Personally, I love this version of the Warlock. Pact Magic as it was felt more like an afterthought, and it could just be because I primarily played Hexblade Warlocks, but I hated that Warlocks had an option to be martial with Hexblade and Pact of the Blade, but were overall shoehorned into being Spellcasters through Mystic Arcanum. For me, the Invocations are more what made the Warlocks unique rather than Pact Magic, and what makes this one feel better to me is it's moving in a direction of allowing Warlocks to be more custom built to the player, rather than being forced into a role by taking an Invocation that CAN be a Mystic Arcanum rather than being forced to take a Mystic Arcanum rather than something that would fit your character better.
The issue with Warlocks as spellcasters before was being able to barely spellcast, because even at 20th level you could only cast 4 spells, then your mystic Arcanums, and for the rest of the time use Cantrips—and I've seen a lot of Warlock players explain the issue I had of rarely ever using your Pact Slots because they're so limited and in a party of players that primarily rely on long rests, you'll rarely ever get the short rest you need to justify Pact Slots being so few.
Personality, I prefer this method of giving decent access to both, and I'm not so worried about Pact Slots being what makes Warlocks unique since this version is leaning so much heavier into versatility with Invocations.
edit: I am able to see a bit of the problem with making them half-casters oppose to keeping their pact slots when it comes to theme, so a way to have more access to pact slots or getting more overall would be better, I think. Maybe an invocation that doubles your pact slots if you want your Warlock to lean more into spellcasting, or one that gives you a new way to recover Pact Slots.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. It’s literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on.
…That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
That right there is the key. What’s their other half now? And MAs eating up EI slots is just trash. It’s just bad design all around. They’re taking everything that made Warlocks unique and interesting and “streamlining” it into being another cookie cutter half caster with nothing else going for it.
Personally, I love this version of the Warlock. Pact Magic as it was felt more like an afterthought, and it could just be because I primarily played Hexblade Warlocks, but I hated that Warlocks had an option to be martial with Hexblade and Pact of the Blade, but were overall shoehorned into being Spellcasters through Mystic Arcanum. For me, the Invocations are more what made the Warlocks unique rather than Pact Magic, and what makes this one feel better to me is it's moving in a direction of allowing Warlocks to be more custom built to the player, rather than being forced into a role by taking an Invocation that CAN be a Mystic Arcanum rather than being forced to take a Mystic Arcanum rather than something that would fit your character better.
The issue with Warlocks as spellcasters before was being able to barely spellcast, because even at 20th level you could only cast 4 spells, then your mystic Arcanums, and for the rest of the time use Cantrips—and I've seen a lot of Warlock players explain the issue I had of rarely ever using your Pact Slots because they're so limited and in a party of players that primarily rely on long rests, you'll rarely ever get the short rest you need to justify Pact Slots being so few.
Personality, I prefer this method of giving decent access to both, and I'm not so worried about Pact Slots being what makes Warlocks unique since this version is leaning so much heavier into versatility with Invocations.
edit: I am able to see a bit of the problem with making them half-casters oppose to keeping their pact slots when it comes to theme, so a way to have more access to pact slots or getting more overall would be better, I think. Maybe an invocation that doubles your pact slots if you want your Warlock to lean more into spellcasting, or one that gives you a new way to recover Pact Slots.
They were shoehorned into being spell casters because they are warlocks which are you know spell casters. Its like saying I only play blade singers but ive always been irritated wizards are shoe horned into being spell casters. A warlock in all fiction is purely a spell caster they are demon summoners spell casters in wow, in folklore they are just male witches, they are spell casters. Trying to make them at their core a partial caster goes against everything a warlock is. If anything they should have leaned deeper into spell casting. Just play a edgy paladin or ranger if you want to play a dark fighter with some magic. Don't destroy the core of what a warlock is, a spell caster.
And maybe if we got 16 invocations we could talk about leaning into versatility, but as is they are not more versatile than the core warlock.
