D&D General Practical advice for running 5.5e and 5e PCs side by side

djotaku · Jul 22, 2026

I don't know if Sly Flourish replied in the 6 pages of responses here, but he has a YT video about mixing 5e, 5.5e, Tales of the Valiant (and maybe A5e....I don't remember). The tl;dw is that it works fine. But the video has lots of tips.

Pamphylian · Jul 22, 2026

djotaku said:
I don't know if Sly Flourish replied in the 6 pages of responses here, but he has a YT video about mixing 5e, 5.5e, Tales of the Valiant (and maybe A5e....I don't remember). The tl;dw is that it works fine. But the video has lots of tips.

Oh excellent - was this the one you are thinking of?

djotaku · Jul 23, 2026

Pamphylian said:
Oh excellent - was this the one you are thinking of?

No, I think it's a followup to that one. It has his bullet points on the left. Let me see if I can find it.

djotaku · Jul 23, 2026

Pamphylian said:
Oh excellent - was this the one you are thinking of?

here it is:

Mistwell · Jul 23, 2026

Tigris said:
In general when wanting 2014 and 2024 options I would do it like this:

Use 2024 classes as base, there is no reason to use any 2014 classes, rhey are overall just worse balanced.

Allow 2014 subclasses with the 2024 classes unless that subclass is redone then use the new version

If you pick a 2014 race use a 2014 background and just get a origin feat for free on top

If you use 2024 races use 2024 backgrounds

All spells redone in 2024 use that version

All spells not redone you can use the old version

EDIT! Same for feats. Feats which are redone in 2024 use those. In general only allow half feats

This way works really good, you have many options and its relatively well balanced. There are still some subclasses from 2014 which are a bit too weak, but its way better than if you use things like a 2014 champion fighter with a 2014 wizard. In general the 2024 spells are better except for completely broken spells from 2014 and you dont want them.

This is how we're doing it and it's working fine.

Mistwell · Jul 23, 2026

OB1 said:
I really haven't found that weapon mastreries slow things down that much in 2 years of playing 2024. At most they make a martial turn take closer to the time of a half caster like the ranger or paladin. And half casters with masteries still don't take as long to resolve as a typical full caster turn.

More importantly, weapon masteries are FUN! The pure martial PCs I've seen with them enjoy the heck out of them, it makes their turns a bit more exciting, and it really gives them some fun advantages in combat.

I strongly recommend keeping weapon masteries for PCs who create 2024 characters.

BTW, I ran a year long campaign with a mix of 2024 and 2014. I did exactly what you suggested in the OP, 2014 PCs used all 2014 character build rules and spells, 2024 used all 2024 build rules and spells. The biggest difference between the class setups is that 2014 tends to have slightly higher nova capabilities, while 2024 has a higher baseline.

I agree, we like weapon masteries quite a lot. BUT we did find it took time to adjust to the new temperature of the water. We were forgetting them a lot for the first four sessions or so with them. It took a while to remember to use them. But once we finally adjusted, they were fun and were not taking too much time.