Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

==Controversies==
Whilst 5th edition was a huge shot in the arm for D&D, winning back many [[Pathfinder]] fans after the controversies surrounding [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|the previous edition]], that doesn't mean that people think 5e is absolutely perfect. In fact, as the years have gone past, a number of complaints have arisen...

===Glacial Release Pace===
When WotC announced that they were going to be cutting back on the pace of [[Dungeons %26 Dragons 5th Edition Books|content releases for 5e]], many were initially okay with that; years of multiple releases per month had made first 3e and then [[Dungeons %26 Dragons 4th Edition|4e]] quite expensive to keep up with. Even [[Monte Cook]] had admitted that both prior editions had been undermined by the glut of low-quality content. But then it turned out just how ''much'' WoTC intended to cut the pace back. A pace of two or three books a ''year'', with only one of those being [[splatbook]]s as opposed to adventure modules, wasn't what most fans had in mind, and as the trickle of content seems unlikely to advance, it's become more and more galling.

For perspective, not counting adventures or the Core Trinity, in a 4-year span from 2014 to 2018, 5e has had the following sourcebooks:
* Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide: Basic edition lore update for the [[Forgotten Realms]], with new [[Dwarf]], [[Gnome]] and [[Halfling]] subraces, new mechanics for the [[Half-Elf]] and [[Tiefling]], and new subclasses for the [[Barbarian]], [[Cleric]], [[Monk]], [[Paladin]], [[Rogue]], [[Sorcerer]], [[Warlock]] and [[Wizard]]. Half the size, same the price. And don't be fooled with it, it is about REALLY only about the Sword Coast. Now WotC don't even bother to make the whole Forgotten Realms playable.
* Volo's Guide to Monsters: Bestiary of new monsters, with 13 new PC races.
* Xanathar's Guide to Everything: New subclasses for each class, new feats and spells, plus assorted dungeon master's tips.
* Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: Bestiary of new monsters, with reprinted [[Duergar]] & [[Svirfneblin]] races from the SCAG, new [[Elf]] subraces, new [[tiefling]] subraces, and the [[gith]] PC races.
* Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica: A sourcebook making a campaign setting out of the [[Magic: The Gathering]] [[plane]] of [[Ravnica]].

And one beta/prereleased product:

* Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron: A sourcebook for having adventures in the World of Eberron. Not officially complete yet, as they were waiting on the finished Artificer.

By comparison, in an equivalent 4-year period (2008 to 2012), 4e had:
* Adventurer's Vault: New weapons and new magical items.
* Martial Power: New powers, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]] for the [[Fighter]], [[Ranger]], [[Rogue]] and [[Warlord]].
* Draconomicon I: A sourcebook entirely on [[Chromatic Dragon]]s.
* [[Manual of the Planes]]: A guidebook to the [[World Axis]] cosmology, complete with [[Paragon Path]]s, new monsters, and a [[Bladeling]] PC race.
* [[Forgotten Realms]] Campaign Guide: Lore & DM's material for the new edition version of the Realms.
* [[Forgotten Realms]] Player's Guide: Player's content for the 4e Realms, including the [[Drow]] & [[Genasi]] races and the [[Swordmage]] classes, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Open Grave: A sourcebook entirely on the [[undead]].
* Player's Handbook II: [[Deva]], [[Gnome]], [[Goliath]], [[Half-Orc]] and [[Shifter]] races, racial [[Paragon Path]]s for all PHB races up to that point, and the classes [[Avenger]], [[Bard]], [[Barbarian]], [[Druid]], [[Invoker]], [[Shaman]], [[Sorcerer]] and [[Warden]], all with [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Arcane Power: New powers, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]] for the [[Bard]], [[Sorcerer]], [[Swordmage]], [[Warlock]] and [[Wizard]].
* [[Eberron]] Campaign Guide: Lore & DM's material for the new edition version of Eberron.
* [[Eberron]] Player's Guide: Player's content for the 4e Realms, including the [[Changeling]], [[Kalashtar]] & [[Warforged]] races and the [[Artificer]] class, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Monster Manual II: New monsters.
* Divine Power: New powers, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]] for the [[Avenger]], [[Cleric]], [[Invoker]] and [[Paladin]].
* Adventurer's Vault II: Yet more magical items.
* Dragon Magazine Annual 2009: A selection of choice [[Dragon Magazine]] articles from 2008 and 2009, including the [[Assassin]] class, [[Dhampyr]] and [[Shadar-kai]] PC races, new powers & a [[Paragon Path]] for Star Pact [[Warlock]]s, [[Gladiator]] themes, and plane-themed [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Dungeon Master's Guide II: Expanded DM's guides and information, including monster customization, and designing encounters, adventures and campaigns.
* Primal Power: New powers, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]] for the [[Barbarian]], [[Druid]], [[Shaman]] and [[Warden]].
* Draconomicon II: A sourcebook entirely on [[Metallic Dragon]]s.
* The Plane Below: Guidebook to the [[Elemental Chaos]] and the [[Abyss]].
* Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn: Short booklet expanding dragonborn racial lore, with new racial [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* [[Underdark]]: Guidebook to the Underdark.
* Player's Handbook III: New races ([[Githzerai]], [[Minotaur]], [[Shardmind]], [[Wilden]]), new classes ([[Ardent]], [[Battlemind]], [[Monk]], [[Psion]], [[Runepriest]], [[Seeker]]), new [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]], rules for [[multiclassing|hybrid classing]].
* Hammerfast: A short booklet examining a haunted city shared by [[dwarves]] and [[orc]]s.
* The Plane Above: Guidebook to the [[Astral Sea]].
* Monster Manual III: New monsters.
* Demonomicon: Expanded guidebook to the [[Abyss]] and to [[demon]]s.
* Psionic Power: New powers, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]] for the [[Ardent]], [[Battlemind]], [[Monk]] and [[Psion]].
* [[Dark Sun]] Campaign Setting: Updated lore for Athas in 4e, combining DM's lore and player's material, such as the [[thri-kreen]] and [[mul]] races, Athasian character themes, the Sorcerer-King pact for [[Warlock]]s, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Athasian monsters and NPCs for 4th edition.
* Rules Compendium: Dungeon Master's Guide for Essentials.
* Heroes of the Fallen Lands: PHB 1 for Essentials.
* Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms: PHB 2 for Essentials.
* Monster Vault: Updated monster stats, the Monster Manual for Essentials.
* Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium: Even more magical items.
* Heroes of the Feywild: New [[Feywild]] lore and Essentials-based character options, including new powers, themes, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Book of Vile Darkness: New "Evil" themed lore and Essentials-based character options, including new powers, themes, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]], as well as DM's tips to working with levels of evil and new monsters.
* Neverwinter Campaign Setting: New [[Forgotten Realms]] subsetting, complete with lore and Essentials-based character options, including new powers, themes, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* Heroes of the Elemental Chaos: New [[Elemental Chaos]] lore and Essentials-based character options, including new powers, themes, [[Paragon Path]]s and [[Epic Destiny|Epic Destinies]].
* The Dungeon Survival Handbook: Guide to famous dungeons of D&D, tips for dungeon construction, new PC races ([[Goblin]], [[Kobold]], [[Svirfneblin]]) and new character themes & powers.
* Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue: [[Forgotten Realms]] sub-setting examining its most iconic [[Drow]] city.

