The General D&D thread

Seems like that would be perfect material for an archetype/school/whatever, doesn't it? An alternative set of cantrips that do something other than damage.

Well, 4e was unplayable without a grid, and Wizards decided to make 5th playable without one. IMO, it was a good idea; without the emphasis on tactics that don't really exist in reality (or rather didn't exist in quasi-medieval times)(Forced movement being the big one), it feels more like a roleplaying game than an RPG, if that makes any sense. :/

edited 17th Jul '14 7:04:23 PM by Knowlessman

And that's why it sucks :P

Well the Wizard in basic is focused on Evocation. We should find out more with the PHB.

Well, from an old leaked version of the PHB, there's not a whole lot of difference. Bards get Vicious Mockery which is an actual control power, and quite nifty.

So I still get to kill orcs by mocking them to death? Awesome!

Well, this is an old version of the PHB. Things have changed, according to basic.

Namely, the damage values of spells (see: fireball dealing 8d6 base compared to 6d6 base) just as an example.

But yes, Vicious Mockery is one of the best spells evar. It's just a shame you can't take it as a wizard.

DOUBLE POST

So I'm here complaining about wizards not having at-will control options, and then I realize "Oh wait, Spell Mastery is a class feature." Basically, at 18th level, wizards can cast one 1st level spell and one 2nd level spell at-will.

At-will Hold Person is pretty crazy.

Not getting At-Wills until level 18 isn't all that different from not getting At-Wills at all; By that point, you kind of have enough spell slots not care too much about running out of 1st and 2nd level spells.

But, changing the subject- Remember how that Bard in my group got a flask full of beetle blood and wouldn't tell me why? Something amazing has happened with that.

First of all- both suggestions I got for why he want it were right- he was originally planning to use it as paint, but they decided to try selling it to the town's alchemist.

I let him go ahead with this, and we role played a little haggling. Then- and I should note this was without any prompting from me, he just suggested this out of the blue- he asked the alchemist for a bit more money in exchange for an unspecified favour.

What makes this amazing is that while the players think that the Alchemist is just there so they can have a place to buy alchemical items, he's actually a spy for the Big Bad.

A Big Bad who, it should be noted, has not actually taken notice of the party's actions yet, but, thanks another bit of in-character stupidity from the Bard where he publicly showcased a mysterious artifact that the party knows multiple factions are looking for, he will be starting to do so soon.

Actully casters don't have a ton of slots in 5e so using one of those slots could be a big deal.

Yeah, was gonna mention that. At 20th level you get, what, one 9th level spell slot?

This isn't 3E, where your intelligence 30 grants you +5 1st level spell slots.

At level 20 you will have 22 spell slots. 4 1st. 3 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. 2 6th and 7th. 1 8th and 9th.

Most of these slots will be limited to 1 slot for a while as you only get your 2nd 7th level spell slot at level 20 while getting the 1st 7th level spell slot at level 13.

&

But remember that you can re-charge half your level in spell slot levels during 1 hour rests. Meaning a level 20 Wizard can recharge his level 9 slot and a level 1 slot after every rest.

He does keep burning his other spell slot as he does so, true, but it's not strictly true that 5e wizards get less spell slots since unlike 3 & 3.5, he can regain spent slots.

edited 23rd Jul '14 9:15:06 AM by CobraPrime

One hour in the middle of an adventure is a long time. I don't think many Dungeon Masters would allow the wizard to abuse the rest system to the point where they have a 9th level spell to burn every encounter.

So those few times you do get to rest, but not enough to regain all spells, it would probably be more economical to restore a few lower-end spells instead.

No argument there. But it is more than 3.5 wizards got (Jack shit till they had a full 8 hours rest).

One hour depends also on the adventure. dungeon crawl, sure, 1 hour is long. Escorting or guarding something? 1 hour's not much.

Pretty sure the wizard can only use a short rest to regain those spell slots once a day, so there really isn't much room for abuse.

Hrrmr true.

"You have learned to regain some of your magical energy by studying your spellbook. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher."

Once per day and limited to 5th level spell slots at most.

edited 23rd Jul '14 1:35:01 PM by Saya1

Also, just so you know: 3E wizards with intelligence 16 (bare minimum to be a serious Wizard, or else why are you even bothering? PFFT N 00 B) would get one 1st level spell, one second level, and one third level, or six spell levels. If you compare the arcane recovery mechanism to that, you don't get that much till 12th level. By which point in 3E, you'd have intelligence of 19, which would then give you a 4th level spell slot. And you wouldn't have 10 spell levels from rebirth until 20th level. By which point, you'd have an intelligence of 21, and at NO point in Next do wizards get +15 spell levels per day.

That being said, Next wizards get at-will spells at 18th level, so I guess that's something.

edited 23rd Jul '14 4:57:05 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Honestly, I like the fact that DDN (DNDN? D&DN? What's the standard shorthand for 5e besides "5e", which is technically wrong?) casters are more limited in the number of spells they have. If your magic user only has one earth-shattering doom magic they can use per day, then they better use it judiciously — which is entirely reasonable. And the spell recovery mechanics help prevent the five minute workday problem, so that's all to the good as well.

5e is correct. D&D Next was the name of the playtest they have stated the official name of the game is just Dungeons & Dragons. But it is referred to on site as D&D 5th edition as well.

Oh good, I thought they were stuck being pretentious still.

My D&D blog (that I don't maintain...) is named "5th Edition Now" due to my originally having suggested that the player/DM base needs to create its own series of houserules on 4E to effectively create a 5th edition.

It is now hilarious in hindsight.

In any event, Wizards have unlimited spellcasting for earthshattering spells, because ritual spells are a thing. So it's only in-combat spells (and spells that don't have a ritual version) that are limited.

That being said, it doesn't look like there are any ritual spells in the basic rules.

edited 24th Jul '14 4:19:48 AM by TheyCallMeTomu

Define "earthshattering." Yeah, there are ritual spells in the basic rules; most of them are level one, and are so characteristic of the related class that it wouldn't really make sense to force someone to use a spell slot.

They're stuff like Detect Magic, Identify, Comprehend Languages, and Commune, Divination, and Augury (which, by the way, get a chance to be completely worthless with each successive casting during the same day).

By the way, you do know casting the ritual version of a spell increases the casting time by 10 minutes, right? Can't even risk trying to save the spell slot if there are enemies anywhere nearby, so good luck guessing which turn to take without using the spell slot.

There's a few.

• Augury
• Commune
• Comprehend Languages
• Detect Magic
• Divination
• Identify
• Silence

I like that for the most part, Ritual spells are spells that benefit the entire party (Intelligence gathering spells, spells that help advance the plot, etc...). It'd have been really easy to make most non-combat utility spells into Ritual and have casters save slots this way, but no, Ritual spells are spells that you'll cast for the entire group's sake. They've shown great restraint in what gets to be a ritual spell. They are the spells you can't expect a Wizard to prepare just because "It might become important later".

edited 24th Jul '14 7:24:22 AM by CobraPrime

I dunno, I dislike the spell slot system.

Mostly because I feel that it slows down the whole party.