D&D 5E (2014) What are the highlights of D&D 5th edition for you?

[payn]

View attachment 348808

The Pixar fatlings!

 

[TheGlen]

The overwhelming response when I finally finished this. Tens of thousands of downloads of the POD file, and then people translated it into Italian.

 

[O-Castitatis-Lilium]

THAC0 no longer being a thing. While I grew up with it and understand how it works, it was just very limiting and confusing for people that didn't start from when the game came out. Other than that...It seems to me that I'm adding more things to 5e from original, but that's just me, that's probably not the case for everyone. Right now, adding a few class features back to the game because they just seem to make the game feel less...I don't know really, same-y? I don't really know the right term lol. Regardless, I think taking out THAC0 was a good move and is the biggest thing I like about the game. There are a lot of other small things that changed for the better, but too many to really list here lol.

 

[Reynard]

More seriously: 5E has been really good for my gaming life. I have run and played A LOT of 5E and I feel like I am done with it, but even so it has been an accessible, fun version of the game. Less due to 5E than other circumstances, i have run more published adventures in 5E than any other version of the game and for the most part they have been from adequate (SKT) to pretty great (BGIA), with only a couple misses (WDH and WDOTMM).

 

[TwoSix]

I like how easily it inspires house rules, and the ease with which it handles said house rules.
I like the flat math.
I like the 3pp products its existence has resulted in.

This. As a unifying framework for a large base to tinker with, and have a large audience to use that tinkering, 5e can't be beat.

5e is the "mood regulated" edition of D&D, for me. It doesn't have the high points of several of its predecessors, but it also lacks the painful low points.

 

[Moonmover]

Advantage/disadvantage is great.

It's got just the right amount of character customization to me. I don't like when character creation takes too long or is too complicated, but I don't like the cookie-cutter characters of truely old-school D&D, either. The amout of customization 5e gives you between your race, class, subclass, and (optionally) feats is juuussst right.

Huge amounts of 3rd-party support, and simply free fan-content on the Internet.

"Upcasting" (expending higher level spell slots to boost low-level spells) was a fun idea.

Legendary actions, legendary resistance, and lair actions mean you can finally actually have proper boss fights in D&D. Took them 40 years to figure that out.

That halfling from upthread aside, the artwork is gorgeous. It's classic fantasy, which in a weird way is kind of refreshing nowadays.

-----

Crap, you know what? I've talked myself into it. I'm between campaigns at the moment. I guess my next one will be 5e.

 

[billd91]

5e is my favorite edition of D&D. Among the things I have particularly liked:

• advantage/disadvantage,
• backgrounds,
• bonus actions being distinct between classes,
• bounded accuracy and caps on stats reducing the arms race for bonuses and number bloat,
• concentration,
• damage resistance being simplified,
• feats being a lot more interesting,
• magic items being supplementary,
• monster mods like legendary actions/resistance,
• saving throws being broadened (now, more of that please),
• spell memorization changes,
• theater of the mind made easier compared to prior 2 editions,
• upcasting spells.

Edit: reformatted for ease of reading

 

[Kurotowa]

Subclasses. More substantial than 2e kits, less cumbersome than 3e prestige classes, they do an excellent job of allowing differentiation within a class. Well, mostly. Some classes give their subclasses very little to work with, and that turns me away from them. But on the whole, subclasses are a big step up.

Advantage and Disadvantage. No more having to juggle long math equations every turn! In my one 3e campaign that reached high levels, I had to have a whole card of various buff permutations with the math pre-done in order to keep my turns to a reasonable length. And don't even get me started on what 4e was like. Keeping it simple makes play so much easier.

 

[Clint_L]

Another one: multi-classing. I know that some folks dislike it on principle, but the way 5e incorporates it is simple, elegant, and pretty successful.

 

[payn]

Another one: multi-classing. I know that some folks dislike it on principle, but the way 5e incorporates it is simple, elegant, and pretty successful.

This.