Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

==What's Different (from 3E)==
A big change is the advantage/disadvantage mechanic, which collapses a lot of the circumstance bonuses. If a character has an 'advantage' for a skill roll or combat roll, the player rolls two d20 and takes the better one. If a character has a 'disadvantage', roll two d20 and take the worse one. These advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out, and do not accumulate; you will only ever roll two d20 and choose one. So if your second level rogue is trying to pick a lock but he is on fire and drunk (as players of rogues often are) but he's being aided by another person, he'll pick the lock just as well as if he was totally fine. The explosion of buffs has been dramatically scaled back from 3E, where having ten buffs at once was not unheard of.

Attributes are the same ol' six, but more important than before. They're used for skills checks and saving throws. Ability score increases are now class features, meaning that you have the potential to lose them if you multiclass. Most classes get 5 ASIs, at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19. Rogues get one extra, and Fighters get one more than Rogues.

Feats are now fewer in number and more potent. If a character wants to obtain a Feat, they have to give up one of their Ability Score Increases to gain access to it.

In order to maintain the 'bounded accuracy' system described above, ability scores have a 'soft cap' of 20, which can only be broken using (rare) magic items, or exceptional circumstances such as the Barbarian's level 20 feature. There is a hard cap of 30, which cannot be exceeded by any means.

Target numbers including Armor Class are capped hard; no more DC 80 skill rolls, no more AC 120 monsters. Goblins can still hit you when you're a level 20 paladin, they just do weaksauce damage (Fixed damages to make the combats faster are also suggested/used for the weakest creatures). Swarms are still a problem, as are clever little shits like [[Tucker's Kobolds]]; no more Superman characters.

No more skill points; either you have proficiency in a skill, or you don't. As you level up, you get a 'proficiency bonus' (roundUp((level)/4)+1) you add to any rolls for those skill checks you're proficient in. Seems small, but see above about skill checks and ACs not getting stupid large even at high levels.

Saving throws are like skills checks. Each class is proficient in two attributes for saving throws, so they get to add their proficiency bonus. So when a Cleric gets hit by a charm spell, that's a wisdom save: d20 + wisdom bonus + proficiency, versus the spell DC (explained below). No more 'fort','reflex','will' per level, although Constitution, Dexterity, and Wisdom are still the three most common saves. Each class gets two saving throw proficiencies, one "common" and one "uncommon."

Races come with racial bonuses, but some races also choose a racial sub-type. I.e. all dwarves get bonuses to save vs. poison, but Hill Dwarves get +1 Wisdom and extra hitpoints while Mountain Dwarves get +2 Strength and medium armor training. This has been around since Dragon Magazine was still a print magazine, but it's codified right there at character generation. The exceptions are humans, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.

Spellcasting is through spell slots used to cast the known/daily prepared spells as many times as there are slots available (essentially, you no longer have to assign a spell to each spell slot). It is very similar to 3e Sorcerers. Older players may recognize this system from the ''Final Fantasy 1'' and ''Wizardry'' vidyas.

Each class has a subtype called "archetype" you choose at 1st, 2nd or 3rd level, depending on the class. This lets you choose some of the class features you get as you level up. For Clerics this would be their god's domain that the Cleric is gonna be all about (Basic Set only has "Life" domain). For Wizards it's the school of magic (Basic Set only has "Evocation"). Paladins have the Oath they swear, bards have the College they join, etc.

Character background is now a mandatory part of character generation. A Background includes additional skill and tool proficiencies, and even bonus equipment, as well as a "Feature" that gives some sort of social advantage. For example, a Criminal has a contact in the criminal underground, or a Sailor being able to get free passage for their party in exchange for assisting the ship's crew. Backgrounds also have tables players will roll on to get two Personality Traits, one Ideal, one Bond, and one Flaw, though like most tables of this nature the player can just choose whatever sounds best to them (or come up with their own that fit the background 'cause this is a roleplaying game).

When you role-play well, the DM can give you an "inspiration" token you can spend to gain advantage on a d20 roll, or pass it off to another player in the group. This has often been a house rule but now it's codified and it will likely push people into using the fanmail mechanic more often, and roleplaying for benefits instead of being entitled to a hero point with every long rest. Additionally, you can only ever have one inspiration token at any given time, effectively incentivizing you to spend it quickly and not hoard it. Presumably this is all to help out new players with the idea of playing a character that isn't of their own personality, but it also probably helps the players who view their characters as walking stat blocks with little to no personality into trying actual roleplaying for once. The PHB even explicitly suggests working with your DM to come up with a custom background if none of the ones in the book really fit your character. The basic set comes with five pre-made character backgrounds, and tables so you can roll the "traits" "ideal" etc. Notably, the bard's performance can also grant inspiration.

Starting equipment is now decided with the use of a list for a given class, as well as equipment granted by choosing a background. Some things in a list give you an option, such as choosing between two kinds of weapons or item packs. It's an awfully generous amount of items to start with when you add it all up. Of course, you can roll for starting gp like in older editions, but you stand a decent chance of rolling poorly, and considering how the monk's starting item set alone has the potential to be worth more than the maximum roll for their starting money (22.5 vs. 20 gp, without even taking background equipment into account) you'd be stupid not to take items from the list, unless some rule passed this writer's knowledge (to be fair, monks do get a lot less starting gold than other classes).

Electrum pieces are once again acknowledged as existing in D&D.