D&D 5E Wanting more content doesn't always equate to wanting tons of splat options so please stop.

[Corwin]

I remember how much fun my old AD&D UA barbarian was to play back in the day. I can't imagine demanding WotC provide official rules support to 'port that class into 5e verbatim. Instead, they gave us a 5e barbarian. Are they identical? Of course not. Can I emulate good ol' Grimm Svenolafson close enough to get the point across? Heck yeah.

 

[Willie the Duck]

My campaign utilizes several longstanding characters as part of the story. Some of them date back to the 1E and 2E days. One of the characters began his life as a Cavalier from Unearthed Arcanna. He's been updates for each edition of the game, and has never been an exact match as his original iteration (which is good, really, since the IA Cavalier was very overpowered).

The 5E version has proven to be a lot of fun. Same for the other characters...they're all fun to play, and they feel faithful to the original character concepts even if not every ability or feat is duplicated.

I think that's the thing when converting from prior editions...faithfulness to a concept. So to use an example from earlier in the thread, a sorcerer being pulled around by an unseen servant...okay, for whatever reason that combo isn't possible in 5E. So then maybe examine why the character wanted to be carried around by the unseen servant...was it due to a sense of self-importance? The desire to impress or unnerve others? Laziness?

I think the the best thing to do is answer that kind of question, and then find an available option that fits the concept. This means your character is largely the same in spirit, with only a few cosmetic differences.

My iconic character, Thoros Boarhunter Minotaur (cursed human, not what minotaurs turned into at some point in D&D) stonemason, lyrist, loner, potion-maker and keeper of lore, has existed since my days playing BECMI. He started as a minotaur (just the monster) that was convinced (with promise to potentially get his curse reversed) to work with the PCs and not fight them. He then transitioned to a modified Humanoid-as-pc class from Orcs of Thar. Then in 2e AD&D he became a minotaur Wilderness Protector/Hedge Mage (only houserules were allowing kits and multiclassing, and potion brewing once he would have qualified for 9th level mage, even though he level capped at 8). Now he's a Outlander background Minotaur (Waterborne rules, but replace navigator’s tools and water vehicles proficiencies for herbalism kit and stonemasons tools) Oath of Ancients Paladin/ Lore Bard. Every iteration has been different, including different powers, and requiring some form of houserules each time. As far as I'm concerned, that's a bonus, not a problem.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Again please don't interrupt with shouts of "DMS GUILD!" because fan made stuff has always been around and never has it ever been acknowledged as part of the edition's content. DMs Guild doesn't change that.

This has got to be the part of the OP post I have the most trouble with. Firstly the "please don't interrupt with" part seems like trying to preemptively and falsely defining by fiat a reasonable action from someone who might disagree with you as rude. That does not start this thread off on a good foot. The OP later trying to declare other peoples comments as epic fail doesn't help.

But on to the basic premise here. I don't get this. Fan made stuff has been around forever, and what is wrong with it? What is so magical about the WotC icon emblazoned upon a set of rules that gives it gravitas? Especially in the same thread that one is complaining about WotC's actions. Do you question WotC's judgment or not? Do they know what they are doing or not? If you trust them enough to want to know what they think makes a good ____ (whatever class or spell or whatever you want them to write up), why don't you trust them on their position of 'use 3pp' which is what they've been trying to convince us to do since at least 2000? They have trying since then to get outside groups to do some of the heavy lifting (and risk taking, in terms of investment) on supplemental material. Be it OGL, DMS Guild, or whatever comes next.

 

[MoonSong]

IIRC, there were previous threads were solutions were offered (some of which were basically re-skinning the Wizard). I think those didn't fly with Moonsong because Moonsong wanted official rules support and/or wanted it to be within the "Sorcerer" class.

For the last time, the Wizard/Mage/MU just doesn't gel with the way I play and the characters I make, everything on the class tells a story that a just clashes with the kind of fantasy I like from my spellcasters, and that story is just not one that I find interesting. No amount of refluffing will get the class to a point where I'm even comfortable with it. In order for that to work I need full DM cooperation because what I need goes beyond simple refluffing, but if I had full DM cooperation this wouldn't be an issue. Now the sorcerer class resonates with me in a very personal way that I cannot really explain to strangers in the internet. Some official support would go a long way because it makes things easier for me. I'm not an "official only" fetishist, but official content makes my life easier -or harder as hostility and goodwill have become scarcer since the Stormborn was printed without the bonus spells-.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I remember how much fun my old AD&D UA barbarian was to play back in the day. I can't imagine demanding WotC provide official rules support to 'port that class into 5e verbatim. Instead, they gave us a 5e barbarian. Are they identical? Of course not. Can I emulate good ol' Grimm Svenolafson close enough to get the point across? Heck yeah.

