D&D General How should the power budget be distributed between class, dubclass, race, background (and other points)

[Minigiant]

The issue with giving race, background etc more equal billing is that you gamify them and create optimal combinations. You want the fighter player to feel free to be a half-elf fisherman with skill points in obscure things without feeling like he's missing out by not turning every dial towards combat.

Not neccessarily if you offer classes difference avenues and specializations and let races and background lean on them.

A Elf wizard is better at Ranged spell attack roll spells
An Orc Wizard is better a Melee spell attack roll spells.
An Gnome wizard is better at Transmutation and Illusion spells.
A Human wizard is better at rerolling dice in spells
A Dragonborn wizard is better at casting spells of their dragon type.

The issue is D&D tended to simplify not-class features to the point that any discrepancy in power is major.

 

[delericho]

What I want to know is: How would you distribute the power of a character between its different choices?

In an ideal world, the character's class would affect how they interface with the combat system (and be pretty much the sole repository of the power budget), with literally everything else being about how they interface with the social and exploration pillars.

 

[Horwath]

A pet class has to be its own class to satisfy most people.

maybe even it can be a feat chain:

background feat:
Companion,

gain a companion of a small or medium animal(or other appropriate)
STR: 14, DEX: 14, CON: 14, INT 6, WIS 12, CHA 8
HP: 4+4×level
attack: 2×prof bonus
damage 1d4+prof bonus
AC: 10+prof bonus
proficiency in 4 skills(athletics, acrobatics, stealth, perception)
expertise in 1 skill(usually perception or stealth)
proficiency in all saves
darkvision 60ft
bonus action: Dash, Disengage
Communicate: telepathy up to 1 mile with owner, understands 1 language

type:
air:
speed 20ft, fly 60ft
land:
speed: 60ft
sea:
speed: 30ft, swim 30ft, breathe underwater
dark:
speed: 20ft, burrow 10ft(loose rock only, no masonry), +10ft blindsight


feats at 4th and 8th level
increase size to large or huge with more damage, AC, extra attack, more HPs

 

[BenjaminPey]

Let's see... Somthing like:

50 % Class (ASI included)
25 % Subclass
15 % Background (with starting feat)
5 % Feats
5 % Specie (darkvision and other things like that)

 

[soviet]

Not neccessarily if you offer classes difference avenues and specializations and let races and background lean on them.

A Elf wizard is better at Ranged spell attack roll spells
An Orc Wizard is better a Melee spell attack roll spells.
An Gnome wizard is better at Transmutation and Illusion spells.
A Human wizard is better at rerolling dice in spells
A Dragonborn wizard is better at casting spells of their dragon type.

The issue is D&D tended to simplify not-class features to the point that any discrepancy in power is major.

It is impossible to balance that many configurations, and in any event you are still boxing each one into a particular specialisation. Why must someone be punished for playing an elf that casts melee spells or a dragonborn that casts divinations. It's bad game design.

 

[Horwath]

Not neccessarily if you offer classes difference avenues and specializations and let races and background lean on them.

A Elf wizard is better at Ranged spell attack roll spells
An Orc Wizard is better a Melee spell attack roll spells.
An Gnome wizard is better at Transmutation and Illusion spells.
A Human wizard is better at rerolling dice in spells
A Dragonborn wizard is better at casting spells of their dragon type.

The issue is D&D tended to simplify not-class features to the point that any discrepancy in power is major.

while I like that in theory and especially flavor, I do not like it in mechanical sense.
It just promotes min-maxing.

I want to play illusionist, well, obviously only "viable" option is the gnome(or human with one gnome grandparent so illusion bonus is inherited...)

racial bonuses should be as much as class agnostic as possible.

5.5E is pretty good at it.

Bonus action teleport? everyone wants and needs that.
+1 HP per level, great, more HP for all
bonus speed? everyone has a need for speed.
more darkvision? yes, we all hate torches anyway.
more skills? useful for any build.
fly speed? everyone would sell their souls for that faster than a teenage warlock.

 

[tetrasodium]

I don't think it's productive to break it down into percentages but far too much of the power budget is condensed into the first 3-5 levels of a class+subclass monolithic combo. That combo is both too singlehandedly complete on its own absent boosts from gear and too often trivially paired with the first 1-3ish levels of some other class+subclass monolith for multiplicative or similarly equivalent boost beyond the already excessive base class+subclass.

 

[Minigiant]

It is impossible to balance that many configurations, and in any event you are still boxing each one into a particular specialisation. Why must someone be punished for playing an elf that casts melee spells or a dragonborn that casts divinations. It's bad game design.

Impossible nothing. It's actually easy.

Its easy to make an Orc Wizard better at Shocking Grasp than a Elf Wizard but the Elf is better at Scrotching Ray.

It's literally just specializations.

Different species would biologically be better at different things due to physiology.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I don't think separating the subclass from the class makes sense. All classes have subclasses. In current D&D they are effectively a particular path that a Player can choose for their Character.

sure, but subclasses send your character's design on a different tangent from purely class, i think it's fair to separate them and recognize just how much of a tangent they have the capacity to send you on.

it's like compare wizard vs artificer, wizard subclasses barely influence what you're doing with your character whereas artificer subs send you to an entirely different style of gameplay basically.

 

[CreamCloud0]

anyway, my preferred percentage breakdown i think would be something like this:

class: 25%
Subclass: 20%
Species: 25%
Background: 10%
ASI and Feats*: 20%
*based on character level not class level

here, class and subclass take up nearly half of the influence on a character's direction, your species follows up with a quarter of influence-something really chunky so that choosing to play between a halfling, a dwarf or a goblin actually matters, feats follow up next giving you a nice space to play around in with customizing and fine-tuning your character, and then lastly background comes in pulling up the rear, that's your old life, maybe there's some skills you can carry over but you're an adventurer now.


plus, an important question to consider i think if we're asking this, what do we think the budget's % breakdown is of DnD currently?