Level Up (A5E) What did Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition fix with regards to 5e D&D?

[Corinnguard]

D&D 5E - What (if anything) do you find "wrong" with 5E? The link here covers what if anything did anyone find wrong with 5e. I would like this thread to cover the stuff that Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition fixed with regards to 5e D&D.

1) Origins-Heritages and Cultures. In O5e, if you were a Dwarf, for instance, there was an automatic assumption that you were born and raised in a Dwarf culture. But what if you wanted to a play a Dwarf who had been raised in a human city? Or adopted by Elves? Then you were kind out of luck with regards to learning the crunchy cultural traits of humans or elves. You could write up some fluff on what it was like growing up in a human city or having Elven parents. But you were stuck with the cultural traits of a Dwarf even though you didn't grow up in the culture of your parents. Which doesn't make much sense.
Now in A5e you can now play a Dwarf who grew up in a human city or who was adopted by elven parents, and it shows! Your character now has the crunchy cultural traits of a human or an elf, and none of the cultural traits they would have gained from growing up among their fellow Dwarves.
Mixing and matching heritage (who your parents are) and culture (the society you grew up) adds in a whole new dimension of customization that should have been in 5e.
The Heritage Gifts are a nice touch too.

2) Origins-Backgrounds. I am glad that A5e replaced the personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws in O5e with Connections and Mementos. These four really didn't do much for the character in terms of role-playing. With connections, the narrator could have the player reunited with an old love interest, a fellow hero, a mentor or even a rival within the very adventure you're playing in. Surprise! I also like how it's the background that determine your starting ASIs, not your heritage.

3) Origins- Destiny. How many players have honestly thought about their character's goals as an adventurer? I know that I haven't given this one much thought in 5e.

4) More emphasis on the three pillars in each of the classes. With the exception of certain Fighter subclasses (Ex. the Samurai), the Fighter really didn't have much going for them in the Social pillar. They were mostly into combat with maybe some exploration. Now the A5e Fighter has some features that deal with the Social pillar.

5) The Two-Weapon Fighting style is no longer as lopsided with regards to the Fighter class. When you reach 5th level and gain the Extra Attack feature, you can use a bonus action to make two attacks with your offhand weapon. Two attacks in 1st through 4th level, four attacks in 5th through 10th level, and finally 5 attacks by 11th level. Also, you can now wield any weapon that doesn't have the heavy property in your primary hand. A5e has brought back the longsword/shortsword combo. Ditto for the Double Weapons!

I could go on and on with the stuff I think A5e has fixed in 5e. What do you think A5e has fixed in O5e?

 

[Smackpixi]

The monster manual is the only part I’ve engaged with extensively. It’s the most boring looking monster book of all of those available, it’s not inviting, it’s reall dated and 4e in look and and layout. But, omg, is the content great. Every monster has how they fight, who might be with them, what players might know about them, how you might notice they’re around, and tweaks them enough to be little more interesting. It’s got everything you need to start running a monster without thinking about it. Forking fantastic. it’s part of A5e which is aimed at experienced players, but this book, to me is perfect for beginners, way better MM than the original if you don’t know stuff. But god is it bored Sunday afternoon looking.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

multiclassing is...less bad. the classes seem actually (for the most part) designed to handle it, i mean. but there are still some utterly insane interactions (Ferald.) and the maneuver multiclassing rules are honestly lackluster at best and downright bewildering at worst. still, it's FAR better then regular 5e.

the weapons are more interesting. they aren't perfect (one-handed longswords make me VISCERALLY angry) but far as i can tell there's no more weapons that are flat out carbon copies of others. armors are also more interesting but i didn't really mind how armor worked that much in 5e so i wouldn't really consider this a "fix" so much as just a change.

all the capstones are interesting, if not great now...except the artificer's. the artificer's capstone sucks. which is kind of a shame, because the o5e artificer's capstone is actually pretty good.

the exploration and social pillars...exist. fantastic.

any-ability skills are now base. awesome. skills as initiative are ALSO now base. awesome. also, specialties are great.

on specialties, expertise dice. oh my GOD. i mean, personally, i probably would've split permanent expertise dice and temporary expertise dice and made permanent dice use the average to get across that they're the result of rigorous and consistent training, but that's neither here nor there. just the fact that expertise dice EXIST means that there's finally a consistent boost other then advantage you can leverage. the potential design this opens up is great. i'm honestly surprised sneak attack doesn't acknowledge them at all, they seem perfect for triggering it.

tools have a purpose. CRAFTING has RULES. THE ARTIFICER HAS A REASON TO EXIST. YES. now, honestly, i find the a5e artificer kind of subpar, but, i mean, hey, it still fits in better then the o5e artificer did.

strongholds. magic item prices. yesss. let me spend my DOSH.

maneuvers make martials much more interesting. don't know how i feel about some feat and class features being rolled into them, but, uh, hey, whatever.

 

[xiphumor]

One of many small things, but Druids were overhauled in a great way. The biggest thing for me is actually the limitation of only getting a few wildshapes. You have to put careful thought into which ones you use because you need a good spread, and it also helps your character feel much more closely tied to their home.

