Saturday 3 January 2015

D&D 5th Edition Houserule, Proficiency Levels

I am pretty excited about D&D 5th Edition as it is, and mostly I only have minor complaints. The only larger problem I have, is the way how proficiency levels are done. Characters are either really good at something, or can't really grasp at it. Everything scales off from your levels. No middleground, no real choices when making a character. Class abilites enhance certain skills in some cases, but its far less common to make any real variety between characters who are not overly specialized. Yes, a Rogue sneaks better than a Fighter who happens to have stealth, but there isn't any difference between a Bard and the Fighter.
Another problem, fighting classes have no real advantage in combat than non figthing classes. A fighter can hit just as well as a wizard can, given they are using the same weapon. 
Of course, if you are not interested in making characters more detailed, and you prefer the streamlined solution provided in the core books, more power to you. But if you are like me, and would want just a little bit of more crucnh and mechanics... Here it is, Proficiency Levels, Optional Rule


 Proficiency Levels -- Optional Rule


The goal of this optional rule is to make a difference between skill levels, and make them scale not only from character level, but also, the level of proficiency. In order to achieve this, we will introduce 3 different levels of skill proficiency. This applies to weapon, skill and tool proficiencies but not armor proficiencies. The skill levels are the following:

Novice: The character uses half of his proficiency bonus
Journeyman: The character uses his full proficiency bonus
Master: The character uses 1,5x of his full proficiency bonus

Any time characters gain proficiency from any source, racial ability, background, class, feat etc. they gain 1 level of proficiency instead. These levels of proficiency can stack. If the character has the option to choose multiple different skills, weapons or tools from the same source (like a background) he may not choose the same twice, gaining a higher level of proficiency.


For example, a High Elf would gain novice proficiency in Perception, Longswords, Shortswords, Shortbows and Longbows.
If he took the Fighter class, he would gain novice proficiency in all Simple and Martial weapons, but since the proficiency levels stack, his Longsword, Shortsword, Shortbow and Longbow skills would be Journeyman level, gaining full benefit from his racial powers, while all other weapons would be novice. Also, he has the option to take two skills from the Fighter skill list, and since Perception is also present, he has the chance of enhancing that ability further as well, for the price of having less skills.


About balance: This optional rule will affect game balance a bit, and it assumes that the players have the option of taking feats. Earlier in the game, the characters will feel less powerful, but if they choose to invest in feats that give proficiencies (now these feats make a lot more sense), they will become adept and then later a bit more powerful than usual, but since this is quite taxing in feats, it shouldn't be a problem. Most characters will have a few focused abilities with Journeyman proficiency, and one with Master, and the rest is novice. Characters will be more specialized, and the difference is a lot more noticable between two characters.

Additional stuff: If you implement these rules into your game, you can also add the following optional rule:

Backgrounds give weapon proficiencies: Some backgrounds will now grant weapon proficiencies that make sense in context with the background.

Criminal: Club, dagger
Folk Hero: Quarterstaff, Unarmed strike
Noble: Any two martial weapon
Outlander: Any two simple weapon
Sailor (or Pirate): Scimitar, Trident
Soldier: Any four weapon





8 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed this and now I'm thinking to implement in my new campaign next month.

    Do you think that would be possible to implement this options in the optional rule of the "dice proficiency bonus" if someone want to use it?

    (Sorry the horrible english)

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    Replies
    1. First of all, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

      About the proficiency dice, sure, why not. The Prof dice progresses like this

      Bonus - Dice
      2 = d4
      3 = d6
      4 = d8
      5 = d10
      6 = d12

      With my optional rule, you should add the following (as these numbers are now a possibility) These are not perfect solutions, because the numbers we use don't have designated dice. Alternatively you could use an online diceroller where you can determine the faces of the dice as you wish.

      1 = 1d2
      7 = should be 1d14 but since that doesn't exist i would use a 1d12 + 1d2, the results are between 2-14 instead 1-14
      9 = should be 1d14, but then againt, that doesn't exist, so either i would use a d20, or 1d10+1d8. At this level of proficiency the difference between 1-18 and 1-20 is almost insignificant, and I don't think it would break your game.

      Hope this helps

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    2. Yes, It really helps.

      I thought a bit about it and really seems to be the best solution in this case.

      I do not like to roll in automatic generators. Here at home, in other systems, we've had to adapt a d2 several times, and we got used to roll a d4 and interpret 1-2 as 1 and 3-4 as 2, so we do it without even thinking about it anymore .

      My friend has a d14, but here is rare and expensive. But I have a d16 to help :)

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    3. Awesome. If you implement it in a game, please tell me how it went

      Delete
  2. You appear to have forgotten that the stat bonus also applies. A Fighter will be better with his sword than a wizard with his dagger because the fighter will inevitably have a greater Strength than a Wizard. The Wizard will have put his best stat in Intelligence and has little use for Strength. What the set proficiency bonus ensures is that a Fighter's attack with his weapon is equivalently effective to a Wizard's attack with his Fire Bolt at each level. This is how I read the rules to be intended to work.

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    Replies
    1. No, I did not forget that, but don't you think someone who spends his life using weapons to fight should have other advantages than his pure strength when using weapons, compared to someone who reads books all the time? Yes, a fighter is able to connect more hits, and strike more powerfully because he is stronger. But shouldn't he be also more skilled?

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  3. Fighters do gain an advantage with weapons though. Not only are they proficient in more and better weapons, but they gain extra attacks. A 20th level fighter with a longsword and 20 str attacks in a turn for up to 4d8+20 with +11 to each boy. Now let's be generous and say a wizard has 16 dex with a dagger. That's 1d4+3 with a +9 to hit.

    Though I do think this is a cool idea, if you increased the number of skill proficiencies a little bit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fighters do gain an advantage with weapons though. Not only are they proficient in more and better weapons, but they gain extra attacks. A 20th level fighter with a longsword and 20 str attacks in a turn for up to 4d8+20 with +11 to each boy. Now let's be generous and say a wizard has 16 dex with a dagger. That's 1d4+3 with a +9 to hit.

    Though I do think this is a cool idea, if you increased the number of skill proficiencies a little bit.

    ReplyDelete