What the Playtest of D&D Next Means for You

[rembrandtqeinstein]

DnD has issues in the post internet age. Getting 5-6 people together in meatspace for 4 hours a week is nearly impossible unless you are somewhere like college.

IMO Wizards should release the rules for free, but have a subscription service that is like an individualized MMO. 1 guy is DM and directs the action and customizes the game and the players exist in the world he built from pre-fab parts.

 

[sinboy666]

I always love when fan of DND complain that something seems "unrealistic". Everything about DND is unrealistic. I'm not even taking about things like magic and flying towers. I mean everything in the rules are based on abstract concepts completely outside of reality.
Armor Class alone is really weird if you take a moment to think about it. I've done sword fighting and been in a few street fight over the years. And I know that heavy armor doesn't stop you from getting hit.
My favorite is still that in an quake attack you roll your fortitude, to see if you stay up. I know there are some pretty beefed up guys out there who are shaken like jelly in an earthquake.
I'm currently playing essentially the same character in both a pathfinder and a DND 4e campaign. Both are barbarians with some multiclassing as a nature caster.
I love in pathfinder I can use my rages for one action to SEE BETTER (WTF?), I actually like the overall mechanics of the 4e Barbarians. I like being the one who hits hard and plows through waves of minions with little effort.

It's the most fun I've had with a barbarian since 2nd Advanced.

 

[SquidVicious]

You're better off investing in Paizo's "Pathfinder" than modern DnD IMO. It's just a slightly more unified/streamlined version of 3.5 with significantly better core backstory.

Think of it like... DnD 3.75.

That's the conclusion I came to in 2009 when it came out. So far I've DMed two campaigns and my players took to the changes quite well and had a really good time, even the one who really only knew D&D: Basic.

 

[thehorror2]

Generally, I stick with 4e unless the group I'm running games for rejects it outright. It's nicely balanced, the classes are all fun to play, and unlike earlier editions (and Pathfinder is close enough to 3/3.5 that it counts, no matter when it came out) all of the classes function on the same basic structure, so as long as you know how to read the power entries and understand the concept of the roles characters are supposed to inhabit, it's easy to play any kind of character you want. But it IS more limited than other systems. Because of the structurization of combat, it's really hard to have stuff like bar brawls or debates, or really anything outside of dungeon-crawling. Combat is the mechanical heart of the system, so while there's no reason you COULDN'T run an RP-heavy political intrigue game in 4e, there really isn't any reason to try.

Then again, combat-heavy dungeon crawls with RP focused on short trips in town and traveling through the countryside are most of what I run, which probably explains why I like the system so much.

 

[Ashoten]

The hit point system has always been a problem for DnD. Causeing slow and sluggish combat. Watching a fighter with a 1d8+8(3 strength, 2feat, +3 weapon)sword chips away at a beast with 400+hp is tedious. In 3.5 a fighter can be worthless at high levels unless you maxed out your character for damage. This is why I have always preferred game systems where health is low and avoiding damage and thinking fast is a better tactic. Games like Dead Lands(Pre 20 dice era)and The Riddle Of Steel where a party is richly rewarded for planing and working together so that a few well placed arrow volleys, gun shots, and quick sword stabs end combat before the enemy can get a hit in. None of that deathblow save nonsense, if an assassin stabs someone in the back then the target fall over cause they just got F^#$ING STABBED IN THE BACK!

Also I'm mad cause the playtest site linked here is all clogged up and not working.

 

[Ashoten]

DnD has issues in the post internet age. Getting 5-6 people together in meatspace for 4 hours a week is nearly impossible unless you are somewhere like college.

IMO Wizards should release the rules for free, but have a subscription service that is like an individualized MMO. 1 guy is DM and directs the action and customizes the game and the players exist in the world he built from pre-fab parts.

I agree. They should focus on being a easily accessible portal for players and DMs to interact without having to be at the same place. I know there are a few programs out there like Open RPG, but none of them seemed very polished or user friendly.

 

[Slaanax]

I just wish I had some people to play with. No one has time to play much anymore.

 

[Pharsalus]

It means nothing to me, in my view wizards has completely lost the right to make D&D products. 4th edition was a travesty, actually rather comparable to the current Diablo 3 vs. the first two debate. I'll check out the new playtest rules but it'll take an act of Hieronious to get me away from Pathfinder OGL.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

OT: I've played 2nd and 4th, and I've been happy with both (although THAC0 is dumb, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong and dumb by proxy). I'm with Axyun, I just hope that they make one solid base edition that has new themes, classes, and settings added on. It makes better business sense than releasing endless editions; sure, you may net sales of the basic rulebooks to a lot of people, but once they become settled into an edition (especially with long campaigns), they will buy from people other than Wizards if they feel their chosen edition isn't being supported (seeathfinder). Dividing and ostracizing the hardcore is not sustainable.

OT: The term Hit Dice has come a long way since my edition where it was something equivalent to a monster's level. Now it's some form of heal?

In any case, I'll stick to my 2nd.

The way I understand it, it is non-magical healing; during a rest you are applying bandages, burn salves, etc. People get a certain number of dice to roll that tells them how effective their first-aid is, with specially trained characters getting more or better dice. (ex. one person rolls 2d6, while a trained medic might get 3d8).

DnD has issues in the post internet age. Getting 5-6 people together in meatspace for 4 hours a week is nearly impossible unless you are somewhere like college.

