D&D 5E 5e summary?

[ren1999]

Here is a mechanical summary.
A combat encounter is quick now.
This is accomplished by lowering everyone's armor class and restricting their modifiers to saving throws.
Humanoids can not naturally achieve higher than a 20(+5) strength.
Non-Humanoids can't exceed 30(+10).
magic items above +5 haven't been seen in the play-test.
Nor has any modifier to any roll above +15.
Advantage is where you roll and take the higher result. It is equal to a modifier of +4 for the situation.
Disadvantage is where you take the lower result.
Skills are grouped in backgrounds and with kits. You start the game with a set of skills you learned before becoming an adventurer.
To climb, you add your relevant ability modifier, your skill in climbing/balancing/rope work/etc.
Rolls are ability versus ability or Ac.
For example 1d20+dex mod versus 10+dex mod. No more fortitude, reflex and will defenses to track.
There are also spell Difficulty Classes.
DC10+your primary spell ability mod verses your target's 1d20+its target ability mod.
Spells and Prayers are now the same in name.
You have spell slots that you fill before the encounter starts. You can cure wounds at 2d8 for example and you use 1 spell slot during the encounter. You can memorize Cure Wounds at slot 2 for 3d8 as an example. Your slots per level are determined by your class table.
The action economy is down to a set of actions and reactions.
Reactions allow you to react outside your turn. Dispel Magic is a reaction as well as the Dodge Feat.
Feats/Maneuvers/Off-hand attacks give martial classes something that spell casting classes already have.
Variety.
In stead of attack, you can hustle, disengage, dodge/defend, and do other things as an action.
Your move action can be split between your actions.

kira3696.tripod.com

 

[Iosue]

I'm going to shamelessly use [MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION]'s excellent post to springboard on:

CHARACTER CREATION

- It is a traditional class-based system, with the important addition of subclasses (exact name varies for each class) as a tool to create significantly different characters of the same class. Your class determines your general features and a large number of benefits at different levels. A subclass is something you choose at a level between 1st and 3rd (depends on the class) and determines a series of specific features/benefits at various levels later on. All classes have no "dead levels": if you don't get a class benefit or subclass benefit at a certain level, then you get the choice of either an ability score boost or a feat.

- The second-most important character choice is your background. This is the main delivery method for skills proficiencies. Essentially, by encapsulating most of your PC's skills, backgrounds make your (overall) skill choices indipendent from class.

- Races follow the tradition of one-time packages of bonuses, but many of them need to also choose a subrace.

- Proficiencies follow a new unified approach that covers weapons, armors, skills, tools, languages and saving throws using the same rules. You are either proficient in something or not. If you are proficient, you apply your proficiency bonus to all applicable rolls (armor and languages don't require roll, and work differently). The key point is that the proficiency bonus is always the same for all your proficiencies, and depends only on your total character level but does not depend on your class.

- Alignment has largely no mechanical consequences.

- Feats are as large as 2-3 feats of previous editions, but otherwise are still simple additions to represent any kind of extra character feature. Feats can be used to control the complexity of your PC, since some of them grant one simple passive but large benefit, while others may grant multiple benefits, situational benefits, proactive abilities and even a complete subsystem (e.g. fighting maneuvers). Furthermore, you are never required to take feats, and can take ability score bumps instead. This new feats system is mostly motivated by the purpose of allowing simple and complex PC coexist at the same table, leaving the choice to each player, but being balanced against each other.

This is one of the primary examples of what the game offers in terms of modularity. If you're looking for, say, a more TSR-D&D type character generation, i.e., roll for ability scores, archetypal character classes with a minimum of mechanical variation, you simply collapse the simplest sub-class in with the most typical Background and go to work. A Warrior Fighter with a Soldier Background. Evoker Wizard with Sage Background. Cleric of Light with Priest Background. Thief Rogue with Guild Thief Background. Use attribute increases instead of feats. Or, if you want more variety and options, use a standard array and mix and match with the background of your choice. Enchanter Wizard with the Noble Background. Cleric of War with Thug Background. Weaponmaster Fighter with Artisan Background. Add feats for more variety. Or finally, you can go full customization. Distribute points for your ability scores, choose your subclass, choose a background trait, choose three skills and three tool proficiencies or languages, use feats in lieu of attribute bonuses. And all of these characters can play together in the same game.

PLAYING THE GAME

- Bounded Accuracy is the general concept of keeping number inflation limited, when it comes to bonuses to d20 rolls (including attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks etc.). The difference between two characters (or between the same character at 1st and 20th level) in terms of those bonuses is much lower than in the previous 2 editions of the game. Reducing the differences was done mainly to increase the level range at which the same monsters or challenges can be used, and to reduce situations where the difference between the best and worst characters means a challenge is insta-win for some and insta-lose for others.

