D&D 5E (2024) A critical analysis of 2024's revised classes

[zakael19]

I get what you're saying here, but my mind immediately wandered back to the original Conan stories, where the hero's mighty thews and strong physique made him pantherish (ie, animalistically stealthy).

Probably they were going for a Conan type of thing. Or not, I don't know but that's how I swallowed that slight oddity.

That’s where my mind went too.

 

[eclair~]

I get what you're saying here, but my mind immediately wandered back to the original Conan stories, where the hero's mighty thews and strong physique made him pantherish (ie, animalistically stealthy).

Probably they were going for a Conan type of thing. Or not, I don't know but that's how I swallowed that slight oddity.

That's likely the idea...but then Stealth could simply be one of their class skills. It makes sense for a Barbarian hunter to stalk their prey silently. Other class skill lists were tweaked, so it's not an unreasonable addition.

It creates the disconnection when Stealth is not something their class training could involve...but becomes something they get good at just by Being Angry.

 

[orangefruitbat]

Forcing a saving throw maintains your Rage, but taking damage does not. This means that if you can't make an attack or force a save, you have to use your bonus action to keep your Rage up. It also means you get to spam said BA out of combat to keep your Rage up, which we will get to the problem with later.

This is perhaps the single most annoying feature I found in the 2024 rules, when you have a World Tree barbarian throw out dice of temporary HP every single round after a combat ends until everyone in the party gets max temp HP.

 

[Gladius Legis]

The first time I played 2024 5e with several friends, all of us felt underwhelmed by certain aspects of the 2024 Monk,

And many more people than your "several friends" love the 2024 Monk. So it's your anecdotes against many others'.

 

[Stormonu]

Sounds like with auto-hit effects in 2024, a nice barbarian feature would be that they can instead make that source require a save to be effective. Maybe set the DC at a static 8 (or 10) + 1/2 CR vs. Strength or Con (probably Con). Maybe something to give at 7th level?

 

[zakael19]

That's likely the idea...but then Stealth could simply be one of their class skills. It makes sense for a Barbarian hunter to stalk their prey silently. Other class skill lists were tweaked, so it's not an unreasonable addition.

It creates the disconnection when Stealth is not something their class training could involve...but becomes something they get good at just by Being Angry.

Oh, that bonus only happens when they're under the effects of Rage? Yeah that seems odd, "I'm so angry I get better at creeping up on things" does hit the fiction askance.

 

[djotaku]

While the replies have many people disagreeing with you, you seem to have brought up many great points. Are the classes so broken because of the tiresome trope of WoTC/Hasbro just had to make money and didn't care what they put out? Could someone do a similar analysis of 4e vs 5e2014 and 3.5e vs 4e and so on? Is it just the case that TTRPGs are always slightly broken because game balance is hard? Even Pathfinder which "everyone" on reddit says is much better balanced still has that one person who always speaks up with their one broken build.

Also, this might seem an odd ask after all the work you put into the post - it's definitely beefy for a forum post - but would you consider also comparing Tales of the Valiant, A5e, and Nimble equivalent classes? They're all 5e but did any of these forks/spinoffs do a better job with the classes? (Given they have to stay compatible to continue to claim 5e compat)

 

[Arilyn]

Oh, that bonus only happens when they're under the effects of Rage? Yeah that seems odd, "I'm so angry I get better at creeping up on things" does hit the fiction askance.

It's very odd. Rage makes barbarians reckless, but if they need to sneak, they become very controlled and quiet. But still really angry. If they're not raging, not so good at stealth. Surely there was a better way?

 

[sevenbastard]

I am not a fan of 2024 but haven't done the deep dive in why ( Just intial negative impressions). So I am looking forward to this even if I dont have much to contribute.

 

[Iry]

Blind power creep is not good game design.

Bringing underpowered options into parity with other classes  is. It's just a matter of debate if they succeeded.