Some questions from an experienced 3.5 DM, new to 5E

[Kol Korran]

Hey all. I'm looking to gain some insight and answers about various 5E issues.
I'm a long time GM, but mostly in D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder. Recently I began to check and read about 5E. I'm quite intrigued and find it interesting, yet I've never yet played it or GMed using it. I've read large portions of the Player's guide, DM's guide and some of the Monster manual, but not all...

Some of the questions use quotes from a previous thread I recently posted, asking for comparisons between E6 and 5E (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583826-Asking-for-comparisons-between-E6-P6-amp-5e), but you don't need to read that thread.

Ok, here goes:
1) Awarding XP:
While I got the idea of multiplying the sum of the monsters' XP by a modifier depending on the number of monsters, I'm unsure of how much XP do you award for the encounter? The text indicates that the adjusted XP is used for determining the encounter's difficulty, but I haven't seen anything about the award given.

As an example- Let's say in the encounter I'm using 2 monsters, each is worth 50XP. Do I award the players 100XP? (50+50) or 150 XP? (Adjusted by the x1.5 modifier)

2) Wealth by level?
In 3.5E and PF, there was a table for approximate wealth-by-level. Basically, the worth of all her material possessions to this level. It helped gauge balance (In a very rough way, I'll admit), an plan loot and rewards. I haven't been able to find anything similar in 5E. What am I missing?

3) Online resource:
In Pathfinder, the PFSRD site was a huuuuuuggge aid for me as a GM for planning, and for players for bulding characters. I've found various 5E sites, but most only had partial material, and usually not well hyperlinked to navigate. Is there a good site for the mechanical info for 5E?

4) Suggested supplements:
5E has far fewer supplements (So far at least), but I have far less time... Anything really worth delving into? Anything worth avoiding?

5) Eberron:
I'm a big fan, and one of my ideas (A major one), takes place in the setting. I understand there is a supplement. How good is it? I'm espeically interested to know if they kept the flavor well, how they dealt with the Dragonmakred, Eberron races and magi-tech technology. (From what I've read so far, 5E seems closer to 1st Ed D&D and AD&D in terms of world flavor)

6) Exploration:
A major game element/ theme I want to incorporate is exploring the dangerous wilds. Including planning a course, mapping new land, possibly getting lost, dealing with natiral hazards and weather (Fast flowing rivers, rugged hills, salt plains, heat waves, storms, snow and more...). However, when I asked about it in the above mentioned thread, Yora responded:


Originally by Yora:
...A good wilderness travel system you would need to make yourself either way. (Though if this part is of interest to your group, the 5th ed. ranger is a bad thing to have in the campaign. A 1st level ranger means you no longer have to interact with the wilderness anymore.)...

Looking at the ranger class (including the revised), the "natural outdoorsman" niche is fully done at 1st level... It does seem to circumvent most obstacles... Is that so? If it is, has anyone done anything to change it?

7) Magic system:
It is... different. I'm not yet sure what to think about it. I like the idea that all spells cast by the same caster have the same DC, the ability to upgrade spells, and that the concentration mechanics basically obliterates the stacking of magical effects (As was common in 3.5E and PF). But it's still, a bit strange to me.

I'd love if anyone can explain how it affects their game- things that work well, and things to look out for.

Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?

8) Inspiration:
I am intrigued by the concept and it's implementation. To me it feels like a downgraded and somewhat altered version of Fate Core's Aspects mechanic. If you're using it- Why? And what are your experiences with it? If you don't- why?

9) The "hard cap" for ability scores:
I quite loved that ability scores can't rise above 20 (except for very rare occurrences I imagine?). However, one of my players who heard about it, didn't like it. Your thoughts?

10) Anything else...
Any other insight that might help a GM transitioning between the systems (And players!) that you think is worth mentioning?

Thanks in advance, and it seems I'll be looking into this part of the forum as well from now on. :smallwink:

Kol.

[nickl_2000]

1) Sorry, not good on this one, will let others answer

2) Page 38 in the DMG has adjustments for wealth starting at a higher level

3) Most sites out there only have the SRD, the free suppliment due to copyright restrictions. Roll20 and dndbeyond both have the ability to buy legally online copies of the book. There are other ones out there, but the legallity is questionable at best and flat out illegal at worst.

4) Depends on what levels you are playing at. Outside of the PhB, DMG, and MM. Look at Xanathar's Guide and Volo's, those will give you the best bang for you buck from WotC.

5) Have only read it and never played it, I will let others check it out.

6) Again, letting others go.

7) There are two huge changes here. The first is cantrip, they have gone from being a weak spell that is more fluff than anything else to being able to be cast at will. No longer are the days when a wizard had to fire a crossbow poorly when they ran out of spells. Not only that, but cantrips get more powerful as your character levels. The second is concentration, most buffs now require concentration on the spell. I like the mechanic personally, although it took some getting used to after having grown up in 3, 3.5. It makes you make more decisions on what is important to you in combat and makes it less about stack and casting buff after buff after buff and more about what helps you and the party the most.

As a DM, you just need to know or mark what is concentration so you don't accidentally cheat and have two concentration spells up at once. My DM, who plays a lot of pathfinder has done it a few times on accident.

8) I've seen 3 games that intended to use it, and used it for the first two sessions then completely forgot about it. Getting advantage on a roll is powerful, but there are lots of ways to get it already. So, inspiration seems to just loss out.

9) I like it, it helps avoid one person totally taking over a campaign because they rolled amazing.

10) The biggest struggle for me initially was concentration spells and checks. Once you get past that, many things run the same way. Overall though, I love the 5e system but I wouldn't mind seeing it grow more over time.

[Unoriginal]

Don't have the time to answer all of them right now, but here's a few I hope will help:



1) Awarding XP:
While I got the idea of multiplying the sum of the monsters' XP by a modifier depending on the number of monsters, I'm unsure of how much XP do you award for the encounter? The text indicates that the adjusted XP is used for determining the encounter's difficulty, but I haven't seen anything about the award given.

You don't give the adjusted XPs, you give the XP of each monster individually.

40 goblins are worth as much XP as (XP for 1 goblin)*40, without the modifier for the number of monster.

It helps keep mooks relevant.

Nothing stopping you from giving more XP if you'd rather, though.



As an example- Let's say in the encounter I'm using 2 monsters, each is worth 50XP. Do I award the players 100XP? (50+50) or 150 XP? (Adjusted by the x1.5 modifier)

100 XP.



2) Wealth by level?
In 3.5E and PF, there was a table for approximate wealth-by-level. Basically, the worth of all her material possessions to this level. It helped gauge balance (In a very rough way, I'll admit), an plan loot and rewards. I haven't been able to find anything similar in 5E. What am I missing?

3.PF's magic items, which are a big drain of the wealth per level, are expected as inherent to the character. 5e's magic items are not, they're all supplemental to the character's power.

If you want to plan loot, the DMG has a ton of tables for that. Other than that loot can be as little or as much as you wish (and as is entertaining, of course).

Also, the Xanathar's Guide for Everything has a table of suggested magic items quantity per level.



In Pathfinder, the PFSRD site was a huuuuuuggge aid for me as a GM for planning, and for players for bulding characters. I've found various 5E sites, but most only had partial material, and usually not well hyperlinked to navigate. Is there a good site for the mechanical info for 5E?

For the entire mechanical info? No legal ones. Aside the D&D Beyond stuff I suppose. But that doesn't stop people.



Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?[QUOTE=Kol Korran;23906018]

There is nothing game breaking if you applies the actual limits of the spells rather than handwaving them because "it's magic". Even what is known as the "Simulacrum chain", aka have a Simulacrum of the caster make a Simulacrum of the caster, then have this Simulacrum make a Simulacrum, etc, which is widely considered like the only game-breaking exploit one should look out for, can reasonably be shot down.


[QUOTE=Kol Korran;23906018]
9) The "hard cap" for ability scores:
I quite loved that ability scores can't rise above 20 (except for very rare occurrences I imagine?). However, one of my players who heard about it, didn't like it. Your thoughts?

It's a great thing that the stats are capped. The few ways to go beyond that are suitably epic, as the capacity to go beyond humanoid limits should be.

[Lyracian]

I have also converted from 3.5 to 5th.

1) Awarding XP
The DMG has alternative opiton for leveling on completing quests and Adventures League uses "Advancement Points". When running I ignore the rules and just give out a set amount for the adventure. This has been between 300 and 500 so far but will depend on how quickly you want players to gain levels.

3) Online resource
Wizard seem to be a bit more forthright in stomping down on copyright material on other sites. There are a couple of good sites with full spell lists I have found but that is about it.

4) Suggested supplements
This depends what you are looking for and want for your game. I am in two games that only use PHB for player options. Xanthar's Guide has some good subclasses and spells to help out those with weaker options but it also includes some rather over powered. That and the Monster Manual are enough for most of the adventures I have run. DMG does have the full list of Magic Items but there are enough in the free rules that it is not needed.

If you want adventures www.dmsguild.com has lots and some of the hardback adventure supplements are highly rated.

7) Magic system
I like the limit of only concentrating on one spells. Makes spell selection more meaningful and stops the mass buff before the big fight.

8) Inspiration
Nice addition I keep meaning to make more use of it.

9) The "hard cap" for ability scores
There are still belts of Giant Strength. This will depend on what style of game you want to play. Personally never had a lot of games with massive amounts of stat boosts. With Feats also taking up Ability slots I do not see this being a problem.

10) Anything else...
Overall I much prefer 5th Edition. The main weakness, for me, is the skill system. I like that Multi-classing is a real trade off of raw power against versatility.
The only restrictions I would add to 5th Ed would be

Paladins can Smite a number times a day equal to there paladin level
Warlock spell slots cannot be converted into Sorcery point.
Healing Spirit follows Crawford's suggestion https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/935992604080013312?lang=en
Hexblades get there extra powers at level 3 not level 1

[BloodSnake'sCha]

1.
I think there is a calculator.
https://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder


3. D&D byond is easy to use but requires payment to use all materials.
From what I know you can open the materials for your players but I don't know how.

4. Xanathar's Guide and Volo's have most of the stuff you want.

7. It make everyone focus on ways to break the game with one spell at a time instead of multiple spells at at the same time.

8. We homebrewed it to be able to affect after the roll or be use as a bard inspiration dice at the same level.

9. I hate it as well, your player will need to suck it up and hope for a tome that will be able to get him past the cap.
It can be done, I am an example.

10.read to rules you know of from 3.5e, they are different here. For example: there is only one type of critical, a 20 on an attack roll.
20 on skills and saves aren't critical and a 1 on anything but wands and similar stuff do nothing.
The rules are written poorly so you will need to work extra time in order to understand them.

Have fun, you are entering a simpler world, for good and worse.

[DrKerosene]

1. You should give the Party 100xp for the combat scenario, assuming “success” by whatever method you care about. The modifier thing is just to help you gauge how close your encounter is to “trivial/deadly”.

