Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6875687" data-attributes="member: 20323">That pretty much describes me to a T <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I ran two 4e campaigns, ranging from 1st-10th level, and 8th-13th level. Mostly I DMed, but I did have the opportunity to play in some shorter pickup games run by my friends, which was great fun. Now I've been running 5e intermittently, and though life has interfered with face-to-face games, I still play via Roll20 and play-by-post.I miss three things from 4e:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dynamic combat with lots of movement as the default, not something the DM had to go to extra lengths to achieve.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skill challenges (at the later end of 4e when that part of the game was finally more dialed in)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Epic Destinies & Paragon Paths. While many paragon paths ended up being power boosts, there was a lot of cool grist for the narrative mill in the PPs and EDs, definitely stuff to inspire adventure hooks and often some diamonds in the rough when it came to cool powers.</li> </ul>I enjoy these three things that I feel 5e improved upon:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Return to emphasizing exploration and interaction, as reflected in class design, a little bit in monster design, and overall in how the books are written. I disliked the hyper-combat focused design of 4e classes/powers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Concentration. I think this simple mechanic is a vast improvement over 3e/2e/1e and a modest improvement over 4e. Efficient, regulating spellcaster abuse of power, and simple to remember.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Personality traits, bonds, ideals, and flaws (and backgrounds) as cornerstones of character creation. Much better way to bring new players into the roleplaying part of the game imho.</li> </ul>Oddly, things that I was initially concerned about with 5e have become less of a concern after playing with them. For example, initially I was concerned about 5e's "swingy" combat encounters, but now that I have a better feel for how all the secondary parameters of a fight (e.g. how fresh PCs are, cover, surprise, monster tactics, PC tactics) influence its difficulty. Once you figure out how to account for that (and it should be more clearly stated in the DMG), then it's not too different from 4e. Maybe a touch more lethal, but I'm good with that.Overall, I feel that a lot of the lessons of 4e were incorporated into 5e: elegant monster stat blocks, tempered caster power, martial maneuvers, improv guidelines, etc.Lastly, there is one thing I feel BOTH 4e & 5e are missing (actually all D&D is missing), but it's felt more keenly in 5e because bounded accuracy seems to make failed checks a bit more common. And what's missing is making failure interesting (not necessarily EVERY failure, but at least SOME failure). True, an experienced GM can do this, but I think the rules should support an answer better than "Yeah, a 5 misses, your longsword swing goes wide. Who's next?" D&D tends to be very binary when it comes to success/failure.</blockquote>

Verification