Dragonblade
Adventurer
I'd like to propose a mathematical framework for 5e that I think would allow one to play a game that feels both like 1e/2e and 3e/4e at the same time and that I think could address some of the verisimilitude issues.
We'll start with the framework that 4e uses, since objectively speaking that edition has what I believe is the most sound mathematical framework. In 4e, all monsters have certain base defenses and attack bonuses calculated to best challenge a player of a certain level by providing a hit probability or a probability to be hit within a certain desired range. There is some minor variation depending on the creature and role.
Then every monster effectively gets +1 to each defense and attack bonus every level it has. PCs follow the same math, though their math is broken up a bit. Over the course of 30 levels, a PC will get +15 base, +6 from magic items, +7 to +9 from stats and feats to bring it up to +30 as well.
3e worked similarly but its math was much more ragged and uneven on the player side. On the monster side it scaled a little better with designers using "natural armor" as a sort of an arbitrary catch-all cheat to bring a monster's AC to its expected level. But how tough an encounter was could still vary wildly depending on how optimized the PC's were. IME, 4e math was much more uniform in that respect. A lot less variance from the baseline for the most part, though groups with optimized leaders could push themselves a bit off the scale. But since monster math was so transparent and no longer clung to the illusion that monster stats were somehow grounded in reality, it was easier for DMs to compensate when designing encounters without the tedium of trying to justify monster defenses and attacks through feats, class levels and magic items.
(Yes, I'm biased to 4e design. Sorry 3e fans. My "tedium" is your "fun". I get it.
)
BUT, I think there is a better way for all of us, regardless of what edition you prefer.
For 5e, lets get off the ascending bonus treadmill. If a monster and PC's attacks and defences are all relative, let's just get rid of it. So a level 1 PC still get your base ability mods, your bonus from armor and shield, and some feats (rarely). But take magic items out of expected advancement, no stat increases, and no 1/2 level bonus. Likewise, monster stats don't increase by +1 per level either. You still increase HPs and damage by level, just not all the other bonuses.
This accomplishes several things. First it brings a lot of old school style verisimilitude back to the game. A level 30 PC is tougher than a level 1 PC because it will have more options, more HP, and does more damage per attack(s), but it won't have ridiculous attack bonuses or defenses. A group of town guards is still a threat because they may still be able to hit them with more than a natural 20. You are a hero, an epic one in fact, but still mortal.
Second, it becomes much easier for PCs to face meaningful challenges both above and below their level without them rapidly becoming too easy or too hard. There is more room for a DM to craft adventures or used published ones without having to think to hard about monster math or being tied to a narrow level range.
Third, you can bring back some of the different bonuses from 3e to add some verisimilitude without it getting ridiculous, especially if you severely limit stacking of different bonus types. So maybe one monster is tougher because it has natural armor, another has a dodge bonus, but you no longer have monsters with +20 natural armor just so it can fight a warrior with a ridiculous +20 to hit.
Fourth, magic is no longer needed, so it can be rare and special. A +1 sword makes everything easier to hit and is special without it becoming mandatory just to fight monsters of a certain level. If a PC is expected to hit a monster of its level on average 60% of the time, then each magic plus is something special. And a +5 sword becomes something truly epic and special rather than an expected part of character advancement. But you don't actually need these weapons to be effective.
Fifth, skill checks no longer need to scale to ridiculous numbers. A wall thats a DC 20 to scale at level 1 is still a DC 20 at level 20.
Sixth, you can do some other fun things as well, like using stats as defenses. Maybe Poison in your system attacks your Con score as if it was a defense like AC or the 4e Fortitude defense. In some of Mearl's legend and lore columns he talked about dispensing with Fort, Ref, and Will altogether. I disagree with that and believe thats worthy of a separate discussion, but this is one way you could make it work.
Seventh, you could simplify monster design. A monster is just a monster, it doesn't need a role. Though I like roles, but I could see them now simply being templates instead of a defacto monster class as in 4e. So lets say the PCs invade a den of kobolds. You want a wizard kobold hurling blasts of fire at them, just slap on the artillery role template. It might tweak its defenses and base HP up or down and give it an at-will fire blast. Want some kobolds to run up and stab at the PCs with spears? Add the skirmisher template to the base kobold. Its simple and quick. It combines the best of 3e and 4e monster design. Don't like monster roles? Just ignore them. Build monsters 3e style with class levels, feats, and magic.
