When the D&D Next playtests were ongoing, there was a lot of talk about how modular the game would be. Now that the game has been out for a bit, how modular do you really find it? I'm looking at a character sheet and am curious specifically about: feats, skills, backgrounds, bonds, personality traits, flaws, ideals, inspiration, proficiency bonus, features and traits, and faction. First, which of those are just role-play and have no mechanical influence, like say eye or hair color? For those that are mechanical and affect die rolls with modifiers or by bestowing skills, powers, etc. - how modular are those? And finally, what, of the modular stuff released so far, do players sort of deem the standard, or default?

I know that's a lot to ask, but I am curious to know if I would find the PHB worth purchasing, and these answers would pretty much cinch it for me. Thanks so much in advance if you made it this far!

Feats and multiclassing are "optional rules" and there's rules in the DMG for modifying rest times.

Otherwise, I don't think the new D&D is any more "modular" than the last two versions were.

Moddable, yes.
Modular, no.

Feats are handled differently in 5e.  Every four levels you can get a stat increase or trade it for a feat.  Characters will only have a few, if any feats, but they are really goof.

Skills are handled as stat checks.  There are no skill points and no skill point allocation.  It's a check on the relevant stat.  If you have proficiency in the skill, you get to add the proficiency bonus which is based on level.

Backgrounds give you some of you starting skill proficiencies, some gear related to your background, money (sometimes) and a perk related to your background.  Entertainer lets you stay in an inn free in exchange for entertaining the crowd for example.  They represent what your character did before becoming an adventurer and have a mechanical effect.

Bonds, personality traits, flaws and ideals are purely role-playing.  Your character also gets a trinket at first level which is just a quirky little item with some odd property.

Proficiency bonus is a set bonus based on level.  For level 1-4, it's +2.  You get it in everything you are proficient in.  What that is depends on class and background.

Inspiration can be spent to get advantage.  You roll 2D20 and pick the best one.  You get these from the DM for good role-playing or whatever they want to encourage.

Factions are mostly role-playing but there are faction perks you can earn if the DM uses them.  They are mainly part of organized play and pretty specific to the Sword Coast.  I don't recall any mention in the main book.  they are mostly in the DDAL Player's guide.

There aren't a lot of character options out there beyond the main book,  There are some in the Sword Coast book and some in the hardcover adventures associated with those storylines.  I don't know about what players in general deem to be standard or optional.  I have only had ten or so 5e players total including people playing DDAL in store.  DDAL allows nearly everything.  The only races considered core by the books themselves are dwarves, elves, halflings and humans.  Everything else is listed as uncommon.

Quote from: FaerieGodfather;913919Otherwise, I don't think the new D&D is any more "modular" than the last two versions were.

I would say it's more modular that Pathfinder or 3.x simply because there are a lot fewer moving parts to worry about.

Apparently Mearls idea of "modular" was "You can remove classes, paths, spells, feats, items, etc and not impact the gameplay."

Which while true is not my idea of modular. Which is "You can pull this part from this class and replace this part in this class with it and not impact gameplay."

Though I am starting to wonder if that might be pseudo possible with how the classes are structured. But in the end they dropped the modular claims fairly early and moved forward.

A lot of "Old Schoolers" I play with ditch all the skills and just use the character's background as a guide to what tasks they get to add their prof bonus to.  

Personally, I would say it's very modular, in that you can throw out big chunks of it and it still runs fine. Then again, I think the same of 1st ed AD&D.

Quote from: Harlock;913916I know that's a lot to ask, but I am curious to know if I would find the PHB worth purchasing, and these answers would pretty much cinch it for me.

http://www.5thsrd.org/

That should give you enough to decide if you want to toss cash at WotC.

Quote from: Spinachcat;913937http://www.5thsrd.org/

That should give you enough to decide if you want to toss cash at WotC.

I'm out of the loop, what's the legal status of this SRD? Is it complete or are there classes/spells/whatever missing?

Quote from: Omega;913926Which while true is not my idea of modular. Which is "You can pull this part from this class and replace this part in this class with it and not impact gameplay."

It already in 5e and they are called archetypes. And for mixing classes they explain how to do 3e style leveling with the 5e rules.

Quote from: Spinachcat;913937http://www.5thsrd.org/

That should give you enough to decide if you want to toss cash at WotC.

And if you want something written more as a rulebook then try the basic version at.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules

Mmmm look they added web versions as well as PDFs.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;913975I'm out of the loop, what's the legal status of this SRD? Is it complete or are there classes/spells/whatever missing?

From my reading there's feats and some other stuff missing. In fact, there is only one feat listed. Thanks for the input and the link to the SRD, everyone. After all that I was able to reach a conclusion that my money would be better spent on expanding the systems I have.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;913975I'm out of the loop, what's the legal status of this SRD? Is it complete or are there classes/spells/whatever missing?

Each class only has one archetype. Not all spells, items, and monsters are included but all the basics found in the original d20 SRD are in there. The only part where it is crippled are backgrounds and feats. As it has exactly one example of each.

Taking a look in the Dungeon Master's Guide you'll find several new options to change the way that the game works. Including stuff like:

- extra attributes, such as Honor and Sanity
- dice proficiency system (instead of a flat bonus, you roll a die)
- combat options (initiative variants such as side initiative and weapon speed factor)
- Plot Points (like bennies, hero points or fate points)
- Fear and horror rules
- rest variants (to change the feel to more gritty and perilous or more super heroic)
- ditching skills and just going with ability scores (with proficiencies based on your class, race and background choices)
- Grid combat rules
- spell points instead of spells/day

All of which can be used or not without changing the game's "balance".

I personally call mixing and matching all of these options quite modular, but I'm in the minority on the internet...

The problem is that everyone had different expectations of what 'modular' meant. And WotC didn't do themselves any favours during development by floating some pretty dramatic stuff in podcasts and panel talks, little of which has seen the light of day. Though I doubt at the time the designers knew how sparse the production schedule for 5E would be.