Powers dropping out...

[Mark CMG]

The "powers" concept is probably not going to attract a lot of the folks who walked away from D&D during the late 3.XE and 4E era (and many who never even rejoined the D&D fold during 3.XE and 4E). That seems to be one of the main sticking points I've read about on the various message boards over the last four or five years. They might want to find a way to rework the whole concept particularly with the fighter class.

 

[Number48]

Note that they weren't talking about spells specifically. This concept applies to the fighter as well.

As for my reaction, meh. They seem to be doing an awful lot of math that hangs from one fallacy, the AVERAGE amount of anything. My D&D sessions are about 3 hours long and have 1 combat encounter. That made high-level spells more powerful in 3E and daily powers more powerful in 4E. They are continuing that trend in 5E. The characters in 5E in a low-combat game would be encouraged to top-load their abilities, and either walk through combat or the DM has to make combat tougher, which changes the XP, which screws up the curve.

This seems like a really great way to rethink yesterday's game, not the wonderful new game of tomorrow.

 

[Oni]

They have to make some assumptions about how the game is played or they won't have anything to base decisions on.

 

[Number48]

They have to make some assumptions about how the game is played or they won't have anything to base decisions on.

Yes, but the better comparisons are either larger or smaller, over the course of an adventure or the course of a single encounter. Those are much more stable than the course of a play session.

 

[Oni]

Yes, but the better comparisons are either larger or smaller, over the course of an adventure or the course of a single encounter. Those are much more stable than the course of a play session.

I would be genuinely surprised if such things haven't been given their due consideration. That said, there is only so much that can done about gamers that are playing such that their characters are only having one combat per resource reset cycle without fundamentally altering how the game is played.

Go ahead and overclock your one encounter and alter the XP, they did mention having increased support for alternate advancement rates in the next edition.

 

[Number48]

I would be genuinely surprised if such things haven't been given their due consideration. That said, there is only so much that can done about gamers that are playing such that their characters are only having one combat per resource reset cycle without fundamentally altering how the game is played.

Go ahead and overclock your one encounter and alter the XP, they did mention having increased support for alternate advancement rates in the next edition.

You cut to the very core of the problem! They are thinking in a very limited fashion as to what the resource reset cycle is.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

You cut to the very core of the problem! They are thinking in a very limited fashion as to what the resource reset cycle is.

How do you know they are? The example you gave, that players in low-combat games could overpower their characters for combat, seems to exclude some of what they've said that leads one to believe that those characters would then be underpowered in exploration or social encounters - which is, presumably, what the majority of your game features.

At any rate, it's a bit hard to judge when you really don't know anything at all about the exploration and social rules, and only the faintest hints of how combat will work.

 

[Tallifer]

Flavor it however you like ("My wizard brain can only hold so many spells---sorry Burning Hands but Fireball needs the space!").

This makes perfect sense. Doing magic or doing amazing feats with a sword are not like riding a bicycle. I can still pick up a trumpet and play a basic tune after thirty years since high school. I can still ride a bicycle after ten years without one. But I cannot read Latin well enough to do any serious research, unlike when I was studying mediaeval studies at university. I passed the PhD level Latin translation examination without any problems: but last year I was stumped when I was standing in a cathedral and tried to accurately translate the inscriptions. <hangs head in shame>

Not sure what I filled my head with since. Mostly roleplaying, Doctor Who, English pedagogy and historical trivia.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Note that they weren't talking about spells specifically. This concept applies to the fighter as well.

As for my reaction, meh. They seem to be doing an awful lot of math that hangs from one fallacy, the AVERAGE amount of anything. My D&D sessions are about 3 hours long and have 1 combat encounter. That made high-level spells more powerful in 3E and daily powers more powerful in 4E. They are continuing that trend in 5E. The characters in 5E in a low-combat game would be encouraged to top-load their abilities, and either walk through combat or the DM has to make combat tougher, which changes the XP, which screws up the curve.

This seems like a really great way to rethink yesterday's game, not the wonderful new game of tomorrow.

They've already mentioned a few things to the effect that you can replace combat abilities with out of combat abilities. So sure, one guy might go 100% combat and be a God of War during your one combat, but everyone else will outshine him in the rest of the session.

I'm not normally an advocate of balancing combat with out-of-combat, but this new approach seems like it has the potential to be different. It sounds like their goal is to allow you to tailor your character to exactly the type of campaign you play in (one example was a bard who could trade his social prowess for improved combat ability, for a hack-and-slash).

Assuming that to be the case, it seems that it would be much wiser for your players to stock up on out-of-combat abilities, since that's what your games focus on. Hence, it's quite possible that you might end up with a skill-oriented group, not a combat-monster group. Given that, I think it's safe to say that groups will have options to gain plenty of experience even when rarely engaging in combat.

 

[Charleois]

Replacing powers and spells is a basic way to prevent bloat. I like to fit my character onto one or two sheets of paper.