D&D 5E What Single Thing Would You Eliminate

[Reynard]

Just a thread for "how would you change 5E" -- expect the explicit rule is that you only get to alter it by elimination, and you can only eliminate one element (although that may be broadly defined, as you will see in my example ).

For my part, I think I would get rid of non-human PC races. All of them. Maybe it is my players but no one I know actually plays a non human in a decidedly alien way. It's all rubber foreheads and free minor crunch enhancements. I think he world I would build in D&D would be much better with only human PCs, AND the image in my head of the PCs would likely be closer to what they are supposed to be from the players' perspectives.

What ONE THING would you remove from 5E?

 

[el-remmen]

Cantrips.

 

[TwoSix]

Clerics.

 

[kenada]

Just picking one thing is tough because there are a handful of things I would drop or change if we did 5e again. I hate to sound like a broken record (because it continues a theme from my dislikes and likes), but it would be non-flat DCs. Maybe just dump the skill system as-is altogether, but I’d want to replace it with something else.

 

[Undrave]

The traditional Schools of Magic. They're mostly there for tradition, a lot of time it makes no sense (why is Shield 'Abjuration' when it conjures up energy? Are Schools a META definition or an in-universe definition? PICK ONE!) and forcing them as subclass on the Wizard not only took way too much room with repetitive features in the PHB, but made the Wizard SUPER boring and difficult to expand. 'Schools' is a fine name for a Wizard subclasses but they should have been more flavourful and not restricted by the boring old 8 school concept.

 

[Democratus]

100% hit point recovery, energy drain, etc. on a long rest.

"Sleeping off" the unearthly touch of a wight doesn't seem right.

 

[Stormonu]

Hit point bloat. I’d really like to see HP levels go back to 1E/2E levels.

In the end, though there are far more things I’d like to ADD to the game, than subtract.

 

[steeldragons]

Drow as a PC option.

 

[embee]

Partial casters.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The quasi-Vancian approach to casting as a whole. 5E has already moved a fair bit away from straight-Vancian 1/2/3E-style. I'd remove the rest of that. The implications would be pretty huge and you'd need to replace it, but that's the one thing I'd remove.