D&D 5E Why does 5E SUCK?

[Lancelot]

I hate nothing about 5e... except the haters.

At the end of the day, it's just a game. I love the fact that it's a shared hobby that has allowed me to find and keep friends for more than 30 years. The friends, and the time spent with them, are the end goal. The game we play, and the rules of said game, are simply a means to an end. If we don't like the game, we change the game. If we don't like a rule, we change the rule.

5e D&D, in particular, has a supportive attitude to rules flexibility, so that's helpful. It's also a relatively simple game with fast play and easy entry for new players. 95% of 5e suits my group's sensibilities out-of-the-box, which is a huge time-saver for us. And the remaining 5% is easily hand-waved by the DM.

...

Having said that, I'd love to see a *really good* single-player 5e computer game. 1e had Eye of the Beholder; 2e had Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale / Planescape Torment. 3e had Neverwinter Nights and, arguably, Temple of Elemental Evil. 3.5e had Neverwinter Nights 2 (including the stunning expansion Mask of the Betrayer). I'd love to see a 5e Baldur's Gate 3, or similar. Something with epic scale, memorable NPCs, gorgeous scenery, strong story-line, non-combat options, and no hint of MMO grinding.

So, alright: I hate that there isn't a classic 5e single-player epic-scale CRPG. Someone get onto that, please.

 

[Parmandur]

I hate nothing about 5e... except the haters.





At the end of the day, it's just a game. I love the fact that it's a shared hobby that has allowed me to find and keep friends for more than 30 years. The friends, and the time spent with them, are the end goal. The game we play, and the rules of said game, are simply a means to an end. If we don't like the game, we change the game. If we don't like a rule, we change the rule.





5e D&D, in particular, has a supportive attitude to rules flexibility, so that's helpful. It's also a relatively simple game with fast play and easy entry for new players. 95% of 5e suits my group's sensibilities out-of-the-box, which is a huge time-saver for us. And the remaining 5% is easily hand-waved by the DM.





...





Having said that, I'd love to see a *really good* single-player 5e computer game. 1e had Eye of the Beholder; 2e had Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale / Planescape Torment. 3e had Neverwinter Nights and, arguably, Temple of Elemental Evil. 3.5e had Neverwinter Nights 2 (including the stunning expansion Mask of the Betrayer). I'd love to see a 5e Baldur's Gate 3, or similar. Something with epic scale, memorable NPCs, gorgeous scenery, strong story-line, non-combat options, and no hint of MMO grinding.





So, alright: I hate that there isn't a classic 5e single-player epic-scale CRPG. Someone get onto that, please.

Legends of the Sword Coast, hopefully!



Agree with this post entirely.

 

[Werebat]

Wow. There's a lot to digest here.

I was just going to say that I'm not fond of 5th Edition lycanthropes. I really liked the 3.5 version and haven't much cared for any of the versions that have come out since.

Well, that and the halfling art.

And the poorly organized reference section at the back, compounded by the books having page numbers that are way too faint for aging eyes like mine to see.

 

[Aribar]

I prefer to say I'm disappointed in 5E, not that I hate it. It doesn't do anything particularly well, but it isn't outright bad anywhere either and does have a few neat ideas.

I liked a lot of playtest stuff more than what we got (martials were a lot more fun, monks were neater, sorcerers had tons of flavor, etc.). Monster creation rules are odd, way too wordy, and combat is way too rocket-taggy for my tastes. The whole "naturalistic language" and "DM-fills-in-for-the-game-designers" rules really rub me the wrong way, especially when other games like Fate and Dungeon Worlds do a better job at creating the atmosphere those decisions were meant to invoke. Resource management and pacing also feels very awkward and the "15 minute workday" has returned since classes are on different schedules and there are a lot of bad balance decisions (Champion's worthless compared to Battle Master, Eldritch Fighter's got nothing on Bards, Beastmaster Rangers, Elemental Monks, etc.). Anything I can do in 5E, I can do better in Basic, 3.5E, or 4E. :/

 

[Sacrosanct]

What do I hate about 5e? That I'm not playing it now. And have to wait about two weeks before my next game.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I hate nothing about 5e... except the haters.

At the end of the day, it's just a game. I love the fact that it's a shared hobby that has allowed me to find and keep friends for more than 30 years. The friends, and the time spent with them, are the end goal. The game we play, and the rules of said game, are simply a means to an end. If we don't like the game, we change the game. If we don't like a rule, we change the rule.

100% this. For me, the social aspect of D&D is #1 by a wide margin. Especially when you are in your 40s and everyone has kids, it's hard to get everyone together like when we were teens. You can have the best game around, but if I don't enjoy the people, forget it. Likewise, with my friends, we can enjoy just about every game. Lucky for us, 5e also is a great tool to give us the game experience we like, so it's a win win. The rules of the game are NEVER more important than the people at the table with you. To get hung up on them? Or to try to exploit them at the detriment of the people you're with? Huge mistake IMO.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

2. Short rests. I hate these things, yet they're impossible to get rid of. I hate that some classes use them to recharge powers while others don't, essentially mandating 6-8 encounters a day with 2 short rests to keep everything fair. I prefer a much more naturalistic style--the default 5E assumptions are way too contrived for me.

That's a curious viewpoint. Why not just vary the tempo? If some days you have one or two encounters several hours apart, and other days you have five encounters in quick succession (say ten minutes apart, while exploring a ruin/assaulting a stronghold), isn't that fair? If you want to convert it into an abstract mechanic, just tell your players there will be 1d4 short rests per day. Plenty of room for naturalistic variability there if you want it.

(I do hate the "N 'encounters' with M short rests per day" meme too, because it is artificial--but it's just a suggestion anyway, not baked into the rules, so it can be freely violated in favor of more naturalistic environment deisgn. All 5E does is point out that if you exceed these guidelines you should expect fights to be harder, but since I'm fine with hard fights that's a non-issue. I still reference the AD&D 2nd edition Monstrous Manual for # Appearing (e.g. 2-12 trolls) without reference to 5E encounter design guidelines.)

 

[dd.stevenson]

The same thing I hate about 3e and 4e: they now have three versions of D&D that all come tantalisingly close to perfection and yet none of them quite manages it. There's a point somewhere in the centre there that I can almost get to, and it's driving me crazy.

Yeah, this.

Though I suspect we disagree about what this "perfect" state should look like!

 

[Morlock]

So far, the halfling art, and the rasta hat.

 

[cmad1977]

Mostly the parts of the community that aren't happy unless they hate something and have to spout about incessantly in thread after thread.