5e Musings & Slightly More

A new edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been announced and the internet is abuzz (or at least the parts of the internet I frequent).

5e Musings
5e is supposed to be modular*. We’ve already know, that miniature-based combat is optional (though we no idea what the other options would be). I’m wondering if this will extend to character creation. I’m envisioning a system where someone building a wizard could take the old school option to have all daily powers, the 4e option for a mix of at-will, encounter, and daily powers, or something else entirely.

I would like to see them add pools of powers that multiple classes can draw from (probably based on power source and/or role) while cutting down classes to just the features and specific powers that best define that class. This also reduces the number of powers you need to put in the book and makes individual class write ups shorter (hopefully giving you room for more classes) by removing powers that are overly similar to each other.

I’d like to see less static bonuses from magic items, feats, and the like. This makes it easier to adjust how many magic items you want to include in your game without making things too easy or hard, and it opens feat slots for other thing that might be more interesting than +1 to hit or +2 to damage.

I like that 4e gives first level characters a bump in hit points, but I wish the hit point totally were scaled back a little for monsters.

I rather like the skill systems posited in these Legends & Lore articles: Skills in D&D and Difficulty Class Warfare.

A few people online have thrown around the idea of combining a content management system with print on demand for made to order core books. I have seen no indication this is even close to being an option, but I think it’s a cool idea. There was actual talk of something similar for the d6 system (but for .pdfs rather than pod) but it didn’t end up going anywhere.

* To quote Mike Mearls, "The new edition is being conceived of as a modular, flexible system, easily customized to individual preferences. Just like a player makes his character, the Dungeon Master can make his ruleset. He might say ‘I’m going to run a military campaign, it’s going to be a lot of fighting’… so he’d use the combat chapter, drop in miniatures rules, and include the martial arts optional rules." He also wrote a Legends & Lore article about the same topic a few months ago as part of the preannouncement build up.

Building a 4e Retroclone
In case 5e does ends up being unsuitable, someone (probably not me as I don’t have the motivation for such a project) could go digging into OGL sources to find bit and pieces that can build a new 4e (or something like it).

Just as an example, here what I could find in Unearthed Arcana.

• Player’s Roll All the Dice includes static defenses for monsters (albeit with a base of 11 to keep the same average hit rate).
• Complex Skill Checks are the predecessor of 4e’s skill challenges and there are two different methods of simplifying skill acquisition.
• There is a version of Action Point, but it’s very different than the 4e version.
• Reserve Points are kind of like a fiddlier version of healing surges.
• Recharge Magic is like a first stab at changing the power economy.
• Don’t forget Level-Independent Experience Awards.