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Repetition and Complexity
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 14:37:08 +0000 UTCA good TTRPG rule set is easy to use at the table, meaning that players and DMs don't have to look up many rules in play. The game flows from a limited set of core mechanics that, once learned, are easy to apply to any situation that emerges.
That sounds great, but like many things applying it to excess can hurt your design. If you have too few mechanics, play might feel flat and repetitive.
I think 5e uses advantage and disadvantage too freely. I can't see a target, and it has a defense spell, and there's a goblin distracting me. All three lead to the same outcome - disadvantage.
I've been thinking about this a lot as I revise the 5e engine. I want to make the game even easier to use, but I'd also like to add a little more tactical depth. Here's an example of how I am trying to do that.
I've played 5e at least as long than anyone (Literally! I ran the first playtests) and I still don't have the rules for light and obscurement down pat. Looking back on the design, they fell into a place where we felt we needed rules but didn't really want anyone to use them. So, they became this mishmash of simulation-ish stuff. I always have to look them up, because when I am stuck using them it's probably because something has gone wrong.
Over the years, I've come to appreciate using light as a resource in dungeon delves. I've also wished that 5e provided a little more tactical texture in its core rules.
With that in mind, I revised lighting, obscurement, and cover (along with invisibility) to push them off of advantage/disadvantage.
Lighting enables stealth and limits how far you can see. Obscurement does the same. The idea is to use these as tools to create encounters where movement and positioning are important. I also tightened up the amount of light shed by sources of light to better match spell and attack ranges.
If you can't see a target but it is not hidden, its AC is the higher of 25 or its normal AC. This keeps advantage and disadvantage as tools you can layer on top of a lack of line of sight.
Cover has a similar effect. It provides a boost to AC (making it 15 or 20, depending on the amount of cover). This means that heavily armored creatures don't need cover, but lightly armored ones become much tankier when they use it. The party's wizard now gets a lot more benefit from taking cover.
Here are the rules:
Vision and Light
Lighting and obscurement both play a role in determining how far you can see.
Lighting
There are three levels of lighting that you can encounter on adventures.
Darkness: You can’t see into darkness and creatures can hide in areas of darkness.
Dim Light: You can see in dim light, but the shadows allow creatures to hide here.
Bright Light: You can see in bright light, and there is too much light to hide.
Sunlight: Sunlight is a special case. Some creatures suffer drawbacks when they are in bright or dim sunlight.
Overlap: When determining the lighting in an area, any source of bright light makes an area brightly lit. If the only light is dim, then the area is in dim light. Otherwise, absent a source of light an area is in darkness.
Sources of Light
Each source of light typically sheds bright light in a close radius, and dim light in a broader radius. The bright and dim light radius are measured from the light source.
Source/Bright Radius/Dim Radius
Torch/5 feet/30 feet
Lantern/10 feet/50 feet
Candle/5 feet/10 feet
Darkvision
Darkvision allows you to see in the dark, though with some limitations. You treat darkness as dim light within range of your darkvision. Darkvision does not function while you are in an area of bright light or sunlight that is bright or dim.
Obscurement
Fog, steam, smoke, and foliage can hinder vision despite the lighting conditions. Obscurement reduces the distance you can see depending on how thick it is, but does not block attacks or spells.
Lightly Obscured: You can see up to 20 feet through an area that is lightly obscured. You are unable to see anything beyond that.
Heavily Obscured: You can see up to 5 feet through an area that is heavily obscured. You are unable to see anything beyond that.
Special Senses
There are three special types of vision that can help overcome darkness and obscurement.
Blindsight
Blindsight allows you to sense the presence of objects and creatures within range. You ignore darkness and obscurement within your blindsight’s range.
Darkvision
Darkvision allows you to see in the dark, though with some limitations. You treat darkness as dim light within range of your darkvision. Darkvision does not function while you are in an area of bright light or sunlight that is bright or dim. Obscurement blocks it as normal.
Tremorsense
Tremorsene all allows you to see a creature as long as it stands on the same surface as you within the range of tremorsense, ignoring both darkness and obscurement.
And here's a piece from the combat section, covering unseen targets and cover:
Determine Target AC
Most of the time you use the target’s listed AC, but some effects or situations can alter a target’s AC. The target uses the highest of the AC options available to it, unless it picks a lesser defense or opts for the attack to hit automatically.
Sight: If you cannot see the target but it is not hidden, its AC is the higher of its normal AC or 25.
Cover: Cover provides AC 15 if it shields up to half the target, and 20 if it shields more than half but still allows a clear path for the attack. Use the higher of the target’s normal AC or the AC provided by the cover.
Comments
Little Fadeleaf
D&D 3.5 uses +2/-2 for every beneficial/detrimental factor that isn't explicitly codified elsewhere - got a clear shot from high ground? Gain +2 to hit. Stand in an awkward spot that doesn't allow stable footing? Make the shot at -2. Adding flat numbers isn't the massive obstacle 5e thinks it is.
Swiss Calavera
I love getting rid of the wash of Adv/Dis cause it is way too catchall. For these rules I think your cover mechanics work for low levels, but especially for half cover become obsolete too quickly. Base 5e adding +2 and +5 for cover is actually pretty good I think and gives you a floating value. I think your 25 for creatures you can't see but aren't hidden is a great rule for obscurement, but RAW would mean that you could hit someone behind a wall, unless you're considering a creature behind cover to be hidden, which then conflicts with things like tremorsense. Small bug I think. Your obscurement rules are amazing here and if I can get my players to remember them I'll be putting them in asap. It also makes me want to rethink lighting in terms of obscurement. If dimlight gave you light obscurement, and Darkness heavy, I think you end up with darkvision still working, but lighting still being better. And you end up with a much more realistic take where you could still hit something at the edge of shadow at disadvantage, but you're blindly firing vs 25 AC if it's past that 5ft range. I think obscurement could also use a two overlapping light obscurements of different types make heavy obscurement, so you could have heavy rain, and heavy fog giving something additive. Maybe that is better suited to a rule on the obscurement itself than core though.
