D&D 5E What does 5E do well?

[Islayre d'Argolh]

So what does 5E do really well as a game? What playstyle or area of play is its strong suit?

D&D 5 is very nicely balanced : far simpler than 3e or 4e but still with a lot more tools to play with than OD&D, AD&D or BD&D, it's basically the "sweet spot" of the D&D editions.

It's also a very robust system.

The Inspiration mechanic is quite effectiv and i think it actually helps to do roleplaying better than in any other edition of D&D.

 

[Oofta]

It's a bit difficult to discuss some of this without getting into pointless edition wars. In 2E and older to a degree it was "make your own game" because so much was missing or clunky; there were just some odd things to the rules. But it's been a long time since I've played them.

With 3.x and 4 they tried to "lock down" a specific style of play. So 3 and 4 were better at prescribed gameplay, in a thou shalt play this game sort of way.. I'd disagree about 4E monsters being "better", they were just different. So for some people I'm sure they were better and for others the result of their design decisions made them worse if you didn't want to play in the style that the version enforced.

So like others, I'd say what 5E does best is the flexibility and freedom. Some people hate the stealth rules being "DM decides" but to me they were a breath of fresh air. As a DM I get to work with my players to set a tone and style that suits us. To me 5E works because it gets out of the way. Complex enough to support a wide variety of styles while not being so nitpicky, prescribed or complex to cause constant interruptions in the game while we double check the rules.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I agree. One of the long term groups I play with, definitely not at the flgs, are rules are a mixture of 5E and 2E

My main game these days uses the Rules Cyclopedia with a host of 5e-isms. One of the big draws of 5e to me was it's very RC/BECMI-like approach to rules and rulings.

And I do play in my FLGS, both because then I don't have to bring snacks and because it's a good safe, neutral ground for playing with not-yet-friends.

 

[Vaalingrade]

5E isn't as good at combat as 4E. But it's better than the other editions, and it beats 4E in verisimilitude and integration of mechanics with fiction.

I thought we were saying good things only?

For me, after playing a few games, I think for me it's to my favorite edition what Horse is to basketball.

It's good for quick and dirty 'let's start a game for the weekend' D&D. There's not enough customization to craft characters I'm going to get attached to, but character creation is quick, there's massive, sturdy online support, and while it dumps all the work on the DM, there's not a lot of moving parts if you're going for a short spurt, so if you're just playing a one or two shot, you can still Lazy DM it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

There is no "style of play" that 5E is the best at. Rather (as has been implied by people here and indeed by Colville himself I believe at a different point in his video)... 5E is the best at being Dungeons & Dragons for the most people.

For singular aspects of D&D, your "best" options are usually in a different edition. If you want to min-max character design, you aren't going to have the wealth of options you can get in 3E. If you want to really challenge your brain in a dungeon-crawl meatcleaver... you'll get more mileage using Basic or AD&D because you have much fewer "class feature" options and numbers of spells to use that can bypass the problems you will face without thinking about it. If you want a tactical miniatures combat game where everything is fairly well-balanced and everything you might need is written down right there on the character sheet and monster statblocks, 4E wins hands-down.

But 5E? They are more often than not the second-best option you have, and for many more things across the board. So if you ranked every edition for every single aspect of D&D that makes D&D what most of us think it is... 5E will score the highest total. They won't be in first place that often, but they will have so many silver medals that it'll be pretty ridiculous. And that means almost anyone who sits down and plays 5E Dungeons & Dragons will come away with it thinking "Yep... everything about this is D&D."

And you know what? Good for the game! Because I suspect people who play D&D are doing so... because they want to play "D&D". The genre of "Dungeons & Dragons". And if they had some other aspect of the roleplaying game genre they wanted to really focus on... they'd play a different edition, or really even more importantly, play a different game altogether.

 

[Shiroiken]

5E does almost every playstyle well, which is different from prior editions. OD&D and 1E were primarily designed around dungeon crawls, leading to a very limited playstyle. 2E and 3E were better for different styles, but the mechanics bogged things down, rather than smoothly transition actions. 4E was only good for heroic fantasy and miniature wargamging, making it feel more like a boardgame than an RPG. With the versatility from backgrounds and simple resolution rules, not to mention bounded accuracy, 5E can handle pretty much every playstyle equally (low magic being a notable exception).

 

[darjr]

There is no "style of play" that 5E is the best at. Rather (as has been implied by people here and indeed by Colville himself I believe at a different point in his video)... 5E is the best at being Dungeons & Dragons for the most people.

For singular aspects of D&D, your "best" options are usually in a different edition. If you want to min-max character design, you aren't going to have the wealth of options you can get in 3E. If you want to really challenge your brain in a dungeon-crawl meatcleaver... you'll get more mileage using Basic or AD&D because you have much fewer "class feature" options and numbers of spells to use that can bypass the problems you will face without thinking about it. If you want a tactical miniatures combat game where everything is fairly well-balanced and everything you might need is written down right there on the character sheet and monster statblocks, 4E wins hands-down.

But 5E? They are more often than not the second-best option you have, and for many more things across the board. So if you ranked every edition for every single aspect of D&D that makes D&D what most of us think it is... 5E will score the highest total. They won't be in first place that often, but they will have so many silver medals that it'll be pretty ridiculous. And that means almost anyone who sits down and plays 5E Dungeons & Dragons will come away with it thinking "Yep... everything about this is D&D."

And you know what? Good for the game! Because I suspect people who play D&D are doing so... because they want to play "D&D". The genre of "Dungeons & Dragons". And if they had some other aspect of the roleplaying game genre they wanted to really focus on... they'd play a different edition, or really even more importantly, play a different game altogether.

Quoting to nab. This is pretty good.

 

[tetrasodium]

So much this. Advantage is such an elegant mechanic that it's mind blowing. I imported it into my Rules Cyclopedia game and it's a godsend.

advantage is a horrific case of

Spoiler: Maslow's Hammer

It was applied anywhere it could be applied with little care or regard for how replacing the original thing with advantage creates a cascade of troubles & edge cases not immediately apparent at zero steps beyond the replacement..

As to what 5e does well?... It's the mcdonalds or olive garden of d&d. Ok enough in enough areas with an ok enough quick/easy to pickup & learn st the start. It tops that off with a paper thin veneer of what looks like complex flexibility hidden well enough by simplicity to hide the problems created by that simplicity ok enough for most players not to notice them.

 

[kenada]

I agree with the sentiments here that 5e isn’t necessarily the best in any particular area, but what it does well is be good or good enough in a lot of areas. It’s also very amenable to story-driven campaigns and the style of play popularized by shows like Critical Role.

 

[DemoMonkey]

What does 5E do best?

It is much easier to level up a character than 4E, 3xE, or 2E. Fewer books to look through, fewer moving parts that change, less analysis paralysis of "I have a hundred choices, what if I don't pick the perfect one? There must be a better choice in one of these other books!"

I genuinely did not look forward to leveling up in the last couple of editions. In 5E I do.

To put that in a larger perspective, the thing that 5E offers (in character levelling and elsewhere) is ease of use. And when the core system itself is easy to use, it is easier to hack in whatever piece of "flavour" that a group finds appealing.

5Es strength is as a toolbox, not a finished piece.