D&D 5E My biggest gripe with 5e design

[Tony Vargas]

Your experience with 1e must be vastly different than mine.

Probably the only thing we can say about the experience of playing 1e with any confidence.

Confining ourselves to the content of the game doesn't even help make valid comparisons since it was so baroque, unclear, contradictory, and lacking in explicit guidance.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yeah I think that's a sort of messy compromise and for me the issue is that many actual settings, including the one I run assume that the rules re resting are a reality of the world, so changing to multi-day long rests would change the economics of the world and so on. It also feels weird to have short rests be so rare to me. Its not something that 5E can really fix - they'd need a new edition as it's seriously baked in.

Long & short rests recharge magic powers and HD & hp that represent factors as rarefied as luck.
Keeping that separate from the mundane factors of rest & sleep vs exhaustion, hunger & thirst, and the like wouldn't be unreasonable, at all.
So the world could continue to turn on a 24hr day, while adventurerers live by a different clock depending on the challenges they face.

 

[Oofta]

Fortunately, I was wearing my chainmail bikini.

I just envisioned myself in a chainmail bikini. FYI - do not google "fat guy in chainmail bikini" while at work. Just sayin'.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Fortunately, I was wearing my chainmail bikini.

Better put on something over that...

 

[Sacrosanct]

Umm, what? Fighters in both editions got d10 HP/level. True, at 10th, you'd drop back a bit, but, if you look at what I said, I did specify NINTH level. 1e fighters got to roll 8d6 to determine their Con score, so, 18's were pretty common. Oh, right, we're going to cherry pick rules even more and insist that no one used Unearthed Arcana.

Who needed point buy arrays? Most die rolled characters would put point buy characters to shame. 18 percentile Strengths, 16-18 Con, 15-18 Dex were pretty much standard for AD&D fighters.

Two things. First, AD&D was out 10 years before UA came out, so making this assumption about 1e play in general is...well...very flawed. Secondly, UA was pretty much banned by anyone who wasn't playing Monty Haul. Which you obviously were, not just by this comment, but by your other comments about how many magic items and wishes you got. Every time 1e UA gets brought up, most people always have mentioned how it was universally banned especially for that stat gen method. Using UA was by far the exception, rather than the norm. We've had plenty of discussion on this topic over the years, and I know you've read and been part fo them.

Take a poll of 1e players and see how many tables used the UA method. You accuse me of cherry picking but you're basing 1e gameplay in general on UA? SMH...

 

[Sacrosanct]

At this point I'm going to make a request. It seems pretty clear that a few folks aren't here to have a discussion, but to take jabs without any desire to talk constructively. If you make an accusation or strawman, and people have explained to you over and over how that's not true but their position is actually X, and then you repeat the strawman over and over, that seems very disingenuous to me. Especially when you start mocking the other person's position while clearly misconstruing it intentionally.

So I'm asking sincerely, please stop threadcapping. If you don't agree, fine. But this obviously appears to more than disagreement. If you don't have anything constructive to say as per the topic of the thread, but instead only keep on with "What? You're wrong. So it's just a die roll? Let me belittle your position!", I get it. I got it the first 10 times. Move on please so the rest of us can focus on those who want to contribute to the tread about finding alternative options into the 5e game.

Thank you.

 

[Oofta]

At this point I'm going to make a request. It seems pretty clear that a few folks aren't here to have a discussion, but to take jabs without any desire to talk constructively. If you make an accusation or strawman, and people have explained to you over and over how that's not true but their position is actually X, and then you repeat the strawman over and over, that seems very disingenuous to me. Especially when you start mocking the other person's position while clearly misconstruing it intentionally.

So I'm asking sincerely, please stop threadcapping. If you don't agree, fine. But this obviously appears to more than disagreement. If you don't have anything constructive to say as per the topic of the thread, but instead only keep on with "What? You're wrong. So it's just a die roll? Let me belittle your position!", I get it. I got it the first 10 times. Move on please so the rest of us can focus on those who want to contribute to the tread about finding alternative options into the 5e game.

Thank you.

Then clarify what you are actually asking for. Want to make it easier to kill PCs? They're dead at 0. Ban revivify. Dislike multiple saves? Get rid of them. Fail a save and you're petrified. Want to make spells like a beholder's disintegrate more dangerous? Up the damage. Want more permanent damage? The DMG has options for wounds.

I don't see how any that is difficult.

EDIT: reworded last sentence.

 

[Sacrosanct]

A swirling hate hole?

I have to admit that it's news to me that I6 Ravenloft was regarded as a "swirling hate hole" of a module that no one played because clearly it was a trap module just to ruin players' fun. I mean, it was full of undead after all...(or pretty much every module ranked in the top 10 by fans)

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

In 5e creatures, particularly undead, the equivalent to energy/level/ability drain seems to be reducing the max HP of a character. (With death occurring if your max HP hit zero.)

How do people feel about that mechanic? Is it too dangerous because it can induce a death spiral?
Not dangerous enough because you still have to work your way through their HP?

Something else?

 

[Oofta]

In 5e creatures, particularly undead, the equivalent to energy/level/ability drain seems to be reducing the max HP of a character. (With death occurring if your max HP hit zero.)

How do people feel about that mechanic? Is it too dangerous because it can induce a death spiral?
Not dangerous enough because you still have to work your way through their HP?

Something else?

I prefer it to level/ability drain because they could be annoying. It still allows hit-and-run tactics and slowly chipping away at the target. Easier to track, less of a death spiral but still slowly incremented damage over time works for me.

From a thematic standpoint, if HP represents at some abstract level a PC's life force it also makes more sense to me.