Less spells, more animal features on ardling. Or give them Alter Self or something. I'm loving having a PHB anthro option.
No attack spells on tiefling. They scale terribly and are bad if you want to go Martial. I want races to be class-neutral. That said, I love the inferno, necrotic and poison division.
Dwarf tremorsense is lit.
Gave a general Satisfied for the rest. Except gnomes. I put a Dissatisfied mark on gnomes at the start and they asked me for no details, skipping it entirely.
Backgrounds: I liked 'em, simple, clean, effective. I didn't bother commenting on individual samples, as I went custom.
Feats: I gave generally good reviews. Made a few comments about Savage Attacker needing more help. Don't even remember what I said.
Conditions and D20 test and crit. No problems here.
Arcane/Primal/Arcane list. EXTREME HATE. I ranted quite a bit.
For the most part, I think the backgrounds are great.
The Races need a little more tweaking I think, but the Ardling are a positive and welcome addition.
My biggest complaint is the D20 and more so with the Crit test. I Hate it, pure and simple, it's too big a nerf to burst/nova damage builds, and no spell crits is a slap for blaster casters like warlocks, or those that use shadow blade like Bladesinger.
Anyway let's hope the next update gives a look at character class
I liked most of it, but I do not like or want the changes to the crits on spells or monsters. The 20 always succeeds, I loathe but have no reason to but the meme Bard. I will not implement the no crits rules. The renaming of the Spell lists can be good or bad, I'm waiting to decide.
I like the ardlings, just dont really care for the wings thing, felt out of place.
I really liked the spells for the races, they give you so much more flavor in the early games and many of them continue to have utiliy throughout the game. Commented on combining a race with inherent spells and taking a magic initiatie feat gives them a really fun toolkit to play with. with that being said, I love having magic initiate at level 1 it gives so many cool play options, whether you are going with combat spells or lots of utiliy. Add magic initiate to a half caster class and that ranger can become much more druid-like, take a race that has spell casting, and tack on the druidic combat style and you have a really fun spell set to play with for a low level ranger where many of them will scale nicely as you level.
Other feats i really enjoyed were tavern brawler, i know some feel like it is lacking but i like it as something to give a caster class so they have some martial options in close quarters. punch the goblin and knock it back then run the heck away without it getting a swipe at you. heck even a monk taking the feat gets a slight damage boost for all their unarmed attacks and can push enemies around as they please without sacrificing damage. musician and healer are super cool for a little bit of support ability for a character too.
a lot of the races i am happy with ardling is cool it just needs a little bit of love I think changing the wing feature for something more beastial related would scratch the itch since they look to be inspired by the animalistic guardinals. darkvision is still everywhere. gnome subraces are ok, the rock gnome having to take 10 minutes to make a toy is too much 1 minute feels more like it. dragonborn breath weapon was another thing i commented on. The change to damage makes it more consistent as you level up, but then you don't get to roll a bunch of clickety clack math rocks at once, so kinda good and bad. I said i think they should keep the ability to use the breath weapons as a single attack when you use the attack action like in fizban.
Backgrounds feel like they are in a good place, some good default options but very easy to make your own as well. It should be a rule that if you make a custom background you have to give it a good name. Wondered if possibly swapping a skill proficiency for a martial weapon proficiency would be an option that wouldn't cause problems.
spell lists i am on the fence about, they seem to make sense as a core for those caster types, but if they are not going to have at least some kind of supplemental lists for certain classes (Bard, Warlock in particular) then I think they will end up being a huge mistake. so heres to hoping they are not just making every arcane spellcaster the exact same with some fluff around the edges. overall the contents of the spell lists seem appropriate, i like having some more options for the casters and half casters alike. why can't my druid use hunters mark, why is the hunter so special...
Those are some of the big things i had stuff to talk about.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Crits are now trash, what use to create moments and stories at the game table now simply won't exist, having a completely consistent experience is not the same thing as a good experience.
D20 tests make no sense on saving throws and limit DMs on ability checks, DMs are capable of deciding if there should be critical successes or failures on such checks.
Most of the races seem ok, I feel elves get slightly more than other races tho.
Tieflings don't even get a language anymore (which seems odd) but they definitely needed that cantrip.
Ardlings, Idyllic legacy is straight up better than Heavenly legacy. Guidance is better than Light (which a simple torch does the same job), and Healing Word as a ranged bonus action spell is easily better than cure wounds.
Dragonborn's Dragon Breath is still a joke despite the buff it got from 5E. a level 5 wizard does more damage with fireball than a level 20 dragonborn does with Dragon Breath, both using an action. At level 5, fireball does around 2.5 times more damage than a level 5 dragonborn's dragon breath does, again both use an action.
