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<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8764738" data-attributes="member: 7030755">I didn't listen to the podcast but this is not a great solution to the types of complexity that I've seen new players struggle with.&nbsp; The thing that's easiest to hold onto is some idea of an archetype, and here class (and race) is really useful.&nbsp; Players can look at &quot;rogue&quot; or &quot;wizard&quot; and use their existing knowledge to figure out what their character is like.The things I've seen new players struggle with: ability scores vs ability modifiers, what a proficiency bonus is and when to add it, what a saving throw is, how to calculate spell save dc, knowing how many spells you have memorized, spell level vs character level, choosing spells. Those are rather basic mechanics: if you are playing 5e, these are things will come up from the start, so either the DM needs to help players calculate them, or players need to figure it out on their own.&nbsp; I've seen players after years of playing still not understand how to calculate spell save dc.&nbsp; Now, I think what they identify as level 1 could work if that was <a href="https://cairnrpg.com/" target="_blank">basically the whole game</a>.&nbsp; But the base mechanics of 5e have a certain level of built-in complexity. The designers could help here by including things like flowcharts in the books to help players navigate it, or by organizing spells by level, or indicating the page numbers in the spell lists, or especially by designing a character sheet that visually taught players how to play.&nbsp; This last one would be very helpful if it could just take new players through making different kinds of &quot;d20 tests.&quot;&nbsp; (hopefully in saying that I'm not <a href="https://twitter.com/Alphastream/status/1565935531430920193?s=20&amp;t=TEIdF79JSkcfg0CNm7JrYg" target="_blank">hurting the poor designers' feelings</a>).edit: and by the way, the proposed changes would reduce the power of low level characters further.&nbsp; I'm guessing the standard solution would just be for the DM to fudge things so that characters don't die and everyone has a fun time.&nbsp; Then at 3rd level the advanced railroading can start!&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8764738, member: 7030755"] I didn't listen to the podcast but this is not a great solution to the types of complexity that I've seen new players struggle with. The thing that's easiest to hold onto is some idea of an archetype, and here class (and race) is really useful. Players can look at "rogue" or "wizard" and use their existing knowledge to figure out what their character is like. The things I've seen new players struggle with: ability scores vs ability modifiers, what a proficiency bonus is and when to add it, what a saving throw is, how to calculate spell save dc, knowing how many spells you have memorized, spell level vs character level, choosing spells. Those are rather basic mechanics: if you are playing 5e, these are things will come up from the start, so either the DM needs to help players calculate them, or players need to figure it out on their own. I've seen players after years of playing still not understand how to calculate spell save dc. Now, I think what they identify as level 1 could work if that was [URL='https://cairnrpg.com/']basically the whole game[/URL]. But the base mechanics of 5e have a certain level of built-in complexity. The designers could help here by including things like flowcharts in the books to help players navigate it, or by organizing spells by level, or indicating the page numbers in the spell lists, or especially by designing a character sheet that visually taught players how to play. This last one would be very helpful if it could just take new players through making different kinds of "d20 tests." (hopefully in saying that I'm not [URL='https://twitter.com/Alphastream/status/1565935531430920193?s=20&t=TEIdF79JSkcfg0CNm7JrYg']hurting the poor designers' feelings[/URL]). edit: and by the way, the proposed changes would reduce the power of low level characters further. I'm guessing the standard solution would just be for the DM to fudge things so that characters don't die and everyone has a fun time. Then at 3rd level the advanced railroading can start! ;) [/QUOTE]

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