I'm going to disagree with your bard spellcasting rank, its green, glowing giant green massively hugely green. Yes you lose out on a handful of necormancy, etc spells from arcane, lose the primal/divine spells but you gain just as many spells, you now have color spray, expeditions retreat, hex, enlarge/reduce, rope trick, fly, gaseous form, haste, arcane eye, telekinesis and more I'm missing. On top of that a preparation caster is just better insanely better than a known caster. 1/2 of why a wizard was better than its other arcane like spellcasters was because of prep vs known spells.
Bard spellcasting loses a lot to gain what you consider a buff. Preparation is way better for sure, more versatile, but you lose a lot of what made you feel like a bard.
Any Spell you prepare for this Class must be an Arcane Spell, and it must be from one of the following Schools of Magic: Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, or Transmutation.
Let's break it down so I can evaluate it more fairly.
So outside of Magical Secrets and Song of Restoration, these are your spells: CANTRIPS: Dancing Lights, Friends, Mending, Message, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, True Strike, Vicious Mockery. > That's 8 you can take, 9 you can't. > > In the PHB, you had 11 you could take. Which included Blade Ward, Light, Mage Hand to bring it to 11. FIRST LEVEL: Charm Person, Color Spray, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Dissonant Whispers, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Hex, Identify, Illusory Script, Jump, Longstrider, Silent Image, Sleep, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Thunderwave, Unseen Servant. > That's 18 you can take (pretty good), 17 you can't. >> You've lost: Animal Friendship, Bane, Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire, Heroism, Speak with Animals, to gain... Hex. SECOND LEVEL: Alter Self, Blindness/Deafness, Blur, Calm Emotions, Crown of Madness, Darkvision, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Enthrall, Hold Person, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Locate Object, Magic Aura, Magic Mouth, Magic Weapon, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force, Rope Trick, See Invisibility, Shatter, Spider Climb, Suggestion > That's 24 you can take (nice), 11 you can't take - this is maybe the second best spell section. >> You've lost: Animal Messenger, Cloud of Daggers, Enhance Ability, Heat Metal, Locate Animals or Plants, Silence, Zone of Truth, to gain... Magic Weapon and Darkvision? THIRD LEVEL: Blink, Clairvoyance, Fear, Fly, Gaseous Form, Haste, Hypnotic Pattern, Major Image, Phantom Steed, Sending, Slow, Tongues, Water Breathing > That's 14 you can take, 15 spells you can't. >> You've lost: Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic, Feign Death, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Nondetection, Plant Growth, Speak with Dead, Speak with Plants, Stinking Cloud, to gain Blink, Fly, and Water Breathing. TBH Fly might be worth it. FOURTH LEVEL: Arcane Eye, Compulsion, Confusion, Control Water, Fabricate, Greater Invisibility, Hallucinatory Terrain, Locate Creature, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph, Stone Shape > That's 11 you can take, 12 you can't. >> You've lost: Dimension Door, Freedom of Movement, but to be fair, you gained a total of 5 spells in exchange for 2. This could be a worse deal. FIFTH LEVEL: Animate Objects, Contact Other Plane, Creation, Dominate Person, Dream, Geas, Hold Monster, Legend Lore, Mislead, Modify Memory, Passwall, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Scrying, Seeming, Telekinesis. > This one is kinda good. That's 15 spells you can take, 8 you can't. Hands down your best ratio. >> You've lost one over-all (16 vs 15), and in specific: Awaken, Mass Cure Wounds, Planar Binding, Raise Dead, Teleportation Circle. SIXTH LEVEL: Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone, Mass Suggestion, Move Earth, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Programmed Illusion, True Seeing > That's 7 you can take, 13 you can't. >> You lose: Eyebite, Find the Path, Guards and Wards, to gain Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone, and Move Earth. Ehhh. I guess that's fine? SEVENTH LEVEL: Etherealness, Mirage Arcane, Project Image, Reverse Gravity, Sequester, Simulacrum > That's 6 you can take, 8 you can't. >> You lose: Forcecage, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, Mordenkainen's Sword, Regenerate, Resurrction, Symbol, and Teleport, to gain the ones above besides Mirage Arcane and Project Image. This one hurts. EIGHTH LEVEL: Antipathy/Sympathy, Control Weather, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Glibness, Power Word Stun, Telepathy > That's 7 you can take, 7 you can't. >> You lose: Mind Blank. That's it. This level is pretty good, you gain 3 spells and lose 1. NINTH LEVEL: Foresight, Power Word Kill, Shapechange, Time Stop, True Polymorph, Weird > That's 6 you can take, 6 you can't. >> You lose: Power Word: Heal. And gain Shapechange, Time Stop, Weird. This is pretty decent.
Overall I'd say... that's maybe a wash, since it's a lot of loss, but you gain preparedness. I'll move it to blue for neutral.
A lot of the spells on the list are gains. 1st level for example you gained color spray, expeditions retreat, hex and jump.2nd level the gains were alter self, darkvision, enlarge/reduce, magic weapon, rope trick, spider climb, 3rd level the gains were gaseous form, fly, blink, haste, phantom steed,(surprised I assumed conjuration even if its "phantom", water breathing.
There are more gains than you think across all the levels and they are mostly really good spells. Some of the losses are big like silence or heat metal, but rope trick and enlarge/reduce are all great spells. Spell selection wise I think overall you have better options. I think how its done is lame losing a ton of thematic elements just to be able to classify it all under "arcane" so I'm not really a fan of the list as wizard short list doesn't feel like a bard list it just feels like wizard the lesser, and for me that is just a bad design imo. Thematics are important, if rules don't enforce the thematic elements they are poorly designed, but on a pure balance scale I think the bard is more powerful overall in spell casting.
