D&D 5E When Did 5E Peak Quality Wise?

[S'mon]

I'm allowing Tasha's in (only) my Odyssey of the Dragonlords game. There's a Twilight Cleric.

My overall feeling is that Tasha's breaks the game balance of the 2014 rules, but does not break the game, IF you are running an epic or mythic fantasy campaign. I would hate it in my more swords & sorcery or low power themed campaigns. There are a few fairly broken things in the 2014 rules, but they have to be searched out, whereas Tasha's seeks to give you them on a plate. In Odyssey of the Dragonlords when the PCs trivialise an encounter, it feels appropriate, like an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys with Kevan Sorbo laughing at the mooks. I wouldn't want that feel in every campaign.

 

[Hussar]

There is a point to remember about the over time thing too.

At a certain point, unless you are buying all the books, everyone hits the “I don’t need more books” limit.

 

[Zardnaar]

There is a point to remember about the over time thing too.

At a certain point, unless you are buying all the books, everyone hits the “I don’t need more books” limit.

That to I've gotv30-40 and don't really use most of them.

Used store credit to get a board game vs New book.

 

[SteveC]

This is a really strange question because 5E isn't like any other edition of the game. You have the core rulebooks and then the very first rules expansion is over a year later in the Sword Coast. In between, there were some adventures and the general sense was that they were just keeping the lights on. I didn't get any real idea that there was much of an edition to even support.

If I had to pick a point, I'd say that the original 5E Curse of Strahd was sort of the high point for me, because I picked up the book and actually ran a campaign of it. Since then I was looking at what's come out and I guess we started to get expansions as the game picked up speed, players, and support.

I'm playing Dragon Heist at the moment, and we're using Tasha's and Xanthar's but it's so strange that so much of previous editions just hasn't even happened yet, and probably won't until 6E. Looking at the summaries of the books that came out for previous editions puts 5E in a sharp contrast to what went before.

So for me it was Strahd, but trying to speak generally, it's really hard to say because it isn't following the pattern of previous editions.

 

[jerryrice4949]

It seems like most people on this thread are using when their favorite book was released to determine when 5E peaked.

I don’t think it peaked. To me it has been an ebb and flow. I thought Spelljammer was kind of a low point personally but Dragonlance and Keys to the Golden Vault are really great (though I wish they did a DL setting book).

 

[Micah Sweet]

It seems like most people on this thread are using when their favorite book was released to determine when 5E peaked.

I don’t think it peaked. To me it has been an ebb and flow. I thought Spelljammer was kind of a low point personally but Dragonlance and Keys to the Golden Vault are really great (though I wish they did a DL setting book).

I chose my least favorite book as when it dipped, but the principle is the same I suppose.

 

[mamba]

It seems like most people on this thread are using when their favorite book was released to determine when 5E peaked.

I used when the frequency of books I like dropped, and interestingly it dropped once, and drastically (Tasha). It was pretty constant before and is after, just at a lower level

 

[Zardnaar]

I used when the frequency of books I like dropped, and interestingly it dropped once, and drastically (Tasha). It was pretty constant before and is after, just at a lower level

Yeah Tashas was the tipping point for me. Right before that we had Theros and Wildemount. Running back from here to Xanathars it was a fairly solid run only 2-3 "duds" out of 13 books.

 

[jerryrice4949]

I hear what people are saying and I just don’t see it. Seems the better question is when did WoTC start making fewer books you were interested in or liked less.

Has the actual quality gone down? How quality is being measured outside of personal preference seems pretty nebulous here.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I hear what people are saying and I just don’t see it. Seems the better question is when did WoTC start making fewer books you were interested in or liked less.

Has the actual quality gone down? That seems unclear to me.

Quality is subjective. The better question you asked above is all this discussion is, for everyone.