6 Things I DISLIKE about D&D 5E 

Honestly, sometimes my least favorite part of 5e is when you make literally any slight criticism of it and then get an extremely disproportionate negative reaction. A while ago I pointed out that even when adjusted for inflation, 5e is the most expensive d&d to play (a completely neutral statement) and I got reactions like I was kicking a child.

A couple of things I do: Getting knocked out gives a character a level of exhaustion. Recovering a level of exhaustion requires a CON save, with the DC based on your accommodations (suddenly shelling out for that comfortable inn instead of sleeping on the ground outside makes a difference). Long rests don't restore hit points. Characters regains half their hit dice, round up, after completing a long rest.

If you think D&D 5e is very "kitchen sink," don't even consider Pathfinder 1e (and, I'm sure, 2e eventually). It takes the concept of the kitchen sink and somehow managed to fit a kitchen sink inside if it. I say this as a 7 year player and GM of Pathfinder.

Simply making a character take one level of exhaustion every time they drop to 0 hp and another level if the character fails 2 death saving throws, allowing only 1 hit die recovery per short rest, and not auto healing on a long rest, requiring hit die expenditure... helps make the game more like older versions and makes dropping to 0 hit points mean something.

I'm watching this while Nate works about 30 ft away in his office.... :P

Honestly, I'd rather the game "be easier" and scale it up versus being too hard. A lot of people in this thread have made some great suggestions on how to do that. In my situation, I'm introducing my family to DnD. I've played since 1e, but it's completely new to my wife and kids. During our first encounter with goblins, my wife got injured for more than half of her hit points. I told her about the death saves and it was like a relief to her. My kids also enjoyed the game and played well. All the systems act like a safety net for new players and it's those new players who are the lifeblood of your game. In any case, nice discussion material.

For point 2 if you want a deadlier play the monster that way. When a PC is knocked unconscious have the monster continue to attack. RAW when an unconscious character is attacked it's an auto crit and they fail 2 death saves. Like Matt Colville says "the Earth Elemental Steps on your head to make sure your dead."

Tradition is important to some people. But hell, I still miss THAC0 so who am I to judge.

My experience really is that death is as common or as rare as the DM wants it to be. I think if you want to increase your monster/npc player kill rate the most critical thing is not to shy away from delivering the killing blow to your PC just because there are other standing targets. Now I think most DMs reasonably rationalise that a monster will tend to lose interest if an attacker stops moving and there are others still attacking it, and an intelligent creature may prioritise putting down those still dealing damage to it to finishing off the unconscious creature, but ultimately the reason for doing this is because players don't like dying and the DM wants their players to have fun. But the clear result of this is that either you take down the whole party and TPK, or you're relying on unlucky rolls, which as you point out give a fair amount of time and leeway, to kill a player. If you want to up your kill rate, most monsters are going to be able to outright kill a downed character in 1 turn, and you shouldn't shy away from doing that. The theoretically optimal strategy is not always the narratively best, or even indeed the optimal one. If your bad guy takes a turn of damage in order to outright kill a player, that's going to send a message to the rest of the players, it's going to scare them and it's going to stop that character from coming back into the fight, permenantly. Even better he can have his minions do it and that makes those minions seem like more of a threat than they legitimately are. Think what happened to mollymauk. Matt may not have done that deliberately, he declared the double attack before molly did his thing that put him down, but the result is the same. 1 turn, 1 dead PC. I've never been a DM yet so take what I say with a pinch of salt, it's just something I've noted with how DMs tend to behave, they prioritise standing players because they aren't looking to kill their PCs. When the DM simply makes the baddies vindictive enough to just straight up murder you on the floor, as I hav witnessed once or twice in games, they often get their kills. No matter how much hp a character has, no matter how powerful their attacks, no matter how godlike they are, when they're lying helpless on the floor all it takes is 2 pokes from a goblin and they're dead.

The kitchen sink is a mimic...

2: I do agree and I have a homebrew rule that you gain one point of exhaustion when you fall unconscious (from getting to 0 hit points). That way if the player is super uncareful he will be punished the rest of the day(s) depending on how many times he went down and after the third one the death saves start being with disadvantage.

I feel like as long as the players and DM communicate and are on the same page, lots of these annoyances can be avoided

Thank you for this video! I must say, was not prepared for this level of honesty! I came into d&d when ad&d was on its tail end. Then 3rd edition came out, and not terribly long after, 3.5 and its many variants. When 3.0 came out, i really fell in love. So many options, variations, supplemental rules and ideas, campaign settings and alternative ideas... then 3.5 came out and just further streamlined it, while still being compatible with 3.0. So thats where i sit, and thats where i'll stay. Ive amassed a large collection of 3.0 and 3.5 books, and have continued to do so. Ive only recently completed ny quintessential set by mongoose, some 2 dozen booklets on specific races and classes, which really offer an in depth diversity to all the races and classes they address. I like the hardcore aura these versions have. Yeah, you may die. In fact, its a very real possibility. However, surviving and getting better has won the hearts of my players, and really sealed them into this game. Rewards have more impact when you almost lost it all on several occasions. What bothers me most about 5e besides the capitalist aspect is the racial acceptance. You wanna be a tiefling? Or a dragonborn? Not in my game bub!! I make new characters play a standard race/class combo or a few to understand the world and roles of those in it. If they can reach the level of the monstrous race/class combo they want with one or so standard characters, i find they understand the nuances of the world, and how and why monsters have the reputation they do. Sorry, but no christian kingdom society is going to be okay with a devil race of thieves doing what they do in town. But earn those levels the regular way and I will happily let you try! So to me, 5th edition is more like the liberal hippie approach to d&d whereas 3.0 and 3.5 are more like the cruel middle ages christian themed fantasy RPG i prefer. Im not christian or liberal or anything along those lines, but working within an imposing environment like that really brings a lot of challenges and territories where some things just dont fly. Thanks again for this video, it meant a lot to this ol' DM!!

The fact that the best way to heal in 5e is waiting until a character is downed is just completely crappy >_< My problem as a player with 5e is that i dont care about my character if i never feel like I'm in danger... I never feel like I'm in danger. I also hate how the optimal way to play a shapeshifter is to stop shapeshifting at later levels -.- I love the D&D show dicing with death ( They use 2nd edition ) because life is easy to lose which makes them consider their actions carefully. Also as a newbie DM using XP pools and challenge ratings was pointless, there are so many more factors then the amount of players and their levels, like how much they minmaxed or what class they play and how well balanced that is, i quickly found out that "deadly" encounters were just pushovers for my players who all had D&Dbeyond legal characters. Edit: oh, i also hate the gold/magic item economy. 4e was my first time playing D&D and in 5e i just have no idea what to do with gold, i didn't as DM, and now that I'm a player my DM doesn't seem to know either, the guidelines for gold are to poorly defined. Most of the players i play with are convinced into D&D because they're digital gamers, and they just dont give a fudge about their new keep, they want loot, and loot is in super short supply in 5e.

Pathfinder 2 has a good fix for whack-a-mole situations, the Death Levels and Wounded Levels. Those can be easily added to 5e. Basically, the first time you are downed to 0HP it is the same as 5e, but each sequential K.O. increases your chance of instadeath. The Wounded LVL can be removed with Healing Kit uses and resting.

