D&D (2024) Pulse check on 1D&D excitement level

[CommodoreKong]

When all the OGL stuff went down the group I GM and the group I play in made the switch to Pathfinder 2E and we're enjoying it with no intention of switching back to DND anytime soon.

That being said I am enjoying watching the design process. Ovrrall I feel like they're doing a good job of fixing the rough edges of 5E from what I've seen.

 

[Iosue]

Going back to B/X, this will the sixth iteration of D&D that I’ve gone through, so I don’t know that I really get “excited” anymore. “My D&D” is never coming back, so I’ll continue doing what I’ve always done: take what I like, and leave the rest. 5e does a pretty good job at giving us the kind of game we want, and they’re keeping the core engine, so I’m already satisfied. I chose “high” because while I don’t expects anything to excite me, I am highly interested in what they come up with that I might steal.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I have no excitement high or low because we are still probably 18 months away from any book being released and I have better uses of my emotional energy than to spend any of it on a game that will change thousands of times over in that period of time.

 

[Captain Panda]

I like that they're reworking exhaustion.

I actually think just about every other change I've seen so far has been either neutral or bad. My excitement level started out extremely high and with each release has been taken down a notch. With this release I'm actually starting to think I'll just stick with 5e for the foreseeable future. If I swap systems it will likely be to something else, but at present I see absolutely no benefit to One D&D. I think they're actively making the game worse, why would I pay for that?

Druids are my favorite class and have been massacred. Lore Bards lost their coolest and most "lore" feature in exchange for one I find underwhelming. Rogues, who weren't exactly the strongest class to begin with, got a totally unnecessary nerf to sneak attack. All the other changes seem to be small, trivial things just to change something and sell a book rather than necessary fixes.

 

[Irlo]

I don't have it in me as a DM to review, learn, teach, and play a new ruleset. I have barely glanced at the playtest materials. My excitement level is very very low, but not because I don't like the changes.

 

[Stalker0]

I think too many people are expecting this to be 6E, which it's not meant to be. This is going to be a revised 5E, using the same sturdy chassis with upgraded add-ons. If you don't like 5E, you're not going to like this. Since I love 5E, I'm loving the playtest.

I think it’s more the expectation of 3.5, which while still had the chassis of 3e had innumerable changes across the entire edition.

So far “5.5” feels more like “5.25”

 

[GMforPowergamers]

nothing has wow ed me yet... but nothing has been a scared off thing yet ... I like some things but I dislike more, but not by much.

I wish it was a bigger change, and I will wait until the fighter playtest... if I can pitch a fighter and a wizard in the same game that is a plus

 

[UngainlyTitan]

A rare fan here. I like what I have seen so far.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The OGL fiasco and its fallout has actually made me more excited for 1D&D.

We already have Level Up and M.T. Black's alternative 5E corebook. By the time 1D&D hits the streets, we should have Black Flag and c7d20 as well. I've already seen at least one rule I want to use from Black Flag (wizard specialization is a feat, not a subclass) and the prospect of being able to have multiple compatible forks of 5E, each designed by established, professional game designers, that I can mix and match (relatively) safely is very appealing.

I think it's extremely likely that D&D for me in 2025 is going to be a core monster book from one company, a core players book from another and a core DMs book from a third, along with other variants on the shelves I will pull from as needed.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I agree with a lot of the design ideas they're making, but I have, overall, been very disappointed in their actual implementation of them.

Fixing the power imbalance of summoning and shapechanging? All for that. Actual implementation? I can't swim until what level? I can't fly until what level? Er, have you read the spell list, friends? Is Wild Shape supposed to be a primary feature or not?

Many of the other changes, like spell schools needing to matter (and still having three spell lists!), and the class groups, just feels like chart-filling being used as a crutch for game design. It feels like what it is. They don't have an idea for the fantasy of what each class should be anymore, so they're just shuffling through different iterations of the same design, peppering them at a different levels for variety, and going nowhere fast like Daffy Duck struggling to escape the animator.

Plus, they're pushing even more abilities even deeper into the class level structure. Part of it is more chart-filling-as-design, but even more is because multiclassing is a really, really stupid design. Stop nerfing the classes to make multiclassing less unbalanced, and just add real costs or penalties for multiclassing already! Or just drop it entirely! There's 12 classes and 48 subclasses! It's so much nonsense for that one thing to drive so much of the game's design. Give me a fleshed out character at the start of the game. Words cannot express how uninterested I remain at the idea of playing a War Cleric who doesn't know how to use a sword or armor until level 3 just because multiclass dipping is too good if you're a Sorcerer! And OneD&D is doubling down on that design. Now nothing from your subclass will be available until level 3 for any class. Everybody is generic until level 3 now.

It's like they've completely correctly identified the parts that are broken, but are otherwise doubling down on everything I didn't really like in 5e.