Talk:Ask the Sage

You mostly just like 5e because it's new and not bloated yet. You'd get the same effect from removing prestige classes, feats, and everything but the 12 base classes from PF. I wish they'd just remove the hybrid classes (ranger, paladin, bard) and just let people multiclass to get the effect, but I guess they're iconic. --Msallen (talk)

A fun exercise might be to try to build hybrid classes from multiclassed core. How would we simulate, for example, paladin's Smite ability? Hybrid sorc/fighter with a custom spell list?-slitherrr (talk)

The hard part is the things you give up when multiclassing, like comparatively huge BaB and saving throw hits from non-fractional advancement, and favored class bonuses. Even when it might be optimal to add a new class, I really prefer single-class as a thing (Kib being the exception that proves the rule, he was built to fit a specific set of non-combat-optimized needs and it tends to show, although having a cohort makes up for a lot of that as it always does) -slitherrr (talk)

That aside, I think there's something to be said about 5E's design aesthetic that incorporates abuses and flaws from 3.5e (and 4e I assume, although I never played it) era that might lead to a fundamentally better-flowing experience even as new content begins to bloat it up, or at least make it easier to reject content that falls outside of that design space. I was telling abs in a steam message that I'd love to see like a "design bible" book some out that's like, "here's a set of things we were thinking about when we made these rules, and that you should think about when you're making new content". Maybe it'd be fundamentally untenable, but some sort of solid guideline on things that fulfill the "nature" of the game as designed, and acknowledge that the game can't be all things, would be an interesting experiment. -slitherrr (talk)