I play BX and 1st edition. 5th edition is just boring for me. I think SUCCESSFUL ADVENTURES on page 107 in the 1st edition PHB should be required reading for everyone that plays the game. 6 things I do not like about 5E. In no particular order. 1. Death Saves. I like at 0 your character is toast, unless there is money to pay for a res. 2. To many races. I like Gary's take on things where it should be more human focused. If you want to play a different race then there is going to be draw backs to playing them (level limits) 3. Long and short rests. I thought healing is what clerics were for. 4. Backgrounds Here is one. You are a nobody, and make your own story by playing the game. 5. Feats I thought that was what having a class was for. 6. Balanced encounters. That is what legs were made for. Running to fight another day has saved many character lives. Not heroic, but that is the type of game I like. Sometimes you can outrun things and sometimes you can't. When you can't then its time to make a new character. "Run first and ask questions later." 1st edition PHB page 109 It's funny how much the game has changed over time. It has gone from a very deadly game to one where the characters almost never die because it is all about the story.

You know unlike many other channels, you are always talking more generally about RPGs and that's good. However main issue I have with D&D 5E is one other youtubers are also guilty of: always go for the lowest common denominator in a very lazy way. Some channels have been talking in circles about the same stuff for 5E for 3, 4, 5 years at this point and people keep hyping ridiculous projects like "5E classes for a cyberpunk setting!" Instead of investing time to buy one of the many wonderful settings build from the ground up to better represent those concepts. We're quickly moving back into the D20 era of the early 2000s of endless, awful supplements forcefully shoved into a D20 system even if they fit poorly and I am not sure the OGL is to blame but it is far more on all of us every time we hear people say "I *only want to play 5E* and buy those products" and capitulate instead of putting your foot down and saying "No, try something else, it won't physically hurt you top STOP GIVING MONEY to WotC"

When I want to roll a more specific setting, I just talk with my players... Like this : "I'm always the frigging DM and I want to DM a specific game, so EVERYONE WILL PLAY A GOBLING BECAUSE I WANT TO, if you don't want, how about you DM this time, huh!?"

You can go "old school" with the Hitpoints and follow the older D&D/AD&D nearly universal houserule method. Give the players 1 FULL Hit Die (ie 6 points for a Wizard, 10 points for a Fighter) for level 0 and then have them roll 1 HD for 1st Level. Add in the CON bonus JUST THIS ONCE and total the results. There is your 1st Level HP total! The character then adds a new rolled Hit Die at each new level until 10th Level. After 10th Level, they just add; +1 for Casters +2 for Clerics, Thieves, Bards +3 for Fighters and Monks +4 for Barbarians This will greatly reduce the number of HP at higher levels and the risk will be higher as a result.

Something i really dislike about 5e is how there is close to no customization, all characters are basically the same. Sure there are feats, but they are an optional rule and 90% of them suck so you don't get that many options to choose from even when available.

D.M.: Feats are an optional rule so I'm not allowing anyone to use them. Me : - RAGE FACE -

The "Kitchen Sink" aspect really is more an element of the Forgotten Realms setting than anything else. It became so popular with D&D fans over time that it sort of became D&D's default setting. Used to be we'd be get stuff set in Greyhawk, like the Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara arcade games, or the Temple of Elemental Evil videogame adaptation, but pretty much all fifth edition sourcebooks and adventure modules that aren't specifically about another setting, are themed around the Forgotten Realms. And the Forgotten Realms are big and geographically diverse, and literally have room for everything: that's why Neverwinter Nights 2 was able to go from a really comfortable-feeling stock fantasy story in the Neverwinter region, to a more aesthetically unique adventure in the Mask of the Betrayer expansion campaign. It's also why the designers of the "Wyvern Crown of Cormyr" module for Neverwinter Nights 1 were able to focus so hard on medieval tone and JOUSTING, which might have been part of the appeal in their previous focus on Dragonlance fan-creations. It's easy to see WHY the Forgotten Realms became the default. That everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to the setting makes it an easy resource for people to draw from for ALMOST any kind of story. Maybe they should have included notes in the Player's Handbook about working with the DM to figure out the limits of the game they're running. Maybe they should have categorized the non-traditional races like tieflings and dragonborn as being "exotic" and mentioned that not every campaign setting or DM homebrew would include them or treat them the same way. They made a point to mention working with your DM to see if you would be allowed to play as a drow elf, after all. But the other reason for this is that a lot of popular novels and games already feature the Forgotten Realms setting, and that makes it easy for newcomers to get accustomed with the world and the lore to some extent before they sit down to play the tabletop game. If you've played even partway into Baldur's Gate, you know a fair bit about the Sword Coast region. If you've read The Sellswords, you know a bit about the Bloodstone Lands. There are multiple novels and games, including a casual free-to-play MMO, set in the Neverwinter area. There are a million billion entry points, that you can experience solo WHILE TRYING TO DECIDE if D&D interests you, or before you even consider the tabletop game as an option. The other settings don't have that kind of easy-in quality, and 5e, being a game designed not to intimidate newcomers overmuch, obviously wants to bank on that.

5E is unreal, the speed at which I can prep a session has gone waaay up. I have always had a gripe with the way D&D handles death. It is so hard to die in 5E, not that it should happen all the time, but there do need to be consequences. I have tried so many different things to remedy this and I find a lot of them work pretty well depending on the party. In my setting I've made diamonds very hard to come by, making the components for a resurrection a true treasure, and when the party finds one it's always a HUGE deal. My players don't reset their death saves when they go down. If you go down, fail once and then get brought back up, if you go down again on the same day you still have that 1 death saving throw failure. Also: I have never used the XP budget system. I think it's a great tool for new DMs however.

I think I have a good idea. Long rests should not be 7 days, as it sucks to have to wait a week to regain your spell slots. However, If you drop to one third your hp or less in a battle, your hp max decreases by your level+your prof. bonus+ however much damage you were below 1/3 hp for 1 week. I think this will solve a lot of problems.

If you want to have getting knocked down be meaningful: Change your tactics. Prone down means auto fail 2 death saves on melee attacks. In this world, if you brought someone down, you would stomp on their head to make sure they don't get back up again. If you can't take down characters when they play badly it is your dming style. Use terrain, traps and creative tactics to your advantage. Even goblins can tpk a party when played right in 5e. All making things more deadlier in 5e does is make someone have to be a cleric healbot instead of being able to have fun.

