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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7110666" data-attributes="member: 12731">It's time to discuss the elephant in the room, the way 5th edition forgets that for players to choose slow short-range (melee) characters, the game rules actually need to encourage that.Now, I can certainly see myself rolling up a grumpy Dwarf character that never touches abow or crossbow, but that's not what I'm talking about here. The game can't rely only on gamers preference to adhere to fantasy archetypes, the game must actually offer real crunchy benefit, or over time, these archetypes will become abandoned.In short: the reason people have been playing grumpy Axe Dwarves all these years isn't (entirely) because of Tolkien and other fantasy role models. It is because D&D has always made sure to give you benefits when you create such a character!But now... 5th edition has kind-of forgotten that the game is supposed to do that.Here's what I want out of the D&D game. In order to create a very strong "fighter-y" character, I want the game to make me have a slow Speed (not more than 30 ft) and little range (for my primary weapon). Any character with great mobility (speed of 40 or 50 ft or more) needs to be considerably more fragile than the slower counterpart.Any character with great range (more than 30 ft, definitely) needs to be considerably more fragile or at the very least severely disadvantaged in melee.This means that if you are mobile or ranged, you should not be able to see more than 15-17 AC. The only way to see 17-19 AC is if you are both slow and melee.---Now, I hear you saying "but the game DOES give tanky shield fighters the highest AC in the game". Problem is, even ranged fighters get enough AC. 5th edition is sufficiently easy that you never need that extra boost of AC. Once you have AC 18, you're fine. Getting to AC 21 already at low levels is overkill.Not to mention counter-productive. After all, there aren't any real "stickiness" to D&D tanks, no aggro mechanism for instance. So if one of the heroes sport an almost-impossible AC 21 maybe the monsters simply attack somebody else..., especially if AC guy is slow and immobile? Which would be completely opposite why the fighter put on his armor in the first place!So we can't increase the numbers for slow axe dwarfs. We need to decrease the numbers for everybody else. (It's like with Great Weapon Mastery - I get that the feat is WotCs way to reward two-weapon use over range (ignoring the senseless SS for the mo'). The problem is the feat makes the game too easy. Instead of allowing GWM to break the damage boundaries upwards, you need to nerf ranged damage downwards)So read what I wrote above: AC 17 should be the top number for any mobile or ranged character, and ideally it should be lower unless you make compromises. How do we accomplish that?Let me say straight away I won't argue for a return to the days of 20 ft Speed in heavy armor. I fully understand why that was scrapped - it IS overly frustrating to have no less than 50% less speed than the "norm". So let's not reduce Speed, but we certainly need to restrict Speed increases (in heavy armor). Based on my observation that none of the Fighters go Strength and Heavy Armor (precisely because Dex + mobility + range is so superior), we probably need to take down Light armor a notch but perhaps not Medium, since we've already concluded a min-maxer will choose either light or heavy: going "in-between" never leads to optimal results, and medium armor is probably only optimal for the Barbarian and that's a special case. Probably the easiest solution is to eithera) remove Studded Leather entirely orb) at the very least impose Stealth Disadvantage on Studded LeatherYou can always allow everybody to pick the Protection fighting style if you feel this change impacts the innocent (= Rogues, Bards etc).I want to do more for our short range non-mobile (bearded) archetype, but as I've already said, I can't actually give it bonuses (since the game is easy enough as it is), and I can't come up with any more easy reductions to everyone else.Maybe have Mobile feat say it only works when you don't have Stealth disadvantage from armor.I would love to increase Shields to +3 or even +4 to properly compensate for the loss of versatility (no two-handed weapons like greatsword or bow)My players never pick up a shield unless they are spellcasters that ignore the penalty to damage for being stuck with a single one-handed weapon; offense being superior to defense, after all...but unless I remove Plate, that would result in a net AC increase. And if I remove Plate, I need to remove Half-Plate too (otherwise why even bother with heavy armor).[SBLOCK=I could redo the armor table to read...]Light Padded AC 11 Stealth DisadvantageLeather AC 11   Chain Shirt AC 12 Stealth DisadvantageMedium max +2 DexHide AC 13Scale mail 14 Stealth DisadvantageBreast plate AC 14Chain mail AC 15 Stealth DisadvantageHeavy -5 Speed penalty unless race is Dwarf, Goliath and similar; another -5 Speed penalty unless Strength 13 requirement is fulfilledBanded mail AC 15Splint mail AC 16 Stealth DisadvantageHalf-plate AC 17 Stealth DisadvantageShieldsLight shield +2 ACHeavy shield +3 AC Stealth Disadvantage...and reserve full-plate as loot - that is, its place is in the DMG, not among the things you expect to be able to buy off the shelf.Not sure if I'm overdoing it, though. Thoughts on this?[/SBLOCK]Don't forget that related changes are discussed in my thread Feats Redux:<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547594-Feats-Redux" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?547594-Feats-Redux</a> Therein I tweak the game so that, most significantly: * no longer is it possible to get rid of ranged fire disadvantage when in melee yourself* the default is no ability damage to ranged fire - you need a feat for thatand last but not least * there is no way to effectively gain similar crazy high damage with a ranged weapon as with a two-handed weapon. While GWM is gone, its replacement(s) simply does not work outside of short range.No more Speed 50 Fighters with Sharpshooter and Crossbow Expert, effectively combining two-weapon fighting with great weapon fighting, all of which happens at up to 120 ft range with no range penalty, no cover penalty, no in-melee penalty, no "fragility" penalty (these guys are fighters, remember, with great AC great HP and great features) and really, no damage penalty either (the only difference being a d8 damage die instead of a d12, a -2 damage difference easily compensated for by all the benefits, not least a frikkin' +2 bonus to attacks!!)Oh well.---What can a player expect under the Reduxed ruleset?Well, I can't say I feel I have entirely eradicated 5e's tendency to not properly price speed and range.</blockquote>

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