D&D 5E What Would You Give Up For A Cheaper PHB?

[Ichneumon]

Good news! After noticing your erudite and convincingly well argued posts on ENWorld, WotC have sought your advice on possibly lowering the Player's Handbook's price tag. Of course, there's a catch. Doing so means part of the PHB will be removed, and saved for a future product. So you have to decide how much you want to strip it back by, in order to get a more affordable product. Or you can choose not to reduce it at all - in which case, the price stays as is.

I'm assuming, for this poll, that the PHB will contain the following. Twelve classes, 9 or 10 races, plenty of subclasses, all content required for levels 1-20, a generous amount of original color artwork, and enough rules to run a full game with only the Monster Manual required as a supplement. Magic items are assumed to be omitted.

So, what would you give up to get the PHB for less? Or would you give up anything at all? For the artwork options, 'Artwork Quantity' means you'd have less artwork altogether, 'Artwork Color' means you'd have mostly B&W illustrations, and 'Artwork Originality' means you'd accept mainly recycled art.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Skills
Feats
Races beyond the core 4
Classes beyond the core 4
Levels beyond 10

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I'm willing to negotiate on artwork. In fact, I'd love a black-white-blue PHB! Those are the the colors of my favorite PHB ever!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I voted nothing. I'm fine with a $50 price tag.

GX.Sigma's proposal could work for a cheaper, basic version of the PHB. The reduced page count would make it a bit easier for new people to get into the game.

 

[The Human Target]

It doesn't need to be any cheaper, but of those I'd for sure ditch higher levels.

Most campaigns don't even reach em, and one of the big mistakes of my beloved 4e was having 30 levels in the player books.

Edit- You know what, I decided to change to Artwork Originality.

What do I care if its old but good art?

If anything I'd prefer reusing some so we can get goid art for all the monsters and stuff.

 

[Philousk]

High-level content too! Anyway, I always liked the concept palliative BECMI: a box of rules for every level representing a new stage of expertise with the rules. This collection also serves as a teaching or reward for those investing for the first time in.

So for me it would be several PHB or at least I would consider this approach for the Starter Set. Otherwise, $ 50 for a PHB is still reasonable to me given the current economic environment. However, it is imperative that I have for my money!

 

[Raith5]

Nothing.

Given the amount of fun you get out of an edition 50 bucks it is not a bad deal.

And really this is not something where I think it would be wise to cut quality or quantity.

 

[Stormonu]

For my buck, you can cut back on the artwork. I buy rulebooks for the rules - the art is a nice pretty, but when it starts becoming a major factor (inflating the cost or reducing content), I'd rather see it go.

I'm reluctant to cut out high level stuff, even though I don't use it. Certainly anything past 20th can go as far as I care. I could get by with as low as cutting down to 12th level for the game, though.

Overall, I think a $50 PHB is silly if it's going to be the classic PHB, DMG & MM. I'd rather my rulebooks not be above $60 total for the base game. If I go past that, sure - tag me for more. But for a base game, $60 is my limit.

 

[Ichneumon]

I voted for Nothing. If forced to pick something, I'd choose removing the high-level content, but that's it.

 

[Raith5]

It doesn't need to be any cheaper, but of those I'd for sure ditch higher levels.

Most campaigns don't even reach em, and one of the big mistakes of my beloved 4e was having 30 levels in the player books..

I would prefer to have the high level content in the original books. Partly because I want to ensure that high level play has been well integrated into the maths and types of spells and monsters etc available at high levels (as in 4th ed, but not in some earlier editions). Partly because campaigns I play normally get to high level and also because I really want to know how a character concept is going to end up before I start.