D&D (2024) Wrapping up first 2-20 2024 campaign this week, some of my thoughts

[Selas]

and yet they felt it was noticeably easier this time, and the only thing that changed was the rules from 2014 to 2024…

This is a red herring; we all knew 2024 was going to give a bump in power to PCs. Switching to 2024 rules merely compounded a problem that was already present in this group

If they hadn't changed rules the results would've been the same

 

[TwoSix]

I have run multiple campaigns to level 20 now and I don't remember a single combat being over in a single round because I don't run easy combats and I just don't see the 2024 rules changing anything. If the group is more effective I'll adjust difficulty and tactics. So yes, it's a DM issue. In this case it's letting them load up with magic items so someone casting detect magic would likely be blinded by the bling and poor tactics.

To be fair, @ECMO3's entire point is that the 2024 rules DID change things.

 

[Selas]

To be fair, @ECMO3's entire point is that the 2024 rules DID change things.

Like I said, that merely compounded the problem. I have played at 4 tables with different DMs and I have never seen anything like the OP posted. Even my current campaign which the DM is more liberal with magic items, we've had multiple dead PCs because the DM adjusted. Quite honestly, the OP experience seems like a campaign on rails

 

[billd91]

2) The 10 rings, while obviously that is a LOT of rings, I mean realistically the vast majority of those aren't going to have an impact in the majority of fights, and rarely will two rings work together to produce an even larger effect. Probably the biggest factor is that the entire party would have fire resistance or cold resistance, as normally with those items one member is looking good but everyone else gets cooked and the pressure is still on.

Every party member basically having resistance to all damage is going to have a profound effect on every fight. There's no two ways around it. The DM would have to make serious adjustments, and I sort of wonder what the point is.

Well, maybe not all damage types since your basic bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing isn't covered. But I still take the point that this is a big deal - energy damage that didn't rely on an attack roll was one of my reliable ways to damage the high level fighter with an AC above 20 and a cloak of displacement in the high level 5e game I ran.
I'm generally OK with the rings of resistance not needing attunement since otherwise they get avoided in favor of something more consistently useful when, in AD&D, they were staple items that offered a nice benefit once in a while. Multiple players getting all 10, however, would probably have my player groups' disapprovals as being unsporting or at least a pretty grave faux pas. "You have some leeway, don't go abusing it." also known as "Don't poke the bear."

 

[Oofta]

To be fair, @ECMO3's entire point is that the 2024 rules DID change things.

Then the DM needs to adjust their game in response. Just like I've had to adjust for different groups and different mixes of PCs, just like I'm still figuring out the correct balance now in my game.

 

[TwoSix]

Then the DM needs to adjust their game in response. Just like I've had to adjust for different groups and different mixes of PCs, just like I'm still figuring out the correct balance now in my game.

Sure, but that doesn't invalidate @ECMO3's experience. They're helping us out by giving us a baseline to adjust to, which is why it's weird that they're catching some unnecessary hostility.

If the DM house-ruled in the middle of the game, their experience wouldn't have been as valuable.

So again, I apologize that you're catching a bunch of strays for no reason, @ECMO3, but some of us appreciate you explaining your experiences. I'll be using your feedback to make some adjustments for my own games.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know that we really need help.

This is our first 2024 campaign and I just wanted to post on our experiences as compared to 5E which we were well versed with.

The first change (and it is extreme) is we are doing Dark Sun next. Not only no purchasing magic items, but no purchasing metal items.

What rules are you using for Dark Sun?

 

[Oofta]

Sure, but that doesn't invalidate @ECMO3's experience. They're helping us out by giving us a baseline to adjust to, which is why it's weird that they're catching some unnecessary hostility.

If the DM house-ruled in the middle of the game, their experience wouldn't have been as valuable.

So again, I apologize that you're catching a bunch of strays for no reason, @ECMO3, but some of us appreciate you explaining your experiences. I'll be using your feedback to make some adjustments for my own games.

It's such an extreme example lacking so many details it's not setting much of a baseline. What did a typical encounter look like? What was the environment, the setup, the monsters used? Do they get short and long rests whenever they want? Did the DM even attempt to make the encounters more challenging?

If I were to say "D&D monsters are overpowered because I used an Adult Red Dragon against a level 1 party and killed them in 1 round" people would rightfully say that it's not an example of much of anything other than poor encounter design. Why is it so bad to say that the encounters were poorly designed when it goes the other way?

 

[mamba]

I don't think you need any house rules. But I do think if you allow people to load up with things like 10 rare rings and everyone having legendary items that the DM needs to rethink how many magic items are available or adjust encounter difficulty to compensate. There are multiple ways to fix the obvious issues but that requires admitting at least partial responsibility on the part of the DM.

partial, sure, 10 resistance rings will not make the boss go down in one round though, and yet they frequently did

Also, as far as I can tell they played basically by the 2024 rules, including crafting as described. If following the plain rules as written leads to this, then maybe the rules aren’t so great too though

 

[mamba]

This is a red herring; we all knew 2024 was going to give a bump in power to PCs. Switching to 2024 rules merely compounded a problem that was already present in this group

If they hadn't changed rules the results would've been the same

that is already a contradiction. I agree that the rules gave a bump, so them saying the rules made fights easier seems more like a predictable consequence than to expect no change, and that is true no matter how much gear you hand out