D&D 5E (2024) Rate D&D 2024

Enrico Poli1 said:

I was initially very skeptical of D&D2024, but in the meantime it has become my system of choic. But:

• It's an improvement of D&D2014 mechanics? Yes, by a bit
• It's groundbreaking like D&D2014? Not at all
• Art and atmosphere are better then D&D2014? Not at all, but I admit that some pieces of art in the PHB and the entire MM art are great

So, D&D2014 was a 10+/10 game, D&D2024 is in my opinion a 7/10 game

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Oh interesting, what mechanics stand out as an improvement to you?

So I have played a TON of D&D 2024. Mostly as a DM, though I would say 1/5th was as a player in a tier 3 game where we transitioned.

Pros:

• Better class balance. Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rogues and even rangers saw updates bringing them in line with modern design sensibilities.
• Better Subclass Balance. After 10 years of play, I don't think I ever saw a berserker barbarian or an assassin rogue. Things have been made better.
• Art. The art is amazing across all books, and it inspires me and my players.
• Grappling & Contested Ability Checks. Gone. Good riddance! Players had too many ways to boost their ability checks, and monsters had no defenses against this. Grappling a foe now even helps protect allies, something my players have expected many times.
• Ability Score Bonuses Removed from Species! Sadly they didn't stick the landing. More on that soon.
• Spellcasting & Known Spells. I could list all the changes to general spellcasting, but just know that I like them all. Spells known is now a set number per level. So many players struggled with this!
• Backwards Compatible. Apart from the power disparity (especially among monsters), it's pretty much backwards compatible.
• DMG Organization. It's usable, beginner friendly and works.
• Balanced Encounter Building. Using XP to build encounters still sucks IMO, but using the base rules, you can expect pretty much the descriptions of each difficulty level.
• Death, Doors, Dungeons. My favorite three sections of the DMG in order. Guidance on making PC death more interesting is very important to the game, I have learned.
• Monster Design. Increased damage, Initiative boosts, streamlined design, art. It has all come together in a wonderful way. I can roll a random encounter and know I will have little trouble running the monster or forgetting features. The new Monster Manual has made me enjoy the game more.

Cons:

• Backgrounds. Limiting ability score increases to backgrounds has made a lot of people upset. Custom Backgrounds are still the way to go.
• Weapon Masteries. To me, weapon masteries are the worst addition to the game. They can add heaps of power for those who know how to use them, while others forget them every turn. It overcomplicates turns and bloats the game mechanically for little gain. I wish they had never been added.
• Outlier Features and Spells. There are still a lot of abilities that are a pain to play with. Tiny Hut is still a forcefield that gives a surprising amount of advantage to a resting party when attacked. The shield spell still breaks the game when combined with multiclassing nonsense. Aura of Protection is still the most busted feature in the game. Control spells still make the game unfun, because they stop the DM or PC's from playing the game for long stretches. At least most monster incapacitations only last a turn.
• Hiding. It's not any clearer.
• Mechanics Over Flavor. I can't call out many examples, but it feels like with a bigger font and more art, flavor was lost. PC's have more abilities that work in combat, and less that give them identity outside of it. A few monsters have only a sentence or two to describe them as the art and the stat blocks leave no space.
• DMG Priorities. The 2024 DMG has SO much space dedicated to things that don't help me running a better game. By this I mean the Lore Glossary, the Greyhawk chapter, and the Cosmology chapter. Now, maybe new DM's need this to kick up their first game, but it feels like marketing over utility. A lot of the other chapters in the DMG are just sparse. Too little on building dungeons, creating monsters. Almost every chapter seems to have been shortened, compared to the 2014 DMG. I have found that I get more use out of the tools in that DMG!
• Too Little Changed? Looking at this edition overall, I think we all wished it changed more. We all have a perfect version of D&D in our minds. When I started reading the Daggerheart rules, I realized how much baggage D&D has. Sacred cows that are part of the tradition of D&D. There is so much we could get rid of and make the game more streamlined.

So overall? I gave it an 8, but strangely, I think I would have given 2014 5e an 8 too. I can't go back to 2014 D&D. Too much of it is straight up annoying and has seen big improvements. I also see that other people can have just as much fun with 5e14. It's solid, great even.

I would recommend new players to pick up the 2024 books, but I can't tell anyone their fun is wrong if they enjoy 2014 D&D more.

First I'm going to rate 5e as a benchmark

Based on what it set out to do - a polished iteration of 2e using the 4e engine and filing all the sharp edges off while being excellently presented 8/10 (you can only get 10/10 for being revolutionary) - but two points deducted for negative play experiences. On the players side the beast master ranger is an escort mission in a can, the monk is a melee front liner who can't survive on the front lines, the sorcerer is basically a wannabe wizard, the tier 2 warlock feels just bad, and all the martials have scaling problems. On the DM's side the DMG doesn't teach you to y'know, DM - and chapter 2 should certainly not be "Building a multiverse".

5.24 by comparison by what it set out to do can get a maximum of 7.5, losing half a potential mark for lack of ambition compared to 5e as 5e already exists. It then loses another half mark for needlessly introducing problems like the Cleric Lawnmower (emanations in general) and a few other issues.

And I'm surprised to see all the love for Xanathar's; to me it's the "5e PHB ideas we left on the cutting room floor" book with the highest miss rate of any book except possibly SCAG.