D&D 5E Reality Check: What 5E Will NOT Be

[Ichneumon]

When sitting down to create a character for a 5e game, you'll use the 5e PHB.
Not a sourcebook from any other edition. Not the 4e PHB, not Pathfinder, not Skills and Powers. Especially not Skills and Powers.

Level drain is not coming back, and if it is, I might just drain them of revenue.

A 5e DM will never check whether one player's roll hit DC 25 while consulting the combat matrix for another player.

Some alignments might be coming back, but alignment tongues won't be.

Potion miscibility might make a return, but random streetwalkers won't.

I would be really chuffed if proper lycanthropy made a return. I'll be somewhat unchuffed if the Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing does.

5e is unlikely to reintroduce the caller as a primary group feature.

Finally, 5e will not be reintroducing percentile strength or different ability limits for males and females.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

When sitting down to create a character for a 5e game, you'll use the 5e PHB.
Not a sourcebook from any other edition. Not the 4e PHB, not Pathfinder, not Skills and Powers. Especially not Skills and Powers.

Level drain is not coming back, and if it is, I might just drain them of revenue.

A 5e DM will never check whether one player's roll hit DC 25 while consulting the combat matrix for another player.

Some alignments might be coming back, but alignment tongues won't be.

Potion miscibility might make a return, but random streetwalkers won't.

I would be really chuffed if proper lycanthropy made a return. I'll be somewhat unchuffed if the Wolf-In-Sheep's-Clothing does.

5e is unlikely to reintroduce the caller as a primary group feature.

Finally, 5e will not be reintroducing percentile strength or different ability limits for males and females.

Lol . . . I understand each of the references here. I think that makes me officially old school.

 

[nedjer]

@nedjer , well said. I guess I must have XPed you too recently, so have some virtual kudos.

I was more excited about watching paint dry than 5e while expected a land-grab aimed first and foremost at taking Pathfinder on in the 3.xxx arena. Now the core appears to be more along the lines of the systems I prefer, e.g. Traveler, Treasure, C&C I've been sufficiently intrigued to blog on the topic repeatedly. This could be put down to Old School flag-waving or a sorry win-mentality.

However, I'd like to think it's because of the flexibility that comes out of such designs. In part, because it could allow/ enable 4e fans and 3e fans to get what they're looking for while gel-ing with the lighter core, i.e. things can maybe get meshed together rather than be glued or rammed together.

Also, for kids and teenagers a chunk of the appeal always lay in the magic - suddenly having the powers and persona of Samantha in Bewitched or Mel Gibson's Wallace gibbering a lot of inaccurate stuff about Freedom! The mechanical emphasis and the learning curve that has gone with recent editions isn't badwrongfun, but it ain't ever going to grab younger players and shake them through.

It could all still go pear-shaped, but at least there's some kind of fruit on the tree

 

[Alzrius]

If 5E doesn't bring back resurrection percentage chances then the game has just failed its check to resurrect my interest in D&D.

 

[kitsune9]

However, I think you've hit on the snapping point for the spin-off Edition War. Without Comeliness it's obviously not D&D and I need to never read the game, never play the game, slag it off to my mates and send the designers hate mail - seems reasonable

They get hate mail from me too for dropping Comeliness. Gotta have a stat to pick up the ladies

 

[Number48]

Note that they "hope" to make it compatible with other editions. I take that to mean they have no clue about that yet. I expect quite a bit of "re-imagining" your character into a 5E character, but perhaps a bit less to grab an older module. I don't care, I don't use modules so nanananaphoophoo.

New magic item: Potion of Beer, adds +2 cumulative Comeliness to everybody else.

 

[Yora]

Did they really say anything about rules compatibility? I don't think so.

 

[bouncyhead]

• 5E will NOT be a remake of your favorite version of D&D with glossy new books and illustrations.
• 5E will NOT be primarily illustrated by Erol Otus and Jeff Dee.
• 5E will NOT resuscitate outdated and unwieldy game mechanics like combat tables and THAC0 and Resurrection Survival
• 5E will NOT, for all that's holy, bring back Comeliness
• 5E will NOT, hopefully, make shardmind battleminds a viable character option

5E will NOT be brought to you by Xerox In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
5E will NOT go better with Coke.
5E will NOT fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
5E will be no re-run brothers.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

5E will not achieve unity by only including the stuff you like, but somehow magically making other people like it too. No, not even with a wish spell.

 

[Agamon]

I would also add that 5th Edition will not be compatible with any other editions.

Lots of people seem to have expected this, but with the misleading choice of words of pretty much everything Monte Cook says, it's not such a suprise.
Still won't happen.

Not sure what you mean by this. Using a 1e PC in DDN? No, of course not. Using a 1e adventure in DDN? I think that was the idea behind Caves of Chaos being the playtest adventure.