Ondath
Hero
I have professed my dislike of OneD&D and its design philosophy quite extensively in these forums. There is, however, one thing that I quite liked in the playtests: Futureproofing class and spell lists by giving them categories. I like the Arcane/Divine/Primal divisions.* I think the Warrior/Mage/Priest/Expert division is not only a nice throwback to AD&D 2E, but also fleshes out the commonalities of each class. But the primary genius of these ideas is, like I said, futureproofing: Now if they want to add a new spellcasting class, WotC will no longer need to write up an entire spell list from scratch: They can just pick one of Arcane/Divine/Primal. If they design a martial-only feat and later add a Warlord, they won't have to errata the requirements section of every feat that they want the warlord to benefit: They can simply put the Warlord in the Warrior group and the Warlord will qualify for everything that is open to that group.
I think A5E should consider retroactively making similar categorisations. This would help avoid some rules bloat which has already started: The Vigilante Synergy Feat Chain originally allowed only Adepts and Rangers, but Artificer is now retroactively allowed to replace either option. This could've been much easier if the synergy feats listed class groups and not specific classes for its prerequisites, and then the Artificer was added to that class group.
Similarly, the current Synergy Feats often leave out some conceptual niches that they could easily fill: Why is it that Bladechanters have to be Wizards when Sorcerers could also theoretically fulfil a similar role? Why can't Mystic Theurges be any divine caster coupled with any arcane caster? Granted, some of these feats currently play off of specific class features (such as the Mystic Theurge feats using sorcery points), but I think more generalised versions of these feats could be made with class groups in mind.
I can't say I have a specific opinion about how the spell lists and class groups would be divided. The Expert class group doesn't have a clear analogue in A5E, since every class gets expertise die in some way. But my point isn't really to cut the cake in a specific way, but to suggest cutting it in the first place. What do you guys think?
*: Then again, I object to the current implementation; there are some spells in 5E that punch above their weight because they were designed with half casters in mind (and so the caster would receive them at a later character level than what the spell level normally suggests), and opening all the Divine spell list to Clerics for instance, gives them access to rather broken options like Paladin Aura spells. But this is nothing that can't be fixed by putting such spells outside of the Arcane/Divine/Primal lists and making them exclusive to classes. And they already did that with some options like the Smite spells and Hunter's Mark, so there is already precedent for this.
I think A5E should consider retroactively making similar categorisations. This would help avoid some rules bloat which has already started: The Vigilante Synergy Feat Chain originally allowed only Adepts and Rangers, but Artificer is now retroactively allowed to replace either option. This could've been much easier if the synergy feats listed class groups and not specific classes for its prerequisites, and then the Artificer was added to that class group.
Similarly, the current Synergy Feats often leave out some conceptual niches that they could easily fill: Why is it that Bladechanters have to be Wizards when Sorcerers could also theoretically fulfil a similar role? Why can't Mystic Theurges be any divine caster coupled with any arcane caster? Granted, some of these feats currently play off of specific class features (such as the Mystic Theurge feats using sorcery points), but I think more generalised versions of these feats could be made with class groups in mind.
I can't say I have a specific opinion about how the spell lists and class groups would be divided. The Expert class group doesn't have a clear analogue in A5E, since every class gets expertise die in some way. But my point isn't really to cut the cake in a specific way, but to suggest cutting it in the first place. What do you guys think?
*: Then again, I object to the current implementation; there are some spells in 5E that punch above their weight because they were designed with half casters in mind (and so the caster would receive them at a later character level than what the spell level normally suggests), and opening all the Divine spell list to Clerics for instance, gives them access to rather broken options like Paladin Aura spells. But this is nothing that can't be fixed by putting such spells outside of the Arcane/Divine/Primal lists and making them exclusive to classes. And they already did that with some options like the Smite spells and Hunter's Mark, so there is already precedent for this.