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

[darjr]

Yeah, this kind of mixing is probably the norm in OSR games, whether it's something as simple as running a BD&D adventure under AD&D or just grabbing cool content from all over and throwing it in the stew pot together. It very rarely is a meaningful problem.

I can see where folks might have an issue with a game that’s meant to be a tight or tighter ruleset. Especially when balance is very important to the kids of games folks want to run. Or they’d rather lean heavily on the tuning of a system.

Still even the tightest games have issues that mixed up mashed up looser games have. Optimization and trap choices and balance issues and inherent slogs or boring gameplay if things are off.

I think the answer is still the same if maybe in different degrees. Figure out where you can adjust during prep, character play and advancement and rewards, and live at the table. In ways that suite your game style.

Just musing to myself mostly.

 

[Piperken]

Yeah, I took a look at the quickstart rules yesterday. It looks really cool. But it REALLY makes me give it the sideeye at its claims of 5e compatibility. It really seems more like 5e and PF2e had a baby.

I've looked a little at this too; my feeling is that you'd need to use it as your base system for your players (class, spells and combat system). Some people who've been discussing their games have mentioned they like the 3 action economy and emphasis on reactions.

Monsters wouldn't be too difficult to convert. I can see taking 5E adventures and running them in Nimble.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've looked a little at this too; my feeling is that you'd need to use it as your base system for your players (class, spells and combat system). Some people who've been discussing their games have mentioned they like the 3 action economy and emphasis on reactions.

Monsters wouldn't be too difficult to convert. I can see taking 5E adventures and running them in Nimble.

Yeah, IIRC Nimble2e says it's compatible with 5e adventures and monsters, I don't think it makes the same claim for characters due to system differences.

 

[Clint_L]

I think a lot of rules compatibilities issues simply comes down to the kind of group you are playing with. If it's a group that knows rules inside out and enjoys a bit of rules lawyering, then you've probably gotta be a bit more stringent. Most of my players could give two Fs and are more than happy for me to handle the rules while they roleplay, so I've done things like add in Dread subgames and they just roll with it.

 

[djotaku]

I've looked a little at this too; my feeling is that you'd need to use it as your base system for your players (class, spells and combat system). Some people who've been discussing their games have mentioned they like the 3 action economy and emphasis on reactions.

Monsters wouldn't be too difficult to convert. I can see taking 5E adventures and running them in Nimble.

Yeah, IIRC Nimble2e says it's compatible with 5e adventures and monsters, I don't think it makes the same claim for characters due to system differences.

He has a video where he converts the monsters. It's less work than, say, Pathfinder to D&D. But more work than Tales of the Valiant to D&D. In other words, it's not 0 prep do it on the fly type of thing.

 

[Chaltab]

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.

I cannot think of anything other than Divine Smite that changes the power ceiling that much.

Maybe some edge cases like comboing Path to the Grave with 2014 GWM or Sharp Shooter?

 

[DrJawaPhD]

I cannot think of anything other than Divine Smite that changes the power ceiling that much.

Maybe some edge cases like comboing Path to the Grave with 2014 GWM or Sharp Shooter?

Off the top of my head the big nerfs (in general order of priority) would be Divine Smite, Conjure Animals, Sharpshooter, GWM (overall buffed but nova damage nerfed), Wildshape (low levels only), Stunning Strike, Assassin surprise, Gloomstalker Dread Ambush. The only major nova damage buff in 2024 was Conjure Minor Elementals but then that got errata'd to be more reasonable

In general the game is much more balanced now around sustained Damage Per Round rather than crazy spikes of overpowered Nova Damage, which means less powerful mix/max'd PCs and is great for the health of the game

 

[occam]

Yeah, I took a look at the quickstart rules yesterday. It looks really cool. But it REALLY makes me give it the sideeye at its claims of 5e compatibility. It really seems more like 5e and PF2e had a baby.

Note that there are two things called "Nimble". One is the original, essentially house rules for 5e D&D, which I haven't played. If you've seen references to 5e compatibility, that might be what you're thinking of.

Then there's the Nimble RPG which grew out of those rules. I'm playing that now with one group that moved from 5e. It's still definitely 5e-inspired, but it isn't directly compatible anymore.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I have not tried it, do not see why, in general it would not work but I would operate from one version as the default rules for the DM to adjudicate actions as otherwise the cognitive load would drive you mad.

 

[timbannock]

I'm diving into Nimble now and from my read of it, characters are not going to map 1:1, you pretty much have to use Nimble. That said, you can easily add new abilities (basically the class-specific Feats in Nimble, which have different names by class) with ease, and they can pretty much look like any Feat or Class Ability from a 5E-alike game. You may want to streamline a bit, and you just gotta remember to cut out the attack roll and go straight to damage, but that includes ideas for ADV and DISADV, so you're good.

Monsters are much easier to convert. You can absolutely do them on the fly with the conversion doc at the end of the Nimble Game Master's Guide. Any 5E monster, no joke. You're just flipping their AC into an Armor rating (none, medium, heavy), modifying HP using a chart that's very handy, and ignoring about 80% of the text, so it's a breeze. You could do it on the fly, for sure. That said, Nimble's own monsters are rebuilt with a lot of the thinking of books like Level Up Monstrous Menagerie and Flee, Mortals!, so therefore they play better with push/pull/slide and more interesting resistances and so on. So IMO, while you absolutely can use a 2014 or 2024 or TOV monster in Nimble, the fact is that they're going to play a little more boring mechanics-wise. But not so much I think it's a problem. Most of the fun of any combat is the personality you bring to it, and interesting terrain, so if you make use of the core advice from The Monsters Know you're encounters are already a step above most published adventures anyway.