Warlocks are people who made pacts. Period. There's no reason that somebody can't make a pact for physical power, and there's no reason people should only be allowed to make pacts to be worse Wizards.
Warlocks according to almost all lore are male witches/sorcerers etc. sometimes in league with a devil but not always. Warlocks in all lore and fiction writing are some type of caster. Sometimes its inate, sometimes like in DnD its from a Pact. Its literally the first definitions that come up on Wictionary, Wikipedia, Cambridge University Press....the list goes on and on. That being said if they are some type of half caster now, what is the other half?They are missing all the expertise/martialness/niches of the other half casters. They are just worse wizards/sorcerers with less spells and customization especially now that Mystic Arcanum each eat an eldritch invocation.
Monks, according to almost all lore, are male members of religious communities, usually with many restrictions and vows placed upon them. Are you saying that is what the Monk class should be?
In Dungeons and Dragons, Warlocks are people who made pacts. There, happy?
IN D&D they are people who made pacts for magical power, they are casters there as well until one turned them into edgy rangers. This is crap thematically, mechanically in all ways it is crap.
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
The whenever you roll initiative idea is interesting....what if they left the old pact magic in place but then add in 'if you do not have a spell slot available, one becomes available whenever you roll initiative' or something similar so the warlock cannot blow through many spell slots in one fight like other casters, but they will always have at least one.
So far, Barbarian and Fighter look much weaker than I hoped they'd be. I am still not seeing much reason to play them instead of Pala or Ranger. Which makes me sad.
Barbarian - Berserker now gives a scaling 2-4d6 damage bonus once per turn when raging when using strength to attack. Neat. And who cares? You have 2-3 rages per long rest most of the adventure. Hunter Ranger gets 1d8 every turn, for free, that can be used with melee and ranged weapons, and prepared spellcasting on top of that. Sure, the Berserker is good at lvl 3-4, but once Rangers get 2nd lvl spells I don't see the appeal.
Fighter - Unless I missed something big, these guys basically got nothing except the new weapon traits and reshuffling Second Wind to be a long rest feature. Why even bother putting it in the game at this point?
Warlock - Fully converted to a half-caster that starts with medium armor and the option to use their spellcasting stat for weapon attacks as a core mechanic. In itself? Not a terrible change. In the context of what they did (or rather, didn't do) to Fighter, this is making me toss up my hands and say "f*** it, i guess we're all ust going to have to play yet another edition made for full- and half-casters" and stop getting my hopes up for classes without spellcasting.
Wizard, Sorcerer - Didn't take the time to read them yet, but it doesn't matter. They could've been nerfed to oblivion and they'd still be better than Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue. because Spellcasting is the One Feature To Rule Them All.
Two Rages for the Barbarian-kings under the sky, 10d6 for the Rogues now gone, Four Attacks for the Fighting-Men doomed to die, One for the Wizard on his arcane throne In the Land of Washington where the shadows lie. One Feature to outclass them all, One Feature to find them, One Feature to bring them all and in the Force Cage bind them.
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
The whenever you roll initiative idea is interesting....what if they left the old pact magic in place but then add in 'if you do not have a spell slot available, one becomes available whenever you roll initiative' or something similar so the warlock cannot blow through many spell slots in one fight like other casters, but they will always have at least one.
Something like that. Basically take everything that recharges on a SR and make it fully charge on a LR, but give everyone the sort of "recharge slightly when you roll initiative" that classes don't usually get until higher level from the get go (like the Battle Master's 15th level ability: "when you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain one superiority die."
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
The whenever you roll initiative idea is interesting....what if they left the old pact magic in place but then add in 'if you do not have a spell slot available, one becomes available whenever you roll initiative' or something similar so the warlock cannot blow through many spell slots in one fight like other casters, but they will always have at least one.
