D&D 5E Is infinite diversity in infinite combinations .... a terrible thing in D&D?

[Waterbizkit]

I am so sick of you ultra-conservative grognards trying to tell everyone else how to play the game.

You grew up on LOTR, and can't possibly imagine flights of fancy and imagination having any other form. Yeah. We get it.There is only one way to play the game! The one from one infinitesimally small slice of the imagination!

So. Boring. Yawn.

Even in it's day, Tolkien was writing pastoral escapist 'return to the glorified past (that never existed).' Super conservative. Leveraging folk tales from hundreds of years before. Sorry. Fantasy these days is much wilder, more interesting, with a much wider field of influence, and way better for it.

Keep whining about it on obscure message boards on the internet, though. I'm sure that will show them the error of their ways, and they'll stop being so, so... diverse.

Extremist view points full of vitriol are just as ugly coming from one camp as they are from another. Perhaps next time maybe just live and let live if you can't make a point without deriding others in the process. These kinds of comments do just as much harm to diversity in the game as the viewpoints you're railing against in the first place.

 

[Croesus]

I actually like the infinite combinations allowed in this edition, as it gives great freedom for some really interesting ideas. Of course, many players will just go with the best mechanical combinations, but not all, and not always. The unusual combos players come up with can be a lot of fun.

 

[paintphob]

I am so sick of you ultra-conservative grognards trying to tell everyone else how to play the game.

I don't think the OP was telling anyone how to play. It was a question about how others like to play.

You grew up on LOTR, and can't possibly imagine flights of fancy and imagination having any other form. Yeah. We get it.There is only one way to play the game! The one from one infinitesimally small slice of the imagination!

So. Boring. Yawn.

Actually, I grew up on Burroughs, Piers Anthony, and Lovecraft. That is a pretty wide spread of imagination right there, I think.

Even in it's day, Tolkien was writing pastoral escapist 'return to the glorified past (that never existed).' Super conservative. Leveraging folk tales from hundreds of years before. Sorry. Fantasy these days is much wilder, more interesting, with a much wider field of influence, and way better for it.

These days? Have a read of some Vance, Moorcock, Howard, or Leiber, and get back to me on that last point.

Keep whining about it on obscure message boards on the internet, though. I'm sure that will show them the error of their ways, and they'll stop being so, so... diverse.

I don't think enworld is all that obscure.

 

[hawkeyefan]

The answer's in the middle.

If you can't accept some limitations on options available to you in the game, then you need to improve as a player.

If you can't figure out a way to incorporate a class or race that you typically don't allow, then you need to improve as a DM.

Sometimes, restrictions serve a purpose. Sometimes, removing restrictions serves a purpose. Both of those options should be considered as part of a game.

 

[Staccat0]

I think that in most campaigns the PCs are exceptions. I am, however, a recent convert to the idea that Demi-humans should be classes so I will co-sign your bill and argue it in committee.

 

[Azzy]

All boils down to where you stand on one of the deep dichotomies within the D&D community; is the game about exploring the setting or is the game about developing the characters?

I think that's a bit of a false dichotomy... I think you can have both in the same game, and even the same campaign.

 

[TwoSix]

I think that's a bit of a false dichotomy... I think you can have both in the same game, and even the same campaign.

You can have them in the same session, even; doesn't change the fact everyone inevitably believes one is more important than the other.

 

[Jester David]

I don't think we need be constrained by what was first introduced when the game is in it's infancy. Not anymore than videogames should be restricted to 16-bit side scrolling design.
The design and concepts need to change and evolve.

But there also should be a finite number of options in the game. Too many options is confusing and leads to imbalance and bloat.

Classes are big options. They're big design elements that are hard to balance. We need very few official new classes.
Subclasses are where the design can be a bit more free. And ditto races, all of which need not exist in a single world. Instead, DMs can pick and choose what's included in their setting.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Just do what 1st Edition did and make humans the most OP race around. Then people won't be interested in weird races.

Sent from my VS990 using EN World mobile app

 

[Blue]

For example, in Birthright elves don't have any truck with religion - when humans first arrived in their lands, the strange priestly magic they wielded overwhelmed the elves. So if Birthright were to be adapted to 5e, I'd be totally OK with a rule saying that elves can't become clerics or druids. But I can also see the potential of being The One Elf That Found God, and I'd appreciate a sidebar to that effect.

This is a bit of a tangent, but it might be of interest. 13th Age is a d20 OGL that shares a lot of DNA with 5e, but one of the Yoink!able things is that each character has One Unique Thing. The game combines some story-game ideas and puts more on player authorship then the 5e rules do, and the One Unique Thing can often be used to shape the world as it applies to your character. One of the examples in the book is "I am the only halfling knight of the Dragon Emperor". This fits so much with your "I am the only Elf that found Religion" that I wanted to mention it.

It's a nice system, came out about six months before 5e but has a lot of similar philosophy. At the very least, it has a lot of ideas that are directly stealable for 5e if that's you're interest. (ENWorld hosts a 13th Age SRD, though at the risk of sounding disloyal I like the format better at http://www.13thagesrd.com/.)