D&D General Explain 5(.5)e to me

[DragonLancer]

We always do max HP at 1st but there after you can either take 50% or roll. From both groups I run for, pretty much they prefer rolling.

 

[cbwjm]

The only bizarre bit is that people don’t seem to be self aware enough to see the obvious—that they, like every other human being in existence, have become their parents and are just saying the same things their parents said, ad indinitum. There’s no mystery here.

I saw an interview with Dave Grohl once who was complaining about modern music. All I could think of was "Congratulations, Dave, you're old".

 

[Autumnal]

It really is remarkably hard to be consistently aware of yourself as a person who exists in a historical and social context, whose views do not descend directly from absolute truth but are shaped in countless ways by different kinds of other people.

 

[AlViking]

Sure. But old editions had - save or die, save or suck, energy drains, level drains. 5e doesn't really have save or die, has some save or suck, level and energy drain is removed. Insta kill, by RAW, is almost non existent in 5e.

If you chose to use them, they were deadly. So we didn't use them - that was my only point. There were more options to insta-nerf, we avoided using them because they weren't fun. That sentiment - roll poorly and you're dead and there's nothing you can do about it - seems to be quite common so it's not included in newer editions. If you really want to do that and the players have fun with it, it's easy enough to add back in but most people don't want it in the first place.

 

[billd91]

24? 2d8 +4 for Con gets 20...unless I am missing something?

The Con bonus isn't per level, it's per hit die. 1e rangers got two hit dice at first level, so they get that bonus to hit points for Con twice. That's how they get to 24 hp at first level for having an 18 Con.

 

[Clint_L]

Another big difference between 1e and 5e, that might be a feature or flaw depending on taste, is that in 1e power-ups came from magic items to a much greater extent than in 5e, both in terms of how many items you got and in terms of their relative power.

 

[Jahydin]

@GothmogIV
Lots of great comments here, but since we like similar games, I figured I'd give you my perspective as well.

My group and I were heavily into Pathfinder 1e and I think we were all beginning to get burnt out of on the high level crunch and the sheer amount of work it took to design characters, especially if someone was eyeballing a Prestige Class. I began to remember AD&D from my youth didn't seem to have such hangups, so began to get into the OSR since so many players/designers in that space felt the same way. I knew my regular group would never play those sorts of games though; but maybe I could borrow some of the ideas to make my next campaign better.

It wasn't very long until the 5e playtests started to trickle out and was immediately intrigued. Mearls and team really understood what made each edition great and cobbled together an awesome set of rules that bridged TSR and WotC D&D perfectly IMO. (You might be interested to know, one early version had a skill system pretty close to C&C Siege engine even!) We played through the Caves of Chaos and noted levels 1-3 felt very "OSR". Once we progressed to the later levels, the game began to feel a little more 3e in complexity and power-level. But for us, that was a positive; it was like getting two versions of D&D in one!

But the best part? I could play this edition of D&D with ANYONE! Grogs, young kids, causual gaming friends, hell, even first dates; it seemed to be fun and accessible to all.

It wasn't until many years later the cracks in the system began to show up. I wasn't too concerned though, because the initial 5e core was just supposed to be a simple foundation that was going to be expounded upon later. It was only a matter of time before someone was going to crack their knuckles and get down to tweaking the combat math and really lay down solid advice on how to build challanging adventures. But after 6 years or so, it was apparent the interest in making this a good game (mechancily) just wasn't there. D&D 2024 was the only edition to come out in my lifetime that I've ignored. I honestly don't know a single person IRL that has bought it.

I still think the system has a lot of promise and love to see the various ways others have made it better (shout out to Level Up!). I'm also happy to see Mike Mearls rolling up his sleeves and finally getting around to fixing things up.

 

[Distracted DM]

It's all relative to what the DM throws at them. I can generate a lethal encounter (and did last game session, killed 2/4 5th level characters), so no character is ever too powerful too quickly. By comparison, in AD&D, by 5th level wizards could fly, priests could make the dead talk, and odds folks were already toting around magical weapons and armor. D&D 5E merely toned down the "Christmas tree" effect of prior editions (where characters were pretty much required to have loads of particular magic items or they'd fail) and imbued that presumed power into the character class, giving more options to act than ever before. Compare AD&D fighter options with D&D fighter options in combat.

Overall I agree with your points, but this one ^^^ I don't- the power of player characters in a system is (IMO) determined by how the PCs stack up vs. the monsters. For example, how scary an ogre will be to a low level party, or how a mid-level party will fare against a couple of giants. Of course the DM can modify or make up monsters, but the system provides its own metric by way of the monsters it gives to challenge the PCs with.

 

[matthewthomas1990]

I started playing dnd as a teenager and am in my thirties now. I also find dnd 5e to be very mechanically busy. However, the vast spectrum of TTRPG gameplay is important, as many players enjoy playing in different ways. I definitely agree that 5e feels busy. I much prefer games with very simple action economies that keep combats moving fast. Dnd often feels more like playing Final Fantasy Tactics when I want it to feel like a movie action sequence.

 

[Retros_x]

I have nothing to add, just wanted to say how beautiful it was to read that @Whizbang Dustyboots offered the perfect concrete explanation and @Morrus followed seamless with the perfect "meta" explanation. It was a joy to read!