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5th edition was written to be player vs dm mentality.

AD&D was my first rpg. Fundamentally, 5e is a very different game, reimagined and redesigned to appeal to a different generation. For me, 5th Edition D&D is to old school D&D as mainstream superhero movies are to indie art house films.

5e is too easy. Low stakes = Low payoff

What amazes me about 5e is how easy it is to emulate everything from AD&D2e. What amazes me even more, is how some "facts" about 5e everyone believes, without having actually experienced them.

I don't think that 5e is really simpler than 2e. Sure, it uses a streamlined, unified d20 system but the player characters are, due to all the features and traits, much more complex to learn from a player's perspective. Also, the various abilities almost necessitate the use of a battlemap grid (something that came front and centre with the Player's Option books in 2e - aka 2.5e) rather than "Theatre of the Mind" that was more prevalent in 2e. 11:20 In terms of HP bloat this is absoutely true but, in 5e, because it's got bounded accuracy, they've upped the HP and the damage -you never used to have rogues (or thieves) doing an extra handful of d6s damage for "Sneak Attack", let alone doubling such additional dice on such frequent criticals. With 2e you hit more as you went up, but didn't pile on more damage, in 5e with relatively slowly advancing proficiency bonus you hit somewhat more frequently but dish out a *lot* more damage as you advance. I don't disagree with your comments about the philosophy of the design of the game - it has changed more to an episodic storyline approach as per the "adventure path" campaigns that WotC release, rather than sandbox play, and this requires certain "plot armour" for the stars of the show (and mechanics have been introduced to support this). It's more of a heroic fantasy with larger than life heroes inhabiting a novel now, rather than your average Joe/Jane trying to claw their way to fame and fortune against all odds. Ironically, as you also say, 5e campaigns don't have a lot of longevity so WotC have a sort of mixed success with that. It's a trend that started with the Dragonlance campaign modules but that was back in 1984 when AD&D 1e was current ruleset, so not a 2e, or even 5e, thing.

09:38 In 2e, in the DMG, there's an optional rule called "Hovering on Death's Door" - essentially when the character dropped to 0 HP or below they went unconscious and started to "bleed out" at 1 HP per round (and a round is a minute not 6 seconds). When they got to -10 they were dead. In the meantime, binding their wounds or using a "cure" spell would stabilise them - they couldn't be healed to more than 1 HP until they'd had a day of rest (and were useless before then) unless the "heal" spell was used to restore them to full vitality. It was quite common to play a variant of this where the death threshold was negative CON score, and to allow a revived character on 1 HP to perform a "last gasp" heroic action as a sacrificial act. However, a lot of people just ignored the activity and healing limitation entirely, much as the 5e rules do.

03:40 THAC0 was never really hard to calculate. There was no calculation... it was right there... on the table you showed! You wrote it on your character sheet when you leveled - and might even have a whole row of numbers against the different ACs to stop you having to do the maths in play. However, you didn't need to do the maths for the AC... the DM knew all the ACs. You just said what you rolled +/- any modifiers and they'd add the target's AC. The DM usually kept a record of the PCs THACOs, so they just compared the roll +/- modifiers (from the player) + the target's AC (that they knew) with the THAC0 and told the player if they hit. The player didn't need to do the maths (apart from being able to handle their mods). It was more complicated in 1st Edition as there was weirdness around natural 20s, 20s with mods, and 20s with magical mods when handling negative ACs, but 2e removed all that complexity.

5e is easy and in another meaning of the video. The game systems summarizes in one line: "you have advantage". Yes, I concede it needs a lot of memory to remember these 3 words and that it is still an expert game for that, but still, you learn that and then you know by heart the whole system.

I'm a 20 yr old guy who started with 5e, realized it wasn't for me and subsequently found old school and began playing 2nd edition. I found it way simpler and easier to run than 5e. You brought up some good points in this video. The two editions, though similar in name, are completely different in play. And that's a good thing. Neither is superior to the other objectively. No two games have to be the same.

In my opinion 2nd edition was awesome. We had no issues with stats or thac0

Yes, it is.

I wouldn't say 5e is to easy. I would honestly say 5e isn't really a game system, but is a tool box of "options". You can pick and choose what you want to use and call it "your dnd". But the issue I have seen is that it "masquerades" around as a full rpg. It puts all of these "options" into the phb, they put player facing info inside of adventure mods. It takes the power AWAY from dms all the time by doing this. The phb has it, doesn't that mean we use it?? Well if they didn't want that to be used, why print it? As a public dm, I have heard this for years, and I always ALWAYS had to buckle to it. It made sense, it wasn't fair to the dm but still made sense on the player side. I "trusted" that this was a complete system, and I was wrong. 5e is designed from the bottom up as a CASH COW. You have far more players than dms, so who do u prioritize? Their is a reason WOTC is looking into AI DMs, and it's not for a "better experience" it's because the money is in players. 5e character as written are superheroes, that are coddled to the point where when the dm says "no", they simply de ide not to play anymore. I have all but completely left 5e, and I don't want to go back. But it is the 500lb gorilla in the room.

