History YMMV / DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition

* GameBreaker: Certain multiclass combos can be very cheesy due to synergistic mechanics. In 5th Edition, we have so-called "Coffeelocks". Sorcerer/Warlocks can use the Pact Magic feature to convert their spell slots into Sorcerer metamagic points, and then convert those points into Sorcerer spell slots. The trick here is that Warlock spell slots recharge after a ''short'' rest but created spell slots last until the next ''long'' rest. Ergo, you simply do not need to take a long rest. [[TheSleepless Ever.]] Taken further, if you're a Divine Soul Sorcerer you can take ''healing'' spells as well, effectively rendering Hit Dice to recover health obsolete. This was patched by a rule introduced in ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' that states that not taking a long rest, even if no sleep is involved, causes a player to take increasing levels of Exhaustion the longer they forgo a long rest. Divine Soul Sorcerers can mitigate this to some extent by casting Greater Restoration on themselves to remove Exhaustion... at the cost of 100 GP worth of diamond dust per casting. This variant of the build has been nicknamed "Cocainelocks".

** Paladins and Sorcerers often dip a level or two into warlock to gain access to the class's regenerating "pact spell slots," since having a supply of spells that regenerates on a short rest fixes many of their design issues.
** The Warlock class's signature Eldritch Blast cantrip is a popular poach for other classes, since, unlike other cantrips, it offers additional attacks instead of additional damage dice, and the warlock has a number of potent and useful Invocations to upgrade it further.

** The Storm Herald Barbarian is a perfectly fine Primal Path with spectacular, unique abilties that makes good use of the Barbarian's bonus action, which generally won't see much use after a Barbarian has started its rage. The main contention with Storm Herald is story consistency vs gameplay consistency. Unlike the Totem Warrior, which doesn't need to stick entirely to the Bear to be a game-breaker (It's allowed to take the Bear ability to resist all damage and then choose any other animal for future subclass specific features), the Storm Herald is married to the type of storm it chooses from the start, meaning that if it chose to ''start'' with the Sea Storm Aura, well, that's what it's sticking with for its Storm Soul and Raging Storm. It ''can'' change which Storm it's connected to every level, but it cannot mix-and-match like the Totem Warrior can. The contention here is if it ''should'' be allowed to mix-and-match for the sake of gameplay, or if it only makes sense that a Barbarian tied to a sandstorm would continue to gain powers linked to the sandstorm. Some [=DMs=] are willing to break the rules for the former, while others prefer the logic of the latter.

** A mere 3 level dip into Fighter gives you access to two incredibly good once per rest abilities (Second Wind, which allows bonus action healing, and Action Surge, which borders on {{Game Break}}ing for certain builds) and access to the Fighter’s diverse array of subclasses. Champion is an especially common multiclass due to its very simple flavoring being easy to justify the dip, and its BoringButPractical level 3 benefit of increasing critical range to 19-20, thus providing major benefits to critical-heavy classes like Barbarians and Rogues.

** A mere 3 level dip into Fighter gives you access to two incredibly good once per rest abilities (Second Wind, which allows bonus action healing, and Action Surge, which borders on GameBreaking for certain builds) and access to the Fighter’s diverse array of subclasses. Champion is an especially common multiclass due to its very simple flavoring being easy to justify the dip, and its BoringbutPractical level 3 benefit of increasing Crit range to 19-20, thus providing major benefits to Crit fishing classes like Rogues and Barbarians.

** A mere 3 level dip into Fighter gives you access to two incredibly good once per rest abilities (Second Wind, which allows bonus action healing, and Action Surge, which borders on Game Breaking for certain builds) and access to the Fighter’s diverse array of subclasses. Champion is an especially common multiclass due to its very simple flavoring and Boring, but Practical level 3 benefit of increasing Crit range to 19-20, thus providing major benefits to Crit fishing classes like Rogues and Barbarians.

** Dragonborn get this as a playable race. Many people love dragonborn because they're a ProudWarriorRace with a distinctly different theme to them than the dwarves, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a Fighter or a Barbarian thanks to Strength and Charisma bonuses, or because [[AwesomeDearBoy the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome]]. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either LawfulGood warriors of Bahamut or ChaoticEvil cultists of Tiamat, giving them solid roleplay material to work with. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]] -- dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the damage resistance that a dragonborn gets can also be done by tieflings, and their breath weapon isn't as good as a caster's spells. Also, while dragonborn breath weapons are good for crowd control, dragonborn don't naturally get darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk, kobolds, and half-dragons are more prevalent than dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has passed, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether dragonborn are a viable race (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way. The ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' splatbook changing the dragonborn was seen as an AuthorsSavingThrow for the dragonborn race by changing a lot of things to address fan complaints about the race, but it hasn't completely gotten rid of the aforesaid arguing.

** Moonstone dragons, a dragon heavily associated with the Land of Faerie and which had previously only appeared in the 2nd Monstrous Compendium Appendix Annual for ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition'', returned to 5e in "Fizban's Treasury of Dragons", much more faithful to their old lore than the grung had been.

** Dragonborn get this as a playable race. Many people love dragonborn because they're a ProudWarriorRace with a distinctly different theme to them than the dwarves, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a Fighter or a Barbarian thanks to Strength and Charisma bonuses, or because [[AwesomeDearBoy the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome]]. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either LawfulGood warriors of Bahamut or ChaoticEvil cultists of Tiamat, giving them solid roleplay material to work with. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]] -- dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the damage resistance that a dragonborn gets can also be done by tieflings, and their breath weapon isn't as good as a caster's spells. Also, while dragonborn breath weapons are good for crowd control, dragonborn don't naturally get darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk, kobolds, and half-dragons are more prevalent than dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has passed, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether dragonborn are a viable race (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way. The Fizban's Treasury Of Dragons changing the dragonborn was seen as an AuthorsSavingThrow for the dragonborn race, but it hasn't completely gotten rid of the aforesaid arguing.

