How does the Bastion system interact with the downtime/franchise system in the Acquistions Inc Sourcebook?  I've wanted to use the AcqInc system in a non-AcqInc campaign but I haven't sat down to remove all the jokes/comedy from it.  

Given the history of "Name Level" in OD&D and AD&D 1e/2e I thought it was interesting that the level for getting a Bastion was at 5th level and not 9th. 

I do miss the tables from the 2e PHB about how many chumps my 9th level fighter has show up at their castle looking for work.  Or if my ranger gets lucky and rolls a brass dragon for their companion.  

A free reaction every turn to apply disadvantage on a melee attack seems a bit much for a cantrip. I would understand if it was a class feature to a specific class and applied at a higher level, but being able to just do it from level one with any class that gains said cantrip seems to sway the balance too far in the opposite direction. Granted Blade Ward was basically useless because it wasted your turn just to apply disadvantage but that was closer to balance than this. It might make more sense to upgrade it into a first level spell at least to keep it from having infinite uses. I would imagine that even if it was a class feature from a higher level it would have some caveat like "This feature can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier and you regain all uses on a long rest" or linked to some ability modifier with the same refresh on long rest ruling. As a cantrip no such balance exists. Then looking at the True Strike changes it basically is like a slightly less powerful divine smite except it has unlimited casts because of it being a cantrip and it grows in power at higher levels? Eventually it will surpass any first level divine smite a Paladin can do and it has unlimited uses so again, seems like a balancing issue here. 

Sad day, Truly . Nerfing Chill touch like that ... I know I know it is borderline OP but not many pple know it and thus it is not that common to see it. But fair enough. at least blade ward got buffed ETC...

The whole bastion system kinda seems like a spin-off/inspired by the Headquarters/Franchise system in the Acquisitions Inc. book, which I don't think is a bad thing! That was one of my play groups favorite part of things, and I think in quite a campaigns players like the idea of having a home base where things are actively "going on" even when they're not around.

And if your group doesn't? Just... don't have it? It's not required, after all, but it at least provides something for those who *do* want to have a base to build off of as a DM, rather than feeling like you have no supporting material to do what you want to do. Homebrewing something from scratch isn't easy for everyone, after all!

this is all cool except the debuff of shocking grasp, especially since the elements being removed had made sense for the spell, like the advantage against those in metal armor... only stopping opportunity attacks instead of all reactions is still solid though

No one is talking about Blade Ward.....a Reaction to impose disadvantage.....So a creature is going to attack at disadvantage EVERY time at lower levels of play, instead of players needing to take a full action to dodge they are just going to blade ward, this is broken, especially in early tiers of play. 

Poison spray doing more damage then the standard Firebolt or eldritch blast? why bother grabbing those now, Why grab shocking grasp when Chill touch does more damage and has the added benefit of stopping regen? 

why would any player ever waste a spell slot on Charm person ever again now that you can just make magic eyes like a Vampire diaries Vampire with friends. 

@BenedictNik i mean... not EVERY time. With only one REACTION per round it's not like they can just spam it endlessly. As a DM all I would need to do is have more than one enemy attack the player per round, or a single enemy with multi attack. Doesn't seem difficult to overcome at all. But whats nice is it gives a squishier spell caster a little survivability. Also, unlike something like silvery barbs, they can only use this for themselves.  I wouldn't call this broken at all.. I think throwing in a couple of reaction based cantrips is a really good idea that makes for some variety in play. 

I agree poison spray feels a bit strong compared to other damage cantrips that are like it. 

I can think of three reasons to use Charm person over the purposed change to Friends.
1. Charmed person can be upcast to effect multiple people, not just one.
2. Charmed Person lasts 1 hour, not 1 minute.
3. Charmed person isn't concentration while Friends is.

The are still very different spells that have situational uses they would be better for. 

Spare the dying should stay a touch spell unless you take grave cleric

Removing the part where "When the spell ends, the creature realizes that you used magic to influence its mood and becomes hostile toward you" from the Friends cantrip seems like a pretty huge buff. 

That completely changes the cantrips usefullness.

Quote from BenedictNik >>

No one is talking about Blade Ward.....a Reaction to impose disadvantage.....So a creature is going to attack at disadvantage EVERY time at lower levels of play, instead of players needing to take a full action to dodge they are just going to blade ward, this is broken, especially in early tiers of play. 

