Dungeons & Dragons 5e playtests

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Toast

2E was also cool because it very easily allowed for the players to do things that weren't on their character sheet or explicitly defined in the rules. From my understanding of them, in 3.x and 4E this was much less the case. I like that, at least from what's presented of 5E so far, that such things can easily be resolved using checks and contests based on the ability scores.

That being said, there probably are going to be rules for things like punching and grappling, disarming, tripping, etc., they just aren't available yet. Hopefully they don't restrict them behind feats and just make them part of the basic combat rules.

Yes and no.

Each of the game systems have their own rules to allow you to do things "beyond the expressed character sheet", however 3.X worked on making the character sheet the primary form of comprehending your character's capabilities and 4E worked on making combat smooth and character creation/leveling easy. For both of the latter, the sheet itself was pretty comprehensive.

Of the three systems, though, I'd say 3.X was the most closely tied to a character's given stats (usually printed on a sheet), but its base mechanic literally functioned for most anything you could think of, and all three have interesting elements.

Though I can't really recall after, you know, ten years of not playing 2E and never having had too much experience with it* (so, you know, I could be wrong), from what I recall 2E and 4E kind of do similar things for attempting non-standard stuff, but with different dice rolls and expressions.
...
I honestly don't recall the 2E "It's not on my sheet, what do I do?" rules, now, so I'm kind of thinking I'm wrong. Having not actually owned the books (using friends only) probably helps with that a lot. Never mind! Pretty sure I'm wrong! Carry on, then, people!

One of the things I really loved in 2E (in our games, anyway) was the lack of "the common magic item". It was simply rare. That made it feel special and cool. Of course, I really enjoy the high-magic settings I've played in too... it's just a different play style, I guess.

* Predominantly, my experience with 2E was from computer games, and a few one-shot PnPs with a group that quickly came to prefer 3.X; some 2E stuff was still incorporated with the 3.0 stuff at first, but it quickly faded out, for the better of both systems, really. I've had further exposure, but it's been a rare and not really recently.

[Meister]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of magic items being so common and required in 4E. For one thing, they add too many options and conditionals to characters that are already loaded with relatively complex options, and then for DMs it's just a pain in the arse to have to keep including them in adventures because Jim the Wizard may just have found some magic robes and you'd think that'd be enough for a while but, don't you know it, Bill the Fighter is due for getting a +3 sword. It just never ends.

[DarkDrgon]

even in 3.X I always rolled for Magic Items. The magic weapons you find in a horde are never convieniently exactly what you wield, fighter. You need to decide whether the Buff on the magic spear is better or worse than what you have on your sword

[Meister]

That'd be a little inconvenient in 4E, since a lot of abilities and class features depend highly on what weapon or implement you use. Kinda daft to have to give your polearm specialist fighter a sword that's really good but keeps him from using half his tactics, and then have a really good sword disappear in the sell pile with no further consequences.

Plus if you keep rolling items the party can't use, they'll quickly be lagging behind in their attack and defense numbers. Like I said, not a big fan of magic items as such a strong requirement for those, but that's how it is.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Rolling for magic items is massive excitement. My players rebel if I give them pregenned treasure because rolling on the tables is total boss- it's like gambling but you never lose, you just win to lesser or greater degrees.

[Meister]

In my 4E campaign I'm doing a thing right now where I had my players give me item wishlists, and every time they enter a location where they could find something, I roll on that list for which one exactly it's gonna be.

Next game I run, though, I'll just have everyone use inherent bonuses to take care of the math and either roll for items or just not even going to bother with them in the first plce.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

The best time was in one game where I was playing and we ended up rolling like 8 rod of the pythons during the campaign. When I later became mayor and gave out quests to random adventuring parties my standard reward would be a rod of the python.

[Locke cole]

Actually, I do like the idea of a magic item table being random. If the DM allows for you to find magic items that are higher-power than you can use, then that gives you the question of using it later or selling it now.

Of course, since most of my characters end up being spellcasters who have Ritual Casting, I'd probably just end up selling the incompatible stuff and using the money to Enchant magic items that I do want.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

Actually, I do like the idea of a magic item table being random. If the DM allows for you to find magic items that are higher-power than you can use, then that gives you the question of using it later or selling it now.

Of course, since most of my characters end up being spellcasters who have Ritual Casting, I'd probably just end up selling the incompatible stuff and using the money to Enchant magic items that I do want.

Residuum. I heart Residuum. (in 4E)

Otherwise, I've started more than one thriving magic item shop/industry. Heck, a PF game I'm in (Kingmaker), my character is personally going around, spending years establishing magic colleges just so that he can create an industry of magic items for the burgeoning kingdom.

[Ryong]

On my campaign the most common reward found in dungeons are blobs of mana that can be turned into a magic item of a specific level in 10 minutes.