D&D 5E (2014) To much 5th edition content?

[Morrus]

I’ve gone from buying everything to buying just the things that particularly interest me. I’ll be buying Theros when it comes out.

 

[dave2008]

I'm like several people in the thread.

I think there is a fair amount of content. That said, alot of that content is adventures, which may or may not be useful to you. I think in most cases when people say content they want mechanics, new subclasses, spells etc.

In that regard we've been a bit under-served, going by any previous metric from any previous edition in the last two decades.

I also, like others, dislike the fact that the player facing content is so spread out. This book over here may only have 4 pages of actual useful mechanical content out of 128 etc. I would greatly prefer the compilation book models like a PHB 2 etc, rather than the obvious attempts to get everyone to buy every book by spreading it out. It would also help to keep things organized far better, I'm sure AL people would like that much more and my back would thank you.

I agree and disagree too. I don't need more content (mechanics), but I've always liked the traditional way it has been distributed (PHB2, MM2, etc.); however, I almost never bought the extra content. Typically I have the PHB, DMG, & MM of any edition, but not much more than that. This is the first edition I've but a dozen or so books. Oddly I still don't use the extra content (mechanics) from the extra books, but I bought them anyway! Not sure what voodoo they cast, but WotC reeled me in this time.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

We been on the same characters for 5+ years!

To be fair, I mostly DM, so when I get the chance to play for a while, I try to play the at least 2-3 character from my ''backlog''; you know, all the characters you design in your mind while you Dm and never get to play

That and I tend to play recklessy and live to fullest, no matter what character I play when I get the chance. While the rest of the group try to kite the foes and stay far away from melee (mostly new players, even the paladin try to stay at range) I go full-on melee as an an assassin rogue. My characters dont usually have a long adventuring life

 

[Zardnaar]

I’ve gone from buying everything to buying just the things that particularly interest me. I’ll be buying Theros when it comes out.

That's where I am. Planning on getting Theros, bought Eberron, skipped SKT, Avernus, Aquisitions Inc, Dragon Heist and the other Waterdeep book.

 

[dave2008]

To be fair, I mostly DM, so when I get the chance to play for a while, I try to play the at least 2-3 character from my ''backlog''; you know, all the characters you design in your mind while you Dm and never get to play

That and I tend to play recklessy and live to fullest, no matter what character I play when I get the chance. While the rest of the group try to kite the foes and stay far away from melee (mostly new players, even the paladin try to stay at range) I go full-on melee as an an assassin rogue. My characters dont usually have a long adventuring life

Sounds similar to me, except I haven't be a player for about 25 years!

 

[Oofta]

I don't use published mods, but I am semi-addicted to DDB and the ability to buy partial books.

So now I have far more monsters than I will ever need online but the last physical book I bought was Xanathar's.

The current model works for me, I was glad I could just get the monsters from the Theros book because that's the only bit I'll use.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

I guess that's why AL has its PHB +1 rule.

Can you explain this? I'm not acknowledged in deep of AL

 

[Li Shenron]

3e was the first edition which really got me onboard. I had played BECMI and AD&D in the 90s but always as a player, and we typically relied on DM's books rather than buying them ourselves. But when 3e arrived I switched to being primarily a DM, and for a while I was excited at the material coming out all the time, and bought something like 25-30 books including some 3rd party. But eventually it became clear to me that it was just a form of consumerism, I was buying them only because I could, but I was using maybe 5% of them. The main purpose was merely psychological, my puerile desire of a "perfect game" which was taking the form of a collection of books sitting on a shelf, cherrypicked only occasionally even though in those years we were indeed playing the game a lot. My short life as a collector was quickly put to an end by the 3.5 revision... I waited before buying it only because I wanted to avoid errata in the first prints, in the meantime I used the 3.5 SRD to DM the game for at least half a year, enough to realize I preferred 3.0 and decided to roll back. I still bought a few more 3.0 settings books I had missed, but the fact that 3.5 books were technically incompatible became my saving bell. Then I saw the real bloat start, I saw people re-buying the same products just to have an "official" version of sonethingwhich differed by a skill point, I saw "builds" develop into a separate hobby, I saw lots of people pleading for even more feats and prestige classes, but then followed by furious discussions on brokenness and demands that the game would "reset" for everyone with a new edition. 4e policy seemed a reboot of the same follies, the final straw for me, and I removed myself even from all online discussions about it.

Came back when 5e was announced and public playtesting started. That idea alone was a gamechanger and key paradigm shift. I really appreciate their choice of a low publishing volume, and bigger focus on adventures rather than character material. It brought me back to where we started with BECMI and none of us knew or cared about books, all our focus was on two things: playing the adventures, and creating DIY props to improve the fun an the table (custom character sheets, pictures, counters, mixed tapes, whatever!). Not having to worry about keeping up with the new book of the month, or whether the latest ability the savvy player bought from an obscure supplement was going to ruin the game, is a blessing.

I don't even buy most of the books nowadays. I literally still only have the 3 cores + Volo, been waiting for ages before buying Xanathar just to see the errata stabilize, and only faintly considered Mordenkainen. I would buy the adventures however, if it wasn't for the fact that between my 3e era ones and a box of oldies generously donated us by one of our former players, I still have so many of them which I haven't run, that I promised myself not to buy more until I run out.

I certainly don't think there is too much 5e stuff published. I think that because I am satisfied without even buying most of it, this makes for yet another reason why 5e has been the best edition for my tastes.

 

[dave2008]

Can you explain this? I'm not acknowledged in deep of AL

In AL who can get your player content from the PHB and/or one other book of your choice. I don't know if that is per player or the whole group.

 

[Oofta]

In AL who can get your player content from the PHB and/or one other book of your choice. I don't know if that is per player or the whole group.

Last I knew it was per player.