So I've got
Murder in Baldur's Gate, some of the late 4e Dungeon and Dragon issues with D&D Next stuff, and various other D&D Next material that was put out before the release of 5e. Is there any information on what changed between Next and the final 5e rules?
Thanks
Fortunately MiBG is system-agnostic, so it’s very easy to run in 5e.
There were quite a few changes between the final Next packet and the full 5e release. Some that I remember off the top of my head...
• Races generally give +2 to one ability score and +1 to another, instead of +1 to two Ability scores. Classes no longer give +1 to an ability score.
• Races no longer increase your damage die with certain weapons, generally just giving Proficiency instead.
• Proficiency bonus is a static bonus (though proficiency dice are presented as a variant rule in the DMG. Proficiency Bonus scales at the same rate for all classes.
• I don’t remember what the skill list looked like by the end of Next, but I know the 5e list is shorter than the longest ones in Next.
• Armor table is different, don’t go up nearly as high: 12 + Dex is the highest light armor, 15 + Dex (Max 2) with Stealth disadvantage is the highest medium armor, 18 with stealth disadvantage and 15 minimum strength is the highest heavy armor.
• Weapon table is mostly the same, some small tweaks like removing the katana.
• There are probably a lot of small tweaks to classes and subclasses, none of which I can specifically remember. Same with spells.
• Pretty much all of the monster stat blocks are different. If you followed the Next playtest you may recall constant griping about imbalanced monsters from the player side and constant insistence that they’d fix the math in a later stage of development on WotC’s part. Well, they did.
EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, it just occured to me that you’re asking from a place of familiarity with 5e and I’ve answered from the other direction. Don’t worry about it, all the Next adventures should work fine in 5e as written. Just find the equivalent monsters, and if something seems way over or under powered for the party, swap it for something more appropriate. No need to adjust any DCs or anything.