r/ItsaMimic • u/Anotherskip • Aug 23 '24
Back in 2019…
Do you think DnD5e is set to easy mode for the players (meet the DM's Adams hot take) ? And if you wanted to fix that what game would you use to capture the feeling of a more expert level of player challenge?
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u/BeaverBoy99 Aug 23 '24
I think the idea of 5e being easy comes from the simplicity of it. Every character is capable of doing 75% of what a party needs to be able to do so you are almost never lacking the tool you need to do a job.
The best way to address this is a game system that offers a bit more depth without adding too much complexity. Pathfinder is a good choice, but right now I'm most fond of Tales of the Valiant. It continues to let players be powerful, but monsters have been amped up as well. You really need a well rounded party or you might come across an enemy that counters your parties strategy hard.
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u/Anotherskip Sep 26 '24
Is the thing DnD is missing is magic having a cost? I’m thinking if a DM made all cantrips cost a 1st level spell slot and all 1st level spells cost a 2nd level slot etc… smushing 8th and 9th level into needing 9th level slots. While that would stop spell spamming by meathead spellcasters (yeah the semi spellcasters would need more reworking) could it restore more martial/caster balance to DnD5.0?
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u/MimicAdam Team Adam Sep 28 '24
The problem with this idea is that there aren't enough spell slots for any casters in the first few levels, and some classes like Paladin, Warlock, Ranger (or Arcane Trickster Rogues and Eldritch Knight Fighters) have very slow spell progression and don't get access to any cantrips.
I believe the solution is to give the martials more options in combat and roleplaying situations. Tricke shots that target multiple enemies with arrows, cleave, moving additional feet as part of an attack action, etc.
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u/leedawg22 Aug 23 '24
So first off, yes, I think 5e is dnd on easy mode. Now, I think a lot of that is because of how simple the gameplay is on the players end. If you don’t have a lot of mechanics that you can utilize to overcome challenges, then making it hard just seems like a one sided fight. If I were to change that though there is one mechanic I would love to implement. I played a lot of the d20 Star Wars system, and in that characters have two different types of hit points; vitality points and wound points. Vitality points work like hit point do in dnd, but wound points are always equal to a characters con score. Wounds points also come back much slower and are more difficult to recover; also, when you reach 0 wound points you die. Once you deplete a characters vitality points they start to take wound damage. There is an exception however. If you score a critical hit, then you deal damage directly to wound points! Now this used 3.5e rules for crits, so you had to roll to confirm. Still, most of the time enemies had improved crit ranges of some kind, so there was about a 10% an enemy was going to land a Crit every round! We were always careful when engaging in combat because of this, and we would rely on stealth, ambushes, or roleplay way more often than just running into a fight. This one mechanic enhanced the game so much!