D&D (2024) Reworked…revised…redone….but

[Micah Sweet]

they have chosen to have compatibility with 2014 so they can keep selling books. Not calling it a new edition seems like a logical conclusion based on that decision

If profit is more important than truth, yes. 5.5 may be backwards compatible by WotC's meaning, but it is clearly different from 5.0 but has the same name. That's deceptive.

 

[KYRON45]

With all of the anti-Wotc sentiment in the air there will never be a consensus again that they will ever do anything "right".
As a neutral observer I find that it doesn't matter what they call it.
As a DM I place the onus on the players to know what their characters can do and be able to show it to me on demand. I don't sleep with the core rule books under my pillow so I look up any rule i need at the moment i need it. Its unlikely i would know a 2014 from a 2024 for a 1985 character build.

 

[KYRON45]

If profit is more important than truth, yes. 5.5 may be backwards compatible by WotC's meaning, but it is clearly different from 5.0 but has the same name. That's deceptive.

By not naming the...whatever the next release is as an "edition" they have done what they were attempting not to do.

 

[R_J_K75]

If profit is more important than truth, yes. 5.5 may be backwards compatible by WotC's meaning, but it is clearly different from 5.0 but has the same name. That's deceptive.

This has been my feeling since day OneD&D. I don't see why 2024 couldn't be their flagship D&D but still periodically support the 2014 version.

I laughed when Crawford said in some ways it was harder to design for backward compatibility than to just design a new edition, or something thereof.

 

[mellored]

The fact that is even an issue is why WotC should have named them differently.

A big part of updating stuff is to make things work better. That includes removing troublesome parts.

I.e. conjure animals was bad to play with. It needs removed for the health of the game.

But then you have classes and monster that reference it, including 3rd party stuff.

So reusing the name prevents all that stuff from breaking.

 

[MarkB]

IME there are 2 types of players, those that take the time to read the PHB and are familiar with what their PCs abilities are, and then there's those that don't. Mostly nowadays for me it's the latter. In that case it would cause me as the DM extra prep work and more time of either me or the player looking stuff up at the table.

Wouldn't that be the case regardless of the ruleset?

 

[SkidAce]

Maybe they should have called it a new edition AND said it was backwards compatible.

Best of both worlds right? hehe.

 

[R_J_K75]

Wouldn't that be the case regardless of the ruleset?

Not in this case I don't believe. They are promoting backward compatibility, so you have two different rulesets or portions thereof that can be played at the same table where apparently you have classes that can use portions of both. Not something I'm personally interested in

 

[Belen]

they have chosen to have compatibility with 2014 so they can keep selling books. Not calling it a new edition seems like a logical conclusion based on that decision

They said the same thing with 3.0/3.5 but still called it 3.5.

 

[Yaarel]

D4 D&D Deep Dive with Treantmonk both focus on optimization builds. They note that 2024 damage-per-round tends to do more damage, but the spiking damage (going nova) is notably less damage. Thus some of the older damage optimization builds are less effective.

The Warlock Eldritch Blast with go-to Invocation boosts used to serve as a "standard" for damage-per-round. But now, the martial classes generally do significantly more damage, making the Eldritch Blast a floor rather than a midway.

The Wizard got no meaningful boosts. Apparently two of its subclasses even got nerfed somewhat. But the Wizard was always good, and still is. It is the spells that make the Wizard great. There were three spells specifically (undisclosed) that both thought should have been nerfed but werent, so will continue for future optimization builds.

On the other hand, the Sorcerer class got a dramatic boost. At least for performance during combat, D4 considers it now the best class in the 2024 game. Treantmonk still ranks the Wizard best because of access to rituals out of combat.

Warlock got a dramatic boost too.