Spoiler: Babblings adn musings
Show
I have been thinking this for a while. This game comes from several conversations with people and 2 years DMing 5ed and killing exactly one single PC despite running brutal encounters -fair and in their level, I'm not a fan of unbalanced sandbox.
Then I found prof Dungeonmaster's Deathbringer -Completely recomend it- and the game improved, a lot. Since I have been shedding all my conceptions of this game of ours, much as I just love it, and I love making characters, the truth is that there's only an illusion of choice and all the crunch boils down to doing the same with different names.
So, ater all this BS, what are we playing? An open system? a do watchyouwanna? Deathbringer 5e? No. Well, kinda Deathbringer. But not 5ed (yikes)
We are playing with 5 archetypes: The warrior, the scoundrel, the survivalist, the mystic dude/gal and the weird magic dude/gal. Most of DND boils down to those, whatever you call them and whatever insignificant micro-choice they have in a 3.5, PF splatbook or spheres of wonkiness.
My main gripe is that things get too crunchy and specific and when you want to do something cool, you simply don't have it or is completely broken. But don't fret, this is not a new system, a dreaded new standard to conquer all standards. It is but a simple proposition:
Rules: this is 3.5 in regards to abilities, BAB, saves, death, healing, weapon size, spell names (more on that later), action economy, status, etc.
This is 5ed in that we use the wonderful concept of advantage instead of the annoying amount of micro-bonuses to stuff.
And this is 5ed in that buff spells (when they work) require concentration and can't have more than one active.
Spoiler: Big 16ish
Show
Warrior: HD 12, Any simple or martial weapon (unarmed strike is a martial weapon) any armor, good BAB, Good fort save. May trade down the HD for a better Ref or Will save.
Advantage on athletic stuff that makes sense.
NOT TODAY: May absorb 1d6 of damage as an immediate action 1/round (you chose if its a parry, a smart anticipation, you take it on your hairy chest and roar and ignore the damage, you snatch that arrow aimed at your head, whatever) this increases one dice category alongside Deathbringer Dice (see below).
Bada$%ery: You may do something cool as a swift 1/encounter (DM's discretion): i.e. attack two enemies at once, spring attack, jump from mount, feint, swing from a chandelier, shove an enemy.
Scoundrel HD 8 Simple weapons and 4 martial weapons. medium BAB good ref, may trade down HD for a better save. Advantage on scoundrely things and skills (more later).
Double damage when flanking.
Slippery: 1/round Swift to Disengage or hide.
Craven's Luck: once per encounter may use an immediate to re-roll or make someone re-roll.
Survivalist HD 10, simple weapons, 2 martial melee weapons, 2 martial ranged weapons. good BAB, good ref and Fort. may downgrade HD for a good will save.
Advantage on survivaly things and skills.
Crafty: 1/encounter immediate action to declare a trick and force 1 enemy to make save DC 12: Dex stops enemy, Fort enemy is dazed 1 round, Will enemy is confused or can't attack. i.e Dex="I throw a snare", Fort "I spit in his face" Will "I feint dead".
Awesome: 1/round may use a swift to do something athletic or acrobatic as part of their movement. i.e jump suddenly, stand from prone, tumble
Mystic: HD 8, simple weapons, 1 martial weapon. light armor. Medium bab Good will save. May downgrade HD for better saves.
Knows 3 cantrips and 2 lvl 1 spells.
Mystic soul: 1/encounter as a swift action may channel mystic energies into something cool: I.e turn undead, lay on hands, smite an enemy, Ki strike, see invisibility.
Gifted: Advantage in mystical things: autohypnosis, concentration, etc. May use those for mystical creative uses off combat: i.e "the sight" minor scrying effect.
Magic dude/gal: HD 6, bad BAB, three simple weapons, good will save. May downgrade HD for better save.
Advantage in spellcasting rolls(more later),
knows 4 cantrips, 3 lvl 1 spells and 1 lvl 2 spell.
1/encounter swift or immediate may do something magically cool: I.e add 1d6 to a spell casting check, try to daze an enemy, counterspell, metamagic (each DD reduce 1 level).
Skills and Backgrounds: skills come from fluff, background and adventuring experience. Are you a warrior from the steppes? Then you can ride and can use as if you had mounted combat and ride by and mounted archery. But you can’t swim.
Are you a mystic from the cold high mountains? Then you can autohypnosis, know religion, heal and sing melodic Ommmmmmsss.
A street urchin from Zamora? Stealth and bluff are your thing. Maybe poison!
A cimerian? Then you are stealthy, athletic, perceptive and noble. But you are probably bad at reading people.
But! Have Your adventures taken you to the high seas? Or to the darkest jungles beyond the black river? Then you are a sailor and can discern what plants kill you.
In sum: pick 10 skills that fit your background. You are considered to have max ranks on those. The rest comes from hard earned learning.
Yes, cherry pick. I can always say no.
Skills can have creative uses that make sense: Heal to recover some hp, handle animal to make a beast sleep, etc.
Spells:
Anyone can learn and cast spells. Anyone. But knowledge is scarce, dangerous and taxing. Casters are living grimoires, they record the spells they learn as runes carved in their skin, and the process can be deadly. All magic is divine and what's divine is arcane. It comes down to what each individual or culture interprets as magic. There's no psionics in this setting, at least not available to characters, and there's 0% transparency between magic, psionics, incarnum, etc. In case it ever matters.
