Playing – Dragonlance D&D 5.24 Reflections

So my Saturday Night Gaming table has been playing D&D 5E 2024 rules (or D&D 5.24 as I’ve come to call it, in case we see a 5.26 or 5.28 later on). I took a few moments to scribble some thoughts I’ve got about this edition from play this week.

• We are starting to play with the Bastion system, including a few ‘alt home brew’ options from the internet which I question if there is anything resembling balance here. Some options cost gold, others produce gold, and the hirelings running the feature don’t require any gold at all. As a fan of PCs having opportunities to build up a base of operations, I really do want to like the system. Like much of D&D 5E, it’s really trying to keep things simple but that also means things are also going to get glossed over. One of our group wanted to just build a bar, but that’s not available until the character reaches level 13!

• Some of the minor changes to spells and classes are starting to make themselves known, like the bardic song of rest and that spiritual hammer is a concentration spell (though war domain clerics can at a higher level use it without that limitation).

• Exhaustion is BRUTAL with penalties of -2 to all d20 tests PER LEVEL and -5 feet of movement per level as well, still topping out at 6 levels will kill the character. Honestly by the time a character gets to -10 penalties to everything (including saving throws), the character is pretty much flailing about ineffectively on the ground. Mechanically, much simpler than 5.14 but also still very punishing, even more than the UA playtest of -1 per level of exhaustion to attacks and spell save DCs (max -10). I briefly tried the -1 but also threw in -5 feet of movement per 2 levels. With the exception of a few spells like sickening radiance, the mechanic of exhaustion is going to impact PCs more than antagonists.

• We’re using skill challenges, prompting more creativity in trying to address major projects. It’s being kept fairly simple and open, so we’re seeing things like Athletics and Investigation used towards assisting an inventor with building a construct. It’s a cool mechanic and it allows for a character to be involved in a less conventional manner. It reminds me of how Blades in Dark approached larger projects, even if skill challenges date back far earlier in D&D 4E though in a far more restrictive manner at the time.

• Playing as a spellcaster, I feel a little like I’m only playing half the system with all the little extras the martial classes are getting with the weapon properties. Admittedly, martial classes could use something to make it more than just “I hit with my 1d8 damage stick”. I was a fan of the Weapon Mastery system introduced with the D&D Expert Set but was never quite happy with ways we tried to integrate it into AD&D and later editions. I do really like that a rapier now has a different profile from a long sword and so on, though it does add extra layers of complexity in a system that already is pretty thick with combat crunch (it’s no Pathfinder, but still …)