D&D 5E Porting Grim Dawn (CRPG) to D&D 5E

[Lanliss]

A friend of mine quite likes Grim Dawn, a Diablo-esque CRPG, and I have been having thoughts on how to port it over to D&D. I have not personally played it much myself, so I will be working off of the Wiki for this.

Initial design thoughts

Masteries (classes)
Each class will be treated like a Warlock. They will gain Invocation style "Passives", and the Active skills will be built as spells.

Blitz, for example, will be something along the lines of "use an Action to move up to your speed in a straight line, stopping if you reach an object larger than 5 feet tall or wide, and more than a foot thick. All creatures in that line of movement take (half your class level)*d8 damage, and must make a Str saving throw or be knocked prone."

Devotion
Probably the trickiest part of this conversion, but I am happy with my thoughts on it. I will duplicate the entire devotion layout, and characters will gain small abilities for their devotion.

For example, if you have a devotion that would normally give you 2 percent resistance to Poison, you will get a short rest ability to reduce Poison damage by 2. Further increases to your resistance will make this ability stronger. still working on actives from Devotion, but it will probably be treated as Riders on actives you tie it to.

Going Forward
The biggest chunk of the work will be if I decide to also convert the Items from Grim Dawn, though that should be more simple than devotions.

Any help on this, or information on anyone who has already done this, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lanliss]

Reserved for Links to relevant posts (masteries, items, etc.)

 

[ppaladin123]

Hmm, so a lot of abilities in Grim Dawn are essentially stances (some which are mutually exclusive). I am not sure how exactly to model that in 5e though 3.5e Book of 9 Swords has stances that could give you some ideas.

Shaman totems can probably be modeled off of Cleric spells like Spirit Guardians (immobile but you can pass through the space...provide some sort of benefit/damage within area).

Lots of talent points in GD modify existing abilities...will you do that through feats? Perhaps more but less powerful feats (each level)?

Ranger companions are a decent model for pets.

 

[ppaladin123]

Actually, are you familiar with 13th Age (kind of a mix between 3e and 4e...written by the people who wrote 3e and 4e)? I think the ay they handle talents and feats (you invest feats into your talents every level) could be very useful in this.

 

[Lanliss]

Hmm, so a lot of abilities in Grim Dawn are essentially stances (some which are mutually exclusive). I am not sure how exactly to model that in 5e though 3.5e Book of 9 Swords has stances that could give you some ideas.

Shaman totems can probably be modeled off of Cleric spells like Spirit Guardians (immobile but you can pass through the space...provide some sort of benefit/damage within area).

Lots of talent points in GD modify existing abilities...will you do that through feats? Perhaps more but less powerful feats (each level)?

Ranger companions are a decent model for pets.

I have not done all of my reading yet, so I am not sure on most things.I just wanted to get this out now, before I forgot my idea for the Devotion system, which is the main thing that turned me off of Grim Dawn. Will update more once I have done my homework.

Currently
1) I have never seen, nor thought about, a stance mechanic, so I would not know what it is like, or what it might help with. Could you elaborate on what abilities you think would benefit from the system?

2) Yes, it will be a simple matter of giving an ability usable "x times/short rest", which drops a totem, probably anchored like an immovable rod.

3) No idea what talent points are, nor what abilities they modify. Will get back to this after I have done my reading.

4) Yes, though I will want to make sure that the base class does not have much health itself, since my friend told me that he saw a Pet Army build, with something like 9 pets but a super squishy character, since they had put all of their points and items towards getting more pets. Basically destroyed action economy, but that ends as soon as something survives their turn and attacks them.

 

[Lanliss]

Actually, are you familiar with 13th Age (kind of a mix between 3e and 4e...written by the people who wrote 3e and 4e)? I think the ay they handle talents and feats (you invest feats into your talents every level) could be very useful in this.

Nope, I am not familiar with any system but 5E, and a little 4E courtesy of Iserith. The "Actives" will mostly be laid out like 4E powers, so far as I have gotten.

 

[ppaladin123]

Check out https://grimcalc.com/

You'll see that every level you invest "mastery points" either directly in your mastery (basically class) to gain stats and open up new abilities or in abilities. Some abilities are chained so that, for example the base abilitiy is modified by changing the damage type or adding an additional effect or whatever.