If you've been counting along, in the time period it's taken 5e to release ''5'' books, 4e released '''40''' books...Yeah, you can see the difference and get why people are kind of steamed by the sluggishness. The release cycle seems to be little more than the bare minimum that [[Ed Greenwood]]'s contract requires they publish.

This only looks worse when you look at what they ''have'' decided to publish in recent years outside the contractually-obligated ''Forgotten Realms'' books, namely a bunch of desperate grabs at relevance in the form of sourcebooks for popular gaming podcasts and ''Magic'' sourcebooks... the second of which isn't even for a popular, creative, and iconic setting like Ravinica was, just a lazy Greek mythology knockoff they were selling cards for that three-month cycle.  When future gaming historians look back at this era of 5e, an edition defined by protracted content drought, they will, rightly, sneer at Wizards for sitting on popular, marketable IPs and instead pumping effort into [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiOMbqPHFwo| chasing fleeting flash-in-the-pan trends].

If there's an upside to all of this, it does mean that collecting all the 5E books is comparatively easier because there's a lot less of them. Your wallet probably appreciates it too. 

Around 2020, WotC did at least start to put out two non-adventure books a year, but the sluggishness of those early days is a stigma they will bear for a long time. But even if the release rhythm is getting faster, that is being done at a cost: 

==== Books being written by people who don't play the game ====

Maybe it's in order to get books out out the door faster, but releases are being outsourced to writers outside of Wizards Of The Coast. [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition#D.26D_Beyond| D&D Beyond]], the digital version of the D&D books, [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition#The_Ugly| has articles written by ignoramuses]], but hey, the main books are safe, right? Well, not anymore! For example, [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition_Books| Tasha's Cauldron of Everything]] (which already [[Dungeons_%26_Dragons_5th_Edition#The_Tasha_Controversy| includes heavy skub]]) on page 46 recommends some "setlists" for the Battle Master martial archetype option in the [[Fighter#5th_edition|Fighter]]. When gaining a level, instead of taking the 2 point increase in Strength, Dexterity or somewhere else, the Duelist and Gladiator options recommend you get the Weapon Master feat, which only adds 1 point in STR or DEX, and proficiency with 4 weapons... even though the Fighter already has proficiency with every weapon.

===Unearthed Arcana===
[[Unearthed Arcana]] has also become very controversial. For starters, the release date of "one UA per month, on the second Monday of a month" annoys people because, well, we're not getting a lot of content other than UA. This wouldn't be so bad, in and of itself, if each UA article didn't tend to be so short, rarely containing more than a single subclass or other idea. Add to that a rather lackluster quality control in the content - the "new Initiative" and "new Overland Travel" articles are particularly infamous - and it really pisses people off. The basic complaint is that it all too often feels like WotC is half-assing things, with many suspecting they just slap something together at literally the last minute. The Mystic class, the first attempt at psionics this edition and the first new base class released since launch, had several internal ([[soulknife]] was terrible) and external (being able to shift a lot of things on a bonus action) balance problems. Don't even get people started on the months when there was no UA because "the developers were tired" or because they decided a sneak-peak at some [[duergar]] character generation tables from the then-upcoming Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes was sufficient for a UA entry.

Worse, they previewed a reworked ranger, only to later say that it will never be officially released, despite the base class needing some significant upgrades to be on par with a every other class with similar abilities outside of specific situations. 

As of 2019 this lack of consistency became complete absence. There was no UA at all for January of that year, with the promise of a February release of the [[Artificer]]. Come the promised date, and no release, with only a lame excuse about the winter snowfall, and a claim that instead the Artificer release would be done on the last Monday of the month. And yeah, despite having had two whole months to work on shit, the Artificer and tweaks to it have been the only releases for months. After this they announced that UA updates would no longer be forced on a strict schedule (as if they were bothering to stick that schedule anyway) and instead only updating, basically, when they felt like it. Fans are ''furious'' over this, and you can't really blame them; it's supposed to be the team's '''job''' to sit around and cook up new ideas for the game, and 5e has the simplest base mechanics of any edition, so it should be ''easy'' to produce a steady supply of new spells, new magic items, new races and new subclasses. Especially when you consider the vast array of crap that WotC produced in just the last two editions alone to draw inspiration from or try to convert, never mind all the stuff they inherited from TSR! It just makes Mearls, Crawford, and their team look like the most ass-lazy bastards you can envision, especially if you recall just how much content WotC used to release online for 4e as part of [[Dragon Magazine]] and [[Dungeon Magazine]], which put 5e's Unearthed Arcana to shame. That's not even mentioning the sheer amount of free, official, ([[Erudite#How_to_break_it|mostly]]) high quality content that's interesting and original that was put on Wizard's website for free during third edition.

===Race Design===
Ironically, one element of 4th edition that people are missing is race design. Whatever its other faults, 4e did have a strong universal approach to making races: +2 to two ability scores (which was tweaked so that you had a choice as to which your second bonus was, so each race had greater flexibility), +2 to two skills, and a 1/encounter racial power, with any extra racial traits being gravy. In comparison, 5e's race design is... well, not so strong.

One complaint is about the switchover from a +2/+2 ability bonus, one of them "fixed" and one offering two distinct options, to a mostly-fixed +2/+1 ability bonus; this ensures races and subraces have a lot less character and mechanical versatility overall, and narrows and flattens a lot of their options.

Another complaint is about two racial traits that WoTC seems to overvalue: Powerful Build and Natural Weapons.

Powerful Build in particular gets peoples' goats because... well, counting as one size larger for the purpose of carrying weights and pushing objects just isn't something that comes up a lot in most campaigns, outside of a few small scenes or situations. But considering where and how Wizards tends to gravely weight it, often giving negative traits just to offset it, they clearly disagree.  This is perhaps an artifact of previous editions, where it allowed characters to use oversized weapons... but, not only does it no longer do so, there are no longer ''rules'' for oversized weapons in the game!