Eighth, assuming that 5e can strip out miniature based movement rules from the core classes, you could literally run 5e PCs through a 1e/2e adventure with nothing but simple on the fly conversion for the most part. Just create a chart ala the 4e DMG pg 42, or like the Sly Flourish DM cheat sheet for 4e. With a list of monster HP and damage per level and BAM! instant 1e/2e to 5e conversion tool. Just look up the classic monsters HD on the chart and now you know how much damage it should do and what its 5e HP should be. Slap on an appropriate monster role template and you are good to go.
This gives you a 5e that is literally 90% compatible with 1e/2e modules. Keep all the 4e combat rules as the 5e "miniature" rules and now you have a 5e thats 90% compatible with 4e as well. Even 3e adventures or Paizo APs could be largely converted on the fly. And if the core 5e classes are simple enough, a hardcore 3e monster fan could go to town building 5e monsters just like they would have done in 3e.
There are some cons depending on what you like. If you want a high level PC that can wade through mooks with impunity, then this isn't the mod for you. And the system has less tolerance for bonus stacking that could break the scale. So the rules would have to keep a sharp eye on bonuses that stack from class abilities, feats, and what not.
But I think in the end you would end up with a game that could truly appeal to fans of all editions.
----------------------
UPDATE:
So a couple of people pointed out some issues: How would a legendary archer fare in a contest with a lower level one? Ascending bonuses provide a feeling of advancement, what about that?
So a couple of ways to address that. One is to reintroduce say a +1 per 5 levels skill/inherent bonus that represents that. I would make it overlap but not stack with magic items and this also would help to balance out the inevitable impact of magic items on the game. I've always felt that the bonus a magic item provides to hit represents the item guiding the hand of a lesser user, whereas a veteran warrior wouldn't need such assistance. That does reintroduce an ascending bonus, but at a far reduced rate.
The other thing to keep in mind is that presumably higher level PCs would have options, talents, tricks, feats, etc. that would allow them to achieve things a lower level PC could not. For example, you could have an epic level archery talent that several times per day (just for example sake) that any one shot is a natural 20, or perhaps they always roll 2d20 and take the higher number. There, now your legendary archer would never lose to a level 1 archer and you didn't have to give them a +20 bonus to their shot to represent that.
We'll start with the framework that 4e uses, since objectively speaking that edition has what I believe is the most sound mathematical framework. In 4e, all monsters have certain base defenses and attack bonuses calculated to best challenge a player of a certain level by providing a hit probability or a probability to be hit within a certain desired range. There is some minor variation depending on the creature and role.
Then every monster effectively gets +1 to each defense and attack bonus every level it has. PCs follow the same math, though their math is broken up a bit. Over the course of 30 levels, a PC will get +15 base, +6 from magic items, +7 to +9 from stats and feats to bring it up to +30 as well.
3e worked similarly but its math was much more ragged and uneven on the player side. On the monster side it scaled a little better with designers using "natural armor" as a sort of an arbitrary catch-all cheat to bring a monster's AC to its expected level. But how tough an encounter was could still vary wildly depending on how optimized the PC's were. IME, 4e math was much more uniform in that respect. A lot less variance from the baseline for the most part, though groups with optimized leaders could push themselves a bit off the scale. But since monster math was so transparent and no longer clung to the illusion that monster stats were somehow grounded in reality, it was easier for DMs to compensate when designing encounters without the tedium of trying to justify monster defenses and attacks through feats, class levels and magic items.
(Yes, I'm biased to 4e design. Sorry 3e fans. My "tedium" is your "fun". I get it.
)BUT, I think there is a better way for all of us, regardless of what edition you prefer.
For 5e, lets get off the ascending bonus treadmill. If a monster and PC's attacks and defences are all relative, let's just get rid of it. So a level 1 PC still get your base ability mods, your bonus from armor and shield, and some feats (rarely). But take magic items out of expected advancement, no stat increases, and no 1/2 level bonus. Likewise, monster stats don't increase by +1 per level either. You still increase HPs and damage by level, just not all the other bonuses.
This accomplishes several things. First it brings a lot of old school style verisimilitude back to the game. A level 30 PC is tougher than a level 1 PC because it will have more options, more HP, and does more damage per attack(s), but it won't have ridiculous attack bonuses or defenses. A group of town guards is still a threat because they may still be able to hit them with more than a natural 20. You are a hero, an epic one in fact, but still mortal.
