D&D 5E My thoughts on 5E

[Ravenheart87]

MODERATOR UPDATE: Needlessly antagonistic.

Lets keep it civil all.

 

[Teataine]

5E kinda reminds me of World of Warcraft.


Scott

Funny you should say that, because Mike Mornard who was in Gygax's original group said their sessions were kinda like WoW, too.

 

[variant]

Funny you should say that, because Mike Mornard who was in Gygax's original group said their sessions were kinda like WoW, too.

They ran around talking to people with yellow exclamation points over their heads only accept the task of collecting 10 flowers from ten feet away? Though maybe they liked to run around in circles for an hour as they waited in queue to get in a random dungeon group or raid.

 

[Robyo]

1E kind of reminds me of Pong.

 

[m4rtst3r]

Is this deliberately ironic?

Maybe accidentally asinine ? At the same time it would be nice to see you reference the AEDU powers in 5e. That is what a lot of people though of as the "button pushing" aspect of 4e the negatively reminded them of mmos.

 

[Emirikol]

I hope this isn't getting too off topic, but the reason my group quit 4e on me was as follows (this after decades of D&D-only campaigns):

* Too much accounting for petty modifiers
* Difficult to shoehorn and house rule
* Needed a computer at the table to track who was marked and whatever all the other modifiers were. It simply threw too much on the shoulders of the GM to be an android of statistical matrix (at least that's how I felt), and the part of the game that I enjoy was no longer there. I know some of you thrived on 4e..we didn't.

I'm really hoping that sourness wears off b/c I bought 5e and would like to move forward with a LANKHMAR 5e campaign.

The basic set seems to work well for me. I don't need for rules to consume my limited free time anymore, so simpler is typically better. We'll see if 5e works out!

 

[Grazzt]

1E kind of reminds me of Pong.

1E Pong was awesome.

 

[pemerton]

it would be nice to see you reference the AEDU powers in 5e. That is what a lot of people though of as the "button pushing" aspect of 4e the negatively reminded them of mmos.

Wizards have AED powers: cantrips and rituals are at will, the short-rest recovery option gives you your "E" (though not as much as for warlocks), your prepared spells are D.

Fighters have AED too: your hit dice are "D", your action surge and second wind "E", your weapon attacks "A". It's true that fighters don't have a lot of "U", but they have some: indomitable and survivor. (Crit range buffs seem closer to feats than to utility powers.)

"Button pushing" implies spamming, to me at least, in which case fighters seems to have more of it in 5e than 4e, given they do the same thing more (ie make simple attacks). Or if "button pushing" implies spamming "special moves" (however exactly defined) than I think 3E was probably the peak of that (trip/grapple fighters), but I'm not sure why a game is better (as opposed to, say, different) because fighters have no special moves.

(I haven't seen Battlemasters fighters yet. It seems that, compared to the Champions I have been referencing above, they lose some "U" for more "E".)

 

[m4rtst3r]

I think when someone compares x.x edition to "World of Warcraft", it doesn't mean one thing. One could refer to:
1. De-emphasis on roleplay (there is little in a video game)
2. Railroading plots, ie how free a player feels
3. Spamming abilities, limited good actions so hitting same "button" over and over
4. Button pushing - which I am referring to when I compare a table top rpg to a mmo or video game rpg. What I mean is these contrived abilities that are added to a game over time to freshen the material, keep people interested in the product, add variance etc. these abilities often do not make sence Ina "real world" sense. "How come I can only perform a Crippling Blow once per day, if I have the skills why wouldn't I be able to do it over and over?" To me, 5e has less of these things than 4e. (I did not pull my example from 4e, just using a fictional example)

But obviously peeps are different from each other, thank goodness. Right now I am just pleased to be in the midst of this excitement that 5e has brought! Game on, whether it is 3.5, add, 5e or even WoW!

 

[sunshadow21]

From what I've seen, I have to say that overall, they seem to have come up with a solid game. Supported properly, I can see it competing easily with PF as it seems to address many of the concerns people have with that system. I do not, however, see it removing PF or any of the other OGL/OSR clones out of the picture and regaining the same brand dominance it had before late 3.5/4E. The concentration mechanics for casting are going to turn a lot of people off, and it's still going to be more complicated than what many fans of pre 3.x editions are looking for. Still, as a modern day look at the older systems, it will certainly gain a lot of fans, and will easily compete for the top spot as long as the DMG provides solid rule alternatives and WotC provides solid world and adventure support. I will probably end up buying the PHB at least (and maybe the DMG if it has enough interesting alternatives worth porting over to other systems) at some point, simply because the artwork looks to be well done and the appendixes are going to be nice for those who make their own worlds regardless of what system you run; that's an impressive achievement for WotC all things considered, as I had not previously seen any purpose in buying any books since I have neither the time to play or any particular interest to learn yet another D&D derivative right now.