- There is a turn-based system of exploration rules, so that during dungeon/wilderness explorations you can assign tasks to each PC, and put all checks into a time frame.

- There is a system of interaction rules based on defining character attitudes/motivations/etc. to handle conversations with NPC without putting too much stakes on single dice rolls.

- Advantage/disadvantage is the common rule for handling favorable/unfavorable situation, and it means "roll twice and take the best/worst". Bonuses to rolls are much less common than in previous editions, to largely reduce the number of calculations needed during the game.

Also, skills, or rather proficiencies, are not themselves a resolution system. The resolution system is ability score checks, over which proficiencies provide a bonus. Thus, if one prefers a skill-less game, you can just use ability scores, with the DM adjudicating the proficiency bonus if it's something the character might be deemed good at, or if they have the right tools. This allows DMs and players to easily make skills as broad or as fine as they like.

COMBAT

- Very light action economy. One action and one move. Everything significant (attack, spell, using an item) takes your action, minor things are free (e.g. changing weapons).

- Movement in combat is very loose. Essentially you are free to split your max moved distance the way you want. There are still "opportunity attacks" but limited only to prevent running away from or past the enemies with impunity. There are no penalties for casting spells or using ranged weapons in melee.

Another place where you adjust focus. The games ranges and movements are in feet, so you can play theater of the mind. They are also all in multiples of 5, with many rules written so that they easily transfer to map-and-minis style of play. If you're playing a Warrior Fighter, you're basically just using basic attacks all the time, for a B/X level of abstractness. Or, play with the Weaponmaster Fighter, which offers a variety of limited-use maneuvers, and add feats. A Weaponmaster Fighter with the Protection Fighting Style and the Tactical Warrior feat creates something very similar to the 4e Fighter, with the ability to protect nearby allies, mark enemies, and limited-use maneuvers that reset every encounter.

MAGIC

- Spellcasting rules are not vancian anymore. Casters normally have a chart of daily slots based on spells level, but instead prepare spells indipendently on that chart. You simply prepare a total number of spells (depending on your class level) of any level you can cast. You choose which one to cast on the fly, and it will "use up" an appropriate daily slot.

- Cantrips are at-will. Some spells can be cast as Rituals which also means at-will but take a longer time to cast (hence, not in combat).

- Everyone can cast spells in armor, but only if you are proficient with such armor (no difference between arcane and divine casters here).

- A lot of buffing spells require concentration which doesn't prevent any other action, but simply means that casting another spell also requiring concetration will make the previous spell ends. This is to largely prevent stacking buffs.

- On the other hand, all spells effects and magic items effects stack (except presumably with themselves).

- There is no assumption on the equipment value a character should have at any level. Hence magic items are not assumed, and could in theory be freely decided by each gaming group.

- Polymorph, wildshape and similar spells generally work by completely superseding the target's stats, and disappear after a certain amount of damage is taken (in a sense working like temporary hit points).

And if TSR-era Vancian is your bag, you can just ignore the spells prepared rules and use the spell slot tables in the traditional way. Also, Wizards are less quadratic. Instead of being weak at first but eventually super powerful, they are front-loaded to be more power at lower levels, with less of a disparity at higher levels. 5e casters have the fewest number of spell slots of any edition that uses that kind of system. With rituals also, there are more at lower levels and fewer at higher levels.

 

[fjw70]

Multiclassing largely follows the 3e level-based mechanic, but the major difference is that spellcasting classes get their spell slots "merged", i.e. a multiclass spellcaster uses the same spells per day table (there is only one table for all full spellcasting classes anyway) and can use it to cast spells from either class.

Wait, I didn't know that but I like it.


Great summary by the way. Thanks.

 

[Falling Icicle]

This is what I posted on rpg.net in a thread asking about what people like about the new edition.

Here are the biggest things that I like about the new edition.

* Advantage/Disadvantage: as others have mentioned, this is a much simplified way of getting rid of all the fiddly little modifiers on die rolls and keeping bonuses from stacking out of control. I also think it's a lot of fun. When the DM says you have advantage and you get to roll twice, it just feels more like a cool benefit than some +number does. I also like it because it's easy to apply after the fact. Say I already rolled and failed, but then the DM remembers I have advantage. Cool! I get to roll again!