You bring up some good points. Design philosophy is fundamental to the intent of the game. Makes me think that they are different games. Still both very fun! Great video. Please keep it up.

Yes, 5th is too easy. PCs are basically superheroes, so there is barely any risk of character death. There are no meaningful stakes and, therefore, little sense of accomplishment in surviving. Instead, folks get mad at their DM when they die as though he/she did something wrong! In 5E, dungeons may as well be grocery stores where you just gather whatever you like. Only the truly careless or truly unlucky even need to make death saves, and even then you need to fail 3 times to actually die. It's D&D with training wheels, IMO. Good for children and not much else.

there's no dueling

As a 1E player for 40 years, I use the Whiz Wheel that came in Dragon Magazine. It can be found online and will make life really easy for DMs and Players alike. As for playing modules, they have never been my favorite thing. I have never run a save or die type game. My player's fatalities have always resulted from a series of bad decisions or even worse die roles, even though we were playing 1E. There is nothing wrong with writing your to hit lines out, with or with out bonuses. (That is why God made index cards)

Um... didn't they add it so you can spend wild shapes on summoning a companion or refueling spell slots? Seems pretty useful still to me 😅

I've occasionally dipped my toes into the less forgiving games of "old school" DMs and it's certainly not for me. The thumbnail for this video immediately reminded me of my time in a Rime of the Frost Maiden with such a GM. We were doing everything a smart party should. Sneaking, scouting ahead, taking the long way around to an enemy to take them by surprise, etc. What happens? My character immediately has their adventure come to an end because they dared LOOK at the monster they were attacking. Anyone who looks at the hag has to roll against a fear effect and I barely fail. On the first turn, my character gets pointed at by the hag and goes down to 0hp, where my essence gets consumed by a will-o'-wisp. This is followed up by a giant skeleton smashing down on another pc for double my hp with one of its basic attacks while they attempted to retreat. This is supposedly an easy fight, according to the module. The DM brags after the fact about how in all of the 10 or so times he's run this module, all the parties ended up running with their tails between their legs on the first encounter. 😅

bard and monk perfectly fused toghterer

Great vid. Exciting!

The outer planes were a nice touch to high level DnD back in the day. Looks like they still are as you can modify rules to make it harder or easier. I like your ideas for an adventure, the unwinnable scenario to attain information or position yourself to get what you need reminds me of the first Dr. Strange. Losing over and over and over.... Some other ideas come to mind,: What if dawn didn't come and the plane was being held ransom so you are hired by Orcs and or Goblins to find out why. Death become real to the deathless. Do they continue to fight? Tiny plane, tiny everything fighting on the shard, only to find out you are lost and have to hop skip shards to find a way up and out. Since Death doesn't exist here would the Gods respond to the players? ie your Cleric can't reload their spells until you get off the plane. Junk plane sounds fun, could do a hunt and search, as you have been tasked with finding and stopping Gorguk the Tinkerer, quite mad after centuries on this plane, and putting together something truly awful. The item in question may help him escape. but rips the fabric of the universe so that there are other consequences. Asorak the Wizard Lich has a fortress on one of the blocks with vary peculiar set of environmental conditions and made of materials you've never seen. Things just won't work like usual here, apart from funky gravity, light is distorted making judging distance difficult. I'd add in some elemental effects, and a few other surprises. Ooooo you've never heard of Etheralite, the rock that stops any sort of dematerialized matter from going threw it? You sail the River Styx on your "mission" and get sucked into a whirlpool only to pop out here. There is no where else to go until the river changes, and you have no idea where you are. The Fortress in the distance is the only thing you see that indicates there is life here. What about psychological issues of being brought back from the dead? We make it sound so rudimentary, when in fact it would/should be life altering. A group of Maedar have hidden in the Junk world to escape from their medusa ex-wives. Tormented and bitter, they attempt to kill any female party member rather then wait for the petrification affect. They also hold the secret of getting off the world. A Pestilence has been sweeping the blocks, transferring when blocks collide. When killed and infected you rise again at the Dawn but with half of your hit points and after 3 resurrections you dont come back. Rumor is Death has had quite enough of this place and doesn't like take backs.... A Necromancer establishes a connection to the negative material plane and when he kills something it is brought back as Undead. Do the blocks unite to win the day? And so on......

Something I may have missed you say is that part of the chaos of the Abyss is that the layers are not in numerical order, and there are new layers discovered constantly. Having a layer that masked as a mirror version of one of the positive planes or the Feywild to throw adventurers off can be a blast.

I mean in theory it makes sense to lower damage of the poison if you up the dc because it's now more reliable, it is mainly an enemy after all. I do like the change of players getting the exact poison damage+save the monster they took it from uses though. I agree with you that the 2014 poisons just aren't worth it.

As someone who used to grow mushrooms... fungus is unstoppable. She will win in the end.

What about calling the Queen of Spiders "Karen"?

