Subtraction is easier than addition

[Tallifer]

My selfish desire is that 1. the core game will contain more rather than less, that 2. the modules will be sections within the main books, that 3. the supplements will be called Players' Handbooks 2,3 and 4, and that 4. the Wizards will make explicit from he beginning that anyone is free and easily able to subtract from this or refluff it, but that it ALL fits together in a glorious monstrous pile of D&D.

I want to bring my fire hose to the table.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I disagree with your premise. It's a question of "opt-in" (addition) versus "opt-out" (subtraction).

I'd much prefer that the essential game engine be designed around an opt-in philosophy where I pick what I add to the game, versus an opt-out where I have to surgically pare away elements I don't like without knowing what second order effects I will introduce.

Both 3E and 4E had the "opt out" problem -- Attacks of Opportunity / Opportunity Attacks are a good example. Since the core game is designed to use them, removing them forces modification of a host of other game elements. If AoAs were "opt-in", you could add them as a module without having to modify the rest of the game.

 

[Yora]

I am conflicted about this. On the one hand, options are good. For my campaign, I would love to be able to chose between vancian or spontane arcane and divine spellcaster, or pick 4 races that are availabe for PCs.
But having too much options was annoying in 3rd Edition, and seems just horrible in 4th Edition: People always wanting to grab more and more books of classes, feats, spells, items, and whatever, and the game turns into an arms race where story and exploration is pushed to the background.
I would much more prefer books that give advice on how to make unique and interesting characters by working with the options you already have.

 

[KarinsDad]

I am conflicted about this. On the one hand, options are good. For my campaign, I would love to be able to chose between vancian or spontane arcane and divine spellcaster, or pick 4 races that are availabe for PCs.
But having too much options was annoying in 3rd Edition, and seems just horrible in 4th Edition: People always wanting to grab more and more books of classes, feats, spells, items, and whatever, and the game turns into an arms race where story and exploration is pushed to the background.
I would much more prefer books that give advice on how to make unique and interesting characters by working with the options you already have.

Agreed. Options are good if they are worthwhile options. 4E could drop a good 75% of its items, feats, and powers and it would make the game a lot better. There are just so many crap options or specialized options that it eventually made 4E the bloatware of the D&D franchise.

Do we really need 43 races, 44 classes (75 if you count hybrids and 974 if you consider every possible hybrid combo), 3200 feats, 3500 magic items, 4800 creatures, and 8800 powers? At a minute per entry and 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it would take someone two months to read all of this stuff and even then, only a few people in the world are talented enough to absorb it all. It's nearly impossible for a DM to know which game elements to limit his game to without just doing some sort of blanket limitation, or limiting things when they come up, or just throwing up his hands and saying "what the hell".

Yes, WotC has to sell material, but just like bloatware bogged down 3E and 4E, it will bog down 5E unless they find a better sales model.

 

[Yora]

That's what I find quite charming about Pathfinder. True, they are also up to 20 or so classes now, but they say that they are done now and everything is covered.

 

[Glade Riven]

That's what I find quite charming about Pathfinder. True, they are also up to 20 or so classes now, but they say that they are done now and everything is covered.

Well, except psionics, but I suspect Paizo will have psionics be class archetypes instead of outright new classes (if they ever do psionics).

The more I've though about it, I have no problem with 5e having core rules in the first 20-30 pages, and the rest of the book being Unearthed Arcana. Heck, the PHB should have a character sheet, and the DMG should have a checklist sheet of what is and isn't going to be in the campaign.