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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Depends on what kind of combat it is and as most DM's try to draw out combat as much as possible as CR levels in 5e don't make sense and some boss creatures have a much shorter HP pools than what it is made for in most encounters. Still that loop hole is there and it needs to go.
I just don’t see it as that big a deal.
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Absolutely agree. Realistically, I don't think anyone's going to take Magic Initiate or whatever just to be able to stack Hunter's Mark and Hex. It's really only useful against a single target with a ton of health, and it's just not very fun. There are way more exciting feat options for rangers. The game writ large has nothing to fear from it, individual DMs that think it could be a problem for them can just rule that Hex and Hunter's Mark can't stack.
You don't like that you can use Charger to run backwards, fire a bow, and knock the enemy 10 feet to the side? That's the best part of it! XD
I think it is great for a skirmishing Ranger or Rogue concept.
I was making a joke about the funny loopholes in the rule language. But that's actually a really cool concept. I love that image.
I do still think it should specify you have to push the target away from you at least though.
Going back through the UA, two things occurred to me.
(I don’t think that should stay like that, one should be able to Help using tools too.)
(Something about that doesn’t sit quite right with me, back-dooring concentration onto spells like that.)
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I think the wording on the Magic Action follows under the assumption that "that casting" ends when the spell's duration begins. So you maintain concentration during "that casting" but once the spell's duration begins you only need to continue concentrating on the spell if it's duration is concentration.
This works the same as casting a spell in 5e.
The difference is concentration when casting a spell through the Magic Action concentration is only required for casting times of 1 minute or longer, where in 5e any spell with a casting time longer than an action (or reaction) requires concentration while casting.
This leaves room open for spells with casting times of 2 actions, or multiple rounds, etc to not automatically require your concentration.
Also it seems weird to me that 5e's rule here even mentions reactions. I've always considered them 'faster' than actions but I guess they don't even have a speed technically.
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time. Hunh.
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That's mostly a distinction without a difference, as I don't believe any spells with a casting time between one action and one minute exist in 5e.
Right. If you only consider 5e spells as they are currently there's no point to this change.
But new spells could be introduced (either in the playtest, or adventures, supplements, etc) or old spells tweaked in OneD&D to take advantage of this change.
In 5e, casting a 2 round spell would take the caster's action both turns and also require their concentration, meaning any spell they were currently concentrating on would be lost. Taking both your action AND concentration means you're likely not doing anything but casting this spell. This is a design space that discourages such spells from being cast in combat so there's very little point in designing any spell with casting time between 1 action and 1 minute.
In the UA, casting a 2 round spell would take the caster's action both turns but not immediately end any spells that require concentration. So you could have a concentration spell like flaming sphere up and still directly contribute to the combat while casting this 2 round spell. This is what I mean by this change leaving things open.
Further, it could be used to simplify one of the mechanics of the Slow spell. Instead of getting super specific about the steps needed to stretch a 1 action spell into two turns (without invoking mechanics that break concentration) it could just say that a 1 action or longer spell has it's casting time doubled.
I think plenty of people will take Fey Touched to get Hex do this though and an extra 2d6 per attack is a pretty big boost.
Fey Touched-Hex is the most common feat I take. It is pretty rare for me to take HM on a Ranger (talking 5E rules with concentration), but I pick up Hex through Fey Touched a lot on Rangers and honestly many martials.
Also you can run them on different creatures which is really good if you have an effect or something that you want to split your attacks on or if you are fighting a horde of weak enemies. Keeping one of these on the "next target". Also if you are attacking one enemy and then need to start attacking another before that one is dead (maybe he moved, maybe someone closed to melee with you, maybe you had to go up and block a guy from closing with your sorcerer), you throw down the Hex on the other one while the HM is still running on the first.
Finally you have multiclass options as well, especially when it is a Ranger dip just to get the concentration-free HM.
The action cost for doing it is pretty crippling.
I guess that would depend on what kind of enemy you are targeting. It would certainly encourage a Ranger to target the sturdiest opponent to avoid having to switch too often. However, put on the toughest target, it is fully on line for attacks in the second round.
It is a bonus action, unless you have something else competing for your bonus it is not a big deal. With the new TWF rules you don't even have a TWF attack using that.
It's a bonus action for hunter's mark and a bonus action for hex, both of which have to be repeated for every target. Something like divine favor at least gets rid of the target switching problems.
And you can get that from the ardling race and still have any feat you want at level 1.
Outside boss fights even the sturdy enemies are dead before this matters.
I think weaker enemies are where it works best on because you can get ahead of where you are. There also is the ability to use it on someone when the first is not dead. That happens all the time with the current HM or Hex. You have already hexed someone, that guy is still alive and now you need to attack another enemy for a tactical reason (maybe the first one failed his save on hypnotic pattern).
But you're a Ranger, you don’t have the spell slots to keep doing this for a day. I guess you can do it in on combat since you get a free cast of hex, but their are better feat choices.