What Abilities do You Miss?

[EvilAnagram]

Most of us on this board presumably love 5e, but most of us have also played other editions and miss certain aspects of them. That in mind, what spells and abilities do you miss from past editions, and how would you implement them in 5e?

Personally, I loved the 4e Chaos Bolt, and if one of my players ever went with a Wild Mage I would totally homebrew it for them as a cantrip, 1d8 scaling force damage and if you roll an even on the attack die a creature of your choice within 10' of the target saves against 1d6 scaling.

Keep in mind that edition wars and flaming are pointless and get threads locked.

[Erose]

Item, Tanglefoot Bags. Spells, Steeldance, Many Jaws, Combust.

[Starsinger]

Most of us on this board presumably love 5e, but most of us have also played other editions and miss certain aspects of them. That in mind, what spells and abilities do you miss from past editions, and how would you implement them in 5e?

Personally, I loved the 4e Chaos Bolt, and if one of my players ever went with a Wild Mage I would totally homebrew it for them as a cantrip, 1d8 scaling force damage and if you roll an even on the attack die a creature of your choice within 10' of the target saves against 1d6 scaling.

Keep in mind that edition wars and flaming are pointless and get threads locked.

Why Force damage and not Psychic like Chaos Bolt was in 4e?

[Dr. Cliché]

Let's see:
- I miss familiars and animal companions that could attack without you having to stop what you're doing and direct them. And even when they start attacking something, they stop every 6 seconds and force you to ask them again.

- I miss regeneration/fast healing from a lot of monsters.

- I miss spellcasting on monsters. And by spellcasting, I mean having more than maybe 2 spells (usually really piddly ones at that).

- I miss Shadow Dragons being a separate species, rather than just being a really uninteresting template.

- In fact, I miss templates that amounted to more than just '+2 to ability score'. :smalltongue:

- I miss the 3.5 Warlock. Not that I dislike the 5th edition one, but I liked that the 3.5 one actually had a unique mechanic, as opposed to just using the same spells as every other caster. it doesn't help that many of the Invocations are really disappointing now. As an example, a 6th level 3.5 Warlock could cast Fly on himself at will. A 9th level 5e Warlock can cast Jump on himself at will. Yeah. :smallmad:

[Specter]

Rogue's Crippling Strike. That was sweet.


Let's see:
- I miss familiars and animal companions that could attack without you having to stop what you're doing and direct them. And even when they start attacking something, they stop every 6 seconds and force you to ask them again.

Second that.

[Pope Scarface]

Personally, I loved the 4e Chaos Bolt, and if one of my players ever went with a Wild Mage I would totally homebrew it for them as a cantrip, 1d8 scaling force damage and if you roll an even on the attack die a creature of your choice within 10' of the target saves against 1d6 scaling.

That seems a little strong compared to other cantrips. I'd recommend 1d6 as the base scaling damage, instead of 1d8, assuming force as a damage type is not strictly better than other damage types like it was in 3rd ed.

[Theodoxus]

^^ Force isn't strictly better, that would be psychic (maybe why they wanted to update the 4E to Force instead).

For me, I miss cleric domains - I understand why there are fewer, but I like more options. Same thing with sorcerer bloodlines. I'd be thrilled with more options in that category.

More weapon options than just crazy expensive (ie rare) magic items. Finesse longswords? Yes please, but not just sun blades...

I know I'm weird, but I miss the AD&D saving throws and xp charts based on class. Uniform XP rates should have stayed in 3.P and saving throws make a lot more sense based on what they do, rather than what stat they may or may not affect. It should be akin to skills. Give an example, but let the DM/Player decide if the medusa's stare is a con save, a dex save or a wis save...

[mgshamster]

All mine are from 2e.

I miss Reckless Dweamor for the wild mage. :) That's an easy fix, though.

I miss divine spheres for clerics, and I wish there was a difference between clerics of different deities. I want to work on a homebrew system for that, but haven't sat down to actually start it yet.

