D&D 5E When Did 5E Peak Quality Wise?

[doctorbadwolf]

I think for me, part of why I don’t feel 5e has peaked is that the books that annoy some of y’all are bringing 5e closer to what it might have been if they hadn’t had to steer clear of obvious 4e influence, or “progressive” lore.

Like the orc thing in Volos. That wouldn’t have happened in a 5e that carried on from 4e. All this progress lately is just…catching back up to 2010.

So, D&D moving away from a direction I never wanted it to go doesn’t exactly bother me.

Combine that with preferring cursory lore, or lore that is part of player options and monsters and such rather than long-winded exposition text, and generally seeing the game as more balanced and more fun now than it was in 2014, and yeah, 5e might be peaking right now, depending on how 1DnD goes, but it certainly hasn’t yet.

 

[dave2008]

I don't recall if I have answered this thread or not yet, but @Zardnaar I would say right now is peak 5e. The playtest revisions, IMO, are shaping up to be the best version of 5e. Now, it may not end up that way, since it is not set in stone. However, I like the intent of what they are doing and most of the results. In general, IMO, they are improving 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think for me, part of why I don’t feel 5e has peaked is that the books that annoy some of y’all are bringing 5e closer to what it might have been if they hadn’t had to steer clear of obvious 4e influence, or “progressive” lore.

Like the orc thing in Volos. That wouldn’t have happened in a 5e that carried on from 4e. All this progress lately is just…catching back up to 2010.

So, D&D moving away from a direction I never wanted it to go doesn’t exactly bother me.

Combine that with preferring cursory lore, or lore that is part of player options and monsters and such rather than long-winded exposition text, and generally seeing the game as more balanced and more fun now than it was in 2014, and yeah, 5e might be peaking right now, depending on how 1DnD goes, but it certainly hasn’t yet.

So you don't think it peaked because its moving in a direction you like. Just like how someone who feels it peaked earlier because it's moving away from a direction they like. What more are you trying to say here?

 

[Blackwarder]

Storm king thunder was the high point for me, Tasha was when I quit 5e.

 

[mamba]

So you don't think it peaked because its moving in a direction you like. Just like how someone who feels it peaked earlier because it's moving away from a direction they like. What more are you trying to say here?

Isn't that what we all are saying here? Not sure what more there is to it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So you don't think it peaked because its moving in a direction you like.

Well, no. There are also a bunch of other reasons that I listed in that post and upthread.

Just like how someone who feels it peaked earlier because it's moving away from a direction they like. What more are you trying to say here?

I’m almost never trying to say something. If I want to say something, I just say it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, no. There are also a bunch of other reasons that I listed in that post and upthread.

I’m almost never trying to say something. If I want to say something, I just say it.

All of the things you listed were ways the game is going in a direction you like.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The only one I disagree with is Twilight Cleric in play. We have seen a lot of them since Tasha's, mostly on optimizers and the results have honestly been underwhelming TBH.

The player who played one of these was most definitely not an optimiser, and it completely dominated the game. The thing with it is it's very passive, so you don't need to be very skilled to use it effectively. It may well be possible for optimising powergamers to build stronger characters, but the twilight cleric is masssively powerful out the box.

 

[ECMO3]

The player who played one of these was most definitely not an optimiser, and it completely dominated the game. The thing with it is it's very passive, so you don't need to be very skilled to use it effectively. It may well be possible for optimising powergamers to build stronger characters, but the twilight cleric is masssively powerful out the box.

It is powerful, mostly because it gets SO MANY little boons though. I am sure people have had bad experiences, I am just saying I haven't and I have seen a lot of them played.

I think the thing is the real power in the full caster classes is in the spells and the Twilight Cleric gets neither great domain spells nor great subclass abilities that enhance their spells. Other than the darkvision what they get is all very vanilla and not game breaking. The darkvision can be game breaking, but it doesn't have to be. One of the DMs I play with simply makes almost every room have dim light if he is playing either with twilight clerics or Gloomstalkers. Others just avoid long sight lines in darkness.

Other powerful cleric subclasses are either getting better spells, or abilities that enhance their standard cleric spells, or both and after level 5 they are outrunning Twilight IME. Level 1-4 Twilight is better than it is level 5-20, mostly because in tier 1 their channel divinity is awesome and sleep is awesome/good. As you go up in level though that starts to fall off. The Channel Divinity becomes generally mediocre compared to their spell options and they are not as good as other top cleric choices when it comes to casting spells.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is powerful, mostly because it gets SO MANY little boons though. I am sure people have had bad experiences, I am just saying I haven't and I have seen a lot of them played.

I think the thing is the real power in the full caster classes is in the spells and the Twilight Cleric gets neither great domain spells nor great subclass abilities that enhance their spells. Other than the darkvision what they get is all very vanilla and not game breaking. The darkvision can be game breaking, but it doesn't have to be. One of the DMs I play with simply makes almost every room have dim light if he is playing either with twilight clerics or Gloomstalkers. Others just avoid long sight lines in darkness.

Other powerful cleric subclasses are either getting better spells, or abilities that enhance their standard cleric spells, or both and after level 5 they are outrunning Twilight IME. Level 1-4 Twilight is better than it is level 5-20, mostly because in tier 1 their channel divinity is awesome and sleep is awesome/good. As you go up in level though that starts to fall off. The Channel Divinity becomes generally mediocre compared to their spell options and they are not as good as other top cleric choices when it comes to casting spells.

It's the temp hp each round that I found game-breaking, making it virtually impossible for enemies to take any party members down to zero hp. If the enemies focus-fired on the cleric they simply healed themselves whilst the wizard ripped them to shreads. The long range darkvision is situationally powerful, but not overly so on it's own, and clerics get plenty of good core spells so domain spells don't matter. Also, flying.

But that's my experience, which was it's game-breaking. Other playstyles may differ.