Teach me to fish, dammit!

[Number48]

I've been reading a lot of these threads and come to a conclusion. A lot of people only want such and so races, drop the the races I hate. Others love that race. They added draconians, after all, as a response to how badly people wanted to play a dragonish character from 1st level. Same for classes.

So, rulebook, instead of telling which 5 or 7 or 9 races I can choose in this book and then doling out a couple more races each year, how about we just have fluff for each race and some examples of crunch with maybe a few dozen possible racial abilities. Make it easy for me to make MY game world. I've had to struggle against the game to create or recreate my own game world with every single edition. Stop it.

Classes are a little harder to do, granted, but give us a few good ways to swap X, Y and Z and now you have an Detective instead of a Ranger, etc. But don't make these swaps hard-coded, make them easy to suss out and expand our possibilities.

A little off topic, but as long as we're talking about race. Find a way to make every race an equal consideration for every class, even if you have to get rid of racial ability score bonuses. Having the option to play a half-orc wizard isn't much of an option if the elf is better at it. Even more so for rogues when you can choose a race with a dex bonus. If one option is better, then the other options might as well not exist.

 

[Henry]

I know Pathfinder is planning a whole book on this topic for their game, due this year. Basically, guidelines to make a reasonably balanced race vs. the base choices, and leave the decision-making to each home campaign. It would definitely work for 5E/DNDNext as well - 5 core races in the book, and "here's rules to make your own options."

 

[mmadsen]

When I first saw the 3E Fighter class, I thought it would make a good model for other classes; just switch out what other special abilities go on the "bonus feat" list -- and which skills go on the skill list, which save is best, etc. But I was surprised the Paladin and Barbarian weren't just Feat choices, really.

 

[am181d]

Don't 3.5 and Pathfinder already have this? There are a ton of Alternate Class Levels in 3.5 and Pathfinder has something similar in the Advanced Player's Guide.

 

[Number48]

Don't 3.5 and Pathfinder already have this? There are a ton of Alternate Class Levels in 3.5 and Pathfinder has something similar in the Advanced Player's Guide.

I'm not asking for them to give me more options, I'm asking for them to let me in on creating my own.

 

[Jack7]

So, rulebook, instead of telling which 5 or 7 or 9 races I can choose in this book and then doling out a couple more races each year, how about we just have fluff for each race and some examples of crunch with maybe a few dozen possible racial abilities. Make it easy for me to make MY game world. I've had to struggle against the game to create or recreate my own game world with every single edition. Stop it.

Classes are a little harder to do, granted, but give us a few good ways to swap X, Y and Z and now you have an Detective instead of a Ranger, etc. But don't make these swaps hard-coded, make them easy to suss out and expand our possibilities.

As a general principle, I'm all for this.

 

[keterys]

I'd be happy to see less built specifically around races in general (ex: feats just for one race), and more tools for customization in specific.

Give me three labeled buckets and a host of things to throw in each and let me make my own thing. Incidentally, also supply several good examples of prefilled buckets in elf, halfling, dwarf, human terms.

Now you can have your half-elf easy, or your human who grew up among dwarves, or differentiate your barbarian human from your city slum human in race terms.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I'm not asking for them to give me more options, I'm asking for them to let me in on creating my own.

Yes, especially if in the process of doing so they can avoid simplify the sheer amount of options.

Though I'll grant that this is a tougher nut to crack than just providing another class or feat or power.

Edit: Basically another slant on what keterys was posting above while I was typing.

 

[Disparue]

When I first saw the 3E Fighter class, I thought it would make a good model for other classes; just switch out what other special abilities go on the "bonus feat" list -- and which skills go on the skill list, which save is best, etc. But I was surprised the Paladin and Barbarian weren't just Feat choices, really.

We ended up going this way after checking out the generic character classes from Unearthed Arcana. We went about condensing classes down to a few feats and allowing class-building this way. We got rid of multi-classing though since the class abilities could be purchased via feats. It probably isn't for everyone, but it has let us get new players to the game up and running with minimal fuss.

 

[foolish_mortals]

if they added the stupid dragonborn guys to the game then they can add the Flumph as a player option. I don't care where it shows up as an option, "Flumph Triumphant" or "Flumphs With Swords". One of the two should be great supplements and will help revive this almost dead franchise.

foolish_mortals