D&D General What is each edition BEST at?

[Reynard]

Just some low key chatting. No edition warring allowed.

If you had to say which aspect or pillar or style of play each edition of D&D is the best at, how would you break it down?

Note: you can divide editions any way you like.

For my part:
OD&D: I'll leave this one off since I never actually played it.
Basic: For me, this is BECMI. I think it is the best at showing the Changing Game, from dungeons to wilderness to rulership to immortality.
AD&D 1E: For me this is the best version of the gritty resource management treasure hunting exploration oh crap we're dead game that is D&D.
AD&D 2E: If there is a version of D&D good for classic high fantasy storytelling, this is it.
3.x/PF: This is the best crunchy version of the game.
4E: My experience is limited but it is definitely a tightly designed miniatures ruleset.
5E: At attracting new players, apparently!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

OD&D: High Gygaxian dungeon-heisting
Basic (and its children/cousins): As you say, changing play. The tone naturally shifts from one set to another.
AD&D1: My experience is likewise limited, but humanocentric hexcrawl seems accurate
AD&D2: Wildly creative settings and extensive lore (though some dislike the bowdlerizing it got as an attempt to dodge the Satanic Panic.) Also, being such a fertile ground for inspiring such great video games as Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.
3e (and its direct children): Options! You get options, and you get options, and you get options, and EVERYONE gets options! Also, actually systematizing the system, and giving us the OGL.
4e (and its indirect children): Balance, tactical combat designed to be enjoyable as its own gameplay experience, high-mythic concepts/lore, and extensible framework rules that work well and then get the hell out of the way. Oh, and DM advice/support/tools.
5e: Compromise, outreach, inclusion. No edition has put as much work into these as 5e has (except maybe the outreach part, but only in terms of DMs.) My first post in the fandom toxicity thread noted this.

My experience with 2e is very limited and anything before that is mostly by word of mouth (though I have played a few sessions of Labyrinth Lord), so naturally my commentary is more extensive for WotC editions.

 

[overgeeked]

OD&D. Never played.

Homles Basic. Never played.

AD&D. Essentially defines D&D for me. Gritty and zero-to-hero, if you're lucky enough to survive that long. Different mechanics worked differently instead of everything being a boring variation of the same roll thousands of times.

Moldvay & Cook B/X. Simplicity, cool optional rules...and the winner...the Known World, aka Mystara. The single greatest setting in D&D's history. The rules are light and super easy to use but also evoke a slightly less gritty version of AD&D.

BECMI. Lots of overlap with B/X. Continued and expanded the Known World and added the Gazetteers and Hollow World. Got weird and didn't hold back. Path to Immortality anyone? Invisible bases on the moon. Samurai cats on the moon. Ka the Preserver in the Hollow World. Nom nom nom. Yes, please.

AD&D2E. Never played, but the settings and supplement books were amazing. Dark Sun. Spelljammer. Al-Qadim. Ravenloft. So many great settings. As much flak as the edition rightfully gets for endless splats, so many of them were amazing. The historical books I loved. Many of the DM's Reference books were wonderful. Such a gold mine of information.

3X. Never played.

4E. Fantastic skirmish-focused game. Monster and encounter design is the killer app of 4E. Stellar advice and design. Really made the PCs feel powerful and finally balanced the fighter and wizard. Gave all the people who say "D&D's just about combat" exactly what they wanted...but apparently that's not actually what most people want from D&D. Utterly fantastic supplements. Beautiful and crisp layout and design. Rules written as if they're rules to a game. Who knew? Points of Light is amazing. Absolutely loved it. And hey, look, it lives on in Critical Role down the the gods.

5E. I'm not really sure. Near as I can tell, 5E is good at being popular. Mechanically it doesn't do anything better than any other edition. Except maybe replacing all those annoying bonuses with dis/advantage. Other editions have better classes. Other editions have better subclasses. Other editions do combat and monsters better. Exploration is handled better in other editions.

 

[aco175]

I found 3e was best at character development. I could have a mental image of what I wanted and the multi-class rules allowed it.

I liked 4e combat even though it took longer. I really liked the monster design and ability to make monsters what I wanted and needed.

 

[Stalker0]

3e was the "builder" edition, huge variety of options to allow you to build hundreds of concepts. Huge and creative list of magic items.

4e is the "DM edition" to me. Best monster design, added lots of DM focused tools that made encounter design interesting and fun. 4e is still one of my favorite editions to DM.

5e is the "streamline edition". It removed a lot of the baggage that had built up in 3e and 4e, and created a smoother more streamlined version that spoke to the heart of the game. I think this version also caters well to players that want to be creative in their play and work with the DM to craft a resolution rather than look upon and utilize rulesets.

 

[toucanbuzz]

OD&D: never played
Basic: "Roles." Elmore Red Box version; due to firmly set roles (e.g. only a rogue can do this), everyone gets a chance in spotlight develops.
AD&D 1E, 2E: "Innovation." D&D finds itself by pushing never-before-seen dungeon, monster, and game design that would set the tone for D&D and other game systems in years to come.
3.x/PF: "Builds & Grids." For good or ill, for the first time in D&D, we have guides on how to game the system numerically, and for the first time, everything is designed around grid play (thus increasing the miniature market).
4E: "Tactical." Whether you liked it or not, 4E went all-in on tactical grid play, presumably to compete with the fear the online video game market would end the era of tabletop RPGs.
5E: Simpler is better." A return to innocence, if you will, 5E shaved off excess bloat to make the game more accessible to first-time gamers who were intrigued by phenomena like Stranger Things, Critical Role streaming, and celebrities who played.

 

[aco175]

5E: Simpler is better." A return to innocence

Don Henley predicts 6e

But "happily ever after" fails
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details

 

[Art Waring]

AD&D 2E: Honestly the way the game was being played in my area in the Midwest was pretty stiff, the players were all really unkind to new players (i was a kid then), and they had zero interest in teaching new players the ropes. I bounced off this edition hard. Primarily because the community at that time was not at all welcoming. I couldn't tell you what 2e did best because we quickly went to other games at the time.

3.x/PF: The OGL is by far the best thing to happen since 3e, some people knock it for the "glut" of material produced under the license, but often times they forget that 3e had one of the largest homebrewing community on the internet. There is so much material created for 3e that It boggles the mind. Without the OGL i wouldn't still be creating content for dnd.

4E: My playgroups never picked it up, we went with pathfinder at the time because of player preference. Looking back though, the new additions for monsters did well, and obviously some of this passed onto 5e.

5E: Been playtesting my own 5e rpg in the UK and the players love it. One player balked at a 3.5 game i ran for years, but i went over to 5e and no complaints, with minimal changes to the setting. 5e is really good for new players to pick up. It's also really good at simulating the zero to superhero type of game I am designing.

 

[Guest 7034872]

I can't speak directly to Reynard's question because I skipped all the other editions between AD&D and 5e, but I will say one thing in praise of this latest system: it's easy to keep things moving along.

 

[payn]

2E Settings variety.
3E/PF intriguing (possibly frustrating) character building mini game. Gonzo Fantasy
4E Tactical play
5E Goldilocks edition. Brings the group together regardless of their thoughts on the above.