Something like that. Basically take everything that recharges on a SR and make it fully charge on a LR, but give everyone the sort of "recharge slightly when you roll initiative" that classes don't usually get until higher level from the get go (like the Battle Master's 15th level ability: "when you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain one superiority die."
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
If short rests took 5 minutes I think it would be fine, they are already limited by hit dice. Unless you are actively trolling a player 99% of the time they should be able to get a 5 minute rest whenever they ask for it. Maybe have abilities that recharge on a short rest require a hit die to be spent, so people aren't doing them every 5 minutes.
Fighter - Unless I missed something big, these guys basically got nothing except the new weapon traits and reshuffling Second Wind to be a long rest feature. Why even bother putting it in the game at this point?
The Fighter has always been boring, since the dawn of the game. In 5e, the Fighter is really all about which subclass you pick, that's where the meat and interesting parts of the Fighter are ... and this playtest/preview doesn't even show you the most interesting subclasses of the Fighter. So, it's not surprising that it's underwhelming here. But I do agree that Second Wind should have stayed a Short Rest refresh.
My hopes for the Fighter in OneD&D are more along the lines of fixing the Arcane Archer, adding Divine and Primal versions of the Eldritch Knight (maybe we'll see the Arcane Knight, Divine Knight, and Primal Knight), and things like that. Admittedly, I expect you'll just see that as "yeah, make them casters, that fits my upset". I'm just saying those are the things I've wanted for the Fighter for a while. The Fighter needs to have the best / most awesome subclasses, because the Fighter is really more of a foundation for those subclasses than a stand alone interesting thing of its own, IMO.
Fighters were always boring, but they weren't weak in earlier editions. In 5e and OneD&D, they are boring and weak compared to the alternatives. All they have is damage and they don't even bring good damage =(
My hopes for the Fighter in OneD&D are more along the lines of fixing the Arcane Archer, adding Divine and Primal versions of the Eldritch Knight (maybe we'll see the Arcane Knight, Divine Knight, and Primal Knight), and things like that. Admittedly, I expect you'll just see that as "yeah, make them casters, that fits my upset". I'm just saying those are the things I've wanted for the Fighter for a while. The Fighter needs to have the best / most awesome subclasses, because the Fighter is really more of a foundation for those subclasses than a stand alone interesting thing of its own, IMO.
I wouldn't mind Fighters getting more complex features. If they mimic spellcasting, that's fine. I just want Fighters to actually be weapon masters, not a third rate joke that stopped being funny in 2014 with no place in a discussion about optimization as anything but a dip for Action Surge.
Weapons: Still feels like there's a gap for rogues; two daggers or two shortswords are still better than a rapier because it gives you a second chance at your sneak attack. Even if you take the weapon mastery feat, rapier gets no better because vex requires you to have multiple attacks before you can benefit, meanwhile dual daggers and dual shortswords get even better.
Weapon Mastery: I actually quite like this.
Per the above though I think rapier should have a different property such as "thrust" where if you miss you can use your reaction (or bonus action?) to try the attack again. So it wouldn't be advantage, or a full extra attack, but helps with consistency.
I do wonder if weapon mastery kind of renders fighting styles obsolete? Just have the nick property eliminate the off-hand penalty, and add a mastery to shields (i.e- protection) and you don't really need them anymore. Archery has always been an odd outlier as it makes ranged so much more superior with the right builds.
I'd like to see mastery go further though, perhaps each weapon should have two masteries but the feature only grants the first, a higher level feature grants the second. Fighter could then allow swapping one or both of these. There could also be some special secondary masteries:
Bleed (piercing or slashing?): Target takes half proficiency damage on its next turn (stacks).
Hook (handaxe and war-pick?): On hit can grapple instead of damage.
Sweep (weapon with cleave?): Can use action to attack all creatures within 5 feet without damage modifier.
Barbarian:
Indomitable Might is okay in theory, but with grappling no longer using ability checks it doesn't feel like enough for a feature on its own.
