D&D 5E (2024) New Campaign: Should I make the switch to 5.5?

[Seramus]

Nope. The martials outclass the pure casters when fully rested. They just out damage them.

And here I am wanting 4E encounter powers and dailies for my martials. Anything to avoid auto-attacking!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

They have the same effect (attempting to put 1 or more creature to sleep) so ... it's still a sleep spell. But to me? The new version is superior, more effective, easier to run. The old version could effectively wipe out a small horde of low level creatures if you rolled well. Meanwhile it was potentially dangerous to your own party - how many HP does that barbarian have and is there any reason for the caster to know? It was a PITA to run often taking a couple of minutes to figure out who was affected. The new one is effective, quick, easy and is useful at all levels of play.

Yeah, hard disagree on everything there, because all the things you seem to have considered bugs in the 2014 version are to me either the selling features or non-issues. I knew how it worked, I never had trouble explaining to people how it worked, and because it worked differently than other spells it was actually tactically interesting. Sometimes it was clutch, other times it was useless. That's what made it interesting.

If everything is going to be so standardized they should just cut out half the spells, because they're just endless boring versions of the same things. 2024 5e seems to be basically all the complexity of 2014 5e just with less actual flavor to be found in that complexity.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, hard disagree on everything there, because all the things you seem to have considered bugs in the 2014 version are to me either the selling features or non-issues. I knew how it worked, I never had trouble explaining to people how it worked, and because it worked differently than other spells it was actually tactically interesting. Sometimes it was clutch, other times it was useless. That's what made it interesting.

If everything is going to be so standardized they should just cut out half the spells, because they're just endless boring versions of the same things. 2024 5e seems to be basically all the complexity of 2014 5e just with less actual flavor to be found in that complexity.

20q4 monsters kinda suck. 8/12 classes a bit mid 1-20.

5.5 4 are meh 1-20.

 

[Mort]

Nope. The martials outclass the pure casters when fully rested. They just out damage them.

My experience matches @Tigris.

A fully rested caster, especially beyond tier 1 play, just has so many more levers to pull when fully rested. And it's not about damage, casters have enough options that damage is often the least optimal.

Also, like @Tigris, I find the gap is narrowed (in favor of martials ) in 5.5 - especially outside of combat.

I tend to have fewer encounters but difficult in my sessions.

Interesting, I find that this type of adventure design significantly favors casters - as they will much more likely have their high level spells available when needed. And, properly applied, the higher level spells are encounter changing/defining.

 

[Zardnaar]

My experience matches @Tigris.

A fully rested caster, especially beyond tier 1 play, just has so many more levers to pull when fully rested. And it's not about damage, casters have enough options that damage is often the least optimal.

Also, like @Tigris, I find the gap is narrowed (in favor of martials ) in 5.5 - especially outside of combat.


Interesting, I find that this type of adventure design significantly favors casters - as they will much more likely have their high level spells available when needed. And, properly applied, the higher level spells are encounter changing/defining.

At the levels peopke actually play the martials are better imho. Exception maybe fir clerics and druids.

High level wizards still the best probably lvl 13ish. Long time to wait/probably won't get there.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm still using the 5.0 rules because I'm still running the same campaign I started in 2023 and I'm not switching rules mid-campaign. When this campaign finishes (which should be this year) I intend to play something else, probably Traveller. Then I will consider 5.5 if no one else steps in and offers to DM.

 

[Sulicius]

The three campaigns I play in have all transitioned to 5.5E, and I enjoy them.

If you already use the 5.5e MM, you already have the best book of the bunch. The monsters finally start hitting at their CR. Combine that with the new encounter math, and you can finally trust the numbers. Low, Medium and High challenge encounters do exactly as described, which to me was a huge relief. I used to have to do a lot more work to balance encounters, and now I don't have to spend as much time on it. This, to me, is the biggest improvement on the DM side.

On the player side, yes, there is a power increase. If you want to keep things low-power, gritty and "realistic", you will find 5.5e to be about 10% more powerful and magical than 5e. High level spells are still the most broken things in the game, and they (mostly) haven't changed.

For the players, the balance is way, way better. Don't listen to people who say rangers and rogues are bad, they are just fine. The weakest options have been made better, and a few powerful options have been made worse (Counterspell, Divine Smite, Forcecage).

Just make sure to nerf the emanation spells to only trigger 1/round instead of 1/turn if your players love to break the game.

If you want your players to enjoy playing rogues, barbarians and fighters at the higher levels, give it a shot!

Biggest core rules changes you will find:

• Grappling is a save
• Weapon Masteries
• 1st level origin feats
• Divine Smite is also a bonus action.
• Monsters don't use spell slots

If you are an experienced DM, I think you can skip the 5.5e DMG. Though it is a great book, it is best for a new DM. You might find it lacking in depth. Just find the encounter building rules online, like Redcap Press.

 

[TheSword]

All I will say is all my D&D groups have switched and none have regretted it. There hasn’t been a single comment or question about 2014 being better. Not one. But a lot of comments about things they like better in 2024.

It’s just a better game.

In the opinion of the 10 or so players in my groups.

 

[TheSword]

There is of course another reason, which is just that change is inexorable.

The sooner you make it and get over it, the happier you will be.

The longer you go without making the change the more likelihood that your players and yourself will pick up on, read, hear or see things that you think are for your game but not actually your game. The relevancy of 5e 2014 will dwindle and in a couple of years you’ll be left wondering why you didn’t switch.

 

[Horwath]

5.24 slows down combat and complicates with lots of little conditions to track. Character sheets get much more busy, and I have two players who like to keep it simple. Neither could remember masteries, we kept doing the "wait this thing should have happened last turn" rigamorale. Someone suggested status rings. I suggested I did not want to go back to 4e and we reverted back to base 5e options. Combat got faster and everyone was happy.

5.5 was not an upgrade, especially compared to some homebrew classes and subclasses we then looked at. If you want new options, I would suggest Ryoko's Guide or other similar caliber offerings. If you get Ryoko's you can play a fire-bender from Avatar! If you play 5.5, you can play, I don't know they somehow made Ranger and it's subclasses feel worse.

I wanted to like 5.5 but ended up not. Stick with actual 5e imo

I agree that masteries, while simple can add few things to track.
Here is simple variant for masteries:

1st mastery: Deadly:
add +2 damage to each weapon attack,
+1 damage if it's light, finesse or ranged weapons,
+1 extra damage on 2Handed weapon attack.

2nd mastery: graze: when you miss deal damage equal to ability mod that attack is based on.
3rd mastery: +1 HP per level
4th+ mastery: +2 skills or +1 expertise.