D&D 5E Did you like one Playtest version better than the final 5e PHB?

[GlassJaw]

The sorcerer became more draconic as they spent Sorcery Points (though they were called Willpower at the time). That was the coolest thing about it, in my opinion. The general consensus was “this is a cool class, but it doesn’t feel like a sorcerer,” mostly because it shifted roles from caster to melee fighter depending on its Willpower pool.

I think they threw a beautiful baby out with that bath water - the idea of sorcerer features caring about how many Sorcery Points you had. Imagine if, for example, the wild magic sorcerer’s chance of a wild magic surge increased as their sorcery point pool depleted. They’d have this awesome tension between exercising more control over your spells now via metamagic, but having less control later due to wild magic.

Agreed. The melee features could easily have become a subclass, but the mechanic of the sorcerer changing and gaining more abilities as they spent their sorcery points was awesome.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Since the packet came with each ''chapter'' of the books as separate documents, I have in mind of merging some of them to create 3-4 larger documents, slap some nice B&W covers on them and have them printed as softcover booklets.

Book 1:
Races, Background, Classes, Specialties, Equipment.

Book 2:
Playing the game, DM advices, Monsters

Book 3:
Spells and Magic items

 

[DND_Reborn]

Since the packet came with each ''chapter'' of the books as separate documents, I have in mind of merging some of them to create 3-4 larger documents, slap some nice B&W covers on them and have them printed as softcover booklets.

Book 1:
Races, Background, Classes, Specialties, Equipment.

Book 2:
Playing the game, DM advices, Monsters

Book 3:
Spells and Magic items

I haven't looked at them yet, but I was thinking the same thing...

 

[Charlaquin]

Agreed. The melee features could easily have become a subclass, but the mechanic of the sorcerer changing and gaining more abilities as they spent their sorcery points was awesome.

I think the draconic bloodline was meant to be a subclass. It’s just that it was the only sorcerer subclass presented in the packet, so people missed the forest for the trees.

Same with the cosmetic changes for the warlock Invocations. It was a Vernestra patron warlock subclass, so it was very focused on trading beauty for power. Presumably other patrons would have had different fluff effects with their Invocations.

 

[oreofox]

While there isn't one specific packet, there are numerous things from the old packets that I miss, and would have liked to see implemented. The original sorcerer, which was a bit more melee based, and had a d12 for hit die, because WotC being WotC equates innate magic power coming solely from dragon ancestry. The Hit Die and a few other parts of the sorcerer said something along the lines of "depending on your sorcerous origin", which meant other sorcerers would get different HD sizes.

Another thing was getting an ASI from the class. This part I added in my games, removing the +2 from race and adding it to class.

During the playtest, I was focused more on Pathfinder, so I didn't look too much into it. I wrote it off for the most part because the changes to the monsters wasn't explained anywhere that I could see (I probably just missed it). The monstrosity category and how they applied it made no sense to me. Why was a griffon a beast while a manticore a monstrosity?

I enjoy 5e, but some of the decisions made to the final product compared to the playtest I didn't like.

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s interesting to me that a couple of people have said they liked the monsters better in the playtest, because all I remember was constant complaining from other players that the monsters were too weak, and WotC reminding them that they weren’t testing for monster balance yet and reassuring them that they would balance them appropriately after internal playtesting.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It’s interesting to me that a couple of people have said they liked the monsters better in the playtest, because all I remember was constant complaining from other players that the monsters were too weak, and WotC reminding them that they weren’t testing for monster balance yet and reassuring them that they would balance them appropriately after internal playtesting.

They are definitely weaker. They deal as much damage as in regular 5e, but they have about half the HP. At the same time, most character dont have 2-4 attacks per round and bonus actions damage dealing features and such.

It would need to be tested, but I believe that it would increase the pace of battle even more than the already quick 5e's battles.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Ok, so I've just been reviewing the play test material I was sent and OMG so much of this is way better than what was finally presented for 5E.

What the heck happened....

 

[Shiroiken]

I found a lot of aspects from the playtest were missed opportunities. I loved the idea of each class giving +1 to one of its primary ability scores. It helped make every character viable for every class. A few of the Lores, such as Cultural Lore, were interesting ideas that never made it due to the poor implementation. The monsters were all ridiculously weak, but that was intentional to provide a baseline for all the playtest material to match against.

LOL seriously! What the heck happened that ended up so we got stuck with 5E as is???

They should re-release some actual D&D Next core books with those rules. I would buy them in a heartbeat.

Because the playtest said this is what people wanted. Online posters on forums really aren't a good example of the average player/DM. If it was the Champion Fighter probably wouldn't exist.

 

[DND_Reborn]

If it was the Champion Fighter probably wouldn't exist.

Which would be a shame since it is my favorite Fighter subclass...