Not only have I been able to port some of my favorite PCs over, FWIW I have to say 5e does it better. Let me give you an example. One of my favorite AD&D characters was a halfing fighter/thief. Obviously in previous editions, I needed to multi-class in order to make this work, and when doing so, you're making a lot of compromises.

In 5e? Dex based fighter with the urchin background and dungeon delver feat. So easy. Didn't have to multiclass at all in order to emulate almost exactly how Shade Styx was in previous editions.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Willie the Duck]

For the last time, ...[etc.]

MoonSong, it is highly disappointing that you are continuing to act like you are being hurt or attacked in this thread, when in reality people are bending over backwards to try to help you out with your situation. It is decidedly not their fault that each and every one of their suggestions do not meet your exceedingly difficult to meet expectations.

 

[Corpsetaker]

This has got to be the part of the OP post I have the most trouble with. Firstly the "please don't interrupt with" part seems like trying to preemptively and falsely defining by fiat a reasonable action from someone who might disagree with you as rude. That does not start this thread off on a good foot. The OP later trying to declare other peoples comments as epic fail doesn't help.

But on to the basic premise here. I don't get this. Fan made stuff has been around forever, and what is wrong with it? What is so magical about the WotC icon emblazoned upon a set of rules that gives it gravitas? Especially in the same thread that one is complaining about WotC's actions. Do you question WotC's judgment or not? Do they know what they are doing or not? If you trust them enough to want to know what they think makes a good ____ (whatever class or spell or whatever you want them to write up), why don't you trust them on their position of 'use 3pp' which is what they've been trying to convince us to do since at least 2000? They have trying since then to get outside groups to do some of the heavy lifting (and risk taking, in terms of investment) on supplemental material. Be it OGL, DMS Guild, or whatever comes next.

Well if you look at the bottom of my OP you will see lots of people have given me XP so I wouldn't say the thread has started off on the wrong foot.

Secondly. I'm not sure if you have been reading up but anytime you state you want more content you get told to just go to DMsGuild. Fan stuff has been around a long time and the attitude towards that stuff hasn't changed in all these years. Any time you bring something with the WoTc seal of approval to the table most DM's won't even bat an eye because that seal let's people know that it has been tested and comes from a reasonably trusted source. Other stuff is not so allowed by tons of DM's. Third party products lots of times has a hard time being allowed not to mention fan based stuff. All DMsGuild does with regards to WoTc is allow you to make a little money. None of the stuff there gets the seal of of approval. You buy it and use at your own risk.

I hope that clears up anything you have questions about.

 

[Corwin]

Well if you look at the bottom of my OP you will see lots of people have given me XP so I wouldn't say the thread has started off on the wrong foot.

If I can guess who here awarded you those XP, without looking, do I win a prize?

 

[Tony Vargas]

TFan made stuff has been around forever, and what is wrong with it?

Nothing, at least, for the fan that made it. 'Variants,' that might be applied as diversely as from one scenario to another, were an expected part of wargaming and stayed an expected part of D&D for quite a while, all through the 80s, at least, I'd say.

2e produced so much material that I suppose players accustomed to it might be excused for expecting whatever they wanted to play to have some sort of official incarnation, and the 3e-era lionization of RAW (and 3e DMs retreat into WotC-only and Core-only policies to defend their campaigns from the bloat), certainly took that from an expectation to a desperate need.

What is so magical about the WotC icon emblazoned upon a set of rules that gives it gravitas?

It's sacred to the Cult of RAW.


5e is trying so hard with it's push towards DM Empowerment, and rulings-not-rules to re-capture that acceptance of variants, including DM-specific and well-known circulating ones (such as Len Lakofka's in Leomund's Tiny Hut, or Steve Perrin's Quest Rules or so forth) like we had back in the day, and DMsGuild is evocative of the latter. A clearing house for potential widely-used variants.

But, AL monkeywrenches all that a bit, because it does stick to a limited set of options, and it is both a (re-) entry point for the hobby, and the easiest way for many to find games.

And, forums like this are also an obstacle, because discussions - and maybe this is still a 3e-era habbit that needs to be broken - tend to seem to gravitate towards the de-facto common ground of published rules or AL-approved rules.

That's all observation, no prescription for fixing it, though. Sorry.