Berserker: Don't think I have any issues with this one, but it depends how it stacks up to other sub-classes.
Fighter: Not sure if I have any major issues with this class; enhancing weapon mastery seems good, though I do feel like it should get the ability to use both masteries on a weapon maybe as a limited use? Champion also seems solid, but again it's hard to judge with nothing to compare to.
Sorcerer:
I actually quite like the sorcerer specific spells as a scaling mechanism.
Unsure whether sorcerous vitality should be a spell or just a class feature.
I feel like Sorcery Incarnate should grant advantage on concentration so it can't be ended on you quite so easily seeing as how it's really a class feature. I do wonder if it really needs to be a spell though, why not just a class feature that you can activate with a slot and/or sorcery points?
Arcane Apotheosis feels OP even for a capstone feature; wish is already an incredibly powerful spell, and simply being unable to lose it is a huge feature. I'd rather just get a "cast any spell of Nth-level or lower you don't know" feature with a spell level based check to succeed or fail. That said, both features feel more appropriate to wild magic to me.
Heightened Spell should still only affect the first save IMO, just being reduced to 2 sorcery points is already an improvement.
Twinned Spell should be renamed "Repeated Spell" if this the mechanic they go. I get the reasoning behind it, and with access to the full Arcane spell list maybe it makes sense, because otherwise it's going to have to become way more complicated to account for all the new spells that can be twinned that we didn't have access to before.
Draconic Sorcery: Generally positive, though I'd like to see some kind of improvement to true polymorph when turning into your ancestor's dragon type, because now that we actually can (no longer one of the few characters that can't turn into a dragon) it feels like it should be more of an event. Retain some of own spellcasting, access to limited legandary actions etc.
Warlock:
I really like that the spellcasting ability can be INT/WIS or CHA now.
While I understand the change to "proper" casting, half-caster is absolutely the wrong fit. I'd prefer a custom scaling where they gain new slots at the same level as a full-caster, but only get one, and lower level slots start getting promoted, so they end up with fewer slots overall, but of a higher average level. So it would look like:
1st: One 1st-level slot (1 total).
2nd: Two 1st-level slots (2 total).
3rd: One 2nd-level slot, two 1st (3 total).
4th: Two 2nd-level slots, two 1st (4 total).
5th: One 3rd-level slot, two 2nd, two 1st (5 total).
6th: Two 3rd-level slots, two 2nd, two 1st (6 total).
7th: One 4th-level slot, two 3rd, two 2nd, two 1st (7 total).
8th: Two 4th-level slots, two 3rd, two 2nd, two 1st (8 total).
9th: One 5th-level slot, two 4th, two 3rd, two 2nd, two 1st (9 total).
10th: Two 5th-level slots, two 4th, two 3rd, two 2nd, two 1st (10 total).
11th: Two 5th-level slots, two 4th, two 3rd, three 2nd, one 1st (10 total).
12th: Two 5th-level slots, two 4th, two 3rd, four 2nd (10 total)
13th: Two 5th-level slots, two 4th, three 3rd, three 2nd (10 total)
14th: Two 5th-level slots, two 4th, four 3rd, two 2nd (10 total)
15th: Two 5th-level slots, three 4th, four 3rd, one 2nd (10 total)
16th: Two 5th-level slots, four 4th, four 3rd (10 total)
17th: Three 5th-level slots, four 4th, three 3rd (10 total)
18th: Four 5th-level slots, four 4th, two 3rd (10 total)
19th: Four 5th-level slots, four 4th, three 3rd (11 total)
20th: Four 5th-level slots, four 4th, four 3rd (12 total)
Downside to this method is it'd be very tricky to describe how to multiclass this, but I like the scaling. I think mystic arcanum as eldritch invocations would be fine in this case, but limited to 6th-level and higher.
While I quite like the pact boons and their scaling, I don't see why they're cantrips; just make them class feature options.
Pact of the Tome should pick spells when chosen and can change on level up, but I do like being able to summon the book only when required.
