D&D 5E (2014) What are the highlights of D&D 5th edition for you?

[trACT]

I just like the visuals and browsing the books. I don't get a lot of opportunities to play, but like the collection of books I have built up since 2014.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I just like the visuals and browsing the books. I don't get a lot of opportunities to play, but like the collection of books I have built up since 2104.

damn, bro's been building his collection since 80 years in the future. impressive.

 

[trACT]

damn, bro's been building his collection since 80 years in the future. impressive.

Oops. Fixed, thanks!

 

[Ondath]

While many people rightly criticise 5e's "natural language" approach as well as the vagueness of its rules right now, I think those were the right moves to make in 2014. Sure, 5e is still a complex game, and the designers ended up iterating on the "natural language" in a way that it no longer sounds natural (Crawfooord!). But coming from 3.5/Pathfinder 1E to 5E was such a breath of fresh air. Compared to these editions, the rules were much more compact, simple and intuitive. I don't think D&D would be as popular as it did if it stuck to the same complexity as it had before 2014, and while the problems of that approach have become visible with a decade's worth of hindsight, it was still a wonderful at the time.

 

[Ondath]

Also, in terms of highlights as in "the best books of the era", I think the run of books from March 2016 to May 2018 was a great time to be a 5e fan. Back to back, we had:

• Curse of Strahd, still one of the most popular 5e modules,
• Storm King's Thunder, a great adventure,
• Volo's, a significant expansion to the monster roster with interesting lore sections (most of which are sadly unavailable today),
• Tales from the Yawning Portal, which updated many classic modules to 5e,
• Tomb of Annihilation, a great hexcrawl adventure for 5e,
• Xanathar's Guide to Everything, IMO the single best rules expansion book for 5e,
• Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which added so many interesting (and high-level!) monsters, dropped a ton of great lore on Elves, demons, devils, dwarves, gnomes, halflings and gith (all of which are, again, sadly unavailable for purchase)

I remember getting excited for each release on /r/dndnext during that time, and it felt like 5e could only improve and go up.

 

[Clint_L]

While many people rightly criticise 5e's "natural language" approach as well as the vagueness of its rules right now, I think those were the right moves to make in 2014. Sure, 5e is still a complex game, and the designers ended up iterating on the "natural language" in a way that it no longer sounds natural (Crawfooord!). But coming from 3.5/Pathfinder 1E to 5E was such a breath of fresh air. Compared to these editions, the rules were much more compact, simple and intuitive. I don't think D&D would be as popular as it did if it stuck to the same complexity as it had before 2014, and while the problems of that approach have become visible with a decade's worth of hindsight, it was still a wonderful at the time.

Oh, I totally agree. Working with lots of beginners makes you appreciate how comprehensible the rules are for such a complex game. I very much hope that style is retained for the 2024 revisions; I very much think the advantages FAR outweigh any disadvantages.

 

[trACT]

One thing I forgot in an earlier reply: the Disclaimers.

Funny or thoughtful, always amusing. They are the first thing I look for each time I buy a 5E product.

 

[Maenalis]

Bounded accuracy, and simplicity leading to fast play. No assumed magic items.

This.
And familiar settings (Eberron, FR, etc.) and monsters (i.e. kobold, goblin).

 

[messy]

Simplified combat chapter.
Cleaned up spell lists.
Feats.
And my favorite chapter in the phb: backgrounds, both the fluff and the crunch.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The ease of character creation (by D&D standards) and that the subclass system makes it easy for newbies to create a broad range of characters. The only D&D in the same league at onboarding newbies is the old school red box and that has nothing like the range or flexibility of archetypes.