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Thoughts of a 3E/4E powergamer on starting to play 5E
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6881528" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>But, in a sense, every system tries to. And, 5e, in particular, is signed up to give a certain sub-set of everyone (all past D&D fans) a certain sub-set of everything (everything they had in those past versions of D&D they were fans of).</p><p></p><p>But, even though 3e & 4e didn't have a mandate to be all things to all D&Ders, they did go pretty far down the road of being player-option-rich. </p><p></p><p>3e had thousands of feats and spells and hundreds of advanced Prestige Classes and even some extra-basic non-adventuring NPC classes. It had a detailed skill system that let you define your PC's competence rank-by-rank. An MCing system that was extremely flexible (if a little problematic here and there - some of which 5e fixed, BTW). It had a plethora of race choices, including LA races and templates. It even let you decide how your character and his gear looked, 're-skinning' (within reason) race and equipment. 4e had thousands of feats, hundreds of powers per class, Backgrounds, Themes, Paragon Paths, & Epic Destinies, plenty of races including MM playable races, MCing & Hybrids, and re-skinning was expanded to powers, as well.</p><p></p><p>Not really, and, no, none of that looks like a huge concern for one important reason: the Sorcerer is a 'known spell' class, not a 'prepared spell' class. Whatever some variant Sorcerer might have access to, it's fairly tied to the spells it actually knows, that's a fairly small number - the Druid, Cleric, or Wizard will always be vastly more versatile in what spells they can choose to have available in a given day. </p><p></p><p>OTOH, if a Sorcerer wanted to pach spells unique to Bards or Warlocks, it might be a bigger potential issue.</p><p></p><p>Because the wizard already steps on so many toes and has so much versatility, already, perhaps?</p><p></p><p>Moonsong has me wondering to what extent this is still the case in 5e, but in 3e, the Wizard and Sorcerer essentially shared a spell list. In 5e, the Wizard has the most unique spells (not shared with any other class) at 33. The Sorcerer has 0. </p><p></p><p>Worst case, if a variant Sorcerer were getting too big for his britches, cut back his Sorcery points or metamagic options.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The system itself really isn't that portable. 5e isn't designed to be this robust/elegant bit of code, it's natural-language suggestions and guidelines, any DM might run something differently than you might have expected, at any time... </p><p></p><p>One possible compromise for players - and a DM - who do want to play a game with that level of consistency is to impose that consistency ahead of time. Formal house rules that the DM will commit to sticking to, rather than off the cuff rulings. I seem to remember quite a lot of DMs running 1e that way. </p><p>I think I may have been one of them, at least, for a few years... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6881528, member: 996"] But, in a sense, every system tries to. And, 5e, in particular, is signed up to give a certain sub-set of everyone (all past D&D fans) a certain sub-set of everything (everything they had in those past versions of D&D they were fans of). But, even though 3e & 4e didn't have a mandate to be all things to all D&Ders, they did go pretty far down the road of being player-option-rich. 3e had thousands of feats and spells and hundreds of advanced Prestige Classes and even some extra-basic non-adventuring NPC classes. It had a detailed skill system that let you define your PC's competence rank-by-rank. An MCing system that was extremely flexible (if a little problematic here and there - some of which 5e fixed, BTW). It had a plethora of race choices, including LA races and templates. It even let you decide how your character and his gear looked, 're-skinning' (within reason) race and equipment. 4e had thousands of feats, hundreds of powers per class, Backgrounds, Themes, Paragon Paths, & Epic Destinies, plenty of races including MM playable races, MCing & Hybrids, and re-skinning was expanded to powers, as well. Not really, and, no, none of that looks like a huge concern for one important reason: the Sorcerer is a 'known spell' class, not a 'prepared spell' class. Whatever some variant Sorcerer might have access to, it's fairly tied to the spells it actually knows, that's a fairly small number - the Druid, Cleric, or Wizard will always be vastly more versatile in what spells they can choose to have available in a given day. OTOH, if a Sorcerer wanted to pach spells unique to Bards or Warlocks, it might be a bigger potential issue. Because the wizard already steps on so many toes and has so much versatility, already, perhaps? Moonsong has me wondering to what extent this is still the case in 5e, but in 3e, the Wizard and Sorcerer essentially shared a spell list. In 5e, the Wizard has the most unique spells (not shared with any other class) at 33. The Sorcerer has 0. Worst case, if a variant Sorcerer were getting too big for his britches, cut back his Sorcery points or metamagic options. The system itself really isn't that portable. 5e isn't designed to be this robust/elegant bit of code, it's natural-language suggestions and guidelines, any DM might run something differently than you might have expected, at any time... One possible compromise for players - and a DM - who do want to play a game with that level of consistency is to impose that consistency ahead of time. Formal house rules that the DM will commit to sticking to, rather than off the cuff rulings. I seem to remember quite a lot of DMs running 1e that way. I think I may have been one of them, at least, for a few years... ;) [/QUOTE]
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