Hello everyone! Jake is Darkseid here and of course this article is going to be about just why D&D 5th edition is the best. Now I know some of you are saying “but Jake, what about 3.5? All the endless sourcebooks and two page skill lists?” I’m not taking away from Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, I’ve played many games using that system and ran many as well. It’s great, yet do I think it’s the best? I did. I did until a wonderful thing called D&D 5th edition 5th edition came along.
This is obviously my opinion, many believe 5e isn’t the best and everybody is entitled to their opinion. Let’s take a step back, what was happening before 5e busted onto the scene. Wizards of the Coast had moved on from 3.5 and onto 4e *shudders*. Many fans continued to play 3.5 instead of 4e, I know many people who do play 4e and it’s different strokes for different folks. Yet where 5e busted onto the scene a new totally original setting came onto the scene…that’s right I’m talking about Pathfinder and its Golarion setting. Many people saw it as a breath of fresh air in the D&D world, many jumping ship to play in said world. I was not one of those people, it was different sure, but was it better than 3.5? No, it wasn’t. But that’s besides the point, Pathfinder came in and shook everything up in D&D culture. People wanted something new, and something different, and something that isn’t 4th edition. And so just like Pathfinder, 5th edition burst onto the scene but this time it was different.
So to the meat, why 5e is great? Because it goes back to its roots and makes it better. If everyone thought Pathfinder was a fresh take on things, they were blown away with 5e. It goes to AD&D for its inspiration (at least I think so) and gives it a new spin, 5e takes away the endless skills and animorphs them into broader skills that players can easily translate into the game and no more will players go “hold on I’m proficient in forgery I can do this” boo-hoo you can’t waste your skill points in forgery, instead they give you proficieny bonus which gives you a flat bonus, based on level, to anything your proficient with. Not exactly rocket science. It’s simple, it’s fun, and it’s getting all the right support from Wizards of the Coast. As a DM the advantage/disadvantage system gives you and the players the freedom of imagination to actually do whatever you wanted to in game. Why I personally believe 5e to be the greatest is that it adapted. It became simple and fresh, allowed players and DMs really flesh out characters with the background feature and give players and dungeon masters free reign of imagination while combining the archetypes that so many were a fan of in Pathfinder. Obviously this was just my opinion but I wholeheartedly believe that 5th edition is the best there’s been and I’m looking forward to what else WoTC puts out for it.
- Why D&D 5th Edition is the Best Edition of the Game - April 6, 2016
I know nothing of DD, but I did want to say, welcome to the blog. I’m really looking forward to seeing more D&D articles going up.
Thanks Thor and I’m looking forward to putting up D&D articles
It’s been my opinion that the more source books a D&D edition spawns, the worse it becomes. When Third started pumping out piles and piles of books with character templates for everything under the sun, that is when it died. I remember abusing the hell out of the multiclass character system in 3.5.
I haven’t played since then, but I heard that Fourth played like an MMO.
Honestly, in my old age, I remember the best times were had with simple systems and a good gaming group. I remember having far more fun with a Fighter who used a bow than I ever did with an Arcane Archer, because I was focused more on the story and the encounter than I was on bonuses and abilities.
All too true, I found myself getting lost quite frequently in the endless sourcebooks and use to be in shock with what people use to come with to play. It seems when the endless rules and settings came out people wanted to exploit where me and my group always stuck to core rules. 5e is nice because everything one could need is in the core book, and any expansions coming out are modules not adding more races (although I think like one did)
^ This. Great article by the way. I’m old school, loved 2e, it brought skills and more character choices to tweak classes but it wasn’t overwhelming. 3.5e was great, so much character customization …. then came the bloat and yeah, it slowed the game, people hacked uber PCS, etc. and it got boring. Pathfinder was superior to 3.5e, cleaning up the rules and streamlining the game. Loved it for years until the dreaded bloat caught up with it and lost interest, the game wasn’t the same, slow and clunky with so many sourcebooks. I like 5e but it lacks that ‘something’ to really let me bite into a character. I’d be more interested in a Pathfinder reboot me thinks.
That’s great to hear that this edition on D&D is done right. I was very sad when 4th edition reviews had labeled it as a stinker. I will get a chance to play some 5th edition soon myself in the dark setting of Ravenloft soon and look to follow your D&D articles with great anticipation.
Awesome! I’m always glad to hear people doing 5e games and I too was very disappointed in 4th edition. My next article will be about Ravenloft and I’m glad to hear your looking forward to seeing more of my articles