Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Is 5e the Least-Challenging Edition of D&D?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Tyler Do'Urden" data-source="post: 7924155" data-attributes="member: 4601"><p>Having played every edition from Black Box/Rules Cyclopedia and 2nd Edition AD&D through 5E:</p><p></p><p>Yes, 5e RAW is the least challenging edition.</p><p></p><p>But it is like D&D with training wheels - unlike previous editions, which were generally written to be run in a given way, 5E was intended to be moddable and put power back in the hands of the DM to start, and I gather that it's intended that those training wheels can be removed as easily as they can be pulled off a bicycle.</p><p></p><p>I don't think this was a bad thing at all. I remember edition warring with a friend in person after I rapidly came to dislike 4e - he told me the problem with previous editions was "1st level characters could die falling off a horse! Who wants to play such weak characters and die all the time? I want to be a hero right out of the gate..."</p><p></p><p>He had a point. Now, I didn't dislike that element of 4e - in fact it was one of the few things I liked about it (and my complaints regarding the games "powers" was a general feeling of saminess about them, gaminess/disconnection of mechanics from narrative, weaker emergent gameplay... it just didn't work for me as a tabletop RPG. Cool tactical squad combat system, though.)</p><p></p><p>So what I really like about 5e is that it almost feels like "difficulty mode" settings are built into it. Maybe they should be made a bit more explicit than the DMG currently does, but I like the way that I can crank it up and down as a DM. So far I've been running just RAW (+ feats + MC), the party is mostly 3rd-4th level, and we've had 2 character deaths and 2 near TPKs in the past 12 sessions. That's just about the level of danger that I like. As we get deeper into mid to high levels, I'm probably going to crank things up a bit more - I'm going to add all the combat options in the DMG, plus the Kobold Press "Beyond Damage Dice" system, and it's also likely we'll switch to week-long long rests as well. But to date none of this has been necessary to keep my players on their toes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tyler Do'Urden, post: 7924155, member: 4601"] Having played every edition from Black Box/Rules Cyclopedia and 2nd Edition AD&D through 5E: Yes, 5e RAW is the least challenging edition. But it is like D&D with training wheels - unlike previous editions, which were generally written to be run in a given way, 5E was intended to be moddable and put power back in the hands of the DM to start, and I gather that it's intended that those training wheels can be removed as easily as they can be pulled off a bicycle. I don't think this was a bad thing at all. I remember edition warring with a friend in person after I rapidly came to dislike 4e - he told me the problem with previous editions was "1st level characters could die falling off a horse! Who wants to play such weak characters and die all the time? I want to be a hero right out of the gate..." He had a point. Now, I didn't dislike that element of 4e - in fact it was one of the few things I liked about it (and my complaints regarding the games "powers" was a general feeling of saminess about them, gaminess/disconnection of mechanics from narrative, weaker emergent gameplay... it just didn't work for me as a tabletop RPG. Cool tactical squad combat system, though.) So what I really like about 5e is that it almost feels like "difficulty mode" settings are built into it. Maybe they should be made a bit more explicit than the DMG currently does, but I like the way that I can crank it up and down as a DM. So far I've been running just RAW (+ feats + MC), the party is mostly 3rd-4th level, and we've had 2 character deaths and 2 near TPKs in the past 12 sessions. That's just about the level of danger that I like. As we get deeper into mid to high levels, I'm probably going to crank things up a bit more - I'm going to add all the combat options in the DMG, plus the Kobold Press "Beyond Damage Dice" system, and it's also likely we'll switch to week-long long rests as well. But to date none of this has been necessary to keep my players on their toes. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Is 5e the Least-Challenging Edition of D&D?
Top