** Dragonborn get this as a playable race. Many people love dragonborn because they're a ProudWarriorRace with a distinctly different theme to them than the dwarves, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a Fighter or a Barbarian thanks to Strength and Charisma bonuses, or because [[AwesomeDearBoy the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome]]. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either LawfulGood warriors of Bahamut or ChaoticEvil cultists of Tiamat, giving them solid roleplay material to work with. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]] -- dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the damage resistance that a dragonborn gets can also be done by tieflings, and their breath weapon isn't as good as a caster's spells. Also, while dragonborn breath weapons are good for crowd control, dragonborn don't naturally get darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk, kobolds, and half-dragons are more prevalent than dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has passed, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether dragonborn are a viable race (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way. The Unearthed Arcana changing the dragonborn was seen as an AuthorsSavingThrow for the dragonborn race, but it hasn't completely gotten rid of the aforesaid arguing.

* LGBTFanbase: 5th edition saw a surge in popularity for the entire game, which included a disproportionately large amount of LGBT fans. A possible reason is that the surge in popularity was caused by podcasts like ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' and ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone'', both of which are very LGBT friendly. Tieflings in particular are popular among gay and transgender fans.

** Moonstone dragons, a dragon heavily associated with the Land of Faerie and which had previously only appeared in the 2nd Monstrous Compendium Appendix Annual for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition'', returned to 5e in "Fizban's Treasury of Dragons", much more faithful to their old lore than the grung had been.

** The Warlock class's signature Eldritch Blast cantrip is a popular poach for other classes, since, unlike other cantrips, it offers additional attacks instead of additional damage dice, and the warlock has a number of potent and useful Invocations to upgrade it further.
** Paladins and sorcerers often dip a level or two into warlock to gain access to the class's regenerating "pact spell slots," since having a supply of spells that regenerates on a short rest fixes many of their design issues.

** Controversy arose with the confirmation of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards pf the Coast chose to go with a setting from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' rather than one of the classic settings such as ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' or ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'', or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters, the book was revealed alongside a smaller twenty dollar PDF-only book focused on ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventure League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions, and many players felt like Wizards of the Coast didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' community, the reaction from the ''Magic: The Gathering'' fanbase was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.

* CreatorsPet: One accusation the Wizard class gets is that it's favored heavily by the developers to the point of absurdity compared to the other magic-focused classes. In almost every major update or playtest material, the wizard gets either a bunch of new spells, or gets a new subclass, despite already having a pretty good starting set of subclasses. To put into perspective how many subclasses they have, most classes have between seven or nine official subclasses as of 2021. The wizard has ''thirteen'', the second highest number of officially published subclasses after the Cleric, and unlike the Cleric which has domains that offer unique gameplay advantages and play styles, the Wizard's all make minor adjustments with only one or two unique abilities. This seems to be because unlike the sorcerer, druid, and warlock, wizards are easy to make new abilities for since they are so basic in playstyle, but fans of the other classes are often vocal about their dislike of the favoritism. Part of the hate is ''also'' that said subclasses are often comically overpowered, janky or poorly designed, or both, and sorcerer fans in particular are extremely resentful of many poorly-received attempts to create a "metamagic wizard" in an edition where the sorcerer class is already seen as flawed and troubled and metamagic is one of their very small number of unique tricks. At the very least, when it's the only class in the game with ''multiple'' subclass options that can turn all damage they deal into nigh-irresistible [[NonElemental force damage]], there's ''something'' there. And whilst there's an argument to be made that the only reason they have so many subclasses is because of 5e's deliberate "bring back that Old School Style"[[note]]Specialist Wizards for the eight schools of magic are literally one of the oldest examples of subclasses in D&D[[/note]], that's still undermined by the fact the similarly sprawling Cleric received nowhere near as many subclasses[[note]]there are ''twenty-two'' cleric domains in 3rd edition's [=PHB=], whilst the 5e cleric only gets '''seven''' -- eight, if you include the Death domain from the [=DMG=][[/note]].
** Inverted with the Sorcerer, who has one of the smallest arrays of subclasses at a measly seven. It's particularly annoying to fans familiar with ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', which did the "Sorcerous Bloodlines" mechanic first and has a drastically larger count of bloodlines, even ignoring the "sub-bloodlines".

* CreatorsPet: One accusation the Wizard class gets is that it's favored heavily by the developers to the point of absurdity compared to the other magic-focused classes. In almost every major update or playtest material, the wizard gets either a bunch of new spells, or gets a new subclass, despite already having a pretty good starting set of subclasses. To put into perspective how many subclasses they have, most classes have between seven or nine official subclasses as of 2021. The wizard has ''thirteen'', the second highest number of officially published subclasses after the Cleric, and unlike the Cleric which has domains that offer unique gameplay advantages and play styles, the Wizard's all make minor adjustments with only one or two unique abilities. This seems to be because unlike the sorcerer, druid, and warlock, wizards are easy to make new abilities for since they are so basic in playstyle, but fans of the other classes are often vocal about their dislike of the favoritism. Part of the hate is ''also'' that said subclasses are often comically overpowered, janky or poorly designed, or both, and sorcerer fans in particular are extremely resentful of many poorly-received attempts to create a "metamagic wizard" in an edition where the sorcerer class is already seen as flawed and troubled and metamagic is one of their very small number of unique tricks. At the very least, when it's the only class in the game with ''multiple'' subclass options that can turn all damage they deal into nigh-irresistible [[NonElemental force damage]], there's ''something'' there.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[AuthorsSavingThrow/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page]].