Ha! Sorry Stephanie

Lair of Pain, Flies, Confusion, Lies, Humiliation, Hopelessness, Fear, Regret, Endless Winter Storm, Stinking Fetid Bogs, and Shadows. Only had 3 minutes, got to go!

What if you have the two weapon fighting style?

Sounds a bit more like a love song, no? That aside, idk why but I can never manage to listen to a song and think "this reminds me of this character/that party." As such, I never get to join in on those posts of "what song describes your character/party" or "what's your character's/party's theme song." None of my groups have even managed to come up with a party name because everyone was trying so hard during session 0 to carve out a niche that we don't have anything in common lol.

Had to share woth my DM

I really like a lot of your content but i cant support the AI stuff

That was such a dense video! So many good ideas back to back.

I mapped the concept of Prestige Classes/Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies onto the Renown framework. It is quite cool and detailed in Player's Guide to Powers on the DM's Guild.

Upside = Hey guys, the King just granted us Titles and Land on the frontier. Downside = Hey guys, did you realize our new Land is right on the frontier?! I do use titles, and prestige for mid to higher level characters, usually when my group is interested in Court Intrigue and Machiavellian type role playing.

I was initially skeptical I could incorporate this kind of thing into my current campaign plan since it takes place on Ixalan (think new world but replace america with dinosaurs, merfolk, and dinosaur shamans while columbus and his crew are vampires lol) because it's theoretically isolated from the rest of the world so it's not like there will be tons of civilians to recognize the party from their exploits, but as you kept going I realized the rest works incredibly well. Like, honestly, where better to randomly give away land and such than a "new" and "unclaimed" continent as far as the non-natives are concerned? Who better to give away an enemy fort to than to the party who besieged it? What better time to grant titles than when you don't have a bunch of people of similar or higher rank around to question your reasoning for such a promotion?

Fame and Renown are double edged swords. Look at famous peoples lives, they have to travel with security and in secret most often. When you say Fortification I think Tax and Upkeep. Letter of Recommendation, what is this a job interview? /tease Being held in favor by those in power can exceed a letter and at higher levels is not needed as they probably have saved the area a couple times over. Word can spread fast. Still, bureaucrats have to eat too.... Be careful what you wish for and what is bestowed upon you, special privilege often means special responsibilities as well.... They will come at you sideways, where you're weakest....

I love watching smaller content creators, and clicked on this video as poisons are a fun aspect of DnD, that are never truly explored or done right. You lost me at the endless AI art though, as not only did it not add anything to the video, it was a direct slap in the face to creators and artists. I'm sure this will mean nothing to you, and I wish you only the best. I can only hope you perhaps see how trying to grow as a creator at the expense of other creators is perhaps not the best approach.

Essence of ether is really powerful and reasonably affordable

Poison whether by damage or effect is just a another way of adding to difficulty. Personally I'd ditch their damage with the Purple Worm and maybe go with damage as 1/2 it's normal hit points, save for 1/2. So the worm has 120 hit points, the poison is 60 save for half. Another thought is make the poison damage a roll say 5-60, or a d12 by age category for example, which i like more as a DM using a screen and adds variability to the damage,. Effect can be just as good, things like Slow, Hallucinating, Shakes, Cramps, Thirst, Blindness, Triple vision, Pain, Sleep, Suggestion, and so on so forth. Not to mention jacking with the DC level, which the DM controls, and for me would depend on situation and level to alter it, Another tool in the belt....

Glass vial already exist as mundane item, use it to throw inhaled poisons

I think poisons can be applied to 3 ammo at once making it a better Ranged option but that 25% immune that most monsters have makes it so bad.

Seems like a good baseline to start with, and potentially use in conjunction with a story line. I can think of some specialty rooms or enhancers to syphon more gold out of the players pockets if needed.

That was really detailed. Great job and good luck growing your channel.

I know the video was published before the DMG came out, but these results make sense given the encounter building rules. A single Ancient Green Dragon is under the “Medium” encounter threshold in the new CR calculations. You’d need two of them to challenge a level 20 party of 4, based on the new Encounter Building numbers.

Great info. Thank you for the video!

I think the 2024 fire elemental is better. Comparing the star blocks for both your information is off. Both 2014 and 24 versions do 2D6+3 per hit. The 14 applies the burning on a hit. While 24 version applies burning to every character within 10 ft of it at the end of its turn. But the aura also does 1D10 damage to those creatures regardless. So against a single target the fire elemental (assuming both attacks hit) will do 30 damage (10 from each melee attack, 5 from the first aura, and 5 for stopping in the target's space). While the 14 version is only doing 25. Not only that but any other character 10 ft of the element also takes 1d10 and is burning, potentially depriving them of an attack action. This is going to be one of my favorite monsters to use against my Deploy this with a few magma mephits and a good time will be had by all.

Green Flame Blade isn't in the 2024 PB. The old spells should just go away...

these were just fixes to moon druid

my guy, the information you're providing is great, but the presentation.... it's like the auditory equivalent of chewing cardboard. For goodness sake, please effort to learn to emulate presenters with personality and engaging rhetorical style!