Segev
2018-07-12, 03:51 PM
I was paging through the DMG last night, and just now remembered something I thought was cool in it. One of the things that the DMG discusses as a use for downtime is "training." Now, I almost passed this section by, being a veteran of 1e & 2e, where that was an optional rule that added costs and barriers to leveling up. But I read it to see if my preconception was right, and...it wasn't.
The suggested things that training can get you (admittedly over months and months of downtime) is new proficiencies. Tool, skill, and even language.
This is the first non-magic item mechanism I've seen, independent of leveling up, in any D&D edition to actually add new capabilities to your character. And the first system that didn't use skill points that I've seen which lets you add new skill proficiencies and languages at all. SAGA and Modern and other "choose your proficient skills; gain a bonus to them" systems all seem to fix you at what you start with. Maybe, when you raise Int, you gain more. But you can't branch out. (3e and PF did allow SP to be spent wherever you wanted on level-up.)
I personally like this. It gives more flexibility to character build, and lets you make constructive use of downtime (if your campaign ever has any).
Not sure that this really enables any "cool tricks," but it's bound to be a useful tool for some of the more frustrating situations, like, "Hey, there's this new language none of us speak. Better hope we level up...oh, wait, none of us get new languages by leveling up this edition."
Anyway, I just wanted to post this to call attention to it, but I'd also be interested in others' comments as to its utility, as well as any other neat little hidden things that might be interesting. We spend a fair bit of time arguing over changes to 5e that may or may not be positive or negative; I figured a "here's something I like that's new and not spoken of often" might be beneficial.
The suggested things that training can get you (admittedly over months and months of downtime) is new proficiencies. Tool, skill, and even language.
This is the first non-magic item mechanism I've seen, independent of leveling up, in any D&D edition to actually add new capabilities to your character. And the first system that didn't use skill points that I've seen which lets you add new skill proficiencies and languages at all. SAGA and Modern and other "choose your proficient skills; gain a bonus to them" systems all seem to fix you at what you start with. Maybe, when you raise Int, you gain more. But you can't branch out. (3e and PF did allow SP to be spent wherever you wanted on level-up.)
I personally like this. It gives more flexibility to character build, and lets you make constructive use of downtime (if your campaign ever has any).
Not sure that this really enables any "cool tricks," but it's bound to be a useful tool for some of the more frustrating situations, like, "Hey, there's this new language none of us speak. Better hope we level up...oh, wait, none of us get new languages by leveling up this edition."
Anyway, I just wanted to post this to call attention to it, but I'd also be interested in others' comments as to its utility, as well as any other neat little hidden things that might be interesting. We spend a fair bit of time arguing over changes to 5e that may or may not be positive or negative; I figured a "here's something I like that's new and not spoken of often" might be beneficial.