The way it's worded I got the initial impression that bards & rangers could only swap out 1 spell per long rest because it says you can replace any spell you have prepared & not any spells.
That you can't learn lower level spells in place of higher ones feels like as big a nerf as becoming prepared casters is a boon. I never have enough utility spells without replacing some higher level ones I don't care about. That said, if they hadn't included the caveat to save me from myself I'd stock almost nothing but cantrips now that they're prep swappable.
It's hard to say Bardic Inspiration is just a straight improvement.
Pros:
Using it only when you know someone failed a D20 test is more powerful
Gives more control to bards over when it's used
Ability to heal
Cons
I think a reaction instead of a bonus action is worse flavor for inspiring your party members. Now you can only inspire reactively and not proactively.
You have a lot more useful things competing for your reaction than your bonus action, especially as a spellcaster.
Can't give BI to multiple people at once
# of uses - at low levels this is a huge nerf, and under these rules I predict bards won't feel super good about BI until 7th level where it becomes less of a resource constraint
Any subclass that uses BI to fuel another feature is subsequently nerfed (basically all colleges except maybe Spirits)
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I doubt they will change # of BI uses back to your CHA modifier, so with that constraint in mind, here's a few ideas for how to make this feel better:
More flexibility - have the option to use Bardic Inspiration EITHER as:
a bonus action (current rules) OR
a reaction (UA rules)
Consume a spell slot to replenish a use of BI
Change Font of Inspiration back to a level 5 feature
Add 1 use of BI for free - EITHER
# of uses = Proficiency Bonus +1 OR
Once per long rest, restore one use of BI
Subclass features that currently consume a use of BI should have their own resource pool (equal to proficiency bonus)
Any one of these would go a long way towards making the UA feel like less of a net loss.
You completely missed the rogues sneak attack nerf.
sneak attack is now limited to the rogues turn, so no reaction attacks gaining sneak attack by any method. Haste, sentinel, mageslayer, w/e else…
sneak attack is also now hard limited to the attack action, so no blade cantrips.
rogue damage was nerfed.
the rogue has been the class that WOTC has used for standardizing DPR since the initial 5e release. This may be indicative of an entire DPR rework on all classes. While the timing feels weird because old sharpshooter, crossbow expert, greatweapon master, and polearm master are still backwards comparable… I believe we will see more changes with the warrior classes when they are released.
the subtle strikes feature seems to be them combining steady aim from Tasha’s and the blind sense feature from the PHB.
The change to two weapon fighting does seem to go a long way for a rogue when talking about allowing two weapon attacks to land sneak attack with a single attack action and preserving the bonus action to disengage, but I’d like to keep the reaction sneak attack application personally. I don’t mind getting rid of the blade cantrip options if I had to pick between reaction sneaks or blade cantrips.
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A lot of the spells on the list are gains. 1st level for example you gained color spray, expeditions retreat, hex and jump.2nd level the gains were alter self, darkvision, enlarge/reduce, magic weapon, rope trick, spider climb, 3rd level the gains were gaseous form, fly, blink, haste, phantom steed,(surprised I assumed conjuration even if its "phantom", water breathing.
There are more gains than you think across all the levels and they are mostly really good spells. Some of the losses are big like silence or heat metal, but rope trick and enlarge/reduce are all great spells. Spell selection wise I think overall you have better options. I think how its done is lame losing a ton of thematic elements just to be able to classify it all under "arcane" so I'm not really a fan of the list as wizard short list doesn't feel like a bard list it just feels like wizard the lesser, and for me that is just a bad design imo. Thematics are important, if rules don't enforce the thematic elements they are poorly designed, but on a pure balance scale I think the bard is more powerful overall in spell casting.
The way it's worded I got the initial impression that bards & rangers could only swap out 1 spell per long rest because it says you can replace any spell you have prepared & not any spells.
That you can't learn lower level spells in place of higher ones feels like as big a nerf as becoming prepared casters is a boon. I never have enough utility spells without replacing some higher level ones I don't care about. That said, if they hadn't included the caveat to save me from myself I'd stock almost nothing but cantrips now that they're prep swappable.
Actually, no, I want that instead.
It's hard to say Bardic Inspiration is just a straight improvement.
Pros:
Cons
-----------------------
I doubt they will change # of BI uses back to your CHA modifier, so with that constraint in mind, here's a few ideas for how to make this feel better:
Any one of these would go a long way towards making the UA feel like less of a net loss.
You completely missed the rogues sneak attack nerf.
sneak attack is now limited to the rogues turn, so no reaction attacks gaining sneak attack by any method. Haste, sentinel, mageslayer, w/e else…
sneak attack is also now hard limited to the attack action, so no blade cantrips.
rogue damage was nerfed.
the rogue has been the class that WOTC has used for standardizing DPR since the initial 5e release. This may be indicative of an entire DPR rework on all classes. While the timing feels weird because old sharpshooter, crossbow expert, greatweapon master, and polearm master are still backwards comparable… I believe we will see more changes with the warrior classes when they are released.
the subtle strikes feature seems to be them combining steady aim from Tasha’s and the blind sense feature from the PHB.
The change to two weapon fighting does seem to go a long way for a rogue when talking about allowing two weapon attacks to land sneak attack with a single attack action and preserving the bonus action to disengage, but I’d like to keep the reaction sneak attack application personally. I don’t mind getting rid of the blade cantrip options if I had to pick between reaction sneaks or blade cantrips.