D&D / 3rd or 5th ED for beginners?

[Mark Khoo]

I heard that the 5th edition for D&D is out they say that it is really beginner friendly. I haven't tried it yet. Which one is easier for beginners?

[Gray Ran]

5e, definitely. There is a lot less to keep track of and the balance issues that plagued 3.Xe are better handled. There are also better mechanics to ground the characters in the setting.

It's still not anything I'd suggest for a newbie GM, at least not until the Dungeon Masters Guide is released later in the year. But it's just fine on the player's end.

[Kite Katolia]

5th Edition is the way to go by far. The meat and potatoes of the game rules is around 20 pages(well, the pages that cover all the basic rules like the difference between ability check, saving throw and attack roll, and spell rules are only a couple more pages IIRC).

3.5 is very unbalanced and the less you know about it the more trouble you can be in when one guy picks a fighter and the rest are casters, while in 5th Edition the gap is far closer to balanced, and as close as I'd want it.The system also has clunky rules for just about everything or has too many "X gives you a +1 to y roll" so you find yourself trying to get as many as possible and have to keep track of so much math(as the general rule was you could get as many bonuses as you could, as long as they came from as many different sources).
5th edition takes that and just gives you a second d20, and if your doing good you take the higher, or if your aren't you take the lower, and it's really elegant. The DM nor the player has to keep track of that much math, just if something gives advantage/disadvantage (not to mention the math is simplified across the board if you compare the rulesets)

A bad thing about 5th edition, is the Dungeon Master's Guide isn't out yet, so if you haven't DM'd before, your going to diving in the deep in without help basically, because the basic DM rules barely has any help, though the internet is full of GMs and DMs who post articles and even full books to help newbies out, so I'd say this is less of a problem if your willing to learn. The other thing that lessens this is magic items are supposed to be RARE and special, whereas in 3.5 you were just expected to get them.

The biggest bad thing (if you and/or your players are new) is since the math is simplified and everything, the game can be very deadly. A monster with a challenge rating equal to the partys level is nothing to sneeze about, and if the DM decides to just drop monsters in without thinking(or remembering to look at the exp budget), you could easily have a TPK.


If you want a more "simulationist" game, a game where the rules are there to try to make it seem as if your playing a game an actual world, go with 3.5, the streamlined-ness that is 5th Edition makes things faster and easier, but loses that simulation feel.
If you want a game that's been hacked to death so you can find any homebrew, theme, etc. of it no matter what it is.... go with savage worlds 3.5, it's been hacked to death. 5th edition will get there, but it's too new atm.

[Mark Khoo]

Wow thanks for the inputs!

I was thinking that if I (as well as others) just keep playing to understand how things work, we will understand it enough until the DM book comes out.

So far, my friends and I play with the thought that roleplay is more important than game mechanics and we just have fun. It maybe unorthodox for D&D but whatever... we have fun.

[Kite Katolia]

KIMARoriginal

Wow thanks for the inputs!

I was thinking that if I (as well as others) just keep playing to understand how things work, we will understand it enough until the DM book comes out.

So far, my friends and I play with the thought that roleplay is more important than game mechanics and we just have fun. It maybe unorthodox for D&D but whatever... we have fun.

Well, the DM's guide wouldn't help the player's as the Player's Handbook/Basic Rules covers all the rules (I think the DM's Guide will have optional rules, but that's obviously not needed). It's basically to say, stuff like how much gold you should give player's, advice on creating adventures, more magic items, etc.

If you value roleplaying, both 3.5 and 5e will work, since no matter what the DM can just hand waive stuff.
I do have an alternate suggestion if you want a more narrative system, Dungeon World. It's meant to feel like D&D, but it's even simpler than 5e I'd say (and from what I've been reading I feel as if 5e took things from Dungeon World) and it focuses on roleplay and the narrative, like for instance the DM is supposed to come up with loaded questions for the players and just run with their answers. The entire system is 2d6 + attribute mod so it's simple to teach and fun to run. The book is big, but 95% of it is examples to teach how the system works, so it's really great.

Dungeon World also gives your players much more control over the world, as it suggest you ask them questions often and go off of what they say, so a serious campaign is hard within it but it's intended to make your player's more invested in the game(mine just looked at me like a deer in head lights or bitched that they was doing my work basically whenever they got to a new town and I asked them to name the town and tell me what it's known for, for instance so your mileage may vary).

D&D 5th Edition is in the middle of this though, with on one side you have the super crunchy 3.5 and on the other you have a rules light narrative driven Dungeon World. All three do great things, but each does things different.

[Gray Ran]

Kite Katolia

D&D 5th Edition is in the middle of this though, with on one side you have the super crunchy 3.5 and on the other you have a rules light narrative driven Dungeon World. All three do great things, but each does things different.

I wouldn't call DW rules lite. More like rules medium-lite. It runs super smoothly in play, but on paper there are quite a few rules. They're just presented in a very easily digestible way. Rules lite is more Risus level.

I do recommend Dungeon World though, because on top of being super easy and basically unbreakable as long as you're following the rules, it also teaches good GMing and playing habits that will help you GM many other games.

[Exoth XIII]

5th edition for beginners.

I'm not going to say it "fixes the balance issues," though, as I don't see any issues. Yes, 3rd had unbalanced classes, that's sort of the point. Each class feels different, and you HAVE to team up with others, to overcome your own shortcomings.

This was even more so in earlier dnds. Back in the day, when a first level wizard blew his wad, that was it. He was a nerd with a stick for the rest of the day. Sure, a 20th level wizard was basically a god, but getting there was pain.

They didn't have any of this "magic missile at will" s**t.