2. I think you want Page 38 of the DMG, it has a small table about providing some extra gold and magic items to characters starting at a higher level. Alternatively, you can take a look at the treasure tables around page 136 and calculate how much coin a Party should expect over the course of a level. Rolling for treasure and magic items this way is likely to result in much more loot than page 38.

3. DndBeyond and Donjon are my preferred partial sources. I think anything that is more complete would count as piracy recommendation.

4. Xanathar’s Guide To Everything is kinda like the DMG2 and PHB2 from 3.5e days. It goes into more detail on the XP mechanics you asked in question 1. And it has other cool stuff, but it also has some reprinted material from other books too (if that’s a deal breaker for you).

5. Can’t say anything about that. Sorry.

6. Some spells, class features, feats, or a combo does negate an aspect of gameplay. If this is an intended and clever use, reward it. If this creates an issue by accident then you can talk to the Player about if they are happy with the results, and make changes. Some people may modify Goodberry to consume the magical component, so it doesn’t fully negate food needs (I’ve gone the opposite way in my game, since my players really don’t want to get bogged down with mechanical starvation).

7. 5e casting reminds me of the Beguiler (and/or Spirit Shaman) class from 3.5e. Druids and Clerics are still solid choices, I feel like Sorcerers need to be built for the campaign or vice versa. The spells you can stack are fun to figure out.

8. I occasionally give it out when we laugh at the roleplaying, but my Players rarely remember they have it without me reminding them. It has mostly helped fill in for the Bard failing to use their own Inspiration or Cast Bless or Heroism, and the fact my Druid Player doesn’t have Guidance, or Resistance, or cast Enhance Ability.

9. That Player should play a Archery Fighting Style Fighter, or Crossbow Ranger, while Blessed and maybe using Elven Accuracy.

10. Mordenkainen’s and Volos provide a decent variety of caster NPCs to use a reference if you really want to expand your sources of statblocks for comparison when building your own NPCs. Lair Actions really help round out things in 5e. Curse Of Strahd and Tales From The Yawning Portal seem to be the best rated adventure books.

A few things stack weird. Apparently Boots Of Striding And Springing can stack with the spell Jump to potentially give you 9X your Athletics Check in distance.

Edit: “Paladins can Smite a number times a day equal to there paladin level” I think this is an unnecessary nerf.

[napoleon_in_rag]

6. Some spells, class features, feats, or a combo does negate an aspect of gameplay. If this is an intended and clever use, reward it. If this creates an issue by accident then you can talk to the Player about if they are happy with the results, and make changes. Some people may modify Goodberry to consume the magical component, so it doesn’t fully negate food needs (I’ve gone the opposite way in my game, since my players really don’t want to get bogged down with mechanical starvation).


I use this house rule. Goodberry consumes the misletoe on use. I also require that the mistletoe be reasonably fresh, no more than 2d4 days old.

My problem with Goodberry is more theme based than mechanics. I see Rangers as hunters, surviving off game, fishing, and maybe a little herbal knowledge. But why do all that work if you can just cast Goodberry once per day AND get 1hp back to boot?

[strangebloke]

1) Awarding XP:
While I got the idea of multiplying the sum of the monsters' XP by a modifier depending on the number of monsters, I'm unsure of how much XP do you award for the encounter? The text indicates that the adjusted XP is used for determining the encounter's difficulty, but I haven't seen anything about the award given.

As an example- Let's say in the encounter I'm using 2 monsters, each is worth 50XP. Do I award the players 100XP? (50+50) or 150 XP? (Adjusted by the x1.5 modifier)

Don't use adjusted. The Adjusted number is for you to figure out how tough an encounter might be, and how much tougher it might be if you add more foes to it. Each monster just gives whatever XP it gives.


2) Wealth by level?
In 3.5E and PF, there was a table for approximate wealth-by-level. Basically, the worth of all her material possessions to this level. It helped gauge balance (In a very rough way, I'll admit), an plan loot and rewards. I haven't been able to find anything similar in 5E. What am I missing?
Nothing at all!

Magical loot is not really assumed in 5e. Now, the game isn't balanced if there's no magical loot. Some enemies are outright immune to nonmagical damage. But there's no standard for who can have what kind of loot when.

...Well, there sorta is.


Levels 1-5: Hand out common items, (adamantine longsword) and occasionally an uncommon. (+1 sword)
Levels 6-10: Hand out uncommon items, (+1 sword) and occasionally a rare. (flametongue)
Levels 11-15: Hand out rare items, (flametongue) and occasionally a very rare. (Frost Brand)
Levels 16-20: Hand out very rare items, (Frost Brand) and occasionally a legendary. (holy avenger)


But that doesn't completely hold up because some items (boots of flying) are way too good for their level. What I did was make a deck of cards, then assigned a piece of loot for each suit, rarity value omitting legendary, and 1-10 value. When they draw a card, they get the corresponding item. If they get a facecard, they get the item listed from 1-4 on the next rarity level.


3) Online resource:
In Pathfinder, the PFSRD site was a huuuuuuggge aid for me as a GM for planning, and for players for bulding characters. I've found various 5E sites, but most only had partial material, and usually not well hyperlinked to navigate. Is there a good site for the mechanical info for 5E?
Not really. Giger has archetypes and feats. Other sites have spells. roll20 has good tools for building stuff and has all the free content. There's also a crapton of free UA content out there, most of which is either broken or has been published in some form.

If you pay money you can get a DRM-locked copy of the books online via DNDbeyond or Roll20.

4) Suggested supplements:
5E has far fewer supplements (So far at least), but I have far less time... Anything really worth delving into? Anything worth avoiding?
In order.

Player's Hand Book -> Dungeon Master's Guide -> Monster Manual -> Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Then for a high level campaign pick up Mordkenkainen's Tome of Foes. For a mid-level campaign with strong lots of orcs, giants, beholders, goblins, or whatever, pick up Volo's.

Obviously if you're in Eberron or Faerun, get the relevant guides if you think you need them.

That pretty much covers it. XGtE has the most player options outside of the PHB and also has a lot of really slick DM tips.

5) Eberron:
I'm a big fan, and one of my ideas (A major one), takes place in the setting. I understand there is a supplement. How good is it? I'm espeically interested to know if they kept the flavor well, how they dealt with the Dragonmakred, Eberron races and magi-tech technology. (From what I've read so far, 5E seems closer to 1st Ed D&D and AD&D in terms of world flavor)
There's no artificer in it, and the rules for magical item creation are... a little loose. But you can work it. I don't own this book but the general consensus seems to be positive?

There is a playtest artificer for free, and the latest version actually seems pretty cool. There are also like 500 different homebrew artificers of varying quality.


6) Exploration:
A major game element/ theme I want to incorporate is exploring the dangerous wilds. Including planning a course, mapping new land, possibly getting lost, dealing with natiral hazards and weather (Fast flowing rivers, rugged hills, salt plains, heat waves, storms, snow and more...). However, when I asked about it in the above mentioned thread, Yora responded:

Looking at the ranger class (including the revised), the "natural outdoorsman" niche is fully done at 1st level... It does seem to circumvent most obstacles... Is that so? If it is, has anyone done anything to change it?

Exploration is the weakest pillar of the game and you have to do all the work yourself. But even then Rangers only get advantage in their favored terrain and they can only avoid getting lost. So TBH I don't see it as an issue.

I would highly recommend keeping track of how aware the environment's predators are of them, and 'upgrading' the random encounter roll if the party has been moving slow and making a great big ruckus.


7) Magic system:
It is... different. I'm not yet sure what to think about it. I like the idea that all spells cast by the same caster have the same DC, the ability to upgrade spells, and that the concentration mechanics basically obliterates the stacking of magical effects (As was common in 3.5E and PF). But it's still, a bit strange to me.

I'd love if anyone can explain how it affects their game- things that work well, and things to look out for.

Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?

So, its really simple.

Every character has 1 concentration slot. This means that they can have one powerful spell active at any time. This means that something like Haste is broken good... but you can't use it and Bless at the same time.

Every full caster has cantrips. So they can just plunk away with ye olde magical crossbow.

Ritual spells allow for free magic outside of combat.

Instanteous spells are very expensive for what they do (when compared with cantrips and concentration spells and rituals) but they're powerful in the short term.

At high levels, wish+simulacrum is broken and that's really it, without going into dubious rulings.


8) Inspiration:
I am intrigued by the concept and it's implementation. To me it feels like a downgraded and somewhat altered version of Fate Core's Aspects mechanic. If you're using it- Why? And what are your experiences with it? If you don't- why?
Never used it or seen it used or talked to someone who used it.

9) The "hard cap" for ability scores:
I quite loved that ability scores can't rise above 20 (except for very rare occurrences I imagine?). However, one of my players who heard about it, didn't like it. Your thoughts?
They can move past 20, with magic items or boons. Same as 3.5, really.

But also, remember that other parts of your class features are easier to boost. You can get advantage on STR checks, for example, which is equivalent to a +3 or so.

10) Anything else...
Any other insight that might help a GM transitioning between the systems (And players!) that you think is worth mentioning?

Just don't assume that because its named the same thing, that it works the same way.

[nickl_2000]

I use this house rule. Goodberry consumes the misletoe on use. I also require that the mistletoe be reasonably fresh, no more than 2d4 days old.

My problem with Goodberry is more theme based than mechanics. I see Rangers as hunters, surviving off game, fishing, and maybe a little herbal knowledge. But why do all that work if you can just cast Goodberry once per day AND get 1hp back to boot?

Because you want to eat something other than a big apple every day? Because meat/fish tastes good?

[bc56]

5: Eberron
Since nobody's answered this, I will. There are two Eberron resources published for 5e as online only: Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron and Morgrave Miscellany. I don't have links, but they should be easy to look up online.
Dragonmarks are handled as variant races, and the Eberron specific races can be found in the Wayfinder's guide. I haven't looked at Morgrave, so I don't know what's in there.

[DrKerosene]

Because you want to eat something other than a big apple every day? Because meat/fish tastes good?

I usually like to say that Goodberries are like Willy Wonka Candies (AKA feywild fruit). “It tastes like a whole thanksgiving dinner!” “Mine tastes like blueberry pie!”

If the DM was pitching a game where you hunt for your food, prepare and cook it, have to purify your drinking water, etc, then I would be willing to play, but I would make a very different PC then if that gameplay focus and level of gritty realism was sprung on me.

Also, if Kol wants some support for Ebberon Artificer Stuff, then they should skim this: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?539861-The-Arcane-Programmer-Guide-(-Official-Rules-Technique-)

Edit: I’ve seen some steampunk stuff in the form of a digitial third-party book a former DM was using. Had guns and a cursed “Midas Cannon”. Can’t recall the name though.