I miss that the fighter is no longer the best class for saving throws, and I'm actually working on a homebrew system to change that. I liked the idea that in 2e, they could shrug off practically any spell.

[JoeJ]

I miss divine spheres for clerics, and I wish there was a difference between clerics of different deities.

This. The biggest thing I miss in this edition is clerics of different deities having different spell lists.

Oh, and rules for speljamming (although it wasn't very hard to homebrew my own).

[YCombinator]

I miss augmentation. The 3.5 and 4e Psion classes both had augmentation. I thought it made for really interesting and flavorful characters. It made them a lot more focused on a particular set of skills but gave them the flexibility to grow the strength of those skills depending on the situation.

I have no big problems with the Mystic from Unearthed Arcana but I was a little sad about the lack of augmentation points. Spell points are different. They are ways to change up how spell slots work. I like them a lot because they change the way casting works but I would prefer augmentation. With augmentation I have a spell that I can cast, often at-will with no points. If augmented it grows in power but always strongly in theme with what it did. More damage, more targets, longer duration, etc.

If I'm rolling a character from a fiction, like Bobby Drake (Iceman) or St. John Allerdyce (Pyro), I really just have to take a lot of cold or fire damage spells. Some of them could be uselessly duplicative of others. I don't think D&D in general has ever supported single-power characters well (3.5 augmentation not withstanding) but I think it potentially could.

I have been loosely toying around with the idea of making a 5e character class called Elementalist with Earth, Wind, Water, Fire as the subclasses. The characters would start with simple cantrips and have access to a few spells that can be augmented to a large degree. One spell might be to summon an element that acts like a familiar. Piercing though fire immunity or resistance would be some later level power.

Anyway, I miss augmentation.

[Tanarii]

Retainers / Henchmen
XP for GP
Training costs and other money sinks
lethality & accompanying fear of death

You can bring them all back pretty easily, of course.

[Blue Lantern]

I miss sorcerers being able to be more than just blaster.

[EvilAnagram]

Why Force damage and not Psychic like Chaos Bolt was in 4e?
No particular reason. It just fits better imo.


That seems a little strong compared to other cantrips. I'd recommend 1d6 as the base scaling damage, instead of 1d8, assuming force as a damage type is not strictly better than other damage types like it was in 3rd ed.
The whole point of Chaos Bolt is that it's quite strong, but it's unlikely enough to go off that it's not unbalanced. Sure, you could send it pinballing through a whole group of enemies, but it was more likely that you'd hit one, maybe two.


I miss sorcerers being able to be more than just blaster.

Twinned buffs and debuffs called. They'd like to talk to you. Seriously, if that's got you in a funk I could go on and on about how you can play a ton of Sorcerer styles.

[VariSami]

Just on a a general level, alternative class features and (character) templates. Also, first level feats but I will probably just house rule it so that everyone gets a feat / stat boost at first level as well (I generally do not mind slightly stronger characters). They just add so much customization even to lower level characters. The biggest problem with 5e after 3.5 is how few options there really are for characters and how customization is pretty much built into strict paths already. We need more stuff like fighting styles (with the ones in Unearthed Arcana articles included) which have a variety of decent choices for clearly different characters. Also, playable humanoid monster races (goblinoids, orcs, half-ogres, etc.). I vastly prefer having fantasy racial diversity be a thing without some races being bound to forever remain monsters instead of becoming heroes as player characters. A NPC ally just is not the same thing.

[Blue Lantern]

Twinned buffs and debuffs called. They'd like to talk to you. Seriously, if that's got you in a funk I could go on and on about how you can play a ton of Sorcerer styles.

It's fun that, even when advising to not start edition war, you are the first to jump on someone else throat when you see a comment you don't agree with.

FYI I am not in a funk, in fact I like 5e much more than I did 3.5 or 4, but I still don't like that my favorite class is much more limited in his possibilities than it was previously.
Yes I can be buffer or debuffer beside a blaster, but I still can not be a summoner, I can not be an efficient enchanter, illusionist or battlefield controller because most of the better spells for those categories are barred and there is no class ability that synergies with those playstyles.

