D&D General Let's Talk About How to "Fix" D&D

[DND_Reborn]

Anti-dark mode for me. I like to be able to distinguish between the posts and the background... having it all blend together is just annoying to me.

In general, I do favor dark modes, just not EnWorld's implementation.

But back to the thread's purpose...

I definitely think 5e (and pretty much every edition) struggles with big bad bosses being little more than bags of hit points.

I don't think AD&D suffered as much from this because stakes were typically higher. Level drain and other save or suck features made powerful BBEG's/ solos scarier.

Also, IME, PCs didn't deal as much damage per round comparatively to monster HP. YMMV of course.

As I mentioned before, giving max HP and/or having them deal max damage are good starting points I've been using in 5E for quite a while and it definitely makes a difference. To offset a bad initiative roll, you could have them go on 20 always or even 15, or even give them advantage on the roll so a really low roll is possible (if you want it) but unlikely.

In our 1-20 level game, we faced an Ancient Silver Dracolich in Hell as we were trying to escape and I know the DM did the max HP rule only and it made it so the Dracolich survived for longer and thank the gods it never recharged its breath because a second blast would probably have led to a TPK at that point.

Which is another fix you could do. Recharge abilities could have the chance increase each round. So a dragon's breath (recharge 5-6) would become 4-6, then 3-6, etc. until it automatically would recharge at 1-6. Actually, I like rather that rule for all recharging features and will probably implement it.

 

[Oofta]

If you treat solos as a big bag of hit points then of course they'll be boring. On the other hand if you have solos show up after the group is beaten and bruised and then follow it up with using lair actions and being anything other than a slugfest it can be fun.

As far as how I would "fix" D&D? the biggest change would be to give better options for a low level magic campaign. Seems like it gets harder and harder with every edition to have completely mundane PCs. It's better than the last couple of editions, but there still aren't a lot of options.

That and I'd probably get rid of the whole wizard/cleric divide or give options for a healing wizard. Maybe an arcane surgeon class? Oh, and do something so that dex isn't such an uber-stat.

In any case, for the most part I'm happy with 5E and minor tweaks can fix the biggest issues. No game is perfect.

 

[Krachek]

Solo monster was a feature of 4ed, and already a weak point of 4ed.
In 5ed we got legendary monster, but nothing is said about them being always Solo monster.

 

[DND_Reborn]

IDK, we had solo monsters a lot in 1E and 2E anyway... they weren't "new" as a feature of 4E as I see it. Perhaps 4E finally "called it out" as something (IDK, I never played 4E...), but they've always been around IMO.

Problem: DEX as uber-stat

FIX #1: All bonus damage for weapon attacks is based on STR. Loading weapons gain no bonus from either STR or DEX.
Reason: This nerfs finesse and ranged attacks a bit, because otherwise one ability provides both offense bonus and defense bonus.

FIX #2: Allow Initiative to be based on INT or WIS instead of DEX (or along with it...?).
Reason: While DEX represents reflexes in a quick-round (just 6 seconds), tactics (INT) and understanding/perception (WIS) could just as easily impact how quickly your opportunity to act comes.

There are probably others, but those are house-rules we've used in the past and jump to mind.

 

[Dausuul]

Problem: To prevent monks and warlocks from getting shortchanged relative to other classes, they need ~2 short rests per long rest. Providing opportunities for hour-long short rests, that do not also allow long rests, is a significant extra burden in adventure design. The "resting variants" in the DMG are sledgehammer solutions that shift the whole pace of the game to solve a technical issue.

Solution: Short rests are 5 minutes, but you are only allowed 2 of them per day.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Solution: Short rests are 5 minutes, but you are only allowed 2 of them per day.

It's nit-picky, but IMO that is too short. I could see even 10-30 minutes as being more acceptable. Otherwise, you might as well move back to per encounter features (I know a lot of players might like that... not my cup of tea but whatever).

Another FIX for monks is allowing more Ki Points, giving Ki Points if you spend HD, etc. You could probably do the same for Warlocks.

 

[el-remmen]

I'd give ranger a damage bonus against favored enemy. In fact, I am thinking of simply giving them +1 per ranger level like 1E days - or maybe +1d4 damage per four levels

 

[Dausuul]

It's nit-picky, but IMO that is too short. I could see even 10-30 minutes as being more acceptable. Otherwise, you might as well move back to per encounter features (I know a lot of players might like that... not my cup of tea but whatever).

The whole point of the change is to eliminate "rest duration" as the limiting factor. Instead, the limiting factor is "you're only allowed 2 per day."

 

[DND_Reborn]

The whole point of the change is to eliminate "rest duration" as the limiting factor. Instead, the limiting factor is "you're only allowed 2 per day."

Sure, we limit short rests to 2 per long rest anyway.

But then why change the time requirement from 1 hour to 5 minutes? I thought your intent was to allow PCs to "squeeze" their "recovery mechanic" in between encounters?

Or, just eliminate all short rest mechanics and make them long rest, if you don't mind the nova potential? (Not my favorite idea, but it might work for others...)

 

[Reynard]

The whole point of the change is to eliminate "rest duration" as the limiting factor. Instead, the limiting factor is "you're only allowed 2 per day."

Rest duration is only limiting if the DM is honest about encounter rolls, torch life and so on. This is something that is handwaived away too often -- in all editions. People don't want to get fiddly, but then they complain about the 15 minute adventuring day or whatever. The way to avoid the 15MAD is to BE fiddly. Enforce the genre.

That's another thing D&D -- especially 5E -- could use: explicit genre dials. You can absolutely do epic, story based fantasy with relatively uncommon combats that are also huge set piece extravaganzas, but those things work better if you tweak some rules here and there. I know there are a number of optional rules in the DMG and other books, but I think it would be great if those options were presented in tone or sub-genre packages. "For grimdark fantasy such as The Black Company, use X, Y and Z from this chapter." Like that.