** Controversy arose with the confirmation of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards pf the Coast chose to go with a setting from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' rather than one of the classic settings such as ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' or ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'', or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters, the book was revealed alongside a smaller twenty dollar PDF-only book focused on ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventure League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions, and many players felt like Wizards of the Coast didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the''Dungeons & Dragons'' community, the reaction from the ''Magic: The Gathering'' fanbase was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page]].

** Factions in 5th edition, a system where players could be members of one of five ''Forgotten Realms''-based international organizations. This was rarely used outside of the official Adventurer's League games, since not all character concepts fit neatly into them and the Renown mechanic that influenced a player's standing in the faction was poorly designed and explained. Despite this, early adventure books ''expected'' players to have membership, providing plothooks for each of them. While this was fine in stories like ''Tyranny of Dragons'', where it made sense for the factions to be involved in events that shook their entire world, it was pretty ridiculous in ''Curse of Strahd'', which mostly takes place in an entirely separate world from the ''Forgotten Realms'', where the factions couldn't be expected to have any sort of influence. Since then, the adventures have toned this mechanic down heavily, and it now features only in adventures where the factions would be expected to appear anyway, such as ''Waterdeep: Dragon Heist''.
* TierInducedScrappy: [[TierInducedScrappy/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page]].

** Dragonborn get this as a playable race. Many people love dragonborn because they're a ProudWarriorRace with a distinctly different theme to them than the dwarf, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a fighter or a barbarian thanks to getting bonuses to Strength and Charisma, or because the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either LawfulGood warriors of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon or ChaoticEvil children of Tiamat, giving them some decent roleplay potential. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]], since dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the natural damage resistance that a dragonborn gets can also be done by tieflings, and their breath weapon isn't as good as a caster's spells. Also, while dragonborn breath weapons are good for crowd control and hitting groups of enemies, and a walking dragon is an intimidating sight in any realm, it's counterbalanced by the dragonborn not getting darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk or half-dragons show up more than dragonborn do. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has gone on, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether they're a viable class (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way.
** Controversy arose with the leak, and latter confirmation, of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards chose to go with a setting from TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering rather than one of the classic settings such as TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}, TabletopGame/DarkSun or TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}, or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters the book was revealed alongside a smaller 20$ PDF-only book focused on TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventure League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions caused many to feel like Wizards didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons community, the reaction from the Magic: The Gathering community was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.

** The Indomitable power, the Fighter's only class power that doesn't recharge on a short rest, is often derided for being weak, as it's essentially a single saving throw re-roll. Worse, it tends to happen on levels where the fighter gets no other benefits. Often seen as a blatant attempt to skew things in the caster's favor in the caster-martial dynamic, it's popularly house-ruled to either recharge on a short rest or to work like the monster power of similar mechanics and let the fighter choose to succeed instead.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Unearthed Arcana turned the Ranger into a LightningBruiser, as well as fixing the Beastmaster's animal companion. And to the joy of Ranger fans, many of these features were made official class variants with the release of ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything''.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Unearthed Arcana turned the Ranger into a LightningBruiser, as well as fixing the Beastmaster's animal companion. Many of these features were made offical class varients with the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[AuthorsSavingThrow/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]

* TierInducedScrappy: [[TierInducedScrappy/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]

