D&D 5E (2014) Variants I am thinking of trying

[phantomK9]

My group has tried speed factor initiative and it didn't go over well. Too many questions about, "What if I change my action?", "What if I want to switch weapons.".

And after awhile it just became a standard modifier to everyone's initiative as the modifiers weren't varied enough to make a difference, so the player's didn't like it, so I dumped it. We are happy with standard initiative.

 

[Lanliss]

My group has tried speed factor initiative and it didn't go over well. Too many questions about, "What if I change my action?", "What if I want to switch weapons.".

And after awhile it just became a standard modifier to everyone's initiative as the modifiers weren't varied enough to make a difference, so the player's didn't like it, so I dumped it. We are happy with standard initiative.

I am not worried about the bonuses not being varied enough, I would simply be making them up as I go on a case by case basis. I also would not allow any changes to actions. The only real issue I could see coming up is if it adds too much time to the game, in which case I can just remove it.

 

[Bupp]

Spell points always sound good, but IME the game has to be balanced around it. I've not looked at the 5E version, but earlier versions that I've seen would allow a character to cast more higher level spells at the cost of lower level spells. Since higher level spells are usually just better, this is a win for the caster, especially since you can fall back on cantrips after you Nova. My only thought would be to require cantrips to cost some amount of spell points (possibly a fraction of a point, depending on the cost for 1st level spells), to keep that from happening. This might weaken the caster (since they won't have free cantrips like normal casters), but that's the price of flexibility.

You bring up a valid point, you can certainly go nova very easily with a spell point system.

I use spell points in my game, but only for sorcerers. It helps them stand out more from wizards, and now metamagic and going nova are both part of their shtick.