D&D General Favorite things about your favorite edition: MECHANICS/RULES ONLY

[Quartz]

1E/2E: THACO
3E: There's just so much to love. The rules brought unified orthogonality and simple mathematical order. Multiclassing done right. Prestige classes. Feats. Epic spellcasting.
4E: didn't play, but liked AEDU.
5E: Advantage / Disadvantage and bounded accuracy.

 

[Imaculata]

3E: Armor class now makes some sense, this is what made me accept 3rd edition.

 

[Aldarc]

4e:
* The WARLORD
* Power Sources and Class Roles: This led to 4e having the gumption and vision to pull the trigger on something that not even 2e could commit to doing : removing all divine magic classes from Dark Sun.
* Class parity and balance
* Scene/narrative-based mechanics (AEDU)
* Martial classes had interesting and thematic tactical choices that were typically privileged to magic classes.
* Monster design: minions, monster roles, cool monster mechanics, etc.
* Tiers of play including epic destinies
* Saves as defenses
* Rituals

 

[jasper]

Save or Die!
Save or Die!
Save or Die!
Save or Die!
Save or Die!
Save or Die!
Save or Die!
RULES.

 

[oreofox]

2e: wizards having a d4 hit die. So many strange and different monsters (none of this "Orc Eye of Gruumsh" or "Water Elemental Drowner" that's been going on since 3rd's MM4 or MM5). Ability Scores doing more than just giving you a higher +. Exceptional Strength. (I unfortunately didn't get to play much of this, as I didn't get into it until a year or two before 3e was released).

3e: skills + skill points. Feats. Sorcerer. Barbarian, monk. Alignment actually meaning something. In a way, positive AC. Feat and ability score increases based on character level, and not class level. Cantrips. Codified way for players to craft magic items. Just about everything about Eberron.

Pathfinder: Many of the classes. Paizo actually supporting new classes with future books instead of publishing and forgetting they existed (like WotC did numerous times). Cleric's Channel Energy. CMD/CMB. A lot of their races. Animal companions. Druid Wild Shape.

5e: Subraces, subclasses/archetypes (whatever you wanna call them). More reasonable numbers for attack and defense. Advantage/disadvantage. Infinite cantrips. Spell memorization being divorced from spell slots. Sorcerer and Wizard spell lists being different.

Those are all I can think of off the top of my head so late at night

 

[Gladius Legis]

5e:
- Advantage/disadvantage.
- Bounded accuracy.
- Alignment back to the classic 9, but alignment-based mechanics de-emphasized.
- The Paladin actually doesn't suck this time.
- Proficiency bonus.
- Spellcasting DC scaling via proficiency bonus.
- Neo-vancian spellcasting. Upcasting with higher slots to make spells stronger.
- Multiclass spellcasting and half-caster (Paladin, Ranger) spellcasting actually being effective at higher levels as a result of the two above things.
- Concentration mechanic in general (though I'd make a couple of changes to it).

 

[Li Shenron]

5E : the proficiency bonus ("one bonus to rule them all")

 

[Fanaelialae]

BECMI / Rules Cyclopedia
Weapon Specialization: each weapon had its own progression that was appropriately themed to that weapon

4e
Defenders: while you could do the job in earlier editions, 4e gave you the tools to make it fun and engaging
Monster Design and other DMing "quality of life" improvements

5e
Bounded Accuracy
Advantage/Disadvantage

 

[Garthanos]

4e:
* The WARLORD
* Power Sources and Class Roles: This led to 4e having the gumption and vision to pull the trigger on something that not even 2e could commit to doing : removing all divine magic classes from Dark Sun.
* Class parity and balance
* Scene/narrative-based mechanics (AEDU)
* Martial classes had interesting and thematic tactical choices that were typically privileged to magic classes.
* Monster design: minions, monster roles, cool monster mechanics, etc.
* Tiers of play including epic destinies
* Saves as defenses
* Rituals

The fighter finally having the ability to actually defend could probably be mentioned (I know its in roles but this and warlord are two archetypes which were never mechanically fulfilled til 4e).

However for me its pretty much mechanically everything with the above being just the iceberg tip and its almost easier to mention things I didn't like

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I don't have a favorite thing about my favorite edition, at least when it comes to mechanics. Strangely enough, every good thing about 2E has been done better by another edition. The thing I like most about 2E is that it doesn't have some of the deal-breaker bad mechanics from other editions.

Instead, I'll give you my favorite thing about my least favorite edition: I really like the multi-class rules in 4E. It's not something that could be done in a game with less-universal class resources, but it really made you feel like a meaningful member of your second class, as soon as you picked up your first power. Your fighter may only be casting three magic missiles and one fireball over the course of a day, but when it comes to casting those spells, you're (almost) every bit as strong as you need to be in order to stay relevant.