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

[delericho]

If we're going down the "reduced cost" route, it would be more efficient to reduce the game from three $50 books down to one $50, rather than from three $50 books down to three $40 books. (Which rather assumes that WotC haven't done that already.)

In order to achieve this, I would happily sacrifice setting-specific races (IMO the Kender, Warforged, and any other such races shouldn't be in the PHB anyway), all but maybe 8 classes (no need to cover everything from every previous PHB), and especially the high-level material (which is, sadly, likely to be insufficient anyway). Heck, if you assume the Starter Set is for newbies then the PHB can be assumed to be for experienced gamers, so you can ditch the basic "what is an RPG" stuff also.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

I voted for Artwork Quantity, Subclasses, and High Level Content.

Of those Artwork Quantity would be the thing I'd cut most as I want my rules to be rules and whilst artwork is good maybe a full page picture on average every 30 pages so 10 in a book is enough in my opinion. For subclasses I think these can be bumped to modules or done online to cut complexity. High Level Content whilst nice is rarely reached by most groups. I want the high levels to be balanced but bounded accuracy should fix most of the silliness that creeps in at higher levels.

 

[Plaguescarred]

All subclasses except the most vital and some of the classes/races or subclasses.


I wouldn't be willing to give up art quality. I am not against some B&W artwork, but i like my art with color.


As for class/race composition, i'm good with PHB 3.0 level of content

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

All of this really depends on the structure of the books. $50 is certainly a great price if it's for a complete self-contained game. However, given the original question:

- Art's sacrificial; color art doubly so.

- Some classes & races can be pruned. I can live without monks, warlocks, dragonborn, tieflings, warforged, and the like ...

- Spell count can be trimmed. Spells historically have consumed a lot of space.

- Plus most magic items can/should be moved to a DM's product.

 

[JeffB]

Core 4 R&C and a few pieces of B&W art works for me.

Worked for Moldvay/Cook/Marsh.

 

[Li Shenron]

I voted nothing, but as a second option I could let the Races beyond core 4 go, and would accept less (but not a bit worse) artwork.

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

Maybe you need just the Basic book.

 

[delericho]

Incidentally, I may well be in a minority on this one, but I actually really liked the format used in Essentials. (That is the physical format of the books, amount of art, and so forth - it wasn't necessarily the best arrangement of rules material, especially in the two "Heroes of..." books.)

 

[MoonSong]

Core 4 R&C and a few pieces of B&W art works for me.

Worked for Moldvay/Cook/Marsh.

Again that is what the starter box is for. Leave the PHB alone.

 

[variant]

Art is incredibly important. The first impression given to anyone is from the art. If they cheapen the art, they would give a bad first impression to many potential buyers. Black and white pages give the impression of a low quality product.

 

[darjr]

Keep with the $50 PHB. Just give me a cheaper option. Black and white and softcover.

The softcover phb that came with one of the boxed set starter games was great at the table, and it didn't break my back. It was full color though.