D&D (2024) Things You Think Would Improve the Game That We WON'T See

[MNblockhead]

Oh, one more: moving away from the hardback book format, and especially the core three. It's the most efficient delivery method in terms of cents-per-page, but that's just about all that I can say in favour of it.

And from all reaches of the realm rose the voices of angry grognards.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What are some changes to the game that you think would improve it that we WON'T see in the new 2024 releases? And why won't we see them?

I'll start with a couple of things. In general, I think that one of my personal complaints about the upcoming revision is "power creep is creepin'". We've seen new versions of cantrips that increase their damage, lots of additional ways to gain temporary hit points, a potential increase in the amount of healing that spells do that just about doubles it, ASIs moved to wherever you want in order to allow increased optimization out the gate, and so forth. There have been a very few changes that reduce a few of the more powerful options, such as the totem barbarian's "resist everything but force" ability, but mostly, it's all MOAR POWER. So my dislike of that is behind a lot of what I would like to see.

First, I think that reverting wizards and sorcerers to a d4 Hit Die would help restore the balance between casters and martial characters, which is a very commonly complained about thing. I don't think we'll see it because the increase to a d6 was widely praised on 5e's release. I'd like to see warlocks drop down to a d6, too, with a possible invocation to gain 1 hp/level to help those who want to be able to go toe to toe.

If 1st level ability score modifiers aren't going to be tied to race, where they existed to set other races apart from humanity, I'd like to just drop them entirely. But given the move to "this is for the optimizers", I can't imagine we will see this, either.

I'd like to see a modification to some of the better barbarian abilities that trigger when raging such that they require concentration to maintain, along with a qualifier that barbarians can concentrate on these features while raging. I am pretty sure there are several reasons why we won't see this, all related to concentration being hard to maintain at high levels when you're the melee guy taking massive whacks.

I'd like to see metamagic moved entirely out of the sorcerer and into the upcasting mechanic for spells, as well as a new downcasting mechanic that lets you use lower level slots for far inferior versions of higher level spells; for instance, reduce the slot level of your fireball by one level in exchange for reducing the damage by 4d6. Pretty sure that one is a pipe dream, for the same reason that we won't see my next one: it's too big and fundamental of a change for one of the base classes to undergo in what is basically a half-edition (or smaller) change.

Speaking of the sorcerer, I'd like to see the number of levels at which it gets subclass features increased to about ten, and to see its sorcerer point stuff tied heavily to subclass, in order to make each sorcerer both more heavily invested in its subclass/theme and to make higher levels of sorcerer more attractive. For example, a spider-themed sorcerer might have an ability to spend a few sorcerer points to add a web-like effect to any spell that has an area of effect or targets a creature. I KNOW we won't see such a massive revision to the sorcerer, but I'd really like.

And finally, I'd like to see a real, actual, full warlord class.

Yeah, none of the official proposed changes would actually improve the game beyond superior 5e versions like Level Up, or alternatively harken back to TSR editions like I prefer, and if it's not going to move in either of those directions I see no reason to buy it. I like your ideas in general though, as always. The metamagic, downleveling, and sorcerer changes sound really interesting. Do you have anything written up?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think there is room for Cha and Con to work together, just like Monk needs Dex and Wis, but a SAD class that only needs Con? That's not going to work. That is too SAD.

CON as the casting stat. You can make other stats important to the class in other ways.

 

[Micah Sweet]

this seems to fiddly.
there is a reason that Bear totem is most popular. it's simple,
I would even combine reckless attack and rage in same ability

Rage:
you can rage on your turn. No action.
you have advantages on all attacks, saves and checks with STR and CON
all attacks have advantages on you
you have resistance to all damage.
gain bonus damage per barbarian table
duration 1 min
"insert normal requirement for sustaining rage"

"Simple" = "popular" = "good" is a terrible way to design a game you want to be fun to play beyond a very temporary basis.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am all for deleting the Scores and just using the Ability Bonuses. That Score Cow is quite sacred, tho.


Love it.


Heh, is so incompatible tho?

The problem is that it doesn't look compatible, and looks are what they care about.

 

[Horwath]

CON as the casting stat. You can make other stats important to the class in other ways.

con is now so irrelevant, 90% of characters have CON 14.
you could delete it, give everyone +2 HP per level, move CON saves to STR and most people would not even notice that you now play with 5 instead of 6 abilities.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Making the Sorcerer use Constitution as the Casting Ability would be highly unusual, put the finger on why they arent Wizards, and give them a weird supernatural "witchy" toughness in combat.

It would also support my long-held narrative about sorcerers, that they are functionally like Marvel's mutants (or DC's metahumans, if you prefer), people with special powers atypical to their heritage that just manifested in their youth and slowly developed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

con is now so irrelevant, 90% of characters have CON 14.
you could delete it, give everyone +2 HP per level, move CON saves to STR and most people would not even notice that you now play with 5 instead of 6 abilities.

I think most people would notice CON missing from their character sheet.

 

[Yaarel]

It would also support my long-held narrative about sorcerers, that they are functionally like Marvel's mutants (or DC's metahumans, if you prefer), people with special powers atypical to their heritage that just manifested in their youth and slowly developed.

I think of the Sorcerer as the magi-tech equivalent of cyborgs.

The body itself is transformed into a magic item, a spellcasting focus.

The sorcerous Bloodline is like cyborg wires enhancing the natural flesh.

 

[Micah Sweet]

At very least they could rename it to 3rd circle or something like that.

I do that in my games. Feels much better in-universe.