D&D 5E - Would Allowing Multiple Reactions Break The Game?
I'm a little confused about what problem you're trying to solve. I can't recall ever being in a game where protecting the squishies was a problem due to lack of reactions. Are you running lots of combats where there are tons of enemies swarming the party?
Currently, I am on the player side of things. 5E is the edition of D&D that I have the least experience running, but I am prepping to run an upcoming game. From playing, I try to take note of how other players interact with the game, note things which have become issues at a table, and whatever else I feel might make the game "better."
Things I've noticed:
You get 1 reaction, and trying to stop someone from moving by you (with an attack) also takes up that 1 reaction. It's also somewhat easier to move around someone in 5E than it was in other editions already. So, in a combat with multiple foes, trying to use traditional tactics to protect someone behind you doesn't work as well.
It goes the other direction too. When facing a group of enemies, I've seen it become a tactic to trigger one of the enemy's reactions and then just choose that enemy to run by.
During higher level fights, when some monsters start to get things they can do off-turn, it seems weird that a PC just kinda has to stand there and not do much of anything.
Looking at how some of the newer members of the group (who are also new to D&D) interact with the game, I've noticed that a few tune out a little when it's not their turn and they're not able to be involved in what is going on. This seems to happen more now that some monsters of lair actions and such. I believe (but have not asked yet) that some of this comes from feeling as though a lot is going on, but they cannot really interact. Facial expressions and body language has given me the perception that they feel it's kinda lame that they cannot react to what is happening very much.
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I'm not concerned with extra reactions causing turns to take longer. Oddly, I find that a lack of options is what causes choice-paralysis for some of the newer players. In particular, knowing that there's only 1 option for something to do seems to cause anxiety for the guy currently playing a cleric because he's too worried about not being able to protect the party if he chooses the wrong thing. (Likewise, the same player struggles to choose a feat because there are so few opportunities to choose one.) I do think D&D combat take a while sometimes, but I haven't found the number of options to be the cause; instead, I most often find that the way HP scales is more of the issue.
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Off topic, but, other things I am considering doing differently:
~reactions: the topic of this thread
~Initiative not being based on Dex. Instead, it would just be a d20 roll. Though, I'm considering adding a home-brew feat which would influence that in some way. This is somewhat related because I had thought about having effect of the feat being +1 reaction and some sort of bonus to initiative.
~Using the alternate rule from the DMG of proficiency dice instead of a flat bonus.
~adding "quick rests" that are 10 minutes, with the idea that you'd have some very limited ability to recover between fights; what's now a short rest would become more of a medium option for when time is still important but not rushed; long rests would still be 8 hours. I'm still hashing out how exactly this works.
~combat rounds are 10 seconds long (instead of the usual 6)
~bonus feat during character creation (with some limitations one what's available for this bonus choice)
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