Natural Weapons earn flak because they're a hidden trap; whilst that inability to ever lose a weapon is nice, and it's a really fluffy trait, the problem is that as soon as your campaign starts climbing up past first level, your natural weapons become increasingly useless. Firstly, there're few feats and no class powers that increase the versatility of your natural weapon attacks.  (And the best feat to do so, Tavern Brawler, literally gives you most of the benefit of natural weapons in the process!) Secondly, unless you're playing a [[Monk]], you lose all incentive to rely on your natural weapons once you hit that point where creatures that are [[Damage Reduction|resistant or even immune to mundane weapons]] become increasingly common, by which point you have long since lost all benefits from your natural weapons by virtue of being a high-level monk short of ''maybe'' being able to do slashing damage or something with them.  And while ''in theory'' the game is designed around magic weapons being rare and unreliable to obtain, in practice virtually no DM holds to that rule, and neither do most published adventures.  

Plus, it is often ''very'' obvious when the creators built a race with care, creativity, and genuine passion to make something fun and memorable, and when they were just lazily splurting out something with zero effort because the fans kept asking them about a race they couldn't give less of a shit about.  

Within the core rulebooks, the most obvious example is the utter travesty that is the dragonborn, who has ''two'' whole racial traits to its name (two and a half if you want to be generous and call having an exotic language a "trait"), and both combat focused to boot when ''every other race in the game'' has at least  ''one'' other trait to support either the exploration or the social pillars of the game. But the most infamous (and obvious) example came in the [https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA-Eladrin-Gith.pdf Eladrin and Gith UA], which is perhaps best described with a brief summary of the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr8tC1Zl_1g accompanying video], in which [[Mike Mearls]] begrudingly lays out the basic facts of the [[githzerai]] and [[githyanki]] (the ''entire'' gith race) like he's reading notes off a post card as fast as he can, including a brief sidebar about how people kept asking about them, before spending ''two thirds'' of the video gushing about the [[eladrin]] subrace like he's in love with it, going on and on about how much he loves that race and how much he hopes you love it too so he can play it.

The fact that one of these things was an overwrought labor of love, and one was a dashed-off product of a begrudging duty is eminently obvious in both the overall design and the overall power level of both races, with the eladrin (which is already the subrace of a race with some nice features) getting the equivalent of a free 2nd level spell on a short rest and a lot of other nice benefits they can adjust each short rest (and that's ''after'' the UA version Mearls was talking about in that video got nerfed pretty hard in the transition to the book), and the gith getting basically nothing from their "chassis" race, githyanki getting a pretty good spread of utility spells, plus a free skill and light/medium armor, while the poor, theoretically-more-PC-friendly githzerai get a terrible ability spread, advantage on a couple of saves (which the eladrin also gets as part of its racial package), and some admittedly-nice-except-for-''shield'' utility spells.

====The Tasha Controversy====
In November 2020, WotC released a [[splatbook]] called Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which contained a new official "optional" rule for character creation, where players could take the ability score bonuses they had started with and instead shuffle them into any other abilities they liked, so long as they maintained the original bonus format (ie "+2/+1 ''has'' to translate to a different +2/+1 bonus, you can't just take a +3). There was also a slightly more complex system to swap out skill, weapon and tool proficiencies for brand new ones.

The idea behind this change was to give players more flexibility, allowing them to better customize their character by giving them unusual backstories that translated into mechanical effect - for example, [[rape|your half-orc may be half-elven]] and so have superior dexterity and/or brainpower to go with the rugged orcish constitution. It's not even entirely unprecedented; 4th edition ultimately changed its formula to "races give a +2 bonus to one fixed stat, with a second +2 bonus chosen from a list of two alternative stats" with its 3rd PHB. And homebrew and "alternate race traits" have been trying to divorce the cultural and biological components of a given race design for years to represent, say [[Sandwich Stoutaxe| a drow being raised by dwarfs]].

Why was this controversial? Well, probably not helping was its coming on the heels of some rather prominent and vocal media articles lambasting D&D's use of the racial ability scores modifier mechanic as "racist", which added the "[[SJW]] appeasement!" fire to the mix (trying to make up for [[Wut|being racist against orcs and elves]]), but the core of the complaint is that this new mechanic robs races of a lot of their archetypal flavor, [https://www.nerfnow.com/comic/2852 rendering them blander]. After all, even in 4th edition, the revised racial ability score modifier was intended to stick to archetypal themes - an [[elf]] always got +2 Dexterity, because elves are "the agile/graceful race", but could choose either +2 Wisdom (reflecting their strong spiritual nature and close ties to the [[Primal Spirits]]) or +2 Intelligence because, well, high elves were a thing for most of D&D's history.

Also probably not helping was that 5e's subrace mechanic was intended in large part to be a callback to the old days of monolithic racial cultures and the use of subspecies to present alternatives; want an [[elf]] with a Strength bonus? Take a wild elf! Want a [[gnome]] with a Dexterity bonus? Take a forest gnome! This new mechanic is more of a throwback to 4e's controversial "generical" core races, and so it's no wonder many people don't like it "out of the box." If nothing else, though, it represents a coherent set of tools for homebrewing new races or for rejiggering them with some measure of official support.

Furthermore, most of the reason different races got different traits wasn't due to racism, it was inherent biology: elves having higher dexterity wasn't any more racist than Halflings being Small sized was, it was due to them being ''a completely different species'' from humans. Humans are weaker and more agile than Orangutans, for example, so a fictional orangutan race smart enough to be a PC is going to have higher strength. What sense would it make for them to get to choose to be more charismatic instead? So letting an elf choose to have high con instead of high dex makes about as much sense as letting a warforged choose to be a fey instead of a construct. The reason it's racist if you try to apply this to real life human ethnicities is that unlike in D&D, everyone in real life ''is'' the same species and thus trying to assign them all different stats would be ''factually inaccurate''.

It's also worth noting that getting to slap their +1 wherever they liked was one of the main shticks of the Final version of the [[Warforged]], and so now that WotC has taken that away form them, they suck again. Furthermore, there was a very obvious reason they even got to do this in the first place: ''because they were robots literally built for the job''.

One could also argue that it defeats the mechanical purpose of getting to pick from different races in the first place, like if they introduced a rule letting classes swap out their abilities for those of other classes, such as letting sorcerers swap their spellcasting for the fighter's armor and weapon proficiency.

Lastly, the Mountain dwarf is now just as OP as the variant Human. They were already bad for getting automatic armor proficiency ''and'' getting a +2 to both strength and constitution, but now that they can reallocate those plus 2s anywhere they like, there's little reason to pick any other race. All in all this was indeed a very boneheaded decision, but not for the reason the misogynist incels and misandrist tumblrinas are making it out to be (probably).

