So, I'm an old-school player who was first introduced to AD&D and really got into it in 3.5. Half of the way this new system works (such as Advantage and having Martial or Simple Weapons Proficiency count for ALL weapons of said class, just to name two) I'm not a fan of. It's too easy mode, in my own opinion, and I'd like to see something for those of us who might prefer older versions or would like to help new(er) players to experience the same kinds of adventures that helped us fall in love with D&D as a whole and have kept us here through the decades.
On that note, I would like to see (in the future, hopefully) a legacy section that has the previous versions of D&D in addition to the current rule set. The main additions would be appropriate character sheets, Players Handbook's and Dungeon Master's Guide's (Monster Manuel hasn't changed much). It would be nice to have the resources to help the new generation experience the same world(s) that made me fall in love with the game, flaws and all.
I grew up playing D&D before moving on to AD&D, so I also love those games - fifth edition D&D is really good though, like way better than I thought it would be!
There aren't any plans to provide support for legacy versions of D&D / AD&D on D&D Beyond.
Simply put, there are far too many awesome features the team have planned for the current version of D&D. Taking development time away from the current version, to provide support for an old version of the game just wouldn't make sense.
The financial cost of writing a D&D Beyond 4e, D&D Beyond 3.x, D&D Beyond 2e, and AD&D Beyond would be prohibitive. Edition changes aren't minor rule changes. The time and effort required would be huge.
Then people would complain that they have to re-purchase all of those 3.x and 4 books on D&D Beyond. And 5e players would complain about having to pay for 3.x and 4 development when it doesn't benefit them at all.
I too am an old school player: AD&D in 1979. I'm happy with 5e and I don't want D&D Beyond diverting their limited resources to legacy versions.
I started with 3.5, so I don’t have a significant amount of old school cred. That said, I would also prefer the DDBteam to focus their time and effort on features for 5e.
Implementing everything for the previous editions would take a tremendous amount of time. Looking at 3.5 alone, the number of classes and prestige classes must be in the hundreds combined. Then you have countless races, LA rules, and racial templates. Add on top of hundreds of feats, feat chains, restrictions around weapons, and we haven’t even talked about magic items (which I love). That would take a massive team to put that all together, and that’s just 3.5.
I loved 3.5, it got me into D&D. That said, I prefer 5e. What you consider easy mode, I consider streamlining. I would like to see more weapons and I think exotic weapons are cool, but I don’t miss feat taxes to use them. I don’t miss arcane spell failure either.
I also don’t miss iterative attacks or taking time to add up nickle and dime modifiers, checking if they stack, etc. Advantage, in my opinion, is a more elegant solution, particularly for DMs. Combat feels much faster now.
Finally, the subclass system and the focus on playtesting has made it so that it’s difficult to make a terrible build. In 3.5, that wasn’t the case.
Don’t get me wrong, there are things about 5e I would like to see change or improved. I like magic item shops and am not a fan of the low magic settings, I wish there was more adventuring gear, and a little more guidance on handing out magic items (Xanathar’s helped, but it still needs work and there is a woeful lack of guidance on pricing items). There are also some squishier areas that are left to DM fiat that I think could use more clarity. Some of the monsters are bland and could use some of the interesting things 4e put in place (i.e. roles). I didn’t play 4e, but I’ve been digging into it for ideas lately and they way they did encounter building was well structured.
All this said, the best part about 5e is it’s built to be easily homebrewed. With just a minor understanding of the underpinnings, you can bolt just about anything on to the core and the game won’t break.
There are some bits of old-school that're just hard to believe we ever put up with...and I've been playing since White Box in '77. I listened to the first episode of a podcast yesterday; the DM said he'd chosen 3.5 and he'd be teaching the differences to his players.
About 10 minutes into the "introducing ourselves to each other" part of the opening play, one of the characters cast Dancing Lights to accompany a story he was telling his new friends in the typical tavern. The DM said "Okay, and mark off one of your uses of that spell".
His player's response was "No worries, it's 0-level, so I've got unlimited uses". The DM said "There are no free spells in this system, so you've just used one of your three for today."
His player sounded so disappointed when introduced to the old concept of "wasting a spell" that I'm concerned this isn't going to be my cup of tea; moving backwards in time is, of course, more difficult than moving forwards. Somehow we used to live in the environment of wizards having to throw daggers for a few to several hours of every adventuring day, but the more "modern" systems that let them keep using magic if they choose seem so much better.
