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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Justice and Rule" data-source="post: 8193856" data-attributes="member: 6778210">So if we're going to fix things, let's be a bit daring. Obviously you can't just turn it into another system, but I think we could break through and give some real changes to a bunch of things without losing the 5E feel and what it brought to the table.This has some good ideas (except for the last one), but to expand on it:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Fewer Full Casters: Let Wizards and Clerics rock the full caster list. Like Snarf says, let Druids be half-casters and fill out the rest of the class with interesting features. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use Warlock-style casting more: The Warlock was a great concept, and it sucks that they didn't use the chassis for other casting classes. Bard immediately springs to mind as a great "shot rest caster", and maybe Paladin if you want to keep their spellcasting abilities (plus the invocation system would work well at modeling cool Paladin stuff). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Eliminate 1/3rd Casters: Largely for martial gishes, but really I'd rather just simplify the spell growth by making them half-casters and give the non-spellcaster archetypes a boost all around. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Nerf spells a bit: Honestly, let's put a bit more balance on the spells. I know they deliberately unbalanced some spells to make them feel "classic", but I think pulling a bit back on upper-level spells would do the game good. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Model Martials around the Monk: What I mean by this is to give Martials a small bit of spendable resources across all archetypes. I honestly think Ki was a really well-done concept overall: something that gave the monk some options without being a huge bookkeeping problem or creating unnecessary complexity. I think the Fighter, Ranger, and Barbarian could definitely benefit a bit from such things, especially for the Ranger as a substitute for spells. The one thing I would do is to have the resource recover like Grit, the resource Matt Mercer created for his Gunslinger class. Giving Martials a way to recover some resources in combat was a great idea, and you could have both universal ways (get some back on a 20 or on a kill) and more classic-specific ways. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Create a scaling Quick Rest: The problem [USER=58197]@Dausuul[/USER] describes is a real one, and 30 minute (For the monk)/1 Hour short rests can really kill the pacing of an adventure, while having too many can turn things towards Nova-ing for quick rest classes. I saw this idea described on rpg.net and given that I'm trying to pitch a bunch of new short-rest classes, I think it's a good balance: the first rest is a 5 minute one, the second is 10-15 minutes, the third is 30 minutes, and any rest after that is 1 hour. You can tweak the numbers a bit, but that allows for a quicker-paced game while disincentivizing too much resting. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Just integrate feats as standard already: Feats in 5E are conceptually good, but a bit wonky in execution: you have a great deal of variance between the good and the bad, along with the fact that Feats are competing with the rare stat-increase for a spot. This always seemed like a bad choice, especially in a game with such low stats to begin with, which is why I typically gave my players a free feat from the start to give their character a bit of customization. Also balance the feats a bit better and add some more (though not too many). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Streamline Skills: Gonna steal a few things from PF2 here, but they're easy to integrate. First, cut out Investigation and just combine it into Perception, and give everyone Perception: I've seen very few players who don't want to find things. If you are desperate to have certain classes see things better, than maybe you can give a class-based bonus. Secondly, clean up the skill list a bit. Let's also combine Animal Handling and Nature. Either get rid of Performance or turn it into something distinct, because having it as well as your instrumental tool proficiency has just been a weird debate for ages. I'd honestly suggest turning it into "Charm", where you are able to carouse and orate, while Persuasion a more logical reasoned approach (I might also make that an Int skill just to distinguish the different approaches). Third, every class gets their important skill. Wizards get Arcana because they are wizards, Clerics get Religion because they are Clerics, Rangers finally get Nature and Survival because that's what they are supposed to be good at. Fighters can have choice of Acrobatics or Athletics, etc. It's not like classes get a bunch of skills to begin with, nor that having more skills for classes would break the game. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Remove the Bonus Action: Mike Mearls has commented on this, and given how it's become something of a bottleneck for certain classes, I think it's just best to eliminate it. You have two weapons? You get a second attack with the offhand in your Attack Action. Bonus action spell? It attaches to an Action. Mearls goes into his own thoughts <a href="https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/868948292234747904" target="_blank">here</a>, which might well be smarter but also would require more explanation and I just have not come up with anything more complex than what I've already stated so far. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Make Dex less of a God-stat: Right now I'd argue Dex is easily one of the best pound-for-pound stats you can get, and I'd love to see that pulled back somehow. Not sure how, but my final suggestion would help... </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use a Reworked Greyhawk Initiative System: Aww yeah, getting silly with this. I really do love the eclectic nature of this and I've only run my own modded version a few times, but it's quite cool and feels somewhat old school without being just a rehash. I think you can rework the numbers and concepts (my own was using weapon damage dice when you were attacking, and having spells start on your initiative and finally releases a number of initiative counts equal to the spell level, with cantrips going immediately), but the concept does work and I think it would spice up things.</li> </ol>Those are the rough edges of what I'd want to do to change things up without losing what makes 5E feel like D&D. Not too many huge structural changes, more about reworking the classes themselves.</blockquote>

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