A few questions here as I'm going through the book alongside my character sheet and starting to confuse myself.
1. Guiding Bolt: Did they remove the ability to up-cast guiding bolt by using an equivalent spell slot? I'm trying to go through the changes in the book and looking at my character sheet and it doesn't seem to be able to up-cast any longer. Was it always intended to not up-cast or am I looking at this wrong?
2. Guiding Bolt and Star Map: It says that I can cast guiding bolt equivalent to my proficiency. Okay no problem, not worried about that change but right now I have +3 proficiency and only 2 uses of guiding bolt. Am I missing something?
3. Added Druid Spells: I'm currently Circle of Stars level 5 and have level 3 spells available to me. Aura of Vitality, Revivify and Elemental Weapon spells do not appear in my spell list but I clearly see Conjure Fey. Aren't the general druid spells for all druid circles and the circle spells like burning hands, cure wounds for Wildfire specific to that subclass?
I feel like I'm missing something or just simply not understanding and was wondering if anyone could offer some insight into this.
I was about to start a Stars Druid thread as well! I'll try to answer your questions before posing my own.
1. I believe they actually made it so that we can now upcast. My interpretation of the UA was that casting guiding bolt required it be cast from the star map, which doesn't have any slot levels and so must be cast at level 1. The wording in Tasha's says that it is a prepared spell, so you should be able to upcast at a higher level should you choose to use a slot, in addition to the free 1st level casts provided from the star map.
2. I think this is a character sheet issue, quite possibly due to the new rollout. My stars druid has the same thing, but the wording seems pretty clear that it is prof mod.
3. Do you have the optional feature 'Additional Druid Spells' on the class page checked? Summon Fey is a new spell with Tasha's, on my star druid's spell list I see it listed twice, once with the 'Additional Druid Spells' tag and once without. My guess is that since Tasha's introduces the spell it has Druid listed as one of the classes, so it should appear twice.
1. Yeah that's how I read the Tasha's language as well but I'm not seeing anyway to upcast it on dndbeyond. All of my spells show their starting slot and then higher level slots or if I click the title of the spell I can change it in the drop down. Now it says 1 Use 2/2 the drop down is no longer available.
2. Okay thanks. They moved where it was too which isn't a huge deal but I liked the previous position more.
3. You are brilliant. Thanks so much. It was driving me crazy I did not realize those were toggled. I imagine I should clear them with my DM before I fuss with that. Thanks a bunch you really saved me a lot of frustration.
Does anyone else think the Cosmic Omen feature got really nerfed? My understanding is that it used to work similarly to Cutting Words with the wording "when a creature makes an attack roll, etc." letting you decide after the roll. Now the wording says "is about to make an attack roll" instead of "makes an attack roll". I'm interpreting this as you must choose to use the feature before the roll occurs. I feel like this makes the ability a lot less useful and likely to be wasted more often than not.
UA Woe (odd). Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 and subtract the number rolled from the total
TCoE Woe (odd). Whenever a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is about to make an attack roll, a saving throw, or an ability check, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 and subtract the number rolled from the total.
Oof! I would not have noticed the rewording had you not said anything. I interpreted it as cutting words in UA, after the roll but before the result.
Now I'm leaning on having to say it before the roll is made too. Not sure how I feel like that, I already feel rushed to give people guidance to beat them to the punch haha. I guess worst case scenario if the dm says the ooze attacks you player a, you would have to interject right at that moment which isn't so bad. It's still after the announcement of the the attack and what the attack is but before the dice hit the table.
I was also kind of sad that they removed Solar Flare from the capstone. It wasn't a game changer but it had some flavor I enjoyed.
Dragon form got pretty crazy with flight after the starry form improvement. I wasn't sure that needed a buff but I have never played that high of a level before so who knows.
Yea I was really disappointed when I noticed it lol. It must be intentional, but I just don’t see it being that effective now. It’s more like portent but at least with that you know the new roll. Using a reaction to add a d6 where there’s a good chance it won’t make a difference is a bit of a bummer. But at the end of the day any reaction for a Druid is better than nothing.
Personally I found dragon a little under powered, the flying is a fun addition I’m excited to use (1 more level!). Ensuring most con saves is nice, but extra healing or a bonus action attack is hard to pass up.
I really love Star Form being a bonus action instead of action, though. I no longer have to try to sneak it in before initiative.
I was okay with the Star Flare being deleted until I realized that Thunder Step was no longer part of the expanded spell list. I really liked having a way to bail if things got dicey.
The wording seems pretty intentional I agree. Maybe they felt it stepped on the toes of cutting words? I feel like I’ll need to see how my DM interprets the new wording because it definitely seems they wanted it used differently
yeah I think the starry form becoming a bonus action is huge. I hated expending an action and trying to 4d chess combat resulting in me holding on to starry form rather than using it a lot.