[JumboWheat01]

The only thing I really miss so far is the number of splat books. I recently got my hands on a nice collection of 3rd and 3.5 books. By the gods, I can spend several afternoons just flipping through them, reading about this or that.

Of course, that can only improve with time for 5e. It's still only what, two years old now?


As for mechanics, I will say I agree with Theodoxus, I miss the way cleric domains were in 3.5. It really let you customize your cleric, since each diety had a few domains at the least, some even more. A lot of deities in 5th have a single domain. You can point to any Chauntea cleric now-a-days and go, yup, there's a Life Cleric there. Back in 3.5, a Chauntea cleric could've had the Animal and Plant domains, or maybe Good and Earth, or possibly Earth and Plant. Maybe Protection and Renewal.

[Pope Scarface]

The whole point of Chaos Bolt is that it's quite strong, but it's unlikely enough to go off that it's not unbalanced. Sure, you could send it pinballing through a whole group of enemies, but it was more likely that you'd hit one, maybe two.


So the possibility of getting an extra target occurs more than once? I definitely disagree with your assessment that it is not unbalancing then. 50% chance of a second attack is comparable to acid splash's tiny burst, especially if you have a 25% chance of hitting a 3rd target as well, so the damage should be comparable to acid splash, not cantrips that are single target.

[EvilAnagram]

snip.

I think you may have misread my intent. I was not jumping down your throat. I was offering to help you out because you seemed unhappy with a class with which I am very familiar.


So the possibility of getting an extra target occurs more than once? I definitely disagree with your assessment that it is not unbalancing then. 50% chance of a second attack is comparable to acid splash's tiny burst, especially if you have a 25% chance of hitting a 3rd target as well, so the damage should be comparable to acid splash, not cantrips that are single target.

Good point. D6 primary damage seems about right, then.

[Tanarii]

I miss sorcerers being able to be more than just blaster.Sorcerers could be more than blasters? I don't recall them too well from other editions, but the impression I've always gotten is being blastery was their shtick.

[treecko]

Pathfinder bloodrager

[MrStabby]

Well... not quite an ability but I miss exotic weapons.

I wouldn't mind if things like polearms were exotic - powerful weapons with a lot of synergies and special rules. I like the idea of being able to spend a feat (or half a feat or whatever) to get access to something a bit different with slightly different rules. Something to make it a little bit harder to chose what to be armed with.


I miss sneak attacking with spells. Yes it would be broken to just allow it but I miss the character concepts that it opened up.


And to add my voice to the chorus, I miss the bredth of cleric domains. I liked the pick 2 philosophy - the mix and match made character options more diverse, something that 5th could really do with.

[Dr. Cliché]

For me, I miss cleric domains - I understand why there are fewer, but I like more options. Same thing with sorcerer bloodlines. I'd be thrilled with more options in that category.

Agreed with regard to Cleric Domains. I also find the existing ones a bit weird. Did heavy armour proficiency really need to be a domain bonus?

Also agreed with regard to sorcerer domains. Especially since there's very little middle-ground.


I miss sorcerers being able to be more than just blaster.

I miss sorcerers having a decent number of spells. Having basically 2-per-spell-level kills my interest in them entirely.

The other thing I find irritating though is that the spells they can learn don't seem to tie in at all with their draconic bloodline (which, let's face it, is the most likely option for sorcerers).

I mean, let's say I pick Red/Gold/Brass as my dragon type, meaning I get bonuses when casting Fire Spells. Well, I can learn any or all of the following Fire Spells (by level):
0) Fire Bolt, 1) Burning Hands, 2) Scorching Ray, 3) Fireball, 4) Wall of Fire, 7) Delayed Blast Fireball, Fire Storm, 8) Incendiary Cloud, 9) Meteor Swarm.