Level 1 feats don't feel necessarily balanced, crafting might add something in the long run but then you have lucky and musician which feel stronger, feats should be split in two, those used for combat and those that aren't with characters getting 1 of each at level 1, so musician or crafter are done outside of battle while luck and healer are used in battle. It would give more to the depth of a character with the battle feat reflecting their experience and non-battle feat reflecting their culture or personality.
Martials basically get less special options for level 1 feats.
Not a fan of the crit changes, but I’m not opposed to reevaluating DM crits to avoid instant kills on low level PC (perhaps a simple +1d6 up to CR 2, +2d6 for CR 3-5, and so on).
Inspiration changes are okay, but I feel like if you want inspiration to be used regularly, allow for use after the die is rolled. The other rule changes seem fine.
I like the direction of most of the feats.
I like where they are going with backgrounds. While I know they want everyone to make custom backgrounds, a lot of groups will rely on the suggested backgrounds. So to make it clearer that they are suggestions, say things like “Language: Gnomish, or one of choice.” I also noted the absence of vehicle proficiencies, and asked if they were going away (which I would be unhappy with, I saw those checks more often than most tools).
The half race approach is not to my liking. It’s okay, if oversimplified, for unusual combinations like goliath-kenku, but inadequate for established races like half-elves. Regardless, my preference would be a system that at least gives you the option to pick x number of traits from each parent (perhaps denoting available traits with an asterisk for balance since some traits are more powerful than others).
Love the dwarf! I like the elf, halfling, orc, and tiefling.
Like the idea of the ardling, but it needs some work. Radiant resistance is weak compared to other damage types because so few enemies inflict it. Looking at guardinals from past editions they had resistance or immunity to acid, col, and lightning, so I suggested adding one of those to each legacy.
I prefer the presentation of dragonborn from Fizban, with greater differences between chromatic, metallic and gem. I’m not crazy about the breath weapon damage, and I feel too many races gave darkvision to add it to the dragonborn. I think there are better ways to imply draconic senses, perhaps superior hearing or smell, or even a limited use blindsight similar to the dwarf stonecunning.
Gnome is good, but the rock gnome clockwork device ability is clunky and needs some work to simplify.
The survey came out a few days ago. What have you written on it? I wrote everything was mostly fine except Lucky. Lucky needs to go.
1 shot dungeon master
For the most part, pretty positive.
Races:
Less spells, more animal features on ardling. Or give them Alter Self or something. I'm loving having a PHB anthro option.
No attack spells on tiefling. They scale terribly and are bad if you want to go Martial. I want races to be class-neutral. That said, I love the inferno, necrotic and poison division.
Dwarf tremorsense is lit.
Gave a general Satisfied for the rest. Except gnomes. I put a Dissatisfied mark on gnomes at the start and they asked me for no details, skipping it entirely.
Backgrounds: I liked 'em, simple, clean, effective. I didn't bother commenting on individual samples, as I went custom.
Feats: I gave generally good reviews. Made a few comments about Savage Attacker needing more help. Don't even remember what I said.
Conditions and D20 test and crit. No problems here.
Arcane/Primal/Arcane list. EXTREME HATE. I ranted quite a bit.
For the most part, I think the backgrounds are great.
The Races need a little more tweaking I think, but the Ardling are a positive and welcome addition.
My biggest complaint is the D20 and more so with the Crit test. I Hate it, pure and simple, it's too big a nerf to burst/nova damage builds, and no spell crits is a slap for blaster casters like warlocks, or those that use shadow blade like Bladesinger.
Anyway let's hope the next update gives a look at character class
Let's chat.
I really need to post more :)
I liked most of it, but I do not like or want the changes to the crits on spells or monsters. The 20 always succeeds, I loathe but have no reason to but the meme Bard. I will not implement the no crits rules. The renaming of the Spell lists can be good or bad, I'm waiting to decide.
That was my contribution.
I like the ardlings, just dont really care for the wings thing, felt out of place.
I really liked the spells for the races, they give you so much more flavor in the early games and many of them continue to have utiliy throughout the game. Commented on combining a race with inherent spells and taking a magic initiatie feat gives them a really fun toolkit to play with. with that being said, I love having magic initiate at level 1 it gives so many cool play options, whether you are going with combat spells or lots of utiliy. Add magic initiate to a half caster class and that ranger can become much more druid-like, take a race that has spell casting, and tack on the druidic combat style and you have a really fun spell set to play with for a low level ranger where many of them will scale nicely as you level.