I’ll get over not having solar flare, thunder wave would have been awesome. I’ve thought about picking up Fey Touched just to snag misty step but solar flare brought a nice flavor to the subclass. I wish there were more astral themed Druid spells and it seemed cool to throw a flare down, save a party member and air blind some enemies on the escape.
my DM and I have been having a running conversation since UA regarding the wild shape archer feature and the type of attack that it is...
"Archer: On activation and as a bonus action, you can make a range spell attack (60 ft.)"
The focus of our discussion is, is this a spell? It uses the spell attack type so does that mean you can't use it on the same turn that you cast a spell that uses a spell level?
Making a ranged spell attack is not the same as casting a spell, I believe the you should be able to cast and use the archer ability in the same turn.
The rule for multiple spells in a turn is specific to casting. From the '10 Rules to Remember' section from TCoE:
If you want to cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 bonus action, remember that you can’t cast any other spells before or after it on the same turn, except for cantrips with a casting time of 1 action.
As you said, both the UA and Tasha's version of the Archer form only specifies a ranged spell attack, not the casting of a spell as a bonus action. You should still be able to cast a spell and make your bonus action ranged spell attack in the same turn. Contrast this with the Star Map ability which explicitly says that you can cast guiding bolt from the Star Map without expending a spell slot. You are still casting guiding bolt, so you would not be able to cast a bonus action spell like Guardian of Nature in the same turn.
Hey, yeah I talked with my DM regarding this too and coincidentally just watched a video on it right now. The way we both read it, and the party was involved, and the video was that it was a bonus action that was a part of the class, thus it was an attack more akin to a feat or the bonus attack of a fighter and that I could use my archer form, make cast an attack spell and the bonus action attack would be permitted while in that form as it was a feature of the class.
The ranged spell attack is specifying what to roll for the attack itself.
Circle of Stars is really good. The fact that you can now enter Starry Form as a bonus action AND you get an upgraded version at level 10 with the ability to switch from one form to another... wow. That was an amazing update. You can start out in Archer form, switch to Dragon when you cast a high level concentration spell, and switch to Chalice to heal people up after the battle. Brillaint.
TBH, it actually feels borderline OP at tier 1 (at least on par with moon). The level 10 ability to switch forms sounds really neat, avoids being pigeon hold into doing 1 thing for the whole fight.
> Now the wording says "is about to make an attack roll" instead of "makes an attack roll"
As I mostly play by post, that actually makes life easier! You don't have to retcon every time you want to use it, which lowers the bar for using it to roughly the same as a bard with regular bardic inspiration.
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A few questions here as I'm going through the book alongside my character sheet and starting to confuse myself.
1. Guiding Bolt: Did they remove the ability to up-cast guiding bolt by using an equivalent spell slot? I'm trying to go through the changes in the book and looking at my character sheet and it doesn't seem to be able to up-cast any longer. Was it always intended to not up-cast or am I looking at this wrong?
2. Guiding Bolt and Star Map: It says that I can cast guiding bolt equivalent to my proficiency. Okay no problem, not worried about that change but right now I have +3 proficiency and only 2 uses of guiding bolt. Am I missing something?
3. Added Druid Spells: I'm currently Circle of Stars level 5 and have level 3 spells available to me. Aura of Vitality, Revivify and Elemental Weapon spells do not appear in my spell list but I clearly see Conjure Fey. Aren't the general druid spells for all druid circles and the circle spells like burning hands, cure wounds for Wildfire specific to that subclass?
I feel like I'm missing something or just simply not understanding and was wondering if anyone could offer some insight into this.
I was about to start a Stars Druid thread as well! I'll try to answer your questions before posing my own.
1. I believe they actually made it so that we can now upcast. My interpretation of the UA was that casting guiding bolt required it be cast from the star map, which doesn't have any slot levels and so must be cast at level 1. The wording in Tasha's says that it is a prepared spell, so you should be able to upcast at a higher level should you choose to use a slot, in addition to the free 1st level casts provided from the star map.
2. I think this is a character sheet issue, quite possibly due to the new rollout. My stars druid has the same thing, but the wording seems pretty clear that it is prof mod.
3. Do you have the optional feature 'Additional Druid Spells' on the class page checked? Summon Fey is a new spell with Tasha's, on my star druid's spell list I see it listed twice, once with the 'Additional Druid Spells' tag and once without. My guess is that since Tasha's introduces the spell it has Druid listed as one of the classes, so it should appear twice.
1. Yeah that's how I read the Tasha's language as well but I'm not seeing anyway to upcast it on dndbeyond. All of my spells show their starting slot and then higher level slots or if I click the title of the spell I can change it in the drop down. Now it says 1 Use 2/2 the drop down is no longer available.