As someone whos first impression of DnD was with 5th edition my opinion on your points: 1. Yeah its kinda stupid, but it doesnt really doesnt bother me and is understandable enough. 2. Im with you on this one, I feel like most of the battles were a character comes close to death, its nearly always also really close to a TPK. The only times a single character was close to dying were moments where he couldnt be stabilised, for example a character was stuck in a water elemental -> he was drowning -> he cant regain hitpoints, so they needed to kill the elemental before he fails 3 death saves. Because of that im using lingering injuries with a chance everytime someone drops to 0 so my players are more scared of it (my wizard recently lost a hand and is now desperatly looking for a high lvl cleric to restore it). 3. While it is weird, I think making it harder to recover HP in rests might just make healing magic much more needed. What i surely will try out is the gritty realism rule, because it also reduces the spell slots so I can span encounters over multiple days without it being to easy and my playersalways having all resources. 4. I know its unrealistic, but I´ve played a lot of game systems where your character gets weaker with lower hitpoints, my problem with this is it a. slows the game down because players always need to look up "how many hitpoints do i have left? how much harder does that make rolls for me?" and b. It makes comebacks harder. Making characters weaker if they loose hitpoints makes deathspirals more frequent and often it comes down to "who hurts the other side more quickly", and in my opinion nothing is cooler than my players making a comeback while on low health ( I know this is still possible with rules that weaken you if you have less hitpoints, but its just much more likely that you just die) 5. As someone who had no experience with DnD before 5th, I LOVE the xp budgets. While calculating it is stupid if you dont have an app or a website that does it for you (thanks kobold.club) It helped me balance encounters when I had no Idea how the game works (We didnt play a prewritten adventure). I know its not perfect but its super usefull for beginners. 6. I just love that theres a lot of fantasy in DnD, maybe its because a lot of other games I played were rather low-fantasy. But after fighting Bandits, Cultists, Guards and who knows what kind of "human-enemy nr. 24" I just love that I can put a lot of mystical creatures even against low lvl parties and keep them amazed by the giant mix of different fantasy styles. I totally understand your points, just wanted to tell you guys what I thought about them :)

So many of the issues people raise regarding D&D (death, degenerating strength with HP, human-centered play, the magic system… and so many others) are perfectly handled by Burning Wheel. I’ve never understood why it isn’t more popular, especially with fans of “grit”.

Are you me? I've tried a few things for HP, resting and death. 1. Characters recover HP = Level * Con Mod per long rest. This calls back to 1e where a character recovered 1 HP per day. 2. All rest healing is done with hit die, but instead of getting half back per day, you just get all of them. Both work decently, however, I still feel like players don't always 'get' the hit dice mechanic. Currently, I'm working a new method that hopefully keeps things simple and streamlined yet turns up the danger and realism. HP & Wounds. HP is more like your energy, your ability to keep fighting. Wounds are the damage your body has taken. They are sort of a replacement for your Death Saves. 1. You can sustain a number of wounds = Con Mod. If your Mod is +2, you can have 2 wounds and keep fighting. A 3rd will kill you. 2. Each wound adds a level of exhaustion. 3. You get wounds 2 ways. When hit, you can opt to take a wound instead of losing HP (If you have 3 HP left, and are hit by an arrow, you might take a wound instead of dropping unconscious). Additionally, when an enemy crits you, you take the HP damage & the Wound damage. Enemies deal a number of wounds per attack based on their size: 1 for medium and smaller, 2 for Large & huge, 3 for gargantuan (these numbers can be tweaked, but I like the ever present danger it brings to big monsters). 4. You can recover a wound naturally by resting for a day, Alternatively, Cure Wounds can heal a Wound instead of HP. Finally, I'd make spellcasting cost HP. Currently, casting is way too simple, and I don't know anyone who tracks components (which isn't really fun). Instead, a spell costs 1 HP per level of the Spell slot. This solves the issue of players going 'Nova' when they only have 1 encounter in a day. It also makes sense now that HP is a measure of Energy and not strictly your health; casting spells wont kill you, but if you aren't careful you could drop unconscious.

+1 for "It just don't seem right.".

I feel your pain. All of it. The cocktail of flavors, the casual healing... What came to my mind is one system I've tried a couple of months ago - A Song Of Ice and Fire RPG. The mechanics complement the setting really well. Interesting thing that they've done with the hp is that you can "trade" damage points for "injuries" and "traumas". Anytime instead of taking 3 or so damage you can take an injury which decreases all of your abilitiy checks, the limit to the number of injuries being your stamina rating. It felt somewhat refreshing to play. And then you have to rest for a day AND have somebody make a medicine check, otherwise you keep being injured.

All of these reasons are great and all the more reason why EVERYONE should have a session 0.

New Death Save rules: You get 1 roll on the start of your next turn. Let's hope someone can give you some first aid before then so you can make your save with advantage.

I love 5e, especially it's simplicity. But it's simple rules can often leave my players wanting more (mounted combat, grappling, etc). It becomes a balancing act to augment the core rules without getting overburdened and becoming unwieldy. Great vid

There’s luckily a ton of answers to a lot of these problems already in the game. First as you mentioned the healing the rest variants. The Gritty Realism Rest variant already curves much more than just hit point Recovery. Remember this also affects spell and ability recovery. If you haven’t used this rule yet you’ll be surprised by how much it does change EVERYTHING. As noted by other comments death is easy in 5e if you don’t pull your punches but ACCIDENTAL death is hard to have happen. If foes aren’t finishing off dying characters there’s usually a reason (either they need to deal with the immediate threat of another character or they don’t want them dead). Multi-Attack is a killer if the first blow knocks a character to 0 and many beasts get an extra attack as a bonus action if the target is prone (which 0 hp characters are). Just remember even one hit on a downed target makes the death save a single save or dye and two attacks kill them outright. Hit Points are just a problem with D&D and one of the mechanics WotC has figured out that if they remove it’s no longer “D&D” to too many people. There’s an easy answer with bringing back Bloodied from 4e. Not official but I’m going to be putting a video out soon that discusses this too. The XP budget system IS a joke and WotC knows it. This is why they have a MUCH better system in Xanathars guide, but like you said it’s also something that can just be ignored. Finally the kitchen sink issue. This is mostly a community problem not an actual system problem. It’s not AS focused as it could be but WotC official stance on 5e is PHB plus one for all their organized play and any campaign that has a players guide or players options assumes THAT is the “plus one” for that campaign. WotC also doesn’t like telling people how to have their fun but this limiting factor shows the limits within their own campaigns and the books openly tell DMs and the PLAYERS that it’s up to the DM what races are allowed. The problem comes from a community that refuses to listen or accept this just like multi classing being optional and not core. People assume if it was core in the Edition they came from or if it’s common at their table it’s core.

Hi, ever tried „The dark eye“. That’s the favourite system over here in Germany and I think it solves your problems. But, as it is from Germany, it’s a little bit nitty gritty. But still the most played system here. So it Must make something right.

My biggest complaint and gripe you didn't even touch, not even with a 10 ft pole. Perception, investigation, and passive perception. The wording is so ambiguous that it makes it difficult to figure out when to use them. Like is it perception to find a trap if you don't know if it's there? Or is it investigation? And if it's perception then when do you use investigate? And don't get me started on passive perception. "Oh hey you are walking down a trail when your cleric sprouts an arrow", "How did I not see that ambush with my passive perception of 27?"

After testing 2d20 Conan for some time now, coming back to D&D combat feels like having read Stephen King and going back to Goosebumps.

