Eh. It just feels like they drastically narrowed the standard deviation in the average power level of a character.
If you mean the power of Wizards compared to warriors at high levels then yeah they have narrowed the gap. Warriors get to do all kinds of nifty stuff and high level ma
I'm not convinced about the feat system at all. I would much rather have more feats that do smaller things than less feats that give you a big chunk of things. And I REALLY hate that it makes you choose between a feat and an ability score bonus. I feel like I'm getting cheated either way. And the +1 consolation prize should come with every feat, not only a handful of them.
I hated it at first, but only needing a single feat really takes the bite out of choosing one over stats. Feats are straight up powerful and offer more roleplaying and combat options.
Like I said before after playing for a few months, everyone at my table has selected a feat to further flesh out their character and we usually come up with in-game reasons for learning the new skills.
When I say customization, I mean that I want to be able to do off the wall things that most characters can't do. I want to raise an army of undead. I want to command a legion of followers. I want to play as a quadriplegic who is a master telekineticist. I want to play as a self-aware piece of jewelry that can't move, but possesses anyone who puts it on.
Being a druid who can pick locks is child's play in comparison.
Maybe you haven't read any of the core books. Raising an army of the dead is what Necromancer wizards are built to do and anyone with access to arcane casting can do it as well, it's in the Players handbook.
Commanding legions, building fortresses, rampaging through towns, high speed chases, and dozens of other scenarios are outlined very well in the DMG. Tips on running those are probably the best I've read in any DMG.
Your quadriplegic & jewelry characters are easily covered also. The DMG has guidelines and tips on creating new races/sub-races if you think that would fit. You can also create your own background. I don't know of any book that has those 2 situations in print, but they are very easily adapted to just about any game including 5e. I like the idea of the jewlery and would have you establish CHA, WIS, and INT, but use the STR, DEX, and CON of your host.
KM might be right that subsequent books will help this problem, but I'm concerned that the tone being set by this first few books will be the norm, and further expansions will be way too structured for my tastes.
Edit: and you should never ever roll your stats. Horrible idea that can't lead to anything good.
5e is really nothing but options. I don't know why you think it's so structured. I'm not sure what game you're playing instead of 5e, but few lend themselves to house rules and optional rules as well. 5e is all about choosing the options that fit your table, that's why we picked it over what's out there. We usually house rule stuff and 5e has offered up good alternatives that we like. Even some of the basic rules have options like stat gen and resting.
Stat Generation: Roll em old school(3d6 in order), Roll em new school(4d6 assigned), point buy, and simple array.
Rest Options:
Default 1 hour short, 8 hour long.
Heroic 5 minute short, 1 hour long.
Realistic 8 hour short, 7 day long.
There are also options for how much healing/spell recovery you get with each rest.
Spell slot alternatives like spell points, like mana.
Everyone is going to have their favorite games, but 5e really hits all the right notes for me. I don't know what left a sour taste in your mouth with 5e, but all of your complaints are pretty much taken care of in the core rule books. You should sit down with the 5e DMG and give it a read. It's packed with good stuff for any game.
But I think a lot of us already own the PHB and MM. If not? Why not get yourself a cheap 5e PHB?
