D&D General What D&D Thing Has Changed The Most

[JEB]

Characters went from "pick a class or a race" in the original game to the current "pick your race, customize it (or build your own!), pick your class, pick your subclass too."

 

[payn]

Video Games. Early on they had some decent CRPGs, but somehow the brand never stayed relevant to the legion of fantasy RPGs. There was an MMO phase (maybe still going?) and now just not much seems to come about. You get some buzz worthy games like Daggerfall and reboot of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance but they release and disappear in a blink.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Focus:

The game used to be more about the adventure and interacting with the game world...

Now it seems to be more about the character and building something fun to play.

 

[TwiceBorn2]

THACO went away, as did negative/descending AC values.

 

[Minigiant]

Heroism

D&D went from grubby tomb robbers to archetypical heroic champions.

 

[JEB]

THACO went away, as did negative/descending AC values.

And before that, combat tables you were expected to reference.

 

[Reynard]

Heroism

D&D went from grubby tomb robbers to archetypical heroic champions.

I for one really miss the grubby tomb robbers.

 

[jdrakeh]

Gnolls. From OD&D (1974): "A cross between Gnomes and Trolls (. . . perhaps, Lord Sunsany did not really make it all that clear)"

[Note: The misspelling of "Dunsany" is TSR's mistake, not mine.]
[Edit: FWIW, in my own OD&D campaigns, gnolls are over-sized, razor-toothed, carnivorous gnomes (complete with red, pointy, hat) that have a troll's regenerative powers. The first encounter always catches PCs waaaaaaay off guard!]

 

[pukunui]

Paladins. As I said in that other similar thread from a while back, they used to have hard-to-legitimately-hit ability score requirements and a whole slew of RP commandments that were ostensibly to model the medieval European chivalric code but were really just an excuse for the DM to take away your PC's powers.

Nowadays, paladins have no entry requirements and can be of any alignment. Each 5e paladin subclass has a code, but they're more guidelines and roleplaying suggestions than "do this or your DM will take away your powers" commandments. There are also no requirements to tithe 10% of your earnings or doff your helmet at a passing lady or any such thing.

My first long-term 5e PC was an Oath of the Ancients paladin who was big on sharing the love thanks to their immunity to diseases.

 

[Guest 7034872]

There's money in it now.