Now, if it were a completely different RPG, then this concept could work. Each race would get different modifying values assigned to them: One would get a +1 and a -1 the player could stick anywhere, another would get a +2 and a -2, another would get two +1s and two -1s, one race would get no modifiers, etc. It would be pretty hard to explain fluff-wise, but in theory it could work. Alas, nearly everyone in D&D just gets a +2 and a +1, so this is not the game for that.

And for the absolute ''icing'' on the cake, WotC decided that '''every''' splatbook they produced afterwards would use these new rules as a starting point, resulting in subsequent races like the [[Dhampir]], [[Fairy]] and [[Harengon]] having an official statblock of "you choose whatever you want".

[[File:WizoPoz.png|center|thumb|1050px|By the way, this was plagiarized from the disclaimers at the front of Looney Tunes DVDs.  Also, there were never elves or orcs in America.]]

===No Monster PCs===
"Monster" races have a long, ''long'' history as PC options in D&D. And even 5e did give the nod to them. But, as mentioned above, it is ''very'' obvious that the creators' hearts weren't in it. Most of the most traditional monster adventurer races - [[orc]], [[goblin]], [[kobold]], [[bugbear]] and [[hobgoblin]], alongside surprise newcomer the [[yuan-ti]] - appeared in Volo's Guide to Monsters... except that the section outright states that they might not be "balanced". This itself would be bad enough, as it gives stricter DMs every excuse to ban the races, but it's carried out; the races were all over the place, with some being shockingly weak (the orc's harsh ability score penalties basically make it a worse half-orc) and others overly strong (between the yuan-ti pureblood's full magic resistance poison immunity, racial spellcasting, ''and'' darkvision, it basically gets an as-good-or-better selection of several other races' best racial powers). For Kobold fans, it was basically designed to make for a cowardly joke character with two strong support powers but a boatload of drawbacks, making them great for certain Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue builds but pretty lousy in everything else. The revised version in Multiverse of Monsters is a lot more versatile.

Fans of the Monster Adventurers trope were outraged, because with WotC's recent policy on reprinting being basically "we're never ever going to print out any revisions, ever", then they're always going to officially suck.

One sub-aspect of this complaint is found amongst fans of [[gnoll]]s, whose history as PCs goes right back with the orcs and goblinoids. See, despite the really mechanically strong and well-developed article on gnoll PCs that 4e got, 5e decided to render them completely off the market as potential PCs. From a race misled by a bad choice in patron gods, 5e gnolls were reinvented as little more than demonically-tainted hyenas turned humanoid lacking in higher thought patterns who don't even breed, but instead use black magic rituals to turn the corpses of their kills into new gnolls. Some people feel they might as well be fiends, since they lack the actual moral choices or thinking ability of literally any other humanoid, which makes their "humanoid" creature type feel rather lacking.

Happily, ''Eberron: Rising From the Last War'' has actually put some effort into most of these things, including giving all goblinoids plenty of write-up and focus, introducing a (mechanically-superior) orc playable race, and generally doing everything the rest of the edition hasn't in terms of enabling some of the most basic monster PC concepts. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything followed on by officially retconning the orc and kobold to lose the ability score penalties.

===Companions and Summons===
In previous editions, classes who could summon other monsters or acquire companions as part of progression were frequently seen and noted as "difficult."  On the one hand, incredibly powerful and potentially encounter-altering, with the druid's animal companion often seen as a ''superior'' replacement to the entire fighter class.  On the other hand, bothersome and number-crunchy, with games slowing down as players have to keep track of two different characters or scrounge through Monster Manuals for summons.

To that end, both options were messily clobbered into bloody dust with the nerf bat.  Unfortunately, well...  let's start from the very beginning

The Beastmaster ranger is by far the most infamous example here, with a barely-scaling animal companion that the ranger needs to use his own actions to let move and attack, and which will, according to the RAW, derpily stand around doing nothing if the ranger falls down dying.  Already seen as one of the weakest PC options in the game (before the coming of the Revised Ranger), the beastmaster archetype makes it even weaker, since ''all'' its archetype benefits are devoted to making its animal companion marginally less terrible. It wasn't until the November 2019 UA (and eventually published in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) where these companions got actually viable options via a set of special spirit companions. Each of them comes with the ability to attack via a bonus action by default, you have only three options for these companions (Land for charging, Sea for swimming and grabbing, and Air for flying).

However, while it is ''the'' worst example in the game, others are just as poor.  The Pact of the Chain warlock's familiar, for instance (which ''also'' needs the PC to expends his or her own options to allow it to attack) similarly suffers from the lack of scaling of any kind, and the major benefit offered by such a companion (Magic Resistance) is undercut by the familiar's tendency to die messily in any kind of AoE attack.  It is arguably the weakest warlock Pact option in the game for this reason. 

Plus, if you want to play a summoner using just the core books... don't.  The ''Player's Handbook'' in particular offers only a few, fairly weak summoning spells, which in turn can summon only a few, fairly-weak creatures with very poor scaling.  ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' added in a lot more, but even they won't fish you enough to really get out ahead.  Indeed, it hurts the Conjuration wizard simply by virtue of him having a lot of class features that boost summoning, but summoning spells being toss.

Most players agree that companion/summoning abuse absolutely ''was'' a problem in 3.5 that needed addressing... but few of them dispute that 5e's method of doing so was ham-handedly attempting to make the entire style of play weak and useless rather than bringing it truly into line.

The March 2019 UA (and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, where it was published) appears to have been at least partially themed around fixing this, with largely well received results, doing everything the rest of the addition has been in terms of introducing well-designed, properly scaling summoning spells. This was done by making the summons basic creatures that can scale more consistently and slapped on a special template (So using Summon Celestial lets you slap a Avenger or Defender template, Summon Elemental slaps on element templates, etc.).

===Half-Casters===
At mid-to-high levels, they scale up very well, but at lower levels, rangers are just ''baaaaaad'', and paladins have many issues.  For one, neither gets Constitution saving throws, which are needed when concentrating on spells or making saving throws against common combat conditions, and neither gets ritual magic.

Paladins have to spend their spell slots to smite, and get one or two hits' worth of spike damage for their first few levels before falling behind the fighter who gets all of ''his'' damage-spike powers back on a short rest and doesn't have other things he could be using them on until after completing a long rest.  And their pool of healing power is pathetically low for the first few levels.  Later subclasses with similar mechanics, such as the Circle of Dreams druid or Way of Tranquility monk, get much larger such pools. Also, while many of said classes can use their healing as a bonus action, if only on themselves, pallies gotta drop everything to lay on hands.

