I've played & run a lot of high-level 3rd. Less experience with 5th overall, just a few low- to mid-level games and one level 15 one-off, and my impression is that while 5e still has a quadratic power curve, the constants are low enough that you don't tend to be as far off baseline before you hit level 20 anyway, whereas in 3e the takeoff point into crazytown happened somewhere between 8th and 12th level depending on how clever/abusive your players were.
I've also found, though, that the "tiering" behavior of 3e really worked for me, as long as the players were all within shouting distance of each other[1]. The way the game graduates through distinct phases, where certain kinds of encounters shift from impossible to challenging to trivial, helps keep things feeling fresh. I've played more "balanced" games where higher level encounters are basically palette-shifted versions of lower ones, whereas in 3e what "a fight" looks & plays like at level 15 is completely different from level 5.
What I'd love is a game that could capture that feel, still be a crunchy tactical game throughout, and not be a mountain of bookkeeping the way high-level 3e can be.
(Some people have claimed what I'm looking for is actually just 4th and man, I have tried. I hated 4th at release but went back to it multiple times in its lifecycle. I finally had enough good experiences to at least get a sense of what people were enjoying about it, but it still never clicked with me.)
[1] I.e. no one was going on infinite power loops, but they did all show up with full casters, reasonably optimized caster-hybrids, or hideously power-gamed rogues, and no one did anything dumb like take the third level of Fighter.
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I've also found, though, that the "tiering" behavior of 3e really worked for me, as long as the players were all within shouting distance of each other[1]. The way the game graduates through distinct phases, where certain kinds of encounters shift from impossible to challenging to trivial, helps keep things feeling fresh. I've played more "balanced" games where higher level encounters are basically palette-shifted versions of lower ones, whereas in 3e what "a fight" looks & plays like at level 15 is completely different from level 5.
What I'd love is a game that could capture that feel, still be a crunchy tactical game throughout, and not be a mountain of bookkeeping the way high-level 3e can be.
(Some people have claimed what I'm looking for is actually just 4th and man, I have tried. I hated 4th at release but went back to it multiple times in its lifecycle. I finally had enough good experiences to at least get a sense of what people were enjoying about it, but it still never clicked with me.)
[1] I.e. no one was going on infinite power loops, but they did all show up with full casters, reasonably optimized caster-hybrids, or hideously power-gamed rogues, and no one did anything dumb like take the third level of Fighter.