* The Spellcasting System: I really love the way they're doing spellcasting this time. It's still got spells from 1st-9th level and spells per day (this is DnD, after all), but it also addresses the biggest complaints I always had about vancian casting in older editions. Casters still prepare spells, but they can "spontaneously" cast any spell they have prepared. For example, if I have magic missile and feather fall prepared, and three 1st level spells per day, I can cast three magic missiles, three feather falls, or some combination of both. Also, casters get at-will cantrips, which means casters will always have something magical to do even when they're out of their daily spells. Some spells can also be cast as rituals, which means they can be cast without consuming a spell slot by adding 10 minutes to the casting time. Wizards in particular can cast any ritual spell they have in their spellbook this way, even if it's not prepared. I like that because it actually makes a wizard's spellbook an advantage instead of a pure drawback, plus, it also means wizards get to use a lot of those spells that are just too situational to be worth preparing most of the time.

* Bounded Accuracy: This isn't a mechanic per se, but a design philosophy. Basically, they're trying to keep the number inflation in this edition to a minimum. This allows monsters to be valid threats for a much wider range of levels, as opposed to "oh you're level 8 now, well I can't throw goblins at the party, since they're too weak to matter." This article does a good job of explaining BA and its benefits: http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.a...d/4ll/20120604

* Backgrounds: Characters have backgrounds in addition to their race and class. Backgrounds are basically things like your social status or occupation in the game world. Your wizard might be an apothecary, while a warrior is a soldier. The cool thing is, backgrounds aren't tied to class. You can be a wizard spy, a fighter sage, a barbarian pirate, etc. Instead of getting most of your skills from your class, as in older editions, characters get most of their skills from their background now. This opens up a ton of character options and it's also an aid to roleplaying, as each background gives you traits that provide story hooks that players and DMs can use.

* The Overall Simplicity of the Rules: The rules in 5e are a lot simpler and more straight-forward than those in any edition I've played. Things just seem to run a lot more smoothly, there's a lot less looking up rules, and combat seems to go really fast.

* Magic Items: 5e is treating magic items as purely optional things. Gone are the days of the "Christmas tree" where you needed to have +x armor, +x ring of protection, +x amulet of natural armor, +x cloak of resistance, etc. etc. etc. just to keep up with the game's math. The magic items focus instead on being fun, interesting, and cool, rather than providing "mandatory" and boring +x bonuses. This is the first edition of DnD I've played where characters can do well even without any magic items at all, at any level. There are still +x swords and whatever, but the bonus caps at +3 now, and the higher bonus items also have other special powers. The playtest packets didn't have any plain +3 weapons or armor that I saw. Instead, they were things like flametongue and efreeti chain. There is also attunement, which is required by some items. Attunement puts a limit on how many really powerful magic items you can use at the same time. It's also used to unlock higher potential in certain items. Like there was a hammer that if attuned by a dwarf and you met certain criteria, it turned it into a really powerful weapon. I also like how wands and staffs recharge, and only risk being destroyed if you use them when they're down to their last charge. I was never really a fan of the wands and staffs of older editions that were merely spell batteries or "50 scrolls rolled up into a stick," as I jokingly called them.

* Monster Design: 5e's monsters take a lot of lessons from 4e's monster design, which I think is a good thing. The monster stat blocks are easy to read and use, so they're really easy for the DM to run. Even the higher level monsters are much more manageable. Instead of things like pit fiends having paragraph-long spell lists, they're a lot simpler now, though still complex enough to be interesting. Monsters also use things like resistances and immunities much more sparingly now. While there are some monsters that are resistant or even immune to non-magical weapons, they almost always have some mundane equivalent that can harm them instead, like cold iron. And such immunities are much more rare now, saved for monsters for which they are really appropriate, rather than the DR and immunities of older editions, that were handed out to monsters like candy. They also got rid of the really annoying monster mechanics from older editions, like level drain. But don't worry, undead can still be very scary. Instead of sapping levels they can reduce your maximum hit points until you rest.

* Subclasses: Instead of prestige classes or paragon paths, there are subclasses. Subclasses remind me a lot of the Kits in 2e, which is great, because I loved kits. You pick a subclass by level 3, I believe. If you're wondering why you pick the subclass at level 3 instead of 1, it's because levels 1 and 2 are considered to be "apprentice" or introductory levels, so they keep the number of choices you make at those levels to a minimum. You're supposed to graduate from those levels pretty quickly. I believe they said you gain a level every session or so, until you reach level 3, where it slows down to the normal pace. So level 3 is kind of like where the game really begins, with 1st and 2nd levels being like the prequel or background levels for your character.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Magic items:

So how does the whole "limited magic items" thing work out in practice? We've had several adventures published - how much magic was in them, and how much of it was permanent? If the modules' rate-of-treasure was constant over a campaign, would the party magic supply be "appropriate" as the D&DNext articles have suggested?

What I'm remembering is that 1e books talked a good game about limiting magic availability, but published modules showed little restraint. I'm curious if, so far, 5e is doing better.