Okay so -
I want to preface this by saying I love DnD 5e in general. My hatred towards some of its aspects doesn't distract from the fun I have at all. With that out of the way I have two things to talk about...
Feats
The idea of using feats to improve your character sounds great, but then when you make a feat that becomes mandatory it is no longer a "feat" but instead a core feature. An example of this would be War Caster and Great Weapon Master. Both of these offer such a gargantuan boost in power you practically must take them in order to function more effectively (And in GWM's case in order to actually keep up with spellcasters). But there's an even bigger issue I have with it: Feats that offer a tremendous boon while still offering ability score improvements. There is no trade off here. You get a boost to your stat and a full feature, which isn't okay. There are extremely few examples I have less issue with like skill expert. Skill Expert allows the player more flexibility with a skill, which is unrelated to combat (usually).
Spoon Feeding
I really don't like how 5e spoon feeds the player everything they need. There's no planning, you get significantly more than you need and then never capitalizes on it. An example is each class offering 2+ skills, then when you choose a subclass it gives another skill. I would much rather prefer if a subclass required you to have the skill first, and then improve upon the skill in its own way. In real life you don’t work at a wood shop then suddenly you have proficiency with woodworking tools day 1, you need to be able to use it in the first place.Perhaps 5e’s intention is that gaining proficiency with the skill when you reach the subclass is a sign that your character was training to use it, but I very rarely see anyone talk about enforcing a player to role play learning how to use the skill. Imagine if a cleric was actually studying medicine as a part of being a Life cleric. Wouldn’t that add so much more flavor? I’m not demanding a player to study each and every day, but incorporating it more into role play would make their character feel more “down to earth”, like you could reach out and touch the character.
Anyway. Thanks for coming to one of my shorter blogs!
I got to say, I do agree with the first point - it would be better if they had feats that are explicitly non-combat, and maybe, just maybe, combat feats in a separate way.
ReplyDeleteAs for Spoon Feeding, I'm... kind of indifferent to this one? It's not something that has ever really bothered me, learning these things can be roleplayed out, and sometimes a player doesn't know what choice they want to make for their character, be it their subclass or lesser things like pacts.