Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 9 - Feats and Final Thoughts on Classes

    Since part 4 of this series started on classes and we're at part 9, I've been thinking about classes for a while now.  I want to wrap up this section and move on to other mechanics, even though I could write tons more picking apart all 20 levels of all 12 classes (that's 240+ abilities).  This post is going to hop-and-skip around a few different topics.


Ability Score Increases
    Every class gains an ability score boost every 4 levels.  This is weird to me.  The 3.5e SRD gave these on character levels, independent of class, so the shift is interesting - why did they change it?  I'm not sure.  It seems like it would punish multiclass characters, making a full level essentially worth nothing.  Which is point number two, even with the flat math of the game, this does not seem like it would feel very impressive to get as a level-up reward.  I don't agree with this one, this is something that logically should be in the background, not a specific character ability (the fact that every single class gets it exactly the same way and on the same schedule seems like it would suggest this is not really a class-based effect, just a part of growing older and wiser regardless of class).


Multiclassing and Leveling Up
    I am not a fan of counting XP, or gold either for that matter.  I think it adds a lot of book-keeping for little to no return.  What exactly is so dramatic about being 1 orc short of level 5?  What does the game gain from trying (and typically failing) to create an economy?  Along, in a way, with that I hate multiclassing in every class-based game I've ever read.  So, I'm not going to be taking a close look at how the 5e SRD handles either of these two topics because I already know I'm going to make something of my own (or steal from another game).  Again, this look is to help me prepare to create my own game, not because I want to pass the rules lawyer bar exam ;)


Static vs Dynamic Abilities
    This is something about how class abilities are created that eats at me.  Generally each class has one dynamic ability, a single ability that will gain extra options (not just extra power) as the class advances.  All the other class abilities are static, a single bonus to a single thing, which may "level up" by being a +2 bonus at the level one and a +3 bonus at level 3 and so on.  The thing is, static abilities are the least interesting.  They add one cool new thing, but often to only one circumstance, so while while getting a new ability feels good, how much you'll actually use it is another matter.  Second, increasing modifiers are evil, they lead to the dreaded numbers bloat.
    Dynamic abilities are the real magic, they let you do new and interesting stuff as you progress.  Having 3 ways to deal with a monster at level 1 and 50 ways to deal with a monster at level 20 feels like you've actually grown.  Because you have.  Increasing a modifier means you've progressed, being able to do something you couldn't, or having a new way to do something means you've grown.  But the game does not handle dynamic abilities very well.  In particular the fighter classes don't get any or very strong dynamic abilities.  Look at the Fighter's "Fighting Style" ability, which they can choose only once (in the straight class, not counting the archetype I'll go over later).  That's it.  Compare that to the Wizard's Spellcasting ability.  The classes with weak or no dynamic abilities need to be shored up.  But also, it feels kind of funny that at most every class only ever gets 1 dynamic ability.  Most of those are gained at 1st level, and the following 19 levels are just static abilities.  It seems to me that there should be 2 or 3 more dynamic abilities that are milestones of growth, adding a lot of options and more future options to the character as a sign of their growth through adversity.  I also think that higher-level monsters need more options and abilities than lower-level ones, so having more options as a character is necessary to find the more limited weaknesses of the monsters and/or resist the more frequent monster abilities.
     Along with this static vs dynamic thing is something that was huge in the 3.5e SRD, but deprecated in the 5e SRD, feats.
   
   
Feats
    If you ever played D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder then you have likely had many nightmares about feats; tracking the extremely complicated prerequisite chains and trying to pick out the handful for feats you got over your career from the hundreds to thousands (depending on how many books you bought) available.  Feats sucked.  There, I said it, they sucked.  They still suck big time in Pathfinder.  They suck because everybody and every book has to include two dozen new feats and there are no solid guidelines for what a feat is or how powerful it should be - so they vary hugely, wildly, and ridiculously in power.  I can easily think of several feats that should be abilities anybody could do, more that should be skill checks and several that are wickedly overpowered in the right combination (which I know from the players who've discovered those combinations).  They add way, way too much complexity and system knowledge and pre-planning to the game, which again gets worse with every new book.
    And I rant about another game to set up the fact that the designers of the 5e SRD knew all this about feats, so they totally changed the system.  In the 5e feats are optional, you can take a feat instead of an ability score increase if your GM is using this optional rule.  And as for power, the SRD has only one feat, again a sickening lack of guidance, and that feat is Grappling.  Grappling is arguably something that anybody should be able to do, though the feat does give you Advantage on it, so there's something.  The feat also lets you attempt to pin someone you have grappled, which again kind of seems like something anybody should be able to do.  I totally know how to grab you and wrap my arms around you to try and keep you from acting, I can see in my head how to do it - I'm sure you can too if you've ever been in a grade-school fight or watched an action movie.  I might not be any good at doing it, and I would get my backside kicked by a professional fighter, but it is an option.  This feat does not seem to add any really significant new options or dynamic abilities to the character.  So, sadly, the feat system in the SRD is useless.  No guidelines for what a feat should and should not do or how powerful they should be.  That's sad.  The total lack of feats and backgrounds makes me wish they had just left them out of the SRD altogether.  I think no system would be better than a system with bad or non-existent guidelines.
    I also started this feat discussion/rant with another game because I think a different game got feats right - and it's an OGL game too thank goodness.  In 13th Age you get a feat every level, and every class ability (even spells if I remember right) has 3-5 feat options - so you pick what ability you want to apply the feat to, and now that ability can do something new.  Perfect.  A nice dynamic expanding of your static abilities, and a system that helps make two identical classes grow in different directions.  I hate the 5e SRD's feats, but I will totally steal 13th Age's system.


Class Archetypes
    Speaking of static vs dynamic (which apparently this post turned into, huh) there are the class archetypes.  Every class has one of these, by some name.  It is the "Primal Path" for the Barbarian, the Cleric's "Domain" and the Warlock's "Patron".  At some intervals each archetype gives specific bonuses.  This makes two characters of the same class different, assuming they took different archetypes.  Each class gains/ chooses its archetype at a different point, either 1st, 2nd or 3rd level, and the archetype abilities are gained at different levels for each class.
    Like feats this is one of those systems that sounds good in practice, but can easily spiral out of control.  Again, each class has only 1 archetype listed, and no guidelines on what the power range should be.  Easy to make too many archetypes, to make them over- or under-powered, and you also need to balance archetypes against multiclassing, should an "arcane warrior" be a Fighter archetype, and Wizard archetype or a multiclass Fighter/Wizard?  That'll make your head hurt :)


    Class abilities are a complex subject.  I fully know that, and even trying to review and think about them is an invitation to insanity.  It would be great if there was some developer's guide somewhere that explained the thinking for each ability.  Why this one, at that power level for that class?  Those are thing that the designers had to think about when making the game - sadly I don't know of any game that had the designers' thoughts included with the rules.  And with something like an OGL game, that is an invitation for other people to design around, it would be priceless.  So I have a lot to think about when I go to make my own game off the SRD.  What abilities do I keep, which ones do I change, how do I balance the growth of the classes and the challenges they face.  And sadly there is little guidance from the developers so I'm going to have to answer a lot of questions on my own.  Can't say I'm looking forward to those hard decisions.

    And that's a wrap on classes.  Time to move on.  Since classes are one of the central parts of a character, let's move on to the central part of the game: the core mechanic of d20+stuff.  I see math in our future :)  Until next week!