D&D 5.5e: More of the Same for DMs (Rules Lawyer)

30 thoughts on “D&D 5.5e: More of the Same for DMs (Rules Lawyer)”

1. ADDITIONS/ERRATA:
   
   -A number of other creators covering D&D have been sponsored by Hasbro/WOTC and/or are developing a relationship with WOTC. I disagree with both since I think WOTC should be boycotted. I ask viewers to consider this if it turns out I am an isolated voice being critical of the books right now.
   -I should have also mentioned Tales of the Valiant, which for people who enjoy 5e is more familiar and doesn't involve supporting WOTC: https://www.talesofthevaliant.com/ And of course there's Pathfinder 2e which addresses common complaints about 5e that my channel has a ton of content on!
   –10:39 i have learned that the SubredditStats graph might not be accurate, Reddit's unpopular changes have reduced everyone's engagement with Reddit, and also affected SubredditStat's ability to track data on the site. Still, my anecdotal observation is that interest waned at least among the online/active part of D&D players, maybe in number of posts but definitely in enthusiasm.
   
   –22:33 Characters getting buffed in 5.5e made it even more important to playtest the crop of new monsters, because the old math definitely needs updating.
   –24:40 We DID see some (for me) welcome changes to conjuring spells and smite spells in the Unearthed Arcana articles that might have survived. Meanwhile, the lack of even claiming to address spells (they said they were rebuilding all the monsters) is highly concerning.
   -It's too early to call, but this might be a case of Planned Obsolescence. It would be consistent with Hasbro's profit goals if their plan is to turn D&D into a "living game" that gets updated periodically, and you need to be subscribed to their digital service to stay up-to-date. It would explain the lack of urgency to fix their game, because the game can be patched over time. (2026: "We have fixed these problematic spells!") And it would be consistent with their mission statement in their 2022 One D&D World Reveal video that "we don't think of D&D as an edition. It's just… D&D."

2. bonus actions / different heirarchies of action resources are actually very common in tabletop roleplaying and not unique to D&D 5E

3. Let me out myself as a DnD fan that doesnt like pathfinder 2 that much (so kind of a reverse of most of your viewers I assume). For me the new book looks really good and improves upon the 2014 rules that already gave me and my group alot of fun times. Its not perfect ofc (as Treantmonk also went into) but I do feel the hype is deserved. As for the boycott thing: Sure I dont like what hasbro has been doing but for me what counts is the value proposition at the end. If DnD is worth that much money to me and is more interesting to me than its competitors than I will play it regarless of what hasbro is screwing up. I will keep a close eye on the D20, future pathfinder editions and other new rulesets too though and migrate if they prove to be more interesting to me. I dont expect any company to be "good", I expect them to be profit driven. That hopefully means they obey the law and thats where I would like to see some kind of enforced morality.

4. DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE WORKERS!
   Hasbro's toxic profit-seeking culture isn't about the games, it isn't about the players, it isn't about the PEOPLE! Hasbro is about the profit, and you can all die in a FIRE so long as you give them your money! You can ONLY vote with your dollar, people. Stop. Paying. Them. Your. Money. They only abuse you and they only abuse the artists and writers who work for them. When someone shows you who they are, believe them!

5. I've got a couple of counterpoints to make:

   -I agree that they're making some abussive moves towards monetization, reason as to why I don't support them, but since the rectifications of the OGL scandal, they've actually been making a lot of changes both in their policies and development to allow and encourage homebrew. They even allowed homebrew content to be imported and sold in D&D Beyond, taking a commition on sells for the marketplace. In fact, the VTT they are developing has a heavy focus on customisation towards homebrew, so I would not say they are trying to remove 3rd party content.

   -Interest in the unearthed arcanas, from what I could see in the community, has only increased since UA5 with the reworked classes. You said it yourself, the data might be innacurate, due to it being people using reddit less, but many dnd content creators, both in the english and spanish community, started to bring attention to these unearthed arcanas since the class changes started to happen. In fact, the changes to spellcasters in UA5, not liked by many people (COWARDS! haha), caused the webpage to go down for a couple of hours due to the amount of feedback they got regarding all that, if I remember correctly.

   -Saying there are no guides towards magic item pricing and when to get what magic items in the DM's guide is a lie. Sure, the system is pretty shit, the prices are only aproximations, and the way it is show is confusing and unbalanced, but idk, it is there. Once you get a basic understanding of how the game works, they can be used as references to know what to give or sell to your players. criteria and context are always necessary of course, and the system might lead you to fuck up, thus why it is kinda shitty, but again, it is there.

   -The potions as a bonus action rule has got some connotations that I think you're missing. It is applied to ONLY healing potions, as the guy said in the video. That means it doesn't overlap as much as you might think with the thieve's feature. I agree with you, there was no playtest for the rule, BUT, i'd say healing potion as a bonus action has been popular since always as a homebrew rule. If something made it popular it was probably critical role, they run that rule at they table, and let me tell ya, 90% of people I know that play dnd, either by youtube or in person, run the rule that way, looong before baldur's gate 3 came out. Sure, there was no "official" playtest in an unearthed arcana, but oh boy has there been enough playtest there, enough for the people at wotc to read the suggestion at least once a day haha.

   Still, I agree, don't support wizards of the coast. I find it heartbreaking that the people actually developing the rules and the actual artists they have are caught in the collateral damage, as those people actually show love and interest towards the game, rules and world they are creating, but as with everything, the people in charge tend to fuck up the most and earn the biggest revenue. I'll still support 3rd party creators and continue to play dnd in my extremely homebrew way haha

6. I’m VERY excited for this new edition, and I can’t wait to fuckin’ STEAL it ouo

7. This is unnecessarily critical in the not good sort of way. It does serve to condense your opinion on the handling of D&D's version updates. However, you don't have much concrete evidence to criticize on the validity of decisions yet. Much ado about nothing.