Rangers don't get off much easier, with a first level that offers ''no'' combat benefits of any kind for a supposedly-martial class.  Plus, because one is now a version of Favored Enemy and one's a version of Favored Terrain (again, both stripped of any combat benefits) they might potentially do nothing at all if the player chooses wrong. And while Natural Explorer ''is'' a powerful, flavorful exploration-based feature when it works, some complain it takes all the work and skill tests out of exploring.  Primeval Awareness is probably the worst non-archetype class feature in the entire game if run entirely as described in the book, requiring a spell slot to do basically nothing but give a yes/no answer to some pretty-useless information, and Hide In Plain Sight is almost useless for anything but setting up ambushes, since it requires extensive prep-time.  That one of its two ''Player's Handbook'' archetypes, the beastmaster, is, as described above, probably the worst such archetype in the entire game does the class no favors.

Both classes ''do'' improve as they gain levels and spell slots (the paladin somewhat moreso, since he ''also'' swells his pool and has a lot of unique gear like the famous Holy Avenger), and they ''do'' get some cool and unique spells that bards ''love'' to poach with Magical Secrets at comparatively-lower spell levels.  And ''Xanathar's Guide'' was kind to both of them, with powerful new archetypes and spells.  But still.  Ouch.

The ranger ''did'' eventually get a complete rework... but many people agree it overdid it, gaining later-level powers far too quickly and overall boosting the class's power ''too'' much. While the current ranger won't be reworked and replaced, there are plans to offer alternative class options.

===Sorcerer===
The [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerer]] is a particularly sore spot for 5e fans because of how underwhelming it is. It went from 4e's version, which had a strong thematic and mechanical niche, back to its 3e "variant Wizard" approach. But, with the loss of [[Vancian Casting]], the 3e-style Sorcerer is straight up inferior, because it doesn't have nearly as many special tricks, like more spells per day, to make up for its limited selection - their spell is literally a wizard's list except vastly cut-down, with fewer spells known to boot!  (''Enhance ability'' is the only really good spell sorcerers get but wizards don't, and they have few-to-no fun unique spells of their own the way bards, druids, or even half-casters like rangers or paladins do to soften the blow. Then a UA went and gave it to wizards anyway.)

Although [[Metamagic]] is now unique to Sorcerers, the combination of having so few metamagic options and the dearth of "sorcery points" with which to fuel them makes them far less valuable than they were in 3e.  Plus, since said points are the only mechanism by which a sorcerer can gain more spell slots, and therefore regain their traditional advantage over the wizard of having more of their smaller selection of spells per day, any given sorcerer now has to choose between actually using their metamagic or trying to save up for more spell slots.  Notably, at the level the player ''gets'' sorcery points, they ''literally'' do nothing but offer one extra level one spell per day.

Unlike virtually ''any other class with similar mechanics in the game'', a sorcerer regains ''nothing'' on a short rest but hit points from hit dice until level ''20'', a ridiculous oversight. Even the class's advocates agree that the "sorcery points" system would be a much better, more-elegant means of doing what it's clearly intended to do, if only the ability to regain sorcery points on a short rest were implemented, possibly in some scaled way, before the class's capstone.  Also, to add insult to injury, thanks to the wizard's Arcane Recovery class feature, it effectively gets ''more'' spells per day than a sorcerer, and in an elegantly-scaling package to boot, as this '''first level feature''' allows wizards to recover half their level (rounded up) in spell-slots 1/day with just a short rest.

Notably, one of the two core book sorcerer classes, the Dragon bloodline, ''is'' pretty nice, offering what's effectively permanent ''mage armor'' and the ability to apply one's Charisma modifier to appropriately-elementally-aligned spells right out of the gate... provided the player picks a fire dragon color.  Those who do not are undercut by the lackluster number of elemental damage spells for just about every other element (poison especially can go cry in a ditch) unless a kind DM lets them take homebrewed equivalents that cause the same effects but with different damage types. Even picking fire can backfire on you though since fire is the single most commonly-resisted non-weapon damage type in the ''Monster Manual'', and practically demands the character spend at least one feat on Elemental Adept to penetrate it. Subsequent releases of new spells have lessened, but not removed, this issue.

The Chaos sorcerer may be '''FUN''' in some ways, it's also, well...  '''FUN''', if you know what I mean.  And literally needing the DM to remember to call for the PC to roll on a table and get one of their powers back is lame.

Also, while wizards were ''spoiled'' for archetype options to chow down on like gluttonous children, with ''eight'' in the Player's Handbook alone, and tons of others from sourcebooks and UA articles (the Lore wizard is still a sore point for in practice being basically better at metamagic than the whole Sorcerer class is, to the point that its rework spent time mocking them and making them comedic), Sorcerers mostly begged for spare change, only getting a few options here and there, and most of those being UA material - which means that a lot of DMs will refuse to let players use them on principle.  Most of them weren't ''bad'' options per se (though the Phoenix bloodline was laughably awful), but they weren't great either, and they did the class no favors in basically being a weaker wizard.

Oh, and unlike almost every other spellcasting class (with even the ''ranger'' getting a couple new choices these days), no sorcerer gets any bonus spells from their Sorcerous Origin (except for in Xanathar's, where the Divine Soul and Shadow Soul get ONE), despite it being an excellent way to widen the class's option pool a little and mitigate many of its problems. Both half-casters know more spells than this ''full'' caster, and the third casters get only 2 less spells known.

All in all, the sorcerer has become similar to the [[Fighter]] in 3e - a class that you dip into for some bonus goodies, and then focus on advancing as a [[Bard]], [[Paladin]] or [[Warlock]] instead. Even a player who ''wants'' to progress primarily as a sorcerer is better served by getting at least one regenerating spell slot from a warlock, just to gain ''some'' freaking benefit from a short rest!  

Sure, they're the only naturally-spellcasting class in the entire game to get proficiency in Constitution saves out of the gate, and in an edition where those are used to concentrate, that's not nothing... but they're ''also'' the only full caster in the entire game to ''not'' have access to ritual casting, so that's a wash and fuck me for giving them the benefit of the doubt.

It's not truly terrible, but it is easily the weakest full caster in the entire game. (Which, to be fair, means it's quite powerful, just could be better.)

What especially incenses sorcerer fans is that the playtest version had some legitimately interesting mechanics to it, where Sorcerous Origin would actually give you special benefits as you ran out of spells - for example, the Draconic Sorcerer would turn into a [[Half-Dragon]] and gain melee bonuses, making it switch from a caster to a decent fighter. Despite the positive response that the playtest had, WotC still wound up giving us the 5e canon sorcerer.