I have a couple tricks that help me deal with the "Kitchen Sink" aspect of the game when world-building. 1) Find out what your players want to play as early as possible when coming up with a setting for your next campaign. Since you're probably only going to have 3-6 players, there are only so many oddball races you can get, especially since variant humans are so strong that a lot of players pick them. Simply find ways to incorporate their specific race choices into the setting. You may even find it creatively stimulating to find a way to make them fit and give them a home in your setting. You can also involve your player in the creation of their race's niche in society, which might get them even more excited about their character and give you plenty of ways to involve their background in the campaign. 2) If a player picks something that is really incongruous with your setting's concept, ask them if they really wanted to play that race/class because of the concept, or if they just wanted its stat block. If it's just the stat block, re-flavor the race/class into something that fits better while keeping the character as it is mechanically. You might also find this creatively stimulating, and your player may enjoy having the freedom to come up with something completely new. If they really wanted it for concept reasons and not game mechanics, find out what about the concept drew them to that combo. Again, you can take this data to re-flavor the character in such a way that it fits in better while keeping the specific parts of the concept that they like about their character. Sure, it's a little more work, but I find that accomodating your players' characters into your setting usually leads to a better setting along with letting your players play the characters they want.

Is it Festivus time again? The airing of grievances!! LOL

As a DM, one of the things I do (depending on the group) in 5E is limit short rests to 2 per day, long rests still recover half a character's hit dice, but characters only recover half their maximum hit points on a long rest. As for unconsciousness, my variant rule is a character can recover from unconsciousness a number of times equal to their CON modifier, after which a successful stabilization will result in them being Stable but they remain Unconscious. I require a medicine check to wake the character from this state, but if they do awaken before a long rest they gain a level of exhaustion and they can't recover hit points until they take a long rest. That's for my groups who like it more deadly anyway. I keep Matthew Mercer's Bonus Action rule for potion drinking, but even for my casual groups I decided that for a potion to work you have to be able to metabolize its liquid. If you try to feed a potion to an unconscious person, you will begin to drown them, and they immediately lose two death saving throws. All characters have to be awake to gain hit points from healing potions.

I’ve always considered the 8 hour rest as the time taken to bandage, cast healing etc. then rest and regain spells. If party has no healer then they expend potions on top of hit dice to heal

I live in Poland, and here Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is far more popular than any D&D edition. Some say it's because of easy to understand d% system (let's forget third edition, ok?). But I think it's because of the setting. Not as heroic as D&D. Darker. Chaos and its servants are always there, waiting for your soul. Traveling through the woods? Bandits are not what you should be afraid of. In fact... There's mod for WFRP created in Poland, called "Autumn Tale". Best way to describe it is "Polish WFRP players considered default setting as unrealistically optimistic, so they created their own". Autumn Tale is too much for me, but yeah... I love WFRP. Even though it's not perfect. (But hey, it's d%... Only your creativity can limit you).

For solving the rest problem, you can look it the 13th Age RPG way: accept that it's a game mechanic to keep the game going. So rather than long rest at night, that game lets you take a full heal after 4 normal combat encounters, or 3 hard combat encounters. Healing fully doesn't take any time, maybe 5 minutes, not 8 hours, as hit points are an abstraction anyways. Resting after a set amount of battles helps twofold: your players don't rest at any given moment, they know they have to press forward to earn their heal. And secondly, it gives the players a chance to pace out when to use their spells and limited abilities. Knowing there will be two battles after this, they won't use every spell in a single battle and ask the GM for a long rest because they're out of spell slots.

2.) Death - if a character falls down, and the PCs are fighting a semi intelligent creature, that creature will finish the victim to prevent others from bringing it back to life. Also in my setting, raise dead and other resurrection magic which is from the necromancy school is banned across the realms because necromancy is outlawed. Another cool thing to add is that for every failed death save, you get a permanent scar which makes it more difficult to engage with NPCs. 3.) Healing - we have a sort of a hybrid system where a short rest is 4 hours long, and a long rest requiers a few days. This means that you will not have a cleric to bail you out every single time and will force you to prepare for a dangerous dungeon 4.) HP - can't really fix this problem without making it too complicated, and I think most people would hesitate to fight in the 1st place if they knew that they will be less and less potent and that would suck out the fun out of most martial classes who have to fight on the front line 5.) Exp - I just give out levels when I find it appropriate, like after a huge quest has been completed or after say 5-6 sessions 6.) Customization is the key. I have just banned out a whole lot of problematic races, spells, magic items etc. but have expanded on the things which are allowed giving them more depth. When in doubt, depth > complexity. It's better to have 2 races with a detailed interaction and history and a long history than 25 stereotypical ones.

Well you see barabarians have a high armor class because they're so buff that attacks just glace off of their skin

My issues with 5e: 1) The Adv./Dis. system. I get the simplicity of it, but it has 2 big issues. a) The benefit/penalty associated with Adv./Dis. varies greatly depending on your normal likelihood of success. If you need a 10/11, it is roughly equivalent to having a +/-5. If you need a 2 or a 20, it's like having a +/-1. Imagine a character trying to lift a heavy portcullis, but he needs a nat 20 to make the DC. Someone helps him, granting him advantage, but he STILL needs a nat 20, he just has 2 chances to do it. (In 3.5, the character would get a +2, if the ally could make a DC15 check to help.) What's sad is that the 8 STR halfling Wizard is just as much help as the 20 STR half orc barbarian in 5e. Another scenario, the expert swordsman has been blinded, and must now fight a commoner. The expert swordsman hits on a 2 normally. Disadvantage just means that he has to roll a 2 or better twice to hit the commoner. (In 3.5, the swordsman would have to roll a 2 or better, then make a DC11 flat check to see if they actually hit.) b) Since Adv./Dis/ doesn't stack, there is no incentive to work together to bring down the big monster. I think of the scene from Infinity War Part 1 where everyone is trying to pull the gauntlet off of Thanos, and thinking, "If this were 5e, they wouldn't even try to restrain him after Mantis starts messing with his mind, because he would already have Disadvantage." MAYBE you could rule that having Ironman help Spiderman pull on the Gauntlet gave Spiderman Advantage on the opposed STR roll, while Mantis' mind tricks gave Thanos Disadvantage, but literally everyone else wasn't helping AT ALL by 5e rules. The last issue I have with Adv./Dis. is that is makes homebrewing buff/debuff spells really hard. What can you do to someone besides grant them Adv./Dis. on some checks? Bless and Bane are cool in that they grant numerical changes, but the DMG really wants you to avoid doing that. 2) I feel like you shouldn't miss out on feats just because you want to multiclass, and I also think that you shouldn't have to choose between feats and stats. I have seen a lot of cool character concepts flounder because they need too many feats to realize their concept and then they don't have the stats to actually succeed at what they wanted their build to do. (I'm thinking of doing a homebrew rewrite where everyone gets ASI's based on CHARACTER LEVEL, and making some extra class abilities to go on ASI levels. ) 3) Bounded accuracy causes some weird stuff to happen. Stuff happened in a module and my group of 3 level 4s went up against a level 20 NPC... and won. The paladin died, but the other two managed to take the NPC down shortly afterward. (Paladin, sorcerer, wizard vs level 20 champion fighter.) I feel like they should have lost. Earlier, in the same module, there was an encounter with a level 16 character that was supposed to run away at half health (yes, the module expected a level 3 party to be able to take a level 16 to half health). Not only did they manage to take the guy to half health, he almost didn't get a chance to run away! This doesn't feel right.

