Sacrosanct
Legend
@Warpiglet-7 , you're not alone at all. I feel much the same way. I really do like 5e, but I think one of the bigger issues I have with it is the style of play it fosters and encourages due to mechanics. That being, every battle seems like you're going into it with full or near full resources. If resources are low, players will do anything in order to find a long rest somewhere (since you get everything back, including all hit points), even at the cost of the story (let's say you're on a timeline for instance). I don't blame the players, because the game seems to reward that.
Contrast that to my experience playing AD&D, and players were much more cautious about blowing through their class resources because they never knew how many battles they'd have to fight before getting a chance to rest. and when you did rest, you didn't heal everything back. That put even more strategy in the hands of clerics and druids, because their healing magic became that much more important, so they had to factor that in when preparing spells.
that sense of caution seems to be missing in 5e. I see a LOT more Leroy Jenkins with 5e.**
"It's hard to die, and I'll blow all my resources because I know I'll get some back on a short rest which is pretty easy to come by."
*I fully know that as a DM, I can just throw more monsters at them. That's not a good solution for a few reasons. For one, I'm not always the DM so I have no control over how many encounters they face between rests, and I don't have the opportunity to play cautious when other players just wade right in because the rules don't punish that. Also, when I am the DM, that's a fake solution. It feels artificial, and oftentimes doesn't align with what's going on in the living world. "Just more monsters" is more often than not a poor solution to try to replace the overall mechanics of the extremely more forgiving 5e ruleset.
The bottom line for me, is that after the campaign is over and I reflect back, it just doesn't feel as heroic when you really didn't risk all that much or were any real danger of permanently dying. the campaigns I remember the most fondly are those where you were surviving for a long time on a razor's edge, and overcame really tough odds. Not just for one battle, but for an entire session or for most of the adventure.
**And I see a lot more reliance on PC powers in 5e. In 1e, players placed more emphasis on utilizing your environment around you--something every PC could do regardless of class ability. Burning oil, torches, setting up traps, etc. And they made a difference in the battle and you didn't have to burn a spell or magic item doing so. In 5e, class abilities are so potent that almost no one looks to utilizing their environment in the battle any more. A monster getting hit with burning oil barely feels it in 5e. Of course this is just my observation.
Contrast that to my experience playing AD&D, and players were much more cautious about blowing through their class resources because they never knew how many battles they'd have to fight before getting a chance to rest. and when you did rest, you didn't heal everything back. That put even more strategy in the hands of clerics and druids, because their healing magic became that much more important, so they had to factor that in when preparing spells.
that sense of caution seems to be missing in 5e. I see a LOT more Leroy Jenkins with 5e.**
"It's hard to die, and I'll blow all my resources because I know I'll get some back on a short rest which is pretty easy to come by."
*I fully know that as a DM, I can just throw more monsters at them. That's not a good solution for a few reasons. For one, I'm not always the DM so I have no control over how many encounters they face between rests, and I don't have the opportunity to play cautious when other players just wade right in because the rules don't punish that. Also, when I am the DM, that's a fake solution. It feels artificial, and oftentimes doesn't align with what's going on in the living world. "Just more monsters" is more often than not a poor solution to try to replace the overall mechanics of the extremely more forgiving 5e ruleset.
The bottom line for me, is that after the campaign is over and I reflect back, it just doesn't feel as heroic when you really didn't risk all that much or were any real danger of permanently dying. the campaigns I remember the most fondly are those where you were surviving for a long time on a razor's edge, and overcame really tough odds. Not just for one battle, but for an entire session or for most of the adventure.
**And I see a lot more reliance on PC powers in 5e. In 1e, players placed more emphasis on utilizing your environment around you--something every PC could do regardless of class ability. Burning oil, torches, setting up traps, etc. And they made a difference in the battle and you didn't have to burn a spell or magic item doing so. In 5e, class abilities are so potent that almost no one looks to utilizing their environment in the battle any more. A monster getting hit with burning oil barely feels it in 5e. Of course this is just my observation.
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