===Way of the Four Elements Monk===
For the most part, the [[monk]] class is quite well liked, especially as it folded the [[ninja]] into itself straight out of the corebook. But, one subclass has earned more than its share of complaints, and that is the Way of 4 Elements. In a nutshell, the problem is that while an awesome idea, being literally an [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]] style [[gish|martial artist-]][[elementalist]], the subclass's unique powers are arguably overpriced in how much Ki they require to cast which, combined with how hard it is for the monk to ''regain'' Ki, means that a player is actually discouraged from using the very powers that made them want to play this subclass in the first place! Although monks do replenish all of their ki when they take a short rest, that's the only mechanic they have for doing so, and that basically means this Way turns the monk in a particularly limited half-caster.

===Lack of Settings===
For a while, most adventures and sourcebooks were based exclusively around the Forgotten Realms, with mentions of other settings being relegated to the backs of sourcebooks, discussing how to adapt their ideas to other settings. Even when [[Ravenloft]] got [[Curse of Strahd|official support]], most of the hooks revolved around Forgotten Realms characters being taken to the Demiplane of Dread. To add insult to injury, iconic Greyhawk villains like [[Tomb of Horrors|Acererack]] received [[Tomb of Annihilation|new]] [[Tales From The Yawning Portal|adventures]], except they take place in the Forgotten Realms, with the books giving tips on how to set the adventure in other worlds, ''and'' a book containing conversions of many previous modules in DnD history, most of which were originally set in Greyhawk, was themed around a tavern in the Forgotten Realms, with a limply tacked-on backstory about patrons from other worlds telling stories.

Also, several fans of [[Mystara]] grumbled about the new version of the Tabaxi resembling the [[Catfolk]] of Mystara, the [[Rakasta]]. Not to mention, [[Tortle]]s were outright ripped from the setting and placed on an island nearby Chult. Fans of [[Planescape]] and especially [[Spelljammer]] have also been feeling the burn from this. Several sourcebooks and reveals have taken bits of either setting,ss creating false hope on multiple occasions. This is most apparent with the reveal stream for the "The Descent", the last of the 2019 splatbooks and the second adventure book of that year. Fans speculated a planar adventure path that would most likely incorporate Planescape-related themes. Rather than go the logical route and use [[Sigil]] as a starting hub, the reveal showed that [[Baldur's Gate (City)|the city of Baldur's Gate]] was the beginning point (even though several other locations in the Realms are way more suited to anything [[devil]] related). On the Spelljammer side, many fans have gotten burned out over the setting being continually used as a joke, while elements and monsters are pushed into the Forgotten Realms. However, DM's Guild seems to allow Toril's crystal sphere as a compromise, for now.

Happily, this may have begun to shift with the release of the latest new sourcebook. ''Mordekainen's Tome of Foes'' instead chooses to focus on [[Greyhawk|Oerth]] and planar stuff. This seemed to herald the start of a new direction going forward... And, in fact, it did!  July 2018 had WotC announce the official return of [[Eberron]] to the fold, in the form of Keith Baker's own 5e conversion book, "The Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron", being released on [[DM's Guild]] as an "Early Access" playtesting base for Eberron. An informal announcement for its physical release was given during the aforementioned stream of "The Descent", where they casually mentioned the hardcover at the last minute. If you bought the playtest, you'll get an updated PDF, but no hardcover book. At the same time, they also formally announced the surprise release of the Guildmaster's Guide to [[Ravnica]] in November 2018, converting the [[plane]] to a 5e setting whilst using language that implied the same could happen to other [[Magic: The Gathering]] planes in the future. And the first adventure splat of 2019, [[Ghosts of Saltmarsh]], is actually set entirely in the world of [[Greyhawk]], admittedly with notes at the start of each adventure giving advice on adapting it to the [[Forgotten Realms]], [[Eberron]] and, surprisingly, [[Mystara]].

The reason why this complaint galls so many people, beyond the simple lack of support for their preferred settings, is that a secondary element is that writers are unable to submit any content to [[DM's Guild]] that is not based on the ''very'' short list of approved settings - which, as of January 2021, stands at [[Forgotten Realms]], [[Eberron]], [[Ravenloft]], [[Ravnica]] and [[Theros]] - or else super-generic. There has been some luck in wriggling in content based on subsettings of those settings - for example, a bunch of crazily devout fans managed to get a 5e conversion of [[Maztica]] (the South America subsetting for the [[Forgotten Realms]]) approved - but... yeah, if you wanted to try and write stuff for [[Mystara]], [[Greyhawk]], the [[Nentir Vale]], [[Spelljammer]], [[Planescape]], [[Birthright]], etc? You're shit out of luck, WotC says that you can't do that.  (Yes, despite ''Ghosts of Saltmarsh'' being set in Greyhawk.)

Additionally, as much as it might be painful to admit, settings like Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and the Forgotten Realms just aren't that thematically distinct form each other compared to other settings. [[Eberron]] is magically powered pulp interwar, [[Dark Sun]] is Mad Max-ish post-apocalyptic with a dash of [[Sword & Sorcery]], and [[Ravenloft]] is Gothic Horror, but [[Greyhawk]], [[Dragonlance]], and [[Forgotten Realms]] are all vanilla heroic fantasy. Thus, regardless of whether they choose to update [[Dragonlance]] or [[Greyhawk]] to 5e, WotC really won't be able to win. If they don't, they'll piss off grognard fanboys; if they do, they'll piss off newcomer fans who would feel like WotC is trying to sell them more of the same. So their options are to either spend a lot of effort in updating several settings only to get yelled at, or get yelled at ''without'' spending all that effort.

2021 had fans hopeful that maybe things were changing and this controversy would be a thing of the past; in an interview, the new head of development for D&D declared that 2021 would see the release of '''three''' "classic" D&D settings. It of course turned out to be another fucking tease from WotC. Only ''two'' of that year's five [[splatbook]]s would be campaign settings, and they consisted of [[Ravenloft]] and [[Strixhaven]]... aka 1 classic D&D setting, and one [[Magic: The Gathering]] conversion. 

And of course, in the opinions of anyone who actually liked Ravenloft before 5e got its grubby hands on it, they absolutely '''destroyed''' the setting...sort of. The truth is, Ravenloft had already been subjected to unpopular retcons and lore tampering prior to 5E, but it is the case that 5E reopened those old wounds and put salt on them for good measure, mutilating Ravenloft to drop all vestiges of the independent campaign setting it had grown into over 2nd and 3rd edition to instead reduce it back to a pure [[Weekend in Hell]] setting, shitting all over the lore and stuffing it full of [[SJW|obvious political pandering]] in the process. Lore changes ranged from mostly inoffensive (race-swapping the [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]] but keeping most of their backstory the same), to the arbitrary (replacing the [[Darklord]] of Dominia, a cunning and ruthlessly manipulative mind-controlling man cursed to appear increasingly hideous to any woman he desired, with a [[ghoul]] fake princess throwing an eternal masquerade), to the irksome (downgrading the achievements of Weathermay-Foxgrove Twin's male counterparts), to the baffling (turning the [[Darklord]] Vlad Drakov, the setting's ''Vlad the Impaler'' into a woman and characterizing her as "a hard (wo)man making hard decisions"). 

