XP, Levels, and Alternate Rewards

So 5th edition has the same XP problem of the previous two editions: everyone advances the same.

This has one massive benefit: you can simply have everyone level up every other game or so, and you've got a nice rate of advancement and no one is really left behind. There's no need to crunch the math at all. But there's a crucial drawback too: individual awards are gone as well as XP penalties or costs.

Now, third edition and Pathfinder might be slight exceptions: you can play a level-adjusted race and be a level or so behind the other PCs, but that's a little problematic because the benefits of being a Drow might be worth about a level at lower levels, but not higher levels. Also, item creation gets mucked up: if a wizard is going to be a level below the other PCs because he made one scroll, you better believe he ought to make a whole tone of them to get that missing levels worth.

So 5th edition gives us one alternate reward at least: inspiration. Inspiration is like action-points-lite from 4e and later third edition: advantage on a check (presumably cancelling disadvantage as well). It seems ok, but I'm not sure if its quite enough to really be a reward like bonus XP.

Planescape in 2nd Edition had Belief points in the Planewalker's Handbook. They could be spent for an auto-success on a roll (similar to advantage) and also a more story-oriented type of intuitive clue. That makes for a nice additional use of inspiration.

Another option for rewarding awesomeness at the table is to give story-based awards. In a Planescape game, for example, most characters are members of factions. Those who consistently are acting in line with their faction's goals might be up for promotions. Not every game has such factions, but you can imagine rewarding someone in a 13th Age game with bonus to Icon relationships, or using other factions or non-adventuring followers in a a more traditional D&D game (Thieves' guilds, Druidic Circles, Bardic Colleges...).

This is all very different in a non level-based game. I'm getting ready to run a Vampire game online (set in Alexandria around 360 AD). There I plan on using XP as a reward for accomplishing goals because XP simply improves your character's stats and allows you to learn new disciplines. There's no need to worry about level advancement since there is none: XP does it all. I like that. I wonder if you couldn't add an aspect of this back into D&D.

Take the Planescape factions, if you will. Or otherwise the concept of the Theme from 4e or the Prestige Class or Paragon Path. As you gain power within your factions (whether they're the formal Factions of Planescape or something more nebulous) you gain some game mechanics. You could track it with a rough system like Renown in Werewolf: 5-10 points and you've got a new level or "rank". Each rank comes with mechanical benefits, though they could be mostly story-based benefits rather than combat ones.

How many systems does a game like D&D need?

I've written before about unique class systems in D&D, but how many should there be? Clearly older editions, like Second Edition, had a bloat of independent systems. Third edition did wonders to try to unify many of these with the d20 mechanic (pick up a d20, roll high). Fourth edition rolled back some of these systems, or at least rolled them higher into the game's math. The early classes from the first two players' handbooks (and some from the third) followed the same template of at-will, encounter, and daily powers. But each class had its own unique (and often lengthy) list. Also, systems like feats and action points had every class participate, though feats might be restricted.

I think spells are one great system where powers can be shared. Even if there is a distinction between Arcane and Divine (And Primal? And Psionic?) magic, allowing classes like the sorcerer, warlock, and wizard to share spells means that no one class will get all the support (I'm looking at you, 4e Wizard/Mage/Witch/Sha`ir/Bladesinger especially compared to the artificer, swordmage, runepriest, and seeker). I think 4e discovered this in the essentials run, but it would have been great if there were more power-source based powers that all martial or arcane classes could share.

Second Wind + Rampage = a Heroic Moment? or Action Points revised.

D&D 4e introduced a lot of interesting elements to the game. Despite its focus on math and balance, I think some of these features are really good, because the add to the narration as well as being viable in combat. Some of these disparate features could be linked, however, and I've got an inkling of how to do it.

Second wind allows PCs to spend one of their own healing surges in combat, so its basically a self heal. The concept doesn't quite match the mechanic though, because one doesn't necessarily control a second wind in real life. It does, however, capture that heroic moment when the protagonist manages to shake off their pain, stand up again, and whump whump whump. So over all, I think its a good mechanic, though it might be better with a little tweaking. Depending on how HP works, it may be divorced from surges. I'd also be interested in seeing how it might work as slightly random. It also might be a good candidate for an actual daily power, as it makes some sense that you might not be able to catch a second wind multiple times a day.

This brings me to a random class feature: the Barbarian's Rampage. When he scores a critical hit, the barbarian can make a free charge attack. This is a neat feature, but I don't know that I really saw it come into play. Its also not really modifiable, except by what boosts critical hits. So barbarians with Rampage get an extra benefit from their critical hits, meaning they ought to get things to boost those.

As I was thinking about this, these two mechanics seem like they do the same sort of thing. They represent that heroic moment when someone pushes through the pain and tries to pull off a minor hail mary.