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

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mod Note:

Gentlebeings, there is entirely too much personal sniping back and forth in this thread. One person has already been asked to dial it back…and it didn’t entirely take.

I could single that person out for more moderation, but that would ignore several other repeat offenders in here. I’m this close to simply locking this thread.

So- EVERYONE- take some deep breaths, straighten up & fly right. If you don’t think you can participate in this thread without getting riled up by another participant, either use your ignore list or step back yourselves.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I still use some of the core concepts now and then. However my implementation is always a lot more flexible and situation dependant. If someone comes up with a good solution, it may just end the challenge. If people fail too often, there may just have a cost of HP, exhaustion or some other appropriate penalty but the challenge may continue.

But it never really worked for us in a lot of scenarios so it has to be the right kind of challenge.

The Skill Challenge system needed a good deal more detail or some type of rewrite. It would have been the perfect example of a module for 5E. It won't work for everyone, but could be useful for some.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

In ADnD you got xp for class appropriate things besides gold. That was my favourite.
I really hope 6e will change the default xp system, because looking at that, you might get the impression that D&D is 100% combat.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

In ADnD you got xp for class appropriate things besides gold. That was my favourite.
I really hope 6e will change the default xp system, because looking at that, you might get the impression that D&D is 100% combat.

I get the feeling that if/when there is a 6e that Milestones will be the default xp/advancement system. It seems to be where most of their adventures are going right now.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if 50e goes that way.

 

[Eric V]

I guess our table's experience must just be so far out on the fringes of most tables... I don't know.

It isn't. It is the same as my own table's experience and two others that I am aware of.

 

[Eric V]

And yet, I just spent over an hour resolving a fight with two Galeb Duhr against 5 7th level PC's. On a side note, that's the very first time I've used that monster in D&D and they are a ton of fun. Summoning rocks and whatnot made for a great fight. Five stars, highly recommended.

What? I never said I didn't like combat. I do. Heck, that's a big reason why I play D&D. D&D combat is a blast.

Indeed, D&D would be an odd RPG choice (considering what's out there) if one didn't like combat.

 

[Aldarc]

Indeed, D&D would be an odd RPG choice (considering what's out there) if one didn't like combat.

I remember how liberating it was to create a character who sucked at combat, a silver-tongued merchant, in a friend's 7th Sea campaign. Just a normal guy without magic powers or fighting prowess. When talking about that initial experience with another group playing 5e D&D, they claimed that I could have done the same thing by playing a Bard in 5e. It was a moment of incredulity for me for many reasons, including the obvious fact that bards cast spells. But also because every class in D&D 5e is designed to contribute to a fight, and the baseline fighting capability in 5e for even an unoptimized character is much higher than it is in other games.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We haven't found that to be the case. Quick encounters get met with Cantrips and the least expenditure of resources as possible. To actually get PCs to use resources, then the challenge needs to be higher than CR would indicate, then the combat slows down. Otherwise, focus firing down one or two monsters in a "quick" encounter does absolutely nothing for wearing out a party, no matter how many get thrown at them. "Just use Cantrips" (or other non resources actions) is the frequent refrain. I mean, I can certainly have them be beaten in 1-2 rounds, but then there is less than zero threat to the party, so why bother - no tension, no story, just wacking monsters. Yawn. But DnD certainly isn't about combat, no sir. Just 6-8 "per day" to "wear them down". Shrug.

I guess our table's experience must just be so far out on the fringes of most tables... I don't know.

I've gotten to the point where I don't bother with easy encounters anymore. If I need one, it is more for narrative/story purposes. Otherwise, the resource attrition is so minimal it is pointless 90% of the time and just wastes valuable game time which could be spend in more exciting ways.

I also noticed a long time ago if they players have any chance to regroup after a fight, they are typically healed up to full hp (or close to it). So, unless an encounter is hard or deadly, the players know the PCs really aren't in any danger, and will win.

That is what makes combat boring to me, personally.

 

[Oofta]

The Skill Challenge system needed a good deal more detail or some type of rewrite. It would have been the perfect example of a module for 5E. It won't work for everyone, but could be useful for some.

I don't disagree. The problem I had with it was that as written it was too inflexible. Too often our challenges devolved into "Okay Mike did X, Carol did Y, who has the best score in Z?" It replaced role playing with roll playing in too many cases. It often didn't matter what you said, did or had done before the skill challenge started, it all came down to the roll of a dice. Why bother with having a conversation with the merchant when you know all that will matter is that someone has to succeed on 6 checks (i.e. bluff, diplomacy, insight and so on) before 3 failures? A description of skill challenges for those not familiar can be found here.

I think the core concept potentially had merit in some cases. I still use a similar structure for some physical/exploration challenges as a change of pace occasionally. I think that's a separate thread topic though.

 

[payn]

I get the feeling that if/when there is a 6e that Milestones will be the default xp/advancement system. It seems to be where most of their adventures are going right now.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if 50e goes that way.

Im guessing they will follow Paizo's move and just simplify XP as much as possible. Having an XP system can be good for encounter building and balancing out combats as guidelines. Also, its a traditional element that some folks love and a good nod to them to include it. Though, for all intents and purposes XP is likely dead.