D&D 5E What will 5E D&D be remembered for?

[delericho]

I think it will be remembered for ... free basic rules

Good call!

 

[RotGrub]

I'm going to remember the absolutely atrocious spell indexing system they used in my phb.

That's a good one. Actually, the lack of page headers and poor chapter headings make the 5e PHB functionally disabled.

 

[LetThronesBeware]

That's a good one. Actually, the lack of page headers and poor chapter headings make the 5e PHB functionally disabled.

Say what you will about the ideological differences between 5, 4, 3.5, etc. There's zero excuse for bad layout and poor accessibility, they've had literally decades to refine the approach.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Yeah, I guess that's how I feel about it. I simply want to compare a monsters hide / AC to a particular armor type and go with how I feel. IMO, a monster can have a huge hit point total and have a very bad AC or vice versa. For example, the Wilo-Wisp in 2e had a -8 AC with only 9 HD.

For me, I find it much quicker to design a monster for 5e, 2e, and 1e. Those systems empower the DM and they are not combat focused. You don't have to worry about a few modifiers causing an issue. Of course, if you use the default healing and resting rules in 5e you still have to worry about the adventuring day. X encounters per day is a restrictive concept that I don't enjoy worrying about.

In fact, it was one of the reasons I stopped playing 4e. I felt that everything you did as a DM was mathematical and some players kept an eye on your math being right. That isn't to say that all DMs did a good job of this either. I know many players who constantly complained about their DM's inability to follow the encounter rules.

Yeah, I can see how 4e's various DMing guidelines, as well as similar ones in 3.x, might become stressful for DMs who get wrapped up in the guidelines=rules mentality. Likewise if a DM has players who have strong opinions about how closely the guidelines ought to be followed -- though players like being players too much to make mountains out of mole-hills IME. Under those circumstances I can see how 5e's emphasis on 'rulings, not rules' would be a breath of fresh air.

But I myself like guidelines. They're definitive evidence that the devs thought things through, and they show me clearly where my preferences deviate from theirs. As I've never needed a rule book to tell me that even rules, let alone guidelines, are changeable, my attitude is 'Better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.' Very empowering.

 

[RotGrub]

Say what you will about the ideological differences between 5, 4, 3.5, etc. There's zero excuse for bad layout and poor accessibility, they've had literally decades to refine the approach.

I agree. I think they completely forgot about making it functional.
IMO, the best PHB was the three column layout 2e PHB. Every page had a header and symbol that told you exactly what section you were on. Spells were sorted by level, which made character creation and on the fly DM spell selection easy.

 

[Pandaemoni]

What will 5th edition me known for:

Fifth Edition D&D was very nice although it was quiet and mostly kept to itself. Maybe it was a little shy but it never caused any trouble. We certainly never thought it was going to assassinate Jennifer Love Hewitt the way it did. We never knew how much it hated her until after the news reports started. So much rage...

 

[CapnZapp]

I think 5e is the best edition so far. It has hit a nice point for being able to be fast, easy to run and fairly balanced. But it comes at a price:

• 4th edition had much more tactically interesting combats.
• 4th ed had much more interesting pure martial characters.
• 3rd edition had a lot more flexible character design.
• 5th edition probably has the worst skill rules since 2nd edition.
• 2nd edition was a bit more "free form". 1st was a lot more free form. There just weren't rules for a lot of things. That's both good and bad.

I would like to see a more tactically interesting option exist. And I wish the fighter and rogue had more interesting combat options. But on the whole, I like 5e as a GM and player. But I probably won't play a lot more pure martial characters in 5e until something changes.

IMO, 3rd is a great game to make a character in. 4th is fun/interesting for set-piece combats, 2nd and 5th are best for the actual "larger picture" gaming due to speed and ease of play. I think 2nd was almost strictly better than 1st.

My minmaxing player said the other day, about how 5e doesn't offer the same level of powerful stuff to his fighter character.

"Now that the good options aren't available, the less good options feel much better"

He had just used the abilities he does have to good use. He was pleased.

Point being: the 5e fighter is tactically interesting. His choices are just more subtle. Not less interesting.

 

[Eric V]

My minmaxing player said the other day, about how 5e doesn't offer the same level of powerful stuff to his fighter character.

"Now that the good options aren't available, the less good options feel much better"

He had just used the abilities he does have to good use. He was pleased.

Point being: the 5e fighter is tactically interesting. His choices are just more subtle. Not less interesting.

They definitely are more subtle, that's true.

They are also less interesting, however.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I don't know what it will be remembered for in the larger community, but around my table 5th edition is definitely going to be remembered as the game that brought me and my wife (heavily preferring AD&D 2nd edition's style over other versions of D&D) and our group of friends that play with us (preferring 3.5 over 2nd (and that over all other versions), but seeing many weaknesses built into that version) into alignment with each other on which version of D&D is "the one" for us all.

Gone are the days of there being a vote which edition to play after we've all decided to get together a D&D campaign.

 

[Jabborwacky]

These are some of the reasons I will remember 5th edition.
1. Being the only guy who brings a tent.
2. Then everyone trying to cram themselves into my tent.
3. Devising a reward system involving tent-time.
4. Strahd breaking my will by only letting the vistani sell tents for 10x their normal price and stealing my tent.
5. Waging guerilla warfare on Strahd not because he is evil, but because I've indoctrinated the rest of the party to have a psychological addiction to tent-time and if I don't give them their fix they will eat me.