Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Variant Rules

Not the most useful of articles for me... I won't use any of it. Nothing wrong with it, but I've tried all the ideas in prior editions and determined they were not my cup of tea. I see nothing in 5E that would make the player rolling, Vitality or their version of alignment an improvement for my games.

 

[doctorhook]

I've already been using the Player's Roll All the Dice variant since the day 5E Starter Set hit the shelves. It's been extremely successful, and I'd never go back! My players can worry about doing arithmetic while I focus on the game. That said, we use different numbers:

PC spell DC = d20 + ability mod. + prof. bonus
NPC saves = 14 + ability mod.

PC defense roll = d20 + Dex mod.* + armour/shield
NPC attack score = 12 + attack bonus

IIRC this is mathematically identical to the RAW, so I have my doubts about the numbers in the article.

Also, I'm interested in the vitality points idea, but this system looks somehow more complicated than the one in 3.5E's Unearthed Arcana.

Finally, this article seemed kinda short. Neat stuff though.

 

[Goemoe]

Disappointing. I had hoped for something psionic this time. I guess they did not get it right in time and pulled out something old from under the desk. At least so it feels.

 

[Chocolategravy]

Geez, people are so ungrateful. When somebody offers me something for free and it's not what I want, I say, "No, thank you," and move on with my life.

This is more like someone offering your kid a cigarette. Hurray, free lung cancer.

The player rolls rules are very clunky and the math is wrong.

The vitality rules are ludicrously bad, seriously try it out for 2 seconds, you'll see the problems.

The alignment section really says nothing.

I'm pretty sure this was thrown together in a few minutes and never looked at a second time and definitely not tested.

 

[Mistwell]

From the WOTC, a good breakdown of the Wound System here:

It seems like it adds a # of VP equal to your Constitution score to the bottom of your pile of HP, turning HP into purely Fatigue Points and VP into Meat Points.

For every 10 HP you lose, you lose 1 VP. On critical hits, you lose 2 VP for every 10 HP of damage. HP and VP are still intimately linked, just no longer undifferentiated...
Every point of VP lost reduces your effective Constitution score for purposes of determining your HP max. This is sorta clunky...
When your HP are 0 and you still have VP, damage goes straight to VP. i.e. once you can't dodge, you start taking wounds directly...
When your VP are 0, your HP drop to 0 if they're not 0 already. i.e. once you have no wound tolerance left, you can't have any dodge/luck, etc...
When you receive healing, it goes to your HP unless you're HP are at max, then healing goes to your VP at a 1:10 ratio. Healing HP is as easy as resting. Healing VP takes time or extra magic...
Resting restores a # of VP equal to 1+ your Con modifier, up to your VP max (i.e. Con score). Resting to recover VP takes a long time...

All in all, it looks nice. I think the only cumbersome bit is recalculating the HP max with every few VP that get whittled away.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I thought the article was a nice 5e take on some rules that appeared in the 3E UA book, I just think the 80% or so of the audience that is looking for player content is going to find DM end stuff unsatisfactory. They might consider that in future when writing these posts. I am sure that there would be a lot more interest in a "Snowborn" article with an ice domain, snow sorcerer, a feat or two, an arctic Ranger or Barbarian or some new cold based spells even in among people that are not in campaigns where that would be appropriate than there is for DM options.

I like the DM stuff myself, but I have to admit that is a small part of the audience for these articles.

 

[Mistwell]

This is more like someone offering your kid a cigarette. Hurray, free lung cancer.

WTH? How is this, in any way shape or form, comparable to lung cancer?

 

[JarretTheDM]

I liked the idea of variant rules articles like this, but I thought it could have been done better.

Vitality seemed a bit clunky to me. While it's not a system I would normally use, I could see it for some modern or scifi D&D games.

Alignment - I sure would have liked to have seen some examples. The 4e alignment system could have been an alternative, as well as the Oriental Adventures honor system. Maybe base one off of Faction affiliation. There's any number of ways to go with this one.

If you want to take a look at mine, I have a custom alignment system that I use.

http://ranath.wikia.com/wiki/House_Rules

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I thought the article was a nice 5e take on some rules that appeared in the 3E UA book, I just think the 80% or so of the audience that is looking for player content is going to find DM end stuff unsatisfactory. They might consider that in future when writing these posts. I am sure that there would be a lot more interest in a "Snowborn" article with an ice domain, snow sorcerer, a feat or two, an arctic Ranger or Barbarian or some new cold based spells even in among people that are not in campaigns where that would be appropriate than there is for DM options.

I like the DM stuff myself, but I have to admit that is a small part of the audience for these articles.

I much prefer DM stuff to bloat. (Although I liked the Waterborne article because the minotaur is important to Krynn, the Storm Sorcerer was already foreshadowed in the PHB, so it felt like it was missing or dropped in the first place, and the swashbuckling rogue really fills a needed niche). I just found that these particular variants aren't to my liking, and they seem to be rather esoteric peripheral rules, instead of the variants I'm looking for. I'm optimistic that they're still working on them though.

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people downloading the UA material were DMs. I think we're the target audience. Players can't implement this stuff without their DMs approval anyway.

 

[Li Shenron]

Sure it is mostly guidelines but I personally have 7+ alternate alignment systems ready for use.

Please share, somewhere

 

[Minigiant]

Please share, somewhere

Here's one. The Three way Sky, Sea, and Earth alignments.

Sky is active and involves advancing and attacking problems. Attacking the suspicious cultists and killing all followers.
Sea is reactive and involves countering and moving with problems. Spying on the cultists then choosing what to do.
Earth is still and involves not reacting or acting, doing the same. Ignoring the cult and spending resources on proven threats.
Neutral in this alignment system is going with one's gut and instincts.


And there are others.
The Ways of the Lion, The Vulture, The Stag, and the Oak.
Soft Target vs Hard Target
Magic vs Psionics vs Technology
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
The Axis of Honor and the Axis of Duty
Predator Mindsets: Lion, Leopard, Hyena, Wolf, Bear, and Buzzard

One of my favorites is my alphabet alighment with its As, Bs, Cs, Ms, Qs and Zs.