Fixing Dungeons & Dragons
Using Some Cool Rules From D&D 4e
For as long as Dungeons and Dragons has existed, people have both loved and hated it. After all, if any edition were perfect, then there would be no need for the versions that followed it. Other than making more money but I am sure that is never a motivating factor 😉.
As nice as Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D) is to look at through the lens of history, it is not a game that would have a broad following today. I know there are a lot of people that still play it and I personally appreciate a lot of what it contains, but there is a difference between having a niche market and having broad appeal.
I have little doubt that even with D&D 2024 claiming to be compatible with D&D 5e, within a few years, the number of 5e games will be in sharp decline in favor of the new rules. Even as popular as it is today, D&D 5e will soon be a niche experience.
And this is wonderful. What better way to ensure that the game stays relevant than to update it as the desires of the community evolve.
Personally, I love the idea of getting new rules every few years. All the lessons learned from millions of hours of gameplay can be incorporated into the core rules so that everyone can benefit from a better game. I can’t wait to see what D&D 2024 looks like.
With that said, it is inevitable that every new version of the game will leave behind things from the prior releases that some of us loved. In the process of creating new rules, some of the old rules simply become incompatible.
For Example: When we moved to the d20 system in 2000, how we attacked enemies changed. THAC0 was no longer viable and Armor Classes were reversed so that higher numbers were better.
There are other rules, however, that seem like they would still work even in the newer versions and we are left wondering why they were removed.
I recently talked about how Opportunity Attacks used to be much more tactical, but with D&D 5e are not nearly as prevalent.
As I have been working on my adventure module planning for 2024, I am looking at some of the rules that we had in D&D 4e and wondering which I would like to include as options in my new modules. Obviously, fundamental rules like powers are not practical to insert as options, but there are plenty of others that I feel would help spice up a D&D 5e game.
Here are a few of my favorites…
Bloodied
You are bloodied when your current hit points drop to your bloodied value or lower. Your bloodied value is one-half your maximum hit points (rounded down). Certain powers and effects work only against a bloodied enemy or work better.
This is one where I simply cannot understand why it was not carried forward into D&D 5e. It is such a simple thing that provides an indicator for the players on how they are doing against a monster and allows for certain spells and class features to have different effects when a creature reaches this point.
I still indicate that monsters are bloodied when DMing in 5e. Some players ask me what that means and when I explain it, they often wonder, like I do, why this is not a thing in 5e. It is so simple.
At a minimum, in my modules I will continue to indicated a character or monster is ‘wounded’ (can’t use bloodied for legal reasons). And as I create new monsters and spells and items, I will design effects that come into play when the target, or user, is wounded.
Minions
Now these are a source of contention even amongst D&D 4e fans. Hear me out.
One of the most frustrating things for me is when I am putting an encounter together for a low-level party and I find that having multiple monsters quickly escalates the difficulty from hard to deadly.
Sometimes I want to have the party face off against a bunch of enemies even at those lower levels. This is particularly important when I am running a game with only a couple characters. Not every table has five or more players.
This is where minions are great. They can be difficult to hit, and they can do some damage, but with just one hit point, they are easily dispatched.
My games will include Underlings (again, legal issues). These are monsters that do not have the same skills as their more powerful companions. They have lower AC, deal less damage, and fewer than 5 hit points.
This will allow me to have epic encounters even with a first level party and/or fewer players.
Monster Stat Blocks
There is no doubt that D&D 4e took an approach where function was emphasized, sometimes at the expense of form. A perfect example of this is to look at the 4e DM screen compared to the DM screens from 5e.
Clearly 4e aimed to provide a ton of useful information for the Dungeon Master, while 5e wanted it to look pretty. I will talk more about this some other time.
The same holds true for other areas of the game. Monster stat blocks are something the Dungeon Master needs to constantly refer to. Having the information available in a well-structured way is critical.
Using the 4e monster stat blocks as influence, I am using a similar style for monsters in my games. Below is an draft of an Arctic Kobold from my upcoming adventure module. This is a D&D 5e monster, but with the stats arranged in a way that makes it easy to use for the Dungeon Master.
I love D&D 5e. And I love D&D 4e. I am glad that some of the ideas from 4e look like they will be making there way into D&D 2024. These were just a few of the ones that I plan to keep using regardless of whether they are official or not.
Let me know in the comments what D&D rules from other editions you wish were still around.
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There are going to be Remorhaz in this module right? Please say yes!😃