D&D (2024) Jeremy Crawford: “We are releasing new editions of the books”

[Micah Sweet]

Well that's a fundamental difference. I still like 5e, but it could be better. I don't want another revolution. I'm tired of the edition treadmill and starting over again somewhere new. I want to still use Tasha and Van Richten's when the new books drop. I don't want to wait years until they reprint Eberron again to play a warforged. I want 5e, fixed.

If I were playing 6e and wanted something from 5e, I would just convert it. Same as I've done with scores of game elements from pre-5e editions for 5e. Most of the time its not even that hard. But it's my choice, and there would be a clear line for those like me who prefer that line to be there.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

When you spend 20+ years arguing on the internet you get a pretty good knack for asessing how people will behave based on how they communicate.

You may think its insulting, but all that indicates to me is a guilty conscience.

Wow. That is even more so.

 

[SteveC]

They exist concurrently if you decide so

I know this has been said a number of times but ... there's nothing that says this is the case. The classes/spells/feats/species are absolutely not being designed to be cross compatible. Some features (weapon mastery) are being designed as a replacement for some common feats such as the "-5 to hit/+10 damage".

I would be amazed if the designers have the bandwidth to balance both Editions simultaneously.

 

[Justice and Rule]

They exist concurrently if you decide so

They exist concurrently because Wizards says they do. If I don't want them to, then I have to have a whole discussion with my players about what to keep or not to keep. I'd rather it be a simpler binary choice of 5E or whatever 1D&D would be called as an edition shift/change/half-change.

 

[Emberashh]

I think thats something everyone here should be able to agree on, that if this was just a genuine update and nothing else, nobody here would have a problem with it.

Supplements can (and should) be folded into the core game at some point.

What 2024 could be is just one big set of everything, all you need to play the game other than adventure books if you want them.

Why spend nearly $500 on the rule books when you can get this nice box set for $150 and you've got everything?

Itd be a great product not just because of the updates it can bring to 5e, but also because most people could justify rebuying the core books in that context.

 

[Parmandur]

No. I'm not going to slog through all the threads and pages looking for the posters who have been telling me that it will be fine playing the two versions of the game simultaneously, because the new classes will be balanced with the old ones so one edition's classes won't be more powerful than the others. I'm certain that @Parmandur was one of them, but there have been several.

If they aren't balanced, though, then WotC is wrong about backwards compatibility. As I pointed out to someone else, I COULD use the 3.5 version of wish in a 2014 or 2024 game. It's not going to cause the game to melt down and stop if I do that and the rules are similar enough to be workable. Unbalanced, but workable.

They are testing the new alongside the old, actively asking people to mix and match. The new options are changed up and reorganized, but the power balance seems to be basically the same budget. Other than "take a Feat at first Level," but that's been normative in D&D'14 for years now anyways. There us no doubt that the final design goal is to make it painless to mix and match options like Class, and even using old Spells looks no different than mixing in some homebrew options.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

except that those cannot play in a 5e party, while a 2014 warlock can play in a 2024 party.

You are trying to turn this into two editions of warlocks when it is a continuation of one Warlock class with tweaks.

if it is a continuation why will new player facing content not support it?

If someone wants to play a Warlock, they can choose from the 2014 subclasses and the 2024 subclasses. The 2014 version does not suddenly disappear the way a 4e one did - unless the table decides to move to 2024 and abandon 2014

 

[Remathilis]

And you're going to get players who just don't want to abandon certain classes because of the changes made. We've already seen a bunch of contentious changes be debated in this forum. What happens when some people are like "No, I don't want my Warlock to be a bland half-caster, I want the old version!" and bring that to a table playing the 2024 version? They're technically the same version and compatible!

It's just... ill-conceived. I understand the worry of splitting the base with an edition change, but let's be honest with the problems it will cause. There's way more confusion with having a bunch of duplicate classes that are balanced around different ideas in the same ecosystem.

A long time ago, WotC put out two different alternative rangers in UA. One was a powered up version of the PHB, the second a very different type of class. So what was to happen if I came in to a game wanting to play the updated UA ranger but my DM only used the PHB version? It's compatible! WotC made it! It should be allowed! Right?

People keep thinking that compatible = allowed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A long time ago, WotC put out two different alternative rangers in UA. One was a powered up version of the PHB, the second a very different type of class. So what was to happen if I came in to a game wanting to play the updated UA ranger but my DM only used the PHB version? It's compatible! WotC made it! It should be allowed! Right?

People keep thinking that compatible = allowed.

UA has always been seen as  exceedingly optional.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think thats something everyone here should be able to agree on, that if this was just a genuine update and nothing else, nobody here would have a problem with it.

No. I disagree. I had a problem with that. I would tolerate it, but I would not want to spend money on something I already own. I think 10 years i a good time for an update that fixes some problems instead of just putting band aids on it.