D&D’s New Core Rulebooks Have A Major Issue That Might Delay Your Campaign

screenrant.com:

The revised rules for will begin its release this year, but the staggered schedule will prevent players from judging the edition’s balance until 2025. One D&D, or edition 5.5, is launching in a different order from the original 5e books. The fifth edition was released in August 2014, the in September, and the in December of that year. This year will see the revised and, but the new does not drop until 2025, making it impossible to properly evaluate its game design until the new year.

The 2024 release schedule currently shows the new dropping in September and the releasing in November, but the updated is not scheduled until February 2025. This is a delay of three months from the, and five months from the, creating an odd lacuna for potential early adopters of the new rule set. Fans can compare classes among themselves and contrast the edition’s complexity with the 2014 5e rules, but until the revised monsters are available, the edition holds too many unknownsto gauge its quality.

Longtime fans know that monster balancing has been a consistent challenge for the game’s designers. buffed monsters that were too weak in the 2014, since some high-level creatures only earned their Challenge Rating when using a very specific series of actions. Many 5e enemies are essentially apile of hit points with a bland multiattack routine, and possibly a more interesting and unique ability that rarely gets to shine thanks to the game’s action economy. Players can see the capabilities of the revised hero classes in September, but this reveals little without monsters.

Some of 5e ’s lackluster builds and classes, like a two-weapon specialist fighter, or the monk class, may have seemed fine in a vacuum, but when compared against monsters of various levels, it became evident that these character options were subpar. Feats like Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter may have seemed unwise, with their -5 penalty to hit, but a review of actual monsters tells a different story. The Thug, a foe