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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8712173" data-attributes="member: 6779196">A DM can always kill characters if they want to. I think what people are generally trying to express when they call 5e “easy mode” is that the game is built to generally favor the players to win more often than they lose, if run according to all the guidelines in the books.Old-school play is often more geared towards encouraging players to try and circumvent challenges via their own clever thinking, rather than to use their stats to try and overcome challenges directly. And 5e… isn’t really built with that as the assumed mode of play. The game balance is deliberately tilted in the player’s favor with things like the target 65% success rate, and “medium” encounters being ones that a party is expected to be able to win with no deaths, even if they don’t use any limited resources.None of this to say 5e can’t be challenging. Again, the DM can always ramp up the challenge to whatever degree they wish. But, the way the guidelines are written suggests that the design intent is for players to reliably be able to use their stats to directly overcome most challenges they face. To someone who is used to or prefers that more challenge-circumvention model of gameplay, that can feel like “easy mode” because you basically never have to look for ways to circumvent a challenge.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8712173, member: 6779196"] A DM can always kill characters if they want to. I think what people are generally trying to express when they call 5e “easy mode” is that the game is built to generally favor the players to win more often than they lose, if run according to all the guidelines in the books. Old-school play is often more geared towards encouraging players to try and [I]circumvent[/I] challenges via their own clever thinking, rather than to use their stats to try and overcome challenges directly. And 5e… isn’t really built with that as the assumed mode of play. The game balance is deliberately tilted in the player’s favor with things like the target 65% success rate, and “medium” encounters being ones that a party is expected to be able to win with no deaths, even if they don’t use any limited resources. None of this to say 5e can’t be challenging. Again, the DM can always ramp up the challenge to whatever degree they wish. But, the way the guidelines are written suggests that the design intent is for players to reliably be able to use their stats to directly overcome most challenges they face. To someone who is used to or prefers that more challenge-circumvention model of gameplay, that can feel like “easy mode” because you basically never [I]have[/I] to look for ways to circumvent a challenge. [/QUOTE]

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