Legends of the Sword Coast

Srathor_sl said:

First game I steam refunded. And I have kept some real shit games.

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Mist_sl said:

How did they fuck this up?

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Kirun_sl said:

Right, but is the ARPG style gameplay a symptom of 5th edition D&D?

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The hard kernel of rules at the center of 5E (the combat and adventuring rules) takes up exactly 25 pages in a 300-page book. Wizards of the Coast uses the word "streamlined" a lot when they talk about 5E, and it's really true. It's not a dumbed down version of D&D by any means, but a lot of the jagged edges and needlessly complicated elements have been filed and sanded down. I talked to D&D Lead Designer Mike Mearls at Gen Con last week, and he told me that a lot of rules decisions came down to driving the action to the table rather than to the books. That meant cutting down on rules that required brute force memorization and felt more intuitive to the players.

How have things been streamlined? In a lot of little ways. There are no separate values for saving throws ? a saving throw simply uses an ability score. If the DM says, "Make a Dex save," you roll a d20 and add your Dexterity modifier. Instead of a menu of skills in which you purchase ranks, skills are tied directly to ability scores (and there are fewer skills overall). There's a flat proficiency bonus that applies to a bunch of different rolls, so you only ever have to know if you're proficient with something or not. Using a weapon you're proficient with? Add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll. Using a skill you're proficient in? Add the bonus. Not proficient? Then just use your ability modifier. The proficiency bonus starts at +2 at 1st level and gradually increases to +6 at 20th.

Feats have been improved significantly. For one thing, they're optional. Classes get boosts to their primary ability scores at certain levels. You can forego the boost to take a feat instead. The feats have been consolidated, to great benefit. In 3rd Edition, you had to take a chain of related feats to specialize in something. In 5E, a single feat lets you be great at mounted combat or fighting against spellcasters. This means feats are much more powerful, individually, and instead of just being yet another thing your character can do, they really help define who the character is.

One of the biggest changes is the removal of static bonuses for most rolls. You'll still find the odd +2 bonus here and there, but those have mostly been replaced by advantage and disadvantage. On those rolls, you simply roll an extra D20, and take the higher of the two if you have advantage (take the lower for disadvantage). It's a really fun way to boost a roll, doesn't require bookkeeping or remembering a bunch of variables, and really speeds up play.

There are a lot of other small tweaks like this, things that maintain the feel of classic D&D, but remove a lot of the parts that made things less fun (no flanking rules, and only one way to trigger an attack of opportunity). Having read through the Player's Handbook thoroughly and having played several sessions using these rules, I have yet to find a rule a actively dislike.

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khalid_sl said:

How does this compare to Pillars of Eternity? I know some people disliked that, but I loved it personally.

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Kirun_sl said:

I'm not "set" on it no matter what. I just happen to think the complaints about the game amount to people wanting/expecting NWN3 and instead they got Icewind Dale.

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