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Getting rid of the magic item economy is still a huge win as far as I'm concerned. I don't really care what the price of ball bearings is, although it should be probably be more like 100 ball bearings for 1 gp.
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Yeah some people are already calling feat tax on the war caster. Be interesting to see how it plays out once the PHB hits the shelf.Not to quibble over the Concentration issue, but list of feat names released this week contained one called War Caster. I'm guessing it'll deal with the DC somehow. Well, and few more things, given the super feats we saw in the playtest.
Never mind concentration checks, how about death saves: unmodified DC 10 rolls on a d20 are terrifying!
I've heard those calls, but given how few of the playtest feats had prerequisites, I don't think feat tax is really an accurate description. I mean, if the choice you have to make is between a stat increase increase and a feat, rather than between an immediately cool, useful feat and a nigh useless feat that's a prerequisite for something cool two or three feats later on in your level advancement, I don't think that's a feat tax so much as having to decide whether you're happier with +2 Con or War Caster. Of course, I don't know anything about War Caster beyond the name, so it may be a really obvious choice; at this point I'm sticking with, "We'll see."
Edit: ZOMG, back in the playtest ball bearing were 100 to the gp, and I hadn't even noticed the difference! To hell with everything, at my table it's just a reasonably sized sack of marbles, same mechanical effect.
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Try harder guys, you still haven't come close to the WotC board derail about how the equipment entry for oil says it dries after a minute, when oil is way to viscous to even evaporate I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE CLAIMING THEY PROOFREAD THIS THING!!
(Yes, it really happened.)
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Getting rid of the magic item economy is still a huge win as far as I'm concerned. I don't really care what the price of ball bearings is, although it should be probably be more like 100 ball bearings for 1 gp.
Since they're handmade and, prior to the Industrial Revolution, not really used for anything besides exploring dungeons, it should probably be closer to 10 gp or more each.
Also, you'd probably have to find a smith and explain what it is you want, then wait while he figures out how to make them.
Not really - wouldn't they be similar to sling bullets - just smaller?
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See? Marbles!
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To hell with it it, I'm just gonna outfit myself with 1 bag of "ball bearings" and 4 bags of caltrops, and rules lawyer whoever's DM-ing that night into double saves for monsters to even approach me!
Edit: Hey, wait, There's AoE rules for that oil that's way to viscous to dry after a minute, too . . . :P
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You might want to have more than one bag, though, unless you're planning to spend most of your time picking up marbles.
So long as the DM doesn't require me to make the saves to avoid the penalties while picking up the caltrops etc, I'm more than willing to spend the time. The oil's consumable, but that's cool, I can't see a problem with adventuring with a backpack full of oil flasks while the wizard spams Fire Bolt. Should be fine.
After playing one game I can say I like it. I won't stop playing Pathfinder, which to me is much more interesting, but my regular gaming group will rotate in sessions of a 5e campaign once in a while.
What about turpentine, though? All that requires is distillation, so alchemical, sure, but perfectly preindustrial.
Really, I'm agreeing with TheJeff, here; you can reflavor it as whatever you want to, but that's how oil works mechanically in 5E, and the price per flask is listed right there in the equipment chapter. Mind you, I'm fine with DMs tricking out the equipment list if they want to.
I just saw a sneak peek of the sorcerer class. They are proficient with Constitution saves! So they might be better at keeping those concentration spells going...
They 'know' less spells than the wizard can prepare per level and they don't seem to get more spells per day... I haven't seen the Sorcerous Origins or what their other class features do... Let's hope there is something really cool in there...
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The great ball bearing debate of 2014.....ah D&D some things never change.
I know the spell sculpture is just an evocation thing but I dont like it. you can drop fireballs right on top of your friends or even have them stand in a wall of fire while the enemy dies. Ofcourse I guess my bad guys can use this tactic too but id reather not. Freindly fire is one of the tactical parts of spell casting dont like was that get around that.
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that either. That was one of the issues I had with 4e. It was way too easy to lay out big AoE spells without having to worry about hitting your allies.
The great ball bearing debate of 2014.....ah D&D some things never change.
I know the spell sculpture is just an evocation thing but I dont like it. you can drop fireballs right on top of your friends or even have them stand in a wall of fire while the enemy dies. Ofcourse I guess my bad guys can use this tactic too but id reather not. Freindly fire is one of the tactical parts of spell casting dont like was that get around that.
For those of you who have the Starter Set, are the races, classes, spells, etc. the same as in the free pdf, or does it have different/additional rules content? (I know it also has an adventure book and a cardboard riser that fills up space in the box.)
The starter set doesn't have any character generation at all, just 5 pre-made characters. And those characters use the races/classes in the Basic PDF. The only thing that the Starter characters use that is not in the Basic PDF seems to be the Noble background.
I haven't noticed any spells in the Starter set that aren't already in the basic PDF. I didn't notice any additional rules, except for the handful of magic items, and the monster stats.
Okay, thanks. I probably won't get it then. I'll just wait for the PHB to come out in a few weeks.
The only reason I got the Starter Box was for the dice (you can never have enough dice sets, even if it is missing the 10's digit d10 die) and the monster stats (which let me know enough about how the monsters worked so I can convert other monsters to 5e.)
