A5E: Social Tier

How they enhanced the social tier is very clever in A5E, and it makes me think a lot more is going on here compared to straight 5E. I also see some influences on Tales of the Valliant's background system from this game. Take the "cosmopolitan" background in each game:

A5E:

• Discreetly Armed
• Fashion Sense
• Skill Versatility
• Urban Denizen*
• Well Connected
• Languages*

ToV (Alpha release, July 2023):

• Street Smarts*
• Worldly Wisdom
• Languages*

*similar benefits

Advanced 5E doubles the benefits for a background heritage, and while this makes characters a bit more complicated, the social pillar is greatly enhanced by the set of abilities. ToV seems more focused on combat and adventure skill rolls, while A5E uses backgrounds to support the social pillar. ToV has a "you do not get surprised in urban environments" as a part of Worldly Wisdom - which means everyone in cities doesn't ever get surprised?

ToV also doubles the tool proficiency bonus to understand what tools, places, or buildings are used for in cultures you need to become more familiar with. You also get an advantage on streetwise-style rolls. And you get three languages.

A5E does much more and focuses the benefits on combat, adventure, and social abilities - with social abilities taking center stage. You get a bonus for hiding weapons or convincing others to let you stay armed. You get a fashion sense of how someone dresses, giving you information about them. You gain skill proficiencies. You do not get an advantage on streetwise style rolls, but when you make them, you get much more information (and can discover secrets) - this acts more like a skill enhancer than a straight success chance increase. You also gain a background connection, a concept absent from ToV.

To be fair - ToV can still change, and I am looking at the Alpha release circa June 2023.

But regarding design goals, A5E is much more ambitious than ToV, since the game is an AD&D-like reimagining of 5E and adding systems to support the three pillars of play. ToV is a straight 5E retelling with a few changes while maintaining as much compatibility as possible.

And this is not a "A5E gives double powers" comparison. The game does, but there are subsystems built into the game that make both social and exploration viable games inside the game, where 5E leans heavily on combat, and ToV feels more like 5E with a modern character creation system. A5E takes that system and gives it depth and subsystems to work with.

A5E is far more ambitious, and the characters I create feel interesting. I see social abilities I am excited about using, and I can plan my way through situations using these - and they will change the path of my adventures. ToV, by comparison, feels basic in this regard and more focused on the battle mat and the typical information-gathering aspects of adventures.

Basic 5E doesn't come close to either, and my characters feel like plain collections of combat powers.

With ToV coming out, A5E is not obsolete and should not be ignored!

These are two vastly different games, with ToV having design goals closer to 5E compatibility. A5E adds a satisfying "complexity layer" on top of standard 5E characters, giving them abilities for combat, social, and exploration challenges. This is built into character design, and while ToV does something like A5E - the A5E game goes much father and more in-depth. ToV is like a D&D basic compared to A5E's AD&D, especially with the concepts and depth the latter takes the experience.

A5E is a complete "5E total conversion" like a Skyrim mod that enhances social encounters, survival, travel, and exploration and fixes many underlying problems of 5E. The characters get a lot of fantastic abilities during creation, and they enhance all the pillars of play. There are so many (double ToV) because they cover three pillars, and the characters feel like they have a great collection of social tricks and advantages useful in social roleplay.

A5E also has a destiny system that functions much like Cypher's "story arcs" and maintains inspiration as a mechanic but links it into your character's story arc. So in my earlier Mystara campaign, "Kill Bargle" would be Aleena's story arc, and she would gain inspiration every time she advanced that arc and possibly XP bonuses for story progression. This is not in ToV or 5E.