D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

[Minigiant]

In other words, steepen the power curve. That's what 3e did, and it didn't work out so well other than at very low levels.

My take is that WotC needs to admit that D&D is not - and doesn't work as - a supers game, and come at design from a much more gritty and grounded angle

Not steepen the curve.

1. Choose what you want to increase with level
2. Choose what you DONT want to increase with level
3. Have those first things increase just enough that every level something goes up that matters.
4. And don't have any of those things stack with anything else.

Heck to me. I'm almost to the point were Ability mods don't appear until 16. Before 16, just ability score for feat prerequisites.

Just to hit, AC, saving throws, and class DC increase.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not steepen the curve.

1. Choose what you want to increase with level
2. Choose what you DONT want to increase with level
3. Have those first things increase just enough that every level something goes up that matters.
4. And don't have any of those things stack with anything else.

Heck to me. I'm almost to the point were Ability mods don't appear until 16. Before 16, just ability score for feat prerequisites.

Just to hit, AC, saving throws, and class DC increase.

Im leaning towards capped at 18 and used the old BECMI stats.

Hell maybe 2d6 for reaction checks

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I'd agree, but the base ideas of combined XP chart, ascending AC, intiutive saves, etc. would have fixed most of that. I think it would have been a much better game if they had applied that to the 2E 'math' and not created a whole new untested system with absurd bonus escalations built in*. Stats alone were much more reasonable in 2E. Strength didn't give a +4 to hit till 21 for example.

*Probably why I really bounced off of Castles a& Crusades, the kept the worst parts of 2E and 3E as far as I was concerned with the new system and making it more complicated with messed up XP charts.

In doing those things, you precipitate having to rewrite:

• How attacks work, how much damage they do, and how much HP creatures have
• Functionally all spells that negatively affect enemies
• Any actions dependent on the above things, e.g. spell-like abilities, or special attack stuff like Bull Rush
• At least to some degree the action economy
• The classes which use the above elements, since they work so differently

At which point, you've functionally rebuilt the whole game, mechanically speaking. You can't replace the building's foundation while keeping the building above it perfectly the same.