D&D 5E (2014) My biggest gripe with 5e design

[Weiley31]

All the lore being mostly absent. Really feels like I gotta whip out the 2E/3E books for world lore building in Faerun/Forgotten Realms.

 

[Fenris-77]

If you treat the CR system more like a fuzzy guide and trend high in the case of veteran players with feats in play, it's a little more caution inducing. The CR system used as-is without regard for feats and player skill makes for pretty tame combats in a lot of cases.

 

[DWChancellor]

I've spent a lot of time trying to design 5E encounters and critters around the MM's "HP" based challenge system. People give 4E a lot of gruff, but it was much more "interactive" and presented lots of opportunities for tactical position and party "combos" while 5E's MM design just... doesn't.

A lot of 3rd party designers are getting around this and more recent WotC monsters are getting better.

My entry in Creature Codex has a number of features designed around this (though Kobold's Editors tamped down on that a bit for complexity/space reasons) and Matt Colville's action oriented design are big leaps too.

My biggest issue with exhaustion is it isn't fun (takes away options) and tends to lead the party down a death-spiral. Save-or-die mechanics were immediate and gave a clear reading on the state of the party when the wizard evaporated. Harsh, but quick and clear.

 

[DWChancellor]

My gripe is I really hate the concentration mechanic. I wish they would have found a way to stack and configure spells into cool configurations. That said the concentration check is very for what it does.

I'm of the opposite mind: I'm so happy they cleared away the cruft of "necessary" magic items in every slot and the "regular buff up" of 3E. I love how DCC did spells too, though obviously have a chance of turning into a frog monster instead of casting Heal is a little harsh for D&D =)

 

[Salthorae]

All the lore being mostly absent. Really feels like I gotta whip out the 2E/3E books for world lore building in Faerun/Forgotten Realms.

Just go to Candlekeep and steep in the lore there

 

[Weiley31]

Re

Just go to Candlekeep and steep in the lore there

True but it just feels great whipping out The Complete Book of Necromancers for background goodness for a necromancer character and their three branches of magic.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Things I do beyond ''damage'' to challenge my friends characters:

• Damage that reduces the character max hp for X time.
• Effect that gives my players ''disadvantage'' on all healing roll for X time.
• Curses/diseases that block healing damage for a time.
• Poison that deals damage over time instead of of just another ''have disadvantage on X'' condition.
• Effect that amplify next attacks for X times (Ex: Burning Wounds: 3d6 fire damage on a hit. Everytime the target is hit for the next minute, it takes extra damage equal to half the damage of the initial roll). Stolen from Pillars of Eternity.
• Curses that makes the character unable to roll higher than its stat score for a specific ability.

etc

 

[Lanefan]

• Curses that makes the character unable to roll higher than its stat score for a specific ability.

Yoink!

This is absolutely brilliant!

Should your ears get red sometimes in the future, it'll be because my players are swearing at whoever gave me this idea...

 

[NotAYakk]

I don’t know if they will give it to the vampire. But whatever critter gets it will be feared.

What about most of them?

Zombies can inflict 1 level of exhaustion on a critical hit. If you are at 0 HP, instead of giving you 2 death saves, they give you 2 levels of exhaustion.

Ghouls attacks also give 1 level of exhaustion on a critical hit, but also if you fail the initial paralyzed save. Ghast the same, but the Stench also drains you, and each failed Paralyze save (not just the initial) gives you 1 more level.

Just have your life ... drained ... out ... of ... you.

If you die from undead exhaustion, and proper burial rites do not occur, you can rise as an undead (roll 1d6: minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, then roll 1d100 for how many)

 

[abirdcall]

5e is dangerous over the course of an adventuring day.

I like that long rests reset everything. It's cleaner. It's a release of tension and then the next day can start fresh.

You say that the 24 hr petrification from the Cockatrice isn't a big deal, but if you wait that long you're most likely going to be failing your mission. At the very least you're probably in a dangerous area a character down.

And if time isn't a factor, what are you really doing? There is no tension there to begin with. If the party has all the time in the world to rest then it doesn't matter if they reset after a long rest or after 50 long rests.

5e is about running lower and lower on resources. That 50 dmg and 3 spell slots the party used up that battle doesn't feel like a lot now, but it will after 4 or 5 such encounters. At the players should know this. They know that things are going to get tough so they're going to feel it even early on in the day.

Players at my table do everything they can to avoid fights and to be prepared because they know that they can fail. Sometimes catastrophically with a TPK.

If failure is not allowed to happen at a table then yes, 5e is not dangerous or tension filled.