I appreciate the simplicity of D&D 5e. I appreciate how compounding bonuses simply give “advantage” and compounding penalties give “disadvantage” so you’re not trying to calculate a +1 for this and a +4 for that, but the guy is in dim light, so that’s a -2…. that kind of math may be more realistic, but tallying up situational bonuses and penalties all of the time is exhausting, kills the pacing and sucks the air out of the room. Along those lines, I appreciate how they’ve simplified armor and weapons. You can use your imagination to turn a longsword into a katana but the proficiencies and stats are the same, it’s just “flavor.” As I recall in earlier D&D systems you had to burn proficiency slots or something to pursue “exotic” weapons just to have access to some of that stuff, which conveyed no other benefit. In other words, your character would be objectively worse off for going down that road than the same character would have been with different choices. Or you could be proficient with a very specific pole arm like a bill, but apparently entirely useless with a halberd.
I think I like the simplicity of spell slots instead of mana bars and calculating that, but I also think it has resulted in casters becoming overpowered, especially at the higher levels.
The death system is interesting, and that feeds into the healing system as well, that seems built around managing damage and bringing folks back from being knocked out. I like the decisions there—maybe a little too silly at times though.
The downside is that 5e seems to always drift towards silliness. I think it’s because they were trying to “video gameify” the various powers and classes for balance reasons. I also think it could have done a better job with physical tactics like flanking, diagonal movement, bonuses for proximity to teammates in melee, and non-magical combat in general. There are optional rules that help with these things though.
In my group, I’ve been asked to consider running a campaign (which I’ve never done). I’m going to go with 5e for sure, though I’m going to set it in a world where magic is considered evil (many centuries after a cataclysmic mishap with magic) and will get you burned at the stake. I’m hoping that will help bolster physical classes and encourage thoughtful tactics, while still allowing for magic. Feats like metamagic: subtle casting and illusions will become a lot more valuable, and “guidance spam” should be mostly eliminated from social interactions in towns.
The pathfinder system seems interesting. I might look into it one day.