Streamlined 5e: Spell Philosophy

The process of streamlining a game requires you to do two things.

First, you need to understand the game's core mechanics. You're cutting stuff out. Cut something critical, and the game falls apart. You need a thorough understanding of what's going on under the hood.

Second, you need to know why you are streamlining. I can trim D&D down into this: roll a d20 and add your level. If you roll higher than a monster's level, you defeat it. Otherwise, it defeats you. That functions only if I want to reduce the game down to something where combat is very risky and very random.

I want to preserve the core gameplay of D&D. You should be able to run any 5e adventure with this version of the rules. However, I want to make the game much easier to DM. Creating adventures for 5e can be a real chore. Encounter balance takes a fair amount of work, and characters have a lot of hard answers to challenges that feel like they should pose a problem to players.

What I Want

I want the players to feel like the tools on their character sheet are the starting point for an answer to a dilemma, not the answer in its entirety.

Let's take rope trick as an example. It's an easy way to give a party access to a short rest. Starting at 4th level, it's basically free for a wizard thanks to Arcane Recovery.

That dynamic puts a ton of pressure on adventure creation. How do you maintain pressure on the party when they can use something like rope trick? How many ways can a DM counter that tactic before it feels contrived or just gets old?

This is an area where backward compatibility hurt the game. We wanted to make spellcasting easier on players by making the rules more flexible. We no longer tied spell slots to specific spells. We were also generous with prepared spells. That combo makes it easy to stock up on narrow but effective spells. In AD&D, preparing rope trick came at the cost of an encounter-ending spell like hold person or web. In my experience, rope trick and similar spells came online at higher levels when casters could afford to park some utility in their low-level spells.

The changes in 5e made it much easier for casters to prepare a few generally useful spells, then prepare a bank of spells that solve common adventuring challenges. That mechanic puts a lot of pressure on DMs to prepare adventures.

Addressing the Issue

There are a few things I'm doing to address this issue.

• Casters have access to fewer spells. I am revising the character classes to give them fewer prepared spells. Narrowing that resource forces players to make tougher decisions.

• I am removing many, many spells from the lists. Since 5e spells can work with the game as written, it's easy for groups to add spells back. I am paring the lists down to provide the key spells characters need to function. I also hope that the lists are narrow enough that a DM can account for their effects in adventure design.

• Casters gain access to fewer new spells as they level up. Instead, they need to buy or find scrolls that they can use to add spells to their prepared lists. I hope this change turns spells into treasure, encouraging players to chase after loot, giving a use for gold, and giving DMs another tool to control which spells enter their campaigns.

So Wizards Kind of Suck Now?

Well, I'm calling the simplified class the mage, but that's not the goal. As I messed around with the spell list, I spent a lot of time thinking about cantrips. By design, cantrips in 5e are simple and weapon like. Something like toll the dead does a bunch of damage and... nothing else.

I think cantrips are ripe for some innovative design. Ideally, a mage who sticks to their cantrips should still feel like an arcane caster, not a guy firing a laser pistol. Here's how I want to address this:

• I want cantrips to feel like powerful control tools.

• I want them to feel so distinct from weapon attacks that someone watching the game would never mistake one for the other.

So, how do we do that? Here's two cantrip designs that get at what I want. You'll notice two things:

• These cantrips are more complicated than other 5e ones. However, I think that their overall complexity flows well at the table when viewed as a replacement for a spell cast with slots.

• My hope is that while these seem like a lot, as a player uses them they learn to manage them. The idea is to insert options into them that become no more complex than a fighter managing their weapons and multiple attacks.

• I really want cantrips to focus on control effects, so that's what these do!

• Tying into that, I've given each cantrip the option to forgo dealing damage. I think that opens up a lot of potentially clever, non-combat uses. You can use mystic barrier below to cannonball the fighter across a chasm!

Mystic Barrier

Abjuration Cantrip (Wizard)

Casting Time: Action

Range: 120 feet

Targets: Up to two cubes that each fill a 5-foot-by-5-foot space

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

You shape force energy into shimmering, transparent cubes that foil your enemies and lend protection to your allies.

You create an arcane construct that fills the target area. The cubes block movement.

When you cast the spell, and as a magic action while the spell lists, you can cause the cubes to emit force energy. For each cube, choose up to one creature within 15 feet of it. The chosen creature must make a Strength saving throw or take 1d6 force damage and be moved up to 10 feet horizontally. If the creature is flying, you can move it both vertically and horizontally.

Resolve the effects of one cube before moving on to the next one. You can choose a creature more than once, but it can only take damage from this spell once per turn.

You can choose to forgo inflicting damage with this spell each time you pick one of the following options.

Cantrip Upgrade. This cantrip's targets and damage increase at higher levels according to the table below.

Level 5: Up to 3 cubes, 2d6 damage.

Level 11: Up to 4 cubes, 3d6 damage.

Level 17: Up to 5 cubes, 4d6 damage.

Phantom Terrain

Illusion Cantrip (Wizard)

Casting Time: Action

Range: 120 feet

Target: A cube 15 feet on each side

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You weave sounds and sights together, creating an illusory vista that confounds your enemies.

You create a tangle of illusions that limits sight. Creatures within the area of the spell cannot see outside of it. Those outside of it cannot see in. A creature that is both inside and outside, such as a creature straddling its boundary, can see in and out of it.

You can make the spell’s exterior blend into the terrain around it, causing it to appear like a large object that fits into the area around you. In a forest it might look like a large, tangled thicket, or in a dungeon its exterior might look like dungeon walls. However, the illusion cannot block movement or block sound.

A creature that inspects the spell’s effect can determine it is an illusion with an Intelligence (Investigation) check with a DC equal to your spell save DC.