D&D (2024) What do you want to see excised?

[delericho]

Treasure tables, as they currently exist in the dmg, should be excised and replaced with something more fitting 5e play.

Those are amongst the very few bits of the DMG that I actually use!

When was the last time you rolled "3d6x10" EP when putting together an adventure?

Friday.

 

[Reynard]

Figuring out how to get treasure out of the dungeon, tallying up how much you got for the sake of leveling up, and getting really lucky on a magic item table all make sense when one is playing an early edition. In 5e, it's just bookkeeping. I'd rather have the book that suggests wealth by level or by tier, and then gives me flavorful examples of valuable objects.

That's one way to make wealth matter. There are lots of ways. They should provide a bunch of them.

 

[Lanefan]

That's one way to make wealth matter. There are lots of ways. They should provide a bunch of them.

Starting with a magic item price guide where each item is individually priced based on some combination of assumed rarity, overall usefulness, and cost of manufacture or creation.

A magic item price guide built around a formula (as in, the way both 3e and 4e did it) doesn't work, as it utterly ignores the usefulness piece leading to wild over-valuing and under-valuing of some items.

 

[MockingBird]

I found that if I give the +1 weapon a cool name it gets remembered.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Starting with a magic item price guide where each item is individually priced based on some combination of assumed rarity, overall usefulness, and cost of manufacture or creation.

A magic item price guide built around a formula (as in, the way both 3e and 4e did it) doesn't work, as it utterly ignores the usefulness piece leading to wild over-valuing and under-valuing of some items.

that is surprisingly well thought out.

 

[Reynard]

Starting with a magic item price guide where each item is individually priced based on some combination of assumed rarity, overall usefulness, and cost of manufacture or creation.

A magic item price guide built around a formula (as in, the way both 3e and 4e did it) doesn't work, as it utterly ignores the usefulness piece leading to wild over-valuing and under-valuing of some items.

Meh. I don't think it is the most important thing. I would rather see costs for fortresses and staff, and waging war. Or for bankrollng caravans or merchant ventures. Turning every gold piece the PCs find back into items that disrupt the mathematical balance of the game is the last thing I want, in fact.

 

[Haplo781]

Meh. I don't think it is the most important thing. I would rather see costs for fortresses and staff, and waging war. Or for bankrollng caravans or merchant ventures. Turning every gold piece the PCs find back into items that disrupt the mathematical balance of the game is the last thing I want, in fact.

At least give them a recommended level.

 

[Lanefan]

Meh. I don't think it is the most important thing. I would rather see costs for fortresses and staff, and waging war. Or for bankrollng caravans or merchant ventures. Turning every gold piece the PCs find back into items that disrupt the mathematical balance of the game is the last thing I want, in fact.

There's a difference between us, I suppose, in that I largely don't give much of a fig about the mathematical balance. If the PCs get too powerful I can always up the opposition (in the long run, not the here-and-now of any given battle!), while if they get in over their heads* it's on them to find a way out. And if the game's that finely tuned that the presence or absence of some magic items will throw it out of whack, it's neither robust nor flexible enough for what I want.

* - by their own doing; if I run them into something over their heads by my own error I'll usually try to provide some sort of out-clause or getaway car, which it's then on them to not ignore...

 

[Malmuria]

Meh. I don't think it is the most important thing. I would rather see costs for fortresses and staff, and waging war. Or for bankrollng caravans or merchant ventures.

I just don’t know that style of play is much more than a rather small niche anymore. Not tiny—the MCDM products were very successful (though in part just building off the success of MC’s youtube channel). But if some element of base-building were part of the game, wotc would do better to look at blades in the dark or the free league year-zero games for building out a system. I think that would fit the tenor of 5e more than a “2000 gp for a drawbridge” type subsystem.

 

[Undrave]

Wizards.

Most things I would like to see 'excised' are things that I want replacements for and, in particular, would massively change the game in many ways. So I'll go with something simple:

Trap options and mechanics that do not work as intended and are probably too difficul to replace with something that just works without causing further issues, assuming nothing drastic changes about the system

Example: True Strike. The spell is actively a bad idea in 5e for a wide variety of reasons; I don't see how you could rework it to work in 5e without making it ridiculous.

True Strike should never have been in the PHB and instead Toll the Dead should have been there to give the Cleric and Bard more than 1 damaging cantrip.