Quote from: fearsomepirate;1060443This is what I've been saying. By about 5th level, a lot of your classic monsters are borderline irrelevant, and you hit 5th level about 3x to 4x as fast as AD&D. I mean, sure, get enough of them surrounding the party in the open, have more waves cued up after they're out of spells, and it's hard. But in what TSR edition hasn't this been true?

This sounds like you're admitting that the classic monsters are not irrelevant. I know that my PCs continued to be worried about humanoid foes well past 5th level. Taking on an equal number in a fair fight is easy, but in my opinion, the point of classic monsters is that they are much more numerous and they don't fight fair. My PCs have usually had to fight them in enemy territory where the enemy knows the terrain and has the advantage. For example, I nearly wiped out half the party at one point at I think level 6 or 7 when they tried to wipe out a bunch of kobolds in small-size tunnels where only half the party could get into them (two gnomes and a shapeshifted druid).

In 5th edition, humanoids are definitely more individually dangerous in my experience - with key abilities like goblin disengage or kobold advantage. Also, PCs remain more vulnerable to massed attacks at higher levels. At least in my experience of AD&D, mid-level PCs would often have magical armor and shields that made them nigh invulnerable to low-level attacks, whereas in 5th ed they can still dish out a lot but they remain more vulnerable.

As for progression in general, that's personal taste. If you want slower progression, that's pretty trivial to house-rule. Personally, I'm fine with only 2-3 sessions at level 1, but I had slower progression going up in levels - more like 4-5 sessions per level in 5-10. After level 10, we've started a new campaign. I found it off-putting in AD&D where mid-level PCs had killed hundreds of creatures and inundated the local economy with thousands of gold pieces, and were covered in magic items. There are parts of 5e I dislike, but overall I like it.

Quote from: jhkim;1060526For example, I nearly wiped out half the party at one point at I think level 6 or 7 when they tried to wipe out a bunch of kobolds in small-size tunnels where only half the party could get into them (two gnomes and a shapeshifted druid).

Conversely, in AD&D a 7th level party was expected to be able to go out into the Wilderness and take on 20-200 hobgoblins or gnolls, 30-300 orcs, 40-400 kobolds...

Those epic sort of fights are great fun.