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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Helldritch" data-source="post: 8573752" data-attributes="member: 6855114">Who said that 5ed sucked? Certainly not me. The DM's control over the game has steadily declined over the years culminating with 4ed (of which I was a fan, but it too had its problems). 5ed did attempted to give back a bit of power to the DM, but not to the extent that was promised in the playtests with Next. The tools we currently have will work for an experience DM, but not without a lot of work. Many foes have abysmal AC, which could help with monsters and making fights a bit more balanced. For example, why on earth does the veteran only have an AC 18? Using a Longsword two handed is suboptimal.  Use it one hand and use a shield for God's sake!. Or give him a two handed weapon.  And this is not the only case.Without a lot of work on the monsters, it is hard for a young DM to adjust monsters on the fly. The risk is going overboard at some point. Yes, reskin monsters can work, but it is not as satisfying as the real thing. Adv/dis is a bit too strong but at least it is easy to understand. But I wished it could have been variable. A basic +/- 3 to +/- 5 would have been great. But it might have slowed down play which can be already slow at times. And I could go on and on. Thing is that many of the mitigating tools the DM had have shifted into players' hand as they are now built in into the classes. Where a BCEMI To 4ed DM could slow down progress with magic items from not giving to restricting access to build them, this control would now be irrelevant. Magic items are no longer needed. Who really cares if monster "x" can suffer full damage from magic only? The character still do damage, albeit half, which is way better than zero. And since cantrips are unlimited magic, the monster is toast now. Before, magical sources of damage were very limited, using them was crucial. Now use cantrip and if push comes to shove, a good night sleep will restore every single HP and spell slots. As I said in an other thread, it could take 3 days to a 20th level wizard to recover spells slots (longer for a priest, as it had more). Managing ressources was crucial and a tool the DM had as interupting a rest was a real thing. Now, not even a combat will interrupt it. 5ed leans heavily on the players' side. It is not a bad thing per say, but it does make a DM's job a bit more difficult (and some might say quite a bit).</blockquote>

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