And because I got it for $8 American. You can pay that for a set of dice alone.
I know the spell sculpture is just an evocation thing but I dont like it. you can drop fireballs right on top of your friends or even have them stand in a wall of fire while the enemy dies. Ofcourse I guess my bad guys can use this tactic too but id reather not. Freindly fire is one of the tactical parts of spell casting dont like was that get around that.
Agreed. There are several rules/features in 5E that I don't like but Sculpt Spells (or whatever it's called) is right at the top of the list. It reminded me of playing Neverwinter Nights on the "non-hardcore" mode where you could drop AoE spells right on top of yourself without taking any damage.
Lame.
Odd. To me it seemed to counter the preparing spells in higher slots idea and to be much more akin to the AD&D/3.x way where spell effects go up with caster level.
The paradigm you're describing, and the way cantrips work, is how D&D spells have worked for decades. Having to use higher level slots to get those effects is the change, but it moves it away from "who casts it matters almost as much as the spell itself".
Preparing them in a higher slot in and of itself did nothing special.
If I see it at that price I might reconsider. WOTC has it for $19.99 US on their web site, though. An adventure book, some monster stats, and a set of dice isn't worth that much to me.
You might try Amazon.com. I have never payed more than half price for a D&D book when ordering from there. Even with shipping, I still payed $12 for the starter box.
Do you have prime, Jeraa?
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I like the sculpt spell ability because it shows that Evokers know their way around destructive magics. It shows that training steadily in the particular school has greater benefits than being a generalist. I'd also like to see what other effects are tied to schools.
Do you have prime, Jeraa?
Amazon Prime? No.
Also, Amazon has Starter Boxes prices as low as $12 (Without shipping) Guess I just got lucky. Still, that should be $16 with shipping. Not much of a savings, but cheaper than WotC wants.
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I like the sculpt spell ability because it shows that Evokers know their way around destructive magics. It shows that training steadily in the particular school has greater benefits than being a generalist. I'd also like to see what other effects are tied to schools.
I agree with the thought process here but I feel the sculpt bit is ultimately cheesy. I probably shouldn't say this but the no friendly fire thing reminds me of an element I dislike in video games. It just removes an interesting challenge of the game and makes it easier. I wish they would have chosen a different school for the PDF.
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Did they really intend that first level characters don't recover hit dice from a long rest? That section of text reads, "At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them." Since fractions are always rounded down, half of 1 is 0.
This is an error, which Mike Mearls clarified via Twitter. It should read "minimum 1".
I like the sculpt spell ability because it shows that Evokers know their way around destructive magics. It shows that training steadily in the particular school has greater benefits than being a generalist. I'd also like to see what other effects are tied to schools.I agree with the thought process here but I feel the sculpt bit is ultimately cheesy. I probably shouldn't say this but the no friendly fire thing reminds me of an element I dislike in video games. It just removes an interesting challenge of the game and makes it easier. I wish they would have chosen a different school for the PDF.
It's okay. The game is more lethal overall. It's nice to not have to worry about blasting your friemds.
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I like the sculpt spell ability because it shows that Evokers know their way around destructive magics. It shows that training steadily in the particular school has greater benefits than being a generalist. I'd also like to see what other effects are tied to schools.I agree with the thought process here but I feel the sculpt bit is ultimately cheesy. I probably shouldn't say this but the no friendly fire thing reminds me of an element I dislike in video games. It just removes an interesting challenge of the game and makes it easier. I wish they would have chosen a different school for the PDF.
I'd agree with you if it was something every wizard could do or any spellcaster could pick up with a feat. But since is a limited option from one school of magic, I don't see the harm. Every wizard who isn't an Evoker is still limited to picking carefully where to place their AoE spells.
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Something I haven't seen mentioned here regarding concentration is that it looks like most of the battlefield control spells are also concentration: Antimagic Field, Blade Barrier, Faerie Fire, Globe of Invulnerability, Maze, Wall of Stone, and Web. So a caster can have one of those going or buff somebody, but not both.
This really changes the tactical situation. Most of what worked on the battlefield in 3.5/PF isn't going to work in 5E.
Nope. You'll have to make some genuinely hard choices. That's a good thing though. Wizards occupy the top still in terms of the system overall, but that ceiling has been reduced drastically.
Something I haven't seen mentioned here regarding concentration is that it looks like most of the battlefield control spells are also concentration: Antimagic Field, Blade Barrier, Faerie Fire, Globe of Invulnerability, Maze, Wall of Stone, and Web. So a caster can have one of those going or buff somebody, but not both.
This really changes the tactical situation. Most of what worked on the battlefield in 3.5/PF isn't going to work in 5E.
The Potion of Invisibility and the Potion of Fly in the Starter Box both have a specific duration, despite being Concentration spells. It is possible scrolls could work the same way.
If so, that means you just buff the party with a scroll (which you wouldn't have to concentrate on), then cast your spell that requires concentration.
However, nothing released so far says anything about a scrolls duration, so it is possible it works exactly like casting the spell yourself would.
I suspect getting your hands on scrolls and potions won't be the simple matter it is in 3.5/Pathfinder and 4e. So I wouldn't necessarily count on being able to use that as a regular tactic.
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The basic rules imply potions and scrolls are about the only magic items in regular supply.