D&D 4E SRD5 Yet another chance to clone 4e?

[MoonSong]

I just had this strange thought process, the SRD5 has a lot of key words form 4e open, these include Second Wind, Channel divinity, Warlock, Dragonborn, Healing word, cutting words, action surge...

So cloning 4e would be even more viable now. What do you think?

 

[Nagol]

The biggest issue with cloning 4e was and remains the rewrite (and by necessity the renaming) of all the class powers.

Even if a someone sits down to clone 4e, current characters would need to map their original powers to the new powers -- not a hard process, but an annoying one that would reduce interest in the switch.

SRD5 does nothing to reduce that load.

 

[MwaO]

I don't think it is as bad as it sounds - just make a point buy for powers - 1w is worth X, +1w is worth Y, various conditions are worth A, B, etc...

 

[darjr]

I think a set of generic powers for 4e could go a long way. Might be a start anyway.

 

[MwaO]

I think a set of generic powers for 4e could go a long way. Might be a start anyway.

Let's say I have a hypothetical power where a 1w+stat damage attack that stuns. And the cost of the system is that you can get it with the Rogue class at 13th level.

There just so happens to be such a power for the Rogue in 4e. Which means that if we have that power and it can be pointed out, then that also means every Rogue 13 power in theory can be slotted into that same slot.

i.e. you don't have to duplicate powers, you simply need to leave a really big trail of breadcrumbs that anyone can figure out...

 

[darjr]

Also maybe have powers that are more flexible? That the player could have options on, either during play or during character leveling/creation. That way you could get away with fewer powers.

 

[MwaO]

Also maybe have powers that are more flexible? That the player could have options on, either during play or during character leveling/creation. That way you could get away with fewer powers.

Another thing you can do is give specific classes ways of modifying powers. Wizard finds it cheap to add close blast or area burst while Invoker adds multiple target or close burst easily. Not to say that they can't do what the other class does, just that Invoker is better at multi-target/close burst than Wizard.

In general, I think it is a good idea to have set powers - it lowers complexity during play, which is often helpful for about a third of the table.

 

[darjr]

Weren't there classes that didn't have powers? Couldn't that be tried? Or is the lack of powers a deal breaker?

 

[MwaO]

Weren't there classes that didn't have powers? Couldn't that be tried? Or is the lack of powers a deal breaker?

Sure. The general problem with lack of powers(i.e. most of the melee classes in 5e) for 4e players is that they're not usually looking for such low complexity characters.

Essentials in a nutshell was a bunch of things that 4e players wouldn't use and people playing Pathfinder or 3.5 still wouldn't look at it. While making the system less interesting at the same time because it heavily emphasized feat taxes instead of just fixing the math - "Hey, everybody, get +1/2/3 to all defenses and to-hit rolls at 5/15/25. This does not stack with either feat or item bonuses."

Yes, a bunch of choices turn mostly useless unless you take both the feat and the item - but at least then, they're not boring choices...

 

[D'karr]

I never had much of a problem with Essentials classes because in effect they fit right in with the more complex classes with mostly no issues. My son, for example, prefers the Slayer to the Fighter specifically because of the simplicity and being able to effectively switch from melee to range. Should they have fixed the math at Essentials time? Probably, but then you would have had some incompatibility within printed product lines and a lot more nerdrage. The math fixes you mention are exactly what we implemented and had no issue with leaving the feats if someone wanted to further have better accuracy. The core of 4e is very robust and a bonus here and there are not really going to "break" the system.

The main issue with the OP is that you really don't need an OGL, at all, to clone 4e. Game mechanics themselves are not copyrightable and anyone with the time, inclination and effort could put out a system completely compatible with 4e. But that is the issue you have to spend the time, and effort to not infringe on those things that actually are copyright. Most people that want to go the clone route simply want to copy verbatim from document A and paste to document B and call it a day. You can absolutely do that for personal use, but can't do at all in any form for distribution.