D&D General How well does mixing 5es in one table work?

[mearls]

In my experience, the players just use the stuff on their character sheets. Core rules (like grapple and stealth) default to 2014, since that's what everyone remembers. Folks use the buffed healing spells when they remember them.

Otherwise, I think the game is in an uncanny valley where people autopilot to 2014 and use 5.5 only when specifically prompted to. As an example, my players have had access to weapon masteries for well over a year now. Between three campaigns and some Wardens of the Eastern Marches games I ran, I've seen:

• One player in one campaign used the push weapon mastery always. Like, no matter what the weapon he just pushed the guy. I was cool with it because it was fun. I even designed an entire dungeon overrun with a flood of slime to double down on it.
• Otherwise, my players never remember to use them. One exception - we were down to two players for a session and they were in a near TPK with an ogre. They remembered to use them after scanning their character for anything to help them win. They stopped using them the next time we played.

I have one person playing a monk who, despite all the buffs to the new monk in 5.5, keeps playing it as if it was a 2014 character. I think it's easy for people like us to forget that 90% of TTRPGers just want to pretend to be an elf for a few hours a week. They'll learn enough rules to do that. Any more effort feels like work, which is the opposite of what they are looking for.

 

[ECMO3]

So it's been a year since 2024 came out (unless you count the MM) and give or take a year or two since Tales of the Valiant and Advanced 5e. Nimble 5e is newer, so there may be less experience there.

Given all the 5es....how well do they work when mixed together at the table? If I had a 5e2014 and 5e2024 player - how well would it work? How about 5e2024 and A5e? And so on? While it's certainly simpler as the GM to gate your players to one 5e (whichever one you pick) - does it cause issues if each person made a character with a different 5e?

We play mixed games all the time. The key to this is do not use anything from 2014 that was reprinted, but feel free to use everything that was not reprinted.

So use the 2014 version of Cause Fear and the 2024 version of Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

Don't use the 2014 classes, but you can use the subclasses that were not reprinted (giving a subclass at level 3 for Clerics, Wizards, Warlocks and Sorcerers).

So if you are playing an Echo Knight you would use the Fighter from 2024 and the Echo Knight subclass from 2014.

If you are playing a Champion on the other hand use both class and subclass from 2024.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Given all the 5es....how well do they work when mixed together at the table? If I had a 5e2014 and 5e2024 player - how well would it work? How about 5e2024 and A5e? And so on? While it's certainly simpler as the GM to gate your players to one 5e (whichever one you pick) - does it cause issues if each person made a character with a different 5e?

I'm playing at a table like this right now, and it works perfectly fine since this particular DM (not me) is very trusting that players will know their characters' mechanics and will always play fair without cheating. Depending on the PC, we are using a mix of 5e, 5.5e, and third party content, and then monsters are all homebrewed anyways so they were probably based on a particular edition but as a player I can't even tell which.

There have been some rare confusing moments (most recently with grappling) but if everyone knows their characters' mechanics well, the DM trusts players to not cheat, and the players trust the DM to make fair gray-area adjudications (all of which ought to be true regardless of edition!), then it totally works

 

[DrJawaPhD]

We play mixed games all the time. The key to this is do not use anything from 2014 that was reprinted, but feel free to use everything that was not reprinted.

I wouldn't consider that "mixing" rules. That is just the base assumption for a "5.5e 2024-only" table, that any old 5e content not yet reprinted is still fair game

 

[bedir than]

I think it's easy for people like us to forget that 90% of TTRPGers just want to pretend to be an elf for a few hours a week.

Quoting for emphasis

 

[Not a Decepticon]

I would really like an idea to play at one table as a 2024 Monk with ToV Monk and A5e Adept, but I don't see people willing to join that game

 

[Clint_L]

We run a mix. It's not a problem. Most players don't pay that much attention to the rules, in my experience, and aren't even aware when I make a ruling in the occasional instance where there's an inconsistency. Then you have players who are also DMs, plus the occasional keener. They tend to grab what fits their character concept.

So, for example, I currently have a player who is running a lizardfolk (MotM) fighter (2024 rules), echo knight (Explorer's Guide to Wildemount). The only issue there is that DDB doesn't currently support 2014 subclasses attached to 2024 classes, but he just homebrewed it by copying echo knight onto a 2024 chassis on DDB and it works fine.

In terms of at table play, I concur with just about everyone else: 5e is a pretty flexible system and it's easy to mix and match. But the 2024 classes are more powerful. Sometimes just a little, and sometimes monks.

 

[darjr]

We need a miscibility chart!

 

[Distracted DM]

I've had 5e14, ToV, and A5E characters all running next to one-another, and 5e24 and A5E characters together. The only thing I'd suggest is that you need to choose a "core system:" which system everyone is defaulting to for equipment, spells, feats, etc- especially spells, because otherwise things can get confusing.

As far as power goes, generally speaking and in my experience, 5e24 and A5E seem to be in a similar power bracket, with 5e14 characters not being as powerful. I believe ToV characters are somewhere between those groups.

I couldn't speak for Nimble2e from experience, buuut it really changes core 5e rules, Nimble2e's not as backwards-compatible as the others (for good or ill), so I wouldn't want to try mixing them.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

As far as power goes, generally speaking and in my experience, 5e24 and A5E seem to be in a similar power bracket, with 5e14 characters not being as powerful. I believe ToV characters are somewhere between those groups.

I don't understand why people seem to think this, because in my experience it is the 5e2014 characters which are definitely the most powerful. All people seem to notice is that the 2024 rules did buff the terrible classes and subclasses to be relatively playable, while ignoring that they also nerfed all the most powerful 2014 nova damage features resulting in overall less powerful characters assuming you put any effort whatsoever into optimization.

So sure I guess if you're measuring by which characters are more powerful for a brand new player with no idea how to build a character (or an experienced player with no desire to build a powerful character), then yeah 2024 characters will be much better because things are far better balanced and the power floor is much higher. But the power ceiling was way higher in 2014 rules.