Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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The Enchantment Adept feat grants Hold Person as a 3rd level spell ... Hold Person is a 2nd level spell, not 3rd.
Origin feats are interesting but most are greatly inferior to Magic Initiate; needed better playtesting in my opinion.
As a side note, the Transmuter subclass is also somewhat disappointing. It lost the free Enhance Ability casting from the UA version, and kept the underwhelming Alter Self instead.
The Empowered Transmutation feature looks cool, but it doesn't scale. Like, at all. Here are the spells that qualify for the feature:
... That's it. There are zero transmutation spells of 4th level or higher that qualify to be used with this feature. They all either require a saving throw, an attack roll, or have no upcasting benefit. Zero.
And if you think, "Well, the new book must have added some more transmutation spells that"... No. It didn't. There's only one new transmutation spell in the book, it's 8th level, and doesn't upcast. It feels like that must be an oversight, considering that the Transmuter subclass just got an ability to upcast spells more efficiently but it provided no new upcast-able spells. Necromancer has the same feature but it got a whole pile of new spells.
Fly is the obvious choice. But at 6th level, you're upcasting Fly. And at 15th level, you're still upcasting Fly. Because that's really the only good option. One could argue about Ashardalon's Stride, but it's niche, it's Fizban's (which isn't always allowed) and it's something an 8 Str Wizard with the lowest hit points in the party should consider carefully before running ahead of the rest of the party.
Otherwise, book looks interesting. Just not amazing.
The table isn't stating what level the spell is, it's stating when you get the spell. Even though Hold Person is a level 2 spell, you don't get access to it until you have a level 3 spell slot
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Seriously? A lot of stuff in this new book is really OP, especially the new Adept feats. I already had some doubts when I saw Circle Casting, but now I'm starting to really think that WotC is releasing busted, unbalanced stuff on purpose just to sell more books, turning the game into a pay-to-win...
The game can't be pay-to-win, because the DM decides what's allowed at their table. Also, you can't win.
Also, I think you're really overstating it on the Adept feats. They look reasonable, some even pretty good, but I don't see how they're necessarily better than some of the PHB feats.
And, of course, no GM has to use them.
Given that DMs are more likely to disallow unbalanced game options, it's actively against WotCs interests to release unbalanced game options if they want them to sell.
Also it's daft to use the phrase "pay-to-win" in the context of D&D
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You're completely right about that... Do you know of many DMs who allow Circle Casting in their games? I don't...
At least three, four if I include myself....
Circle casting is fine
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Nah it's busted. Last time we saw magic like that, it was in 10th to 12th level spells in Netheril. Which are supposed to be canonically banned.
Circle magic isn't even remotely close to level 10+ spells. All circle magic gives us is:
Nothing there breaks the game let alone comes close to even sniffing at level 10+ spells.
I think maybe you just like to run very low power games
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I do not think anything in this looks overly broken. The only two things that I think are problematic are:
- The Transfix spell, which does not have an innate save at end of turn, which can create some gameplay problems. Easily fixed by ruling the damaging field around yourself counts as “damaging terrain” and thus implicates the save condition.
- Necromancer Wizard, which still provides encouragement for making lots of little minions, which simply play poorly with the game’s action economy and can result in slow and/or selfish play patterns.
Everything else seems fine - and a few things seem a little underpowered. Overall, I find it to be a perfectly acceptable, if not particularly inspiring, book.
While the feats aren't as broken as potent dragonmark, some of them are really strong. And worryingly only benefit spellcasters. Evocation adept, which gives fireball and wall of force to any caster, feels especially powerful. And then it also lets you spend hit dice to make aoe spells like the fireball deal even more damage. You don't need those hit dice anyway, because circle casting aura of vitality fully heals the entire party.
I mean, it’s pretty much to be expected that a book called “Arcana Unleashed” will cater to caster builds.
A single*-target incapacitation spell at that level ought to be better than, say, Hypnotic Pattern. Is it too much? Dunno, but I doubt it. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's competing for airtime with things like Conjure Celestial and Forcecage.
* -ish
While I understand the problem, fundamentally, it's the class fantasy. If you're gonna have necromancers, they have to have minions.
The issue with Transfix is that, as written, it is effectively a very slow instant kill against any solo enemy. Possible that it can be used to mass kill multiple enemies if you get lucky with the saves. After all, the only ways out are the spell ending after a minute, the creature being about to move into “dangerous terrain”, or concentration being broken (which requires a functional companion to try and break concentration and the caster to fail saves). In a lot of situations, this takes a monster out of the encounter for good. End of turn does not grant a save. The creature taking damage, including from the caster’s ally’s attacks, does not grant a save. The creature standing in lava does not grant a save once they were compelled to enter. There is no opportunity for third party creatures to rouse the target, absent breaking concentration.
I would not be surprised if this gets errata - “very slow inevitable kill” would be extremely strong for a 9th level spell.. much less a 7th.
Regarding necromancer, I do agree it is the power fantasy. I just Wish Wizards worked out a more effective way to do it. Something akin to the minion rules from Flee Mortals! is a great compromise solution to a lot of the problems (though you still have a movement and positioning issue). One of those things where I wish Wizards put some actual effort into making a playable version of the power fantasy… instead of churning out something unplayable by anyone with manners.