D&D 5E Sage Advice is back!

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that degree of parity between characters built with the 2014 rules and the 2024 rules. Heck, characters built with options from Tasha’s are already mathematically superior to characters without. Whatever rules changes come in 2024, I expect them to bring the baseline up to post-Tasha’s standard, which means leaving 2014 PHB-only characters behind in terms of power level.

Here's the conversion document:

"Give a 5E PC an extra Feat."

 

[Parmandur]

I suppose it's a question on what will players consider compatibility. For some it will mean that you can build a character out of either players handbook and sit down at the table an play with no discernable difference in ability or power, for others the player characters could be built completely differently, using new concepts and mechanics, but as long as the adventures and monsters can be used interchangeably it's compatible.

I suspect it will be somewhere in the middle, but skewing toward the latter option... You could run Out of the Abyss with out much of an issue, and if someone creates a character out of the 2014 PHB they'll be different from those with 2024 characters, maybe a little underpowered and/or have some elements that feel off, but overall keep up just fine.

That seems to be the direction here.

 

[Jer]

It doesn't do thst anymore than Theros, Tasha's, Ravenloft, Strixhaven and apparently upcoming Dragonlance do. That is to say, by the time they put this in the PHB, it will be pretty common already.

And that is the other way to do it - not as an edition shift but trickling out the updated rules in various sourcebooks and then selling it as a "we're collecting these changes into one place for your benefit" release. The kind of thing a lot of folks I know thought 2e was going to be before it actually came out.

 

[Li Shenron]

Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that degree of parity between characters built with the 2014 rules and the 2024 rules. Heck, characters built with options from Tasha’s are already mathematically superior to characters without. Whatever rules changes come in 2024, I expect them to bring the baseline up to post-Tasha’s standard, which means leaving 2014 PHB-only characters behind in terms of power level.

Power creep, in other words.

 

[Umbran]

When he talked about it he talked about the later feats being better than the standard for feats. That means that the intro feats will be of standard quality and then later ones a bit better.

So, that doesn't really help. It means that a chain of two feats will be more powerful than a pair of non-chain feats, and the crap/trap option is to not be part of a chain.

 

[Seramus]

Power creep, in other words.

No Class Left Behind!

 

[Parmandur]

And that is the other way to do it - not as an edition shift but trickling out the updated rules in various sourcebooks and then selling it as a "we're collecting these changes into one place for your benefit" release. The kind of thing a lot of folks I know thought 2e was going to be before it actually came out.

Yup, organic development with iteration, feedback and testing.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Small feat changes isn't new for 5e. They tried that with Specialties in the playtest (something I actually liked and wished they kept). And those are OK, I think. Just a small package of feats, rather than larger feat chains (which I am not a fan of).

 

[Umbran]

I have merged duplicate threads.

 

[deganawida]

As someone who isn't partial to feats*, I'm not digging this change. Might be that this upcoming update is one I'm better sitting out.

*Seriously, why are they called "feats" when "talents" or "abilities" would be a better fit?