* TierInducedScrappy:
** ''No one'' plays the other primal path for Barbarians from the Player's Handbook, the Berserker. This is because of a poorly-designed first power, namely, Frenzy, which offers an additional attack per round as a bonus action... at the cost of one level of Exhaustion once the Rage ends. And Exhaustion is hard and slow to remove, stacks rapidly to impose awful and overlapping penalties, and means that using the Path's power is almost never worth it. The rest of the Primal Path is much better, but such a bad starting power, combined with the lack of any others starting powers, has led many to complain it obviously pre-dates the existing Exhaustion rules and was never updated when they were changed.
** The Battlerager Barbarian from the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'' is also fairly weak, but it at least offers an extra attack per round without any real cost, even if its damage dice are low. Unfortunately, it forces the player to wear a single type of armor for most of their class benefits, and not a terribly powerful kind at that.
** Trickery Domain Clerics are generally seen as the worst option for the class. The main draw of the Trickery Domain is that you basically are more focused on trickery and pranking people, as well as making stealth more viable for yourself and/or your party through your blessing. However, while this does make it a good option for stealth-focused modules, it does little to provide outright power or utility because it's more focused on confusing the enemy, and while Invoke Duplicity is useful, it only creates an illusion of you and nothing else. The later abilities like Cloak of Shadows and the Trickery Divine Strike also aren't all that useful since one just makes you invisible at the cost of using your Channel Divinity, while the other lets you deal poison damage on your melee attack, something many foes are resistant to and thus can NoSell. The spells you gain are solid such as Dispel Magic, but don't help your Cleric fight any better. It's a fun idea in concept, but if you want to play a stealthy magic character, it's better to just play something like a Bard or Arcane Trickster.
** In general, the Player's Handbook Fighter archetypes are seen as undertuned compared to those released in later sourcebooks. None of them grant extra skills, and only the Battle Master grants a tool proficiency, whereas every single other archetype, even the Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight, offers a few, and their support for the non-combat pillars of the game is very limited compared to what other archetypes offer. Furthermore, their combat abilities, while still somewhat unique, are often seen as victims of PowerCreep, whether it's the Champion's limited regeneration which several other classes have since gotten a strictly-better version of earlier in progression, the Battle Master's short-rest recharging maneuvers not being as powerful as advertised, or the Eldritch Knight's limited spell list, slow scaling, and lack of synergy between its spellcasting abilities and its fighter powers, even with the release of a few Eldritch Knight-friendly spells in the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide''.
** Speaking of, the Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight is often seen as a bit of a dud in and of itself. The intent is a fighter who can share his class features with the rest of the party, the result is a lot of weak, finicky, slowly-recharging powers that generally fail to properly capture the "4e Warlord" flavor the subclass is reaching for and stand in the way of letting the fighter shine on his own by the absence of better ones.
** Way of the Four Elements Monk is generally seen as the worst subclass in all of Fifth Edition. The goal of the Four Elements is to give players abilities that [[JackOfAllStats allow them to adapt to any situation, even if they aren't quite as good as dedicated classes]]. The problem is just how harshly this cuts into the Monk's natural resource pool. Unlike the Sorcerer, who only uses its Sorcery Points on the abilities it gets in its base class, the Monk has useful features that make use of its Ki both in its base form and in the various subclasses it uses. This isn't normally a problem for most Monk subclasses, where they tend to only need to use a few of the Ki-sapping features a subclass offers within a given situation, and usually at a relatively cheap cost. The Four Elements abilities ''all'' use Ki, and most of the beneficial ones utterly price-gouge the Monk. While four Ki points have the potential to kill someone instantly or do incredible damage as an Open Hand Monk, a Four Elements Monk only gets one use of Fireball. The most tragic aspect of this, however, is Water Whip. When first introduced, Water Whip was a bonus action attack a Monk could use before their own natural two attacks, did decent damage, pulled an enemy closer, and potentially knocked them prone, allowing the Monk to make full use of their hit-and-run playstyle. When the errata came around changing Water Whip's cost to a full action, the subclass lost any remaining luster; making Water Whip an action defeats the entire purpose of using it, since the Monk can't capitalize on the effects of the Whip itself, and 3d10 + Wisdom Mod is simply not that great for the cost of a full action. All of this makes the Way of the Four Elements Monk into [[MasterOfNone a class that can do anything but can't do any of it well, and is outdone in every area by another class or subclass]].
** Oath of Redemption Paladins don't see much use due to the very strict nature of their oaths; they're supposed to be all about RedemptionEqualsLife unless someone goes to the extreme and thus has to be killed. The idea behind them is that you try to redeem a person and prevent violence by convincing them to stand down and stop being violent. In practice, however, it's one of the most restrictive subclasses because it punishes you for fighting; if you chose to fight without trying to make your enemy suffer a HeelRealization, it's going to cost you your oath, and all your abilities are focused on preventing fights rather than assisting in them, which makes it useless when fighting many foes who are AlwaysChaoticEvil like Demons, Devils, and other monsters or evil-aligned beings. It also requires the rest of the party to let the Redemption Paladin do their redeeming thing without fighting, which then requires cooperation and goodwill from the actual players; this can get boring and frustrating for the players who want to fight without really caring about trying to prevent the fight. This means it's possible you may start to convince a foe to back down, only for your party to just kill them anyway. Even their level 20 ability is focused on making you get hit to be useful, and if you attack back, your ability ends instantly. It's essentially taking the idea of redeeming someone by being a BadassPacifist, which isn't applicable in every situation, both story-wise and gameplay-wise. The roleplay potential of the class is arguably the only reason it's picked; in the hands of a skilled player, it can make for an interesting character and has some amount of LoopholeAbuse, but gameplay-wise few people will want to use it.
** Rangers without the alternate features from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' are generally seen as the weakest 5th edition class. [[MasterOfNone There are very few things a ranger can do out of combat that other classes can't do, and probably do better]]. In combat, they rely heavily on a very limited selection of spells, and stack up unfavorably against both fighters and paladins. Out of combat, many of the class's core features are only useful against specific prey or on specific terrain. Beastmasters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions ''suck''.
