D&D 5E 5E Will Epic Fail If

[Fifth Element]

4E was going to be a failure if frost giants were not included in the first Monster Manual. 5E is going to be a failure if it organizes feat lists in a particular way? Man, times have changed.

 

[keterys]

4E was going to be a failure if frost giants were not included in the first Monster Manual. 5E is going to be a failure if it organizes feat lists in a particular way? Man, times have changed.

Nah, the ability of people to complain about things that don't truly matter is eternal

 

[MoonSong]

5e will epic fail if the core is a bloody mess that cannot be played by the books alone without the help of electronic tools because it has tons and tons of errata that invalidate half the printed stuff. Or if the different subsystems and their interacions are so fidly a character cannot be put together without an electronic character builder or knowing rocket science.

Next needs to be easy to run, easy to learn and support lots of styles. You shouldn't need anything but the core books (and some dice and paper). Being the unity edition is not enough for it. The next D&D needs to be extremely noob friendly, with next to 0 entry barriers for newcomers.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

5E will be an epic fail ...

* If it isn't easy for DMs to prep and run
* If it doesn't deliver a game that "feels" like D&D
* If it doesn't allow for a high degree of PC customization

Everything else is trivial, IMO. It will differentiate itself from Pathfinder by have a much lighter DM workload.

 

[ren1999]

I agree with the need to reduce the GM's workload.
I agree with the need to have an OGL (Open Gaming License) the way 3rd Edition had.

My Dungeons & Dragons Hybrid Game for Firefox and Chrome kira3696.tripod.com/CombatTracker.rar

 

[Matthias]

Hello niche protection, I have a nice hot burning fire for you to die in.

Sure, the Rogue needs to be good at stealth, thievery, stabbing things dead... but still, any character should be able to get good at that if the player wants to, regardless of what the little class box on the character sheet says. It's just that Rogues can always do that, while other classes need to invest in feats, spell slots, items or whatever to do that, which can be spent on other things.

Opportunity cost is a better design principle.

How about healing wizards?

 

[mkill]

How about healing wizards?

Why not? I've played the German "Das Schwarze Auge" a lot, where Wizards do have access to healing spells. Final Fantasy has a "White Mage" class since 1987. It's not a big deal.

On a more abstract level, buffing ally AC and healing hp is roughly equivalent - one prevents the damage from happening, the other removes it after the fact.

Here is an example calculation:
Say, a spell gives +4 AC over 5 rounds. This reduces monster to hit from 50% to 30%. Assume one monster attack per round that, for standard enemies the PCs face at the current level, does 15 damage on a hit. On average, you AC buff prevents one hit in these 5 rounds, or 15 damage. So your Mage Armor spell is equal to Cure Medium Wounds for 2d8 + 6.

(Obviously you need to make a few assumptions that may or may not apply in a given situation, but then game balance is an art, not a science)

 

[Piratecat]

To be clear (and I can say this without breaking NDA), I consider the core 5e rules to be very fun indeed. They're a much different game than 4e and Pathfinder right now, and we've been having a great time. My real question will be when the rules are complete and I ask "does 5e with tactical modules give me a better experience than 4e?" and "does 5e with rich character creation options give me a better experience/better DM prep than Pathfinder?"

I won't know the answer to those questions for more than a year. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Incidentally, I'm talking core rules only. If I prefer 5e rules to Pathfinder's rules, I'll still be getting Pathfinder setting material and just converting it on the fly. That material is superb.

 

[Plane Sailing]

To be clear (and I can say this without breaking NDA), I consider the core 5e rules to be very fun indeed. They're a much different game than 4e and Pathfinder right now, and we've been having a great time.

I concur

 

[rjdafoe]

If the PHB is too rigid in design and there are not enou options available out of the gate. We all know that every character class or concept is not going to be suported right away, but if there is enough variety in the first PHB, that will go along way in getting people to continue to play the game to wait for new options.