We will use spells from PHB I and II and the Spell compendium, nothing else.
There are no spell points or spell slots. If you know a spell and have it carved in your skin, you can TRY to cast it. Roll an unmodified check vs DC 10+ spell level. Success? You cast. Failure? You don’t. Nat 20? The spell takes place exactly as described in the books! Nat 1? DM rolls a mishap and chaos ensues. DCs are defined by one of your mental scores, up to you and what your character is: bookish, sorcerous, mystical...
Cantrips DC to cast is 8.
Now, one common misconception is that characters are entitled to their magic stuff just working… silly things. Why would it? Magic is powerful and harnessing is a dangerous premise. Magic gals and guys have an advantage on their rolls. But even then… why would casting a spell be more exact than swinging a sword? Why would it work regularly as described? When you pass a casting check, the DM interprets the spell and the situation. Basically, when you learn to cast a fireball, you get the rudimentary manipulation of fire evocation and a general idea of what would happen.
Magic dudes and mystic gals, mystic dudes and mystic gals (and the full spectrum) are constantly looking to learn magic! It Is their Leif motive! The only way to learn a spell is to find one of the ancient books or have someone teach you the secret words! Then carve it in your skin and hope you manage the shock! Once you find a spell, if ever, you must study the words and rites (Spellcraft check varies) and then carve it on your skin, a painful process that drains you. Unmodified check DC 10 or permanently lose 1d4 hp from your max.
Magic items:yeah right! I guess there are some.
Companions and familiars: beasts are food, move on.
Feats: feats are at the rotten core of meaningless specificity. We don’t need them.
Character advancement:
BAB and saves and HD advance with level. Per encounter abilities advance every odd level. Ability score increase ever 4 levels. Nothing else.
What you get, and this is directly from Deathbringer, is Deathbringer dice: every level you get 1 1d6 that become 1d8 at 6th, 1d10 at 10 and so on until 1d20 at 20th. You start with 2 Deathbringer Dice.
These are usable Per encounter, can be combined, and let you do cool stuff as part of actions:
1. Add your dice to an attack, damage, save or other roll.
2. Gain a use of one of your abilities.
3. Spent two to mimic another archetype abilities
4. Gain a benefit from a feat (dm discretion)
5. Gain evasion or mettle
7. Roll for temp hp
8. Spent them to amplify your abilities and make them more epic.
Now, you may ask. What if I want a barbarian, or a bard, or a samurai? Well, that’s easy. None of those are classes nor should they be. Barbarians were what “civilized” folks called those who didn’t speak their language. Barbarian is a background, and it varies widely! A Noble barbarian warlord, Attila the Hun! A “barbarian” dancer or slave. Bards, more of the same. Samurai were a social order, so were knights.
Get too specific and you get dumb classes like the 3.5 samurai… or circumstantial archetypes as in PF.
How do we, then, get the play-like feeling of those? That’s part of your fluff. PF tried to codify some stuff with inspiration, stamina, grit, bushido, etc. the same stuff and again the illusion of micro choices. This is were I’m more open as DM. And also much more restrictive. This right here is what marks alignment, and other choices. I won’t give guidelines until I have a cast of characters, but these could affect your abilities, or add new uses to your skills (BARDS!) or your Deathbringer dice.
Races let's call them species and do what WoC should have done 40 years ago to avoid any debate. You are human AND that really is meaningless as there are no relevant game effects. However, let me hear out if you have demon's blood, or a troll in the family tree, I'll see if has any implications.
Spoiler: Q&A
Show
1. Cantrips DC to cast is 8
2. Cantrips require carving but have no risk of damaging the learner.
3. Can there be non-human options? I'm open to creative input as part of the character's theme.
4. Can I fight with two weapons? yes, that's the whole point of this abstract patch. If your character can use a a knife, he can fight with two knives, no feat required. If your character is an archer, is likely he freaking knows how to not hit his allies. Do you want to do something like improved precise shot? Spent a Deathbringer dice. Do you want to ricochet an arrow to cut a corner and hit a target over cover? Spent 3 Deathbringer dice and so on.
5. Can a Mystic gal downgrade the HD twice to get all good saves? Yes, the only one who can't get three good saves is the Magic-person -From now on Grimoire- since
they can only go down to 1D4.
6. No large creatures. Small is ok, if you want to make a small adventurer it's fine, but not even Boombata was Large.
7. Unarmed Strike is a 1d6 weapon damage. It won't advance as monk, but there will be In-story ways of improving it. The Main takeaway is to abandon the notion of guaranteed linear progression of stuff
8. What about starting gear? We won't be tracking gear as much as we won't be tracking bodily needs unless is relevant for the story. Since the stories are episodic, I'll give you gear at the start of each adventure, from weapons to horses, rations, etc. If your character finds a cool item and attunes to it, there's a good chance to keep it through adventures.
9. We are using PF merged skills as in Stealth (MS & Hide), Perception (Spot and Listen), But we are keeping Concentration and merging Climb and Swim into Athletics.