2024 vs 2014 character creation, which is better?

Well, 2024 edition is backwards compatible according to what wotc states before all the books were out. Just mix rules from either. In our group, we use healing rules from 2024 and bastions. Adding 2024 equipment, like adamantium weapons, or the masteries, would be a huge power leap. It seems like (and I know its not a popular opinion) wotc is trying to do with 5e what they did with 3e, just not very well. This is why committees can be so bad when trying to make a game. You can't please everyone even a part of the time but individually you can please a few a good deal.  

36 year player here. Over 10 years as dm. Everyone has their own opinions. I do prefer 2014 to the latest version. I am biased probably because I own nearly all modules and books and frustrated with the new digital age not just granting book purchasers the information that they already paid for. I don't want to change everything either. Its already been a huge investment and it has been worth it.

I'm not all that big on multiclassing, personally. As far as actual character creation goes, 2024 is substantially worse in regards to making some feats origin feats only and races no longer determining what ASIs you get (yes, I know TCoE made a variant rule already, but Tasha's is a mixed bag). 2014 5e has a lot of issues that needed fixing or reworking, but I'm overall not a fan of how a lot of it was handled.

Monks largely got fixed, but Rangers were made worse in some areas, slightly fixed in others, and had much of their bad bits left untouched. The martial/caster split widened, but Warlock still is getting the short end of the stick with their few spell slots and limited opportunities to change around spells and invocations, not to mention not knowing who their patron is until level 3. On that note, while I appreciate there being an effort to diminish the benefits of multiclassing to give more of a reason to stick with the class you chose at level 1, it feels very much like a stick but no carrot approach to the problem; a lot of middle to high levels give few or no benefits beyond an HP increase. It'd make a lot more sense design-wise for a character to get more features going from level 9 to 10 then from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3. The reason multiclassing is so abundant is that there are not enough benefits to sticking to just one class.

Beyond the often lackluster tier 2 and tier 3 level up rewards, the capstone of some classes like the ranger and warlock are the sort of thing they should have gotten before tier 2, not near the end of their class's growth; it's like ordering a salad with dinner as an appetizer, getting nothing while everyone has their appetizers, having the main course with everyone else at the dinner table, ordering desert, then finally getting your salad appetizer instead of the ice cream and pie the other diners are enjoying.

Not all of these issues started in 2024, but it's really really disappointing when there was an issue in 2014 that goes unfixed in the new edition.

Thanks 

Generally think 2024 is better with a few caveats. 2 Major, one Minor:

1).2024 Ranger

aka 'Hunter's Mark, the Class'

2). ASI's from your Background.

I can understand WotC wanting to move towards ASI's coming from Nature < Nurture to combat the issues making ASI increases originate from Species. However, I think it would've made more sense to have ASI's come from your Class. I don't think it's 'PwER GAMNG' to have Characters that are baseline-competent in what they do, and it puts a pin in the Nature vs Nurture debates that can get very heated. Additionally, it opens up different character concepts (Barbarian with the Acolyte Background) that won't nerf a character because of the ASI's gained; we may also slightly reduce the amount of Monks that trained on ships 😜

Alternatively the Tasha Origin features could be ported over so that everyone can do what they want at their tables and everyone is happy to do what works for them 😊

3). Missing Stout Halflings

Generally speaking, every Species got a glow-up with the exception of Halflings; in the move to 5.5e, Halflings lost the Subspecies Stout Halfling for.... reasons?? Because we now only have the 5e Lightfoot Halfling's Naturally Stealthy feature, Halflings are now shoehorned into the Rogue Class - the only Class that will be frequently taking the Hide action. At least with the 5e Stout Halfling, there was a useful resistance gained (against Poison) and you didn't feel like you were losing anything by taking this option. Compare Halflings say to Goliaths - there Subspecies can work for pretty much any Class, or at least have a wider Class application to be useful.

Side note - restricting Dwarves Tremorsense to only be used on stone surfaces makes thematic sense, but I would've changed it to Tremorsense that can be used once per day for 1 minute on ANY surface.