D&D 5E What are the "True Issues" with 5e?

[Minigiant]

I do not want them to always fall back on some item or skill for everything, the reliance on this is a flaw imo. Let the players engage with the content instead of looking for the right button for everything

Rolling For It and The Middle Path are both valid DMing styles.

Right on p236.

If you are new and the games says you can force a roll for any meaningful task, you either need to design a game where any character can be in any type of supported scene OR provide advice on how to allow any PC to have meaningful rolls in any supported scene.

Don't design a game with idiot warriors and not support or advise tables that have idiot warriors.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Has any modern fantasy made it to movies or TV? I can't think of anything which started after about 1996 which has made it to TV so far. WoT is '80s, Witcher is 1990s, GoT was 1996, LotR is 1940s, Conan 1930s.

If we look at fantasy on TV/movies that isn't based on novels, then stuff like Raya and the Last Dragon clearly follows the model I'm discussing, or Avatar. I would suggest most animated fantasy probably does in fact.

If we look at written fantasy, then we can probably go by authors where it's typically the case - Leigh Bardugo, RJ Barker (who does vaguely hint but never state that his humans aren't Earth humans - his settings are often slightly Dark Sun-like, i.e. post-magic/environmental apocalypse, and you may well recall that Dark Sun strongly hinted changes had been made to humans, but never outright stated it), Jenn Lyons, Mark Lawrence, Sarah J. Maas, T. Kingfisher, Brian Staveley (who does an interestingly weirdo combo of explained and unexplained superhuman feats and capacities), and I could go on. Do you need to me to? I listed a bunch of crazy best-selling people here.

And we have a lot of older novels where it's hinted that humans are different but never stated - Gene Wolfe, for example. We also have modern authors where human limits apply - except when they don't. For example, an explicitly non-magic-assisted human woman performs incredibly outlandish feats in Steven Erikson's Reaper's Gale. One might likewise make a case that many of Conan's feats are not ones a "normal human" could accomplish.

I strongly suspect that if I re-read Stormlight Archive (which isn't going to happen) we'd see that even before explicit magic being in the mix, they would clearly be "not earth humans". Hell, the fact that their hair works the way it does means they aren't, just by itself. But is it ever stated? No. Are they called something other than human? No.

The list of authors where humans really do seem to definitely be earth humans would be shorter, I think. GRRM's A Game of Thrones immediately comes to mind.

The only one of those I have seen is Avatar, a world where most people are pretty magical. I'll admit there are a couple impressive mundanes there, but most people are just people. Certainly humans act like humans.

Not familiar with the other stuff you mentioned.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Not familiar with the other stuff you mentioned.

Well they're all extremely successful so...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes this is something I've been considering. It would be trivial to give all Fighters, or all martials, increased capabilities here. Why limit it just to Barbarians and Monks? Obviously they could go even further.

At the absolute bare minimum, why not give all Fighters Athletics, and increased movement and jump distance at various levels, the ability to ignore heavy armour at say, level 6, and so on. Why limit that to subclasses? Wizards don't get prevented from casting certain spells unless they're certain subclasses.

No. He proved that any improvement for one will be disliked by some others. That doesn't mean it's actually detrimental to them. It's basically Home Owner's Association-type nonsense here. People are aesthetically offended by the idea that a Fighter might jump 30 feet or whatever, so want to issue us with a $200 fine like we painted our house the wrong shade of pink lol.

I have no problem with superhuman fighters. I just want an explanation as to why, which for some reason is generated pushback.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I have no problem with superhuman fighters. I just want an explanation as to why, which for some reason is generated pushback.

Isn't "heroism" good enough for you though?

 

[FallenRX]

The DMG encounter building rules are broken(you will be amazed how many issues in 5e sources from this, luckily they fixed it with Xanathars)
Some spells are a bit overpowered.
Short rests need to be adjusted to better fit the play people are doing.
Martials need other ways of expressing their budget outside of damage and skills.

These i see are the core issues of 5e, and are the biggest issues. I feel they with 1DnD have addressed, 1, 4, but nothing else.
They might do 2, we will see.

 

[Micah Sweet]

From the PHB, page 29: "A lot of humans have a dash of nonhuman blood, revealing hints of elf, orc, or other lineages."

Earth humans cannot be part Elf, Orc, or any other race that doesn't exist in reality. I offer this as evidence that D&D humans can have a physiology much different than Earth humans.

Pretty weak tea, but at least it's something.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Isn't "heroism" good enough for you though?

No. Because not all PCs are heroes, and the game doesn't require you to be.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Further, as to the expectations of what high level characters can do, here's what the DMG has to say:
View attachment 293243

That passage talks about spells and magic items. Nothing about non-magical characters.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe..I think thats more an illustration of a fundamental difference in how we engage with the mechanics and the related settings.

My entry-level expectation for participation in the hobby is to pretend to be a fantasy hero in a fantasy setting. And I expect fantasy heroes in fantasy settings to be fantastic.

I don't need the game to tell me why my character can do those things. I can do that myself. In fact, the more justification the game provides, the more chance that justification will be inconsistent with the setting conditions laid out by the DM and my conception of the character.

My entry-level expectation for participation in the hobby is to play character in an imaginary world. So I guess you're right.