(Repost from g+)
So the buzz these days about the so called DnD Next is So, what would be your ideal Dungeons and Dragons 5E?
My ideal 5E would be mostly 4E, fixed to avoid becoming pointless after level 16 [1] (probably just cutting the number of levels in half), with a much stronger support for the rapid encounter building for GMs and less wishy washy incoherent babbling in the DMGs, replaced by clear guidelines of play for the GM (think AW moves).
Oh and maybe have Rob Donoghue write the Skill Challenge chapter from the get-go so that this time even people that weren’t playing story games would understand them [2]… and the math would make sense.
Also, expand and streamline the online support, allowing GMs to create and publish the campaign logs and to create and then award both generic and campaign-specific Achievements (we did it and it was silly fun, like “Bad Luck: three ones in a row”, or “SuperSave: crit on a saving throw”).
Something I’m not sure how to fix is the mostly flat to-hit curve (that is, your % of hitting is more or less the same at lvl 1 or lvl 20). Which is silly, when all the numbers around it keep becoming bigger.
I’m not holding my breath, obviously, since WotC has made pretty clear that they want a game “not about anything” because that’s easier to sell, and I like games about something.
-
We played a 30th level version of our party: we killed Empowered Orcus in LESS than one turn, after dispatching some 3 very high level Soldiers. If our striker had not smashed him, my practically indestructible warden would have pinned it inescapably. ↩︎
-
We enjoyed our Skill Challenges very much, using them for things like huge chases on griffin back while fighting hordes of black-angels, to mine-cart rides through dwarf mines, interpersed with big combats, and so on. But it seems that our enjoyement was a very rare thing among players… probably because the manual’s explanation in 4E sucks, and they only make sense if you already know from other (indie) games how to use them. ↩︎