What is missing in 5E that you had in other editions?

[andargor]

death/fear. 5e PCs seem too robust to my tastes. No more save or die, and no real fear of really bad creatures, like rot grubs, or level draining.

We had the same attitude, until we re-read the death saving throw rules more closely. You then realize any attack gives automatic death save failures. We lost a 9th-level paladin shockingly quickly because of AoEs and follow-up attacks.

We feel a bit more vulnerable now.

Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I know what you mean. At lower levels while running 5e, I was able to mostly get by with notes that included AC, HP, Attack and damage stats for each low level creature. Once Saving throws start coming into play, all bets are off. Need that stat block. Now I try to have my monster stat blocks printed off or bookmarked ahead of time. Keep things flowing.



If you read Tolkien, you’d know that wimpy orcs are called goblins.

But, for serious, just assign them the minimum HP (8) as detailed in their stat block (2d8+6). Or, assign all members of the orc band 5 HP each as they’ve just come from a skirmish before the party stumbled upon them. And maybe have them carry clubs instead of their typical weapons. The wimpiness level is really in your hands as a 5e DM.

I missed them too. And then I realized that we have a commoner stat block and that the winpy orc is just the same as the wimpy human a commoner.
And if you need something in between, that's the bandid orc.

Edit to clarify: increase str by 2. Give them the aggressive trait. That is usually enough to representate an orc faithfully.

 

[Nebulous]

Oh, I just remembered, I really miss the old monster stat blocks that included Morale, Frequency, Organization, Environment and...was Diet on there?

 

[Nebulous]

We had the same attitude, until we re-read the death saving throw rules more closely. You then realize any attack gives automatic death save failures. We lost a 9th-level paladin shockingly quickly because of AoEs and follow-up attacks.

We feel a bit more vulnerable now.

Yes, this is the most reliable way to kill PCs in 5th edition. I call it a double tap. Because if you don't, that PC will probably be on his feet next round at 50% hit points somehow.

 

[oreofox]

Oh, I just remembered, I really miss the old monster stat blocks that included Morale, Frequency, Organization, Environment and...was Diet on there?

Not sure about diet, but I know activity cycle was one. Even 3rd edition had Organization, Environment. I miss the Ecology section of a number of the monsters as well. I can understand why they stopped with that, in a way, but I do miss it.

 

[Nebulous]

Not sure about diet, but I know activity cycle was one. Even 3rd edition had Organization, Environment. I miss the Ecology section of a number of the monsters as well. I can understand why they stopped with that, in a way, but I do miss it.

I found all of those things useful. I guess in their effort to consolidate space they axed them. Even morale, if not an actual "mechanic" was cool to know if a monster was more prone to run or fight to the death.

 

[Monayuris]

Astral Diamonds.

No, seriously, they were a unique D&D thing, and I thought it was cool that the most valuable gem was so rare it had to be mined on another plane of existence. And in the 5E treasure tables, the highest-value gems (diamonds, rubies, etc.) are worth 5,000 gp, so it would be easy to make the next highest level be the astral diamond worth 10,000 gp.

I don't miss residuum, though. F@#$ that s%&*.

Lol... I remember my old 4E game I ran. My players were in Epic tier, negotiating a reward for some quest they completed with some big name in Sigil. The players asked me how much was the reward that they are getting. I was improvising a bit at the time and my brain froze up... and I awkwardly responded " 1 million Astral Diamonds ".

I never lived that down.

 

[Monayuris]

Oh, I just remembered, I really miss the old monster stat blocks that included Morale, Frequency, Organization, Environment and...was Diet on there?

Yep. I miss this as well.

No. Appearing, % in Lair were invaluable for running improvised sessions / dealing with when players go off the beaten path.

I also miss Treasure Table Types. I like that different types of monsters will have different styles of treasure.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Lots of people have already mentioned things I miss (like 4E monster design), so I'll go with more specific ones.

I never cared about elementals until the Elemental Chaos' denizens came along, bringing weird things like tentacled fire tornadoes, starfish with fanged mouths on each arm, heat-absorbing vampiric efreet, and elemental dragons that could turn into things like electrified tidal waves.. The few detailed primordials were cool, especially Balcoth, Codricuhn, and Solkara (IMO).

I also vastly preferred the 4E take on fomorians and cyclopes and don't really understand why they didn't carry it forward.

 

[77IM]

I was improvising a bit at the time and my brain froze up... and I awkwardly responded " 1 million Astral Diamonds ".