D&D General Stuff 5E Did Right

[FrogReaver]

BA did a decent job with that IMO, certainly. I just think a better way to handle the issue is to drop the maximum level of PCs to something like 12-14. IMO higher levels mostly exist as a place for higher level spells to go, and there are I think better ways to model those kinds of magics. But I suppose something like that wasn't really in the cards for WotC.

Hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

With the official game, yeah, unfortunately. But there are plenty of other D&D-adjacent games that don't hold to WotC's line on this and other issues. I've heard great things about Shadowdark, for example. Haven't played yet, but I read the book and it looks great.

 

[FrogReaver]

With the official game, yeah, unfortunately. But there are plenty of other D&D-adjacent games that don't hold to WotC's line on this and other issues. I've heard great things about Shadowdark, for example. Haven't played yet, but I read the book and it looks great.

You know, I would be highly interested in a 2014 d&d or 2024 d&d style game that was built around capping everything for PCs around level 10 give or take. Maybe someone can start a thread on it and link here?

 

[DEFCON 1]

The thing I think D&D 5E got right is that it maintains the feel of D&D (in all its forms) in my opinion. And this is both from the mechanics, but more especially the narrative and story and fluff and art.

Having a game with all the normal species presented as they are in presentation, story, artwork and slight mechanical heft feels like D&D to me. Having the story and fluff of all the classes feels like what Dungeons & Dragons has been and always will be. Even when another game has similar classes, they are not presented in such a way as to evoke what I think of as 'Dungeons & Dragons'. Using the d20 as well as all the other polyhedrons in the way they are feels very much like what I expect D&D to feel like. Having ability scores go from 3-18 (or really 3-20) even though THOSE numbers don't even have an actual effect (and its the modifiers that do instead) evoke Dungeons & Dragons to me. Terms like 'Armor Class', 'Saving Throw', 'Ability Scores', 'Spells', 'Adventuring Gear', 'Hit Points' and so on and so forth all evoke my interpretation of what D&D is.

It is all of these things combined (with some new ideas occasionally showing up and other ideas going away depending on the edition) that make something feel like D&D done right. Even the more maligned editions according to various people (whether that be 3E, 4E, 5E, or even AD&D, 2E, or Basic D&D to some) all still have a huge number of these signposts and signifiers that scream Dungeons & Dragons to me, so I have not once had an experience where a D&D game I read and played didn't feel like it. Heck, to the surprise of no one, even Pathfinder feels like D&D to me.

Which is why if someone asks me if I want to play 'D&D', I'll say 'Sure!' And it does not matter in the slightest which edition you pull out and put on the table. For while the mechanical systems of the various editions might go in slightly different ways... the feel of the game will always be the same. It's all D&D to me, regardless of what edition we are playing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You know, I would be highly interested in a 2014 d&d or 2024 d&d style game that was built around capping everything for PCs around level 10 give or take. Maybe someone can start a thread on it and link here?

Me too. Not something I feel the need to make myself (for lower level limits I go with previous eds of D&D or the OSR), but I would be interested in seeing it.

 

[Lazybones]

It got me playing D&D again, after a 15-year hiatus. I had been playing in a 3e game for a while but lost interest; combats were slow and nothing much seemed to happen (this was about 7th-8th level IIRC). I bought the 4e books and read them but never felt any desire to play. After finally buying the 5e books I started up a few online games using Fantasy Grounds in 2020 and am now currently running three games, including one in-person game at the local game store. I preordered the 2024 Player's Handbook and picked it up on day 1, which I haven't done for a gaming product since the 1980s.

I recently went back and looked at the Basic rules that I started playing with way back in the day. Wizards of the Coast has made a lot of mistakes (that seems to be a constant regardless of who owns the D&D brand), but I'm content with how the game has evolved since then and I'm looking forward to the future. I think there's a reason why more people are playing D&D than ever before and the hobby is seen as much more inclusive and welcoming to new kinds of players than it used to be.

 

[Horwath]

Then calling it "training wheels" is a completely misplaced metaphor. Training wheels don't limit where you can go on your bicycle, they just make it much less likely that an unskilled rider will fall and get hurt.

So completely the opposite of what level 1-2 in 5e is like.

actually, training wheels do limit where you can go with your bike.
and it's almost exclusively flat terrain

 

[Horwath]

You know, I would be highly interested in a 2014 d&d or 2024 d&d style game that was built around capping everything for PCs around level 10 give or take. Maybe someone can start a thread on it and link here?

cap class progression at level 10 or condense all abilities of 20 levels into 10 levels?

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

actually, training wheels do limit where you can go with your bike.
and it's almost exclusively flat terrain

I don't remember that holding me back when I was a kid and learning to ride a bike

 

[Micah Sweet]

cap class progression at level 10 or condense all abilities of 20 levels into 10 levels?

That first one, mostly.