MrFahrenheit
2016-02-11, 07:01 PM
Hi all. I would've confined my hello portion to the separate "new members" thread, but that's closed. So here I am. By way of introduction, I'm a DM with nearly a dozen years' experience, starting in 3.5 (with a bit of 3 thrown in), before moving into 4 and now finally 5e. Along the way, I also GMed short GURPS and EarthDawn campaigns.
I wanted to share thoughts and receive feedback on some reflections and ruminations I have with regard to 5e. My campaign started almost a year ago, at level 1. They're now 10, and I plan to go all the way to 20.
Reflecting on editions, I have to say 5e is my favorite. It's like 3.5 without product diarrhea, or both 3.5 and 4 without the crazy static bonuses at later levels. These static bonuses remain low, thanks to bounded accuracy, and therefore 5e puts a much higher emphasis on rolling a die - the heart of the game.
Comparisons to the past aside, one of the things 5e really excels at is balancing out the classes and races (with one exception, tackled below). I'm talking primarily core here.
First, the classes: while there are severs ways to compare them, for me the most effective is by spell progression, which means there are four categories (subjectively). First is your full spell casters (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor, Wiz). Next your half casters (Pal and Rgr). Following that are optional casters (Ftr, Mnk, Rog. I put monk here because ki is effectively used as spell slots for the four elements subclass). Finally we have the misc category (Bbn and War - one has no spell casting ability; the other has a vastly different mechanic that offers far fewer slots but that reset on short rather than long rests. Yes I know they synergize with "regular" casters when multi classing, but that's not the point). In reality though, most subclasses, though they differ greatly from each other, still end up relying on the primary class's features, due to either quantitatively limited features (i.e., maneuver dice or spell slots), or situationally limited ones (i.e., assassinate when you don't get a surprise round, or fast hands against a monster with no equipment). Classes are really the meat and potatoes of a character. Subclasses are the seasoning.
As far as races are concerned, they're very balanced overall. Clearly some make more sense for a given class than others, but they're all well done. Except humans. You either get a sub par standard choice, or an incredibly overpowered variant. So I houseruled them (more on that below).
Finally, the online releases and splat books provide great options. Excepting subclasses that do something like the favored soul, which IMO break sorcerer by providing extra spell selection, they're all pretty darn good.
Onto house rules. Remember my note on human from earlier? After debating and analyzing and agonizing over it for a year, I developed a solution. My players may choose humans, and only the standard RAW humans. However, they may swap out any and up to all +1 ability bonus(es) for a skill proficiency of their choosing. Ghost wise halflings from the SCAG are also in my campaign, but I gave them a 25 foot swim speed and the ability to cast "Breathe Underwater" as a ritual (it makes sense for my setting). I also created a tundra dwarf - they don't get a sub racial +1, but receive cold resistance and can wield versatile weapons in one hand while still receiving the larger damage die. There are also river elves, which are basically drow with water vehicle, navigator tool and insight proficiencies instead of sunlight sensitivity and improved dark vision. Finally I included permanently-shifted shifters, trading off the THP. Any other racial changes are aesthetic (one thing I could never stand is how long some of the races live, so I made humans a baseline average 80 years, then did +/- 10 year increments for the others).
I touched classes very little, with the exception of the favored soul subclass, which I yanked from sorcerer and moved to warlock, re-flavoring as a prophetic figure.
More importantly is the subject of multiclassing. I house rules that a character must have one more level in any given class than they have classes total. This meant no multiclassing until character level 4 at earliest. Originally the purpose of this was to make a character more expert in a given field before branching out, but now I like it even more, as it forces every character to take at least one subclass regardless of primary, before being able to branch out. To see how this works, they would need to be A3 before getting to B1. And then A4/B1 OR A3/B4 before taking C1. And so on.
On to desires.
First off would be an MM2. This isn't a cry for gem dragons and more beholderkin, as much as it is a request for more high level mooks. An adult dragon as a low-teen-level boss is fine, but then the experience is cheapened as the party fights monster air forces in order to level up later on. Yes I know there's bounded accuracy, but a lot of the monsters once you get to higher levels are meant to be bosses. An ogre the party fights one of at level 2 as a boss, and then sees more of at 5-7 is not the low level equivalent. I know the DMG lays out ways to level up monsters. But I'm already planning a campaign and a session. I may not have the time to level up mooks. Would be far more helpful to jot down "place six high level ogre magi from MM2 here for the next encounter," then move on to my next set of notes.
Moving on, the next would be more minis or tokens. A re-release of the old 3.5 mini figurines would be amazing, with 5e battle cards if WOTC deems necessary. Reasoning here is again not for variety (my 4e adult blue dragon toke can also be a giant crocodile), but because running a tabletop game that is not theater of the mind gets really expensive. More minis would hopefully drive the cost down. And minis are preferable for me by having a 3D representation. Tokens can do, but minis would be nice. A desire, but far more of a "want" than my MM2 "need."
Lastly, more weapon uniqueness. Maybe if just for martial weapons upon critting. What led me to this desire was seeing that there's no difference between glaive and halberd. What if halberd a do an extra damage die on a crit, while glaives knock prone, a whip entangles and a great axe stuns, and so on for different martial weapons on their crits? This is a theoretical and question, as it would need play testing, but it seems like a good general idea. Would apply to enemies with martial weapons too.
