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

[Parmandur]

All this "4E fights took forever" talk is strange to me, because fights in D&D have always taken a long time for my group, especially at higher levels. Spells, tactics, multiple monsters, maps. We rarely have "easy" or "medium" fights because we like the challenge of the harder fights.

The last boss fight we did in my 5E game took 12 rounds, and two of the enemies got away. There were 3 leveled NPCs and 2 hill giants, and the party of 5 had 9 NPCs on their side helping. Big climax of a city siege.

The dragon fight earlier took 6 rounds, and the cleric's turn often takes a while (the warlock is faster), and the fighter can even take a bit if he's using his superiority dice that round.

Our fights rarely lasted 3 full rounds in 3.x, so 4E felt like it was forcing us to fight longer.

 

[CleverNickName]

The longest battles I've ever had were in 3.5E/Pathfinder, where it was common for a party of 5th level characters to spend over an hour fighting a pair of wyverns. And it only got worse at higher levels; I remember when everyone was 9th level we spent an entire gaming session on a single battle...and it wasn't even a "boss' encounter.

Battles in 5th edition are much faster, with our party of 10th level characters needing about 30 minutes to beat up a trio of vrocks. This is about the same amount of time that battles took us in the old days of the B/X edition...and that's "doing it well" in my opinion.

 

[Xeviat]

Our fights rarely lasted 3 full rounds in 3.x, so 4E felt like it was forcing us to fight longer.

It's clear that different groups did things very differently, that's for certain. I've seen tons of complaints about 4E fights taking forever, so clearly that was true for a lot of people.

 

[Sithlord]

The longest battles I have is 20 minutes for a big encounter. But I give players 6-10 seconds on their turn to decide what to do or they lose their turn. I take that back when I had 12 or more PC’s in the 90s it could take longer. And I never allow a book to be referenced during combat.

 

[Scott Christian]

I DM'd Earthdawn for a few years, using the Companion (meaning we had 15 circles) and set in Barsaive. There are many elements of the Earthdawn design that I valued: thread magic, blood magic, karma, the passions. I loved the setting (the artwork is some of my favourite in RPG, as an aside). Windlings were a mixed blessing. Tskrang! I'd put Earthdawn as a solid competitor, albeit with 5e "clearly better" than Earthdawn (if one has to be).

I would not DM Earthdawn again or seek to play in a campaign. On the other hand, I would recommend it to others.

This is a great description for this game. We played the first edition (I am not sure if there are others), and that is exactly how we felt. Thank you for finally putting into words something I could not.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

4th Edition placed emphasis and attention at the encounter level of the game. Every combat was designed as the centerpiece of a session, which meant you spent a lot of time on a singular instance of the game.

5th Edition, on the other hand, pulls back the lens and puts the focus on the bigger picture (i.e. the campaign). Combat encounters are meant to be done quickly to let the story (the campaign) progress forward.

That is my take, anyway.

 

[Parmandur]

4th Edition placed emphasis and attention at the encounter level of the game. Every combat was designed as the centerpiece of a session, which meant you spent a lot of time on a singular instance of the game.

5th Edition, on the other hand, pulls back the lens and puts the focus on the bigger picture (i.e. the campaign). Combat encounters are meant to be done quickly to let the story (the campaign) progress forward.

That is my take, anyway.

Yeah, that's about right.

 

[Scutisorex]

I love 5e. I can't quantify why exactly... it just feels 'right' to me. Hits the sweet spot all-around.

 

[Stalker0]

4th Edition placed emphasis and attention at the encounter level of the game. Every combat was designed as the centerpiece of a session, which meant you spent a lot of time on a singular instance of the game.

5th Edition, on the other hand, pulls back the lens and puts the focus on the bigger picture (i.e. the campaign). Combat encounters are meant to be done quickly to let the story (the campaign) progress forward.

That is my take, anyway.

Maybe that is why I enjoyed 4es combat, as my group often will do only a few combats, so would prefer each one feeling strong….as opposed to more combats with lower stakes.

 

[Scutisorex]

You could shoot the Starchild...

Bootsy? Nooooooooooooo!