Poison spray doing more damage then the standard Firebolt or eldritch blast? why bother grabbing those now, Why grab shocking grasp when Chill touch does more damage and has the added benefit of stopping regen?

Blade Ward: a reaction to impose disadvantage against a single melee attack, where it currently grants resistance against all attacks, both melee and ranged.  For a paladin or eldritch knight, the change makes some sense.  But for spellcasters hiding behind the frontline fighters, this is a huge nerf.

Fire bolt and eldritch blast both have 120' range -- 4 times the range of poison spray -- so I can see some logic in compensating with higher damage, especially when so many things are immune to poison.  But, by that logic, touch spells like chill touch and shocking grasp should also have a decent benefit.

Shocking grasp has a sound purpose: escape.  You cast the spell then run for it while they're denied AoO.  But then, that's all the more reason to keep advantage against targets in metal armor.  It's a limited benefit against a subset of targets that you would most want to distance yourself from.  I see no logic in getting rid of this.

To everyone complaining that Chill Touch is no longer a ranged spell: Chill Touch has been around for almost as long as D&D, and it was always a touch spell in previous editions.  Not sure why they changed that for 5e, but it looks like they are merely returning to the spell's roots.  The fact that they've taken away any special effect against undead kind of bugs me, since that has also always been a large part of the spell.  I feel like they are trying too hard to make a square peg fit both a pentagonal hole and a triangular hole.

So Shocking Grasp is nerfed, still zero Healing Cantrips, and Chill Touch gets reduced from "Effective Strategic Choice" to "We made it significantly worse but gave it more damage!1!" - the exact opposite of a thoughtful revision, and completely counter to variety.

Feels like Hasbro of the Coast is gearing toward making D&D a video game rather than a TTRPG.

Ok. I NEED to read better. Bonus action to cast, and action to fling fire, but I looked at the wording again, and attacking with it no longer expends the spell. That makes it much better.

So, the wording of the new produce flame makes it worthless to use. Bonus action cast to make a light source, and then a magic action to attack with it?!? So my cantrip now uses both my action and bonus action so I have no other things to do in my turn.

No thanks. Guess it's poison spray, thorn whip, or some other damage cantrip. Produce flame is now only good as a light source.

@imahunting13, It's not a free reaction, it uses the character's one reaction per turn for a very limited benefit. A wizard who uses Blade Ward cannot then use Shield that round, meaning that to impose disadvantage on one attack cost the wizard a possible +5 to AC until the next round. It's all about opportunity cost and also giving casters a way to use limited resources in other ways. If you're facing a single big foe that happens to get into melee with your caster, and you are running low on spell slots, or you are 2nd level and don't have many to begin with, this is a great option to give you a little more survivability, especially in tier 1 where it is desperately needed. I don't see this as unbalanced at all, because it also takes up a cantrip choice to take, so you have one fewer cantrips to prestidigitate, mage hand, mend, light, etc. with.

As far as True strike goes, I don't see the balance issue here either. Using this does give the caster the ability to use their dagger, Q-staff, or other simple weapon with their casting stat for 1 attack. Most casters don't get extra attack, or other class features like that so this isn't really unbalanced either. Certainly it is a bit more powerful damage wise from a ranged cantrip (you do get to add your attack stat bonus to damage just like any weapon attack) but you have to be within melee range to use it so that is the trade off. Compare it to Firebolt, for example. Firebolt's damage progression  has it at 1d10 at 1st, 2d10 at 5th, 3d10 at 11th, and 4d10 at 17th, and all of these attacks are at range, so the risk of being hit with a damaging attack is a lot less for the notoriously low AC caster. So average damage is as follows: 1st: 6, 5th: 12, 11th 18, 17th: 24.

Now True Strike using your staff focus as a quarterstaff, two handed. At 1st level you can do 1d8+INT or about 8 damage and it can be either radiant or bludgeoning. 5th you do 1d8+INT + 1d6 radiant for about 12 damage, 11th you do about 16 damage, and at 17 you do about 20. All of these attacks require you to be in melee range with a casters relatively weaker AC. Paladin 1st level slot smite does an extra 2d8 radiant, but you can use it on all of your attacks in a round. They do use a spell slot, but you can also apply them to a crit after you see if you hit or not. True Strike has to be used then you see if you hit or miss. 

It's all about tradeoffs, and True Strike lets a caster use a good cantrip in melee range without it being at disadvantage, but you are open to melee attacks. I don't see any balance issues here.