That's about it. Thank you if you've read this long and are compiling thoughtful responses. Tl;dr: I've DMed for over a decade, love 5e, have a few house rules, am considering another one for weapon uniqueness, really want an MM2 for higher level mooks, and more minis.
I wanted to share thoughts and receive feedback on some reflections and ruminations I have with regard to 5e. My campaign started almost a year ago, at level 1. They're now 10, and I plan to go all the way to 20.
Reflecting on editions, I have to say 5e is my favorite. It's like 3.5 without product diarrhea, or both 3.5 and 4 without the crazy static bonuses at later levels. These static bonuses remain low, thanks to bounded accuracy, and therefore 5e puts a much higher emphasis on rolling a die - the heart of the game.
Comparisons to the past aside, one of the things 5e really excels at is balancing out the classes and races (with one exception, tackled below). I'm talking primarily core here.
First, the classes: while there are severs ways to compare them, for me the most effective is by spell progression, which means there are four categories (subjectively). First is your full spell casters (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor, Wiz). Next your half casters (Pal and Rgr). Following that are optional casters (Ftr, Mnk, Rog. I put monk here because ki is effectively used as spell slots for the four elements subclass). Finally we have the misc category (Bbn and War - one has no spell casting ability; the other has a vastly different mechanic that offers far fewer slots but that reset on short rather than long rests. Yes I know they synergize with "regular" casters when multi classing, but that's not the point). In reality though, most subclasses, though they differ greatly from each other, still end up relying on the primary class's features, due to either quantitatively limited features (i.e., maneuver dice or spell slots), or situationally limited ones (i.e., assassinate when you don't get a surprise round, or fast hands against a monster with no equipment). Classes are really the meat and potatoes of a character. Subclasses are the seasoning.
As far as races are concerned, they're very balanced overall. Clearly some make more sense for a given class than others, but they're all well done. Except humans. You either get a sub par standard choice, or an incredibly overpowered variant. So I houseruled them (more on that below).
Finally, the online releases and splat books provide great options. Excepting subclasses that do something like the favored soul, which IMO break sorcerer by providing extra spell selection, they're all pretty darn good.
Onto house rules. Remember my note on human from earlier? After debating and analyzing and agonizing over it for a year, I developed a solution. My players may choose humans, and only the standard RAW humans. However, they may swap out any and up to all +1 ability bonus(es) for a skill proficiency of their choosing. Ghost wise halflings from the SCAG are also in my campaign, but I gave them a 25 foot swim speed and the ability to cast "Breathe Underwater" as a ritual (it makes sense for my setting). I also created a tundra dwarf - they don't get a sub racial +1, but receive cold resistance and can wield versatile weapons in one hand while still receiving the larger damage die. There are also river elves, which are basically drow with water vehicle, navigator tool and insight proficiencies instead of sunlight sensitivity and improved dark vision. Finally I included permanently-shifted shifters, trading off the THP. Any other racial changes are aesthetic (one thing I could never stand is how long some of the races live, so I made humans a baseline average 80 years, then did +/- 10 year increments for the others).
I touched classes very little, with the exception of the favored soul subclass, which I yanked from sorcerer and moved to warlock, re-flavoring as a prophetic figure.
More importantly is the subject of multiclassing. I house rules that a character must have one more level in any given class than they have classes total. This meant no multiclassing until character level 4 at earliest. Originally the purpose of this was to make a character more expert in a given field before branching out, but now I like it even more, as it forces every character to take at least one subclass regardless of primary, before being able to branch out. To see how this works, they would need to be A3 before getting to B1. And then A4/B1 OR A3/B4 before taking C1. And so on.
On to desires.
First off would be an MM2. This isn't a cry for gem dragons and more beholderkin, as much as it is a request for more high level mooks. An adult dragon as a low-teen-level boss is fine, but then the experience is cheapened as the party fights monster air forces in order to level up later on. Yes I know there's bounded accuracy, but a lot of the monsters once you get to higher levels are meant to be bosses. An ogre the party fights one of at level 2 as a boss, and then sees more of at 5-7 is not the low level equivalent. I know the DMG lays out ways to level up monsters. But I'm already planning a campaign and a session. I may not have the time to level up mooks. Would be far more helpful to jot down "place six high level ogre magi from MM2 here for the next encounter," then move on to my next set of notes.
Moving on, the next would be more minis or tokens. A re-release of the old 3.5 mini figurines would be amazing, with 5e battle cards if WOTC deems necessary. Reasoning here is again not for variety (my 4e adult blue dragon toke can also be a giant crocodile), but because running a tabletop game that is not theater of the mind gets really expensive. More minis would hopefully drive the cost down. And minis are preferable for me by having a 3D representation. Tokens can do, but minis would be nice. A desire, but far more of a "want" than my MM2 "need."
Lastly, more weapon uniqueness. Maybe if just for martial weapons upon critting. What led me to this desire was seeing that there's no difference between glaive and halberd. What if halberd a do an extra damage die on a crit, while glaives knock prone, a whip entangles and a great axe stuns, and so on for different martial weapons on their crits? This is a theoretical and question, as it would need play testing, but it seems like a good general idea. Would apply to enemies with martial weapons too.
That's about it. Thank you if you've read this long and are compiling thoughtful responses. Tl;dr: I've DMed for over a decade, love 5e, have a few house rules, am considering another one for weapon uniqueness, really want an MM2 for higher level mooks, and more minis.