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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In a version of the game where it seems like the world is practically overrun with 30 foot teleports and temp HP, WotC decided to drop one of the coolest mechanics they introduced in 5e! Benign Transposition used to refresh whenever a Conjuration Spell was cast, which was almost totally unique across official products! That was so cool! And WotC dropped it in favor of Ability Modifier per Long Rest! What?!
Why make an actually unique teleport mechanic more same-y *and* attach it to Ability Modifier uses?!
The mechanic itself doesn't seem to be the problem since Instinctive Charm on the Enchanter now uses the very same mechanic in the same book! So what gives?!
I mean, who's crafting these features? Is Chris sitting there having an LLM just barf them up? Because it feels like none of you all are even interacting with each other! Not only is Instinctive Charm in this new book with the same mechanic that Benign Transposition used to have, but you also have the cast as part of the same action mechanic on the Arcana Cleric that you could have tapped, or the use movement as a teleportation resource mechanic on the Portal Jumper feat that you could have referenced!
So Benign Transposition could have been better implemented as "When you use the Magic Action to cast a Conjuration Spell using a Spell Slot you can also cast Vortex Warp targeting a willing creature and yourself without a using a Spell Slot or you can also cast Misty Step without using a Spell Slot as a part of that Magic Action" or as "When you use the Magic Action to cast a Conjuration Spell using a Spell Slot you can use up to 30 feet of your movement to teleport to a space you can see within range of the movement used as a part of that Magic Action. Optionally, you can instead target one willing creature that you can see within that range and swap places with them instead as a part of that Magic Action." There are so many better, more creative ways to have implemented this than "uh, it's another Misty Step 3 to 5 times a day?"! Or, you know, you just change it back because it did not need to be changed!
Teleporting 10, even 20 times a day! That feels like a Conjurer! The Conjurer Wizard is supposed to be the master of moving bodies through space! And they used to feel like that! Now, apparently "master" means doing that 3 to 5 times more often than, like, half of the classes in 5.5! Not even, it seems! It's so boring!
Even making Benign Transposition available at level 3 doesn't even feel like a consolation prize! It feels more like level 3 was the least inconvenient place to put the feature after figuring out where to fit all the Summoning features. And then making it a Bonus Action?! That simply puts it in competition with all the other teleports in the action economy!
Taking away a full on creative play feature like Minor Conjuration, and then also removing an interesting and unique mechanic! This all serves to make what was a very fun and creatively rewarding class feel and play more like it rolled off the assembly line!
Boo! What is this, 4th Edition?
People left the "every class is one of these handful of templates" design of 4th edition in droves and they flocked back to 5th edition because it brought back unique class identities and fantasies! Stop regressing back to the safer and more digital friendly design philosophies of 4th edition and bring back truly creative play options! Stop making every class teleport 30 feet and give out temp HP and bring back ribbon features, unique mechanics, creative play options, and for crying out loud fix Benign Transposition you cowards!
I think that they're making it easier to track. There's a much smaller emphasis on the spell schools that were already rarely mentioned in the 2014 rules. Besides, it's tricky for people to remember exactly what school their spell is if they don't have the page open, and so that might lead people to forgetting to refresh the feature, leading to a mod/rest system being more reliable.
But I don't know for sure, just an idea.
As for your LLM accusation, I think the D&D developers are passionate enough about their role that they don't delegate tasks to LLMs, but I may be mistaken.
I think the thing you're not considering with the "easier to track" theory is that, though they removed this mechanic from Benign Transposition, a class defining feature of Conjurers as a subclass, they *added* this same exact mechanic to both the Enchanter subclass *and* the Divination Adept *feat* in this same exact book! If their concern is easing tracking, doubling the number of places the mechanic is used seems awfully contrary to such a goal, no?
As for the comments on LLMs and generative AI, it seems that you're not familiar with the CEO Chris Cocks' prior statements on the usage of LLMs and generative AI in both design and engagement with D&D going forward -
https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/ai-hasbro-ceo-chris-cocks
"... prompted by a conference-goer asking whether AI could "bring the cost curve down" on TV, films, or Hasbro's digital gaming business. Cocks says that Hasbro is already using AI "as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid", but he is "more excited" about the "playful elements of AI", and its application in games like Dungeons and Dragons."
https://kotaku.com/guy-in-charge-of-d-d-says-ai-is-supercharging-fandom-1851768792
"It seems like it’s only a matter of time before Hasbro is trying to sell D&D versions of those features directly to players. “We can leverage all of that to be able to build very interesting and compelling use cases for AI that can bring our characters to life,” he [Chris Cocks] said last fall. “We can build tools that aid in content creation for users or create really interesting gamified scenarios around them.”"
There was a significant resistance among leadership to AI at WotC. Then the head designer, head of community, and several designers all left. Why do you think that is?
Plainly put, there has been much remarked upon within the community of late regarding the sameness of recent design choices and this change is bizarre in that it both smacks of that sameness and yet is found in the same book where that more unique mechanic was implemented on two other options for the first time after inexplicably removing it from the Conjurer!
It's hard to watch the edition that resuscitated my hobby and has been an absolute gem for over a decade be watered down, bushwhacked, and bled like this! So I felt the need to call this out! This particular change hit very close to home for me on one of my favorite subclasses and I had to speak up. I mean, seriously, who does this change serve?!
Unearthed Arcana isn't meant to be the final version, & in fact is allowed to waver in power between release.
& not everything you dislike is AI.
Not to mention, if you gave feedback, let alone it got outvoted in favor of changing it, that's not Chris Cocks's fault.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
In the UA documents, they literally point out its still subject to change from release.
"You're not chaotic evil! You're just chaotic SHIT!"
While this is true, it's worth pointing out that the final version of this has already been released, and it works the way that zesban is describing it. The published version of this feature is the same, verbatim, as the UA version from September 18, 2025.
pronouns: he/she/they
This is the UA area. I would think we'd be talking about UA.
My other 2 points still stand
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Immediately framing as an "opinion" both the criticism of poor design and the related criticism of a pursuit of an AI future coming out of a studio with that exact stated AI mission by its current leader, despite the provided supporting evidence of that poor design drawn from the same material it was released with and further evidence of said AI mission, including its use *for design* as quoted in multiple press releases, especially when all were provided with *sources*, well that certainly is a choice. You do you, bud.
Yeah, it's frustrating because this feedback came in on the UA surveys. Of course, it's previously been revealed that the only thing they look at in those surveys is the overall rating of the UA. One would hope that their community feedback might have been improved after that leak, but apparently not. And now with Chris Cocks asserting direct control over D&D's Design, it bodes even worse than when I started this post (checks date) a little over a week ago?! Gee, called that literally days before it happened! I can hardly believe how fast this change is rolling out, though!
https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/chris-cocks-charge
Chris Cocks has lied before, & after the 1 AI incident, it has NEVER been allowed or seen since.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.