I like the ability for multiple classes to impose status effects from this play test. The rogues feel like a bunch of neat tricks and I like being able to just use it with sneak attack. No extra type of attack and no extra dice pool. It's a wonderful feature
Gonna jot my thoughts down, feel free to point out anything I might be missing!
Oh, wow, some actually good capstones! Though some are still a bit disappointing...
I shouldn't be surprised they reverted the restriction on preparing spells based on the exact levels of your spell slots, but I thought that was a pretty reasonable nerf to spellcasters. I liked that change much more than the three spell lists thing.
Whew, they un-fucked Druids. I think this version of Wild Shape is quite reasonable. I'd probably allow learning a few more different forms tbh but this seems pretty fair.
Hmm. Am I missing anything, or does the Elemental Monk still not look very good? The 3rd level feature is a lot of text and good flavor to really not do anything that impactful, and the 6th level feature is basically a worse fireball. Happy to see they're aware it's bad, but I'm still not feeling it.
Nooo Quivering Palm nerf?? I loved that ability, it was so cool.
Giving Weapon Masteries to Paladin and Ranger was necessary IMO. They fundamentally play like martials. Though I do think pure martials should still be better at it.
Well, Paladin Smite spells finally work how everyone has been suggesting they should since 2014. I think it's a good change.
Hunter Ranger looks pretty nice now. While I still kinda miss the old multiattack feature (I just thought it was cool), this seems reasonable, and way better than the last UA version.
Steady Aim is back!! Probably because I told how important it was to me in the survey.
Oh wow, I really like Cunning Strike. That's a cool way to give them options in combat. I still kinda think they should have Extra Attack though.
This is a huge playtest, so there might be something in here I hate that ruins it all, but I actually feel really good about this one. A lot of the changes I really didn't like were fixed or reverted, and there's a bunch of new stuff I really do like. My outlook on 1D&D (or 5.5 or whatever we're calling it) has substantially improved today.
It's much more book keeping to begin with. It has much more work in most tracking and teaching. If we are going that route we might has well go full vancian and prepare spells slots.
Also in general the spells I want don't match with spell progression for prepared casters. I usually want more 1st level spells especially at higher levels. Also there are a few spell levels like 4th that have worse selections. I would prefer either more 3rd and 5th level spells. Especially for druids which have 1 or 2 good options
I dunno, I've seen a decent amount of players basically match their spells known levels with their spell slots already just because they feel like it makes sense; it's not really more bookkeeping because you're already keeping track of exactly how many spell slots you have anyway.
It certainly does force you to make choices that you might not want to otherwise, but spellcasters are problematically overflexible at the moment, so reining them in a bit like this felt pretty fair to me.
Heightened Metabolism is a great feature. It lets the monk get an extra short rest per day. This is great for the groups who never short rest as well as those that do. 1 minute is easy to slip in at any point outside of combat
I never realized until this point that the Circle of the Moon had really nothing to do with the moon. I am glad they added the moonbeam as well as the moon flavour
Invoke Duplicity just got good. The replacing of yourself with the duplicate with teleportation for the initial use is amazing. Moving it to bonus action makes it actually usable while casting spells. This subclass just got way better
I think it still needs a sentence or two added to address mechanically how enemies can realise it's an illusion etc. Most illusion spells say something about being seen through if there is physical contact. Maybe it needs an AC and it's revealed as a duplicate if hit?
The College of Dance seems awesome. It is the monk bard hybrid that I didn't know I wanted. The 6th level features are amazing and would be great for the entire team. Really mitigate damage by going first and protecting your allied from those fireballs
I skimmed the whole thing this morning but didn't dig too deep or to any math - that being said - I was pleased with just about everything I noticed. Looking forward to trying out a pet ranger again someday. Maybe I'll recreate my beastmaster/scout, seems like it will be more effective - and fun - in general!
Being able to change the spell lists each day really lends itself well to Circle of the Land as the nature wizard role. It gives it tons of flexibility and some great non-primal spells like fireball and misty step.
This is my outlook on prestidigitation, thaumaturgy, and druidcraft. To me they smack more of narrative abilities rather than functional ones and I both give them to my players for free and ask for them for free in games I play in.
Speak with Animals always prepared seems like such low hanging fruit I am surprised it wasn't added earlier. A great easy addition that won't change overall combat power but is quintessential druid
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