D&D General Mike Mearls says control spells are ruining 5th Edition

[Distracted DM]

With 5e, though, even a round of inaction can spell quick doom. Two rounds and it's over. 5e has a very different combat balance than AD&D did.

Is this right? I don't remember most 2e combats lasting very long either.
3e I remember being longer.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think the central premise as that it's easier to land control spells in 5e AND it gets easier as you level.

Whereas in AD&D, you chance of landing spells for worse as you leveled, your ability to boost that was severely limited, you had to prepare them to slots, and bosses tended to be higher HD for better saves. So spells vs "bosses" were hail maries if they weren't immune.

Having to prepare spells slot by slot was orders of magnitude better for both the health of gameplay as well as encouraging players to plan to work together then follow through with doing so in service of competence porn teamwork. That applied to both casters and noncasters because both depended on each other to have their back with follow through on a plan and willingly engage in good faith communication rather than the way 5e tends to result in players who don't really care about working together soloing near each other while expecting their fellow party members to figure it out on the go or be just as big of an antisocial spotlight hog as they are.

 

[Maxperson]

Is this right? I don't remember most 2e combats lasting very long either.
3e I remember being longer.

The 2e fights I remember were longer, but not anything like 3e, some of which went more than one 4 hour session.