Nilbog
Snotling Herder
Hi all
I appreciate we've been inundated with 5e first impression, but for what its worth I thought I'd share mine.
Firstly, my experiences of 5e are as an owner of the PHB, and someone who is currently DM'ing the starter set. My group and I have have been playing since 2nd ed, and we pretty much agree that 4th edition is our favourite so far.
So thats the background out of the way, my opinions on 5e. Nice solid system, well presented and definitely has a very D&D vibe to it, however it all feels a little safe, I really think if they'd pushed it a little further they could have had a truly amazing system.
What do I mean by this, well a couple of examples that stand out to me.
Firstly monsters, I've been following the monster previews that have been trickling out, and they seem well done, however maybe I'm spoilt by the 13th age bestiary, but 5e monsters seem to lack powers that are interesting to use as a DM, abilities that have unusual mechanically interactions with play, I think this is even a valid comparison against later 4e monster manuals, where a lot of the monsters had great mechanical abilities. I want monsters do interesting things mechanically, not just relying purely on DM creativity to make them fun.
Secondly the fighter. Again a solid, balanced class that I think would be ok to play, but when it gets to higher levels it seems to lack a little sparkle. I think they could have pushed the envelope a little more with the battlemaster abilities. I want my high level fighter to be like Leonidas, performing feats of almost mythically prowess on the battlefield, the fighter powers currently don't really seem to allow that, again falling back on player/dm creativity (which while no bad thing, I'd just like to have a rules framework there to easily back up the players imagination)
Currently 13th age is my favourite system, but I appreciate that it can be a little too abstract for a lot of people (my group included) however I wish that 5e had just pushed a little bit more in that direction.
The issues above I don't believe are show stoppers for me, indeed I think they can be easily overcome with future releases and maybe once the system has got into stride and the designers become more confident we will see fighters with more variable powers and a wider variety of monster abilities, after all it did take 4e a while to really get into its stride.
I appreciate we've been inundated with 5e first impression, but for what its worth I thought I'd share mine.
Firstly, my experiences of 5e are as an owner of the PHB, and someone who is currently DM'ing the starter set. My group and I have have been playing since 2nd ed, and we pretty much agree that 4th edition is our favourite so far.
So thats the background out of the way, my opinions on 5e. Nice solid system, well presented and definitely has a very D&D vibe to it, however it all feels a little safe, I really think if they'd pushed it a little further they could have had a truly amazing system.
What do I mean by this, well a couple of examples that stand out to me.
Firstly monsters, I've been following the monster previews that have been trickling out, and they seem well done, however maybe I'm spoilt by the 13th age bestiary, but 5e monsters seem to lack powers that are interesting to use as a DM, abilities that have unusual mechanically interactions with play, I think this is even a valid comparison against later 4e monster manuals, where a lot of the monsters had great mechanical abilities. I want monsters do interesting things mechanically, not just relying purely on DM creativity to make them fun.
Secondly the fighter. Again a solid, balanced class that I think would be ok to play, but when it gets to higher levels it seems to lack a little sparkle. I think they could have pushed the envelope a little more with the battlemaster abilities. I want my high level fighter to be like Leonidas, performing feats of almost mythically prowess on the battlefield, the fighter powers currently don't really seem to allow that, again falling back on player/dm creativity (which while no bad thing, I'd just like to have a rules framework there to easily back up the players imagination)
Currently 13th age is my favourite system, but I appreciate that it can be a little too abstract for a lot of people (my group included) however I wish that 5e had just pushed a little bit more in that direction.
The issues above I don't believe are show stoppers for me, indeed I think they can be easily overcome with future releases and maybe once the system has got into stride and the designers become more confident we will see fighters with more variable powers and a wider variety of monster abilities, after all it did take 4e a while to really get into its stride.