Wednesday, August 20, 2014

5E goodness and random thoughts...

I recently got the 5th edition D&D handbook.  It is a great handbook.  I love the art, the rules are pretty easy to understand and the group I play with have taken a shine to it.

Yet, because I like to tinker with the rules, I want to change things.

Let me start by saying awhile back, I got the reprinted Original White Box of D&D.  Though I was pissed because it took so long to get it in my hot little hands, I did love it when I finally got it.  One thing from the original texts I started to like was the idea of race-as-class.  Dwarves being tough fighters, elves being fighters that can cast magic, though in some rule variants the PC elf had to choose one class and stick with it for a day, and halfllings being sneaky fighters with a chance to hide away in forests and surprise people.

Now, combining that with some of the things I love about 2E, weapon and non-weapon prof. and how they are given out and then add on the 5E rules sets and I that is the basics of what is going on in my head.

Yet, what to do with some of these races that have come out since the white box?  Would they have to be pushed aside?  I don't think so.  I could see the gnome, the half-elf, half-orc, even the tiefling being allowed in as race-as-class.  I have some doubts about the dragonborn, yet I cold also bring in something from Dragonlance and the draconians.  Maybe...

Just some random thoughts I am throwing down here.  And, I seriously doubt I am ever going to try and make a campaign book or some type of game out of this, to publish at least.

Why weapon prof?  To me, I have always felt that this 3x stuff about "knowing all simple and martial" or "knowing all simple" weapons is kinda silly.  You might know how to use it, but to be proficient with it means you have had some training, you aren't going to cut your foot off, smack yourself in the head with your hand when you pull back the bowstring or know how to hold a flail and how to slow it down...FYI, I have one and those things are NO JOKE!  Hence, in 2E, you had to select which weapons you knew how to use.  For a fighter, that was up to four different weapons.  For a wizard, one.  It just fits better in my mind that characters can't pick up a short sword and know how to use it as well as a long sword.  Very different fighting styles, I have found.

But say the PC wants to pick up the glowing blue short sword of +2 glowing, if he commits to learning it, using it and maybe some instruction from someone who knows how to use it, in a level or three, that PC could mark it as a proficient weapon.

There is more, but I must go to bed, since I need to take a friend to the airport early tomorrow...technically today.