** The Wild Magic Sorcerer subclass falls into AwesomeButImpractical. Whenever you cast a non-cantrip spell, you have to roll a d20. If you get a 1 on this d20 roll, you then have to roll a d100 for a Wild Magic Surge, which makes something happens at random. Some of the Wild Magic Surge effects are useful: recovering HP, regaining spell slots, casting buff spells like Mirror Image for free, or your next spell needing a Bonus Action instead of an Action. But you can also end up casting Fireball or Confusion centered on yourself, make yourself Frightened of the nearest enemy, or cause necrotic damage to everything around you (including your allies). While fun in theory, the amount of potential negative effects from a Wild Magic Surge makes the sub-class not worth using, as some of the Surges can easily lead to a TotalPartyKill in the wrong spot. Making this worse is that your most interesting ability -- being able to give yourself advantage -- makes you take a Wild Magic Surge roll as soon as you do it. So your one outright useful ability is probably going to be a detriment in the end. And all of this is in exchange for only slightly increasing your chances to cast spells and your damage; it's not enough to make the sub-class viable, considering all of the massive drawbacks.
** The Pact of the Chain's benefit is very weak and fragile, never improves or scales up, and making use of their best ability means making sure it's right inside the range of any Area of Effect spells an enemy wants to throw. Without the buffs it got from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', it's the weakest of the Warlock Pact options.
** The Undying Warlock from the [=SCAG=]. All you get out of it is resistance to disease, an ability that makes it slightly harder for undead to attack you as long as you don't attack them first, a small collection of weak self-healing abilities and a greatly enhanced lifespan. Undeniably a cool pact from a thematic point of view, but mechanically it' just ''really'' mediocre. August 2020 saw a new Unearthed Arcana Patron called the Undead Patron, which has similar ideas and mechanics, but has better abilities and is considerably more powerful, making the Undying even less appealing, especially once said Patron became official in ''Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft''.
** The Evoker Wizard, full stop. ''On paper,'' the School is a perfectly reasonable option for Wizards that allows them to deal a decent chunk of damage safely. So what's the problem? Everything it does, the Sorcerer does better. While the Sorcerer itself suffers from some degree of scrappy status, no one doubts the sheer power it can manifest with its Metamagic. Sculpt Spells is one feature the Evoker has over Sorcerers, but Careful Spell almost closes the gap, and any issues with aiming can usually be solved with ease, especially if the spell is a debuff, not straight damage, in which case Careful Spell is indistinguishable from Sculpt Spells. Potent Cantrip and Empowered Evocation both fall flat next to Draconic and Stone Sorcerers, not to mention other Origin options that give Sorcerers a flat Charisma modifier buff to damage, (additionally, by the time a Wizard gets Potent Cantrip, most mages won't need to use damage-dealing Cantrips if they ration their spells carefully) and even then, limiting the extra damage to Evocation spells is often more limiting than it sounds the higher up you get in level, where you get disgustingly powerful AOE spells like Incendiary Cloud...which aren't Evocation. The kicker is the capstone, though; Overchannel. Once again, ''on paper,'' this looks better than the Sorcerer's Empowered Spell. Two problems; one, Overchannel is obtained at level 14, ''11 levels'' after a Sorcerer could have taken Empowered Spell. Two, Empowered Spell is an easily spammable Metamagic option with a disgustingly low resource cost that can apply to ''any'' Sorcerer spell, including Meteor Swarm, Sunburst, Disintegrate, and Finger of Death. ''At best,'' an Evoker Wizard can deal one instance of 69 cold damage before suffering any penalties. 69 damage is nothing to sneeze at against a group of enemies, but it's tied to a spell (Cone of Cold) with a save most monsters have an abundance of at 14th level and a somewhat resisted damage type. Any casting after the first comes with crippling penalties that typically give you only one more shot with a high-level spell before it becomes unfeasible to cast again. All this together makes the Evoker Wizard the worst School in the game, its only potential competition being the Transmuter.
** Speaking of the Transmuter Wizard, it is a perfectly decent subclass held back entirely by the fact that the majority of its abilities are simply underwhelming or easily replicated by other classes, spells, and even subclasses, especially Conjuration. Minor Alchemy as a whole falls flat next to Minor Conjuration, and any halfway decent Bard or Rogue can set up a scam without the need for transmutation magic. The Transmuter's stone ''is'' useful to give its user Constitution proficiency without the need of a feat, and that's nothing to turn one's nose up at, except Conjurerers can just ''not make concentration saves'' at 10th level when using Conjuration spells, which on a whole are more reliable and more useful than Transmutation spells. Polymorphing for free sounds like a good deal, until you realize the Druid can do it too, could do it 8 levels ago, and can do it twice. The greatest thing that can be said about Transmuter is that it is not totally outdone by another class like Evoker is; Master Transmuter and the ability to swap energy resistances by using Transmutation spells are genuinely good abilities, but Master Transmuter is depressingly limited in what it can do versus what normal spells can ''already'' do. Generally, the consensus is that Transmuter needs some serious buffs, otherwise the only major reason to take it is to maintain one's youth...if you can get to 14th level.
** The Necromancer Wizard. On paper, the subclass seems fine; you get health back when you kill enemies, and get even more back if you used a Necromancer spell to do it. You also have an overall easier time summoning Undead thanks to reduced costs, and can buff the Undead that you summon. The issue is the limited nature of the ''Animate Dead'' spell; not only do you keep rolling dice to maintain control, but you have to cast the spell at higher levels to have it make more than one Undead at a time, and the only buff the Undead get is a basic buff you get from the class. Also, Animate Dead is a Level 3 spell, meaning it's gained a bit into the Wizard's lifespan, when enemies will most likely be able to kill those Undead pretty quickly. All the Wizard abilities the class gives offer no buffs to the Undead you summon, and the Wizard gets only two buff abilities at all. This doesn't even include the roleplay side of things, where a Necromancer Wizard is highly likely to be treated as suspect by other players, even if the character in question isn't Evil-aligned. While later spells help the class out, the core abilities of the Necromancer are simply too weak and don't scale with level. A Circle of the Shepherd Druid could do everything that a Necromancer Wizard could do but better, all without getting as many dirty looks and providing better buffs to summoned creatures and their allies. All of this makes the Necromancer one of the least useful options for a Wizard.