D&D 5E Is D&D 90% Combat?

In response to Cubicle 7’s announcement that their next Doctor Who role playing game would be powered by D&D 5E, there was a vehement (and in some places toxic) backlash on social media. While that backlash has several dimensions, one element of it is a claim that D&D is mainly about combat.

Head of D&D Ray Winninger disagreed (with snark!), tweeting "Woke up this morning to Twitter assuring me that [D&D] is "ninety percent combat." I must be playing (and designing) it wrong." WotC's Dan Dillon also said "So guess we're gonna recall all those Wild Beyond the Witchlight books and rework them into combat slogs, yeah? Since we did it wrong."

So, is D&D 90% combat?



And in other news, attacking C7 designers for making games is not OK.

D&D 5E - Doctors & Daleks - Cubicle 7 Brings Doctor Who to D&D 5E

Cubicle 7 -- makers of the official Doctor Who roleplaying game -- has announced that the Doctor will officially be coming to 5E soon under the name Doctors and Daleks. There are no dates or details yet, over than that the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide will launch 'soon'. A NEW COMPANION...

www.enworld.org

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That all sounds great. And makes sense for a middle-earth or any fantasy adventure.

But Dr Who? So you take the core rulebooks and you remove a) all classes b) all spells c) all magic items d) most of the feats e) 95% of the monsters

Then you add in mechanics and random tables for a) tardis b) time travel c) space travel d) intergalactic politics e) aliens etc

So really you reuse stats and combat sequence and not much more, but you call it 5e just for marketing purposes, got it.

the doctor is an artificer (timelord new OP race) river is a fighter/rogue (Half time lord only kind of OP) and all of the human companions are sidekick rules.

run a tardis full of timelords... artficer, fighter, I can see it

 

[Parmandur]

Right. The fact that it was used as a sales pitch in the marketing and explicitly called out in the text, it kinda proves the point. D&D is so combat focused that it’s worth noting when you can complete a whole module without killing anything.

“One of the many novelties of this adventure is that the characters can accomplish their goals without resorting to violence—but only if they're clever. They can fight their way through the adventure as well, but the odds won't always be in their favor.” WBtW, p4

So not murdering your way through a module is considered a novelty by the designers. Then it’s immediately followed by, “don’t worry you can still murder your way through it all.” That tells you the whole story right there.

Those aren't rules, though, that's just setup. Anyone could do that already.

 

[overgeeked]

Those aren't rules, though, that's just setup. Anyone could do that already.

I didn't say they were. I was told that Witchlight had "special rules" for completing the module without combat. That turned out to be false. Instead they have the quote I provided above and milestone advancement based on traveling. But that also wildly misses the point. The head of the game (Ray) scoffed at the notion that D&D is "90% combat" yet the designers of the game (likely with Ray's approval) thought that completing a whole module without murdering everything was such a novelty that they had to explicitly call it out in the text of the module. Further, that it was of such import and...well, novelty...that they used the fact that "you can complete the whole module without killing everything" as a sales pitch for how new and awesome and weird and different this module is from all the other modules WotC has produced for 5E. So again, that they did this proves the point. The designers of the game think not having to murder everything is a mind-blowing revelation.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I half expected a poll from the thread title.

IME, D&D is about 70% combat, 20% social/role-play, 10% exploration. Most tables I have run or even seen played emphasize combat to one extent or another.

 

[overgeeked]

Okay, since it's the only source for any hard data on the question of combat time in game, I'm revisiting Critical Role stats.

C1:
Total campaign play time. 373:22:38
Total at-the-table combat time. 111:00:54
Total in-game combat time. 0:58:42
Percent of combat. 29.73%
Ratio of table time spent vs in-game time spent in combat. 113.473594548552:1

C2:
Total campaign play time. 483:40:09
Total at-the-table combat time. 108:40:11
Total in-game combat time. 0:57:06
Percent of combat. 22.47%
Ratio of table time spent vs in-game time spent in combat. 114.188849970811:1

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The game mechanics in the books, mostly yes.

The game as people actually play it at the table, mostly no.

Strongly disagree. Skills, ritual spells, a lot of non-ritual spells, most proficiencies, the entirety of downtime, many if not most of the magic items, every race and class (except the fighter, which is terrible for exactly this reason) has significant non-combat ability, etc.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So again, that they did this proves the point. The designers of the game think not having to murder everything is a mind-blowing revelation.

This is a wild exaggeration, to the point of being directly inaccurate.

Firstly, all it proves is that most of 5e’s adventures involve threats that need to be stopped at nearly any cost, and Witchlight doesn’t.

Second, they didn’t present it as some unprecedented wild departure from normal D&D . Hell, they partly advertised it as more in line with how many people play the game.

 

[overgeeked]

This is a wild exaggeration, to the point of being directly inaccurate.

Firstly, all it proves is that most of 5e’s adventures involve threats that need to be stopped at nearly any cost, and Witchlight doesn’t.

Second, they didn’t present it as some unprecedented wild departure from normal D&D . Hell, they partly advertised it as more in line with how many people play the game.

“One of the many novelties of this adventure is that the characters can accomplish their goals without resorting to violence—but only if they're clever. They can fight their way through the adventure as well, but the odds won't always be in their favor.” WBtW, p4

So either the designers know what the word novelty means or they don’t. I’m going to assume they do know what the word means, considering they are, in fact, professional writers.

 

[D1Tremere]

Most of the rules in D&D focus on combat because...that is what we need rules for.
Talking and running require little or no rules.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Since 3e...yes. 1e and 2e was more role-play friendly due to the rules light(er) format..... Of course that also meant it was rife with possibility for abuse...