D&D 5E ... and we have a wizard!

[Wolfskin]

Edit: Wolfskin and I each posted about "Keen Senses" at the same minute, but with different takes on it. Hmm. . . .

Yeah, fixed my post just after posting

 

[Imaro]

Not nearly as easily. If you weren't using the Builder, you still generally had a rather small and static list composed mostly of functional keywords.

On the other hand, Wizards and clerics in Next will have an ever growing pool of spells to pick from, and fall into two pools of Known and Prepared. At low levels, it's not a huge difference, but it grows rapidly.

Okay I'm confused because wizards spell lists in 4e also grew as you went up in level and as they released more splat books... I don't think you need to copy a separate list (with descriptions) of spells prepared so either way it's one list of copied spells... so I'm trying to understand what the major distinction is here...

Also, 5e spells tend to be a lot more wordy, which makes a difference, too.

Yes but I am assuming (if you are copying by hand) that you are only copying what is relevant to play...

 

[Kobold Stew]

A few observations:

1. Acolyte background. For a third time, we've been given a non-obvious background. Dare we hope for a rogue who's not a guild thief? That would be brilliant. I'm so pleased that they are leveraging the opportunities of backgrounds, even in the pregens.

2. Skill proficiencies. This character has five (not 4): presumably Arcana from Wizard, Insight, Religion, and Investigation (?!) from Acolyte, and Perception is now a benefit of being an elf (rather than advantage on Wisdom (Perception)). I presume this means that (e.g.) an elf ranger would have double proficiency i Perception -- Does that mean that they get a free skill choice? That would be unfortunate. (Though if the same thing is done for half-orcs and Intimidation, it means a half-orc Thug or Soldier would also get a free skill choice).

[edit: see above with Wolfskin and tuxgeo too]

3. Cantrips. As with the Cleric, there's a bonus cantrip at level 4. also, explicitly, Cantrips are not part of the spell book (and so can't be copied down, and traded like other spells; also presumably can't be put onto scrolls).

4. Evocation Savant. This is a nice simple mechanic for specialists that should discourage the "gotta have them all" mentality -- Evokers will have more evocation spells, illusionists more illusion spells. But is the stick (full cost and a few extra hours) a big enough stick to discourage a caster from copying down everything?

 

[Agamon]

Yes but I am assuming (if you are copying by hand) that you are only copying what is relevant to play...

Yep, my bro with his PC sheet proved that most spell descriptions can be boiled down to a line of text, and page number for more detail when required (which is not often).

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If Arcane Recovery is now any combination of expended spell slots equal to half level rounded up, could that mean that an 18th+ level wizard could recover a 9th level spell?

 

[Wolfskin]

1. Acolyte background. For a third time, we've been given a non-obvious background. Dare we hope for a rogue who's not a guild thief? That would be brilliant. I'm so pleased that they are leveraging the opportunities of backgrounds, even in the pregens.

IIRC, Rogue will have the "Criminal" Background. Don't know if this is a new Background or the new name for an existing one ("Guild Thief" and "Thug" spring to mind)

 

[Johris]

If Arcane Recovery is now any combination of expended spell slots equal to half level rounded up, could that mean that an 18th+ level wizard could recover a 9th level spell?

I would say so, by what is written. They do put a limiter on it to only once per day on a short rest.

 

[doctorhook]

Apologies if I missed when this was added to the playtest, but when did Wizards start getting d6 hit dice?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I would say so, by what is written. They do put a limiter on it to only once per day on a short rest.

Which existed before, but I remember in the playtest it was limited up to 5th level slots.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Which existed before, but I remember in the playtest it was limited up to 5th level slots.

Maybe someone used a wish to remove the cap.

Thaumaturge.