If I'm bothered by any aspect of 5E is that there are so many player choices that it can be easy to get analysis paralysis. Regarding death, I think it is so dependent upon the experience level of the players at the table. When I DM I often get frustrated that the PCs nearly die in filler fights that are mainly there to drain a few resources and keep the dice rolling. For groups with experienced players, I think making truly deadly encounters is a skill that a DM has to learn. Armor class doesn't bother me, but hit points are a bit of a philosophical trap. I justify hit point regain in this way: hit points are not "health", but a measurement of a PCs ability to cope with physical and mental trauma. If you get sliced by a sword for 10 HP "damage", which gets recovered after a short rest, the cut might still be there, but it has been cleaned and bound, so it doesn't affect your ability to perform in combat. In essence, the physical trauma has been mitigated. If you don't get a chance to heal, the cut is still open and exposed. It hurts and it is distracting. You haven't dealt with the physical trauma, therefore the next time you get into a fight, you are that much closer to an enemy finally landing a killing blow. For the record, sometimes I describe a "hit" as missing the PC, but the strenuous move that was required to get out of the way was painful or exhausting, which is a sort of trauma that puts the character that much closer to receiving the killing blow. I don't know if I recommend this philosophical workaround, but it gives me an opportunity to describe a lot of stuff.

You may want to try the GURPS system. It addresses all the things you talked about and being a toolkit system, it has lots of avenues to adjust and tweak until you get exactly the gaming experience you want, in whatever genre you want. It became my go to system back in the early 90s and has remained it ever since. I play several other systems, but when it comes to GMing my games, I reach for my GURPS books.

My hate is an expansion of your hate of armour class. I'd like to have seen 2 values. Dodge (ability to connect) and armour value (ability to resist damage) so there can be a difference in both describing how an attack hits (or what when it comes to cover) or how impactful it is when it does.

For the deaths & unconsciousness, I use the Grievous Wounds system from Grim Hollow, that if you fall to 0, you roll on the Grievous Wounds table. Grievous Wounds are healed with a long rest (more on that), but every Grievous Wound you already have against you, you treat as a -1 to your roll. When you total below 2, you gain a Permanent Wound, which is a 1d6 table that has things like an ATM being cut off, losing an eye, or (if you roll a 1) outright dying. Permanent Wounds can only be "fixed" with a Regeneration spell. Sidenote that I also allow the use of prosthetics in my game, so if you can't use a Regeneration spell, you can see a local artificer about making you a prosthetic. Death saves are rolled by the player, but in secret, so only the player and I know the results. We do have a Paladin, a Ranger, and a Druid in my game, but I also allow them to use Healing Surge, since encounter CRs are consistently 2 about the APL (which is level 4, with six level 3 characters). Since I allow the use of Healing Surge, hit dice should be available less for rests, but even then, I only allow the use up to half during a quick rest. A Quick Rest is simply 30 minutes, and the only thing you get is the ability to catch your breath a bit (the use of half your hit dice). A Short Rest functions as advertised, but it's four to eight hours, and usually players will be camping when that happens. A Long Rest is the same, except extended to 24 hours, with the prerequisition that you *have* to be in a safe area to sleep and rest. A roadside camp does not count as such. A roadside tavern would, or a homestead, or a settlement. Ergo, players are required to seek out civilisation to get the benefits of a Long Rest. Fortunately, my group's Barbarian Warforged is a pathfinder who can find a settlement with a successful DC 15 Survival check, and I do populate my world with off-the-map little settlements with their own issues, thus opportunities for plot hooks and side quests.

When i've run 5e, i've had one character die in almost every session. with that being said, i'm still learning about encounter balance XD

I use the XP Budget, but I find that the deadly encounters tend to be more of a realistic attack. It just gives me an idea of how many creature to toss in (though I don’t always use it). I also don’t use the multiplier scale much on it, because multiple players balances out multiple enemies

My favorite RPG system is the World of Darkness games, also known as the White Wolf system, mostly because character creation and advancement are more involved than D&D due to the absence of levels and classes, it makes it easier to tailor your character the way want. My biggest problem with Experience Points in D&D is the fact that they don't really do anything beyond act as a sort of meter until you get to the next level, D&D's system known as the Level Up system is also greatly employed by MMORPGs, and I just have problem with the Level Up system which boils down to the fact you have these numbers that just tell you how close you are to the next level but still requires a bit of math you likely don't want to do. I much prefer WoD's Point Buy system, and other games that employ it as well, because it turns Experience Points into a player resource for advancing their character the way they want, it also means levels really don't matter and challenges can be applied for the difficulty to the players in more real feeling ways. The game also has offshoots, of sorts, for different sorts of character archetypes, just not in the way most people expect. There the classic World of Darkness, Changeling the Lost, Hunter the Vigil, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Geist the Sin-Eaters, and a few others. Each has a nice little spin on how things work. I also like the WoD setting of an Urban Fantasy Noir type setting.

A great way to fix some of the death problems: (Making resting harder is a DM thing, my players hate how hard it can be to sleep or get a full nights sleep) Lingering injury everytime players drop to 0, roll 1d20 to determine it and the lingering injury requires a 6th level spell or higher to be healed. Ontop of this, make it so healing spells cannot set bones, and can only heal surface level wounds like flesh or muscle tissue. Healing spells cannot regenerate tissue, but act more like mending with re-sealing the flesh back together

Actually, they call it Armor Class because that's the next best thing to defense class. They can't call it Defense Class because DC is needed elsewhere in the game, and it would be too confusing.

I think my favourite approach to point 4 is Fate 3.0's Stress and Consequences system. In Fate, there is no system of hit points. Instead, when you get hit by an attack, you have to 'buy off' the damage using stress, consequences, or both. Stress represents narrowly escaping damage, whether that's a lucky dodge or just taking a scratch rather than a larger hit. Expent stress is restored after combat ends and has no mechanical effect, but each character only has a certain amount they can spend. Consequences, on the other hand, represent meaningful setbacks, usually an injury or similar. They can buy off larger amounts of damage, but not only do they take notably longer to heal, but they can also be invoked against the character, reducing their effectiveness in combat.

I've been running a 5e Ravenloft campaign for almost 2 years. 15 character deaths in that time which includes a TPK. 5e is plenty lethal.

For Death Saves, consider requiring a character to be stabilized before they can receive healing. This makes SpareDying, HealersKits, and MedicineChecks much more useful than they normally are due to not being able to cheese death with HealingWord alone. Some high level heal spells can also be given an auto stabilize effect to prevent them from feeling nerfed. You can take this a step further and treat stabilizing effects as just giving 1 or 2 successful death saves instead of fully stabilizing. This prevents a Cleric from casting SpareDying and HealingWord on their turn to fix up someone with no successful saves.

Solution to your 6 dislikes to D&D 5E? Simple: "House Rules" :-)

I say the way to increase death is either go full pack tactics and if someone goes down, every monster in the area runs towards them to makes sure their dead, you can make it so that they can only stabilize with the help of somebody else using their turn to make a Medicine Check to give them a successful save, and/or you can make it so that to restore them to full health, they must heal the total damage you actually took to get back up, or you can make them have negative health and it stacks so you can't easily be healed.

