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<blockquote data-quote="Branduil" data-source="post: 6343893" data-attributes="member: 11617">The biggest difference between 3.x and 5e is the idea of Bounded Accuracy. Rather than the rapidly inflating numbers caused by BAB, stat-boosts, and +5 weapons/armor, in 5e everyone gets a proficiency bonus which starts at +2 and goes up to +6 by 20th level. Non-magical stat boosts are capped at 20 for every stat(and magical stat boosts are extraordinarily rare). The math no longer assumes players are Christmas Trees, and most magical weapons are +1, while artifacts might go up to +3. The effect of this much flatter power curve is that it should make it much harder to break the game at high levels. It also means lower-level monsters can still be a legitimate threat in numbers, since your AC will still be hittable. Caster power versus mundane is TBD, but it's much more promising at this point than 3.x. Vancian casting is much more flexible, but spellcasters get less spells. The concentration mechanic for ongoing spells is also a nice way to limit spellcasters from becoming CoDzillas like in 3.x.Running a low-magic campaign should be very easy since the math no longer assumes magic items. One other big difference is that feats are now optional, taken instead of stat-boosts, and the feat list is smaller, but each feat is much more self-complete and effective. No more feat-trees.Overall 5e feels to me like it's WotC going for a do-over on 3rd edition, while trying to incorporate the good aspects from the older editions and 4e.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Branduil, post: 6343893, member: 11617"] The biggest difference between 3.x and 5e is the idea of Bounded Accuracy. Rather than the rapidly inflating numbers caused by BAB, stat-boosts, and +5 weapons/armor, in 5e everyone gets a proficiency bonus which starts at +2 and goes up to +6 by 20th level. Non-magical stat boosts are capped at 20 for every stat(and magical stat boosts are extraordinarily rare). The math no longer assumes players are Christmas Trees, and most magical weapons are +1, while artifacts might go up to +3. The effect of this much flatter power curve is that it should make it much harder to break the game at high levels. It also means lower-level monsters can still be a legitimate threat in numbers, since your AC will still be hittable. Caster power versus mundane is TBD, but it's much more promising at this point than 3.x. Vancian casting is much more flexible, but spellcasters get less spells. The concentration mechanic for ongoing spells is also a nice way to limit spellcasters from becoming CoDzillas like in 3.x. Running a low-magic campaign should be very easy since the math no longer assumes magic items. One other big difference is that feats are now optional, taken instead of stat-boosts, and the feat list is smaller, but each feat is much more self-complete and effective. No more feat-trees. Overall 5e feels to me like it's WotC going for a do-over on 3rd edition, while trying to incorporate the good aspects from the older editions and 4e. [/QUOTE]

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