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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9139610" data-attributes="member: 2067">Eliminate the idea of classes and "non-magical" characters. Then, put character options into adventure rewards.Everyone is magical. Everyone wields magic. Everyone is an "adventurer" or a "hero," and their abilities differ primarily in aesthetics. Everyone can heal like a cleric, because everyone can cast cure wounds roughly 3/day. Everyone can call down meteors, either with magic learned from arcane tomes, or this rod that makes me the Sky King, or a sword that slices a hole in the heavens. So why does everyone not always have the most powerful abilities?Because character options are not part of your class. You don't get to build your character in a vacuum. You have to choose your powers from amongst those granted by an adventure that you complete.So, anyone can cast cure wounds roughly 3/day. Because the ability to do that lies, say, in getting a blessing from the Goddess of Healing. And anyone who cleanses the abandoned temple of undead could get that ability. Not just "clerics," but anyone who wants to do the Goddess of Healing a solid.And that's not all. Maybe the same adventure lets you uncover a necromantic ritual that encases you in heavy bone. It's heavy armor. You don't get that because you're a fighter, you get that because you found it in an adventure, and any member of your party can have it.Maybe the adventure also contains a sacred blade that deals extra radiant damage (it's a radiant sneak attack, and you get it through your quest, not through being a rogue or picking the right subclass).And a scroll that you could learn the ray of sickness spell from. Anyone can learn it. It's just lying in the big bad's treasure hoard.And now you have four items for a team of four that covers some common archetypes. But as you go on more adventures, you can mix and match based on what your characters are like. Maybe the one in heavy bone also picks up the ability to infuriate people into an incoherent rage from an adventure featuring the fey, and they're putting together a solid provocation build with a high AC. Maybe whoever casts ray of sickness now picks up a healing ability later. So it's not Wizards Get Teleport. It's The Party Gets Teleport, and anyone the party thinks makes sense gets to use it. And it's not "justify how this warrior can only use their purely physical ability three times before they're too exhausted," it's "the magical sword lets you do this special move three times and then it can't because it's magic."You wanna be the purely physical barbarian? Focus on magic that enhances your life force and your big blows. Wanna be Batman? Great, focus on magic that enhances stealth, intimidation, and your ability to tie people up. And as a DM, you control the subtlety of your world. Want things relatively grounded? You never have to give out the wand that summons angels. You can keep it entirely in "cool bike tricks" land. And because everyone is playing one class that can use everything, no one will look at the difference and grumble about it being unfair. You can respec between adventures easily. Try out different builds without trying out different characters. Keep Backgrounds, so someone who wants to be a thief or a warrior still has some grounding and initial equipment in the right area. And, of course, feats and ASI's will affect what build someone might want to do, what items they might want to use. But one effective way to get people to stop going over class features with a fine tooth comb grousing about power levels is to put the difference in the playing of the game, rather than the building of a character. And then to accept that D&D is (out of the box anyway) about magical people in a magical world doing magical things. Lean into it.</blockquote>

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