For me D&D is all about magic and options. I would have no desire to play D&D with low or no magic. I need to feel progression, that I am getting stronger and awarded for my adventures. If a DM was like there is "no magic in my world", or "magic is rare" it would instantly be a turn off for me and I would probably decide not to play. I don't want to play a role-playing game where its close to real world. I want to play in something that takes me out of reality. That is the whole purpose of it for me. However, that being said I definitely agree with you and want to feel stakes. I want all my combat encounters to be a chance for death, otherwise there is no risk and it would be boring. I want all Hard or Deadly encounters, I don't want them to all be TPKs, but I would be fine with a boss being TPK and the lead-ups being Hard and Deadly.

On the DM side, don't forget that monsters are able to kill unconscious targets. People often forget or dismiss that, referencing real-life battle tactics. You can play it to the monster's Intelligence and knowledge of battle tactics, as well as knowledge of clerical magic. If it is known that there is a healer in the party, and it is known that they can instantly Cure Wounds or Healing Word an unconscious target so that player can stand up and fight at full strength again, it's a good tactic to go for the healer first. Gameplay Reminder: When dealing damage to an unconscious player, instead they gain a failed death save. - Constructs, bugs, elementals and zombies just keep attacking unconscious players. You can narrate a zombie's attack as if it is trying to eat your brain. - Goblins start stealing the loot from the unconscious player, then make their escape. - A random bandit would probably ignore the fallen. The trained soldier? Probably not. - Hobgoblins might strike once more at a fallen target before moving on to the next. When they realize there is a cleric using their healing magic, they WILL start killing characters and THEN will focus down on the healer in an intelligent manner. Hint: You can use multi-attacks to drain away failed death saves, or split your attacks up between fallen and conscious players.

Correct. 5E just doesn't seem lethal. But that's easily remedied by the DM and some adjustments. Also. The editing is better. Good job! Hope you get more subscribers!

There is game developed in the late 70's called Aftermath, it has some cool mechanics. Such as weapon defence ability, combat dodge ability, Su dual damage, critical damage with different effects. The healing/recovery rules are realistic too. Whilst it was a complex game and very deadly it was awesome to play I would recommend you check it out. It is available from Fantasy Games Unlimited. Its mechanics allow for everything from fireballs , 9mm to swords and stone axes. I feel may of the D20 system rules where refined from this system.

I don't like 5e, but I don't understand why anyone would ever get mad that somebody else does like it.

If you like your game to be more gritty, look at the suggestions that the Dungeon Dudes made. One thing that I liked is that you gain a level of fatigue each team you are reduced to 0 HP. Which works better than the random lingering injuries table.

Counter Argument: Mr. Torgue in BL2. “Fantasyeee”

Check out Savage Worlds. The wound system there is pretty awesome, but would need tweaks to make the D&D classes feel right. Savage Worlds is classless, so everyone has 3 wounds. I would probably try to set wounds based on hit die size. I might have to toss together a quick and dirty "conversion" for this. Hmmm...

Loving the Dan Mumford Star Wars artwork in the background.

1. This isn't specific to 5e and I disagree with it being a problem. 2. I don't think character death should be a regular occurance but it should be a possibility. 3.5 (without massive damage) has a good level of deadliness. It's not nearly impossible to die like in 4e and 5e, but doesn't make everything a save or die like 1e and 2e either. Save or dies do become more common at hight levels, but defensive buffs and resurrection are accessable enough to make up for it. 3. 3.5 doesn't have short rests and resting only restores a number of hit points equal to your character level. 4. This isn't specific to 5e and I disagree with it being a problem. 5. I didn't know that rule existed so I can't have an opinion. 6. This isn't specific to 5e and I disagree with it being a problem. Now for my own complaints: 1. Not enough options. 5e has been out for 5 years nad there's only 3 or 4 books other than the PHB that have options for players. 3.5 was out for 5 years before 4e's release and it got 60 or more. There's just not enough ways to make characters different. 2. Bound accuracy. It ruins the feel of PCs making progress as they level and the heroic feel D&D is supposed to have. It also makes high level monsters and NPCs feel like less of a threat. 3. Spellcasting mechanics. Spellcasters don't get enough spellslots and almost every spell requires concentration. At least make concentration a skill instead of a save so it doesn't autofail on a natural 1. 4. The saving throw systems. There's 6 types of saves, 3 are hardly ever used, and each class only has 2 that scale with level. 5. Advantage and disadvantage still cancel eachother out when you have more sources of one than the other. 6. Too many things are left up to the DM. The out of combat rules are basically "Roll a D20 and the DM makes somthing up." As a player I like to actually know what my character can do instead slowing the game down to play Mother May I with the DM. As a DM I don't want to slow down the game to make up a rule on the fly or spend extra prep time making one up in advance. 7. Monster design. Monsters have very few, if any special abilities which just makes them boring and underpowered. 8. Feats and Ability increases. I don't like having to choose one or the other or that when you get them is based on class level instead of character level. 9. Minimum ability requirements for multiclassing. EDIT: 10. Lack of depth. Having less complex mechanics makes the game so much less rewarding.

I have two main frustrations: 1. I want more, and heavier setting books. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is really underwhelming, I'd like it to be twice as thick with more concrete information such as populations, factions export/import and various conflicts that are occurring. 2. A fighter/mage. Straight up a classical 2e fighter/mage. Not an eldritch knight* with only two spell schools, not a spellsinger with a single one handed weapon. I want something resembling proper spellcasting, being able to use any sword or polearm of my choice and not rely on gimmicks. The Pathfinder Eldritch Knight was perfect with its full BAB, 9 levels of casting, d10 hit die and several bonus feats. And then I would be satisfied. Maybe some more skills like engineering. The lowered power scale is excellent, the class design is good, the racial design is satisfactory and the feats as well as the backgrounds are strokes of pure genius.

I been playing since 80 so the tradition stuff does not bother me. I currently only run Adventure League. I start in Sep 2016 and have killed 57 characters in 187 sessions. It took some time to get use to how player friendly the game is. But to make it a little more deadly. If a monster reduces a PC to zero, roll a d20 under or at their INT score attack the pc again. Some of my villains don't bluff, surrender or I stab the downed pc works.

Complacency cost my group of players their 1st character death last session. The are level 10 and been playing in my home brew campaign for about 2 years and not suffered a single PC death. (I’m a softie when it comes to playing the monsters in that I don’t attack unconscious characters unless there aren’t any sensible alternatives) so after a long fight with many swamp monsters the monk gets bitten by a pair of giant frogs and falls unconscious and nobody, not even me thinks much about it. Heck not even the monk player says anything to ask for aid from the other players. So it comes back round to the giant frogs turn and they both have the unconscious monk grappled and restrained and are fighting over his body and then And only then did it dawn on me and the other players including that short of som lucky dice rolling the monk was going to die. The dice weren’t lucky for the monk and a 10th level hero gets killed by a par of CR 1/4 monsters. What an ignominious end! There was shocked silence at the table as everyone realised that they could have on their turn saved the monk, but no characters die in D&D right? Playing again tomorrow for the first time since ‘the death’ and it will be interesting to see how the players approach has changed. I’m going to guess not a lot.