[Willie the Duck]

While I got the idea of multiplying the sum of the monsters' XP by a modifier depending on the number of monsters, I'm unsure of how much XP do you award for the encounter? The text indicates that the adjusted XP is used for determining the encounter's difficulty, but I haven't seen anything about the award given.

As an example- Let's say in the encounter I'm using 2 monsters, each is worth 50XP. Do I award the players 100XP? (50+50) or 150 XP? (Adjusted by the x1.5 modifier)

Those x1.5 things are for helping calculate an encounter difficulty. Running into 20 goblins is a lot (a lot!) harder than running into 1 goblin 20 times. For that reason a DM needs a handy metric for figuring out how much of a challenge increased numbers are. The XP award, however, is still just monster-XP x number-appearing.


2) Wealth by level?
In 3.5E and PF, there was a table for approximate wealth-by-level. Basically, the worth of all her material possessions to this level. It helped gauge balance (In a very rough way, I'll admit), an plan loot and rewards. I haven't been able to find anything similar in 5E. What am I missing?

Xanathar's probably has the best advice. However, assuming you are not letting the party buy magic items (and there is no default assumption that you will), you can start them at whatever starting gold you want, and (over a certain point, as some mundane equipment is expensive enough to be non-trivial) it only matters insofar as which plots you want them to solve with money (passages booked, guards bribed, etc.).

To put it another way, if you want to start them at Xth level, with Y money, the only real effect is whether the fighters are wearing plate mail instead of chain mail, and if they have more or fewer healing potions (plus some middling things like hand crossbows, longbows, and a few kits and the like are a little costly compared to what you earn at levels 1-3).

Excess money does not (unless you decide to go that route) mean the party starts out with +1 everything and all the cool gadgets their bags of holding can carry. 5e doesn't innately work that way.



A major game element/ theme I want to incorporate is exploring the dangerous wilds. Including planning a course, mapping new land, possibly getting lost, dealing with natiral hazards and weather (Fast flowing rivers, rugged hills, salt plains, heat waves, storms, snow and more...). However, when I asked about it in the above mentioned thread, Yora responded:
Looking at the ranger class (including the revised), the "natural outdoorsman" niche is fully done at 1st level... It does seem to circumvent most obstacles... Is that so? If it is, has anyone done anything to change it?

Sort of. Much of the wilderness rules are in the vein of 'speed is halved, you get disadvantage on X checks' for various terrains (if the DM remembers) unless you have a ranger. Thus, playing a ranger makes the wilderness portion of the game (the part you probably don't care about too much unless you are the kind of player who might reasonably play a ranger) less interesting. That said, you can still get lost. You can still spend 6 weeks instead of 2 getting from point A to point B because you have sketchy information on where you are going/what to look for, etc. Goodberry or the like can make the tracking rations part pretty trivial as well (not that 'this part of the game would be interesting, except that a low-level spell has made it completely trivial' is new to 5e, by any stretch).

Mind you, the biggest things 5e is worst at is 1) starvation, drowning, and other situations very few games do well, and 2) places where in 3e you'd want either hard and fast DCs or having players look for intermittent +1s and +2s to offset the situational -1s and -2s you throw in based on circumstances. Other than that, all the "planning a course, mapping new land, possibly getting lost, dealing with natiral hazards and weather (Fast flowing rivers, rugged hills, salt plains, heat waves, storms, snow and more...) " stuff works mostly the same in 5e as most D&Ds other than 3e/PF. There's a guy here who routinely harshes on the 5e skill system in favor of the 3e model.He's in no way wrong, I just contend that 3e/PF gives you clear, concise, solid structured answers that aren't in the end necessarily good answers.


I'd love if anyone can explain how it affects their game- things that work well, and things to look out for.

Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?

There are few outright breakers. Simulacrum chaining can be. Wish plus Simulacrum as well (one of the costs of Wish is that you risk losing the ability to ever cast it again, which is a hollow threat if it is a simulacrum of you casting it). I strongly suggest flat out banning those. Otherwise, there are mostly just weaker or stronger spells for the given level.

At the highest levels, spellcasters do start to pull away from the pack. Not like they did in 3e, but enough so that the people who loved 4e consider it a backslide. There certainly are spells that you the DM need to know about such that the players don't trivialize an opponent you intend to be a serious challenge. Something akin to a high level melee fighter (non-EK)* as an enemy warlord is great along with his wizard henchman and his bodyguards, but in isolation a high level wizard PC might just stick him in a forcecage and he's SOL.
*although you will have noticed that enemies do not need to be built using the PC rules, even if they are 'human warrior' or the like, conceptually.



9) The "hard cap" for ability scores:
I quite loved that ability scores can't rise above 20 (except for very rare occurrences I imagine?). However, one of my players who heard about it, didn't like it. Your thoughts?

Can you explain why/their reasoning? The guy doesn't know the system or what the numbers really mean, but he already dislikes them? This reminds me of when D&D 3.0 came out and a AD&D friend of mine started railing on how 'candy-ass' the game must be because monks eventually start dealing d20s for damage (with no conception on really how impressive that was or wasn't).

Anyways, when I was playing 3e, I never had a good yardstick for how good was good enough numerically. Is 16 high enough to play a fighter or do you really need to start with an 18+ or not bother? How quickly do you need to ramp that up as I level and/or acquire gear? I know 3e/PF allows you to optimize to your heart's content, but I never really knew what optimal was because I didn't have any good yardsticks against which to measure. 5e has yardsticks -- if you play point buy or array, you can't start with an 18. If you pick a race without a bonus in that stat, you can't even get 16. Maybe you're not supposed to play Str-based halfling fighters or Dex-based dwarven fighters, but 16 has to be a playable starting #. Likewise, since magic items are optional, 20 has to be a playable maximum to ever get to. Actually having some boundaries like that makes the actual numbers have more weight to me, as they aren't just arbitrary points on a scale I haven't mapped to anything.

Hope these were somewhat helpful.

[RedMage125]

1. DMG page 82, in the text right above the table spells this out for you. You would award 100 XP, which would then divide amongst your players. The multiplication factor is for determining the difficulty of the encounter, based on number of monsters. Amount of XP awarded does not get multiplied. You also do not count monsters of significantly lower CR than other monsters in the encounter. If you have an encounter with a Canoloth (CR8) and 10 Abyssal Wretches (CR 1/4), you do not multiply the total by anything for determining difficulty, but award the XP for all creatures defeated.

2. Wealth By Level Guidelines from 3.xe and 4e are necessary, due to how Challenge Ratings work. There is an assumption of a certain level of magical items by certain level thresholds. A level 20 Fighter with only mundane gear would not be able to adequately meet CR 20 challenges in 3.5e. 5e uses a concept called Bonded Accuracy. Which means that difficulty in meeting challenge thresholds (be they Skill DCs or monster AC) don't scale a lot, and most of the improvement to player's rolls come from levelling, not from gear or from ridiculously high stats (due to the cap of 20). It is entirely possible to run a game of 5e without any +1/+2/+3 weapons or armor. So those kinds of items are fairly rare and special. Lots of magical weapons have special effects without giving any +x to hit and damage at all. Since no magic items are necessary for higher level characters, no magical items are assumed, and thus no WBL guidelines. If you choose to give higher-level PCs more, it is, according to the DMG (page 38), entirely at your discretion. But that page also has a table for suggested higher level wealth for such characters.

3. D&D Beyond has some stuff, but not all of it is free. Most of what people homebrew on there is free, however. If you buy the books on pdf through D&D Beyond, you can access them anywhere. That's about it for free online resources. regrettably, PF is still superior when it comes to free online content. The Elemental Evil Player's Guide is free on the WotC site, that has some extra race options and a few new spells.

4. This is entirely subjective, but...I would recommend Xanthar's Guide To Everything as the #1 supplement. It has the most extra player options, most of which are a lot of fun. Next I would say either Volo's Guide To Monsters, or Mordenkainen's Tome Of Foes. Both of which have new player races and new monsters. The last supplement I recommend is Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. It's a lot of info about the Sword Coast in Forgotten Realms, so not as useful for you. There are a few new character options (some of which were re-printed in XGtE), but of all the supplements, it's the least excting.
EDIT: If you're interested in running Eberron, I would recommend Volo's over Mordenkainen's. Volo's has rules for running "monster" races, like goblinoids, and full blooded orcs, that you may be interested in vis heirs of Dhakaan or Gatekeepers, respectively.

5. A fellow Eberron fan! I can tell from your forum handle, too. I feel especially qualified to help you here. I literally own every single 3.5e Eberron product in print (including the DM's Screen with art from Grasp of the Emerald Claw). I was profoundly disappointed in 4th edition's take on Eberron. The Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron is GOOD. Keith Baker helped write it himself. The Kalashtar are a little odd, but we don't have a proper system for psionics yet, so that's to be expected. Warforged are great, Changelings are great, Shifters are pretty rad, too. Dragonmarks...I am a little disappointed by the fact that one cannot pick up a Dragonmark at higher levels, manifesting it later in life. They are handled as a separate subrace of each of the races that nears them (or variant race, in the case of humans, 1/2 elves, and 1/2 orcs). At the same time, I feel that they are handled well. I find almost all of them intriguing and compelling player options. 5e's treatment is the first time I have wanted to play a dragonmarked heir of House Vadalis, for example (going from a suggestion in the book, you could play a member of the Druid class who doesn't actually worship nature, but whose druid powers also come from their dragonmark). The dragonmarks also use 5e Eberron's Intuition Dice concept, which kind of reminds one of Action Points from 3.5e, but can only be used on skills related to the dragonmarks. Which is a great and still balanced way to reflect the extra potential those marked individuals have towards those skills. As far as lore, each nation only gets one page, but it does a great job, and if you're introducing new players to Eberron, a lot of behind-the-scenes spoilers are absent from the book (I'm looking at you, Kaius).

Short version is: I am a huge Eberron fan, I bought the Wayfinder's Guide, read every page, and I loved it. Worth it. I hadn't heard about Morgrave Miscellany until this very thread. I will buy it this week, and if I don't remember to re-post in this thread, feel free to PM me.

Also, I am currently playing a character with the updated Artificer playtest. It's pretty good so far, but my DM's world has flintlock firearms (and artificers are explicitly proficient in them if they exist), so YMMV.

6. This seems so subjective to me, and I can't provide any guidance. Ranger is the one class I've never had a player choose when I DM 5e.


7. The magic system in 5e works pretty great for me. I especially like that prepared spellcasters only need to prepare a given spell ONCE, and then they treat it like a "Spells Known" list of spontaneous casters of 3.5e. So a wizard prepares one Magic Missile, and can use spell slots of any level to cast it any number of times per day.

I also enjoy that Bards are full casters now, and could entirely replace the "requirement" of a Cleric or Druid if you want a healer in the party.

Spells to look out for...I haven't yet run a game where people got over 4th level spells (groups keep breaking up), but I've heard bad things about Simulacrum abuse. That might require a little bit of DM-adjudication to keep it from being abused.