 I like player bases, or at least the idea of player bases, so its invigorating to see simple rules for creating them, particularly as these are 'self-sustaining' bases. But in the past I've found 'bastions' to be at best temporary and as the story moves on the characters leave behind their old base of operations and need to get a new one. This, I think, may give the opportunity to take a flaw of the current system proposal - that each player's bastion is independent though they can be coordinated into one - and make it a feature: that the party can have multiple bastions (as many as members in the party, to place some limit on them). Sure they will probably start out small but as the players & locations grow over time the number and size of their bastions will also be growing.

So by level 5 they are the heroes of the hamlet and the Druid grows a grove that attracts a few acolytes to it and it's Garden sells some healing herbs to support itself and some orcs attack it and the town and the heroes drive them off and so forth.

At about level 9 the story has taken our heroes to the big city, and they route the local rogues den and take it over and the Swashbuckler opens a Gaming Hall and information exchange. Because the people love you for your parties (an Extraordinary Opportunity for business) a rival faction implicate they heroes in a plot get the duke to let in raiders into the city in order to pay off his gambling debts and they have to fight off the raiders to save the city and so forth.

Having come to the attention of the king, at level 13 they are charged with retaking an abandoned part of the kingdom from the enemies/monsters that now control it. In the course of their campaign they capture a ruined fortress and rebuild it because the Eldritch Knight (being smarter than the average Brawler) realized it would be the best tactical option to complete the king's commission. Doing so workers discover an ancient archive in the sealed catacombs. This attracts many mystic visitors who exchange magic services/trinkets with you and gives hints to other great discoveries awaiting if you can pacify the surrounding lands, and so forth.

Now at level 17 and masters of a small feudal holding and friends with important people across the kingdom you set up a Guildhall in the capital city from where your guild members do their thing and when they encounter a problem too big for them to handle you muster out, between entertaining Honored Guests and going on the quests that they tip you off to (like that time the King asked you to investigate a lack of communication from an ally and it turned out a mad arch-mage had turned the Duke's entire castle into a dungeon-like demiplane which a prince of hell was using as a staging post to invade the mortal realm). And so forth.

Lots of great adventures as your base of operation moves with the story (and you can always teleport circle back home when you get the call from your first bastion that home has been overrun by frost giants and buried under a glacier and could you please save them because the druid's garden herbs need sunlight). None of it relies upon Bastion Events. Drop that clunky mechanic (and the weekly Bastion Turns, and replace bastion points with gold, which the bastion generates and then uses; or you can bank it for a nice bonus when you return home to go shopping at which time you can bank your loot for the bastion to spend over time) and let the heroes' strongholds serve the stories organically. While staying out of the way the rest of the time.

Just something I've noticed but an Artificer can't have a Workshop.

This bastion stuff sounds so cool! I would really like to see a book made about it, featuring statblocks, types of bastions, bastion events and lots of maps too! And these cantrip buffs are things that i have been waiting for a while.

While I like Bastions as a concept, they seem very poorly made in execution. All the requirements being based purely on level or some class feature is very limiting, and obviously messes with the problems (such as most games not getting past 10th level, if they get there at all) others already brought up. 

It's very obvious that Bastions are a big videogamey mechanic, and for optimal play would have to be cheesed like a videogamey mechanic. Free rez for 100 BP? Better not use BP on anything else for several months in order to build up that many points. Player decides to be a jerk and chooses to regularly abuse their Hirelings? Welp, unless said player doesn't go to back to their Bastion for an extended period, those Hirelings will keep plugging along until they just decide to up and leave after an arbitrary period of time, that is unless the DM does what the system doesn't and treats Hirelings like more than one-function NPCs.

Also, making it so that there's no system for multiple players sharing a Bastion outside of duct-taping multiple Bastions together feels like a huge oversight. No pooling resources, no sharing materials or Hirelings (outside very few specific instances), no actual reason or reward for cooperating in the base system! Wonderfully designed as usual

Yeah, they seem to have intentionally has kept the Artificer from qualifying for either a Workshop or a Smithy, when they should be the first to qualify for both.

A party casting Friend at every enemy and BBEG. Combat and roleplay is no longer necessary. I know why this was changed: "Oh no! We can't let NPCs be mad at you! That might hurt a pwayer's feewings!"

The 7 days turn for Bastion is a bit weird to track if Forgotten Realms is still the default setting since a week is 10 days.