 

[xiphumor]

Actually though, my favorite part about A5e isn’t a mechanic at all: it’s the Gate Pass Gazette. I love constantly getting small installments of new, official material. It keeps me engaged and is one of the highlights of my month.

 

[zen_cat]

There are a lot of things that I like, but the main one is introducing asymetric complexity; it remains easy to run for the DM, but players have a many more choices in creation and during play.

This keeps my favourite aspect of 5e, since other similar games like pathfinder always tended to fall apart at around 11th-13th level as optimized characters pull way ahead of their non-optimized counterparts. Challenging them properly is tricky and accidental TPKs become more possible. 5e was easy to run, and stayed easy, though the monsters did seem a little boring to me. Monstrous Menagerie (and to some extent the The Monsters Know What They Are Doing books) have fixed this vanilla monster issue for me, while keeping the game easy to run.

On the player's side, chararacters have a lot more options and it's just a meatier system to get your head around. There is a much higher variance of types of characters, and there are many more choices all the time. I have read that the density of choices during a session that the players make is what drives engaging games, and I think I agree with that theory. It also stops the 'dead level' issue where you gain a level and the only change is something like 5 hp and a spell.

 

[Corinnguard]

The monster manual is the only part I’ve engaged with extensively. It’s the most boring looking monster book of all of those available, it’s not inviting, it’s reall dated and 4e in look and and layout. But, omg, is the content great. Every monster has how they fight, who might be with them, what players might know about them, how you might notice they’re around, and tweaks them enough to be little more interesting. It’s got everything you need to start running a monster without thinking about it. Forking fantastic. it’s part of A5e which is aimed at experienced players, but this book, to me is perfect for beginners, way better MM than the original if you don’t know stuff. But god is it bored Sunday afternoon looking.

Agreed. The artwork in the Adventurer's Guide is a little better than the stuff in the Monstrous Menagerie. But the level of crunch in this book makes up for it. In O5e, the narrator had to figure out all of the stuff you just mentioned on their own. Which for some, I can imagine, was pretty daunting.

 

[Stalker0]

So I think the key is splitting the fixes from the "adapted to my preferences". The weapons are a good example of the latter, I don't think the 5e weapons are "bad", they are just less interesting than I would like, and so LU made an improvement there. But I wouldn't call it that a fix.

I would say the introduction of fatigue when you drop to 0 helps address the healing yoyo. A number of monsters gaining new reaction and bonus action abilities help get the Monster's main strengths onto the battlefield in round 1, whereas in the 5e by the time some monsters have gotten their signature abilities going they are already dead.

The Adept class addresses a lot of the weaknesses of the monk, both in terms of mechanics and flavor. While other classes improve on the core design, I think the adept class is strong enough (and the monk class weak enough) to be a "fix".

Adding magic item crafting/prices and strongholds corrects one of 5e's biggest flaws, the "what do I do with all my treasure?" problem.

TWF received a fix with the updated rules.

Maneuvers have generally given some power back to melee over ranged, while there are some bow maneuvers they are few and far between, and so melee overall got a boost. It might be too early to say if it "fixed" the ranged vs melee disparity, time will tell on that one.

I do think of a lot of the knacks and such have helped the "what do I do during investigations" problem. In 5e, you generally have a few characters that handle everything for these scenes, and so they tend to grab a lot of screentime. In LU this is more balanced, as everyone pulls out their cooky knack ability that does X to add more information about the scene.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So I think the key is splitting the fixes from the "adapted to my preferences". The weapons are a good example of the latter, I don't think the 5e weapons are "bad", they are just less interesting than I would like, and so LU made an improvement there. But I wouldn't call it that a fix.

I would say the introduction of fatigue when you drop to 0 helps address the healing yoyo. A number of monsters gaining new reaction and bonus action abilities help get the Monster's main strengths onto the battlefield in round 1, whereas in the 5e by the time some monsters have gotten their signature abilities going they are already dead.

The Adept class addresses a lot of the weaknesses of the monk, both in terms of mechanics and flavor. While other classes improve on the core design, I think the adept class is strong enough (and the monk class weak enough) to be a "fix".

Adding magic item crafting/prices and strongholds corrects one of 5e's biggest flaws, the "what do I do with all my treasure?" problem.

TWF received a fix with the updated rules.

Maneuvers have generally given some power back to melee over ranged, while there are some bow maneuvers they are few and far between, and so melee overall got a boost. It might be too early to say if it "fixed" the ranged vs melee disparity, time will tell on that one.

I do think of a lot of the knacks and such have helped the "what do I do during investigations" problem. In 5e, you generally have a few characters that handle everything for these scenes, and so they tend to grab a lot of screentime. In LU this is more balanced, as everyone pulls out their cooky knack ability that does X to add more information about the scene.

If the 5e way doesn't fit your preferences and Level Up does, than I have to say it does fix them, for you. Which is what the point of this was I thought.

 

[Faolyn]

One of many small things, but Druids were overhauled in a great way. The biggest thing for me is actually the limitation of only getting a few wildshapes. You have to put careful thought into which ones you use because you need a good spread, and it also helps your character feel much more closely tied to their home.

And you can take flying and swimming speeds early.