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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Greyhawk was the default setting for AD&D, Mystara was eventually ported to AD&D in 2e.
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I think that says more about your "hive of power gamers" than the general population of players. Our group tends to stay with the same characters from level 1, and usually represent a wide range of classes.
Cantrips are quite often the best option for low level casters - it lets them remain a caster at low levels, whereas in 3E and earlier editions they'd have to switch to a physical weapon after an encounter or two.
Please see my previous post.
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No I haven't. I mean... sorcerer?
Which was bad game design even back in 1977.
How do you have 23,500 posts, IamSposta? That's just insane.
🤷♂️
Most of my posts are to help people in the Bugs and Homebrew subforums. (I got 12,117 “Thanks” too.)
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If you think that's broken, get a load of this!
- Get a longbow and shoot someone from 150 feet away.
That's it. That's all your tabaxi does - poorly replicate a ranged attack by combining several other resources. Being complicated or synergistic is not the same as being overpowered.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I am 53 and I know that a Tabaxi is a cat race. But I do instantly think - isn't roleplaying a cat humanoid some kind of perverted thing that happens in an entirely different kind of dungeon?
The rogue is using his bonus action for cunning action, so no offhand attack is occurring.
Using cunning action to dash is not a free action. I haven't run into that particular combo in play, but I can math out its damage potential just fine and it's... underwhelming. There's monsters that can't deal with it, but they're mostly the same monsters that can't deal with being kited by ranged attackers.
If the caster doesn't have any hit points, sure. If I want to reliably remove squishes from the encounter round 1, I'll play a variant human battlemaster fighter or gloomstalker ranger with archery fighting style and sharpshooter.
Honestly I'm against any of the half-man, half animal races, they seem lazy and not really Fantasy so much as bad sci-fi. Others have said that a race like the Satyr is a half-man, half-beast but even if I accepted that, it's too much a part of classic Fantasy.
So you have it right with some of these issues
-Magic items that effect combat can totally unbalance prewritten encounters if you are awarding them early. A +1 or +2 weapon or AC makes a massive impact. I've seen DMs give out just 1 weapon too early and have it totally unbalance combat. You don't have to go "low magic", just stay away from items that have a permanent impact on combat, and give out items that encourage creative play in and out of combat, not just things that let them hit harder.
-If you are mashing up prewritten adventures around level 5 you have to remember that the power growth of PCs are not linear, but in "tiers of play", they get a massive bump at levels 5, 11, 17
-In general I've found that a lot of the official adventures do tend to be less challenging, especially if you have players that like to optimize they PCs to be powerful in combat. If this is the case start out by giving the monsters max hp instead of the average HP. Play your monsters to the maximum of their ability, make sure you read their stat blocks ahead of time. I cant tell you the number of times I've thought a combat was too easy only to realize I didn't use abilities correctly or at all because I didn't read them.
-Abilities that seem too strong might be interpreted or read wrong. Most of the time if I read an ability or spell that seem like it's too powerful it's because the player has misread it or didn't read a rule that limits it. (But there are definitely interactions that you might want to consider limiting)
-Rests are an issue that isn't well addressed in 5e. Players are only suppose to long rest 1x every 16 hours. Short rests and long rests should sometimes have consequences when done in places that aren't safe.
EVEN MORE POWERFUL
So...choosing a background now opens up feats (which I assume will be in addition to class-based features and traits). Some of these feats mimic class-based skills (like healing, or giving inspiration). Everyone gets inspiration on a 20, which they can use for advantage when they choose to do so. Humans get advantage after a long rest. AND, monsters cannot crit. Not to mention that races now have spells (gnomes, all subraces of elves) or things that may as well be spells (dwarves, orcs). AND, every class can now have spells if they choose a certain feat (in this case, magic initiate).
Read 'em and weep
I realize this is all being play tested, but I do not understand why Crawford et.al. are pursuing this PC power creep. It's insane. Who would want to DM? I have five players, who are five different races with five different racial profiles. Then, they are five different classes with the option for numerous subclasses and specializations. NOW, we are going to add background feats, which will have their own powers and expressions.
Right now at least, the backgrounds that open up feats are all in Strixhaven, which is it's own setting in the MTG world where pretty much everyone would be taking the same kind of background. In general a lot of the time DMs like to limit options like this to the world/setting they are going to play in, especially if it's an option that has such clear advantages over other options. Strixhaven in particular seems to be a book that DMs like limit.
The Tabaxi can move (and thus see and hear) around corners. Not sure the archer would be able to do that.
One of the issues with such one-trick ponies is that if they don't get to do their 'thing' almost every fight, they're going to feel left out. This is why you don't want to send a flying mob after the 'all melee but the guy with Cantrips and the Rogue with a shortbow' party...many will twiddle their thumbs for much of the fight. Being able to move farther than you can reasonably see is suicide in any sort of environment where there might be traps or, worse, casters around.
Tabaxi decides to scout around the corner and dashes 120 feet.
Ambush jumps him. He's hit with Silence so he can't cry out a warning while he steps in the Grease spell or pile of ball bearings or the hallway spike trap.
What if they're in the woods? I'm not sure about you but I certainly am not going to go dashing 120 feet when my Dark vision only covers 60. 60 feet is out of line of sight in many dungeon hallways. You go ahead and race ahead if you want. When you don't come back, my Artificer will make a nice image to remember you by.
Thanks, I was just thinking about this
WotC are in the business of selling books. A high proportion of their cliens want to play characters as powerful as they can. If a new book does not have options that are more powerful than what is already there they will make less oney.
Outside of that many people who have played a lot find only being able ot take a feat as replacement for an ASI very limiting, I'd like ot have a feat but I als feel I sohuld max out my primary stat ASAP. I know several DMs who give a free feat at level 1 for this reason.
One D&D is different however this is far more than just a new book with extra subclass options and races. It is a rewrite of the core books and while claimed it is compatible with existing 5e books it is essentially a new version, requiring a lot of home brew decisions if you are mixing 5e with One D&D (for example the UA One D&D has eliminated skill checks for grappling what do you do if your 5e character has advantage on such checks? The UA does have quite a few nerfs as well for example rogues are only able to get sneak attack on their turn.
I started playing Dungeon Crawl Classics. Problem solved.
I find that balance is achieved best by overextending the resources of the players. But hem in situations where they will have 4-6 combats/puzzles that will require them to expend resources. Even at level 11 (my current campaign), you can get them down to being on fumes and that's when it becomes a challenge and you get those moments of 'That was awesome". I also INTENTIONALLY rotate in a monster/situation that will purposefully take advantage of at least one of the weaknesses of a member of the group (a certain save, ranged combatants to thwart that barbarian, waves of creatures to keep the wizard from mowing them all down with a single fireball etc).