8. a very lite Pathfinder 2e version would step up and fill the void that Hasbro just made, and Paizo could curb stomp WotC with all 3 actions. 🤷

9. I've stopped caring about wotc

10. This seems to be a really bad-faith video. They have announced an overhaul of how magic items are presented in the DMG, including allusions to pricing and crafting rules. There's no way you watched and read about the 2024 core books and don't know that. Also, the "use potions as a bonus action" homebrew rule is so ubiquitous that it's a common joke to say most people think it's baked into the rules. To say they got the idea purely from BG3 is a wild take at best. There are tons of other examples, but I don't feel the need to debunk them all.

    If you oppose WOTC and don't want to support them, that is one thing, and you should definitely continue to voice your concerns. However, don't present false information or make misleading statements about the game. Even if you don't care about misinforming your viewers, you lose credibility on the actual issues.

11. In my opinion, D&D 5E has WAYYYYYYYY TOO MUCH content as it is, far too much unbalanced homebrew with 1st level characters getting powers due to a homebrew race or subclass that are far more suited to higher levels. In fact I find characters in 5E overpowered in general. Mages and Rogues are SUPPOSED to be squishy, that's why they need a big bruiser to protect them. This isn't all WOTC's fault, however making somebody buy a $60 book to get one tweak on a class isn't the answer. I know why people want to share content they've created, but I wish they wouldn't. It leaves the GM with two options A) be the jerk GM that won't allow anything not in the books that they personally own and have perused the rules on, or B) be the GM who has to radically change their own campaign because some player(s) found something online they want to play that totally destroys the campaign's balance.

12. hey man look, all I'm gonna say is that I prefer a lot of things the way its done in D&D as opposed to other systems. So engaging in the stuff as it comes out is something I'm still gonna do. Won't pay them a dime for it, though. I've got a nice little free alternative for their services.

13. Heck just copying Pathfinders +10 rule for crits would make Dnd a much better game in that every bonus means something.

14. 5.5 feels like a solid cash grab to codify the homebrew rules/fixes everyone uses anyways, and some of their "new" ideas are straight from pf2e

15. I’ve been recently messing with revising classes and races and honestly the more I look at their revisions the more it’s clear most dms can do an equal or better job than wizards

16. 33:48 Hmmmm Kleenex was pulled from Canada last year.

17. Also, remember, prone is more than 1/2 speed to get up. it also means all attacks till the creature gets up are at advantage, and the creature itself is at disadvantage for a lot before its turn even happens.

    You know how no cantrips force lower rolls and spells that do are super anti-DM?

    AND you notice that that weapons mastery has no save?

    yeah… This sucks

18. Masteries is ill thought out. Having every successful hit knock enemies prone or give advantage means encounters that aren't challenging, spells being now worthless, and DM's with their hainds tied.

    Bastions are basically solo play, and it just……..

    The game's very anti-DM.

19. 11:56 ok, hold on — have Challenge Ratings really changed that much? I thought they were intended to be roughly in line with character levels? So a 1 HD goblin is now CR 0.05 ‽ And a CR 1 creature can easily take out a 1st-level character with a single hit? In fact, is almost guaranteed to take out a wizard or rogue with a single hit?

20. Can somebody tell WOTC that „…guide to everything“… is not a cool name / idea. Not even a work title.

21. I'll be honest, I just can't muster any excitement about the new version. A friend of mine said they're going to be buying the books and I can't think of a polite way to say "but why?"

22. This is so 5.5E, they are calling the new book "Revised PHB" in the interviews WotC has been releasing this week.

23. I left 5e for PF2e 1 and a half years ago and I aint coming back. While I have my own gripes on the PF2e system, they are easier to fix and the system is way more robust.

24. I’ve just given away my Pathfinder second edition books and I’m looking forward to the new edition of D&D I guess I’m in the minority

25. 5e is so easy to homebrew. I think I may try to add these 5.5e changes to 5e. A lot cheaper too 🤔

26. Listing three stats and then proceeding to force you to give +2 to one and +1 to another or +1 to all of them? Why though?
    Honestly, I´m generally on the "set stats give races more character" side, but this sounds just stupid. There´s a reason PF2e ALWAYS allows for a free choice, so that even when none of your selections "fit" your class, you can still have a starting main stat of 18 by using these free choices. It´s a good way to not go the route of "anything can be everything" and still open up all the possibilities for characters.

27. I heard that all subclasses get their first feats at level 3, and that was the last nail in the 5e coffin for me.

28. Treantmonk is fracking insane if he thinks its only a "handful" of spells that creates the martial-caster divide in 2014 5e. Yes there are the best in class spells, fireball, counterspell, fly, spiritual weapon etc, but that doesn't even scratch the surface of the insane number of exploration breaking spells. Goodberry, Tiny Hut, Invisibility etc etc etc. If all you can do is hit things with a sword, and now trip things with that same sword attack, how can you ever not be outclassed by a wizard turning invisible and avoiding the enemy completely.

    BTW, it is rather rich of Treantmonk to downplay the capabilities of magic when he is most famous for writing a guide that was "how to win every situation with magic".

29. Great analysis. I think the ideas and changes in 5.5e lack any sort of imagination or creativity. Whether thats the brain drain materialising or corporate suppression, is not for me to say. What I can say is that the new TTRPGs making their way into the scene are really exciting. DC20 in particular looks and feels fantastic. The mechanics and character creation options are ticking all the right boxes. DnD feels so outdated in comparison.

30. I am personally saddened by the fact that instead of an innovational leap that 6e could have been, we are stuck with 5e for 6 to 10 more years.

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