D&D 5E Anyone play with just the basic rules?

[Jeff Albertson]

The classes are as unbalanced as, say post-UA 1e or AD&D 2e at release.

Odd, where is that written as a fact, or is this yet more, passive, edition bashing?

 

[halfling rogue]

I'm running a game with my kids now and we're using the Basic Rules (+starter...which I think is also basic?)

But no feats/multiclassing, etc. We've been for 8 months and I just now bought the PHB. I don't mind feats and multiclassing, but there is a nice simplicity that you feel when you just have a fighter that gets a bit stronger as time goes on. I think if I threw all the options in the PHB to my kids, that they would be overwhelmed. For us, Basic is perfect.

I'm glad the PHB rules that feats are optional. I would be interested to see how a game works with a few Basic characters alongside a few PHB characters with access to feats/etc.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Can 5e provide this? I want to see saving throw tables, thieving skill tables, unbalanced classes, and amateur artwork before I call 5e "old-school."

I definitely don't miss those. No, it's the feel that comes with the simpler play experience. It's not what I want most of the time, but I must admit that reading through the basic rules (or the 5e Step-by-Step character creation chapter in general) is great at inspiring some of the feel for me.