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D&D 5E The Official Poll! What THREE things do you like most about D&D 5th Edition?

What do you like most about D&D 5th Edition? (Choose up to 3!)

  • Advantage/disadvantage

    Votes: 391 45.9%
  • Art direction/production values

    Votes: 68 8.0%
  • Backgrounds

    Votes: 145 17.0%
  • Bounded accuracy

    Votes: 307 36.0%
  • Concentration

    Votes: 58 6.8%
  • Inspiration mechanic

    Votes: 40 4.7%
  • Legendary creature mechanic

    Votes: 62 7.3%
  • Magic items not required/no "Christmas tree"

    Votes: 195 22.9%
  • Magic system

    Votes: 64 7.5%
  • Old-school "feel"

    Votes: 221 25.9%
  • Proficiency bonus

    Votes: 75 8.8%
  • Published adventures

    Votes: 12 1.4%
  • Rate of release/number of books

    Votes: 38 4.5%
  • Rulings not rules/DM empowerment

    Votes: 223 26.2%
  • Simplicity/light rules

    Votes: 309 36.3%
  • Speed of play

    Votes: 189 22.2%
  • I like nothing about D&D 5th Edition

    Votes: 17 2.0%

Falling Icicle

Adventurer
I have to say I'm surprised that the Magic System hasn't garnered more love; in my estimation, the new magic system in conjunction with the bounded accuracy (which in my mind the proficiency bonus is a component of) are the two things most responsible for reigning in the power acceleration to levels we haven't seen since 1e days. I also didn't see the advantage system as being super important to 5e's awesomeness, but it has a lot of love here I can see - good deal.

I love the new magic system, but since I could only pick three things, I chose the three that I like the most (advantage/disadvantage, bounded accuracy, and the overall simplicity of the rules). It was a hard choice, because I like almost everything on the list. The only thing you listed that I don't like is the extremely slow release schedule. I love 5e, and want more of it!
 

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Remathilis

Legend
I went Old-School Feel, Rules Light, and Speed of Play; I figure those three pretty much encompass nearly everything else on the list I wanted to check as well.
 

Psikerlord#

Explorer
I'm surprised that ADV/DISAD is so high in the poll. I personally think it is a VERY strong modifier, and am wary of it getting overused. For example, I haven't been using the inspiration rule because I don't want players using ADV unless they have a real tactical advantage.

I nearly voted for the magic system, but it was no. 4 on my list of things that give me real pleasure about the edition.

Ben

Iagree i like adv/disad, but they should have also kept +1/2 modifiers ( we still use them, like flanking +1). They kinda kept +2 for partial cover i guess. But adv/disad is TOO simplistic/blunt. The game works better with more modifier granuality imo.
 

tuxgeo

Adventurer
I selected my choices based on having only played 5E at low levels, and that only as a player, not a DM.
I took the choices that were obvious to me: Adv./Disadv., Backgrounds, and Proficiency Bonus.

Adv./Disadv. is the most obvious in play. It has the appearance of being an outgrowth of 4E's "Combat Advantage," but regularized and generalized to be used in all three pillars of play. Sure! Why not make one mechanic pervade all phases of the game? That made a great deal of sense to me, and I have encountered uses for it repeatedly. To me, it's not a corner-case rule that must be memorized for specific situations; instead, it's a core mechanic that is easy to remember and easy to use, and makes the choices the PCs make have more varied consequences.

Backgrounds were introduced in 4E's PHB2; but their effects in 4E were mostly limited to a choice about one or the other of a couple of skills associated with the background: either a +2 bonus to checks involving the skill, or else inclusion of that skill in the PC's class skill list. (Some backgrounds also granted proficiency in a language.) The improvements in 5E are significant: two skill proficiencies, and tool or language proficiencies. This shifting of the burden of part of each character's choice of skill proficiencies from class to background greatly opens up the design space for diversity of characters, and I heartily approve.

I put Proficiency Bonus third because it's another of those things that went from being a niche, corner rule in the Weapons table to a much more widely-applicable attribute of each PC. Such increased generality is good.

I did not vote for:
Bounded Accuracy, because its presence is hidden in the underlying bones of the game, but does not appear in its own guise as "Bounded Accuracy" during play. It is a wonderful design principle; but none of my characters interact with it at all. Further, I have only gotten above 4th level once in 5E, and that was a playtest session wherein we deliberately started at 12th level, so I haven't yet had the experience of seeing how low-level threats remain scary as my characters slowly go up in level. This makes it hard for me to find it enthralling.

Magic Items Not Required, because I haven't ever personally seen the Christmas Tree Effect in play. I know 4E had an "intrinsic bonuses" option that removed the need for the Magic Item Escalator, so this doesn't seem too much of an innovation to me.

"Old School" feel, because I never played the old-school versions of the game.

Simplicity/Light rules, because they've lost some exactitude in the transition between 4E and 5E. Yes, simple is good; but there are still things that need to be explained more clearly. I guess that could be part of the Rulings, Not Rules philosophy; but I also guess that they will find they can reword their ideas much more clearly in future releases. I think 5E is a great step forward in the direction of Rules Light; I also think they have a distinct opportunity for further improvement.

Speed of Play, because I have been playing PbP, and "speed of play" doesn't come up in that format.
 
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Cody C. Lewis

First Post
I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but by far my favorite feature of 5th Edition is the lack of skill trees.

Less feat trees! I want to roll up a character and play. I don't want to have to plan every level that I may or may not get to.
 


Chimpy

First Post
Published adventures seem to be letting the product down, if this survey is anything to go by. I can kind of understand this, since we've seen how well adventure paths can be done by paizo.

I think my biggest gripe is a lack of official published adventures that don't start at level 1. I often want a adventure that runs for several levels, for PCs of level 4-5, for example, perhaps as a follow up to another adventure.
 

Neyd

First Post
Advantage/Disadvantage
The system seems just seems to click very quickly even with newer players. Also it make ad hoc DM rulings rather easy and encourages PCs to cleverly use their enviroment.

Bounded Accuracy
I love not having to exactly "rebalance" everything if I want a mid-level adventure featuring the humble orc. In the same way I like the fact that you can be a level 9 party and still take on (if just barely) a CR 13 Encounter and not feel like "you are not quite there yet". The non-dependancy on magic item +X bonus weapons and armor allows PCs to be more open towards more interesting loot in the shenanigan department.

Simplicity
Same reasoning as with advantage/disadvantage it is easy enough to grasp and if you want more crunch, you can always add more via homebrewing and DM rulings.
 

Xavian Starsider

First Post
I was going to go with advantage/disadvantage, but went with simplicity/light rules instead because advantage/disadvantage is a big part of that. (good bye +4 and -2 modifiers all over the place!)
I also went with magic items not required, because it's good that magic items feel special again.
and art/production because the quality of the 5th edition books is just superb
 

GainVanquish

First Post
Has to be the advantage / disadvantage mechanic for me.

Saying that havent played dnd before Hoard of the Dragon queen since i was 11 and im not 36.
 

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