Not a fan of eldritch blast as standard as that seems to only further encourage warlock being a one-note blaster by default. I'd rather see eldritch blast be rebalanced as an Arcane list cantrip, but allow eldritch invocations to boost it to previous levels again. I'd also like to see certain eldritch invocations opened up to other cantrips.
Eldritch Spear/Repelling Blast should work on any cantrip. I'd also like to see Repelling Blast become an optional push/pull and be renamed (Eldritch Grasp?)
Fiendish Vigor really ought to scale somehow, otherwise it's still only really good at lower levels, especially with more slots available to cast armor of agathys instead.
Favor of the Chain Master imposing automatic conditions on hit seems a bit too strong, I think most should be save based and charmed should really end if attacked.
I'd also prefer to see the pact-specific familiars removed from the pact of the chain and favor of the chain master features, and instead moved to the pacts themselves.
They could do something similar for other pact boons, e.g- pact of the blade might give mastery with a certain weapon type associated with that patron, pact of the tome might give a specific free cantrip and ritual?
Fiend: Seems like overall good changes. Per the above, I could see this granting an imp for familiar (pact of the chain) with the associated favor of the chain master feature, a choice of mastery in battleaxe or whip (pact of the blade), or adding fire bolt and unseen servant (pact of the tome).
Wizard:
While I quite like the idea of manipulating spells, I don't see why this ability is composed of spells in this way. Feels to me like these should be just be class features (or part of class features).
I think Create Spell's costed component isn't enough of a balancing factor (in some campaigns a few thousand gold is negligible). I feel like it should just be limited to no more than once per day, with clear text about DM discretion so it can be slowed down for campaigns with more downtime to actually do stuff in.
Changing concentration to ignore damage is probably a bit too strong (first priority would be to do this to every concentration spell you regularly use).
Personally I still don't like school specific sub-classes; I'd prefer to wizards pick a spell school as a 2nd-level feature (similar to cleric's holy orders) with sub-classes focusing on changing how the wizard plays in more substantial ways. Otherwise the changes to Evoker seem fine.
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On the Barbarian, I see no reason to drop "you take damage" as means to maintaining your rage. Staying mad because someone is stabbing you seems perfectly reasonable, whereas eliminating because they decided "the focus is now on what you do, not on what's done to you" seems arbitrary.
It could be even simpler if they just made them class features….
I think this is true for many of the classes. The Paladin and Clerics have complaints of losing their identity. Pact magic has not been well received. Eldritch blast was supposed to be a class feature.
Here's a thought. Buff the class features, but characters lose some of them when they take levels in another class. They've broken their pact, offended their deity, not maintained the spirit of their oath...
It maintains and strengthens the class identity. It allows WotC to make those class features stronger without the fear of the multi-class dips making them too strong. It allows the class features to begin at low levels.
It could be even simpler if they just made them class features….
I think this is true for many of the classes. The Paladin and Clerics have complaints of losing their identity. Pact magic has not been well received. Eldritch blast was supposed to be a class feature.
Here's a thought. Buff the class features, but characters lose some of them when they take levels in another class. They've broken their pact, offended their deity, not maintained the spirit of their oath...
It maintains and strengthens the class identity. It allows WotC to make those class features stronger without the fear of the multi-class dips making them too strong. It allows the class features to begin at low levels.
Arcane Apotheosis feels OP even for a capstone feature; wish is already an incredibly powerful spell, and simply being unable to lose it is a huge feature. I'd rather just get a "cast any spell of Nth-level or lower you don't know" feature with a spell level based check to succeed or fail. That said, both features feel more appropriate to wild magic to me.
I mean, a lot of people don't ever cast wish except to duplicate the other, lesser, spells specifically because they're that afraid of losing it. Even if you don't have an evil GM intent on monkeys-pawing your wish they can simply opt to take it away forever so you'd better hope the thing you wished for was REALLY worth it because you just burned one of your extremely limited spell selection (and possibly your only 9th level spell) on it.