So, that's 9 fire spells including a cantrip. And, whilst a couple of levels are missed in the middle, it's still a very good spread. Not to mention a wise variety of shapes.

But, what if you choose Blue/Bronze (lightning)? That Gives you:
0) Shocking Grasp, 3) Lightning Bolt, 6) Chain Lightning

So, just 3 spells. You've got a touch spell, a line

White/Silver (cold)?
0) Chill Touch, 4) Ice Storm, 5) Cone of Cold

Again, a measly 3 spells (though at least the cantrip is a ranged one), and you don't get a non-cantrip spell till lv7.

What about Green (poison)?
0) Poison Spray, 1) Ray of Sickness, 6) Cloudkill

Do I even need to comment?

What about Black/Copper(acid)?
0) Acid Splash, 1-9) ERROR: spells not found

Maybe I've missed one somewhere, but I think you get the idea. From a mechanical standpoint, there's no reason to pick any dragon other than a Fire one. They have at least 3 times as many spells as the others, and with a far superior spread. Not to mention a vastly better selection of AoEs (you have single-target attacks, multiple-target attacks, bursts, walls, clouds etc.).

It just really annoys me that sorcerers were pushed towards picking an element to specialise in, but barely given any elemental spells other than fire ones. Where's Acid Arrow? Where's Ice Knife? Where are the Orb of X and Lesser Orb of X spells?

[JumboWheat01]

Where are the Orb of X and Lesser Orb of X spells?

That's Chromatic Orb these days, a Level 1 spell that can neatly fit into any Dragon Origin, except Green, I think.

Really, Poison in general got no love this edition.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

There are so many interesting niche things in 3.5 that I miss that it would be impossible to list them all off the top of my head, but here is a sample:

Combat spells

Glitterdust
Enervation
Various draconic spells, like Wings of Flurry
Otiluke's Suppressing Field
Fell the Greatest Foe

Utility spells/powers
Shrink Item (Enlarge/Reduce does not cut it)
Scholar's Touch
Identify Transgressor
Linked Perception
Time Hop (psionic)
Dimension Door bringing more than two people (it could have at least scaled to add more people; it's a lot harder for the poor PCs who fall into my evil clutches to retreat and lick their wounds now)

Nonmagical combat abilities
Related to dim-door, retreating in general was easier back in the day. You could effectively "withdraw" and double move in 3.5, for instance, while now if you actually want to retreat you shouldn't disengage.
Sniping (or stealth more generally) as an explicit thing
ToB style maneuvers and stances in general (BM doesn't cut it)
Combat Reflexes, as a feat anyone can pick up
So, so many things that provided situational bonuses and penalties

[KorvinStarmast]

I sort of miss Charm cheese from old editions, but I guess the never ending source of attack from cantrips makes up for it? Different feel.

Charm person used to be quite effective, not so much now. Granted, it was perhaps overpowered, but that was when magic users didn't have a lot of at will powers. You had to really be careful about when to let loose with magic. Any wand was precious beyond GP.

Charming a fighter or something like that, usually one of not too much wit, to handle a lot of the dirty work was a part of the fun. So too was the worry that this time, after two weeks, the big lug would make his saving throw and now my magic user has to talk him in to sticking around, and then maybe charming him again to make sure he doesn't wander off in search of ale and whores ... as fighting men are known to do on occasion. (Heh, my first ever MU lost his charmed fighter to the spell wearing off one morning and the guy heading immediately towards a brothel ... where he got rolled ... the rest of only funny in context of that campaign).

I also miss old style crowd control, even though it is still around in a diluted form. That was how low level parties often survived.

[Tanarii]

It just really annoys me that sorcerers were pushed towards picking an element to specialise in, but barely given any elemental spells other than fire ones. Where's Acid Arrow? Where's Ice Knife? Where are the Orb of X and Lesser Orb of X spells?1) It's called Melf's Acid Arrow, and Sorcerer's can't take it.
2) It's in the Elemental Evil expansion.
3) It's called Chromatic Orb.