A few rules i do is: If a character Hit Points go past 0 out right, i kill that character off in a single blow. If however the HP lands on 0 after being hit, then i get the player to roll death saves. I think this way it adds a level of skill and tatics. Plus i always try and kill off at least one character in a campaign, to give the players a sense of reward doesnt come without loss. Long and Short Rest. I do use the system of 8 hours or 7 days, as i too like the realism. That being said i make sure players stock up on healing potions before adventures. I believe as well, that it makes players use a more tatical approach to everything , rather then just charging in and using up valuable time to rest.

Your first gripe goes back all the way to 1st edition. Gygax borrowed the idea from a naval battle game where the ships had armor class

The problem with tying damage to HP is that if you start losing you will almost certainly keep losing. There’s not a very good chance of an underdog coming back from the brink of defeat or snatching victory from the jaws of death. Every fight will either be a complete blowout by whichever side deals damage first, or an incredibly long slog as both parties deal less and less damage every subsequent turn

*#1: AC.* This is literally a non-issue. If saying "Your Armor Class is what someone has to roll to hit you" is too much for you, then you've got bigger problems. I get where you're coming from with dodging factoring into it as well as how tough your armor is, but still. This is a nitpick at best, and it's a very simple concept to explain to a new player. Worst comes to worst, rename it "Defense". DM's perogative. *#2: 5th Edition isn't that deadly.* This is more of a "DM struggling with encounter difficulty" problem than a system problem. There is admittedly less risk with the damage gating of death saves, there's pros and cons to the negative CON score versus death saves. Neither is really perfect or better than the other necessarily. Level 1 characters though? SUPER deadly, all it takes a stray crit from a goblin to outright kill someone. Any character downed can be easily coup de grace'd by someone that has more than one melee attack (which, even starting at lower levels, virtually everything in existence has multiple attacks.) In my experience, deadliness tends to come from a combination of numbers and environmental hazards. Alternatively, if you want to switch to the "negative CON" score for death, it's super easy to do. *#3: Resting and Healing.* As you said, this comes down to DMs. If you give the party frequent opportunities to rest, then yeah- encounters become much easier to survive than if they're strapped for spells, resources, and aren't at peak performance. I really like the idea of requiring a Healer's Kit in order to use hit dice- I've always recognized that hit dice is essentially performing first aid on yourself, but really only makes sense if you have the medical supplies to do so. Could even make some use of that Medicine skill for once with that. *#4: HP.* So, Pathfinder does something similar to what you're talking about, or at least has some rules for doing so, if you so choose. I'm personally not a fan of it; in my opinion, it adds a lot of unnecessary micromanagement that I'd rather just not deal with. *#5: XP Budgets.* I've literally never even heard of this. Looks to be an optional rule. As far as I'm concerned, it can be completely ignored. *#6: Kitchen Sink Fantasy.* I would say Pathfinder is a far bigger offender of this than D&D ever has been. D&D has a lot of stuff, but not everything. Pathfinder LITERALLY has what feels like everything, it's honestly a bit silly. I get what you're saying though, but I feel this is a point where DMs need to communicate with their players. Tell them what kind of game you want to run before any characters are made. It's the DM's world, their rules, and their free time sacrificed for a few hours of fun for others, the player can compromise with that. Bit surprised you didn't mention anything about how some weapon types are stupid (halberds and glaives are mechanically the exact same thing, spears and tridents are the exact same thing with a weight and price difference, there's no reason to ever use a morningstar over another weapon that actually has traits, etc. This is something that actually irritates me a lot.) But the nice thing is 5e is easy to modify to fit your needs. Don't like death saves? Switch it out for another system. Resting and healing too easy? Make it harder. I appreciate that 5e gives you rule alternatives. It's not a perfect system, it never will be. But at the very least, it leaves things open enough that you can adjust easily if you so desire.

In regards to HP, I've always had the mental image that the penalties from the damage they've taken "balance out" with the bonuses from the desperate rush of adrenaline they're experiencing. They're hurt, but their body is pulling out all of it's reserves to survive. I'm contemplating adding a house rule similar to the D&D 4e "Bloodied" condition. By itself, it does nothing but track the severity of your injuries. But there would be options in the game where characters might, for example, gain bonuses against bloodied characters as they exploit their more desperate efforts.

i feel 5e could use more customization apart from multiclassing and feats

I played D&D once so far, and I was surprised my character didn't die. I played as a tabaxi wild magic sorcerer, the first attack the entire party took was a goblin hitting my tabaxi for 6 damage, and he had 5 max hp And finally at level 3, with 11 max hp, wild magic surge, three fireballs right into the cat. At the very least the DM was kind enough to let the paladin roll for religion, nat 20, and decided to let us survive with a lot of exhaustion At least for my DM every single battle is a hard choice, we won most battles, but some we outright ran away scared for our lives

Interesting... just play another system like Runequest

I actually had to bend the rules for one of my players to NOT die. She rolled abysmally on death saving throws and it wasn't even an epic potential death - just some minor scuffle where she got unlucky. So I let her reroll the dice, coughing dramatically and looking away as if to say "I didn't see that natural 1" and she rolled well enough to at least survive another round so her party could stabilise her.

11:00 If players don't like to 'feel restricted' they are more of the snowflake type player or not really flexible. DnD is a role-playing game, which means immersion. Your DM is determining the world your story is going to be told in and you can build off of that. It's not like DnD canon is your set of toys and the DM is taking away your toys.

I like the idea of concealed death saves. Not the DM rolling, but the player rolling and now showing to the party unless a PC makes a medicine check-then they can see how many fails/passes.

Runequest, 2nd edition.

Two of my favorite games: Savage Worlds and 7th Sea. Both have a dramatic feel and taking damage has a real effect on the game. Also, they handle the "kitchen sink" mentality really well. Especially Savage Worlds. "Oh, you found this really neat Edge? Too bad it is in another setting. We're using this setting where that doesn't exist." Other really good contenders for good dramatic systems are the Storyteller system from White Wolf/ Onyx Path and the Palladium System for those of you who want a lot of crunch. Of course, if you really want to play Math the game, crack open a copy of Hero System which can be a lot of fun if you are in the right mood.

5e is my first edition getting into dnd, I also don’t play it enough to have many things I don’t like.

It can be more deadly than previous editions, depending on the dm. Any damage from any source (including aoe's, falling damage, poison, environmental damage, etc. results in a lost death saving throw, melee attacks...2 failed and an auto crit, which might finish off low level characters immediately). When I dm and the players are fighting any moderately intelligent creatures, the first time a player gets healed back up after being knocked down, enemies will either keep hitting downed pcs or gang up on the pc doing the healing. Enemies also don't generally fight to the death, they run away and get back-up, if possible...making resting mid-dungeon a big gamble if even one enemy escapes, though on the other hand giving chase can get them running into traps and ambushes. Wild animals also try to drag unconscious pcs off into the bushes for dinner or run away if they're losing. I also use the house rule mentioned by others that getting knocked unconscious results in a level of exhaustion. I don't do too much more house ruling on healing, just because healing in 5e is relatively ineffective until higher level spells are available. Also, the more difficult it is to heal up, the more players will be cautious and hesitant about trying anything creative or risky.