Perhaps that's easy-mode, but D&D and its competitors have generally shifted more toward fun and story-telling than used to be the focus.
Look: I just miss having "Climb," among at least half a dozen other skills that I could call upon (or call, or be called upon) to make off handed checks that were sometimes sometimes rather wonky. While I don't necessarily disapprove of where they're going with 5.0, I still feel they're loosing some of the depth that characterized earlier editions. It's more 'user freindly' in terms of manageability for new players and DM's, and while some of the dynamics are pretty neat (having not gotten involved in D&D in a hot minute [4.0 will not be acknowledged]), again, there is a great deal from earlier editions that I believe should have at least some recognition.
Lastly, I'm not trying to take away from what's being done here: I'm hoping to look at building upon it and expanding it, at least eventually. I think this is a great resource and a fantastic project that continues to show Wizards devotion to it's fan base. I've DMed my first game in nearly a decade, entirely online, thanks to you. While it's been challenging calling for a 'Climb' Check (as one aforementioned example, "wielding a Bastard Sword" as another[I know it is now effectively the same as a Long Sword]) only to find myself realizing that, suddenly, it doesn't exist, it has been great to finally get back into the game. Perhaps just having a setting for 3.5 skills and weapons, someday, might be a good side project for some interns looking to gain some credit while you get a tax write off.
Great to hear that you're enjoying 5e and I understand how odd that jump of editions can be at times, when as a DM you *KNOW* what the players are wanting to do and you remember the rules from a previous edition for it, but just haven't got the experience with the new game yet to know what the new rules are.
I'm not saying that there will never be a 1e, 2e, 3e or 3.5e version of D&D Beyond (or old school D&D for that matter) but I know it's not on the road map for development and I consider it very unlikely to happen.
For all those who are still playing those older editions, nobody is saying you're wrong to do so - those are some great roleplay games and I really enjoyed playing them.
So, I'm an old-school player who was first introduced to AD&D and really got into it in 3.5. Half of the way this new system works (such as Advantage and having Martial or Simple Weapons Proficiency count for ALL weapons of said class, just to name two) I'm not a fan of. It's too easy mode, in my own opinion, and I'd like to see something for those of us who might prefer older versions or would like to help new(er) players to experience the same kinds of adventures that helped us fall in love with D&D as a whole and have kept us here through the decades.
On that note, I would like to see (in the future, hopefully) a legacy section that has the previous versions of D&D in addition to the current rule set. The main additions would be appropriate character sheets, Players Handbook's and Dungeon Master's Guide's (Monster Manuel hasn't changed much). It would be nice to have the resources to help the new generation experience the same world(s) that made me fall in love with the game, flaws and all.
Hi there TheMightySpin,
I grew up playing D&D before moving on to AD&D, so I also love those games - fifth edition D&D is really good though, like way better than I thought it would be!
There aren't any plans to provide support for legacy versions of D&D / AD&D on D&D Beyond.
Simply put, there are far too many awesome features the team have planned for the current version of D&D. Taking development time away from the current version, to provide support for an old version of the game just wouldn't make sense.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
The financial cost of writing a D&D Beyond 4e, D&D Beyond 3.x, D&D Beyond 2e, and AD&D Beyond would be prohibitive. Edition changes aren't minor rule changes. The time and effort required would be huge.
Then people would complain that they have to re-purchase all of those 3.x and 4 books on D&D Beyond. And 5e players would complain about having to pay for 3.x and 4 development when it doesn't benefit them at all.
I too am an old school player: AD&D in 1979. I'm happy with 5e and I don't want D&D Beyond diverting their limited resources to legacy versions.
I started with 3.5, so I don’t have a significant amount of old school cred. That said, I would also prefer the DDBteam to focus their time and effort on features for 5e.
Implementing everything for the previous editions would take a tremendous amount of time. Looking at 3.5 alone, the number of classes and prestige classes must be in the hundreds combined. Then you have countless races, LA rules, and racial templates. Add on top of hundreds of feats, feat chains, restrictions around weapons, and we haven’t even talked about magic items (which I love). That would take a massive team to put that all together, and that’s just 3.5.
