapon and then thrown to the ground. Or what we did in 3E is to carry 10 heavy crossbows in bag of holding as Loading was an Action and this exploit reduced it to movement. We would see same method in 5E.

And now the Wizards and Sorcerers need to be protected, while casting the big magic. So we need to give the other classes more options of battlefield control (So they can stop creatures from getting into melee with the casters, for example).
And so we added some more strategic dimension.

this has been done in 5E with Concentration. 1st it limits powerful spell stacking, 2nd it gives opportunity to naughty word down those spells with attacks.

Also I would add the option to upcast above levels you know - but that creates unstable magic that can backfire. So you have your reliable magic and more powerful unstable magic.

maybe with "blood casting"?
you suffer 2d6 primal damage for each spell slot level that is above your maximum?
or 5d6? whatever seems balanced somehow.

 

[Selvarin]

If I was actually doing a new edition my first preference would be to completely get rid of non-casters. Every class should have spells as part of the basic class design instead of having to scrounge through feats, subclasses and races or worse making some silly rules so non-casters can be more effective in play without spells.

Eh, no.

If anything I'd like to see more non-caster subclass options. Including the Ranger class. Also, possibly nerf the Bard to where they only get spells at 3rd level (or non-caster options).

Have D&D more broadly support low/no-magic campaigns as well as mid/high-magic campaigns.

 

[Horwath]

Eh, no.

If anything I'd like to see more non-caster subclass options. Including the Ranger class. Also, possibly nerf the Bard to where they only get spells at 3rd level (or non-caster options).

Have D&D more broadly support low/no-magic campaigns as well as mid/high-magic campaigns.

I would only have wizards and clerics(d6 HD) as full casters. 1st-10th level spells. 10th level at class level 19.

bards, druids, warlocks, sorcerers would be at d8 HD and 2/3rd spell casters. 1st-7th level spells.
new spell levels at class levels: 1,4,7,10,13,16,19.
class abilities should do more heavy lifting on those classes beside spells.

half casters as usual.
subclasses that give spellcasting need to be upgraded to halfcasters.

 

[ECMO3]

An action and the effect takes place at the beginning of your next round (so when you cast this, it can be interrupted by attacking you akin to concentration between the two rounds).
2 actions (so two rounds) or even 3 actions (3 rounds) for the strongest spells.

This will never survive a playtest IMO. IME players really hate the whole interrupted casting. It is ok to give players abilities to do this to NPCs but not PCs.

To make this acceptable from a risk-reward point of view you would also need spells to be a lot more powerful (like they were when this mechanic existed).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This will never survive a playtest IMO. IME players really hate the whole interrupted casting. It is ok to give players abilities to do this to NPCs but not PCs.

To make this acceptable from a risk-reward point of view you would also need spells to be a lot more powerful (like they were when this mechanic existed).

Alternatively, the cost of the counterspell/disruption is lowered. Losing your action and the spell slot is a pretty significant setback.
Maybe instead of losing a spell slot and the action, you can choose to keep casting another turn, or switch to casting a cantrip as reaction (retaining the slot of the spell you originally cast.)

 

[M_Natas]

This will never survive a playtest IMO. IME players really hate the whole interrupted casting. It is ok to give players abilities to do this to NPCs but not PCs.

To make this acceptable from a risk-reward point of view you would also need spells to be a lot more powerful (like they were when this mechanic existed).

Maybe as an adjustment: If you cast the spell normally, it is the normal action, but you can enhance/upcast it, but you have to wait for beginning of the next round to finish casting (or 2 rounds, 3 rounds ...).
You can sling a fireball as an action, or you wait a round and do Max. Damage on the fireball. As an example.

 

[Steampunkette]

1) Universal Archetype Levels. Not "Everyone uses the same archetypes" but everyone gets a ribbon feature at 1, core feature at 3, expansion at 6, flex at 9, improvement at 11, and capstone at 14. If someone wants to be an Eldritch Knight Wizard and re-arranges some stuff that's on them.

2) "Turns" are no longer 6 seconds. They're 6 seconds in combat, 1 minute in social situations, 10 minutes in city-scapes and dungeon exploration, 1 hour in shopping or exploring larger areas than dungeon rooms, 1 day in overland travel, and 1 week in downtime. Looking for secret doors, traps, and treasures? 10 minutes. So the Wizard can spend those 10 minutes ritual-casting Detect Magic, too.

3) "Chase" type rules apply to the turns structure. In a social situation you use the chase rules to try and avoid someone you don't want to talk to, including introducing annoying people to talk at them instead of pulling over applecarts. It can take weeks to chase someone down in a big city, hours if you know what part of town they're in, and minutes even if you're in the same building. Giving them precious seconds for combat...

