D&D 5E Going from 1st to 5th Edition

[houser2112]

I remember being pissed off that 3.0's 3rd level negative energy protection spell was removed in 3.5, and its effects merged into the 4th level death ward. I was only a 5th level cleric, and we really needed that spell to get past a horde of undead something-or-others!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I can't really follow the idea that 5e is less lethal than 3e other than sudden death effects. Negative levels in 3e were very rarely really dangerous and resulted in level loss.

Actually I also don't see a big difference in 2e. After all I usually had my characters in 2e retire at very high level (or died there due to a 1 in 100 chance teleport). Probably most of the shift results in player and DM mentality that now focusses more on telling a heroic story than a much more gritty one.

That said, my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign had no original character left at level 7 half of them due to death.

 

[Oofta]

I can't really follow the idea that 5e is less lethal than 3e other than sudden death effects. Negative levels in 3e were very rarely really dangerous and resulted in level loss.

Actually I also don't see a big difference in 2e. After all I usually had my characters in 2e retire at very high level (or died there due to a 1 in 100 chance teleport). Probably most of the shift results in player and DM mentality that now focusses more on telling a heroic story than a much more gritty one.

That said, my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign had no original character left at level 7 half of them due to death.

In my experience D&D has always been as lethal as the players wanted it to be. Even back in ye olden' days we just sprinkled our dungeons with pools of healing so the PCs could keep going. People have always tweaked the game or added house rules to suit their tastes. I'm sure others embraced the Gygaxian DM vs PC attitudes.

But it doesn't matter much, if I want a PC that dies by 3rd level or before all I have to do is play an elf or half elf. It's worked in every edition so far.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

In my experience D&D has always been as lethal as the players wanted it to be. Even back in ye olden' days we just sprinkled our dungeons with pools of healing so the PCs could keep going. People have always tweaked the game or added house rules to suit their tastes. I'm sure others embraced the Gygaxian DM vs PC attitudes.

But it doesn't matter much, if I want a PC that dies by 3rd level or before all I have to do is play an elf or half elf. It's worked in every edition so far.

Actually I have found elves and Half elves the sturdiest... At those levels sleep was always my goto save or die spell as a DM (or actually just die except for 3.5...). But somehow my NPCs always try to use that at the party's elf...

 

[Oofta]

Actually I have found elves and Half elves the sturdiest... At those levels sleep was always my goto save or die spell as a DM (or actually just die except for 3.5...). But somehow my NPCs always try to use that at the party's elf...

I accept that it's simply a curse. Depending on campaign style I've had other PCs die as well, but not with the consistency of elven PCs. In pretty much every game the DM felt really bad about it, it was just a case of bad luck (with the exception of 4E when I rolled back to back 1's on death saves which was kind-of-sort-of my fault because I thought I'd be okay for a round or 2).

For my 5E attempt my elven monk was critically hit and died instantly. In the first session of a new campaign. The DM cancelled the campaign after that so it seems to be escalating. I'm worried that next time the DM will kill off my PC and then just keel over dead. Sometimes it just isn't worth tempting the fates.

 

[collin]

I realize I miss a lot of 3.0. I skipped, unintentionally, 4e and went straight to 5e when it came out. I do miss some of the lethality of 3.0, I started with 1e but 3.0 was/is my favorite edition of the game. I still have a hard time with Attacks of Opportunity in 3.0 vs 5e. Played some Pathfinder for a week or so and forgot how utterly immobile combat is at low levels in 3.x editions!!! I kept trying to play like 5e!

I've had a similar experience. Played 1e-3.xe, including Pathfinder. Skipped 4e, went straight to 5e. A friend recently started up an on-line game of Pathfinder and it has my head spinning sometimes as to what rule applies in which situation (because I am also DMing a 5e campaign and playing in another 5e game). Yeesh! The 3.x-Pathfinder edition was fun from a player perspective, but more lethal than 5e and a lot more complex than 5e in terms of trying to have a rule to cover every situation.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Yes, and the visual of a hobbit that is stronger than a frost giant is hilarious.

Ahh, but they aren't hobbits anymore. Not since Dark Sun back in '94 or so, anyways. Though the 5e halflings are a sort of hybrid "let's try to make everyone happy" thing.

 

[Dr Magister]

I really don't understand the whole "invincible PCs" thing people seem to have with 5e. I've had plenty of characters die, and when I ran Lost Mines of Phandelver a player party of 4 had 6 character deaths between them. If anything I've been impressed by how lethal 5e can be!

 

[Blue Orange]

A few more things after a few more months of play...

*You regain HP a lot quicker than you used to (all HP after a long rest rather than 1 HP). This makes extended dungeon crawling much more practical than it used to be.
*You can have a lot more variety in party construction--you don't necessarily need a full cleric, and there's a bunch of not-wizards (sorcerer, warlock).
*Characters get extra abilities at given level points. In 1st ed this was more or less just the monk. The fighter also gets a bunch of extra attacks the other fighter-types like barbarian and paladin don't, which makes sense as they are the specialist in that area.
*If you use milestones for advancement, there is less incentive to kill everything you see.

 

[Bolares]

A few more things after a few more months of play...

*You regain HP a lot quicker than you used to (all HP after a long rest rather than 1 HP). This makes extended dungeon crawling much more practical than it used to be.
*You can have a lot more variety in party construction--you don't necessarily need a full cleric, and there's a bunch of not-wizards (sorcerer, warlock).
*Characters get extra abilities at given level points. In 1st ed this was more or less just the monk. The fighter also gets a bunch of extra attacks the other fighter-types like barbarian and paladin don't, which makes sense as they are the specialist in that area.
*If you use milestones for advancement, there is less incentive to kill everything you see.

Milestones feels so much better to me, I'm curious how it feels to someone who is used to XP their entire gaming experience.

5e made the "Class tax" (where you need certain classes in your party for the game to work) almost inexistant. If you have and criminal or urchin you won't need a rogue, a lot of classes heal (and healing is inneficient in battle) there are a lot of magic users...