Well I talked about Savage Worlds (Or SW for short) merits before, but I have not talked about them in a D&D context.
So below is presented why you might like SW if your coming off of D&D. Im not gonna focus HOW it does these things (that might be better served for Q&A), but I wanted to focus on stuff that bugged me as a GM and D&D player, and wanted a fix for. This is more D&D 3e-5e players. If you want your 0D&D style gameplay, then thats your thing.
Dodging is Dodging - Armor is Armor
In SW armor subtracts from damage, and how well you evade hits is a separate thing. If your the kind of person thats annoyed by armor making you harder to hit, and then requiring a whole new thing of 'Damage Reduction/ Resistance' to take the place of a mechanical equivalent, this gets rid of that problem.
Conditions are not abnoxious
In D&D (except 4e I guess), conditions are abnoxious. They can take you out of the fight in one bad roll. And so your healer has to keep up with an ever increasing list of healing spells to get you back into the fight. But at the same time an increasing amount of monsters with level are just made immune to conditions YOU can throw out.
This game has no condition thats just instant death effectively (unless it does the equivalent amount of effort to a regular kill). You can be mind controlled, frozen, spooked, stunned, grappled, excetera, but there generally are no save or sucks.
Called Shots - We got em
If you like staking the vampire in the heart, or shooting somebody in the face because they don't wear a helmet, this has it. Stab that dragon in the eye!
The Undumping of Stats
Charisma has just been culled completly and made into a edge (a feat equivalent). In general, you can't just avoid dumping stats without really feeling the sting. Even something like STR, which is usually the next dump stat after charisma (Well 5e has its own dump list) is required for better armor and weapons.
But in general, because of how skills work in this game, you don't want to just spike 1 ability at the expense of everything else.
Smaller Quantity of more useful abilities
I like having my character feel distinct both thematically, and mechanically. SW lets you make characters that feel distinct without drowing you in tons of micro-options each level (+2 to will saves on a tuesday if your alergic to nuts). Instead you get fewer options each level, but they are generally more significant. A +2 in SW is more important than in D&D.
Progression without Cosmic crabs & +3 Clubs
Characters do most certainly become more powerful with levels. But it doesn't create a logic where they progress so much only the next tier of challenges are evan a question. You don't reach what I call the 'Cosmic Crab' effect, where you fight crab at level 2, and then elemental crabs at level 8, and then diabolic crabs at level 15.
Unified Math Logic
This is especially true for those coming off of D&D 3e, but SW has unified resolution tracks. Not one thing for saves, one thing for attack rolls, one thing for hit points, and another thing for skills. Everything follows the same mechanical resolution formula.
Even for 5e, Mages have a different logic track for damage vs martial classes. Mages get more powerful spells, and warriors get more attacks. In SW magic and attacks follow the same action and damage rules.
A mix of point-buy and Freebuild / Level & Class
SW has a bit of the best of both worlds when it comes to levels vs point buy.
It is point buy, so you can spec your character in whatever you want. But it also separates abilities by level in place of cost sink. So as you gain 'levels' you gain more points, and you can use those points on whatever you want. But instead of what many point based games do and gate powerful abilities behind a massive point sink, they instead cost about the same always, and instead only 'open up' at higher levels effectively.
Unreliably reliable
The core resolution system is reliable....But unreliably. In D&D at a certain point unless you roll a 1 or a 20, you always succeed. And somebody rolling a 20 against you might not really matter even with a crit if you have like 100 HP. But here you will in general slaughter scores of peasants, but at the same time there is always a chance of one taking you down. This changes how you aproach things.
Magic is Customizable, not a daily resource & doesn't dominate martials
Magic is focused on a core set of powers you customize yourself. There is no fireball, lightningball, iceball, ballball. Just a un-fluffed 'blast' that you then fluff yourself. The fluff, or 'trappings' are actually important. If your fireball hits a straw-man they will combust and it will deal more damage. And you can make whatever trappings you want. So making a 'fire mage' is really easy.
Magic is also an hourly resource instead of a daily one. Fuck spell slots. You get less of it, but it recharges quicker.
In addition, mages don't just get pages and pages of stuff they can do while a martial is just getting 1 extra attack. Mage abilities are balanced by you getting 1-2 new options (but customizable ones) at a time (but the options are powered by the resource pool), compared to 1 always online martial thing.
As an example, I was concerned about how it handled shapeshifting. SW just lets you turn into powerful creatures and get all their physical abilities. I was certain that with this, shapeshifting would dominate martials. To my suprise, a martials combat edges are really what made them stand out. So while a shapeshifted bear can kick some peasants, against a dedicated combatant they will fail quickly.