Quote Originally Posted by Schwann145 View Post
I'm a big fan of what 5E is capable of offering to D&D, but if we're being totally honest, I've never seen it actualized. Every forum, youtube video, online or otherwise game, seems to be far more concerned about what is "the best" than what makes for an interesting shared narrative. Which spells you can ignore, which feats are mandatory, which class combinations produce the best results, etc... Doesn't it get tiring?
so, firstly, i'd recommend looking at Matt Colvilles youtube channel. he's got quite a backlog but by no means is his focus on mechanics. overall his attitude is that a mechanically powerful character isn't necessary to have fun. Nor is does it harm fun to have a mechanically powerful character. He gives a lot of advice about how to run games, but very little of it is about the mechanics of the game. primarily he focuses on table dynamics and when he does touch on mechanics, its never from a school of thought that centers on optimization. in fact, at his tables he doesn't give the players feats as straight up character options. instead opting to award those abilities, the same way you might award treasure. Seth Skorkowsky is another good channel if you don't want to focus on optimization. i can't speak too much for the communities surrounding these people due to not really being plugged in with the community in a while. but i know when i first discovered them the community was pretty good about distinguishing between optimization and other character things (for matt colville).

How does one combat this without abandoning the game altogether?
There are 2 ways a person/character ends up feeling inadequate. internal and external.

internal is...a bit too nuanced for me to go into..sorry, if i knew a bit more about your situation, your group...basically if we were able to have a conversation then i might be able to discuss internal problems but there's just way too much for me to list all the variables here

. but external causes typically focus on part dynamic. what your particular group values. im currently in a roleplay heavy game using 5e and its working just fine. because the entire group is committed to it. we all know what we expect. so, typically if the group has a different set of expectations/playstyle you have 2 options. either adapt to match the group (if thats something you can have fun with) or find a group that matches you better. which isn't all that easy, necessarily. But its really the only way to find what you're looking for.

is it time I just left D&D behind for other systems that don't cater so much to min/maxing?
here's the thing. 5e doens't cater to min/maxing. or more specifically, officail 5e content doesn't tend to cater to min/maxing. obviously a min/maxed character is always going to be more effective, but you have to actively be trying in order to build a character that isn't viable. even the champion fighter, as small as the sublclass bonuses are, is viable. its just not optimal.

that being said, no. no it isn't time to jsut leave 5e behind if you don't enjoy it. there are plenty of groups out there where min/maxing isn't neccesary. and others that are more leniant in how characters are built, allowing for a grater freedom of strong builds. for example: i played with a group that gave several different arrays to choose from. one of them being 17,16,15,14,12,10. or very similar to that. Which obviously allows for concepts that would normally struggle due to being too MAD. for example a rogue/barb multiclass. My current group not only did we start with something like a 32 point buy, we're also getting +1/+1 asi's every 3 *character* levels (with the caveat that they can't be used on the same ability score) in addition to a feat ever 4 class levels (with a portion of the feat being awarded every 2 character levels). This, means that character concepts (like a 5 full caster multiclass) are actually doable (and can actually afford to multiclass early in order to bring the concept 'online' before level 12) without making some major sacrifices in terms of ability scores. Gives more creative freedom to allow the players to build the character *they* want without having to worry about feeling overshadowed in combat. The groups are out there, it may just take time to find them.

Now: thats not to say you *shouldn't* check out other systems. by all means, please do. there are a lot of great systems out there. My point is that you shouldn't look at the system IMO. look at the group, its possible to have a good RP experience in a system like 5e (or even 3.5 which *did* cater to min/maxing) and a bad rp experience in a Powered by the Apocalypse game, simply due to the group.