D&D 5E Another D&D Next Playtest Survey

Mengu · Jul 19, 2012

Sorrowdusk said:
If someone didnt check magic missle...................

I didn't. Magic Missile does nothing for me. Of the wizards I played in any edition, most of them didn't even have it in their spell book, only one of my characters, a Fighter/Wizard had the spell, and it was so I could reflavor it as hurling a barrage of hand axes at an enemy.

One of my notes for the wizard spells was that I didn't find damage only spells to be all that memorable over all. I want spells to do something more. When I cast a fireball, I want to see people tossed around and knocked on their asses, when I zap someone with a lightning bolt, I want to see them fly through the air and slam into the nearest wall. NdX damage, save for half is just completely boring to me.

Therefore, I have much fonder memories with spells like Grease, Glitterdust, Thunderwave, Icy Rays, Visions of Averice, and Bigby's Hand spells, than spells like Magic Missile, Scorching Burst and Fireball.

Herschel · Jul 19, 2012

Mengu said:
Therefore, I have much fonder memories with spells like Grease, Glitterdust, Thunderwave, Icy Rays, Visions of Averice, and Bigby's Hand spells, than spells like Magic Missile, Scorching Burst and Fireball.

Great points. My feelings also.

GX.Sigma · Jul 19, 2012

Sorrowdusk said:
On a side note............................

Why is at the end when they ask what your favorite edition is, it's possible to answer D&D Next when it's only in playtesting phase?

It was? Damn, I didn't notice. I would have picked it.

Sorrowdusk · Jul 19, 2012

Mengu said:
I didn't. Magic Missile does nothing for me. Of the wizards I played in any edition, most of them didn't even have it in their spell book, only one of my characters, a Fighter/Wizard had the spell, and it was so I could reflavor it as hurling a barrage of hand axes at an enemy.

One of my notes for the wizard spells was that I didn't find damage only spells to be all that memorable over all. I want spells to do something more. When I cast a fireball, I want to see people tossed around and knocked on their asses, when I zap someone with a lightning bolt, I want to see them fly through the air and slam into the nearest wall. NdX damage, save for half is just completely boring to me.

Therefore, I have much fonder memories with spells like Grease, Glitterdust, Thunderwave, Icy Rays, Visions of Averice, and Bigby's Hand spells, than spells like Magic Missile, Scorching Burst and Fireball.

It was always on my list. :hmm:

YMMV. I mostly just wanted to torment them with (force) lightning, set them alight with balls of fire, ash them with disintegrate, or Wrack then with pain. You ever plainshift a guy to the Positive Energy realm right after telling he better start cutting himself with his sword....knowing he'll be doing it for the rest of eternity???

My favorite spells were the ones I could ONLY cast on my CE cleric.

:devil:

Sorrowdusk · Jul 19, 2012

Sorrowdusk said:
It was always on my list.

YMMV. I mostly just wanted to torment them with (force) lightning, set them alight with balls of fire, ash them with disintegrate, or Wrack then with pain. You ever plainshift a guy to the Positive Energy realm right after telling he better start cutting himself with his sword....knowing he'll be doing it for the rest of eternity???

My favorite spells were the ones I could ONLY cast on my CE cleric.

WE RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gyor · Jul 20, 2012

Cerebral Paladin said:
I checked D&D Next. I've hit the point where I expect that a finished, polished D&D Next will be my favorite edition, and I've also found it hard to keep checking D&D 3.X (my traditional answer) because I think that D&D Next is shaping up to be better. Sure, it's not done and we don't have access to the whole game yet. But I think that what we do have looks good.

Also, if I were them, one of the metrics I would be looking at would be the change in time over that answer. If on earlier polls it looked like:
10,000 respondents
1000 OD&D
3000 AD&D
1000 AD&D 2e
4000 D&D 3e
1000 D&D 4e

And then it looked like:
10,000 respondents
750 OD&D
2500 AD&D
750 AD&D 2e
1000 D&D 3e
1000 D&D 4e
4000 D&D Next,

that would tell them that D&D Next is being fairly successful in serving as people's favorite game, but doing a bad job of pulling in players from D&D 4e. (Obviously, the numbers are just made up.) In a perfect world, by the end of the process, 90% of the respondents would be checking D&D Next, with all previous editions being pulled from well. Of course, D&D Next is probably going to be imperfect at that, but getting some additional numbers to look at in terms of satisfaction is still useful.

Very insightful.

Also to everyone that agrees with me that related spells should be grouped as one and upgradable thank you.

ren1999 · Jul 20, 2012

I didn't bother to finish the survey. I think the designers are missing the point. They're asking which spells are appropriate at which levels and which are the most popular.

I think that is going in the wrong direction. The designers should include every unique possible spell imagined and organize them by what they do and how powerful they are in relation to other spells.

For example, Jump should be less powerful then Levitate which should be less powerful than Fly. So they should be organized according to level as such.

Jump, a short duration, only a forward and upward limitation.
Levitate, a longer duration but vertical limitation.
Fly, the longest duration and no directional limitations.

Blink, a short distance, short duration teleport
Pass Wall, a longer duration teleport through a solid object
Teleport, the longest distance in the game

In summary, organize all spells and prayers by what they do, the duration, and the limitations. Then you can index the spells alphabetically.

This organization will also reduce duplicate and similar spells.

Serendipity · Jul 20, 2012

Something that surprised me was how few of those spells (for either clerics or mage types) I really voted for. Very few of the spells listed seemed 'iconic' to me. Only twice did I hit the max. number of spells I could vote for, with most levels seeing only 2-4 votes (and twice voting 'none of these'), the cleric moreso than the wizard spell lists.
Also, going off of my votes, apparently I think of clerics more as Battle Oracles rather than medics (which is interesting as I'd not consciously made that connection before).
I think trimming the lists down as well as reducing the number of spell levels (9 + cantrips? Do we *really* need all those?) would be a great idea and said as much.

Sorrowdusk · Jul 20, 2012

Serendipity said:
Something that surprised me was how few of those spells (for either clerics or mage types) I really voted for. Very few of the spells listed seemed 'iconic' to me. Only twice did I hit the max. number of spells I could vote for, with most levels seeing only 2-4 votes (and twice voting 'none of these'), the cleric moreso than the wizard spell lists.
Also, going off of my votes, apparently I think of clerics more as Battle Oracles rather than medics (which is interesting as I'd not consciously made that connection before).
I think trimming the lists down as well as reducing the number of spell levels (9 + cantrips? Do we *really* need all those?) would be a great idea and said as much.

I hit max myself, most every time and never chose none of these.

I dont think clerics need a trimming down, at least from their "core list" stuff. I Took heals to be self evident, so I did not pic many of them other than Heal and Harm.

Tony Vargas · Jul 20, 2012

Sorrowdusk said:
WE RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y'know, I loved that picture as a kid, it was one of the better ones in the old books, and one of the very few 'action' pics.

But, it broke several AD&D rules. You can't cast on the back of a galloping horse, for instance. And that zappy ray thing doesn't quite fit any old AD&D spell (which had definite descriptions).