Sounds like you could benefit from the free EE Player's expansion: http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf

[Blue Lantern]

I think you may have misread my intent. I was not jumping down your throat. I was offering to help you out because you seemed unhappy with a class with which I am very familiar.

If I may offer a suggestion then, when you are trying to help someone do not use sarcasm as an opener, it is usually not a particularly effective indicative of helpfulness.

As I said I like 5e, and I appreciate the tentative of giving sorcerer their unique stitch with metamagic, but still I can't help to chafe at the way they artificially limited his options by extremely narrowing his spell list, and, if I may say, being a bit lazy with the origins, considering they have very little mechanical synergy with his spellcasting and seem more done for flavor that usefulness. I don't want to accuse the designers of stupidity or malicious intent, so I guess they had their reason for that, but it still is one of the thing of 5e that I don't like and wish was different.


Sorcerers could be more than blasters? I don't recall them too well from other editions, but the impression I've always gotten is being blastery was their shtick.

In 4e probably true, in 3.5 you could build sorcerers in many different ways, even if wizard were objectively more effective, because they had a much larger spell list to pick from. In 5e the spell list is much more limited and thus are their options.

[Tanarii]

In 4e probably true, in 3.5 you could build sorcerers in many different ways, even if wizard were objectively more effective, because they had a much larger spell list to pick from. In 5e the spell list is much more limited and thus are their options.Interesting. I mostly remember my Red Wizard of Thay Sorcerer on an NWN persistent world server. He used every spell slot from 3rd on up for Fireballs with Metamagic, and 1st were Burning Hands. (I can't remember what I used 2nd level slots for.) It doesn't get much more blastery than that. ;)

[mgshamster]

Interesting. I mostly remember my Red Wizard of Thay Sorcerer on an NWN persistent world server. He used every spell slot from 3rd on up for Fireballs with Metamagic, and 1st were Burning Hands. (I can't remember what I used 2nd level slots for.) It doesn't get much more blastery than that. ;)

One of my favorite 3.X examples of a non-blaster sorcerer was a guy who used the mount spell in a variety of ways, from blocking a hallway so they could run away from bad guys to using it as bait for an owlbear (who got really pissed when it's lunch disappeared after it killed the poor horse) to providing a counter-weight on a pulley system to setting off a series of traps in a dungeon. He even used it for its intended purpose every now and then!

[Blue Lantern]

One of my favorite 3.X examples of a non-blaster sorcerer was a guy who used the mount spell in a variety of ways, from blocking a hallway so they could run away from bad guys to using it as bait for an owlbear (who got really pissed when it's lunch disappeared after it killed the poor horse) to providing a counter-weight on a pulley system to setting off a series of traps in a dungeon. He even used it for its intended purpose every now and then!

One of my 3.5 characters was a sorcerer with mostly illusion and summoning spells, plus some utility spells, I think I only had 1 damage spell at any time (scorching ray, then swapped for disintegrate), just for emergencies.

[JumboWheat01]

One of my 3.5 characters was a sorcerer with mostly illusion and summoning spells, plus some utility spells, I think I only had 1 damage spell at any time (scorching ray, then swapped for disintegrate), just for emergencies.

Let's be honest, if you have Disintegrate on your spell list, is there any reason for it to NOT be on your list of prepared/known spells?

Still, that's a clever idea. I'd have to try that out on Neverwinter Nights 2, except swapping Illusion for Enchantment (Illusion is kinda gutted in the 3rd edition video games.)

[Discord]

I miss 3.5e Templates for monsters / characters, and Grafting options as well.

[supergoji18]

Let's see:
- I miss familiars and animal companions that could attack without you having to stop what you're doing and direct them. And even when they start attacking something, they stop every 6 seconds and force you to ask them again.

- I miss regeneration/fast healing from a lot of monsters.