Second, it becomes much easier for PCs to face meaningful challenges both above and below their level without them rapidly becoming too easy or too hard. There is more room for a DM to craft adventures or used published ones without having to think to hard about monster math or being tied to a narrow level range.
Third, you can bring back some of the different bonuses from 3e to add some verisimilitude without it getting ridiculous, especially if you severely limit stacking of different bonus types. So maybe one monster is tougher because it has natural armor, another has a dodge bonus, but you no longer have monsters with +20 natural armor just so it can fight a warrior with a ridiculous +20 to hit.
Fourth, magic is no longer needed, so it can be rare and special. A +1 sword makes everything easier to hit and is special without it becoming mandatory just to fight monsters of a certain level. If a PC is expected to hit a monster of its level on average 60% of the time, then each magic plus is something special. And a +5 sword becomes something truly epic and special rather than an expected part of character advancement. But you don't actually need these weapons to be effective.
Fifth, skill checks no longer need to scale to ridiculous numbers. A wall thats a DC 20 to scale at level 1 is still a DC 20 at level 20.
Sixth, you can do some other fun things as well, like using stats as defenses. Maybe Poison in your system attacks your Con score as if it was a defense like AC or the 4e Fortitude defense. In some of Mearl's legend and lore columns he talked about dispensing with Fort, Ref, and Will altogether. I disagree with that and believe thats worthy of a separate discussion, but this is one way you could make it work.
Seventh, you could simplify monster design. A monster is just a monster, it doesn't need a role. Though I like roles, but I could see them now simply being templates instead of a defacto monster class as in 4e. So lets say the PCs invade a den of kobolds. You want a wizard kobold hurling blasts of fire at them, just slap on the artillery role template. It might tweak its defenses and base HP up or down and give it an at-will fire blast. Want some kobolds to run up and stab at the PCs with spears? Add the skirmisher template to the base kobold. Its simple and quick. It combines the best of 3e and 4e monster design. Don't like monster roles? Just ignore them. Build monsters 3e style with class levels, feats, and magic.
Eighth, assuming that 5e can strip out miniature based movement rules from the core classes, you could literally run 5e PCs through a 1e/2e adventure with nothing but simple on the fly conversion for the most part. Just create a chart ala the 4e DMG pg 42, or like the Sly Flourish DM cheat sheet for 4e. With a list of monster HP and damage per level and BAM! instant 1e/2e to 5e conversion tool. Just look up the classic monsters HD on the chart and now you know how much damage it should do and what its 5e HP should be. Slap on an appropriate monster role template and you are good to go.
This gives you a 5e that is literally 90% compatible with 1e/2e modules. Keep all the 4e combat rules as the 5e "miniature" rules and now you have a 5e thats 90% compatible with 4e as well. Even 3e adventures or Paizo APs could be largely converted on the fly. And if the core 5e classes are simple enough, a hardcore 3e monster fan could go to town building 5e monsters just like they would have done in 3e.
There are some cons depending on what you like. If you want a high level PC that can wade through mooks with impunity, then this isn't the mod for you. And the system has less tolerance for bonus stacking that could break the scale. So the rules would have to keep a sharp eye on bonuses that stack from class abilities, feats, and what not.
But I think in the end you would end up with a game that could truly appeal to fans of all editions.
----------------------
UPDATE:
So a couple of people pointed out some issues: How would a legendary archer fare in a contest with a lower level one? Ascending bonuses provide a feeling of advancement, what about that?
So a couple of ways to address that. One is to reintroduce say a +1 per 5 levels skill/inherent bonus that represents that. I would make it overlap but not stack with magic items and this also would help to balance out the inevitable impact of magic items on the game. I've always felt that the bonus a magic item provides to hit represents the item guiding the hand of a lesser user, whereas a veteran warrior wouldn't need such assistance. That does reintroduce an ascending bonus, but at a far reduced rate.
The other thing to keep in mind is that presumably higher level PCs would have options, talents, tricks, feats, etc. that would allow them to achieve things a lower level PC could not. For example, you could have an epic level archery talent that several times per day (just for example sake) that any one shot is a natural 20, or perhaps they always roll 2d20 and take the higher number. There, now your legendary archer would never lose to a level 1 archer and you didn't have to give them a +20 bonus to their shot to represent that.
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