I loved 3.5, it got me into D&D. That said, I prefer 5e. What you consider easy mode, I consider streamlining. I would like to see more weapons and I think exotic weapons are cool, but I don’t miss feat taxes to use them. I don’t miss arcane spell failure either.
I also don’t miss iterative attacks or taking time to add up nickle and dime modifiers, checking if they stack, etc. Advantage, in my opinion, is a more elegant solution, particularly for DMs. Combat feels much faster now.
Finally, the subclass system and the focus on playtesting has made it so that it’s difficult to make a terrible build. In 3.5, that wasn’t the case.
Don’t get me wrong, there are things about 5e I would like to see change or improved. I like magic item shops and am not a fan of the low magic settings, I wish there was more adventuring gear, and a little more guidance on handing out magic items (Xanathar’s helped, but it still needs work and there is a woeful lack of guidance on pricing items). There are also some squishier areas that are left to DM fiat that I think could use more clarity. Some of the monsters are bland and could use some of the interesting things 4e put in place (i.e. roles). I didn’t play 4e, but I’ve been digging into it for ideas lately and they way they did encounter building was well structured.
All this said, the best part about 5e is it’s built to be easily homebrewed. With just a minor understanding of the underpinnings, you can bolt just about anything on to the core and the game won’t break.
There are some bits of old-school that're just hard to believe we ever put up with...and I've been playing since White Box in '77. I listened to the first episode of a podcast yesterday; the DM said he'd chosen 3.5 and he'd be teaching the differences to his players.
About 10 minutes into the "introducing ourselves to each other" part of the opening play, one of the characters cast Dancing Lights to accompany a story he was telling his new friends in the typical tavern. The DM said "Okay, and mark off one of your uses of that spell".
His player's response was "No worries, it's 0-level, so I've got unlimited uses". The DM said "There are no free spells in this system, so you've just used one of your three for today."
His player sounded so disappointed when introduced to the old concept of "wasting a spell" that I'm concerned this isn't going to be my cup of tea; moving backwards in time is, of course, more difficult than moving forwards. Somehow we used to live in the environment of wizards having to throw daggers for a few to several hours of every adventuring day, but the more "modern" systems that let them keep using magic if they choose seem so much better.
Perhaps that's easy-mode, but D&D and its competitors have generally shifted more toward fun and story-telling than used to be the focus.
Look: I just miss having "Climb," among at least half a dozen other skills that I could call upon (or call, or be called upon) to make off handed checks that were sometimes sometimes rather wonky. While I don't necessarily disapprove of where they're going with 5.0, I still feel they're loosing some of the depth that characterized earlier editions. It's more 'user freindly' in terms of manageability for new players and DM's, and while some of the dynamics are pretty neat (having not gotten involved in D&D in a hot minute [4.0 will not be acknowledged]), again, there is a great deal from earlier editions that I believe should have at least some recognition.
Lastly, I'm not trying to take away from what's being done here: I'm hoping to look at building upon it and expanding it, at least eventually. I think this is a great resource and a fantastic project that continues to show Wizards devotion to it's fan base. I've DMed my first game in nearly a decade, entirely online, thanks to you. While it's been challenging calling for a 'Climb' Check (as one aforementioned example, "wielding a Bastard Sword" as another[I know it is now effectively the same as a Long Sword]) only to find myself realizing that, suddenly, it doesn't exist, it has been great to finally get back into the game. Perhaps just having a setting for 3.5 skills and weapons, someday, might be a good side project for some interns looking to gain some credit while you get a tax write off.
Great to hear that you're enjoying 5e and I understand how odd that jump of editions can be at times, when as a DM you *KNOW* what the players are wanting to do and you remember the rules from a previous edition for it, but just haven't got the experience with the new game yet to know what the new rules are.
I'm not saying that there will never be a 1e, 2e, 3e or 3.5e version of D&D Beyond (or old school D&D for that matter) but I know it's not on the road map for development and I consider it very unlikely to happen.
For all those who are still playing those older editions, nobody is saying you're wrong to do so - those are some great roleplay games and I really enjoyed playing them.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
I'd be happy just to bring back 3.5 Skills as an option. I'd pay for that in a heartbeat.
Yes and no. I don't really want them to put any time or money in to older editions, but once 6ed is done, keep the work that they have done available.
What happens when 6e will be released?
Beginner
There is no 6E. 2024 will see something akin to a 5.5 perhaps, but all compatible with what we have now.