And Strixhaven was almost deliberately chosen to tick players off, since the ''Harry Potter'' bonanza was long-over (with most consistent Potter fans not necessarily part of the tabletop gaming crowd), a lotta core players have very negative feelings about their memories of school generally, and also it was [[fail| about as well-designed as most of the other ''Magic'' and ''Critical Role'' sourcebooks]].

To an extent, the complaints about lack of old settings coming back has faded over time, as more and more of the non Forgotten Realms settings have returned to print. The complaint was also heard almost exclusively within players of older editions, since old D&D books are rather hard to find outside the Internet, and most of the millions of players who jumped on board with 5th Edition didn't even necessarily know that there even ''were'' old settings.

===Setting Pandering===

Related to the topic above, besides not releasing classic settings [[WotC]] has instead released 4 new settings based on different IPs, three based on Magic the Gathering, which as much as are not what \tg wished for, at least were well-written, and more infamously the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, based on the setting of [[Critical Role]]. Criticism was leveled at this not only for the obvious pandering to the fans of the show to get them into D&D, but because the first Exandria splatbook, Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, which isn't an official splatbook, is objectively better, having more iconic classes and items to the setting. As of 2022 this issue has died down with Ravenloft being released and Spelljammer and Dragonlance already slated for releases.

===Baby's First D&D===
Ironically, even though 4e's changes were hugely controversial when it was released, a growing number of fans are actually nostalgic for the edition because, as they put it, at least 4e tried to reinvent D&D and make it stronger. The "simplified" mechanics of 5e cause many fans to liken it to either an AD&D stripped of its clunkier rules and some of its more blatant [[Gygax]]ian silliness, or a 3e update that actually works - a "3.99" compared to [[Pathfinder]] as "3.75".

This one is...controversial, even among controversies.  On the one hand, 5e ''does'' mostly succeed at being a polished, improved "greatest hits" edition of ''D&D'', and tries to focus more on simple, readily-applicable rules than mathy bullshit.  On the other hand, the above-mentioned slow pace of releases does mean that the game hasn't been really moving forward as quickly as previous editions have, which leaves the fanbase crying out for more content - and the inconsistent pace & lackluster content of [[Unearthed Arcana]] means that it's not helping on that front. And on the gripping hand, the simplified mechanics are not always seen as having worked out, leading to the various complaints about the classes and, especially, the races. However, the streamlining by itself isn't really the problem ''per se'', but rather a symptom of the larger issues especially because there's...

===Minimal Player Options===
Let's face it, RPGs have been around for over 40 years now, and as such players are quite used to having lots of options and ways to customize their character just the way they like it. And, originally for reasons of accessibility, later because of content drought, 5e just flat out doesn't offer that compared to similar games. Most classes have little to no customization options past their subclass selection other than spells known (if they even cast at all).

Feats and spells are a particular sore spot, with no new options being officially added for literal years after release, ostensibly to cut down on the 3.5 problem of stealth-buffing casters every single sourcebook by effectively giving them a bunch of free new options and/or permanent additions to their spell roster.  But, it shows in other ways too, whether the lack of new "fighting style" class features, the paucity of fresh backgrounds, and a single non-playtest new base class since release.  Only in terms of new races, archetypes, and magical items is the game truly rich.  And even then, between frequent racial balance issues, the "attunement" system putting an upper limit on how many magic items a player can benefit from at once, and the game's attempt to balance itself around magic items being rare and hard to find, these things don't necessarily matter as much as they could.

Furthermore, while cannibalizing Pathfinder's "archetype" system as a means to differentiate classes from one another via subclasses was an inspired choice, it also necessarily means dropping one of the most subtly useful aspects of that system and granting the player the ability to trade out some more-weakly-designed or thematically undesired class features from certain classes, or the designers to offer the option to do so without pulling the class up by the roots.  

This wouldn't be '''so bad''' if WoTC would release more supplements featuring more overall content. But as mentioned previously, they've been dragging their feet on that all throughout this edition. Even including the Unearthed Arcana stuff (which is of questionable validity due to being "In Playtesting") there isn't much more in the way of variety nearly '''5 years''' into the game's lifespan than there was when it was launched.

To emphasize the point, as of March 2019, 5e's official content stands at:
* 33 Races (with 24 subraces):
** Human
** Dwarf (Hill Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, [[Duergar]])
** Elf (High Elf, Wood Elf, [[Drow]], [[Aquatic Elf]], [[Eladrin]], [[Shadar-kai]])
** Gnome (Forest Gnome, Rock Gnome, [[Svirfneblin]])
** Halfling (Lightfoot, Stout, Ghostwise)
** Dragonborn
** Half-Orc
** Half-Elf (High Elf, Wood Elf, [[Drow]] [[Aquatic Elf]])
** Tiefling (Asmodeus/Standard, Variant, Baalzebul, Dispater, Fierna, Glasya, Levistus, Mammon, Mephistopheles, Zariel)
** Aarakocra
** Genasi
** Aasimar
** Firbolg
** Goliath
** Kenku
** Lizardfolk
** Tabaxi
** Triton
** Bugbear
** Goblin
** Hobgoblin
** Kobold
** Orc
** Yuan-ti Pureblood
** Githyanki
** Githzerai
** Tortle (some would argue this is Semi-Official, given it's only on DM's Guild)
** Grung (some would argue this is Semi-Official, given it's only on DM's Guild)
** Centaur
** Minotaur
** Loxodon
** Simic Combine Hybrid
** Vedalken
* 12 Classes (with 83 Subclasses)
** Barbarian (Berserker, Totem Warrior, Battlerager, Ancestral Guardian, Storm Herald, Zealot)
** Bard (Lore, Valor, Swords, Glamour, Whispers)
** Cleric (Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, War, Death, Arcane, Forge, Grave, Order)
** Druid (Land, Moon, Dreams, Shepherd, Spores)
** Fighter (Champion, Battlemaster, Eldritch Knight, Banneret/Purple Dragon Knight,  Cavalier, Samurai, Arcane Archer)
** Monk (Open Palm, Shadow, Four Elements, Long Death, Sun Soul, Kensei, Drunken Master)
** Paladin (Devotion, Ancients, Vengeance, Crown, Oathbreaker, Conquest, Redemption)
** Ranger (Hunter, Beastmaster, Gloom Stalker, Horizon Walker, Monster Slayer)
** Rogue (Thief, Assassin, Arcane Trickster, Swashbuckler, Mastermind, Inquisitive, Scout)
** Sorcerer (Dragon, Wild Magic, Storm Magic, Shadow Magic, Divine Soul)
** Warlock (Great Old One, Archfey, Fiend, Undying, Celestial, Hexblade)
** Wizard (Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation, Bladesinger, Warmage)