2. Okay thanks. They moved where it was too which isn't a huge deal but I liked the previous position more.
3. You are brilliant. Thanks so much. It was driving me crazy I did not realize those were toggled. I imagine I should clear them with my DM before I fuss with that. Thanks a bunch you really saved me a lot of frustration.
Thank you!
Does anyone else think the Cosmic Omen feature got really nerfed? My understanding is that it used to work similarly to Cutting Words with the wording "when a creature makes an attack roll, etc." letting you decide after the roll. Now the wording says "is about to make an attack roll" instead of "makes an attack roll". I'm interpreting this as you must choose to use the feature before the roll occurs. I feel like this makes the ability a lot less useful and likely to be wasted more often than not.
Oof! I would not have noticed the rewording had you not said anything. I interpreted it as cutting words in UA, after the roll but before the result.
Now I'm leaning on having to say it before the roll is made too. Not sure how I feel like that, I already feel rushed to give people guidance to beat them to the punch haha. I guess worst case scenario if the dm says the ooze attacks you player a, you would have to interject right at that moment which isn't so bad. It's still after the announcement of the the attack and what the attack is but before the dice hit the table.
I was also kind of sad that they removed Solar Flare from the capstone. It wasn't a game changer but it had some flavor I enjoyed.
Dragon form got pretty crazy with flight after the starry form improvement. I wasn't sure that needed a buff but I have never played that high of a level before so who knows.
Yea I was really disappointed when I noticed it lol. It must be intentional, but I just don’t see it being that effective now. It’s more like portent but at least with that you know the new roll. Using a reaction to add a d6 where there’s a good chance it won’t make a difference is a bit of a bummer. But at the end of the day any reaction for a Druid is better than nothing.
Personally I found dragon a little under powered, the flying is a fun addition I’m excited to use (1 more level!). Ensuring most con saves is nice, but extra healing or a bonus action attack is hard to pass up.
I really love Star Form being a bonus action instead of action, though. I no longer have to try to sneak it in before initiative.
I was okay with the Star Flare being deleted until I realized that Thunder Step was no longer part of the expanded spell list. I really liked having a way to bail if things got dicey.
The wording seems pretty intentional I agree. Maybe they felt it stepped on the toes of cutting words? I feel like I’ll need to see how my DM interprets the new wording because it definitely seems they wanted it used differently
yeah I think the starry form becoming a bonus action is huge. I hated expending an action and trying to 4d chess combat resulting in me holding on to starry form rather than using it a lot.
I’ll get over not having solar flare, thunder wave would have been awesome. I’ve thought about picking up Fey Touched just to snag misty step but solar flare brought a nice flavor to the subclass. I wish there were more astral themed Druid spells and it seemed cool to throw a flare down, save a party member and air blind some enemies on the escape.
Thanks for this thread!
my DM and I have been having a running conversation since UA regarding the wild shape archer feature and the type of attack that it is...
"Archer: On activation and as a bonus action, you can make a range spell attack (60 ft.)"
The focus of our discussion is, is this a spell? It uses the spell attack type so does that mean you can't use it on the same turn that you cast a spell that uses a spell level?
Making a ranged spell attack is not the same as casting a spell, I believe the you should be able to cast and use the archer ability in the same turn.
The rule for multiple spells in a turn is specific to casting. From the '10 Rules to Remember' section from TCoE:
As you said, both the UA and Tasha's version of the Archer form only specifies a ranged spell attack, not the casting of a spell as a bonus action. You should still be able to cast a spell and make your bonus action ranged spell attack in the same turn. Contrast this with the Star Map ability which explicitly says that you can cast guiding bolt from the Star Map without expending a spell slot. You are still casting guiding bolt, so you would not be able to cast a bonus action spell like Guardian of Nature in the same turn.
Hey, yeah I talked with my DM regarding this too and coincidentally just watched a video on it right now. The way we both read it, and the party was involved, and the video was that it was a bonus action that was a part of the class, thus it was an attack more akin to a feat or the bonus attack of a fighter and that I could use my archer form, make cast an attack spell and the bonus action attack would be permitted while in that form as it was a feature of the class.
The ranged spell attack is specifying what to roll for the attack itself.
Circle of Stars is really good. The fact that you can now enter Starry Form as a bonus action AND you get an upgraded version at level 10 with the ability to switch from one form to another... wow. That was an amazing update. You can start out in Archer form, switch to Dragon when you cast a high level concentration spell, and switch to Chalice to heal people up after the battle. Brillaint.
TBH, it actually feels borderline OP at tier 1 (at least on par with moon). The level 10 ability to switch forms sounds really neat, avoids being pigeon hold into doing 1 thing for the whole fight.
> Now the wording says "is about to make an attack roll" instead of "makes an attack roll"
As I mostly play by post, that actually makes life easier! You don't have to retcon every time you want to use it, which lowers the bar for using it to roughly the same as a bard with regular bardic inspiration.