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** Expect to hear "I would like to Rage" a lot if you're at a table with a barbarian in the party. Rage is pretty much the go-to move for barbarians, but they do it so well that there's really not much need to do anything else.
** The Totem Warrior, and specifically the Bear Totem, is unquestionably the most popular barbarian primal path, and for one reason: resistance versus all damage except psychic. In other words, if no enemy on the field possesses an attack with a fairly uncommon damage type, that Bear Totem barbarian enjoys effectively ''doubled HP'' when they Rage, rather than only versus weapon attacks. Also, as barbarians have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against nasty damage spells like the dreaded ''fireball'', they can quite easily get a ''cumulative'' chance to halve received damage again. It's commonly thought that the mass infusions of spells and monsters that deal psychic damage in ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' and ''Mordekainen's Tome of Foes'', respectively, are an attempt to "stealth nerf" it. Let's not forget that a ring of resistance can ''also'' fix that little psychic problem.
** If it's not a Totem Warrior, the Barbarian is probably a Zealot. The Zealot is widely considered to be the second-best class behind the Totem Warrior, and it does a few things better than the Totem Warrior. The Zealot barbarian can be brought back from the dead without material components for revival spells, reroll failed saving throws, inspire the party with advantage rolls, and deals extra radiant or necrotic damage with each attack. Plus, the "Rage Beyond Death" ability means that the barbarian outright ''won't die'' if they hit zero HP, even if they fail three death saves, as long as they're raging. They're effectively the idea of "Man Literally Too Angry to Die" given form. The Totem Warrior still gets more useful abilities for out-of-combat roleplaying and is a better defensive powerhouse, even if the Zealot can deal more damage and be brought back to life more easily.
** Race wise, if the player is only using the base races for playing a Barbarian, expect it to be a Half-Orc. Half-Orc's gain a +2 in Strength and +1 in Constitution, the ability to get back up if reduced to zero HP, and the ability to add an additional weapon roll if they crit with a melee weapon. These all combined make a Half-Orc Barbarian hard to kill while giving them a high damage output potential, as with their starting modifiers, they can reach high Strength and Con modifiers with ease. Mountain Dwarves are a close second because of their +2 to Constitution and Strength, however they lack the extra combat bonuses' the Half-Orc gets, as they instead get resistance to poison and a history of stone-like skill instead. Outside of those two, the most common pick for a Barbarian is Goliath due to the race being tailor-made to be one.
** Most Bards end up going the route of College of Lore for the simple fact you can pick two spells from ''any'' class at level six, which allows Bards to use some of the best spells in the game such as Counterspell and not have to worry about it not synergizing with their stats since it counts as a Bard spell. You also gain three additional proficiencies choosing it, meaning you can have around ''eight'' skills to be good in before feats are thrown in. Cutting Words is also considered a decent use of your Bardic Inspirations since it can help reduce the chances of someone being hurt.
** If a group has a Bard, expect for that Bard to be a Half-Elf most of the time. This is because Half-Elves get a flat +2 to their Charisma modifiers and the ability to put a single point in any two stats, all while gaining two free skills, two starting languages, in addition to getting to pick a third, and advantage on being charmed, all of which doesn't even account for Backgrounds. This makes them the best race option since those extra two stat points can be put in the stat that they will need depending on their sub-class, which combined with the Bard's natural ability to help stop Charms and gain skills, allows them to practically be good at everything they need to be. To a lesser extent, Tiefling Bards are also common for also getting +2 to Charisma and a few free spells or a flying speed, but they are favored more if they are playing a solely magic-focused Bard.
** Life Cleric in general is one of the most popular Clerics, largely because of the stigma attached to Clerics via classic video games and even some earlier editions as the 'healbot.' It also tends to get the most shilling. It's a perfectly good class, too, one of the few where everyone will agree it can function well for mid-combat healing.
** If you have a high-level game (or a game that promises to end at high-levels) and a group of people who understand the ins and outs of 5e, expect at least one in five groups to have a Circle of the Moon Druid. While Circle of the Land offers more versatility, Circle of Dreams has better healing, Circle of the Shepherd has incredibly useful buffs, and Circle of Spores gives a consistent means of causing constant damage, the Circle of the Moon is notorious as being NighInvulnerable. A lot of the base Druid's late-game abilities mesh far too well with the Moon Druid's last few abilities, including casting Wildshape at will, the ability to cast Druid spells while Wildshape is in effect, and the ability to Wildshape into any Beast of Challenge Rating 6 or lower. This doesn't sound devastating until one remembers that any damage incurred while Wildshaped doesn't carry over to the Druid's normal form. Starting at Circle of the Moon Druid Level 18, the Druid can transform into a Mammoth with 126 HP as a Bonus Action ''every round''. This means that enemies have to constantly rip into the Mammoth Moon Druid and ''hope'' they deal more than 126 damage in a single round of combat. They might be able set up a turn where they damage the Druid after bringing down the Wildshape, but this is excessively meta-gamey. And even if they do, all of that effort that's focused on the Druid is effort that isn't focused on anyone else, leaving the rest of the Druid's party to rain death on the enemies.
** While the Fighter class as a whole is quite versatile, the Fighting Styles it offers are not. Expect most Fighters to use either Dueling, Defense, or Two-Weapon Fighting if they are a melee-focused Fighter due to the fact that the three provide simple bonuses that are very useful throughout the player's lifespan. Archery only works well if the player decides to focus on being a ranged-attack Fighter, though it is probably the most powerful fighting style in the game if one does, while Great Weapon Fighting and Protection are seen as very weak and [[CripplingOverspecialization gimmicky and overspecialized]] choices, respectively, which are not useful long term for most characters (there are some exceptions). Furthermore, simply because none of the other Fighting Styles really complement one another, everyone who gets a ''second'' Style almost invariably picks Defense if they didn't take it at already.
** According to various sites, Human Fighter is the most common combination in Fifth Edition. This is likely on account of the BoringButPractical applications both have; humans gain +1 to all stats, and Fighters are a class that [[JackOfAllStats generally want to be good at most things without being the best in any of them]]. The additional features Fighters get early on helps create a strong character that can keep up with the party.