For the xps budget Kobold Fight Club helps keep my ideas in-check...

I love that you did this video. Too many people are afraid of criticizing anything online today because people tend to get bent out of shape over anything that has the slightest bit of negative ring to it. I salute you for doing so, because it prompts discussion, and hopefully can lead to constructive dialogue and food-for-thought. We learn through criticism, and I don't think it's healthy to shy away from sometimes expressing are thoughts on things like this. Here are a few of mine. There not meant to insult or offend anyone. There just a record of how I kind of see things in regards to D&D and most RPG games in general. I require know one to agree or disagree with anything I express in the comments. Ignoring what is written here is a very valid choice, but I don't think I'm stating anything that is all that controversial or even that critical. Just some observations and some common sense, I hope: The moment that players got to know DM gaming matrix/secrets and people started seeing all of the DM's rolls, etc, AD&D kind of jumped the shark a bit. I get that there's more money to be made if you can market to players, but taking the power and mystique away from the DM just so TSR, etc could sell more supplements did the game no favors. It was a business move, and the DM's role has taken some hits from that. As a longtime player and a DM who has been playing since the mid 1980s, I always enjoy the greatest rule of all: Knowing when to ignore the dice roll. You're not playing the game to win at a craps table, you're playing a game have a good time. To be part of a fun and exciting story. To get a chance to participate and shape that story. The DM is and should always remain the prime mover, and if it becomes necessary, there should have house rules in effect. Just because it's written in a book doesn't mean that the DM needs to adhere to it. The books should be seen as guidelines, not as absolute law. To me, a good DM is all about creating, first and foremost, fun for the players, developing interest in the setting, and about helping players develop their own characters so that they can invest in them. A good DM motivates games to role play, and the dice rolling aspects of the game should remain secondary. Dice rolling and rules are absolutely necessary, sure, but sometimes it's best to just move the story forward. For instance, if a player is a thief, and he or she wishes to be stealthy, it might not be necessary to roll a check for that situation, considering that you already know that the tower they're exploring has been long abandoned. Rather than rolling dice over and over, you might just say something like, "You cautiously move up the ancient stone staircase, clinging to the shadows. You take great care to move as silently as possible with great success. Your footsteps are like a whisper. When you reach the floor above, you find that you have ascended into a once-grand library filled with ancient tomes, statuary and odd baubles." Since there is no one in the tower other than the player, there really isn't much need to have the player roll every 10 feet of stairs for stealth, unless of course, you want to ratchet up extra fear, and don't mind the extra time involved. My point is simple: There's no need to roll dice for everything. There just isn't. A good DM knows when, and when not to. They also have to use their own judgement when it comes to the gaming rules/mechanics as well. A DM get all types of gamers playing in the games the run, and all these people play the game with different approaches and for different reasons. It's important to be a good referee and try to make people happy, but you also can't let some players run all over others too. Power gamers are rampant in all RPG games. You're always going to find players who want to manipulate the system. There will always be rules lawyers too. You just have to be able to deal with your gamers if they are becoming disruptive. The best way to do that is to be a DM who lets players knows what will and will not fly in the games they run. House rules. Maybe they're not for everyone, but they always worked well for me. Some players hate the idea of them, sure. The great thing about that is: no one is obligated to play. If a DM doesn't like a particular rule in a book, there's no need to use that rule. An alternate rule or idea can be applied instead. It's important for a DM to let your players know ahead of time that they plan to do things differently so that it's understood. When all the players are on the same page as the DM and vice-versa, then everyone can go about enjoying a fun time gaming. It's just common sense, folks. It's not that hard. It really isn't. I've disliked things about every single RPG game I've ever played. No rules are perfect. No DM or player is either. The goal should always be simple: Having fun. That's all that ever truly matters.

I wanted to add my thoughts to these arguments but you killed it.. all the things I dislike and have to micromanage were e articulated by you. Good video!

My top 3 hates of 5th edition is bounded accuracy, skills connected to tools, and the subtraction of spell stacking. My main game is pathfinder.

"Armor class is tradition!" Yeah? So was Thac0, but thankfully that was dropped too...

Going in line with your losing HP isn't necessarily injuries thing, a lot of the armors are really effective against many of the weapons in the game. For example, a dagger isn't going to be overly effective against any of the metal armors unless you hit a weak point, which a person proficient in that armor is going to have techniques and moves that allow them to protect those weak spots. (And before people talk about how easy the people on the History channel can get through things like chainmaille, they are using costume grade armors 99% of the time, especially with chainmaille) but if you look at even modern "armor," such as football pads/helmets, baseball helmets, and even body armor for law enforcement and the military, you still feel the impact of many blows. Football players still break ribs, collar bones, get concussions, etc despite their padding. A baseball player who gets hit in the helmet with a fastball still get their bell ring. And even the ballistic vests worn by law enforcement still get bruised tissue, broken bones, and other various blunt injuries even when the bullet is stopped by the armor. If you keep getting hit in the limbs and/or head over and over again, even if you aren't getting cut/stabbed is still going to bruise and at least slightly weaken the resolve of the fighter, which would result in fatigue, thus less effectiveness in battle. With that being said, if that's the kind of hit points you're losing 30 minutes to sit down, drink some water, and grab a snack would probably be a pretty effective way to bounce back and be ready to continue fighting. Great video! Keep up the good work!

5:41 every 2 times knocked unconscious, player loses 1 permanent intelligence;) they will hit 0 eventually

On the kitchen sink tab: I am DM, I run an exploration game and I have given my players a couple of races they could play and all the others are off limits. for now. untill they discover the new races they can't play as them and even their charakters have to die to play as the new races. problem is, they are too invested in their current charakters, a throwaway npc dies? let's have a wake for 3 days...

I think 5e is great, compared to the other options available it's a great mix of all the things that make up a good RPG. Although, I don't think it's just you... 5th edition isn't very deadly. I've found the best way to remedy this is hand out exhaustion more or use 15, instead of 10, for the threshold to make death saving throws. You could even incorporate more rules from earlier editions if you felt it wasn't bad enough. On the other side, you can also just limit the resources in the game that are needed to bring someone back from the brink.

1. Completely redundant stats. 2. Pigeonholing skills into very broad categories. 3. Leveling up system. 4. Mechanics do not support roleplaying, only combat. 5. Long rest- puff all hp back. 6. There is no such thing as injury in mechanics. 7. CR calculus. 8. Very abstract combat. 9. Very long combat rounds (6 seconds). 10. System encourages minmaxing. That’s just straight out of my head without any pondering.

8 hours short rest, I always liked it...But never had the chance to use it in a game.

I only ran a few 5e games. D&D hasn't been on my playlist much since 3e edition. Last time we played I stripped the death rolling thing out. You hit 0 you're dead. Proficiency bonuses would only count for skill proficiencies. I axed almost all the races. I axed the Warlock, the Monk, the Sorcerer, the eldrich knight and the Arcane trickster. Took away spells from the Paladin and Ranger (Everyone and their grandmother seems to be able to use magic in D&D these days). Removed the cantrips from all magic users, the way preparation works in 5e makes it flexible enough without the need for free spells. Roll 3d6 for your stats, pick a class and good luck!