D&D 5E Your favorite and least favorite things :)

[Pickles JG]

Favourite is the Backgrounds. There is lots of good stuff but this is one I was very meh about until I saw it (& started rolling on the random tables )

Least favourite is the halfling art (& other art that evokes 2e - large glossy pictures of people looking serious in the woods).

Also Power Word Heal has somatic components Gah!. Still it's crap & needs 17th level Bards so it's pretty much academic.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Favorite:

- Little nostalgic old-school bits everywhere. The return of electrum pieces for instance. Sounds trivial, but it gives you that warm feeling. I doubt I could list 'em all... potions healing 4-10... rolling for starting wealth by class... unerring d4+1 magic missiles...
- Monster stats for the house cat. (In what is perhaps the sole exception to the return-to-fragile-1st-level-characters, a 5e house cat can /not/ kill a 1st level wizard in one round! It took 20 years, but D&D has finally fixed its cat.)

Least Favorite:

- Everything cool martial characters ever got reduced to one sub-class and choice of which 7 of 16 maneuvers you /don't/ want. (Imagine if the Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard were reduced to one sub-class with a list of 16 spells, all of 2nd level or lower.)
- 1st level fragility (which wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for Encounters starting at 1st level, by design). (And, yes, even though it's a nostalgic old school bit - it's a bit we were always house-ruling back in the day.)

 

[Psikerlord#]

Favourites:
All the classes except sorceror and ranger
Backgrounds

Dislikes:
Unclear hiding rules
Passive perception

 

[mestewart3]

Pro: backgrounds and inspiration lend some mechanical weight to RP.

Cons: rocket tag and certain classes lacking fundamental features at levels 1 & 2 male those levels a botcj to play

 

[Charles Wright]

My likes are fairly broad.
1) I like the overall simplicity of the rules.
2) I like the broad set of choices given within the ruleset.

My dislikes are very, very specific.
1) Lack of ecological information in monster manual stat blocks. I like being able to glance and know where a creature is from and in what terrain I can normally find it.
2) While liking the fact that they removed rules from monster type and tags(subtypes), they also seem to have removed helpful descriptors in the "tags". Like elemental descriptors and such. It feels like a good idea that was underutilized for no reason.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Likes:

• Simplicity of the system.
• Advantage / Disadvantage mechanic.
• "Concentration" mechanic for spells.
• Background RP incentives.
• MOST LIKED: Repetitive reinforcement that the DM is important to the game!
• Feats being totally optional.

Dislikes:

• Drizz't.
• Halfling art (godz! my eyes bleed!...)
• Almost too hard to die sometimes (PC's).
• Barbarians as berzerkers who would actually die if left in the wilderness to live off the land as, y'know, a barbarian!

Overall, I'm actually really impressed with how the system plays. I was skeptical on my reads, but after seeing it in action for a full session...I like it!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Li Shenron]

(Don't have the PHB, just speaking off second-hand knowledge and previews...)

Favourites:

- the overall low-complexity of the core
- all the classes and subclasses system
- the artwork and books layout

Unfavourites:

- too few clerical domains and fighter/rogues subclasses

 

[Ragmon]

What I dislike:

• The order of the chapters:
  • I think it would make more sense to place the backgrounds before classes. Due to the fact that with backgrounds you get fixed skills while with classes you choose.
  • The equipment layout should be a bit more separated, its hard to see where one type of equipment starts and the other begins.
  • Feats and skills should be right after classes.
  • What I'm saying is the books layout should be more like the 3.5 PHB, for the order of chapters.
• That it is Faerun centric, Greyhawk was a nice and simple default setting. Oh-well.
• The new thiefling, I preferred the old one from 3.5 people could customize their look and origins. These new ones from 4e look silly and are only here so people have a default warlock race.
• They could have done so much more with Inspirations. This way people can farm Inspiration before a large event, stack up on inspiration and use it when needed.
• Lack of enveloping rules, for instance:
  • Rules for armor AC. - Leather armor - 11 + dex, WHY CAN'T it be 10 + 1 (armor) + dex. This way you can explain un-armored and armored states in the same sentence. Just feels stupid to me.
  • Proficiency bonus, just create a table before the classes section, and in the table insert - Level - Proficiency bonus - EXP needed for level. This way you don't have to copy paste the same info for every class.
• The fact that we still have an alignment system or even an option for one.
• Lack of weapon diversity and special abilities.
• The barbarians illustration is horrendious and I would send back the PHB for a complete reprint just for that.

Likes:

• I like that the races are on an even playing field, unlike in 3.5 where the half-orc received more penalties to stats then bonuses. Half-elfs sucked. While the Dwarfs, Elfs, Gnomes and Halflings received alot of racial bonuses.
• Nicer combat mechanics.
• Magic items are rare and feel unique.

 

[Mouseferatu]

[MENTION=99604]Ragmon[/MENTION]:

You can't bank inspiration. You have it or you don't. It's a one-at-a-time thing.

Armor is written the way it is to avoid stacking questions with things like mage armor or bracers. Now it's easy; if something says +X to AC, you add it to other stuff; if it changes your AC to a specific number, you don't.

 

[Ragmon]

@Ragmon :

You can't bank inspiration. You have it or you don't. It's a one-at-a-time thing.

Armor is written the way it is to avoid stacking questions with things like mage armor or bracers. Now it's easy; if something says +X to AC, you add it to other stuff; if it changes your AC to a specific number, you don't.

Let me phrase it differently, you acquire 1 inspiration on each character then got fight the big bad or something. Thats how I meant "bank it".

I for one don't have any issue with the various types of armor, if the devs didn't like it they should have just made fewer versions to avoid confusion.