D&D 5E D&D Next Design Goals (Article)

[Yora]

The ungodly amount of prestige classes and feats is just another major problem of the 3rd Edititon.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

The fighter doesn't need to be able to Dominate, etc. I'll agree that 3.x had some problems in this area, but again, the ungodly number of prestige classes and feats gave him plenty of options, in regards to special powers, etc.

The Fighter needs the means to contribute to adventuring on the same level as other party members and the threats they face. In higher level AD&D that becomes less and less true, heading towards untrue.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Cool! Sounds like you won't like 5E. So stick with 4E!

So why are people so confused about somebody being unenthusiastic over 5E?

 

[DMKastmaria]

The Fighter needs the means to contribute to adventuring on the same level as other party members and the threats they face. In higher level AD&D that becomes less and less true, heading towards untrue.

This is incorrect. How many years of experience do you have running high level AD&D? Say, levels 12+?

Details of your experience? I've provided some of mine, upthread. I'll be happy to elaborate, further.

 

[P1NBACK]

So why are people so confused about somebody being unenthusiastic over 5E?

I think we could say the same. "Why are people so confused that we don't want 5E to be 4E...?"

If 4E works for you, why do you even care if 5E suits your needs?

 

[Steely_Dan]

I saw 4E's slaughtering of sacred cows and modernizing of D&D to be a good thing, and see the focus on bringing back all the old crap as bad news. 3E multiclassing, Vancian magic, and the Great Wheel are aspects of D&D I was glad to see gone. All three have been stated by the dev team as core for 5E, and again nothing but bad news.

Great news for me; I thought 3rd level multi-classing was the best in intentions, but front loaded classes and cherry-picking ruined it.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

Great news for me; I thought 3rd level multi-classing was the best in intentions, but front loaded classes and cherry-picking ruined it.

On the other hand, I disliked 3E multiclassing primarily because it undermined D&D as a class based system.

 

[Dausuul]

In my humble opinion, this "fighter sucks" argument is mostly born of 3.x optimizers arguing from a vacuum. Lots of these guys never even play campaigns. They just sit on the boards, read the books and build characters - and when their CharOp fighter doesn't seem to do as much damage or have as much AC as the "druid" or whatever, then it's these cries we hear. Not to mention Fighters lost their strongholds and followers in 3.x (yuck).

It's not just CharOp theorizing. I have seen the problem in action, in real campaigns. That said, it only becomes a noticeable issue when a) the party contains caster players who understand the superiority of save-or-lose over blasting spells, and b) the party is reasonably high level, at least 10th-12th. Neither of those two is a common situation, and I expect both together is quite rare.

 

[Steely_Dan]

On the other hand, I disliked 3E multiclassing primarily because it undermined D&D as a class based system.

The Divine Bard 4/Fighter 1/Battlesmith 1/Deepwarden 2/Hammer of Moradin 5 or what have you was a problem, I am not suggesting they repeat that mistake.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

I think we could say the same. "Why are people so confused that we don't want 5E to be 4E...?"

If 4E works for you, why do you even care if 5E suits your needs?

I'm confused because D&DNext is supposed to be the reunification edition. Unless I'm mistaken, the D&D community includes 4E. I could also ask the same question, if some earlier edition suits your needs, why do you care what 5E does?