D&D General Things That Please You

[DeviousQuail]

2e - my first ttrpg and the one that taught me how infinite gaming could be.

4e - the variety of at-will attacks (perhaps too many but that's better than the alternative imo).

5e - no feat chains.

 

[DammitVictor]

Generally speaking: Player's Option, Unearthed Arcana (3.5), and Pathfinder Unchained as expansions of what the D&D game could be, encouraging DMs to tailor the game rules to their specifications. Pretty much all of my work in the d20/OGL/OSR sphere owes something to these products.

I really liked Wizard Schools and Priest Spheres from the AD&D 2e in general and Player's Option in particular; I feel like Wizard and Cleric are too broad to be really flavorful, and replacing them with several narrower classes (like focused specialists and specialty priests) makes the magic characters can wield more special. I like the Wizard's school powers and the Cleric's granted powers in Pathfinder.

I liked Kits in 2e and Archetypes in Pathfinder. I... really, really like Rogue Genius' Genius Guide to the Talented (classes) series, which breaks down most of the official archetypes and some third-party archetypes down into pick-and-choose abilities, and the Genius Guide to (theme) Archetypes which presents generic archetypes that can be used with any class.

I really liked the idea of Prestige Classes in 3.X, but the execution left me cold... especially when it replaced a lot of character concepts that used to be (1st level) kits. However, Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies in 4e are a lot closer to the mark.

I liked the At Will/Encounter/Daily/Utility power structure of 4e. Especially when they added Psionics in PHB3 and Augment powers. On the subject of 4e, I loved Healing Surges.

I love the Soulknife class in 3.0, and moreso in 3.5, and especially the Dreamscarred Press version in Pathfinder.

I love the weird D&D races that are only in D&D, like the Gith, the Thri-Kreen, Tortles, the Hadozee.

I generally like the spell slot magic system, especially the way it's used in 5e.

 

[payn]

Alignment.

3E multiclassing.

Resource attrition.

PF Archetypes

PF Adventure Paths

 

[Blue]

@TheSword already mentioned Concentration, so I'll mention Advantage/Disadvantage.

First, it's diabolically simple and requires no math. It's very quick to do at the table.

Second, it doesn't change the range of what you can do, just the likelihood of getting a better or worse result within it.

Third, because you can't get double advantage or disadvantage and a single one of one type will negate any number of the other type, it streamlines the whole thinking about play away from the "how can I add in as many stacking bonuses to my roll". That psychological change, while subtle, is just as big a factor as its speed and simplicity to me.

 

[Ancalagon]

In 5e I really like

1: The intra party balance is much better. The fast difference in power level depending on PC builds are mostly gone

1a: This discourages (somewhat) the "character building is the game" mindset

2. Backgrounds! Omg backgrounds. It actually matters now, game wise, and allows you do do "soft" multiclassing sometimes.

I used to think advantage/disadvantage were great, but I have doubts now... The problem with 5e? ... it's best feature.

 

[Blue]

I used to think advantage/disadvantage were great, but I have doubts now... The problem with 5e? ... it's best feature.

Amusingly, what he complains about I find as one of it's biggest strengths. Players are no longer tryign to design characters around getting lot of stacking bonuses. I can't talk about the PF example, but in earlier editions of D&D the proliferation of bonuses was from character build and from buff stacking, not from getting a bunch of bonuses to the same action from engaging in play. There were some, but they were a minority.

 

[billd91]

I used to think advantage/disadvantage were great, but I have doubts now... The problem with 5e? ... it's best feature.

Nah, advantage/disadvantage is still great because it avoids all that nitpicking for all the bonuses you can wheedle out of the situation and really speeds things up. That said, that doesn't mean there aren't things that can be done with it to add a bit more texture. My suggestion would be adding on the DM's friend (+2 modifier) for situations in which there would be multiple factors giving advantage - sort of Advantage Plus but without getting out of control on the bonuses. The same would work the other direction - attaching a -2 if there are multiple disadvantage factors. Now, one factor of disadvantage could knock off one level of Advantage Plus (and vice versa), two factors would knock it completely off. Each level could mean something, it wouldn't necessarily be all or nothing, and the bonus proliferation could still be kept under control.

 

[iserith]

D&D 5e Inspiration from portraying personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Particularly with this approach.

 

[CleverNickName]

BECM: I liked just about everything about this system except for THAC0. I especially liked the streamlined monster stat blocks, Treasure Type tables, the Mystara game setting, and the now-classic adventure modules.

3.X: I really liked the unified d20 mechanic, monster templates, and the SRD.

5e: I like the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic and the 3-attunement slot limitation on magic items. These two mechanics fix many of the more odious math problems I had with 3.x.

 

[Blue]

Just because it came up in the "things I'd eliminate" thread, let me give a shout out to cantrips.

I've been playing since Red Box Basic. The "sure you're a magical character, but most of your adventuring day will be acting like a martial class except with no class features that help and using a non-primary ability score" was just sucky and boring as heck. The game is supposed to be fun, and that explicitly wasn't it.

Not say the 5e implementation of cantrips is perfect, but the concept of at-will cantrips is something that really pleases me. Doubly so for the non-combat ones. If I can use my magic to fill my pipe and light it with a snap of my fingers, I feel magical.