D&D (2024) What do you want & expect to see in 2024's 5.5e?

Henadic Theologian said:

Do you think any new races or classes will be in 5.5e PHB? (By new I mean new to the PHB, not to the game itself?).

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I know you weren't asking me, but I expect to see significantly more races in a new PHB. Not twice as many, but maybe 1.5 as many. I see them leaning toward more options for players, but of course there's limits on space and they'll want to hold back stuff for future releases.

ART! said:

I know you weren't asking me, but I expect to see significantly more races in a new PHB. Not twice as many, but maybe 1.5 as many. I see them leaning toward more options for players, but of course there's limits on space and they'll want to hold back stuff for future releases.

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Since we don't need subclasses for different secondary attributes, we have a bit more space to include more crunch. For some races, the we will just get the choice of a few different abilities, while others are treated as seperate races. I expect halflings, gnomes and dwarfs to fall into the first category, while elves might get the latter treatment. I think dragonborn will get only a single entry in thr PHB.

For the name of the new edition I like DnD5eNext.

UngeheuerLich said:

Since we don't need subclasses for different secondary attributes, we have a bit more space to include more crunch.

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is there enough difference for high elf wood elf and drow elf to all be needed?

GMforPowergamers said:

is there enough difference for high elf wood elf and drow elf to all be needed?

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No. But at least there is enough difference to warrant different statblocks. For dwarves I can't think of enough that differentiates them (movement speed, drow magic, high elf magic, darkvision). Especially since +2 con is gone we need +1 hp/level for all dwarves and proficiency in armor is also going away.
Maybe dwarves get a bonus action ability that is prof bonus/long rest and tgey can chose between +2 AC for a round (mountain dwarves) or recover prof bonus times 1d4 hp (hill dwarves) or something like that.

UngeheuerLich said:

No. But at least there is enough difference to warrant different statblocks. For dwarves I can't think of enough that differentiates them (movement speed, drow magic, high elf magic, darkvision). Especially since +2 con is gone we need +1 hp/level for all dwarves and proficiency in armor is also going away.
Maybe dwarves get a bonus action ability that is prof bonus/long rest and tgey can chose between +2 AC for a round (mountain dwarves) or recover prof bonus times 1d4 hp (hill dwarves) or something like that.

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yeah I assume that the elves will all get the 'free prof in weap and skill' after trance of teh astral elf and shadar ki to replace long sword short sword long bow short bow and perception

GMforPowergamers said:

yeah I assume that the elves will all get the 'free prof in weap and skill' after trance of teh astral elf and shadar ki to replace long sword short sword long bow short bow and perception

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I'm pretty sure the Astral Elf is just a playtest for the new standard Elf to encompass the High and Wood varieties. I think Drow will get their own writeup, similar to the 3 Elf Races in MotM.

I kind of expect yhe other Subraces to be folded together, and maybe some (like Tinker Gnome stuff) going over to Background Feats

Parmandur said:

I'm pretty sure the Astral Elf is just a playtest for the new standard Elf to encompass the High and Wood varieties. I think Drow will get their own writeup, similar to the 3 Elf Races in MotM.

I kind of expect yhe other Subraces to be folded together, and maybe some (like Tinker Gnome stuff) going over to Background Feats

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me too.

although I wouldn't mind if WotC let us peak behind the curtain and tell us how to balance drow spell like abilities

Here's what I want from 5.5E.

More DM materials.

More then anything, more DM materials. I want them to actually hire people who know story structure AND game design, and can combine those two things into good experiences.

This might be a hot take, but most stories released by WotC for 5th Edition are sub-par at best. They are clunky, written by different people, don't often make sense, make unclear assumptions, and often don't live up to the hype and idea WotC markets them as.

Out of the Abyss was supposed to be Wonderland in the Underdark and scary. It wasn't.

Storm King's Thunder was sold as a Shakespearian Epic. It wasn't.

Tomb of Annihilation was at least close to what it wanted, but then I got this cringe culture on Chult that was just a bunch of black people needing their foreign white saviors to help them because they are too busy going oongo boonga in the jungle or getting drunk on Capitalism. I'm black, by the way, so this isn't racist, what's racist is ToA.

I wrote a whole essay on how Avernus failed to be Mad Max, or anything close to it.

That isn't to say people don't have fun times with these adventures. I know about 5 people are going to read this and quote me saying "My group loved blah blah"

But guess what? I loved Transformers 2, and that movie is still dog water.

WotC could be making far better adventures. I can see great ideas in the OSR and 3PP realms, but all the WotC stuff constantly feels half-assed, and I really can't run it. Not just because the assumed story is usually sub-par, but because the layout of the books is just almost unnavigable. I gave up on Storm King's Thunder because with all the prep I had to do, I was basically making my own adventure and filling out EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.

And I'm TIRED of it. I just want adventures that are both good to read AND good to play. It isn't all that hard! But they seem so dedicated to the story writing and narrative techniques of the 70s-00's, that they have failed to create anything even remotely compelling to me for this generation.

That isn't to say there isn't good lore either! Even though most people hate the 5E lore, I actually prefer it to most other D&D editions. But none of that lore matters; in fact, it matters less now then it ever has.

Just for God's sake give me one good, well-written adventure. Please. Please. Just try.

And fix the art. God, first party D&D should always set the bar. This edition, it constantly misses the mark.

Krachek said:

I would take a deep breath before calling out for 5.5ed. It will be the same game!
That’s what implied 100% compatible. I expect a change similar to 4ed Essentials.
It was still the same game, with fresh classes and mechanics.

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Agreed. If anything, I wager that this "5.5E" will be to 5th Edition, as 3.5E was to 3.0. Or maybe as the Book of Nine Swords was to 3.5E. It's not going to be a new game, or even a new edition...it's just going to be a handful of updated mechanics.

I think we've already seen all of the biggest changes:

• The errata incorporated.
• The lore will be updated.
• The monster stat blocks will be updated.
• Racial adjustments are ala carte, instead of fixed.
• Alignment is no longer default for certain races.
• New subclasses, feats, spells, etc. from other splatbooks might be included in the core rules, or they might be repackaged as a "PHB II" or something, neither would surprise me.

That's...about it, as far as I can tell.

GMforPowergamers said:

yeah I assume that the elves will all get the 'free prof in weap and skill' after trance of teh astral elf and shadar ki to replace long sword short sword long bow short bow and perception

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I think elves get the genasi treatment. All categorized as elves, but slightly different stat blocks.