D&D 5E D&D Next playtest post mortem by Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. From seven years ago.

[darjr]

Yes. Mike's talk in 2015 was all coded to let us know that 9 years later psionics would become a core part of D&D when the game got refreshed. The fact that his coded talk also seemed to indicate he knew he wasn't going to be working on it then was very prescient of him.

Well Spelljammer did drop.

 

[James Gasik]

Heh heh... well I know personally I never once was able to challenge my players enough in a single day to ever have any character run the risk of running out of healing surges... so at least for my games that was never a roadblock the players ever had to worry about.

And that's the problem... too many disparate playstyles to make either system overall better than the other. We will find proponents on both sides.

I ran into this a couple of times. There were some monsters who could remove healing surges with their attacks, I can't remember what type of undead had it, but after a fight with some of them, I found my Fighter unable to perform as a defender for the rest of that adventure.

Though admittedly, once people started using that Ritual that let you shuffle healing surges around, it became less of an issue.

 

[Steampunkette]

Yes. Mike's talk in 2015 was all coded to let us know that 9 years later psionics would become a core part of D&D when the game got refreshed. The fact that his coded talk also seemed to indicate he knew he wasn't going to be working on it then was very prescient of him.

OH! Oh. Crap. HAH!

I misunderstood. I thought this was D&D One's playtest post-mortem.

I am, often, a fool. And today is no different!

 

[Haplo781]

One consistent comment I've seen from players over the years is that they like casters, but, after a time, start wanting to have a LOT fewer options. I know as a DM, I refuse to use caster monsters. I just won't do it. They're too complicated and nowhere near worth the effort to use them for me. Now, as soon as I see a monster with a spell list, I just turn the page. 3-5 at wills or once a day powers? Ok, I can live with that. Anything more? Hard nope.

So, yeah, I hope that we can get a far, far simpler caster class for the next edition. Three spells - one for attacking targets, one for doing something to lots of targets and one for doing stuff out of combat. The effects of those three spells are expanded by level. Done.

 

[Iosue]

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted before.

Alas, it died on the vine. Too soon, maybe?

 

[Haplo781]

Which is superhero movie style. "I've just be run through with a dozen sword-cuts, but I' just need to pull myself together, and be instantly as good as new". Non-magical instant healing never made narrative sense. Not in 4e, and not in any other e.

Ah yes, because D&D is known for its tight adherence to narrative sense otherwise.

 

[darjr]

Alas, it died on the vine. Too soon, maybe?

Wow I did a local and google site search and I got nothing. Well there you go. I’m even more surprised it didn’t get any traction.

 

[Charlaquin]

It's so bizarre how we don't have a truly simple caster. Something along the lines of the 3.5 warlock.

The 5e warlock can be very simple to play. It has a lot of knobs and dials though which can make it complex to build one.

 

[Eric V]

This is something I've seen in some of the post-core Pathfinder 2 classes: lots of moving parts that you need to use just right and in the end, you end up with capabilities at about the same level as a simpler core class.

What classes are you referring to?

 

[Staffan]

What classes are you referring to?

The main one that comes to mind (hah!) is the Psychic, where you have both "conscious mind" and "subconscious mind" as sub-classes, plus cantrips that get boosted by focus points. All that in exchange for one slot less per level than a bard or two slots less than a sorcerer.