- I miss spellcasting on monsters. And by spellcasting, I mean having more than maybe 2 spells (usually really piddly ones at that).

- I miss Shadow Dragons being a separate species, rather than just being a really uninteresting template.

- In fact, I miss templates that amounted to more than just '+2 to ability score'. :smalltongue:

- I miss the 3.5 Warlock. Not that I dislike the 5th edition one, but I liked that the 3.5 one actually had a unique mechanic, as opposed to just using the same spells as every other caster. it doesn't help that many of the Invocations are really disappointing now. As an example, a 6th level 3.5 Warlock could cast Fly on himself at will. A 9th level 5e Warlock can cast Jump on himself at will. Yeah. :smallmad:
I agree with all of this except for Shadow Dragons, which I am still on the fence about. I don't think its uninteresting, but I think it is a weird decision.
Also I disagree with the templates because the only template that amounts to that much are for the lycanthropes. Vampires get a **** ton of benefits, and Half-Dragons are just plain awesome because dragons.

- I miss Dragons being full spellcasters and having more age categories, instead of being glorified HP pools that they made them in this edition.

- I miss the psionics class

- I miss the summoning spells, and I find the severe lack of them quite strange to say the least (why can't warlocks summon demons/devils?)

[Gtdead]

The ability I really miss is Divine Power. Cleric was always my favorite class, and divine power was one of the many reasons. (not divine metamagic though, always felt like a tax no matter how powerful, screw that). Such a simple ability that gave so much versatility to my support minded builds. Sure it was abusable, but there is nothing I wouldn't trade in 5e to have something like that, even once per long rest.

[DeAnno]

Mostly? I miss rules over rulings, and aggressive errata. Wanting a consistent, balanced game with clear rules shouldn't make a player have to feel like some sort of criminal.

Specifically, I miss:

Feats. You need to negotiate the few you get against ASIs these days, which are basically the 4e Expertise problem wrought large. I despise the Feat/ASI system.
Unbounded accuracy. It's so hard to be really good at something in this edition that it feels like a crapshoot. The system really feels like it doesn't just want to punish optimization, but any sort of specialization at all. It has the effect of making a lot of characters feel more samey and bland.
Quality controlled CR. 3.5e wasn't good at this by any means, but 4e was fairly consistent by the end and 5e has been a step back from both. Pixies and Intellect Devourers, ye gods.
9th level spells not existing. 3.5e had a lot of spells that broke the game at a strategic level (instead of just a tactical one), and one of the great strides of 4e was at least putting a stop to that. This crop of 9ths isn't quite as bad as 3.5e was, but urgh. And Simulacrum is a 9th disguised as a 7th.
5e True Strike is an abomination of uselessness, I want my old one back that actually made sense to use at times and wasn't as finicky as broadcast TV in a blizzard.

[Quintessence]

Shapesand from 3.5

[Dr. Cliché]

From a DM perspective, I miss 'powerful' spellcasters.

I know there are still some tricks, but the heavy limit on high level spells, along with concentration and a lack of long-lasting spells makes it a lot more difficult to design caster villains. In 3.5, pretty much anything could be justified if a wizard was behind it. In 5th, not so much.

I think what's annoying is that there's no real template for such a villain anymore. No matter which spellcasting class I pick, I'm still stuck with a single lv7, lv8 and lv9 spell per day. I'm still stuck with Concentration. I'm still stuck with lacklustre and short-lived high-end spells. And the monster "casters" are even worse, with most being lucky if they're allowed more than a cantrip.

I get that, as DM, I can make stuff up, but I feel it's something that should be used sparingly. Especially when I'm giving NPCs a lot of stuff that PCs will never be allowed.

[Naanomi]

Although I'm very satisfied with edition, I do wish we'd see a 'monsters as player characters' supplement... relative civility and cosmopolitinism is a big part of my home-setting, and it was harder to capture that feel without more 'exotic' choices (not that they are hard to homebrew per-se)

[Mjolnirbear]

It didn't last long, but I miss the Playtest change to ability bonuses at character creation: instead of +2 dex and +1 INT for a high elf, part of your bonus came from your class. It makes it harder to play a dwarf sorcerer or warlock.