Arcane Apotheosis feels OP even for a capstone feature; wish is already an incredibly powerful spell, and simply being unable to lose it is a huge feature. I'd rather just get a "cast any spell of Nth-level or lower you don't know" feature with a spell level based check to succeed or fail. That said, both features feel more appropriate to wild magic to me.
I mean, a lot of people don't ever cast wish except to duplicate the other, lesser, spells specifically because they're that afraid of losing it. Even if you don't have an evil GM intent on monkeys-pawing your wish they can simply opt to take it away forever so you'd better hope the thing you wished for was REALLY worth it because you just burned one of your extremely limited spell selection (and possibly your only 9th level spell) on it.
Which is a good thing, without that broken things will happen and if you go off the list from the suggested options the DM is stuck adjudicating insanity daily. Wish once a day in general whatever its a spare open 1st-8th slot, really good as capstones go but at least you can roll with it. No backlash, heck no.
It could be even simpler if they just made them class features….
I think this is true for many of the classes. The Paladin and Clerics have complaints of losing their identity. Pact magic has not been well received. Eldritch blast was supposed to be a class feature.
Here's a thought. Buff the class features, but characters lose some of them when they take levels in another class. They've broken their pact, offended their deity, not maintained the spirit of their oath...
It maintains and strengthens the class identity. It allows WotC to make those class features stronger without the fear of the multi-class dips making them too strong. It allows the class features to begin at low levels.
That’s… actually a really good idea.
It's not. Auditing people's sheets to make sure whether they should still have access to X feature that they gained previously or should lose is just one more burden for the DM to track, and also runs counter to flavor and build variety. The default if you break your pact/oath/what-have-you should be to retrain to a different one that's more fitting, not to become subclassless, and definitely not to start dropping individual features.
Arcane Apotheosis feels OP even for a capstone feature; wish is already an incredibly powerful spell, and simply being unable to lose it is a huge feature. I'd rather just get a "cast any spell of Nth-level or lower you don't know" feature with a spell level based check to succeed or fail. That said, both features feel more appropriate to wild magic to me.
I mean, a lot of people don't ever cast wish except to duplicate the other, lesser, spells specifically because they're that afraid of losing it. Even if you don't have an evil GM intent on monkeys-pawing your wish they can simply opt to take it away forever so you'd better hope the thing you wished for was REALLY worth it because you just burned one of your extremely limited spell selection (and possibly your only 9th level spell) on it.
Which is a good thing, without that broken things will happen and if you go off the list from the suggested options the DM is stuck adjudicating insanity daily. Wish once a day in general whatever its a spare open 1st-8th slot, really good as capstones go but at least you can roll with it. No backlash, heck no.
But then why have the spell at all? No one in their right mind is going to cast it. I get it's still around because it's one of the most iconic spells and they can't do away with it any more than they can magic missile or fireball, but if no one is casting wish specifically because they fear losing it then it may as well not exist. Like, if you fear the monkeys-pawing you can use the safe effects and then use the dangerous aspect when the need is really great and you're willing to suck up whatever punishment comes as a result; but not ever casting it because the GM will take it away right after? May as well not even have the spell exist at that point.
Arcane Apotheosis feels OP even for a capstone feature; wish is already an incredibly powerful spell, and simply being unable to lose it is a huge feature. I'd rather just get a "cast any spell of Nth-level or lower you don't know" feature with a spell level based check to succeed or fail. That said, both features feel more appropriate to wild magic to me.
I mean, a lot of people don't ever cast wish except to duplicate the other, lesser, spells specifically because they're that afraid of losing it. Even if you don't have an evil GM intent on monkeys-pawing your wish they can simply opt to take it away forever so you'd better hope the thing you wished for was REALLY worth it because you just burned one of your extremely limited spell selection (and possibly your only 9th level spell) on it.
