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[sjm9876]

The thing I've found with 5e is that due to the flatter accuracy curves and the like there's a lot more leeway in encounter design. It means you can make your own monsters without worrying too much about the CR, and have a wider range of CRs withing encounters, making them more varied.

There is also a section in the DM guide on creating monsters, though I haven't actually used it so can't comment.

As for legendary creatures, I think the general intent is that they're basically high CR monsters that gain legendary actions - I imagine said legendary actions could be improved with an idea for a monsters theme and power level based on preexisting ones. Apart from that they're relatively normal monsters.

[Neonivek]

Well basically they have a few resistances and extra actions that factor in.

So basically a legendary creature gets its attack and then you factor in the other 3 legendary actions as if they were attacks. The rest you can decipher by looking at what counts for a legendary action (not that you couldn't break the pattern and have a creature that has... say... 5 legendary actions and where it gets a full move with 1)

Legendary Creatures are more ways for creatures to not get bogged down by the action economy.

Truthfully... most creatures would only go up 1 or 2 CR at most from becoming a Legendary Creature.

Compare the Umber Hulk to the Unicorn. They are the same CR (and thankfully right next to eachother)

The Umberhulk has more HP, Hits Harder, and hits more often... and has WAY more AC...

A non-legendary Unicorn would probably be a fragile but hard hitting CR 4

[sambojin]

And, there goes any thoughts of somewhat balanced character power.......

Psionics is being tested. So far, they're "good". As in, they're horribly broken and are so good that any martial class should really take a level in Immortal Mystic. Hell, take five. They're the ultimate dip or dive class.

It gives you the chance for extra action surges, or mega smites, or super tanking. +3 weapon? Yes please. Or have awesome initiative. Or on-call extra armour.

This is on top of floating save proficiency and mini-regen.

The more castery version isn't bad either, but Order of Immortals meshes with any class that may want to hit something at some point. Fighter, Barb, Valour Bard, Pally, Rogue, even Bladelock. It's a silly-good 1-5 level dip, with no real downside.

That whole balance thing had to go somwhere, sooner or later. It's playtest stuff, so hopefully it'll be nerfed and reworded eventually, but for now the mystic is broken.

Oh, and they kept "psionics is a special snowflake", instead of proper magic/psionic transparency.

Here's the UA page:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/awakened-mystic

And a thread from minmax forums with a few of mine and other's initial thoughts on it (mega smites are a thing):
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=16036.0re

[GiglameshDespair]

Seems tremendously OP.

[Oneir]

That whole balance thing had to go somwhere, sooner or later. It's playtest stuff, so hopefully it'll be nerfed and reworded eventually, but for now the mystic is broken.

While I'm impressed with just how badly broken it is, I don't know if it's fair to judge it based on first appearances. It wasn't a good choice to release it like this regardless since at best you have a balanced class in the end with everyone thinking you're bonkers in the meantime. But I'm choosing to reserve judgment until they show whether they can respond to feedback.

[Sergarr]

The real shitstorm will begin if they don't fix any of these problems.

Which may very well happen because there are enough existing questionable choices (like bounded accuracy, or advantage/disadvantages not stacking with each other) that have made it to the release version.

[notquitethere]

I'm just parachuting in mid-thread.

I've played every D&D version except 5 (and I've played Pathfinder too). I'm currently in a long-running 4e game where I play a shifter druid who's aim (or one of them) is to master shape-changing in all its forms to recover her were-cat heritage.

It's lots of fun, the group is very roleplay focused, we probably only have a combat every other session. Lot of skill challenges (like rigging a boat race, escaping from prison, trying to destroy a volcano). With the character builder everyone has access to the same options and it's very straightforward making a character.

In contrast, with earlier editions I had to juggle half a dozen books to get the parts to reflect the characters I wanted (and I was never particularly min-maxing).

I wouldn't choose to run D&D myself as I prefer to run minimalist systems (like the Description System in Neverwhere).

But for playing I like roleplaying and minimal busywork and rules that aren't too fiddly. Should I play 5?

[thegoatgod_pan]

But for playing I like roleplaying and minimal busywork and rules that aren't too fiddly. Should I play 5?

I'd say so: it is really good for that, especially the "not too fiddly" part. As much as I liked Pathfinder, like the dwarf in Order of the Stick, I just don't have the head for all those modifiers, and 5th really streamlines that.

[GiglameshDespair]

I personally think 5e is better than 3.5e. It at least narrows the gap between casters and non, the classes are varied and interesting enough and can be specialised, and there's plenty of races with overpowered ones or worthless ones. The mechanics are nice, I think.

I'd +1 playing it.

[Kadzar]

I'd +1 playing it.

I'd give Advantage to playing it. 

Anyway, the reason I came here was to share a cool set of hex map templates made to work with the guidelines of the Province, Kingdom, Continent maps mentioned in the 5e DMG. It's not the exact size specified the DMG, (this set is the right size, although it doesn't have any sort of numbering on the hexes for reference) but it's the right scale and should work just as well for the purposes. You may or may not want to increase the amount of stuff you put on there, but, then, that's also true of the official setup.

Since I'm sharing Blog of Holding stuff, I figure I might as well also mention this nice random encounter chart template he made that encourages you to use random encounters that are more than just monsters.

Also, since I'm sharing hex map stuff, I figure I should share this thing that can make numbered hexes in any size you want, outputting it as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. That same site also has a GIMP script that will let you make pretty TSR-style hex maps in GIMP, and a random generator that will output such a thing randomly. At it also has other things that aren't really related to hex mapping.

Moving on, we have Welsh Piper's hex templates which aren't made for the 5e DMG scales (especially since it came out several years before 5e), but it's a set of numbered hex templates, so it's within the theme here. And, anyway, he has a nice guide for making hex map terrain and such. (Part 1 and Part 2)

[Oneir]

I recently started watching Critical Role, and I'm really enjoying it. I'd sort of like something similar that I can listen to on the road (i.e. audio only, preferably something I can download for free). I've been trying out the Acquisitions Incorporated podcasts, but the sound quality on the early ones is pretty bad (so it's hard to follow over road noises) and the Wizards' podcasts are pretty terribly disorganized as far as I can tell, sometimes making it tough to figure out which episodes are related (most of them do have a giant 'Penny Arcade' in the title, at least). Anyone got any recommendations?