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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Prakriti" data-source="post: 7727046" data-attributes="member: 6855149">dropbear was being sarcastic.Unlikely. Bloat was one of the reasons why I didn't play 3E. Never bought a single book, never played a single game, and got right out of the hobby after 2E. 5E's lack of bloat is one of the reasons why I came back. Now bloat is slowly pushing me away again, and I can guarantee you that it's pushing others away as well. With each new release of player options, the game's barrier to entry becomes more and more expensive. That isn't to say that releasing Xanathar's Guide is necessarily a bad business move. Wizards has enough market data to make a well-informed decision. And they've obviously determined that this book will bring in more players than it will turn away. That's fine. But to pretend that it won't turn players away doesn't help anything. Nor does telling people "It's just one book! That's not bloat!", so please, spare me. The EEPC was "just one book," Volo's Guide was "just one book," the SCAG was "just one book," and now Xanathar's Guide is "just one book." Eventually the camel's back will break, and people will be begging for a 6th Edition just to clear the slate.Also, no one has really mentioned it yet, but this isn't the mechanical expansion we were promised. Almost nothing here expands the mechanical structure of the game. It's just new player options and refinement to old systems (downtime and crafting). A real mechanical expansion would add new systems to the game: psionics, strongholds, kingdom management, plane-hopping, epic levels, epic destinies, followers, henchmen, etc. In short, Xanathar's Guide could have been much, much cooler than it appears to be.</blockquote>

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