The outline in the OP is how I plan to do it, pretty much.

For the curious, what I have so far (plus a bunch of other odds and ends).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/803826/Will%27s%205e%20Stuff.pdf

Eventually I hope to make it basically a 'pay if you'd care to' product.

Quote from: Will;795914Some of what I've worked up so far:

Fighter Archetypes
Berserker
You gain the following Barbarian abilities: Rage, Rage per day, Rage Damage, Unarmored Defense.
At 7th level you gain Fast Movement.
At 10th level you gain Relentless Rage.
At 15th level you gain Persistent Rage.
At 18th level you gain Indomitable Might.

Templar
At third level you gain Channel Divinity (treat Fighter levels as Cleric levels) and select a domain. You gain domain abilities as a cleric.
You prepare, learn, and cast spells like an Eldritch Knight, but use the cleric list for cantrips and spells and using Wisdom as spellcasting ability. Unlike Eldritch Knights, you are not limited in schools.
Domain spells are gained when they can first be cast.


This doesn't really cut down on amount of rules, exactly, since you're still referring to barbarian and cleric stuff. But conceptually it simplifies a few things.

(I also am debating ways to do a microlite version of 5e, but that requires a bit different design)

My heartbreaker follows this exact format. Se a coupel of posts up for a rough sketch.

The way to reduce rules is to remove the stuff you are adding to the archetypes

So my system has the following (not very D&D ish but you will get the idea I am trying to get to)

HD (d6 through d12)
HP (you don't roll HP you buy them)
AC bonus
Attack Bonus
Defense bonus
Skill groups
Skill costs (per rank per new skill)
Combat Mastery (much like skills, includes Armour and weapon stuff)
Magic types
New Magic "spells"
Mana points

The classes each have base levels and costs for these things and the archetypes basically tweak these numbers so these are all the rules. the differnce is how they fit together for each class / archetpe.

Optional is a pool of feats but these don't cover combat stuff like Two weapons fighting or improved armour etc as these are combat mastery (2 ranks in Single handed weapon gives you dual wield for example).

So the system is very small and each archetype doesn't have a set of unique powers. If you do that you may as well stick to dozens of classes.

I'm also planning to do up a microlite option, without quite so many fiddly abilities.

I like skills and backgrounds, but it'd be nice to brush over most stuff with 'I do something Fighterly.'

I don't know if going with a caster class to cover cleric works as well for me. It seems like that would be an opportunity to do the Studious versus Templar, versus Paladin versus Druid versus Shaman versus etc subset of classes you could do with a religious class. I think religion and divinity is such a clear split for class that I would keep it the basic 4. fighter,caster,rouge/skilled,divine.

But that's just me.

Yeah, I know what you mean, but the thing is, why should a cleric have martial ability?

Really, it seems to me that a 'divine caster' and an 'arcane caster' are primarily distinguished by spell choices and extra abilities.

A Devout has cleric specials (channeling, etc), access to full cleric list, casting cleric spells.

If you actually WANT a martial/divine type, that seems more appropriate to me as a variant fighter.

well I was thinking the base cleric class does not have martial ability. But they would be slightly more martial than a arcane caster.

So studious is basically and educated caster think of the Bard skill college

A Templar would be a slightly fighty cleric about where they are now.

A Paladin would be even more martial and less casting or spell list might include more smites etc.

Druid would have a nature oriented list and powers.

Shamanistic would be some nature but lots more rituals and such.

I just think the feel of the class is sufficiently different even if the mechanics aren't.

I think using domains as a guide would allow an altering of smaller basic spell list to differentiate the sub-classes

Quote from: Will;797032Yeah, I know what you mean, but the thing is, why should a cleric have martial ability?

Really, it seems to me that a 'divine caster' and an 'arcane caster' are primarily distinguished by spell choices and extra abilities.

A Devout has cleric specials (channeling, etc), access to full cleric list, casting cleric spells.

If you actually WANT a martial/divine type, that seems more appropriate to me as a variant fighter.

Agree, agree, wholeheartedly agree, and agree again, and --one more time -- AGREE!  Honestly, there's really on two archetypes -- Warrior and Spellcaster. You can layer in EVERYTHING else.

Quote from: jibbajibba;795847Get rid of cleric its just a type of caster.

Leaves you with
Warrior - master of combat
Rogue - Master of Skills

If Combat was itself one of the skills, then the tradeoff for being a skill monkey might be to be less skilled elsewhere. I'd like to see the Rogue go away completely. It's as much a lifestyle, as anything else.

I would like a broader Skillguy 'class,' and sneakystabbing be an option thereof.

It's one of the reasons Bard ends up it's own thing.

The reason why I prefer the term "Expert" over "Rogue" is because a very skilled character might not be a thief but a scholar or diplomat or acrobat or whatever. It seems like a nitpicky difference, but Expert could allow for a greater number of specialties within it...

A few additions here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/803826/Will%27s%205e%20Stuff.pdf

Rogue/Hunter, ~ranger
Rogue/Loreteller, ~bard
Wizard/Theurge, ~warlock (or wild mage)

Feedback would be nice... also interest level. If people aren't interested I won't keep poking the thread.