Other feats i really enjoyed were tavern brawler, i know some feel like it is lacking but i like it as something to give a caster class so they have some martial options in close quarters. punch the goblin and knock it back then run the heck away without it getting a swipe at you. heck even a monk taking the feat gets a slight damage boost for all their unarmed attacks and can push enemies around as they please without sacrificing damage. musician and healer are super cool for a little bit of support ability for a character too.
a lot of the races i am happy with ardling is cool it just needs a little bit of love I think changing the wing feature for something more beastial related would scratch the itch since they look to be inspired by the animalistic guardinals. darkvision is still everywhere. gnome subraces are ok, the rock gnome having to take 10 minutes to make a toy is too much 1 minute feels more like it. dragonborn breath weapon was another thing i commented on. The change to damage makes it more consistent as you level up, but then you don't get to roll a bunch of clickety clack math rocks at once, so kinda good and bad. I said i think they should keep the ability to use the breath weapons as a single attack when you use the attack action like in fizban.
Backgrounds feel like they are in a good place, some good default options but very easy to make your own as well.
It should be a rule that if you make a custom background you have to give it a good name.
Wondered if possibly swapping a skill proficiency for a martial weapon proficiency would be an option that wouldn't cause problems.
spell lists i am on the fence about, they seem to make sense as a core for those caster types, but if they are not going to have at least some kind of supplemental lists for certain classes (Bard, Warlock in particular) then I think they will end up being a huge mistake. so heres to hoping they are not just making every arcane spellcaster the exact same with some fluff around the edges. overall the contents of the spell lists seem appropriate, i like having some more options for the casters and half casters alike. why can't my druid use hunters mark, why is the hunter so special...
Those are some of the big things i had stuff to talk about.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
A lot. short answer
slightly longer answer:
Crits are now trash, what use to create moments and stories at the game table now simply won't exist, having a completely consistent experience is not the same thing as a good experience.
D20 tests make no sense on saving throws and limit DMs on ability checks, DMs are capable of deciding if there should be critical successes or failures on such checks.
Most of the races seem ok, I feel elves get slightly more than other races tho.
Tieflings don't even get a language anymore (which seems odd) but they definitely needed that cantrip.
Ardlings, Idyllic legacy is straight up better than Heavenly legacy. Guidance is better than Light (which a simple torch does the same job), and Healing Word as a ranged bonus action spell is easily better than cure wounds.
Dragonborn's Dragon Breath is still a joke despite the buff it got from 5E. a level 5 wizard does more damage with fireball than a level 20 dragonborn does with Dragon Breath, both using an action. At level 5, fireball does around 2.5 times more damage than a level 5 dragonborn's dragon breath does, again both use an action.
Level 1 feats don't feel necessarily balanced, crafting might add something in the long run but then you have lucky and musician which feel stronger, feats should be split in two, those used for combat and those that aren't with characters getting 1 of each at level 1, so musician or crafter are done outside of battle while luck and healer are used in battle. It would give more to the depth of a character with the battle feat reflecting their experience and non-battle feat reflecting their culture or personality.
Martials basically get less special options for level 1 feats.
Here is my feedback in a nutshell:
Not a fan of the crit changes, but I’m not opposed to reevaluating DM crits to avoid instant kills on low level PC (perhaps a simple +1d6 up to CR 2, +2d6 for CR 3-5, and so on).
Inspiration changes are okay, but I feel like if you want inspiration to be used regularly, allow for use after the die is rolled. The other rule changes seem fine.
I like the direction of most of the feats.
I like where they are going with backgrounds. While I know they want everyone to make custom backgrounds, a lot of groups will rely on the suggested backgrounds. So to make it clearer that they are suggestions, say things like “Language: Gnomish, or one of choice.” I also noted the absence of vehicle proficiencies, and asked if they were going away (which I would be unhappy with, I saw those checks more often than most tools).
The half race approach is not to my liking. It’s okay, if oversimplified, for unusual combinations like goliath-kenku, but inadequate for established races like half-elves. Regardless, my preference would be a system that at least gives you the option to pick x number of traits from each parent (perhaps denoting available traits with an asterisk for balance since some traits are more powerful than others).
Love the dwarf! I like the elf, halfling, orc, and tiefling.
Like the idea of the ardling, but it needs some work. Radiant resistance is weak compared to other damage types because so few enemies inflict it. Looking at guardinals from past editions they had resistance or immunity to acid, col, and lightning, so I suggested adding one of those to each legacy.
I prefer the presentation of dragonborn from Fizban, with greater differences between chromatic, metallic and gem. I’m not crazy about the breath weapon damage, and I feel too many races gave darkvision to add it to the dragonborn. I think there are better ways to imply draconic senses, perhaps superior hearing or smell, or even a limited use blindsight similar to the dwarf stonecunning.
Gnome is good, but the rock gnome clockwork device ability is clunky and needs some work to simplify.