D&D (2024) Backward Compatibility

[Gorck]

Bard just got a complete rewrite... and there isn't a good way to combine them with 2014 bard. I wonder what excuse this will be given for back compatibility.

You even get subclass level changes and a whole subclass feature level got added

I mean anyone can take any of the previus edition bards and CHANGE them to be 5.5... but that doesn't mean they are compatable

They said from the start that the playtest material will be Backwards Compatible with the existing Adventures and Supplements, not the 2014 PHB.

 

[SteveC]

It's interesting to me that we've had this discussion before, with each edition change. We have literally had the same arguments made. I'm not sure how many people are here from, say, the 3.0 -->3.5 era, but the same discussion happened.

Are you going to be able to pick up your 5.0 PHB and create characters for OneD&D? Most likely not, but what is your expectation about that? When a new PHB comes out, I suspect that people playing D&D will adopt it. All the material is in place for a Pathfinder-esque game for those who don't want to adopt it.

 

[tetrasodium]

It's interesting to me that we've had this discussion before, with each edition change. We have literally had the same arguments made. I'm not sure how many people are here from, say, the 3.0 -->3.5 era, but the same discussion happened.

Are you going to be able to pick up your 5.0 PHB and create characters for OneD&D? Most likely not, but what is your expectation about that? When a new PHB comes out, I suspect that people playing D&D will adopt it. All the material is in place for a Pathfinder-esque game for those who don't want to adopt it.

I was around back then & remember myself or a player wanted to pull something from a 3.0 book. The process was never all that difficult & usually boiled down to an immediate "lolno"* or "hmm ok, do it like this..."

*3.0 had some crazy stuff like iirc a harm(?) spell that set the target's current hp to six

 

[ersatzphil]

I was around back then & remember myself or a player wanted to pull something from a 3.0 book. The process was never all that difficult & usually boiled down to an immediate "lolno"* or "hmm ok, do it like this..."

*3.0 had some crazy stuff like iirc a harm(?) spell that set the target's current hp to six

A touch spell with no saving throw where the target loses all but 1d4 hit points. Man, I can’t believe I forgot about that one.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you don't want your character to have feats then they can just take the repeatable Ability Score Improvement 4th level feat. And there's nothing preventing the old backgrounds working - so you never need to take a non-ASI feat regardless of which version you are using. So the legacy versions still work.

The question is about the legacy versions of the current feats. But that's mostly errata.

Updates, not errata. Yes, I will keeping banging this drum.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's interesting to me that we've had this discussion before, with each edition change. We have literally had the same arguments made. I'm not sure how many people are here from, say, the 3.0 -->3.5 era, but the same discussion happened.

Are you going to be able to pick up your 5.0 PHB and create characters for OneD&D? Most likely not, but what is your expectation about that? When a new PHB comes out, I suspect that people playing D&D will adopt it. All the material is in place for a Pathfinder-esque game for those who don't want to adopt it.

Which is why this is going to be 6e as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Which is why this is going to be 6e as far as I'm concerned.

My read so far is that this is about the order of changes 3.5 had from 3.0 which means that the editions are about as separate.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My read so far is that this is about the order of changes 3.5 had from 3.0 which means that the editions are about as separate.

3.5 consumed 3.0 and replaced it, causing much strife for 3pp producers, so that actually works.

 

[Neonchameleon]

3.5 consumed 3.0 and replaced it, causing much strife for 3pp producers, so that actually works.

I'm of the same opinion. Some people think they were the same edition.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm of the same opinion. Some people think they were the same edition.

to be fair you could say all the TSR editions were compatible and as such 1, and then say all the WotC editions are based on the d20 system so count as 1...