** One of the Fighter builds most recommended is a Variant Human that uses a reach weapon (such as a glaive) and takes the Sentinel, Polearm Master, and Great Weapon Master feats. Such a build can easily trap enemies where the enemy cannot attack them unless they also have a reach weapon, as Sentinel triggers an attack of opportunity when the enemy attempts to move closer that, if it hits, prevents any more movement. The Fighter can then pump out huge amounts of damage with the bonus from Great Weapon Master, the corresponding accuracy penalty being made up for by Polearm Master allowing them to make another attack as a bonus action. As a Variant Human can start at level 1 with a feat, this build can be completed as soon as level 8, with the most important parts (Polearm Master and Sentinel) obtained as quickly as level 4. What subclass to pick isn't considered a big deal, though the Cavalier subclass is often suggested because of the HoldTheLine nature of its abilities making it well suited for the build.
** If a Monk is a Shadow Monk, expect that Shadow Monk to take two levels in Rogue (sometimes more, but two is the most common due to taking the least amount of time and investment) if they don't already ''start'' in Rogue and move into Monk around level two or so. There are two major reasons why a Shadow Monk would want this. First, without Expertise, a Shadow Monk is honestly just a lesser Rogue; a Rogue will easily do their job of sneaking better 100% of the time and out-damage them to boot. It's more than likely they'll have a better starting AC, since any Rogue worth their salt will do everything possible to start with a Dex mod of 3-4, whereas a Monk would need that ''and'' a good Wis mod to bump up AC. Getting Expertise in Stealth and Perception makes the Shadow Monk comparable, if not better in some cases, than a Rogue in sneaking, even once Reliable Talent comes online for Rogues. (Largely as a result of Pass Without Trace, nigh-free invisibility, and teleportation allowing them to make up for a lack of consistency in their rolls.) The other reason is access to a free bonus action version of their favorite actions in battle and on a mission - dash, disengage, and hide. If there aren't any shadows nearby to teleport in, a Shadow Monk greatly appreciates the ability to still hide ''somewhere.''
** Oath of the Ancients Paladins are one of the more commonly picked subclasses for Paladins, in large part of their level 7 Aura of Warding, which gives any allies within 10 feet of the Paladin ''resistance'' to all magic damage. When you combine this with the already existing aura that gives nearby allies a bonus to saves equal to your charisma modifier, it can absolutely trivialize some fights. Your party gets hit by the Fireball spell? Well, even if they fail the save, they still take half damage. Pass the save? That halved damage gets reduced even more! The other abilities it gets are also pretty useful as well, making it potentially the strongest Paladin subclass in terms of how good it is.
** The few times you meet a DM who will ''absolutely'' require a player to use the PHB Ranger, expect the player to use the Hunter. While the Hunter still isn't nearly as good as most Paladins, Fighters, or Monks, it does have a few unique features that puts it head and shoulders over the other options, most notably an easy increase to total damage per round, multiple methods of melee AOE effects (which is something only the Ranger can claim without spells), and an ''incredible'' defensive ability that punishes a DM's attempts to bully the Ranger with concentrated strikes from a single enemy. The Horizon Walker and Beastmaster just can't keep up.
** Halfling Rogues are by far the most common race option for Rogues. Partially because of the flat +2 to Dexterity they get, but also the Halfing's "Halfling Nimbleness" feature allowing them to move through spaces occupied by creatures larger then you, which makes Halfings very deadly when they want to use sneak attacks since they can outright use their party members as essentially cover. Kenku and Tabxai are similarly among the most common picks due to their racial features and bonuses, but in terms of base races, Halfings are the top of the game for Rogues.
** It is usually advised that anyone who plans to play a Sorcerer should multiclass to one of the other Charisma-focused classes in order to bump up their strength, as the Sorcerer's limited abilities need help in order to offset their flaws. In particular, Warlock is often the go-to class because of the power they get from the class's abilities, including the ability to get spells back on a short rest. When combined with the Sorcerer's ability to convert spells into Sorcery Points, this essentially allows them to convert Warlock spells into Sorcery Points, then convert those Sorcery Points into Sorcerer spells, aiding them in getting around the fact that Sorcerers need a long rest to regain both resources (outside of their capstone ability, but this method will help them out more in the long run).
** In terms of Metamagic, expect to see Sorcerers take Empowered, Subtle, and Quickened Spell. Empowered allows Sorcerers to be proper nukers that [[TierInducedScrappy make Evoker Wizards utterly obsolete]] while also being stacked with any other Metamagic option, Subtle is the one completely official way for a caster to use a spell without making visible use of their components (which ensures any fight between mages will end in the Sorcerer's favor, since ''they'' can Counterspell with impunity but their opponent can't since you need to see or hear a spell to counter it), and Quickened is often homebrewed to allow the Sorcerer to use two full spells. Even without homebrew, Quickened is amazing because it allows a Sorcerer to safely turtle-up with Dodge, cover more ground with Dash, cast a Cantrip, or all sorts of other useful options.
** Before the release of the Hexblade Warlock, the Pact of the Tome was far-and-away the best Warlock pact option in the game. The Pact of the Blade was seen as gimmicky and limited in usefulness, requiring the use of many Invocations just to bring it up to par with the class's signature ''eldritch blast'' cantrip, while the Pact of the Chain [[CrutchCharacter quickly fell off in usefulness]] as the player progressed in level, since its unique familiar never improves or gains hitpoints as monsters grow more powerful, and the Magic Resistance most of the choices for it grant requires it to be in the area of effect for spells that will kill it through raw damage even if it makes its saving throws. Conversely, the Pact of the Tome offers enormous upgrades to the class's versatility, via not only several free cantrips, but has an invocation that lets a warlock learn every ritual spell they can find, hugely expanding the class's out-of-combat utility.
** The Warlock class is extremely customizable thanks to having two effective subclasses and the versatile and useful abilities offered by Invocations, but ''every'' warlock grabs the class's signature Eldritch Blast cantrip and the Agonizing Blast invocation that upgrades it to add the character's Charisma modifier to damage rolls. Indeed, the class is arguably designed around the assumption that most players will select both, and within their first few levels.
** The [[LivingWeapon Hexblade Patron]] is basically '''the''' way to play a Pact of the Blade Warlock, and trying with any other patron will see you [[CantCatchUp outclassed in basically every way]]. They get medium armor, a single-target hex buff, and Charisma to attacks and damage - fixing their issue of being a MAD class. And since they get this at first level, it ''also'' makes them a [[MinmaxersDelight popular 1 level dip for other Charisma gishes like the Bard or Paladin]]. Many would have preferred their abilities to be merged with the preexisting Pact of the Blade instead, and that's those who ''don't'' think they're just flat out overpowered.