8. I forget about it quite a bit, honestly. As do most of the DMs I have had. It's a good system that should be implemented more. It would also be nice to have some expansion on what can be done with it.

9. Hard cap of 20 for stats is a part of Bonded Accuracy that I mentioned before. It's actually not a problem, when you consider that the highest monster AC in the Monster Manual is a 22 for Ancient Red Dragons. Also Skill DCs do not rise exponentially like they did in 3.5e/4e, so it's not an issue. Stat-boosting books can raise the threshold, as does the Barbarian's lvl 20 capstone.

10. I guess I second the advice of the guy who said that you shouldn't assume things work the same way just because they sound the same or similar.
Grappling has changed a lot.
Attacks of Opportunity, too. An AoO is now only provoked if a creature leaves another creature's threatened area entirely, instead of leaving any threatened square. So the rogue can dance all around the ogre within it's threatened area with no AoO (of course, the Rogue class also Disengage as a bonus action, but that's neither here nor there).
I would say another important note is that Stealth checks always oppose Passive Perception. If a creature wants a chance to roll Perception to look for a Stealthed creature, it must do so on its turn.
Also note that Extra Attacks do not use lower modifiers; 2-weapon Fighting must use two Light weapons (unless one has the feat); Monk attacks may use DEX, but they are not "finesse" (and therefore Monk/Rogues may not Sneak Attack with them); and undead/constructs are not immune to Sneak Attacks or crits (but some have amusing interaction with crits, check out zombies. If it's not a headshot or radiant damage, they might get back up).
And also, read up on how Legendary Actions work. This is 4e's inheritance of "Solo monsters", and makes a whole party fighting one "boss monster" actually more do-able that it was in 3.5e.

[JackPhoenix]

5: Eberron
Since nobody's answered this, I will. There are two Eberron resources published for 5e as online only: Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron and Morgrave Miscellany. I don't have links, but they should be easy to look up online.
Dragonmarks are handled as variant races, and the Eberron specific races can be found in the Wayfinder's guide. I haven't looked at Morgrave, so I don't know what's in there.

And only one of those exist in any official capacity. Wayfinder's Guide is more-or-less paid UA material with enough information to introduce Eberron to new players, but you would propably still need 3.5 material to run a game properly and have more information about the setting. Experienced Eberron GM doesn't strictly need it, as it doesn't present much in the way of new informations, but it's not a bad product. It *should* be updated, and artificer would be added when it's finally finished, but when that is, none can say. There isn't much crunch... new races, few magic items, dragonmarks... and some of it is clearly playtest material that should be revised before put into game... warforged and two-bladed scimitar and the related feat (which is strictly better than TWF + Dual Wielder feat, respectively).

Morgrave Miscellany, while being contributed to by Keith Baker, is strictly 3rd party product and presented as such. I bought it just few days ago and haven't had a chance to read through it properly, but it seems to include lot of fluff ideas Keith mentioned on his blog before, while the mechanical option seems on par with 3rd party DM's Guild products like Xanathar's Lost Notes (which is regularily refered to through the PDF). It shouldn't be mistaken for official material, though. I, personally, don't share the enthusiasm some other people have about it, but as I said, I haven't yet read through the whole thing, just skimmed.

[Lyracian]

Edit: “Paladins can Smite a number times a day equal to there paladin level” I think this is an unnecessary nerf.
It is there to stop Soradin multiclass so it depends if you think that is balanced?
Single Class Paladin only has a single level where they have more spell slots than character level so they are barley going to notice.

[DrKerosene]

It is there to stop Soradin multiclass so it depends if you think that is balanced?
Single Class Paladin only has a single level where they have more spell slots than character level so they are barley going to notice.

I feel like allowing a multiclass PC to “go nova” at the start of the day, or to trick them into doing so, should be a part of the game. Since they built a character who could do that. If they are going nova on their sixth combat of that adventuring day, or against a boss, they earned it by that point.

[RedMage125]

And only one of those exist in any official capacity. Wayfinder's Guide is more-or-less paid UA material with enough information to introduce Eberron to new players, but you would propably still need 3.5 material to run a game properly and have more information about the setting. Experienced Eberron GM doesn't strictly need it, as it doesn't present much in the way of new informations, but it's not a bad product. It *should* be updated, and artificer would be added when it's finally finished, but when that is, none can say. There isn't much crunch... new races, few magic items, dragonmarks... and some of it is clearly playtest material that should be revised before put into game... warforged and two-bladed scimitar and the related feat (which is strictly better than TWF + Dual Wielder feat, respectively).

I wouldn't say "there isn't much crunch". Effectively 17 new player race options (4 whole new races, each of the 12 houses has a new race or subrace, with Tharasshk having new human and new half-orc), new magic items, and a new weapon and feat.

Ok, I will admit that the double scimitar needs to be toned down. It is too good.

You are probably correct, though, that a DM familiar with 3.5e Eberron will probably get more out of it. There's a lot of detail missing, but it's a short document, and meant to be a playtest, at that. I actually like that a lot of stuff like Kaius III's identity was left out. It feels more like a player book. But I would also say that it IS quite useful for 5e DMs who want to run Eberron. You may not like the Warforged, but I think that they're fairly well-balanced. Much like 3.5e warforged were, at any rate. For a "kick-in-the-door" style straight up combat/loot dungeon crawl, they are vastly superior. But they were in 3.5e, too. I like that the WGtE gave us quasi-official stats for all these things. I think they did a better job with Dragonmarks than I would have had I homebrewed something, anyway.

It's not perfect, but don't sell it short, either.

[moonfly7]

I don't know if someone said this yet, but it's better to use milestone leveling in 5e. If you don't know, that's when you award levels for specific points in the game, or when your players do something so amazing it feels right to award it.
Sorry if you know that already, hate to preach to the quire. Especially when you've been dming longer than me.

[GreyBlack]

Hey all. I'm looking to gain some insight and answers about various 5E issues.
I'm a long time GM, but mostly in D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder. Recently I began to check and read about 5E. I'm quite intrigued and find it interesting, yet I've never yet played it or GMed using it. I've read large portions of the Player's guide, DM's guide and some of the Monster manual, but not all...

Some of the questions use quotes from a previous thread I recently posted, asking for comparisons between E6 and 5E (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583826-Asking-for-comparisons-between-E6-P6-amp-5e), but you don't need to read that thread.

Ok, here goes:
1) Awarding XP:
While I got the idea of multiplying the sum of the monsters' XP by a modifier depending on the number of monsters, I'm unsure of how much XP do you award for the encounter? The text indicates that the adjusted XP is used for determining the encounter's difficulty, but I haven't seen anything about the award given.

As an example- Let's say in the encounter I'm using 2 monsters, each is worth 50XP. Do I award the players 100XP? (50+50) or 150 XP? (Adjusted by the x1.5 modifier)

2) Wealth by level?
In 3.5E and PF, there was a table for approximate wealth-by-level. Basically, the worth of all her material possessions to this level. It helped gauge balance (In a very rough way, I'll admit), an plan loot and rewards. I haven't been able to find anything similar in 5E. What am I missing?

3) Online resource:
In Pathfinder, the PFSRD site was a huuuuuuggge aid for me as a GM for planning, and for players for bulding characters. I've found various 5E sites, but most only had partial material, and usually not well hyperlinked to navigate. Is there a good site for the mechanical info for 5E?

4) Suggested supplements:
5E has far fewer supplements (So far at least), but I have far less time... Anything really worth delving into? Anything worth avoiding?

5) Eberron:
I'm a big fan, and one of my ideas (A major one), takes place in the setting. I understand there is a supplement. How good is it? I'm espeically interested to know if they kept the flavor well, how they dealt with the Dragonmakred, Eberron races and magi-tech technology. (From what I've read so far, 5E seems closer to 1st Ed D&D and AD&D in terms of world flavor)

6) Exploration:
A major game element/ theme I want to incorporate is exploring the dangerous wilds. Including planning a course, mapping new land, possibly getting lost, dealing with natiral hazards and weather (Fast flowing rivers, rugged hills, salt plains, heat waves, storms, snow and more...). However, when I asked about it in the above mentioned thread, Yora responded:



Looking at the ranger class (including the revised), the "natural outdoorsman" niche is fully done at 1st level... It does seem to circumvent most obstacles... Is that so? If it is, has anyone done anything to change it?

7) Magic system:
It is... different. I'm not yet sure what to think about it. I like the idea that all spells cast by the same caster have the same DC, the ability to upgrade spells, and that the concentration mechanics basically obliterates the stacking of magical effects (As was common in 3.5E and PF). But it's still, a bit strange to me.

I'd love if anyone can explain how it affects their game- things that work well, and things to look out for.

Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?

8) Inspiration:
I am intrigued by the concept and it's implementation. To me it feels like a downgraded and somewhat altered version of Fate Core's Aspects mechanic. If you're using it- Why? And what are your experiences with it? If you don't- why?

9) The "hard cap" for ability scores:
I quite loved that ability scores can't rise above 20 (except for very rare occurrences I imagine?). However, one of my players who heard about it, didn't like it. Your thoughts?

10) Anything else...
Any other insight that might help a GM transitioning between the systems (And players!) that you think is worth mentioning?

Thanks in advance, and it seems I'll be looking into this part of the forum as well from now on. :smallwink:

Kol.

Fellow 3.x DM here. Only answering a few of them, mostly because lazy/not experienced with them.

2 - WBL does not exist, nor does it really need to. Because magic items aren't generally created as they were in 3.x, gold isn't as necessary. You could award magic items from the tables they have, but generally they only start with their starting gold.

4 - Depending on your DM'ing/play style, XGTE is almost mandatory. Beyond that, I like Volo's but otherwise everything is a wash.

7 - When comparing anything to 3.x, it's going to appear lower power level. This is a feature, not a bug. Bounded accuracy means that overall saves and number bloat is going to be below what you're used to. However, the numbers characters are going to be rolling are also going to be lower. A level 20 barbarian in 3.x would still be rolling (assuming neutral wisdom modifier) at a +6 WILL save, where here they'll still be rolling at a +0.

9 - I'll admit, I don't love the hard cap, but it does put more emphasis on the types of loot that players find. It makes it that much more important to find stuff like a Belt of Frost Giant Strength rather than just being like, "Oh, my strength goes to 23. Well, given that my strength is currently 30, why would I need this thing?"

6 - I feel like the quote in question is a bit misleading. If you implement a hex crawl type system where the players are going to come across hazards and such in the wilderness, they'll still have to deal with hazards. Basically, having a ranger means they won't get lost, aren't slowed, and can be stealthy easier. It doesn't mean they can magically teleport across the wilderness to where they need to get to. It also doesn't give them magically knowing exactly where the Mcguffin in the forest is. They just can't get lost and they're a bit better at avoiding random mob encounters.