IMO Wizards should release the rules for free, but have a subscription service that is like an individualized MMO. 1 guy is DM and directs the action and customizes the game and the players exist in the world he built from pre-fab parts.

They're working on it: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/tool.aspx?x=dnd/4new/tool/virtualtable Still in beta, but it doesn't look too shabby. The problem is that trying to design a modular system that covers 4 (soon to be 5) editions worth of rules, tracking all the relevant data, while allowing DMs the freedom to make up stuff on the fly, is turning out to be a challenge.

 

[the December King]

My biggest problem with the newer iterations of D@D has been the absence of any conversion rules from older games for characters. I understand that this would have been a huge headache with all of the strange classes and options from the hey day of 3rd edition to fourth, but it still should have been attempted. I know alot of people who would have been on board no matter what, as long as they could have preserved what made their characters, at least statistically. We tried to remake some of the characters from scratch, attempting to preserve the idea and personality while adapting to new rules, but to limited success, and only seemed to work with lower level character concepts.

We have been enjoying Pathfinder immensely, as it allowed us to convert even high level characters with little complications. But I certainly am open to the possibility of going back... if we can bring our characters.

 

[the December King]

Double post... Although I do want to read a bit more about this new set of rules.

I want to stress that I'm not against the possibility of enjoying the game. Why I'm so adamant about voicing this, I don't know...

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Me: "Oh! D&D 5th Ed Playtest! Yay!"

**goes to download**

Wizards: "Error. Server traffic too high. No Playtest for you. Please try again later."

**tries again every hour for four hours with the same results**

....

Me: "Screw you Wizards! Get better fucking servers! I'm gonna go buy more Pathfinder books from Paizo now because your servers suck so hard!"

 

[llyrnion]

"We want to get the playtest out to as many people as possible, so..."

... we make them register before they can download the playtest packet.

Way to go, I guess...

 

[drizztmainsword]

I've read through the ruleset they provided, and so far it's a pretty big "meh." The rules obviously stem from 3.5 and are boiled down to the basics. As far as I'm concerned, they've abstracted it too far. The systems will work fine for sure, but they are very flat, and won't provide a lot of nuance.

They've also almost completely removed skills from what I can tell. Characters just make ability checks now, and then some themes or feats will grant bonuses to specific circumstances or actions. The upside is that DCs are going to be very small, and there's going to be a lot less granularity in what characters can do with skills.

It's very hard to tell how the whole thing is going to pan out without seeing the progression of the character classes and any feats that are available. The playtest is built for levels 1-3, and those are always the most uninteresting levels.

All in all though, it looks rather bland, with martial characters not getting too much to play with and magic characters stuck with the same "choose spell from list, wait" routine.

Though in my opinion, 3.5 (at least vanilla) suffers from the same problem. Not enough freedom; too rigid.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Me: "Oh! D&D 5th Ed Playtest! Yay!"

**goes to download**

Wizards: "Error. Server traffic too high. No Playtest for you. Please try again later."

**tries again every hour for four hours with the same results**

....

Me: "Screw you Wizards! Get better fucking servers! I'm gonna go buy more Pathfinder books from Paizo now because your servers suck so hard!"

My thoughts exactly, it's still not working for me. I keep filling out the sign up form which sends me an email, which gives me a link to the sign up form so it can give me another email, which gives me a link to the sign up form so it can...

My initial impression fifth edition is not starting off all that great

 

[Chronologist]

I've managed to look at the rules, and it's very, very simple. There is basically no advancement for characters as you level up besides hit points. Casters get spells, you DO get a class feature (though most are pretty lame), but fighters are completely bland. Mind you, they only released on fighter build to use, up to level 3, but they keep promising to give more options later. The problem is, you can't playtest the interesting options and stuff if they don't give them to you.

The forum is pretty much filled with "It's too much like 4E" and "It's not enough like 4E", with occasional spats of logic and reason.

It has a LONG way to go, and even then I might just stick with Pathfinder anyway. At least that games has Psionics in it, without feeling like just another mage.

 

[Cpu46]

Having started on 4th ed and taken a look at the new rules I can definitely say I like where this is going. Probably gonna get a group of newbies (Friend, Cousin, and Sister most likely) over and try and run a game.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I've managed to look at the rules, and it's very, very simple. There is basically no advancement for characters as you level up besides hit points.

... that sounds weirdly like my "Survival Horror d20" system.

It was basically 3.5, but you didn't level up. You were eternally at about 2nd level. When you gained experience, you used it to buy additional skill ranks (not limited by level) or feats. You could also find items that would increase your max HP by 1 here and there. Other than that, the players were 2nd level forever.

The idea was that survival horror is about being sucky in a world where you need to run away and everything is going to murder you if you get in a stand-up fight with it. So, while you could improve a little, you'd always have crap HP and crap saves.

Of course, since it was still 3.5/Call of Cthuhlu d20/d20 Modern, there were plenty of customization options to choose from. Also guns. And the occasional bat with a nail in it.

 

[Aisaku]

If you're already registered for the playtest, but you're having problems with wizard's servers, there are other places you could look. Just saying.

Also, from checking the rules it does feel like a streamlined 3.5. Still there's something really cool, packaging skills and feats into thematic and background packages, thus encouraging sensical character building rather than minmaxing.

 

[Aisaku]

Another neat bit. A survivor from the 4e, cantrips are at will spells. Here's to hoping there's a way to get more at will spells. If something still grinds my gears about 3.5 e besides feats it's the spellcasting limitations. I grew with Final Fantasy style magic, dammit!