D&D 5E 5th ed D&D general impressions from a new player and DM.

[The Green Hermit]

I can read the rules. I just haven't really looked at how and when to put them into practice. Frankly, it isn't that important to my group right now, when I am still trying to get them to use all the action/reaction options in a fight and not just attack.

My comment wasn't a complaint about the rules being too complicated. It was just a statement of fact. We don't know how to use exhaustion, and right now we just ignore that it exists.

 

[The Green Hermit]

It doesn't help that my teens (and my husband) seem to think that I am the only one that needs to read the rules in ANY game we play. They are getting better at looking stuff up, but unfortunately only tend to do so when they disagree with my ruling.

(This one is a complaint, but not one I expect any help with.)

 

[Nebulous]

I can read the rules. I just haven't really looked at how and when to put them into practice. Frankly, it isn't that important to my group right now, when I am still trying to get them to use all the action/reaction options in a fight and not just attack.

My comment wasn't a complaint about the rules being too complicated. It was just a statement of fact. We don't know how to use exhaustion, and right now we just ignore that it exists.

They are a very powerful aspect of 5e that doesn't come up a whole lot, but I've seen it used much more as 5e has evolved. 3pp books use it more, and there's a very common house rule that hitting 0 hp and getting brought up also incurs a level of exhaustion. Players generally really dislike exhaustion, because unlike hit points, they are difficult to heal from.

 

[Oofta]

I can read the rules. I just haven't really looked at how and when to put them into practice. Frankly, it isn't that important to my group right now, when I am still trying to get them to use all the action/reaction options in a fight and not just attack.

My comment wasn't a complaint about the rules being too complicated. It was just a statement of fact. We don't know how to use exhaustion, and right now we just ignore that it exists.

To be honest, I've played/run 5E since it was released and I don't remember ever using exhaustion either. I'm sure I've seen it at some point. Maybe.

It doesn't come up very often depending on the style of campaign you run. I personally don't find it fun to have what can amount to a death spiral so I don't use it.

 

[Charlaquin]

I can read the rules. I just haven't really looked at how and when to put them into practice. Frankly, it isn't that important to my group right now, when I am still trying to get them to use all the action/reaction options in a fight and not just attack.

My comment wasn't a complaint about the rules being too complicated. It was just a statement of fact. We don't know how to use exhaustion, and right now we just ignore that it exists.

You say you don’t understand how to use exhaustion, and then when someone explains how to use exhaustion, you respond with “I can read the rules,” and yet reiterate that you don’t understand how to use it. What more is there to it that you don’t understand?

It doesn't help that my teens (and my husband) seem to think that I am the only one that needs to read the rules in ANY game we play. They are getting better at looking stuff up, but unfortunately only tend to do so when they disagree with my ruling.

(This one is a complaint, but not one I expect any help with.)

That is a frustrating situation, and quite a common one in my experience. Sorry to hear that.

 

[prabe]

As in you haven't figured out how it works, or why I have this house rule?

If it's a fix to de-optimize pop-up healing, it's a fix for a problem I haven't experienced. I have it in mind, in case that changes.

 

[Asisreo]

I can read the rules. I just haven't really looked at how and when to put them into practice. Frankly, it isn't that important to my group right now, when I am still trying to get them to use all the action/reaction options in a fight and not just attack.

My comment wasn't a complaint about the rules being too complicated. It was just a statement of fact. We don't know how to use exhaustion, and right now we just ignore that it exists.

Exhaustion rarely applies in conventional play unless your players were acting careless or the DM wants to use the mechanic as a form of challenge.

Exhaustion can be caused by food and hunger, but it can also be caused by being in extreme hot or cold for too long. Being submerged in cold water also threatens to exhaust the player. Certain spells will also apply exhaustion.

Exhaustion is like petrification. It doesn't show up often unintentionally so if you ignore it, you probably don't have to deal with it.

 

[Gorg]

That is of course correct. But I stand my point: if you want it closer to 2e, use commoners. Actually in 3.0 orcs and goblins were closer to 2e. It was 3.5 where the assumption went into play that all goblins and orcs you encounter are warriors.

One of the things I liked most about 3rd ed, as a DM- is how easy it was to adjust the CR of an encounter, by advancing monsters, or adding class "templates" to them. The default Kobolds were kinda pushovers for all but the weakest 1st level parties- or a solo character. You needed gobs of them- which tends to bog down combat. OR, you could pull an "evil DM trick", and advance them- or give them some warrior levels, and have them be led by a shaman or something!

"WTH???? Why isn't that $#%&*$ pipsqueak dead yet???" And they really hate it, when the kobolds start casting spells back at them, lol.

To stave off XP inflation, I'd also give them max hp, shields, better weapons, etc, and have them use effective tactics. Levelling up monsters is great and all- and it allows you to get more mileage out of them as your PC's get stronger- but it also makes them worth more XP. Which accelerates the player's advancement. So does simply adding MORE monsters. I often found that I had to adjust the difficulty upward when using official D&D modules. I took one party through the linked adventures beginning with The Sunless Citadel. Pretty good stuff, and some very interesting settings- but my players found them too easy. I got to have some real fun making them tougher without feeding them silly amounts of extra XP.

One player in particular really hates hobgoblins, thanks to Sunless Citadel!

Orc barbarians were just plain rude.

 

[Nebulous]

One of the things I liked most about 3rd ed, as a DM- is how easy it was to adjust the CR of an encounter, by advancing monsters, or adding class "templates" to them. The default Kobolds were kinda pushovers for all but the weakest 1st level parties- or a solo character. You needed gobs of them- which tends to bog down combat. OR, you could pull an "evil DM trick", and advance them- or give them some warrior levels, and have them be led by a shaman or something!

5e is probably ever easier. No need to add classes. Just tweaking a few numbers is usually sufficient. What it could benefit from is more solid monster abilities to just slap on, as most monsters are going to die in a few rounds anyway and it's not worth the effort or classing something out to die in 60 seconds of gameplay.

 

[Rune]

This is an old argument that’s been rehashed over and over again, but I’ll just say the following and leave it at that: those of us who employ techniques similar to what @iserith advocates in the linked document don’t “require a lot of fluff” either, and characterizing the reasonably specific description of the player’s goal and character’s approach as “fluff” is inaccurate to the way we do things.

I’d go as far as to say we don’t require any fluff. What we require is context.

Specifically: What the PC is trying to accomplish and what course of action the PC is taking to accomplish it.