[JackPhoenix]

I wouldn't say "there isn't much crunch". Effectively 17 new player race options (4 whole new races, each of the 12 houses has a new race or subrace, with Tharasshk having new human and new half-orc), new magic items, and a new weapon and feat.

To be fair, in my mind, I don't really consider dragonmarked as separate racial options, but like one option (dragonmark) that has (somewhat) different effect on different races.

Also, Mark of Finding is half-orc only, except the half-orc may look indistinguishable from human.

[Great Dragon]

Another 3.x DM, here.

Most everything you've asked about has been covered.

8) Inspiration.

I find this to be helpful, especially with New Players. Encourages Players to pick things they really want for their Character.

And gives the DM a means of rewarding the (Role)playing of Background flavor as well as their Traits/Ideals/Bonds/Flaws in game.

But, there are some things that the DM has to decide:

A) How hard is it to "earn" Inspiration?

B) How often is Inspiration rewarded?

And then balancing these two.

The only real problem that I've had, is that a Player will do "Something Cool" that I want to reward, but they already have Inspiration.
I'm still working on it.

[nickl_2000]

The only real problem that I've had, is that a Player will do "Something Cool" that I want to reward, but they already have Inspiration.
I'm still working on it.

Why not just allow stacking of inspiration? You can get more than 1 inspiration available, but you can have a max of 1 at the end of a long rest (or don't do this, I don't really see a problem with having multiple inspirations at once).

[Unoriginal]

The only real problem that I've had, is that a Player will do "Something Cool" that I want to reward, but they already have Inspiration.
I'm still working on it.

You could just give them advantage on the action directly.

[Tallytrev813]

I've only ever played 5e - But based on reading about other versions and games and hearing people who have been playing for decades talk about it (People love to call it "Mathfinder" lol)

My opinion is the great thing about 5e is it has good mechanics that create a good core structure to run the game by, all while providing the DM flexability to improvise whatever he wants to enable him to focus on the experience and not be bogged down by whatever - numbers, rolling, checks, mechanics.


I'll pick out a few of your topics as examples.

Experience system - Do it however you want. To be honest, every-single-game i've played in real life, the GM simply gives us level up's when it's appropriate to the story line. We played Curse of Strahd, for example, and whenever we made good progress in the story or killed a strong bad guy (WinterSplinter, Babalisaga, etc) he would just tell us to level up. It made things easy for him, and it prevented us from having to track experience and seeking out "grinding opportunitites".


Inspiration - i LOVE this. Its a reward system doled out by the GM. Did you role play an encounter really well? Great! You get an Inspiration point! Did you think of a really creative way to solve a problem that is in-character? Great! Inspiration point. It just adds 1d4 to any roll you want, which is great. DC 15 Sleight of Hand check on that lock and you rolled a 13-14? Perfect, I'll use an Inspiration point - we want that loot!


I also love the spell system. The limitations prevent all this crazy magic use.

[Phoenix042]

I find that, as it stands in the rules, inspiration just doesn't make enough of a difference to really be noticeable to my players.

I forget to hand it out, they forget to use it.

Our solution is to have inspiration be a reroll, instead of advantage. You get to see the roll and decide to use it or not.

And the other solution; I let the players decide when another player deserves inspiration. If they agree as a group, I hand it out. Doesn't take much time but it makes players feel cool because they did something everyone thought deserved a reward.

And I don't worry about them abusing this power; in the sorts of climactic scenes where abuse might be tempting, it actually makes a lot of sense to hand out lots of inspiration; those are the scenes where the PC's are doing lots of amazing things.

[Bjarkmundur]

2) Wealth by level?
This (https://dungeonmastertools.github.io/treasure.html) and this (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5NsJ80BORg_bEpRQ3lLd0NBVGc/view)

4) Suggested supplements:
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, definitely Waterdeep

8) Inspiration:
I use my own little twist on it. We have a similar mechanic in my 40k game, and there it works wonders. You can see how I use it in the link in my signature.

[Frozenstep]

7) Magic system:
It is... different. I'm not yet sure what to think about it. I like the idea that all spells cast by the same caster have the same DC, the ability to upgrade spells, and that the concentration mechanics basically obliterates the stacking of magical effects (As was common in 3.5E and PF). But it's still, a bit strange to me.

I'd love if anyone can explain how it affects their game- things that work well, and things to look out for.

Also, I mostly read spells of low level so far. D&D through it's versions is well known for game breaking higher level spells. Anything specific to look out for?

So I'd like to talk about this for a bit. I'm a pure 5e player, never touched 3.5e, but I've heard of some of the stuff that was possible in 3.5e (mostly from order of the stick...).

It's important to pay attention to power spike levels. Fifth level is a power spike for everyone, but for casters it means getting their hands on powerful tools like fireball (way powerful damage for the level its at. Even 4th level spells are often weaker), fly, counter spell, and haste. Keeping in mind how much more your party will be capable of is important. 7th level by comparison isn't as flashy and there's a lot of dud spells, but there's some gems like dimension door, guardians of faith, and polymorph. 9th level is big with wall of force (no save cages), animate objects, teleportation circle, and raise dead becoming options. 13th level is when you need to start fearing individual spells. Simulacrum and force cage can destroy encounters.

However, I notice that in 3.5e casters had access to many more high level spell slots. So while getting a new tier of spells is still a huge deal at higher levels, 5e casters only have 2 5th level slots, and 1 each of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level slots all the way up up to level 18. For the most part in combat at medium-high levels, I find 1st and 2nd level spells are left for utility (especially shield and absorb elements), 3rd and fourth level spells make up the majority of go-to options.

I don't have a full understanding, but in 3.5e it looked like there was a lot of meta-magic? In 5e, it's only for sorcerers. Even their version is weaker, quicken makes a 1-action spell take your bonus action instead, but if you cast any spell with your bonus action you cannot cast anything more then a cantrip as your main action.

[Kol Korran]

Wow! I just wanted to thank all of you for the immense help, resources and information! In the thread itself, and from people who PMed me! It helps me understand things better, though it'll take time to absorb, asses and understand it all.
Thanks a lot, I'll probably respond more directly in a few days (Or a week or so?) once I've had time, but the pouring of help rally surprised and encouraged me to take this on!

So thanks, everybody! :smallbiggrin:

[Great Dragon]

@nickl_2000
I was reading the DMG, and found Hero Points. Works mostly the same as Inspiration, except that it's +1d6 to the Roll, before being resolved.

But, instead of the 5 at start, then refreshing with each level-up to 5 +1 per level: I'll try giving 1 Hero Point at first level, with them being able to earn up to 5 plus level.

Some more research and Testing is needed.

[Nagog]

As a recent transfer from Pathfinder myself, here are a few insights to keep in mind:

1. Pathfinder is very specific, and niche power building is a real issue. When you can achieve better than a +20 in stealth by 10th level, DCs have to be scaled accordingly, meaning if you don't have somebody built for that kind of thing, it ain't gonna happen. 5e doesn't have such things as skill points to allocate, and there is a cap on just how high you can powerbuild a specific skill so DCs are usually much more attainable even by those who aren't specifically power-built for that skill.

2. 5e is a lot more loose in how it plays. If you have a benefit, odds are it's advantage. If you have a debuff, odds are it's disadvantage. Much easier to keep straight and remember instead of all of Pathfinders "+4 to..." or "+2 to...".

3. While Pathfinder has multitudes of races, classes, feats, and the like, 5e has subclasses. Similar to Pathfinder's Archtypes, except it's required. This is both good and bad, in the sense there is less to choose from, but on the flip side it's much easier to customize and build your character to fit one playstyle. For example, I wanted to play a ranger, but the party desperately needed a healer. So I played a Paladin, but in play played him like a ranger by giving him crossbows and smites in lieu of Hunter's Mark.

4. Pathfinder has set rules of how to play everything, from mounted vs. unmounted combat and how that differs from mounted vs. mounted, even stretching to how combat should be played if the enemy's mount is larger than yours, to give an example of heavily mandated rules hardly anybody has used. 5e is a lot more up to the DM digression on how they want to handle things when the party decides to think outside the box, which I say to be a great benefit in 5e's favor.

As for a good reference, I enjoy Giger's 5e. All the stuff on there is free, unlike on Roll20, as well as I enjoy the aesthetic of the site, however, as with many sites for 5e, there are some noticeable gaps in the information it contains.

[huttj509]

Just wanted to comment on the XP thing and the design philosophy there which might shed some light:

Experience is a primary reward for an encounter. Say there's a room of 10 goblins. The party is clever, and draws out 5 goblins with a distraction, only facing 5 at a time. Should their xp reward be reduced for this?

There's 2 groups of 5 goblins. The party flees the first, into the room with the second, and manages to defeat all 10 at once. Should they be rewarded for this?

Splitting up foes makes them much easier to fight, while keeping the same reward. Also, grouping up foes makes them harder while giving no reward benefit. This incentivises the behavior of distracting, splitting up groups, and otherwise taking foes out of the fight.

I do think it would have been less confusing if they had had some other label for the encounter difficulty XP budget (since 2 foes at once is harder than 1 at a time), and the reward XP, but trying to have this other thing that's the same number as the xp but not xp and called different might actually have been worse.

[RedMage125]

To be fair, in my mind, I don't really consider dragonmarked as separate racial options, but like one option (dragonmark) that has (somewhat) different effect on different races.

Also, Mark of Finding is half-orc only, except the half-orc may look indistinguishable from human.

Negative, Ghost Rider. I just double checked my copy, and Mark of Finding has different stats for humans or half-orcs. It was for both races in 3.5e, too.

[Puh Laden]

In regards to online resources, I know that when I GM Pathfinder I usually use the PRD at the table because I'm unfamiliar with all the fiddly-rules (I don't even know if I am capable of memorizing the "Attack of Opportunity table", let alone all of functions and procedural uses of skills). 5e is intuitive enough that I've been able to memorize most things that commonly come up -- the only thing I've misremembered recently is that I thought heavy armor always cost movement when it only costs movement if you don't have a high enough Strength score. Though admittedly, that doesn't necessarily mean that I've memorized how far or high characters can jump without rolling with a running start versus a standing start. Granted, I've DM'd it for about 4 years, but 5e is, in addition to being intuitive, rather anti-rules-lawyery despite how it may seem here on forums. Much leeway is given to the DM.

[JackPhoenix]

Negative, Ghost Rider. I just double checked my copy, and Mark of Finding has different stats for humans or half-orcs. It was for both races in 3.5e, too.

You have outdated copy, then. It was changed in the latest update, as noted in my patch notes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581045-Latest-Update-of-Wayfinder-s-Guide-to-Eberron).

[sithlordnergal]

1) This really depends on how much exp you think the party needs. I know Adventure League's system adds up all the exp, divides the total, then splits that up among players. So say you had 3 players, they killed something worth 150 exp, they'd get 50 exp each. I find this is a pretty good method, mostly because its easier to award extra exp then it is to take away exp.