Which is a good thing, without that broken things will happen and if you go off the list from the suggested options the DM is stuck adjudicating insanity daily. Wish once a day in general whatever its a spare open 1st-8th slot, really good as capstones go but at least you can roll with it. No backlash, heck no.
But then why have the spell at all? No one in their right mind is going to cast it. I get it's still around because it's one of the most iconic spells and they can't do away with it any more than they can magic missile or fireball, but if no one is casting wish specifically because they fear losing it then it may as well not exist. Like, if you fear the monkeys-pawing you can use the safe effects and then use the dangerous aspect when the need is really great and you're willing to suck up whatever punishment comes as a result; but not ever casting it because the GM will take it away right after? May as well not even have the spell exist at that point.
A spell that can be any spell levels 1-8 with no penalty is pretty dang amazing, probably the best spell in the game just with that. Yeah in specific situations meteor swarm or true polymorph etc is better but general use.wish is the best spell in the game just for duplicating spells level 1-8.
Yes.
IN D&D they are people who made pacts for magical power, they are casters there as well until one turned them into edgy rangers. This is crap thematically, mechanically in all ways it is crap.
I've come around to thinking that anything that recharges on a short rest is a bad mechanic. There's just too much variability in how different tables treat short rests for it to be a balanceable mechanic. Seem better to have abilities recharge on either a long rest or "whenever you roll initiative." Of course, this kind of change is beyond what One DnD purports to be doing.
The whenever you roll initiative idea is interesting....what if they left the old pact magic in place but then add in 'if you do not have a spell slot available, one becomes available whenever you roll initiative' or something similar so the warlock cannot blow through many spell slots in one fight like other casters, but they will always have at least one.
So far, Barbarian and Fighter look much weaker than I hoped they'd be. I am still not seeing much reason to play them instead of Pala or Ranger. Which makes me sad.
Barbarian - Berserker now gives a scaling 2-4d6 damage bonus once per turn when raging when using strength to attack. Neat. And who cares? You have 2-3 rages per long rest most of the adventure. Hunter Ranger gets 1d8 every turn, for free, that can be used with melee and ranged weapons, and prepared spellcasting on top of that. Sure, the Berserker is good at lvl 3-4, but once Rangers get 2nd lvl spells I don't see the appeal.
Fighter - Unless I missed something big, these guys basically got nothing except the new weapon traits and reshuffling Second Wind to be a long rest feature. Why even bother putting it in the game at this point?
Warlock - Fully converted to a half-caster that starts with medium armor and the option to use their spellcasting stat for weapon attacks as a core mechanic. In itself? Not a terrible change. In the context of what they did (or rather, didn't do) to Fighter, this is making me toss up my hands and say "f*** it, i guess we're all ust going to have to play yet another edition made for full- and half-casters" and stop getting my hopes up for classes without spellcasting.
Wizard, Sorcerer - Didn't take the time to read them yet, but it doesn't matter. They could've been nerfed to oblivion and they'd still be better than Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue. because Spellcasting is the One Feature To Rule Them All.
Two Rages for the Barbarian-kings under the sky,
10d6 for the Rogues now gone,
Four Attacks for the Fighting-Men doomed to die,
One for the Wizard on his arcane throne
In the Land of Washington where the shadows lie.
One Feature to outclass them all, One Feature to find them,
One Feature to bring them all and in the Force Cage bind them.
(needs work)
Something like that. Basically take everything that recharges on a SR and make it fully charge on a LR, but give everyone the sort of "recharge slightly when you roll initiative" that classes don't usually get until higher level from the get go (like the Battle Master's 15th level ability: "when you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain one superiority die."
That’s a good idea.
If short rests took 5 minutes I think it would be fine, they are already limited by hit dice. Unless you are actively trolling a player 99% of the time they should be able to get a 5 minute rest whenever they ask for it. Maybe have abilities that recharge on a short rest require a hit die to be spent, so people aren't doing them every 5 minutes.
