D&D General What do you actually like about D&D?

[DammitVictor]

For me, I love the "zero to hero" power curve... the fact that I can start off as a local hero protecting a small village from goblin raiders, and by the end of the game I'm murdering the god of all goblinkind by throwing planets at him.

Much as I hate the proliferation of nearly identical "subraces", I love the variety and diversity of the really strange races (and monsters!) in D&D, especially across the "weird" settings of Spelljammer, Planescape, and Dark Sun.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

For me, I love the "zero to hero" power curve... the fact that I can start off as a local hero protecting a small village from goblin raiders, and by the end of the game I'm murdering the god of all goblinkind by throwing planets at him.

...wait...wait, that's just amid evil.

 

[Corinnguard]

I'm murdering the god of all goblinkind by throwing planets at him.

Wait, what did that planet ever do to you? Put it back right this instant!

 

[Celebrim]

Hit points are simply better for game play than any other wound mechanic in a game that is regularly going to feature tactical combat.

Spell slots allow you to have serious magic compartmentalized into balanceable bites.

Classes ensure characters are built wide as well as tall and groups have both divided and shared responsibilities.

Levels give you a zero to hero experience which is predictable and can be designed for.

The math is straightforward. Not only can you set difficulty but when you do so it is easy to recognize what you are actually requiring relative to other difficulties. And roll over is just more intuitive than roll under. And players attempting something risky have a sense of how risky it is.

The examples of play are numerous and often really solid. While i often write my own adventures with D&D you don't have to.

The base game system is simple enough to immediately jump into but deep and varied enough to sustain not only a long campaign but numerous long campaigns.