2) I'm not sure there is an official Wealth by Level table, not that I can remember at least...


3) Sadly WOTC got rid of most of those sites recently. This is a decent one that still has stuff, its called Giger's 5e D&D, or something like that


4) I'd grab Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Volos Guide to Monsters, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and look into Sword Coast Adventure's Guide. Those have extra subclasses, some extra spells, extra monsters, and even a few items.


6) If you wanna do exploration, change it so they get advantage on the checks. I'd allow them to keep the normal movement through difficult terrain, and allow them to have advantage when moving at a fast pace. Also, make it so Goodberry consumes the material component. Otherwise the Ranger can make all exploration and survival pointless.


7) The magic system is pretty good. The concentration requirement really helps to prevent the ridiculousness that 3.5 casters had, and really helps reign in spell casters on its own. The biggest thing the DC affects is making sure your caster's stat is high. You're good with a 16 casting stat until about level 6, then you need an 18 or better.

That said, spells to watch out: Conjure Animals, make sure your players know how to handle groups of NPCs, remember that you have final say on what is summoned, and unless the caster is a Shepard Druid remember the summons only do non-magical damage unless otherwise specified in the creatures stat block.

Animate Object, same concerns as above

Simulacrum, some people try to pull off crazy stunts with this. Just throw in a few things to keep stuff sane


8) I...use it, but I often forget to award it. I will admit, its a nice thing to give to creative players...when I remember it.


9) At first I questioned it as well, so I can't blame your player. They won;t really see it until they play, but due to how 5e is built a +1 goes a lot further then it did in 3.5. A +1 weapon can serve you from levels 1 to 20, and +3 weapons tend to be even more amazing. Reassure your player that a 20 in a single stat is more then enough to do things, and maybe show them the stats of a few high end monsters that can cast. I am away from book, but I think even a Lich only has a 19 DC, and that's somewhat close to CR 20? I dunno...again, I'm away from the book. Best way to convince them its fine is for them to play though.


10) First, Wands, Staffs, and other items that have a daily recharge might seem OP to some people coming from 3.5. For example, the Wand of Magic Missiles is an Uncommon Magic item, but it has 7 charges and regains 1d6+1 charges per day. This is on purpose. A single magic item is generally meant to last from the time the party found it to the end of the campaign. There are technically no magic shops in 5e like there were in 3.5, and I've found that can be a hard thing to wrap your head around. Just keep in mind, if you spot a Wand or Staff that seems op because it recharges, it's probably less OP then you think due to it having to last an entire campaign.

Second, magic items are less frequent in 5e. Later levels will need them to get past immunities and such, but parties are not expected to have an armory of magic items like they did in 3.5. And a single +1 weapon or armor can go a lot farther in 5e then it ever did in 3.5

Finally, sometimes its fun to use the random item tables for drops, personally I prefer to pick and choose though. It helps to avoid accidentally giving the party items that are too strong or are useless.

EDIT: I almost forgot, multiclassing. I have personally never had an issue with it as a player or DM, as I have yet to find a build that is perfect. However, certain combos can be extremely effective like the Paladin/Sorcerer. My best suggestion for that is to take a modified page from AL's book. I use the following rule:

Players may build their characters using the PHB+2, one book for a race and one book for their class/spells. Though if you get a scroll, you can copy it or use it, even if the spell is not from your chosen book.

It helps limit certain combos, like a Hexblade/Paladin/Sorcerer that has Booming Blade.

[Great Dragon]

@Nagog:
While I have not done much PF1, I did read the book enough to see that it was like 3.x D&D, but with even more Feats available to PCs.
D&D 3x Human Fighter = 19 feats.
PF Human Fighter = 22!!

While it is true that 5e does put a relative cap on Ability and Skill totals, it's main problem is that 5e focuses on DC caps for these.

So, like when I'm playing my Rogue: I feel that there is almost no point of even having Expertise in say, Thieves Tools and Investigation.

Since the DC doesn't (normally) get above 20, this means that anyone with proficiency in Thieves Tools can achieve the same result with a Good Enough Roll. My Rogue just needs a slightly lower Roll.

The DC 20 means that my 17th level Thief doesn't even need to roll to open a lock or disarm a trap. (Reliable Talent 10 + 6 Proficiency + 5 Dexterity = 21)

At which point, the DM will most likely not even bother to put in traps.
Which then renders taking those pointless.

The flip side of this issue is, if the DM has things that are over DC 20, it means that your stuck with the same problem as 3x/PF - where those PCs that are not built to master that Skill are locked out.

[PhoenixPhyre]

So use expertise to substitute for lower ability scores. Proficiency in thieves tools or stealth is plenty, because it's attached to the key score for a rogue. Put expertise into Athletics or perception or investigation or something where your ability score is much lower.

[Rukelnikov]

The flip side of this issue is, if the DM has things that are over DC 20, it means that your stuck with the same problem as 3x/PF - where those PCs that are not built to master that Skill are locked out.

"problem"...

[PhoenixPhyre]

"problem"...

That certainly is a problem, at least if you don't want to lock off huge chunks of the possible builds from interactions with most of the game.

5e is happiest with DCs between 10 and 20, going higher only for really wacky/out-of-the-box thinking (doing highly improbable stunts). Routinely using higher DCs is a great way to make players feel incompetent, even if specialized. It also pushes people toward avoiding ability checks entirely, making spells much more salient.

[Rukelnikov]

That certainly is a problem, at least if you don't want to lock off huge chunks of the possible builds from interactions with most of the game.

5e is happiest with DCs between 10 and 20, going higher only for really wacky/out-of-the-box thinking (doing highly improbable stunts). Routinely using higher DCs is a great way to make players feel incompetent, even if specialized. It also pushes people toward avoiding ability checks entirely, making spells much more salient.

It is not, I don't care for having every character be able to do everything in the game. If someone gets mad for not being able to do something outside of his/hers characters purview, then they should have played a Bard. NOT being able to do stuff makes the stuff you CAN do more relevant.

[Great Dragon]

@PhoenixPhyre
I was thinking about doing that, but since I'm more on the DM side, I haven't been able to try it yet.

As DM - I tend to get quite a few players that like to see Huge Numbers, Soo.....

[RedMage125]

You have outdated copy, then. It was changed in the latest update, as noted in my patch notes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581045-Latest-Update-of-Wayfinder-s-Guide-to-Eberron).

Well, that's lame. Is House Tharasshk narratively only half-orcs, too?

[PhoenixPhyre]

It is not, I don't care for having every character be able to do everything in the game. If someone gets mad for not being able to do something outside of his/hers characters purview, then they should have played a Bard. NOT being able to do stuff makes the stuff you CAN do more relevant.

Do everything? No. Attempt anything? Yes. Being locked out of most of the game at character creation because you chose Fighter (or paladin, or...anything but rogue or bard)? That's sucky. And that's what you're enforcing.

It's that mentality that drives people to want to bypass ability checks with spells and "character-sheet buttons". It enforces thinking on-character-sheet, rather than acting like a normal person. Normal people can do lots of things that you're denying people. Specialization is for insects.

[Ganders]

1) Mileage will vary. Milestone XP (where numbers are ignored) is at least as popular as giving out actual amounts of XP. And other schemes from previous editions get tried as well, such as XP for gold.

2) Xanathar's Guide page 135 has a rough table for magic items by tier. Probably as close as you're going to get.

3) The two paid sites, roll20 and dndbeyond, seem very popular.

4) It's hard to resist including Xanathar's, but anything else seems setting-specific. But... all the books have a mix of balanced an unbalanced stuff. The WOTC books have a slightly higher hit rate than random homebrew, but the distinction is... much less than it used to be.

5) I dunno.

6) Yeah, it's a common complaint about rangers. But certain spells, such as the ones that summon food or water (Goodberry), or give huge bonuses to stealth (Pass Without Trace), or safe places to rest for free (Tiny Hut), can interfere mightily with exploration too.

7) A) It's easy to forget about concentration, and concentration checks, but make it a habit -- it's important.
B) Cantrips are pretty good now. Even in combat, some casters will use them more often than actual spells.
C) Just remember that even though they seem standardized, each spell is unique. For instance suppose a spell lasts for one round. Sounds simple, but does it last until the start or the end of your next turn? Or maybe the start or end of your target's turn? Each one is different. Some saving throws happen at the end of each turn, others at the start of each turn, or even in the middle. Some area effects apply immediately, others at the beginning of each turn, others at the end of each turn, or both, or neither.
D) Durations are not precise. 1 hour duration does not mean exactly 60 minutes, or 3600 seconds. 1 hour is code for 'won't last past a short rest'. 8 hours is code for 'lasts all day but won't last past a long rest'. 1 minute does mean ten turns, but it seems like no battle ever lasts ten turns, so no one has ever found out a precise meaning: whether it ends at the beginning or end of your turn or beginning or end of your target's turn. Easier to treat it as code for 'ends when the encounter is over'.

8) Many DMs forget to use inspiration, even though they intended to. It's a hard habit to get into.

9) It's a good thing. Embrace it. In addition, it should be unusual for unoptimized characters to even reach a 20 stat before tier 3.

10) A) The tiers are real. Things really change significantly at level 5, and again at level 11.
B) Climbing armor class is a sensitive issue with many DMs. To the point that many DMs will refuse to give out magic armor of any sort, ever. Magic weapons and misc remain fine.
C) Stealth is radically different, it doesn't make any attempt to be logical, only balanced. The cost of using stealth is one action, and the benefits of using stealth are similar to what you're used to, but you don't move at half speed.
D) Opportunity attacks happen under one and only one condition, and even then might be declined, so they're relatively uncommon.
E) You should expect to apply cover bonuses to ranged attacks often. Very often.
F) It takes a while to realize how bad 'ready an action' is. It has so many conditions and limitations that it does very little (unless you houserule to let it do more).
G) There are only 3 types of d20 rolls: attacks, saving throws, and ability checks. Skill checks are not a separate thing.
H) Attack and saving throw rules are very precise about when and how often to roll, which ability to use, when proficiency applies, and what number means success. But with ability checks, anything goes. For instance, there are no rules at all about Ride checks, anyone can ride a horse. But the DM is expected to arbitrarily call for riding-related ability checks whenever he feels the need. And those checks can be anything -- Strength or Dexterity or something else, Athletics or Animal Handling or neither, DC 10 or DC 12 or DC 20, once a day or every 30 minutes or every 30 seconds. Only the two core rules really apply: use a d20, and tie it to one of the six abilities.
I) Some characters require extra work from the DM. Especially, wizards and tomelocks require that scrolls or spellbooks can be found occasionally. And they also require enough inks (or money to buy ink) to actually make use of them. Ritual Caster feat also requires that ritual books or scrolls turn up occasionally. There are a few others as well, but not so hard-coded into the class definition: Druids need to know what animal forms they're allowed to use, or perhaps what animals are around to talk to. Some classes need more short rests than others. Rangers will suck if there are no long journeys through the wilderness. Fighters might need quite a lot of Athletics checks (climbing, swimming etc) to feel that Strength isn't a wasted stat.
J) Charm is nerfed. The word 'friendly' applies, the word 'ally' no longer does.
K) Invisibility, including blindness, darkness, fog, and foliage, is somewhat nerfed. Usually the only real effect is advantage or disadvantage on attacks, and very often it's both so they cancel out. Ranged attackers might actually fight BETTER while blinded (due to cancelling out their disadvantage at long range).
L) Each character gets movement, action, and possibly bonus action on each turn. Many people treat them as sequential, because they're resolved one bit at a time, but the intention is that they all happen together, not one after the other. You don't move a little bit, then cast a spell, then move a little more: in theory, you're actually walking along *while* waving your arms to cast the spell. Your action takes six seconds, your movement takes six seconds, and your bonus action takes probably four seconds... but your whole turn still represents just six seconds. Many tables don't embrace this, but it will help if you can.

