D&D (2024) Oh Ye of Little FAITB

[GMMichael]

My eyes are on the vestigial elements of D&D 5e (and not on the playtest packets, because I don't like playing alphas):

Flaws, Alignment, Ideals, (Personality) Traits, and Bonds.

Is OneD&D (ODD) leaning into these? Will they become integrated parts of the game? Or conversely, will they get the axe, and stop taking up page-count?

My preference is to see them actually integrated in the rest of the game, at the same level, or moreso, as Alignment is. It seems to me that Alignment has been watered down: it's a suggestion more often than it's a rule. You can't cast Detect Evil to find evil creatures, but you can detect evil- or good-leaning creature types.

Another example: Bonds/Ideals and Paladins. Why does a Paladin choose an Oath when she already has, in theory, a Bond and an Ideal? Shouldn't those determine what her bonus features are?

There's no need to persuade me in the opposite direction: that of trimming the fat. I'm fine with ODD cutting itself down to what it could have been years ago . . . but what say you?

 

[aco175]

I'm fine with them and could see more that are racial as well as from backgrounds. I think they help newer players develop a PC and even allow old gamers like me to develop and idea and see where I can play it.

 

[Vaalingrade]

In an ideal world Alignment will just quietly not be in 5.5.

 

[MockingBird]

FAITB has been great for my table. It's been a great way to write side quest into the on going game as well.

Edit to add: I was thinking OP was talking about back grounds, brain fart for me. They are in the character generation tool on Dndbeyond but you don't have to pick them. I'm indifferent on them. Don't hate em and I have used them but wouldn't miss them if they were gone.

 

[tetrasodium]

Hopefully they go away. The other half of their subsystem didn't make it to 5e in 2014 and it probably doesn't really fit a d&d style game. With only the player half they turn into little more than an excuse to disruptively invoke the ttrpg equivalent of no offense but... "I'm a roleplayer and MY character..." without having to say it

 

[Parmandur]

They haven't been in books with Backgrounds since 2020, including the current Starter Set, and weren't in the Character Origins playtest. So, they seem to be gone.

 

[payn]

Not a big fan of BIFTs. Each PC has a paragraph of very basic personality descriptors. Too specific and narrow to be interesting, and nobody will remember each unique set anyways. I like the idea of attaching inspiration to the system, but it also is often an afterthought by many groups. This all seems to align with the casual nature of 5E, so I dont expect the removal or expansion of BIFTs.

 

[Shardstone]

Hopefully they go away. The other half of their subsystem didn't make it to 5e in 2014 and it probably doesn't really fit a d&d style game. With only the player half they turn into little more than an excuse to disruptively invoke the ttrpg equivalent of no offense but... "I'm a roleplayer and MY character..." without having to say it

What was the rest of the system?

 

[Parmandur]

Not a big fan of BIFTs. Each PC has a paragraph of very basic personality descriptors. Too specific and narrow to be interesting, and nobody will remember each unique set anyways. I like the idea of attaching inspiration to the system, but it also is often an afterthought by many groups. This all seems to align with the casual nature of 5E, so I dont expect the removal or expansion of BIFTs.

They removed them, effectively, years ago, and they weren't in the playtest for the new rules. They never had any mechanical impact aside from suggestions for DM rulings.

 

[tetrasodium]

What was the rest of the system?

Mearls talks about it around 1:21:20 1:21:20 in 5 generations of d&d design panel Basically there was some kind of push component