D&D General The Biggest Problem with Modern Adventures...

[Morrus]

...is that they are too long. We don't need "campaigns" that take us from level 2 to 11 or 13 or 20. Diversity of experience is important. I hope that in the not-6E era, shorter, more focused adventures come back into vogue and big adventure campaigns/APs disappear.

The long ones are long, sure. The short ones aren't.

There's been a bunch of anthology collections of short adventures.

Tales from the Yawning Portal
Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Candlekeep Mysteries
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

That's about 50 short adventures right there.

Not to mention the various starter sets.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

"Why can't I learn the magical attack that lich used on me?"
"Its an ancient spell forgotten by all except the entity you just murdered."

I am honestly sometimes glad for this because goddamn hiding/warding the spellbooks of casters who had spells I didn't want the PCs to get their hands on in 2E was a bit of a chore (and sometimes I got outsmarted!).

 

[the Jester]

Thats a good one. I was thinking "Why cant my fighter swallow whole the enemies like the purple worm can?"

starts working on new subclass

 

[Lanefan]

I am honestly sometimes glad for this because goddamn hiding/warding the spellbooks of casters who had spells I didn't want the PCs to get their hands on in 2E was a bit of a chore (and sometimes I got outsmarted!).

I always keep this in mind when putting casters in as foes: odds are high that their spellbooks will end up in the PCs' possession, meaning that if there's anything unusual or unique in there I'd better vet it for balance now rather than after they find it.

Flip side: when some neat new spell has crossed my path I've also occasionally used this as a means of introducing it to the game.

 

[Hussar]

I always keep this in mind when putting casters in as foes: odds are high that their spellbooks will end up in the PCs' possession, meaning that if there's anything unusual or unique in there I'd better vet it for balance now rather than after they find it.

Flip side: when some neat new spell has crossed my path I've also occasionally used this as a means of introducing it to the game.

I opt for simplicity. Npc casters are almost always sorcerers or, better yet, warlocks. Much better as combatants anyway. Lot less overhead.