A Few Changes
2023-05-09
So for me there are a few things that I’ve found in my time playing with Advanced D&D, D&D 3.5, and 5e (along with adventures in CoC, 13th Age, and Pathfinder 1e) that just didn’t, sit right, with me. Now whether that represents my true genius as the next great game designer or a banal attempt to manufacture control in my life via controlling the minutia of a TTRPG I’m sure I’ll never know, because between those two options clearly there’s no way to figure it out. Regardless, I still am going to attempt to take my thoughts and put them onto this site’s journal. So to start with I’m going to make it clear that D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e are my starting points. They represent the upper and lower edges of complexities that I’ve found easily enjoyable for people in my life and so if you are unsure why I’m listing out changes without denoting which system I’m changing them from, you can assume it’s 5e or less often, Pathfinder.
But enough preamble, let’s go this entry done with…
Classes: While there are class editions such as Alchemist or class changes such as Champion neither really hits that fantasy which the class of 5e hit for me. However, the inconsistent application of their magic means that I’ve found the need to add my own Class, the Spellblade. This is a half-caster which utilizes Intelligence (compared to the Charisma of Paladins or the Wisdom of Ranger) and has removed the Eldritch Knight subclass from the 5e Fighter. Their goal is to not be as MAD (multiple attribute dependent) as the Eldritch Knight regularly is and to be a more accessible way to create the classic gith style sword and magic character fantasy which many of the people I’ve ran games for wished was more accessible. The other major changes I’ve made has been removing the psuedo-Vancian spellcasting from the Sorcerer (utilizing Spell Slots) and replacing them with a far more flexible form of Sorcery Points, a mixture of the classic Sorcery Points and the variant rule Spell Points from the handbook. However this is a massive system change so I’ll reiterate the magic I’ve changed in its own post, coming probably by the end of the month
Feats: These are almost mandatory and so I’ve made them easy to get. Every Character will get access to a Feat at Character Levels 1, 4, and 8 along with the normal ability to take a Feat instead of gaining their ability score increase. This includes the Fighter gaining 1 more Feat/Ability Score Increase at Level 6
Weapon Properties: I’ve added additional properties to Weapons to grant a reason to utilize different ones, such as Polearms with the updated Reach Property gain some benefits from the previous Sentinel Feat or specialized Weapons such as the Hook Sword granting the ability to Trip opponents or even the updated Small Property granting mechanical benefits for hiding and even granting Initiative bonuses
Conditions: I’ve kept many of the additional conditions from Pathfinder, though many actually come from D&D Spell effects that I’ve simply categorized into a Condition for the ease of use; conditions added in these ways include Confused, Dazed, Flat-Footed, Hasted, and Slowed.
Two Weapon Fighting: Bonus Action cost has been removed, being changed to a simple option whenever you take the Attack Action using a Weapon with the Light Property as long as your off-hand weapon also has the Light Property
I’m sure more rules will be dropped later but for now I think these are without a doubt the most prevalent for beginning my next steps in changes! I just hope this continues to go as well as it has been.
