D&D 5E Using Class Focus instead of Ability Scores (+)

[NotAYakk]

I mean, maybe I went too far.

But the Wizard has 0 combat, 0 defence, lowest HP, next to no baseline class features, the worst primary attribute... and full spellcasting.

And it is a good class.

If good combat gets you full AC and 1 attack/tier (or rough equivalent, like improved smite), a fighting style, d10 HD, plate-level AC or dex-attacks, and a fighting style equivalent ... that isn't as good as full spellcasting.

I'm also leery of your table of modifiers. A hice thing about proficiency is that it is one modifier, not a lookup table. Scaling is better done with features not "you get +1 to a d20"; the +1 to a d20 doesn't feel nearly as strong as it is. So you end up with lackluster feeling (not enough +1s) or mechanically dominant (too many +1s) power scaling.

I mean, look at BM superiority dice. 4d8. In a 20 round fight day, that is under 1 damage/round; but a +1 bonus to damage (flat) doesn't feel like it has the same impact. And a +1 to hit, despite being stronger than +1 to damage, feels even less impactful.

I'd suggest making good/medijm/poor be less about slightly different bonuses and more about discrete features. Like extra attack or the like.

 

[jmartkdr2]

This feels like way overthinking it to me. I've considered this:

No ability scores. They're gone.

Proficiency starts at +5 and goes up by one every third level (4, 7, 10, 13, 16 19) capping at +11.

Nonproficient rolls are at +0

For situations where you'd normally use an ability mod, use half proficiency. For AC, that means medium armor always gets a +2 dex mod added in.

For expertise, it becomes "half again" rather than twice.

There's a couple other edge cases, but that's better than 90% of situations solved.

(I don't like what this does to saving throws, but I haven't found a sufficiently elegant-yet-balanced answer there.)

 

[DND_Reborn]

This feels like way overthinking it to me.

The point was to replace ability modifiers + proficiency bonus, but also to differentiate between the focus for different classes.

Proficiency starts at +5 and goes up by one every third level (4, 7, 10, 13, 16 19) capping at +11.

This is a good progression for the "better" since it keeps the cap at +11 instead of 12. The rest would work well.

(I don't like what this does to saving throws, but I haven't found a sufficiently elegant-yet-balanced answer there.)

The easiest would be use the progression (+5 to +11) for proficient saves and half (round down) for non-proficient saves?

I just realized also using the progression - 5 would give you a +0 to +6 range, which might be preferable to half...