D&D 5E Tweaking PCs/Respeccing

[Reynard]

I have been running a Fantasy grounds 5E game for a while now.The PCs just hit 5th level and I have decided to tell the players they can make the changes and tweak their PCs before the next big adventure commences. Most of the players are new to 5E and some haven't played D&D for 20 years or more. In some cases I got the sense players weren't happy with how certain mechanical choices reflected the concept they had. In others it was obvious some some choices were just plain bad (5E is not a finely balanced machine).

I am just curious how others handle this kind of tweaking/respeccing in their campaigns. Do you let players change their characters once? a few times? never? Do you find new or edition unfamiliar players appreciate this kind of thing? Is respeccing better than bringing in a new character? Do you put any limits on tweaking in order to retain continuity?

 

[WarpedAcorn]

The DM running the home game I play in let us tweak characters once we hit level 2. Its the point where I switched from a Paladin to a Fighter/Cleric due to the Paladin nature causing an issue with one of the new players who had an Assassin. He offered the tweak for the same reason you mentioned, none of us were super familiar with 5th Edition.

With my own game that I run, I have allowed small respecs when the players have asked. For instance, the Eldritch Knight asked me if he could swap his Fighting Style because he wasn't getting a lot of mileage from Protection and regretted choosing it, so I let him swap that. The Sorcerer also changed a few spells out after learning how they actually worked. Those minor tweaks I don't have an issue with.

It hasn't directly come up, but one of the players has mentioned that he would like to try out different builds. After my current campaign ends, I am looking to try something different and actually allow this to happen. Swapping characters out really doesn't affect the game much unless you are running games based on specific player backstories. But even then those can be put on hold. Will it hurt the game that Dave the Barbarian brings in a Bard the next game? Not really, the Barbarian got sick and had to wait at the village for his fever to break, but this wandering minstrel heard of your epic quest and wanted to chronicle the adventure for his next ballad.

Personally, the only restrictions I would enact involve keeping things peaceful and fun at the table. If someone wants to tweak something minor about their character, no problem. If they want to tweak something major like their archetype...maybe we can work that into the game somehow. If they want to create a new character, then I typically put them 1 level lower than the rest of the group's average level, and of course do not let them transfer wealth from their old character to the new one.

As the DM I think its our job to keep things fun for everyone. So long as someone tweaking or changing their character isn't disruptive or causing problems at the table, it should not be a difficult thing for the DM to overcome.

 

[Reynard]

If they want to create a new character, then I typically put them 1 level lower than the rest of the group's average level

Out of curiosity, why? What is the rationale?

 

[Sunseeker]

I allow in-class changes, you can change feats, features or switch sub-classes pretty much whenever. I frown on class switching because if they weren't familiar with class A, then we're going to be right back in that boat with class B; especially if they're new to the game. I tend to encourage players to make two backup characters, which they can change out any time we are in a major civilized area.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

Out of curiosity, why? What is the rationale?

Respect to the other players at the table. I feel that XP is the character reward for making it through the challenge or adventure. I don't award XP to characters that didn't participate in the adventure, and because of that there are people at the table who do not all have the same XP value. If a player wants to change their character, I don't feel its fair to the table to bump that new character to the same XP value as their previous one. And a 1 level difference doesn't make a big deal power-wise.

I don't make them start at level 1 because the new character should ultimately feel useful and a part of the party, not someone just tagging along.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

I tend to encourage players to make two backup characters, which they can change out any time we are in a major civilized area.

This is something else I want to try next campaign I run.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

We allow respeccing pretty liberally in our game. Every player has at least 2 PCs; 3 DMs in shared Forgotten Realms game.

There's exactly one instance of a disallowed respec that was obviously for powergaming reasons: a paladin got a belt of giant strength and wanted to drop his strength and raise his charisma. Nope.

Other than that one instance we've allowed changes to class features, archetype, spells, ASI/Feat selection, skills, languages, etc. I can't recall anyone asking to change classes. About 40% of the 25 or so characters in the campaign have had at least one change.

 

[Pickles III]

Do what you like it's your character, but please keep me informed. Also pure powergaming as "eg ed" in the previous post would be frowned on.

I am more concerned about story changes than mechanical ones myself, so maybe a change into or out of cleric. It's something I would adjust to rather than forbid though.

 

[mellored]

I allow it anytime the player isn't having fun..

 

[cooperjer]

I allow spell changes because all of my players have come from version 3.5 and make assumptions about the spells based on past knowledge and don't read the PH close enough. I've had one class change, but that was from the UA Mystic when it was only specified for 5 levels. Once WoTC released the latest UA Mystic the player asked to change to a full rogue from the PH rather than be asked to revise her character every time WoTC released a new version of the class. I've also allowed the player of the sorcerer to swap out meta-magic. She wasn't having fun with the subtle spell meta-magic.

How is this handled in game play? I don't worry about it. The game play continues on as before with the same character. The abilities of the character did not affect the direction of the story.