D&D 5E What new content do you like most?

[Quickleaf]

I’m using this alongside a group of books that converted many of the powers from 4e into boons that can be granted to players. It even comes with some rules for converting powers into spells if you want. I’m using both along with a site that has most of the 4e material to create paragon path/epic destined for my player’s characters once they hit either 10th or 11th level.

Cool! I kinda got turned off to a lot of 4e’a abstraction / tactical focus, but I’d definitely be interested in looking at the paragon path material - I like the storytelling potential of those and epic destinies.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

A collection of exploration challenges explicitly designed for multiple PCs

 

[MNblockhead]

I voted "other".

Really the only thing I'm interested in buying currently is material fully prepped for a VTT. I have a ton of content for all categories listed in physical and PDF format, but a lot of it goes unused because I don't want to bother doing the data entry to use it in the VTT I use to run games. Foundry is my current VTT of choice, but would change VTTs to whatever best supports the system I want to run.

 

[CleverNickName]

I can write or reskin anything to perfectly fit my campaign or playstyle, but it's hardest for Rules and Locations. So those are the two things I voted for.

 

[Stormonu]

Monster first, always.

Then spells and subclasses. I just like options.

 

[Vaalingrade]

My deal with asking for monsters in something like this is... we were always going to get more monsters. A handful out of the next book will actually be good even after you adjust for the that that 70% will just be more dragons, demons, devils, or Thing With Tentacles That Enslaves People.

 

[Distracted DM]

I'm biased, I go for GM-side stuff. That is, not character options.

Monsters, magic items, rules were what I picked. I also like equipment and locations if the locations are easily dropped in, or dungeons, or encounters etc.
I love charts to inspire ideas during play.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Classes, Subclasses, and Spells.

Classes and Subclasses are larger concepts with more designed rules objects within that are poachable. They are player options that broaden the available playable concepts, which is nice. And I like spells as rules objects that can easily be adopted and ignored on as large of a scale as the player wants.

While I do like Feats, they are smaller rules objects upon which you have to spend very limited resources to use them. Spells aren't as limited. A spell can be added to a magic item or added as a spell-like ability for non-spellcasters. They are very useful.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I voted Magic Items, New Rules, Classes. Classes is the pinnacle of this for me though, because new classes sometimes come with the other two options.

I'm burnt out on subclasses. They are fun ideas but they can't do much and are usually shackled to the PHB in terms of how strong (read: interesting) they can be without receiving backlash. I also find that subclasses just don't provide the flavor I'm usually looking for in a new class. Even the most radical subclasses, like Bladesinger, while fun, end up still feeling like a wizard with swords.

New classes, however, expand the foundational fantasy the game is built off of. People often talk about how in D&D, you can be just about any Fantasy thing, and new classes is the ultimate way of achieving that. And, with Mike Mearls Patreon, I'm starting to realize that classes don't have to even have subclasses -- they can have totally novel designs that further hone in on the Fantasy of the character in question.

Magic items is probably my second most wanted thing. While I understand that 3-4E had an issue with expected magical items, I find that 5E's absence of really interesting magic items diminishes the feel of Fantasy to me. I cannot think of a single Fantasy setting that doesn't have cool items that characters can use to make their "signature." And if you look at myths, well, its all magic items, all the time. Interesting magic items, magic items that provide spells, magic items for classes, and artifacts most of all are the things I look for most in a new product. But this is because, usually, new classes end up being too conservatively designed for my taste; sometimes, it feels that if a class isn't around the power and complexity of the Champion Fighter, people reject it on principle alone.

Lastly, new rules additions. I'm someone who believes that D&D, while a storytelling game, is still a game and I like to play fun games. I think that this is something that D&D specifically has been lacking on -- new, fun rules for the game. When I look at contemporary war games, which live and die on their mechanics, and most of which are very streamlined, I feel a bit of yearning. On top of that, I really feel like settings in particular should have a suite of mechanics that makes the experience different to vanilla D&D, and really should be close to the center of that setting. I don't see the point in doing a unique setting like Spelljammer without focusing on the Spelljammer aspect all the way, or Dragonlance without a really fun war game alongside it. This is something that, interestingly enough, Tomb of Annihilation did well, by focusing really heavy on the hexcrawl aspects of the game and then the dungeon crawling afterward.


This loops back to my beliefs on class. I like it when settings have either radical changes to classes or have unique classes themselves that focus on the unique aspects of that setting. Alternate class features works well here, in lieu of new classes; if there were alternate features for the base 12 classes in Spelljammer that focused more on astral traveling, spelljamming, etc etc, it'd really make that a unique experience.

Alas, I know I ask for too much.

What I find most interesting is, apart from monsters being even more popular, many folks seem to agree with you. This has some implications for WotC's design goals...because it means the invested fans may not be as durably on board with the "less is more*" philosophy as either WotC or the fans themselves thought.

Subclasses were meant to break class free of rigid structures, allowing effective support of previously multiclass-only concepts without needing such rules, and being really diverse, adding much needed richness and depth. Instead, they are all too often held back because changing the base class too much isn't permitted. Further, because a small minority (~35%) can block any new developments if they're vocal enough, concepts that could have partially pushed things back toward the intended goal (such as subclasses available to multiple classes) have been abandoned for not being resoundingly popular.

Likewise, the strong "magic items are optional" stance was meant to free groups from the unpleasant feeling that such items were mandatory, making them a fun and flavorful opt-in choice. Instead, I've found magic items to now be decidedly excluded in many contexts, with many DMs reluctant to ever give out anything more interesting or valuable than a handful of +1 weapons. Far from making magic items magical again, it's mostly just made magic items unattainable, weakening the feel of fantasy for many tables.

As for the lack of new rules, honestly I just blame the death of "modularity." 5e really could have been a modular system at least somewhat like what they totally-didn't-promise-but-really-wanted-folks-to-feel-was-promised. It just would have required actually serious, rigorous playtesting, coupled with specific and clear design goals and an aggressive development schedule. Instead, what we got was very lightly playtested, decidedly un-rigorously, with vague and often useless design goals, and lots and lots of dithering about. (I mean, it took them nearly two years of playtesting to settle on just the Fighter!) 5e wanted to offer rules diversity but balked at the effort required to make it work, so we got what little we got and minimal effort to grow beyond that.

*Except spells. With spells, more is always more. Most books that contain any player content at all contain spells. Bluh.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Classes, Subclasses, and Spells.

Classes and Subclasses are larger concepts with more designed rules objects within that are poachable. They are player options that broaden the available playable concepts, which is nice. And I like spells as rules objects that can easily be adopted and ignored on as large of a scale as the player wants.

While I do like Feats, they are smaller rules objects upon which you have to spend very limited resources to use them. Spells aren't as limited. A spell can be added to a magic item or added as a spell-like ability for non-spellcasters. They are very useful.

What prevents making a magic item which gives you a feat only so long as you're wearing it? If it has a built in choice (like Skilled or the one that gives BM maneuvers), they can just be baked in when the item is made, or perhaps when a character first equips it.

3.X did that all the time.