Dungeons & Dragons 5.1E — Rogue & Wizard

[thoroughlyS]

Index

I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for about half of my life, first introduced to the game at the tail end of v3.5. I have been playing 5E since its release, and it is my favorite version of the game. I feel like the rules are simple, elegant, and cohesive... for the most part. But no game is truly perfect, even to an individual, and there are some rules that I feel were suboptimally implemented. Some build options in the game outshine others, leading to an oversaturation in play. Meanwhile, other build options are so underwhelming that they are neglected an are often called for reworks.

In this thread, I present my list of houserules (listed in red) which have the sole purpose of trying to make bad options good, and the best options merely great. In doing so, I hope to allow players at my table a greater breadth of concepts to explore, simply by making everything worth playing. These changes are to the rogue and wizard, which are both very mechanically solid already.

Rogue

Blindsense
Starting at 14th level, you are aware of the location of any hidden creature within 30 feet of you.
In addition, you don’t have disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures within 30 feet of you as a result of them being unseen by you.
To gain the benefits of this feature, you can’t be deafened.

Spoiler: Notes

Show

The official Blindsense feature really only gives half of what it thinks it does, because you are aware of the position of invisible creatures anyway unless they are hidden from you. I bump the range up to compare to Feral Senses for the ranger, and make it so that you can attack unseen creatures normally. This also means that you could potentially sneak attack an invisible creature.

Slippery Mind
By 15th level, you have acquired greater mental strength. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. If you already have this proficiency, you instead gain proficiency in Intelligence or Charisma saving throws (your choice).

Spoiler: Notes

Show

A minor change to bring this feature in line with other features that do the same thing.

Stroke of Luck
At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. You gain the following benefits:

• If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit.
• If you fail a saving throw, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20.
• If you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20.

Once you use one of the benefits of this feature, you can’t use that benefit again until you finish a short or long rest.

Spoiler: Notes

Show

Shamelessly stolen from Treantmonk. A perfect change.

Wizard

Arcane Recovery
You have learned to regain some of your magical energy by studying your spellbook. When you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
For example, if you’re a 4th-level wizard, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level spell slots.

Spoiler: Notes

Show

The official Arcane Recovery is the only feature which you recover after a day (not a long rest). I fix this.

Spell Mastery
At 18th level, you can instantly refocus the arcane energy you wield through long-established mental pathways. At the start of your turn, you can choose a number of spells you have prepared up to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) and change them to other spells in your spellbook (no action required). You can choose to replace prepared spells of any level, but your new prepared spells must be 1st through 5th-level.
Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

Spoiler: Notes

Show

I move the official Spell Mastery to be the wizards true capstone, and replace it with an expansion to the wizard's versatility. This is the aspect of the wizard's spellcasting that gives them their reputation, so I thought it prudent to expand upon that in the final tier.

Signature Spells
At 20th level, you have achieved such mastery over certain spells that you can cast them at will. Choose a 1st-level wizard spell and a 2nd-level wizard spell that are in your spellbook. You can cast those spells at their lowest level without expending a spell slot when you have them prepared. If you want to cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot as normal.
By spending 8 hours in study, you can exchange one or both of the spells you chose for different spells of the same levels.

Spoiler: Notes

Show

The official Spell Mastery under a new name, and made into the capstone that it always was.

[noob]

It kinds of fix the issue where most level 18 wizards had a strong incentive to take 2 fighter levels.

[thoroughlyS]

Yeah it's pretty weird that official Spell Mastery was given at 18th level when it so clearly feels like the real capstone. Especially compared to the official Signature Spells which is practically a ribbon, considering how low-power 3rd-level spells are for wizards at 20th level. (Weird but not surprising. The company is called Wizards of the Coast for a reason.)

[Catullus64]

I had hoped that perhaps you would do some moving-around of Rogue features, particularly subclass ones. As it is, the gap between subclass features at 3rd and 9th level feels somewhat stifling for a lot of Rogue character building; no other class has such a long wait between their first and second subclass level, and the ones that do typically have more choice points in between. Problem is, the rest of the Rogue progression seems so tight and spot-on that it's hard to decide what to move. Here's a possibility, though I'm far from certain about its ramifications.

Evasion moves from 7th level to 6th.
Round 2 of Expertise moves from 6th level to 9th.
Round 2 of Roguish Archetype moves from 9th level to 7th.

I've always found it weird that the class most anchored around resource-free play has a single-use feature as its capstone. I like the direction that you've taken Stroke of Luck in, at least.

I'll just use the space of this post to say I've read your Sorcerer and Warlock posts, and have no notes to give. These re-works have been enjoyable and thought-provoking reads, and I found most of your analysis compelling, even if some of the proposed solutions rubbed me the wrong way.

[thoroughlyS]

At my table I have a set of more involved reworks of the classes, which includes things like reorganizing levels. I avoid that for my public tweaks because they aren't important for making things work better (usually). For my rogue rework, I swap the levels exactly as you describe (Evasion at 6th, Archetype feature at 7th, and Expertise at 9th).

[rferries]

These fixes have been a delight to read. Just 2 things:

-Do your wizards get 3 cantrips at the start, like your other full casters?

-Do you have any revisions planned for druids or the bestiary?

[thoroughlyS]

The official wizard starts with three cantrips. I haven't had enough experience with druids to know what needs to be fixed. Same with artificers.