Whilst the "semi-official" content from Unearthed Arcana, Plane Shift, and Mearls’ twitter and livestream stands at:
* 2 Classes (Artificer and Mystic)
* 7 subraces for canon races:
** Avariel Elf
** Grugach Elf
** Abyssal Tiefling
** 3 Zendikaran Elves
** Kaladeshian Dwarves
* 16 new races:
** Revenant
** Kor
** Merfolk (with 5 subraces; Emeria, Ula, Cosi, Green, Blue)
** Vampire
** Zendikaran Goblin (with 3 subraces; Grotag, Lavastep, Tuktuk)
** Aetherborn
** Aven
** Khenra
** Naga
** Ixalan Goblin
** Siren
** Changeling
** Kalashtar
** Shifter
** Warforged
** Viashino
* 37 New Subclasses:
** College of Satire Bard
** 9 Cleric Domains (City, Protection, Solidarity, Strength, Ambition, Zeal, Beauty, Darkness, Destruction)
** Circle of Twilight Druid
** 9 Fighter Archetypes (Knight, Scout, Monster Hunter, Sharpshooter, Brute, Psychic Warrior, Slayer, Warlord, Weapon Master)
** 2 Monk Archetypes (Tranquility, Soul Knife)
** Oath of Treachery Paladin
** Primeval Guardian Ranger
** Acrobat Rogue
** 4 Sorcerer Archetypes (Phoenix, Pyromancer, Sea, Stone)
** 5 Warlock Patrons (Ghost in the Machine, Seeker, Raven Queen, Kraken, Lolth)
** 6 Wizard Traditions (Artificer, Theurgy, Loremastery, Technomancy, Inventor, Psionics)

Now, in fairness, this list is actually pretty large when you look at it altogether... but so much of it is stuff that a lot of DMs won't allow at their table, especially the UA Wizard subclasses. Not to mention, these are examples of ''total'' options, not much variation exists within each individual class. Keep in mind, the Bard and Druid for instance went from having only 2 variations to...5. Whoopee. Plus, it actually does pale before the sheer amount of class and race options that previous editions would have after five years of printing material.

===Near-Death of the OGL===
Remember how earlier we mentioned how WotC resurrecting the OGL led to 5E spearheading a D&D Renaissance where everyone who was anyone sprung forward to making supplements for this game by ensuring that their legions of lawyers wouldn't instantly slam them for using certain un-copyrightable terms? Well, while in the midst of playtesting their newfangled edition of "The World's Greatest Roleplaying Game", word got out that Wizards was planning on seriously revamping the OGL. On one hand, it made some measure of sense - When the OGL was originally made, social media, [[Kickstarter|crowdfunding]], Virtual Tabletops and a ton of modern-day content wasn't even a glint in the eye of any of the authors. Clarifying some of the more edge cases regarding any of these is something that might help protect their content.

Well, that wasn't what happened. What happened was Hasbro becoming so cartoonishly corrupt, so outlandishly greedy that they're now claiming that any content people make and sell now belongs to Wizards, which they can use at any point, any time they want, and without the consent of the original publisher. Everything also needs to be published through the DM's Guild with a fee, and likely will also need to be compatible with the eventual D&D Virtual Tabletop whenever that arrives. Even worse, they now demand the financial earnings of anyone who does make OGL content, regardless of whether or not they're even making D&D-compatible content, which now threatens any number of D20-based games, including [[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]] and the entire [[Old School Roleplaying|OSR]] space. Any content creators that make over $750,000 USD (of which Wizards notes there are only about 20 of) then have to pay 25% of their total gross earnings - Not profits, so publishers could at least break even on their material, their ''total gross earnings''. And to top this shit sundae all off, this all overwrites the original OGL and renders it obsolete immediately and replaces it, so nobody can just ignore it and continue publishing with the 1.0 version of the OGL. No matter which way you cut it, this was all a ploy for Wizards to set up a barbwire fence around their beloved brand to trap any content creators into making content for them, regardless of their consent, regardless of compatibility. All because some shareholders felt that D&D was ''under-monetized'' like the fucking greedy shits they are.

Of course, once a normie news outlet leaked this out before Wizards themselves intended to, the news led to [[RAGE|a neckbeardy shitstorm of unheard-of proportions]], the likes of which even caught the eye of [[Khorne]]. Every nobody with a YouTube channel or blog debated the legitimacy of such tomfuckery and how this was going to lead to the death of D&D. Even one of the architects of the original OGL weighed in on the topic, stating that this bullshit was never the intention of this agreement. Some were even concerned that this might have been the plan from the beginning and that with the abovementioned legions of laywers and billions of dollars could outlast any potential lawsuits contesting the legality of such a move, possibly before they even hit the court. Most damningly, the leaking of this new OGL has led to the ocean of major third-party publishers to begin consulting their legal teams to see how fucked they'd be if they signed that deal with the devil, and some, such as [[Kobold Press]], have decided [https://koboldpress.com/raising-our-flag/ to outright DROP any future support for D&D] and develop their own not-5Es, while unrelated RPGs that used the OGL just as a show of good faith, like [[Delta Green]], have opted to [https://arcdream.com/home/2023/01/delta-green-without-the-ogl/ drop the OGL from future content] since its original purpose was now null and void. Paizo themselves even banded together with a bunch of these publishers in creating their own open-source system-agnostic license that would be less prone to any corporate fuckery. Players similar began abandoning D&D in droves, latching onto other systems such as [[Pathfinder Second Edition]] and hitting Wizards where it hurt the most: Cancelling lucrative D&D Beyond subscriptions.

What followed was a round of half-assed backpedaling with a thinly veiled boast about how they won and how the above contract was a draft (ignoring the part where they'd attached contracts to force others to sign onto this), then a slightly less half-assed attempt with a revised OGL that pared back some of the sticking points. Neckbeards ridiculed this new draft with all the due ire and vitriol the moment WotC asked for feedback, venting their frustrations at this insult. In the end, the impossible happened: Not only did Wizards call off the whole new OGL bullshit, but they also released the SRD into Creative Commons. At this point, one could say that the trust Wizards built with 5E had been irreparably damaged and whatever golden age the game had was truly over well before its sequel even finished playtesting.