I'm considering houserules for it: you get +1 from your race and +2 from your class. So building a mountain dwarf paladin,you can put your +1 into strength (mountain) or con (dwarf), and your +2 into strength or charisma (a paladin's 2 primary abilities). You cant put them both into the same score.

I miss moon druids' shape-shifting being tied to Constitution.

I also miss the first level feat.

I miss the ability to play almost anything. Gith? Goblin? Centaur? Werebear? Pixie?

I miss almost anything from Monte Cooke's Arcana Evolved, but faen, witches, sprites, and rituals top the list.

[Dr. Cliché]

I also miss the first level feat.

Agreed.



I miss the ability to play almost anything. Gith? Goblin? Centaur? Werebear? Pixie?

Also agreed.



I miss moon druids' shape-shifting being tied to Constitution.


Could you elaborate on this?

[Mjolnirbear]

It's a vague recollection and I frankly can't even recall which edition, though probably Playtest. Maybe it was just imagination. But shape-shifting was tied to Constitution, I think you could shift a number of times based on your con bonus? It appealed to me because as awesome as con is to everyone, that only the barbarian actually uses it seemed sad to me. And what could be more relevant to your Constitution than by rearranging your body structure at a molecular level?

[Dr. Cliché]

It's a vague recollection and I frankly can't even recall which edition, though probably Playtest. Maybe it was just imagination. But shape-shifting was tied to Constitution, I think you could shift a number of times based on your con bonus? It appealed to me because as awesome as con is to everyone, that only the barbarian actually uses it seemed sad to me. And what could be more relevant to your Constitution than by rearranging your body structure at a molecular level?

Yeah, that certainly makes sense.

But then, as I've said before, I'd kinda like Wild Shape to be a bit more icky/visceral.

[Specter]

From a DM perspective, I miss 'powerful' spellcasters.

I know there are still some tricks, but the heavy limit on high level spells, along with concentration and a lack of long-lasting spells makes it a lot more difficult to design caster villains. In 3.5, pretty much anything could be justified if a wizard was behind it. In 5th, not so much.

Well, goes to show how diverse people are. If there's one thing I completely abhor from 3.X are the godly casters.

[Dr. Cliché]

Well, goes to show how diverse people are. If there's one thing I completely abhor from 3.X are the godly casters.

The thing for me is that D&D feels like the wrong world to start nerfing magic in. Given how much the world is shaped by magic, it just doesn't feel right to have it be so weak and short-lived.

[OldTrees1]

Warriors
1) Opportunity attacks for movement entirely within reach
2) Combat Reflexes
3) On Hit effects like Knockback, Stand Still, Staggering Strike (Battlemaster is not a substitute for ToB and ToB was not ideal either)

Thieves
5E included my favorite and hard to get ability (Ranged skill use) so no complaints here. In light of that I don't care if Hide in Plain Sight is or is not included.

Magic users
1) Abilities that were not actively casting. The Dread Necromancer's Charnel Touch as an example.

[Night Eternal]

i say this what having actually played the other additions just having stolen spells from them for other games lol. But 4e sword mage spells. I miss them . I wish I could use them for my character now

[Tanarii]

I don't exactly miss, but very much appreciated at the time, the highly battle-mat oriented play of 2e Combat and Tactics, 3e/3.5, and 4e.

I say I don't exactly miss it because if I want it I'll just go play a game in an edition that has it, there are plenty of 3.P and 4e games still around in my area. And because I've personally moved on from it. Or possible moved *back* to not using it is a better way of putting it, since I never really did before 2e C&T. I don't think either battle mat or non-battle mat is superior overall. I just think they give very different feels to the game play, and am having fun with this new/old style of play.


But 4e sword mage spellsSword-mages were very cool.