4) "Rests" are just as flexible as turns, but are limited. Can't rest in combat, but in social situations a short rest is 2 minutes in private, long rest is 10 minutes in private. Go hide in the bathroom and recharge your social batteries. In dungeons it's a 30 minute short rest and a 4 hour long rest.

5) You get 2 short rests for every long rest and you can't long rest 'til you've used both short rests. How does that work for Overland? You get short rests every day while overland traveling by breaking for lunch and dinner, and a long rest is overnight sleep. Forced Marches mean you forgo taking one or both short rests, so you wind up getting only the short rest benefit overnight. Next day you get another short rest in at lunch or dinner... unless you forced march, again, and then the next night's a short rest. THEN the third day you get a long rest as you collapse from exhaustion into your bedroll.

6) Everyone gets short-rest mechanical recovery. Not -everything-, but some stuff. Recovering your level in spell slots worth no more than 1/3rd your level, recovering all exertion, recovering some class features.

7) Combat maneuver stuff for Martials. A5e does a good job of it, and I like the implementation, but I think there needs to be an "Easy Mode" option that translates exertion into simple, straightforward, bonuses you can spend.

8) 3/4 casters. It can be done. It's pretty sexy stuff. Artificers, Bards, Druids, and Sorcerers fit the bill, with Sorcerers getting "Limit Break" style abilities early on to cast above and beyond their current highest spell slot through Sorcery points.

9) Everyone gets more skills. "But Rogues!" can still be the best at skills. And bards can have lots of half-bonuses. But even the lowliest farmer has to be able to do 5-6 things competently to plow their fields, plant their crops, watch for trouble, tend the animals, hunt for weeds, bring in the harvest, and sell it.

10) Everyone gets Social Features built into their class.

11) Everyone gets exploration benefits built into their class.

12) Less spell slots for everyone but Warlocks. Specifically the lower-level spell slots start falling off your available spell slots. "But that's not fair!" sure it is. Some of those spells (Magic Missile, Light, Sleep, Etc) become Cantrips after you hit level 10. You can still upcast them with 2nd level or higher spell slots, but you can always throw 3d4+3 unerring damage if you pick it as a cantrip. Or do a Burning Hands, no skin off my nose. This is all roughly on par with Cantrip Scaling. 3d4+3 averages 10.5. Firebolt at level 10 is 2d10 or an average of 11.

13) Some spell rejiggering. Damage needs some smoothing out in the progression of spells, some stuff needs its level adjusted, some stuff needs to be curtailed a bit more, and Save or Suck needs to be retooled for both sides of the equation.

14) Overland and Exploration systems. There's 3 pillars, and they should all be supported.

15) Social and Status systems. There's 3 pillars and they should all be supported.

16) Unique Spell Lists. There can be -some- overlap... but holy crap it shouldn't be a bucket you have to sift through, and some more stuff should be class-specific to maintain identity.

17) Paladin Smite Spells? Yes. Paladins burning Spells for Smites? No. Smiting should be separate from their casting abilities and plentiful. Every Crit, for example, should have baked-in smiting benefits, and then the ability to burn Smite uses. And later, constant +1d8 radiant.

18) Paladin Aura Spells? 1,000%! Spells that improve their aura's range or benefit. Spells that add new benefits to their aura. Spells that allow them to temporarily change their aura, entirely, based on the needs of the situation they're in.

19) Cure Wounds is Cleric Only, 2d8+Mod. Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins get Healing Word. 2d6+Mod. Healing Domain Cleric? Pick one of the dice you rolled for each level of the healing spell you just cast. It rolled the Maximum value.

20) Eldritch Blast is a class ability of Warlocks. It starts at 1d6+Cha Force Damage. Every 4 levels the die size increases. At levels 5, 11, and 17 you get another missile. By level 20 you're throwing four 2d6+Cha Eldritch Blasts. Invocations make it more useful, and accurate.

21) Bladelocks are like Warlock Monks and 'Eldritch Blast' through their weapon, dealing either the weapon's damage or the Eldritch Blast's damage, whichever is higher, while benefiting from the weapon's enchantments and any invocations normally.

22) Light armor is +Dex. Medium Armor is +Con. Heavy Armor is +Str. Always use your full mod, and the Medium and Heavy armor base values are lowered, but provide higher maximums than Light (and heavy more than medium). Class Features can change those values around. Like a Cleric using +Wis unarmored/light, light/medium, or medium/heavy depending on which class feature they pick.

23) Guns are slightly stronger Crossbows just like Crossbows are slightly stronger Bows. It's a game, not a reality-simulator.

The list goes on and on and on and on...