1. Bring old D&D Video Game Gold Box goodness to the DND5 tabletop experience.
No...just No.
2. Weed out all duplicate martial powers, feats, spells, prayers and skills. Strengthen and scale each power as to be useful at higher levels.
Cool...a little bit of housecleaning never hurts.
3. Remove Fortitude, Reflex and Will Defenses and make all attacks and saves either a 1d20+ or 10+ the relevant ability modifier.
Pretty sure they're already doing this one.
4. Use the 4 basic races of Dwarf, Halfling, Human and Elf to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope character themes so that a player is free to design any character of any monsterous or non-monsterous race as long as the party and Game Master agrees to allow it.
I like the idea, but it's a little too limiting. One, Gnome should be a basic core race also (IMO). And two, I don't see how this will work for making things like Dragonborn and Warforged, etc.
5. Use the 4 basic classes of Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard to teach the core mechanics of the game but develope class themes so that a player is free to mix and match likely skills and powers relevant to that themed class.
It sounds like they are kicking around this idea a bit, they just haven't decided whether to go with a lot of classes, or using things like themes to define classes beyond the core. But I like this idea too.
6. Keep healing surges but explain it as a store of potions that the cleric equips the party with or something similar to that.
Or just catching your breath, getting a second wind (a real second wind, not the 4E second wind), etc. Have believable, mundane, explanations for them.
7. Start each character with enough hit points so they don't die so quickly. Constitution score + 1HD or a static number like +10 will do just fine.
I prefer this also, but I think this should be variable so everyone can decide at their table whether to go with more survivable, zero to hero, grim and gritty, etc.
8. Really develope a monster building section so that DM's can easily design challenges for the party without killing them all. I'm thinking monsters of any race should have no more than 3 points higher or lower than the party in each stat.
Interesting...
9. Introduce the Cat-Folk as a playable race.
I'd like something like this also, but you've got to follow your own rules. How do you make this using your idea in #4...?
10. No race or class penalties. Players hate penalties.
I agree. If anything use "limits"...but no penalties. Bonuses and upper limits.
11. Consider limiting total class levels to 30th level.
Why? If you want your game limited to 30 levels, simply do so. I don't see why the system itself needs to be limited in this fashion. There will certainly be those that will want the system to be usable to God-Like levels.
12. Consider limiting an ability to a score of 30 with a modifier of +25. That means magic and feats would only stack to about 6.
What!?!
13. Have heavy notation next to each stat. For example, AC15 (natural+10, heavy shield+2, dex mod+3)
I don't get it...
14. Have the skill noted to the right of each relevant ability. Dex 18(+4) (Disable Device+4)
No. What Ability works with each skill is situational based. It may be Strength in one situation, and Intelligence in another. I think this is a bad idea.
15. Consider a world map containing all the previous campaigns of D&D together. I created one using the map of Earth 20,000 years ago.
Mmmm...okay... Why does WotC need to do this for something that's entirely a gee-whiz thing with limited interest. Especially when we fans are perfectly able to do this ourselves...
16. Note each power, feat and spell with a concise summary within the stat block so everyone doesn't have to keep looking it up. For example, Weapon Proficiency (broadsword attack+1)
Or room to write in specifics on the character sheet, or customizable power cards...
17. Consider standardizing the ranges of all powers so they might easily be remembered. Limit the damage of all powers. Continue to limit burst spells during an encounter.
Not sure what problem you're trying to fix here...maybe it's an aspect of 4E (and I'm not super familar with it). Maybe you can expand on this for all of us that aren't 4E fluent (in other words...the majority).
18. Publish a book on tabletop gaming experiences. Give new players ideas about how to make a gaming session fun.
Do you mean...a Dungeon Master's Guide?
19. Try to keep encounter combat to about 5 rounds. Some like longer combat and shorter combat. The majority of players tire after 5 rounds.
Or just make combat resolve faster...no matter how many rounds.
20. Don't allow monsters or characters to have anything the other doesn't have. No recharge rolls for monsters if characters don't have it. No save or die rolls unless players are also willing to risk their character's lives on 1 roll. No automatic damage or half-damage unless players enjoy having to subtract hit points without having a chance. Sometimes they die from that automatic damage. So no.
I'm down with making the relative power levels more expected and less random...but I like having monsters that have things the PC's don't. Makes things interesting, and means there are things out there the PC's don't know about or understand...and Player's can be surprised!
