August Update

August has come to and end, and with that we've seen the updated version of the Thief and Warrior. With those two updated classes, that leaves the Ranger, Crusader, Sorcerer, and Mage.

I've spent a good portion of time working on the Ranger revisions. It really comes down to one last solid review and it should be up this weekend. I've started working on the Crusader and have some major changes set up.

Ranger Update

One of my favourite ways of playing Skyrim was ignoring the main story and turning on all the survivalist modes on max difficulty. After that, I'd grab a bow and go out into the wild hunting deer and wolves and slowly making my way up to bigger and bigger game. This type of play style didn't exist with the way the ranger was set up in the first pass through.

The updated Ranger uses survival skills to lay ambushes on their prey and their knowledge of medicinal plants to heal their allies. This version is very similar to the several official reworks that Wizards of the Coast has released.

With those changes, the Archer and Scout archetype have also seen some significant changes. The Archer previously relied on elemental enchantments, but now has become a mundane archetype, using physical power and expertise with ranged weapons. The Scout had used Alteration magic to mold the environment, and now relies on athletics to overcome obstacles.

The Hunter and Warden archetypes have been tweaked to suit the revised class, but have mostly stayed the same.

Crusader Update

Surprisingly, the Crusader is almost a reworked class, rather than a simple revision. After trying to make a few tweaks, I discovered that the class itself is a big burden. Having each of the 9 divines as a possible deity, each with individual benefits at 2 different levels meant having 18 unique abilities without even looking at individual subclasses. I started thinking about non-Imperial Crusaders, possibly worshippers of Meridia, or a Dunmer that follows the Tribunal. I imagine a Bosmer would likely worship J'ffre and would be more suited to a Warden Ranger, than a Crusader. So with that, I needed to add 4 different gods, and other 8 unique abilities. That's not going to work.

So although I really liked the deity idea, I've scrapped it in hopes that that flavor will work out in the game with role-playing, backgrounds, quest lines, boons, and possible items. The new Crusader class is going to look a lot like a mix between the D&D paladin and cleric. At first, this was really disappointing to me, as the Crusader did feel uniquely Elder Scrolls. However...

A Change in Plans

In the last few months I've had a pretty major change in philosophy for developing this conversion. When I started, I wanted to take the simplistic rules of 5e and bring in all of the Elder Scrolls elements. Many of these elements clash with the lore of D&D, and in many cases, the lore has defined the mechanics, or at least guided them. With many significant differences with the Elder Scrolls, the mechanics have to be reworked to make them feel right, such as adding stamina and magicka to each class. The magic system itself is such a core part of the Elder Scrolls universe, and it is a pretty big departure from the way D&D is set up.

After a lot of thought, I've decided that I want D&D fans to pick up this conversion easily, possibly even bringing in existing characters from a previous campaign into the world of Tamriel. This means it has to fit really closely to the way 5e already works, looks, and feels.

If you've been following along with the previous revisions, many of the base classes are starting to feel really similar to their D&D analogues. The real Elder Scrolls feel comes out a lot more in the subclasses than in the base. This has been done on purpose to make existing 5e players feel a lot more comfortable to making the switch. If a player was adamant enough, they could probably get away with even playing a D&D class mixed in converted Elder Scrolls classes, without feeling out of place.

Short Term and Long Term

After the final classes are updated, they will be launched with what I am calling updated 1.1.

Last month I had already discussed a magicka system overhaul, which would still use the magicka point system, but spell lists and levels would be more in line with 5e spell lists and levels. Part one of this will be updating the cost of spells, reevaluating points each classes have, and switching out the novice, apprentice, etc., to spell levels. This will be 1.2. Finally, 1.3 will be removing the spell schools as proficienies, and transforming them into class specific spell lists.

At that point, I think the conversion will pretty much be complete, with the on going addition of artifacts, items, and monster stat blocks.

Now, what happens when all of that is done? I might have some ideas on how to create a d20 system that isn't based on converting a system, and is better suited for the Elder Scrolls. There's a lot of work before any of that happens, but the possibilities keep me working.

Thank you to everyone that has seen the conversion and made comments so far. It means a lot to hear that someone else might actually have some use for all of this hard work, other than me and my party.

Divines bless you.