D&D 5E Sell me on 5th…

[Gorck]

3e's Races of the Wild, I believe, had stats for Gnoll PCs. These were Gnolls who broke away from their demon worshiping kin.

Yes, on page 99 there are Racial Traits for Gnolls. As a side note, one thing I DO NOT miss from 3e are the complications from Level Adjustments (At least Gnolls were only a +1).

 

[Neonchameleon]

Yeah, 5e tries to minimize system mastery. It especially eliminates breakingly powerful options and combos. There is still need for mastery to avoid the many subpar options, tho even with these it is difficult to make an unplayable character.

I'd go further than that. With "naive optimisation" (i.e. assigning primary stat to attack/casting, sensible spell selection, and single classing) every official character is at least tier 4, no official character is more than tier 2, and the only actual negative play experiences are the "escort mission" beast master and the "kill yourself through exhaustion" berserker. And if you make something actually terrible it should be obvious.