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The ranger was generally seen as the weakest class in the game upon initial release, particularly its Beast Master sub-class. Two years later, the developers released a full rework of the class that was much better-received. While the developers did not outright replace it, and have said they do not intend to, making it an official option went a great way to fix the class. To coincide with this, later subclasses have been given better overall abilities and skills to help the base ranger class have more power to it, making it possible for a non-rework ranger to be strong in spite of the limits, and even better if it's a rework ranger.
** The alternative class features in Tasha's Cauldron replace a number of very situational or outright useless abilities of the ranger: rather than having chosen terrain types that the ranger can't get lost in and where they can forage more food in (Natural Explorer), they instead get Expertise in a skill, permanent increases in movement speed, and the ability to heal themselves of exhaustion over short rests instead of long rests (Deft Explorer). Instead of being able to expend a spell slot to know if any if a type of creature is within a mile of them but not the vital information of ''where the creatures are'' or how many of them there are (Primeval Awareness), they gain access to a number of thematic spells such as Beast Sense and Locate Creature and can cast them without spell slots once per long rest (Primal Awareness). Instead of being able to spend a minute making camouflage that helps hide them... as long as they don't, you know, '''move''' or do anything useful while hidden (Hide In Plain Sight), they can call upon the power of nature to outright make them invisible for short periods of time, and can do so during combat (Nature's Veil).
** The Beast Master subclass was given specific alternate features in Tasha's Cauldron that made it much stronger and less of a hassle to play. Rather than choosing a specific animal as a companion, (which players disliked due to how weak and fragile the available options were), a Beast Master can instead summon a primal beast in the form of an animal - either a Beast of the Earth (slightly tougher and can climb), a Beast of the Sky (slightly faster and can fly), or a Beast of the Sea (both tough and fast - but can only move around in water). A Primal Companion does what Beast Master players had wanted for years: scales and grows stronger as the Beast Master does. Additionally, it can be revived with a spell slot if it is killed: before, a Beast Master's pet could only be revived the same way a player character could, requiring expensive diamonds and a willing spellcaster who knows a spell to bring them back. Most parties weren't able or willing to shill out thousands of gold pieces worth of diamonds to bring back one player's pet.
** The [[https://media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/UA-ClassFeatures.pdf Unearthed Arcana revisions]] released for the Sorcerer have been very well received due to giving the class some needed buffs. To clarify; the two largest changes they received were Spell Versatility[[note]]During a long rest, they can change a spell to a different one of the same level[[/note]] and three more ways to use their Sorcery Points[[note]]Give themselves advantage on a check, make a weapon magical, and give themselves temporary HP based on amount spent[[/note]]. Both of those additions have made the class more viable since they now can swap out useless spells for better ones, as well as use their Sorcery Points for more useful situations then simply attacking. While the class is still regarded as deeply flawed, it's considered a step in the right direction. However, Sorcerers did not keep Spell Versatility once ''Tasha's Cauldron to Everything'' came out with alternative class features, something that some Sorcerer fans have chosen to ignore and include anyway because of how much it fixes some of the core issues they have.
** On the topic of ''Tasha's Cauldron to Everything'', the Sorcerous Origins introduced in that expansion address one of the biggest complaints regarding the Sorcerer class: versatility. Both Clockwork Soul and Aberrant Mind come with ten spells (and, in Abberant Mind's case, a cantrip) that are added at the thresholds for each spell level up to 5th, like what Cleric Domains get. And, in a departure from any other features like this, ''the Sorcerer can '''retrain''' these spells, even outside the Sorcerer class''! The only caveats are the schools of magic, the level of the spell, and what classes the spells can be drawn from, but that's still a lot of variety to work with. Now Sorcerers, beings almost literally made of magic, can have more known spells than Bards. The features for each subclass are also incredibly diverse and unique, such as eliminating a creature's advantage to saving throws (something most mages groan about, given how every Fiend has magic resistance), creative body modifications, and a way to immediately end spell effects.
** ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' introduced a new Eldritch Invocation, Investment of the Chain Master, that addressed many of the complaints with Warlock's Pact of the Chain. The Warlock's familiar only takes a bonus action to command to attack rather the Warlock's entire action, the damage it deals is considered magical (bypassing the resistance to non-magic piercing/bludgeoning/slashing damage that most enemies past early game have), any save that it forces an opponent to make -- such as a pseudodragon's poisoned stinger tail or quasit's scare ability -- use the Warlock's own spell save DC rather than the (low) DC that the familiar has by default, and the Warlock can use their reaction to grant their familiar resistance to damage when it's injured to help compensate for how fragile the familiar is.
** The spell Danse Macabre basically saved the Necromancer Wizard. Before Danse Macabre was released, the Necromancer had a huge issue with being useless starting around the mid-game; Grim Harvest is strictly inferior to every other ability that restored HP upon killing an enemy (and there are ''many'', including strictly better variants thereof, such as the Way of Long Death Monk's ''Touch of Death'' and the Grave Domain Cleric's ''Keeper of Souls''), resistance to Necrotic damage and immunity to HP reduction just wasn't worth ten levels in a class (especially considering an Aasimar is already resistant to Necrotic damage from the start), and the majority of Undead a party fights by the time they reach 14th level have high charisma saves, high intelligence, or both. Danse Macabre, however, took the core feature of the subclass and made it potent; before, ''Undead Thralls'' was practically worthless by mid-game, where a Zombie or Skeleton's +2 to hit is abysmal, but with Danse Macabre, a Necromancer suddenly had a team of powerful HP bags that could actually deal consistent and passable damage. Danse Macabre and Animate Dead even had interesting means of varying the Undead you got, so that you could use Animate Dead if you just wanted walking shields, and you could use Danse Macabre if you wanted to actually harm enemies.
** Tools were generally regarded as useless aside from flavor (with the exception of Thieves Tools, which were used for lockpicking). With the release of ''Xanthar's Guide to Everything'', what comes in a tool kit are elaborated upon for creative players, and some examples of their use are given (like Cobblers being able to fit compartments into their teammates' shoes, or gaming sets can be used to determine the other character's personality).