The Fighter has always been boring, since the dawn of the game. In 5e, the Fighter is really all about which subclass you pick, that's where the meat and interesting parts of the Fighter are ... and this playtest/preview doesn't even show you the most interesting subclasses of the Fighter. So, it's not surprising that it's underwhelming here. But I do agree that Second Wind should have stayed a Short Rest refresh.
My hopes for the Fighter in OneD&D are more along the lines of fixing the Arcane Archer, adding Divine and Primal versions of the Eldritch Knight (maybe we'll see the Arcane Knight, Divine Knight, and Primal Knight), and things like that. Admittedly, I expect you'll just see that as "yeah, make them casters, that fits my upset". I'm just saying those are the things I've wanted for the Fighter for a while. The Fighter needs to have the best / most awesome subclasses, because the Fighter is really more of a foundation for those subclasses than a stand alone interesting thing of its own, IMO.
Fighters were always boring, but they weren't weak in earlier editions. In 5e and OneD&D, they are boring and weak compared to the alternatives. All they have is damage and they don't even bring good damage =(
I wouldn't mind Fighters getting more complex features. If they mimic spellcasting, that's fine. I just want Fighters to actually be weapon masters, not a third rate joke that stopped being funny in 2014 with no place in a discussion about optimization as anything but a dip for Action Surge.
A hell of a lot to unpack in this:
Whew! That's a lot of UA to discuss!
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On the Barbarian, I see no reason to drop "you take damage" as means to maintaining your rage. Staying mad because someone is stabbing you seems perfectly reasonable, whereas eliminating because they decided "the focus is now on what you do, not on what's done to you" seems arbitrary.
I think this is true for many of the classes. The Paladin and Clerics have complaints of losing their identity. Pact magic has not been well received. Eldritch blast was supposed to be a class feature.
Here's a thought. Buff the class features, but characters lose some of them when they take levels in another class. They've broken their pact, offended their deity, not maintained the spirit of their oath...
It maintains and strengthens the class identity. It allows WotC to make those class features stronger without the fear of the multi-class dips making them too strong. It allows the class features to begin at low levels.
That’s… actually a really good idea.
I mean, a lot of people don't ever cast wish except to duplicate the other, lesser, spells specifically because they're that afraid of losing it. Even if you don't have an evil GM intent on monkeys-pawing your wish they can simply opt to take it away forever so you'd better hope the thing you wished for was REALLY worth it because you just burned one of your extremely limited spell selection (and possibly your only 9th level spell) on it.
Which is a good thing, without that broken things will happen and if you go off the list from the suggested options the DM is stuck adjudicating insanity daily. Wish once a day in general whatever its a spare open 1st-8th slot, really good as capstones go but at least you can roll with it. No backlash, heck no.
It's not. Auditing people's sheets to make sure whether they should still have access to X feature that they gained previously or should lose is just one more burden for the DM to track, and also runs counter to flavor and build variety. The default if you break your pact/oath/what-have-you should be to retrain to a different one that's more fitting, not to become subclassless, and definitely not to start dropping individual features.
But then why have the spell at all? No one in their right mind is going to cast it. I get it's still around because it's one of the most iconic spells and they can't do away with it any more than they can magic missile or fireball, but if no one is casting wish specifically because they fear losing it then it may as well not exist. Like, if you fear the monkeys-pawing you can use the safe effects and then use the dangerous aspect when the need is really great and you're willing to suck up whatever punishment comes as a result; but not ever casting it because the GM will take it away right after? May as well not even have the spell exist at that point.
A spell that can be any spell levels 1-8 with no penalty is pretty dang amazing, probably the best spell in the game just with that. Yeah in specific situations meteor swarm or true polymorph etc is better but general use.wish is the best spell in the game just for duplicating spells level 1-8.
But that could be it's own, separate, spell or class feature. Something like 'Arcane Duplication' or something. Not WISH.