[PhoenixPhyre]

As a note, wizards do just fine without finding scrolls. A minor wasted feature, but their power isn't hurt dramatically. Tomelocks still get their free cantrips and the free rituals for picking the invocation, which is a decent (if not overwhelming) boost. Same with Ritual Caster.

Now giving them more doesn't break much either.

5e's balance point is very broad. There are really a few big concerns:
Police the adventuring day. An average full day (between two long rests) should include multiple potentially-resource-draining encounters, as well as the opportunity to take short rests about twice. Doing very many days with only one big fight starts tipping the balance pretty badly and can run into bad spirals.
Use groups of enemies more than solos. Solo monsters are great as an occasional spice, as long as they have legendary actions (and possibly legendary resistances after level 9 or so). Otherwise they'll be a cakewalk. The median CR for a group of monsters runs roughly 1/2 of the average party level (assuming a number of enemies equal to or greater than the number of PCs). CR = Level is a bad way to go all around--not strong enough to pose a challenge individually or in pairs, way too strong when grouped up in larger numbers.
Don't use high/scaling DCs for ability checks, and let lots of things just happen. Most of your DCs should be between 10 and 20. If you never use anything other than 10 (an average adventurer should be able to do it reasonably easily), 15 (an average adventurer should have a 50/50 shot) and 20 (an average adventurer should fail more often than not), you'll be fine. If it's truly impossible, just say so. If there are no meaningful or interesting consequences for failure, especially if they can retry the task, just let them succeed without a check. For example, riding a horse should normally be an auto-success. Only doing something risky or highly dangerous should require any kind of a check, and the type of check should depend on what they're doing.
Don't mess with
a) concentration requirements, including letting people concentrate on more than one effect.
b) restrictions on reactions and bonus actions (ie letting people take multiple in a turn).
c) attunement limits--being able to attune more than 3 items specifically.
Don't let spells do extra things. A key principle is that spells do exactly what they say, nothing more, nothing less. Same (but less important) with other abilities. This is key to avoiding the caster-martial disparity.

[JackPhoenix]

Well, that's lame. Is House Tharasshk narratively only half-orcs, too?

Propably not. Tharashk puts huge emphasis on family, and it was already noted to include full-blooded orcs too, even though they couldn't bear the mark back in 3.5. Humans would be the same... they are part of the clans even without the mark.

Note that the page itself is contradictory: the lore blurb at the beginning still say both humans and half-orcs bear the mark, but the actual mechanics say only half-orcs have it, only that sometimes the half-orcs looks really human.

[RedMage125]

Propably not. Tharashk puts huge emphasis on family, and it was already noted to include full-blooded orcs too, even though they couldn't bear the mark back in 3.5. Humans would be the same... they are part of the clans even without the mark.

Note that the page itself is contradictory: the lore blurb at the beginning still say both humans and half-orcs bear the mark, but the actual mechanics say only half-orcs have it, only that sometimes the half-orcs looks really human.

So it's more like they could be human in-game, but mechanically would be half-orcs? I guess that's okay. Even the first release WGtE gave Mark of Finding Humans Darkvision.

[Lyracian]

As a note, wizards do just fine without finding scrolls. A minor wasted feature, but their power isn't hurt dramatically. Tomelocks still get their free cantrips and the free rituals for picking the invocation, which is a decent (if not overwhelming) boost. Same with Ritual Caster.
Now giving them more doesn't break much either.
Since Wizards get free spells every level I agree they do not need to find extra spells but I would disagree about people taking the Ritual Caster Feat. There needs to be some method of finding or buying more rituals. If I am taking this over Magic Initiate I would expect to be able to get Water Breathing and other ritual spells as the game progressed.

The rest of what you wrote is great and good advice.



10) A) The tiers are real. Things really change significantly at level 5, and again at level 11.
B) Climbing armor class is a sensitive issue with many DMs. To the point that many DMs will refuse to give out magic armor of any sort, ever. Magic weapons and misc remain fine.

I think it is Magic Shields that can be more of a problem than armour as you can not guarantee which player will use them and they can be combined with Magic Armour where as a party with two suits of Scale Mail +1 cannot get any benefit from the same character having them. One option would be to say before the campaign begins that Armour and Shield bonus do not stack that way you can put in a magic shield for the unarmored barbarian without concern the Knight in magic Plate Mail will get it as well.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Since Wizards get free spells every level I agree they do not need to find extra spells but I would disagree about people taking the Ritual Caster Feat. There needs to be some method of finding or buying more rituals. If I am taking this over Magic Initiate I would expect to be able to get Water Breathing and other ritual spells as the game progressed.


I'm much more comfortable giving lots of ritual spells out. In fact, I'm working on a way to give all the ritual spells to everyone (and removing them from the spell lists entirely).



I think it is Magic Shields that can be more of a problem than armour as you can not guarantee which player will use them and they can be combined with Magic Armour where as a party with two suits of Scale Mail +1 cannot get any benefit from the same character having them. One option would be to say before the campaign begins that Armour and Shield bonus do not stack that way you can put in a magic shield for the unarmored barbarian without concern the Knight in magic Plate Mail will get it as well.

Shields are the same rarity as weapons for a given enhancement bonus; armor is one step higher. So a +1 weapon is uncommon, as is a +1 shield. But a suit of leather +1 is rare. :shrug:

I don't like +X weapons and armor (at least those that have nothing else), personally. They're totally bland and forgettable. And the game's math doesn't demand them, so I'd rather give things like flametongue or ice brand, personally.

[Rukelnikov]

Do everything? No. Attempt anything? Yes. Being locked out of most of the game at character creation because you chose Fighter (or paladin, or...anything but rogue or bard)? That's sucky. And that's what you're enforcing.

It's that mentality that drives people to want to bypass ability checks with spells and "character-sheet buttons". It enforces thinking on-character-sheet, rather than acting like a normal person. Normal people can do lots of things that you're denying people. Specialization is for insects.

You are not locked out of anything, you may not even have proficiency in a skill and make a DC 30 check, so... its not a problem really. It's just in my worlds, breaking manacles is not something every commoner in the world can do, as per the PHB's DC 20 Strenght.

When everyone can do everything, no one is special.

[Great Dragon]

I do like that Characters can attempt anything. So, I'm adjusting to 5e.


******
On the subject of Bards.

I've now had three Bards in my games.
I have yet to feel that they are O.P.

Out of Combat, Bards can be quite potent.
(Especially the Half-Elf Urchin Lore Bard - with 10 skills {plus Thieves Tools} at 3rd level! Usually with Expertise in Deception and Insight)

But, allowing them to shine once in awhile is ok; however, most Social Challenges require everyone to participate.

In Combat, Bards tend to be more "specialized".
Usually in Crowd Control, with Buff Party being a close second.

Bard Subclasses add interesting Flavor:

Valor: Help a Buddy hurt the BBEG!

Swords: Do a (weapon) flourish for coolness!

Whisper: Arcane Trickster Rogue -variant?

Glamor: have not seen in play, yet.
One if the few Bards that might actually take the Entertainer Background?

Satire: have not seen in play, yet.


****”
Now, I'm not going to be able to name every “auto-win" spell, here.

But, as has been stated in other Threads, it's only really a "problem" when the Spell is allowed to do more than what is put in the Description.
Because "It's Magic".

Edit - PhoenixPhyre covered this.

Sure, the Caster that has Spider Climb can get up the wall at normal speed, but they spent a Slot in order to match the Thief that can just "Do it". And since there's a Duration Limit, just how many walls are being climbed before the spell ends? Used In Combat can make for interesting angle shots, though.

Same thing with Fly. Costs a slot, has a duration, and is concentration - so getting shot while in the air has a good chance of having a Bad End!!

Knock gets some attention, but really: undoing one thing on a Door isn't a big deal.

Ok, sure - if there is a bar on the other side of the door, use Knock to get through. But, otherwise - seriously, just let the PC with Thieves Tools take care of the lock(s).

Charm Person has the major drawback that once the spell ends, the victim is aware of it, and Hostile towards the caster. This happens immediately if they saved!

(Also, the spell doesn't give access to things that the "victim" would normally not do.
You might get a better chance of being "invited" to their home, but they won't hand you the key to the front door. Or - tell you where the Hidden Safe is and/or the means to get in.)

Edit - Ganders coved this.

Multiclassing into Sorcerer can give Suble, which can reduce the chances of being caught in the act. But then the Bard is losing at least 2 levels of Class Abilities, and one Spell Level of Spells Known.


*****
For the most part, I rarely tell my Players how many Encounters there will be per Day.
(Or how many Encounters before the BBEG)

And I just let them use whatever they want in each Encounter, making notes if I feel needed.

[Lyracian]

I'm much more comfortable giving lots of ritual spells out. In fact, I'm working on a way to give all the ritual spells to everyone (and removing them from the spell lists entirely).That seems a bit of a dramatic change. There are some spells, like Tiny Hut or Goodberry, that I might want to exclude in some campaigns. Those are the sort of things to discuss with the players when you are deciding how you want the game to go.



Shields are the same rarity as weapons for a given enhancement bonus; armor is one step higher. So a +1 weapon is uncommon, as is a +1 shield. But a suit of leather +1 is rare. :shrug:
It is not really about rarity though it is about which bonuses can be stacked together. If one character gets the Rings of Protection, armour and Shield they can end up with AC 25. You either need player engagement for spreading items out across the party or to limit access to items that can be stacked. Yes there are some oddities in magic items. Leather +2 is just Studded Leather +1 that weighs less. Chain shirt +1 is just Scale Mail without stealth disadvantage.


