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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SilentBoba" data-source="post: 6364077" data-attributes="member: 6692389">I should be receiving my PHB today from Amazon, so my current 5E impression is based solely on the free PDF's and various previews.  My group is currently playing in 13th Age, and I have both the Bestiary and the 13 True Ways books.I agree 5E played it a bit too safe, but that's holding it up to the 13th Age Bestiary as a comparison, which is marvelous in terms of truly interesting and unique mechanics balanced perfectly not only with fluff, but with great encounter ideas.  That said, when scrutinizing the 13th Age mechanics, you can see that many of the creatures have abilities that trigger automatically based on die rolls rather than ones the DM chooses to use (i.e. "on an even hit, on a hit > 5 above the target number, etc.).  So it truly feels like "rolling the dice" sometimes, and hoping for not only a hit, but particular rolls.  Mechanically, this seems very interesting on paper, but in practice it can feel too random.  Many classes have the same shtick, typically triggered on an even base roll.5E in comparison is old school in how it presents a menu of solid choices, and each generally either succeeds or fails.  So you have tactical decision making instead of generally just choosing either a ranged or melee attack and seeing what happens.  So you have predictability without the bursts of 13th Age flavor.  Safer? Sure, but the results are a little less about the particular die roll and more about the player or GM making choices.I can't comment on how the new ones will shake out for the PHB, but in 13th, the idea that you can spend feats on nearly every ability or spell to make it truly a specialty is both novel and to an extent reductive.  We haven't played 13th Age past 3rd level (out of 10, not 20+) but it seems like the game fosters finding one or two specialized (i.e. feat-ized) moves that the PC will use over and over again, I suspect to the near exclusion of any other.  Again, that's a prediction more than an observation.I'm really excited to see what the PHB offers.  I do wish they would have BBQ'ed a few more sacred cows, such as using "level" to indicate both class and spell level.  Teaching that is like explaining English spellings to a non-native speaker--in the end it comes down to "that's just the way it is".  13th Age's cure for this is to have spell/ability levels that match the class level needed to use the spell or ability, so spells are 1st level, then 3rd level, with no 2nd.  There are numeric gaps, but effectively there is only one "level" and that's the class level. I wish they would have eliminated XP entirely.  Nothing reduces an RPG to grinding faster than they do.  That will be my first house rule, since all the other systems we've played that don't convert heroics to numerics haven't suffered in any way for disincentivizing players to take risks and be badass.  13th Age and most narrative systems got this right, and 5E simply used a lower numeric range but kept XP.  Blah.With each new edition of D&D I wish for Vance to finally get banished, and in 5E's defense, this is the best yet.  I eagerly await the DMG's spell point options, but as a starting point, the magic system has never looked better.  So while not wild and crazy, I wouldn't exactly call the resulting system "safe".  It's a significant improvement, and frankly the result is better than 13th Age's equivalent, just to bring that system in for yet another comparison (I won't go into details about it, as that is definitely a separate topic).I'm really looking forward to digging in to the system.  I suspect the result will be we move the 13th Age campaign to D&D and put some of 13th's innovations to work as house rules.  I have no patience for RAW if there's a better way to play.  The resulting system as the group decides to play it are all that matter.</blockquote>

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