D&D 5E Massive overhaul, looking for some help and tips

[Lanliss]

Could you do a special ability auction? For example, players would bid for things like Rage or Action Surge. Everything is fair game and let a player/table economy assign the growth points. Once a special ability is gone, thats it-no other player can have action surge etc.

Oh, that might be fun too, although that seems more like a twist to do every now and then after the core system is done.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The bolded bit, below is the only maybe slightly helpful comment, if you want to just skip to it...

I plan to try to overhaul the whole 5E system, but want to see if it has already been done before I start.

My goal is a free form classless system

They say sometimes the point is the journey, not the destination, and you're sure sign'n up for a long one....

Seriously, though, I suppose you could approach the 5e SRD like the d20 one and come up with something, but 5e really did put a lot of effort into being evocative of the classic game - prime grazing land for sacred cows & such - it almost seems a shame to try to make it into a classless system. (OK, when I said, 'Seriously,' I obviously misspoke...)

Basically, I am going to have to establish a Growth Point system, and decide what each ability costs. The end result will hopefully work. Before I get started though, has this been done already, or maybe a lite version that is free form within the classes, which I could work off of?

It'll likely work better if you don't get stuck trying to reverse-engineer the existing classes. That is, don't get hung up on it if you find that re-building the existing classes results in them having very different point values. That's just D&D be'n D&D.

I have hopes to use this for other players, and more in the future. Luckily, my player isn't the only reason for this. I am also interested in doing it, as I am more of a mechanics type anyway. ...But in the end, this is mostly because I wanna.

Can't argue with that.

 

[Lanliss]

The bolded bit, below is the only maybe slightly helpful comment, if you want to just skip to it...

They say sometimes the point is the journey, not the destination, and you're sure sign'n up for a long one....

Seriously, though, I suppose you could approach the 5e SRD like the d20 one and come up with something, but 5e really did put a lot of effort into being evocative of the classic game - prime grazing land for sacred cows & such - it almost seems a shame to try to make it into a classless system. (OK, when I said, 'Seriously,' I obviously misspoke...)

It'll likely work better if you don't get stuck trying to reverse-engineer the existing classes. That is, don't get hung up on it if you find that re-building the existing classes results in them having very different point values. That's just D&D be'n D&D.


Can't argue with that.

Yeah, the reverse engineering was never going to be a full blown "all barbarian traits HAVE to add up to equal the barbarian from PHB." Just a general area, which would then allow me to consider what I did differently than the devolopers, as far as balance decisions.

as far as the "classless" system, I just meant that it would be more similar to the real world. For example, instead of being a Swashbuckling Rogue, you might say you are a Marine Fighter, and replace the higher level Swashbuckler abilities with things like extra attacks, or a bigger crit range. I want my players to be able to play exactly what they want, and this would serve as a kind of "permission", telling them that they can build anything under this system that falls within the price range for a chosen campaign. The alternative is working on a case by case basis (which I am fine with, but my players are not) to find out exactly what they want out of their character.