I don't like +X weapons and armor (at least those that have nothing else), personally. They're totally bland and forgettable. And the game's math doesn't demand them, so I'd rather give things like flametongue or ice brand, personally.
I have been making use of the extra properties on DMG p 142-143. Having a stone axe and a fiendish black bladed sword that seems to drain the life from whoever it kills. They might just be Weapon +1 mechanically but you can make the interesting and unique without needing every sword to be special. I also let my players get Dragon Scale Mail made out of the dragon they killed which was its 'treasure' rather than any actual items being found.

[Brookshw]

Question. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A number of people recommend it and have commented it provides a wealth of player options. As a DM, what's the attraction for me? Also, what percent of the book is geared to players, and what percent is geared to DMs? Worried that if I purchase it I'd only get 20 pages of stuff I'm actually interested in.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Question. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A number of people recommend it and have commented it provides a wealth of player options. As a DM, what's the attraction for me? Also, what percent of the book is geared to players, and what percent is geared to DMs? Worried that if I purchase it I'd only get 20 pages of stuff I'm actually interested in.

The first half is player stuff, mostly. Class options. The middle half is DM options, including downtime, a bunch more variants, a different (easier) way to balance encounters, common magic items (ie below Uncommon), and expanded encounter tables by environment. The last 1/3 is spells, plus some other tables for both sides. IMO it's worth it.

[Rukelnikov]

Question. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A number of people recommend it and have commented it provides a wealth of player options. As a DM, what's the attraction for me? Also, what percent of the book is geared to players, and what percent is geared to DMs? Worried that if I purchase it I'd only get 20 pages of stuff I'm actually interested in.

As with all worldbuilding things, it very dependant on the person IMO.

The book technically has about 70 pages geared towards DMs, but you may skim thru them and find nothing interests you, or you may think its variant rules are awesome.

The main topics for DMs are:

Encounter Building(mostly for random encounters)
Traps Revisited
Downtime Revisited
Awarding Magic items
Tools
Some other stuff

[sithlordnergal]

Question. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A number of people recommend it and have commented it provides a wealth of player options. As a DM, what's the attraction for me? Also, what percent of the book is geared to players, and what percent is geared to DMs? Worried that if I purchase it I'd only get 20 pages of stuff I'm actually interested in.

I'd say most of it is geared towards DMs or Players and DMs at the same time. The only stuff that's purely player oriented are the extra subclasses and feats. Outside of that you have a bunch of spells, extra magic items, a few magic item tables that help categorize magic items, downtime and skill activities and uses, and some other stuff.

I'd 100% recommend it. Hell, it even has a list of beasts you'd find in different environments organized by CR.

[DrKerosene]

Question. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. (snip) As a DM, what's the attraction for me?
Chapter 1, character options.
-As a DM you may be inspired to develop cultures, organizations, or settings, depending on some of the flavoring and abilities listed for characters. Imagine a corrupt and powerful cleric ruler with an elite guard of Zealot Barbarians (or at least NPCs with the cost free raise dead feature), etc.
-Clerics serving ideals or philosophies has a mention, some more planeswalker friendly options are present.

Also, there is the “This Is Your Life” section starting on page 61. It has a number of tables to generate a character backstory and award some minor treasures (usually up to 50 or 70 gold, maybe a minor magic item listed later in the book, or the services of a single loyal commoner). This includes strange encounters with creatures or events that may result in minor boons or banes (a PC might roll and get a backstory thing that causes disadvantage on the next/first save against poison). As a DM, this can help generate content for you to use, or for the Players to work on connected backstories.

Chapter 2, DM’s Tools.
-This reprints some stuff, like falling rules, but it also expands on things. Adamantine weapons, tying knots, minor additional uses for tool kits . For example, Cooking Tools allows everyone to heal an additional +1 HP during a long rest if they eat a snack you make, which would go well on a mothering Bard with Song of Rest being used too.
-There some expansion on caster stuff, so if you want to have Wizard duels with your party of all casters, that may be helpful. The only issue I have is the “use your reaction to identify a spell, but then be unable to Counterspell” problem.
-There was the alternate XP stuff, making it much easier to calibrate for a solo PC game (for whatever reason), or a Party of 2-3 Players, or more than 4 too, technically. I prefer XGtE to the DMG for this, but Kobold Fight Club seems to be perfectly fine too.
-The there is expanded random encounter stuff, but I believe online monster searches should allow you to get the same results if you don’t need a bunch of lists on hand in the same section.
-I think the trap stuff is a good addition, but my frustration with traps is my Players have been adamantly avoiding anything that seems like a classic dungeon.
-I think all the expansion on Downtime stuff is good.
-There’s some revisiting of “giving magic item” that seems fine, but it is more useful if you haven’t had a chance to read through the expanded 3.5e core books (DMG2, Rules Compendium, PHB2, etc).
-I really love a lot of the minor magic items worth 50 gold. Like the Hat that lets you cast any Wizard Cantrip once a day, if you pass the Concentration check.

Chapter 3, and the appendixes may be worthless to you, or may be lovely.
-The additional spell section is nice, IMO, but more so if you get no reprints.
-Revisiting and expanding on the idea of “shared campaigns”.
-Finally, the lists of names for various PHB races and real world names, in case you are one of those people who likes having several sets of charts to reference.

However, if you are an experienced 3.5e DM who has been through most of the books and noticed the power creep, and how some creatures in the Monster Manual 4, or Frostburn, etc, were just things like an Orc with four levels of Adept, or a Mindflayer with five levels of Cleric, then you may not feel like XGtE is a necessary purchase for you and that homebrewing things will probably be fine. If you are not confident in your ability to homebrew, then XGtE may be a good secondary reference instead of just relying on the DMG.

[Brookshw]

Thank you for the feedback, especially DrKerosene for the detailed breakdown.

[DrLoveMonkey]

As a DM myself I would also recommend Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters. They have some wonderfully fun monsters and good insight on how to run them.

Which I know combined with Xanathar’s is basically “get every supplement” but I’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of them personally. Time of Foes in particular pretty well saved one of my campaigns from having dull mid-high tier battles.

[MoiMagnus]

I will probably repeat what most already says but here it is:

1) Contrary to 3.5e, XP is not central to 5e. There is way to lose XP (not penalty from death, ...). Which mean you can chose whatever award system you want and it will works. We personally play without XP, and the DM gives level up to the full team when it feel right (a lot of battle since the last level up + insert well in the scenario), and use more narrative rewards when he need to reward a specific player rather than the full group.

2) Other have answered. But I want to stress that contrary to 3.5, PCs are not entitled any wealth and/or magic item. You could make a full campaign with only common and uncommon items (not rare and legendary), and it would work without any problem. Xanathar's guide has a lot of suggested rules on how to handle PC's wealth, and how to handle "buying a magic item" (as contrary to 3.5, the list of magical item isn't public, and the PCs may have difficulty to find a specific item they want).

3) Don't know. Unless you're French, then https://www.aidedd.org/ is reasonably good. (they are progressively translating it, but not really practical yet in english)

4) If I had to chose one supplement to buy (outside of setting books), it would be Xanathar's book. A lot of options for players. A NPC generators which is fun enough so that I've tried to use it multiple time instead of just saying "meh" while looking at it, additional monsters, a lot of suggested rules, ...

5) No idea

6) The ranger class is the most failed class in 5e (maybe the only true failure of 5e). You will find a lot of peoples trying to fix it. None of them convinced me for now.

7) Magic is one of the thing I really like in 5e. It is not perfect, but they tried to do a lot of thing I really appreciate. Concentration is the biggest change, as you pointed out. Cantrip are a significant addition too. And lastly, you might remark that the number of spell slots, especially at high level, is significantly lower. It moves the focus from "preparation" to "execution", as there is no longer any point in waiting few round of settup before attacking, there is no longer a sequence of spells "the caster always cast at the beginning of the fight", ...
Something really important to watch for at high level is Counterspell. In short, counterspell can be OP: It allows you to counter any spell, of level equal or inferior without test (so 3 or less if cast at 3rd level), and any spell of superior with a (reasonably simple) test. So for a 3rd level spell, you can counter a Wish if you want to. However, as for RAW, you don't know yet which spell you are countering when saying "I counter-spell", but we never played with this as it is unpractical. A nerf we use is "It allows you to counter any spell of level equal or inferior with a (reasonably simple) test, and does not allow to counter spells of level superior". I'm not sure I recommend using this nerf, but you should watch out for this spell.

In general, high level magic isn't as OP as in 3.5. The proof is that "A high level fighter is actually better than a high level caster in combat, and equivalent out of combat" is actually a position defended by multiple peoples on those forums (though the common wisdom is still that caster are slightly better than fighter at high level). The simple fact that this debate exists is for me a proof both are reasonably near to each other in efficiency.

8) Inspiration is to be seen more as a variant than a core rule. Most peoples I've talked to play without. It works pretty well if you need a bonus but you don't know what to give.

9) Don't meddle with those. 5e has in its core principle something which is called "bounded accuracy". Someone coming from 3.5 might find it weird that a level 20 fighter without any bonus has only a +2 to hit in addition to a level 1 fighter. But this is normal, as the armor of enemies don't increase a lot either.
What does this mean? It means the difference between high level creatures and low level creatures is more about damages and hit points than about armor and bonus to attack.
It means that an army of low level creatures is a relevant threat for mid level adventurers.
Oh, and it also mean your PC are no longer pushed to "optimize" and have only one relevant ability score, as it is now reasonable to max out two abilities.

10)
a) Read the attack of opportunity rule. I've done my first few games without seeing that it was changed from 3.5, and that you no longer had an Aop for turning around other creatures.
b) 5e might look a little dry when coming from 3.5. It is because a lot of technicality have been simplified (you can just look at the feat system, which is much simplier than 3.5 feats). However, you will quickly find out that there is almost no loss in strategic and technical gameplay, and that the simpler rules allow for more role-play in your games.
c) However, while the strategic and technical gameplay is still very interesting, there is something that died in 5e: character creation. In pathfinder, I've created more characters without playing them than I've created character for playing them. Creating characters in Pathfinder was half of the fun. In comparison, 5e character creation is BORING (outside of creating a personality for the character). But since actually playing 5e feel significantly better than actually playing pathfinder, I believe character creation was sacrificed for a greater good.

[Great Dragon]

As a DM myself I would also recommend Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters. They have some wonderfully fun monsters and good insight on how to run them.

I'm really hopeful that WotC makes "Monster Cards" for both those!!

[GreyBlack]

As a DM myself I would also recommend Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters. They have some wonderfully fun monsters and good insight on how to run them.

Which I know combined with Xanathar’s is basically “get every supplement” but I’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of them personally. Time of Foes in particular pretty well saved one of my campaigns from having dull mid-high tier battles.

That's not every supplement. I mean, we're not talking SCAG, GGTR, WGE...

[Great Dragon]

That's not every supplement. I mean, we're not talking SCAG, GGTR, WGE...
.... Elemental Evil Player's Companion....