D&D 5E Is 5e the Least-Challenging Edition of D&D?

[ccs]

Sounds fun, but the commute might be difficult. Which edition do you run?

Well then your challenge begins with the commute.

5e.
The only major mods are that MC spellslots are NOT inter-changeable between your classes & clerics/paladins/druids/warlocks cannot MC into cleric/paladin/druid/warlock (well they could, but they'll lose virtually everything that defines being the original class as the powers-that-be do not share. So there's no mechanical + to doing that). Also those clerics/paladins/druids/warlocks can most certainly lose their abilities should they violate/abandon their oaths & such.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think any edition is as tough as the DM makes it. But out of the box RAW? It's pretty easy. I've heard that 4e was almost impossible to die in though from people who have played it. It looks like at low levels anyway, 4e characters are far more robust than any other edition (low levels being typically the most lethal)

I’d say 4e puts lethality more in the hands of the DM, with less of a learning curve for determining how lethal a fight or adventure will be, compared to any other DnD or DnD-like RPG I’ve ever seen.

It’s not actually hard to TPK in 4e, it’s just hard to do it accidentally.

 

[jayoungr]

Dunno--my first-ever TPK was in the goblin cave of Lost Mine of Phandelver, when I was introducing a new set of players to 5E.

 

[tetrasodium]

Dunno--my first-ever TPK was in the goblin cave of Lost Mine of Phandelver, when I was introducing a new set of players to 5E.

That's an unusual edge case situation more because the players are level 1. An ambush of level 1 players has a very high chance of tpk simply because most everyone will have a single digit HP value or maybe a couple points higher plus starting equipment. the fact that cragmaw hideout has encounters like two goblins 3 wolves & six goblins is a vibrating knife's edge at level 1.

 

[FrogReaver]

Which brings me to the topic of the thread: Is 5e the easiest edition of D&D? Are you less likely to lose a character?

Yes. But it's primarily due to the game putting DM's in a situation where they have to be a jerk by targeting a downed PC or not be a jerk and let them live. This can be mitigated by playing in a campaign with very intelligent enemies, but that's definitely not every campaign.

 

[Laurefindel]

5e has less convulsed maths, less obscure subsystems, more coherent rules, standardized spells and spellcasting, relatively few exceptions...

so yes, it is less challenging to play. I like it.

 

[Shiroiken]

Using the CR (or equivalent system) for 3E, 4E, and 5E, 4E was the easiest, with 5E shortly after. However, all three have flawed systems that can be manipulated (sometimes unintentionally) to create much harder/easier challenges than the system assumes. This is why I've long ago abandoned them, and now design what I feel are realistic situations that are approximately within the power level of the PCs, allowing the players to figure out how best to handle them (avoid, confront, negotiate, etc.).

 

[CleverNickName]

Well then your challenge begins with the commute.

No, see, I said it would be "difficult," not "challenging." --gunshots, explosions--

I run a 5E game also, but we played 3.5E for years. We switched to 5th Edition back in 2016 because we felt it wasn't nearly as arduous, burdensome, challenging, complex, demanding, difficult, laborious, onerous, operose, painful, strenuous, or troublesome as the 3.5E rules were. (Found my thesaurus!)

If we were to use the optional rules for flanking, multiclassing, feats, and a handful of other options in the DMG, along with a few house-rules, we could gum up the system real quick. But right out of the box, with no add-ons, 5E is pretty much just a storytelling game with an occasional random plot twist. (I'm not hating, mind you. Sometimes you just want to hang out and drink beer, laugh, talk in silly voices, catch popcorn in your teeth, and tell an epic, heroic story with your friends. You don't want a failed save throw, or an argument over action economy or board position, bumming everyone out.)

 

[Burnside]

As a DM, I feel like I sometimes have to pull punches against level 1-4 characters to not kill or even TPK them. Much less so from level 5 on.

 

[tetrasodium]

Yes. But it's primarily due to the game putting DM's in a situation where they have to be a jerk by targeting a downed PC or not be a jerk and let them live. This can be mitigated by playing in a campaign with very intelligent enemies, but that's definitely not every campaign.

the "I'm consciously going to do something I know will be lethal" as opposed to "oh, you just hit -6hp?..." requirement is no doubt part of it... but monsters are defanged too. Compare wights & trogdalite(sp) or what Incorporeal means in 5e to their 3.5 version. If a PC gets swatted by anything in 5e & drops to what they know is less total hp than the str/dex bonus alone on the thing about to drop them?... so what 3x(12d8+6) attacks vrs your 5 hp amounts to a total of 5 damage, healing word & soak the36d12+17 into the corn field or grt a free AoO bro.

Yes the streamlining is nice, but the resulting toothless monsters, metagaming, & shift of 100% blame for PC deaths to the GM being a jerk is more problematic than many of the original complexities.