D&D (2024) Summary for the uninitiated?

[Yora]

So I take it "responses are mixed".

 

[Bill Zebub]

So I take it "responses are mixed".

Personally I wait to see how others respond, so I can be sure to take a contrary position.

 

[DnD Warlord]

I am not big into 5e. I still play older editions too. As I have looked over this stuff and not tried it yet I am underwhelmed. I wish they either changed more or just put out less. Like what is the point of this. I know when I started gaming people were calling some games .5s and I never understood what a half edition changed was, but I think I am starting to.

I only found out about this because my daughter's school group discussed it and she asked me if I had seen it. No where in the store I go to has anyone been discussing this.

 

[Yora]

Apparently there won't be a new edition for another two years anyway. And given the playtest for 5th edition, the next edition will probably look nothing like what is being thrown at the wall right now.

 

[Charlaquin]

Apparently there won't be a new edition for another two years anyway. And given the playtest for 5th edition, the next edition will probably look nothing like what is being thrown at the wall right now.

Yeah, we can’t tell anything definitive about what the revised rules will look like yet. However, I do think it’s worth noting that they’re going about this playtest differently than they did D&D Next. Packets are not vertical slices of the latest iteration of the rules, they’re more focused on a handful of specific options. For example, the first packet was on races and backgrounds, with a few miscellaneous rules glossary changes. The second was three classes with one subclass each, and another handful of miscellaneous rules glossary changes. Turnaround is also much faster than it was in Next, with a new packet roughly once a month, and the survey 3ish weeks after.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

if your problems with 5e have been in the details, this may very well solve them. If they are more foundational this will likely not address them.

That is the most concise summary of it I have heard yet.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I am not big into 5e. I still play older editions too. As I have looked over this stuff and not tried it yet I am underwhelmed. I wish they either changed more or just put out less. Like what is the point of this. I know when I started gaming people were calling some games .5s and I never understood what a half edition changed was, but I think I am starting to.

I only found out about this because my daughter's school group discussed it and she asked me if I had seen it. No where in the store I go to has anyone been discussing this.

I am a big 5e fan, and I absolutely see the point of an update to 5th edition. Over the course of the edition WotC has changed how they approach races and backgrounds, as well as certain subclasses, and now has a bunch of optional core class features in Tasha's that effectively require cross-referencing this second book, alongside the PHB, just to know how your core class works. They have also changed their approach to monster design. It's certainly reasonable that, at the ten year mark of the edition, they should update the PHB and Monster Manual to consolidate information and bring the core books in line with the changes they've already made. The edition currently feels unsettled, it would be nice to see it recodified.

What I'm not enthusiastic about is the slew of additional semi-random and mostly aimless changes that they seem to be at least considering. Yes I appreciate that this is the opportunity to change things that they won't effectively get another shot at changing for another 5 or 10 years, but that doesn't mean those things actually need changing for change's sake.

If I had to guess, WotC is primarily interested in ways to make D&D more approachable/appealing to the masses, increasing the likelihood that when you have your first experience with the game, you want to keep playing (and buying).

See that's what I assumed the goal would be, and it's a goal I support. Unfortunately I think between dropping everyone into feats at first level and consolidating spell lists (but then making you scour the lists for particular spell schools) raises the barriers to entry more than any lowering they've featured so far. At least they seem to have (possibly) dropped the scheme to make critical hits much more complicated while also making them far less important.

 

[Blue]

Apparently there won't be a new edition for another two years anyway. And given the playtest for 5th edition, the next edition will probably look nothing like what is being thrown at the wall right now.

And we need to be a bit careful about the word "edition" as it applies to this. Wizard's hs declared that the current edition is "Just D&D", as will be the 2024 50th Anniversary books... even thought they are playtesting a bunch of changes for those books. 5e has had changes come up in later books, but these were always errata'd back to the earlier 5e books until Monsters of the Multiverse. And Wizards has several books coming out between now and then. So they have stayed away from the words that this is a new edition, or a new half edition like from 3ed to 3.5ed. But really, the scope of changes really feel like a half edition change - same bones and math, new details in many, many places. And last time they did that, they ended up correcting and republishing most of the books that had come out for the original edition prior to the half shift.

 

[OB1]

See that's what I assumed the goal would be, and it's a goal I support. Unfortunately I think between dropping everyone into feats at first level and consolidating spell lists (but then making you scour the lists for particular spell schools) raises the barriers to entry more than any lowering they've featured so far. At least they seem to have (possibly) dropped the scheme to make critical hits much more complicated while also making them far less important.

I think that in the final version, classes (or subclasses) will have recommended feats (just like the recommended prepared spells) to make it less complicated for beginners. I suspect that when you level up in DDB, there will be an option to do a 'standard' level up that adds those recommendations to your character. That way if you want to dig in to the possibilities, you can, but you can also just take the recommendations and be sure to have an effective character.

 

[Bill Zebub]

but that doesn't mean those things actually need changing for change's sake.

That’s true. But just because I personally don’t see the need, or agree with the need, to change something does not mean WotC is considering changing it “for change’s sake.” In fact I very much doubt they are changing anything just for the heck of it. I’m sure their goal in each case is a better game, at least in the view of the majority of their customers.