We could be heroes if just for one day!
Kender
No, I’m not going to link that image, yes you know exactly what I am talking about.
The most hated race in all of D&D is back, with fay flavoring. 5e really seems to like giving fay flavoring to races, it makes me wonder if we can give it the “FayEdition” nickname.
Size/Speed/Type
The only unexpected thing here is the 30’ walking speed. But that’s more or less in-line with the new race format, so was it really unexpected?
Brave
In a slight buff, this now also applies to saving throws that end the Frightened condition on yourself.
Kender Ace
So here it is, the solution for the major problem that people have with Kender. Instead of being absent-minded kleptomaniacs (and all the baggage associated with that), Kender now have “Feytouched Pockets of random stuff.” All of the items have a distinct glimmer that implies their magical nature, are randomly rolled on a table and disappear after 1 hour.
The random stuff you can get includes:
Like 30 temporary gold pieces, which is only useful for committing fraud.
A simple weapon of your choice with the light property. Which according to the PHB is 4 different weapons. However, if I get to choose the weapon, I’m choosing a magic weapon, because nothing in this power prevents that.
1 item of choice from the adventuring gear table, but only those that are 1gp and 1lb or under.
The best item is a sprig of mistletoe or totem to use as a druid spellcasting focus, and no, you can’t get any other kind of focus. The second best thing is a flask of oil or tinderbox, depending on how much stuff you want to set on fire. Third best is possibly the whistle or bell, to make a bunch of noise. Everything else is a container, or a downtime activity object.
1 random trinket off the trinket table. Have you read that table lately? Roughly half of it is a joke of some kind.
A Crowbar or Grappling hook, because the previous dip into the adventuring gear table excluded those things but they would be nice to have anyway.
1 Item of your choice from the tools table, as long as it’s under 10 g. Which forgoes most of the useful tools (But hey, maybe the artificer or bard can use one of them as a focus at least). What else is on the tools table? Vehicles, (un)fortunately the cheapest one is 15g, so no pulling a cart out of your pocket style shenanigans.
Honestly, this ability isn’t useful unless you randomly get one of the slots off the table that can help you in your given situation, which makes this power unfun
Here is a better idea, let them pull any item from any PC/NPC inventory within X feet as a bonus action. Grant a saving throw or opposed skill check for unwilling targets. The problem with Kender isn’t the ability to steal things, it’s how they are unrepentant kleptomaniacs that refuse to even acknowledge what they are doing. Being able to “grab” a healing potion from the bard on the other side of the wall to heal the downed cleric is a good thing.
Taunt.
The supernatural ability to insult, granting disadvantage on attack rolls for one turn. This ability is super useful, and it doesn’t fall into the trap of trying to make a “tanking” power. So I approve of it. My only change would be to make it grant disadvantage on skill checks too.
Lunar Magic
In The Name of the Moon, I'll Punish You!
While moons tend to be one of the big important sources of magic in most settings, I can’t help but wonder if this is also preparing us for more Planesjammer.
Moon Fire
Really, a WoW reference, in this day and age?
Anyway, Sacred Flame is a great attack cantrip, high accuracy due to ignoring cover, and the damage type is amazing. What makes this power really sing is the free “Twinned Spell” effect where you can also target a second enemy who is within 5’ of the first. That’s quite powerful right out of the gate.
Lunar Embodiment
Yo, WotC, are you trying to rebrand as Sorcerers of the Coast or did the lead editors take the day off before this was posted?
To start off with, you get 15 additional spells known, nearly doubling what a normal PHB sorcerer can grab. The table obfuscates this by putting them in three different columns, which would imply you only get ⅓ of those spells at a time. But the text does not say that. It just says you learn these spells at the appropriate level (Put a pin in that for later)! Furthermore, even if you could only access ⅓ of the list at a time, there is a work around at 6th level!
These spells would be great if you only got 5 of them. I think maybe Mass Cure Wounds is a placeholder because there are no other healing spells on this list and it’s really weird to start healing so late in the game. Also of note, Death Ward is a 4th level spell that you can get at level 5 for reasons!
Finally the reason you get the three phases of the moon to pick from:
While in the chosen phase, spells of the associated phase in the Lunar Spells table can be cast once without expending a spell slot. Once you cast a spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Which can either mean you get one free cast per day, or one free cast, per spell, per day. Natural language, why are you so ambiguous?
Lunar Bonds
You gain some fake free metamagic points in the shape of PB/LR uses that you can spend on spells schools that are associated with your current phase. A bit convoluted, and not every school of spell has a phase to benefit from, but extra SP is always nice.
Waxing and Waning
You can spend a sorcery point to change your phase as a bonus action. This is either an extremely niche bonus due to the Lunar Bonds’ “free” points. Or an engine of destruction flowing from Lunar Embodiment’s extra spells. This subclass desperately needs a second pass is all I’m saying.
Lunar Empowerment.
You get either a Paladin protection aura, bonuses to stealth and inflict disadvantage on attack rolls against you, or resistance to two uncommon damage types. 2 out of the 3 are great. I will leave you to figure out which.
Lunar Phenomenon
A bonus action control or teleport power that doesn’t cost other resources (unless you really want to pop another one off for some extra SP) is a great capstone.
Backgrounds
OK, so here is the deal. Backgrounds are just flavor, with an additional optional list of random character traits. There are rules for swapping out nearly every part of a background, so other than “Did they get the prepackaged flavor right?” (which in this case the answer is yes.) There isn’t normally anything substantial to talk about.
The interesting part of these backgrounds are the fact they grant free feats. This is not the first time WotC has done this, the same mechanic was used in Strixhaven. I will be talking about the feats themselves later, which leaves us with the question: “Are background feats going to be the new normal for 5.5e?” I honestly don’t know. There are a multitude of feats that are far too powerful to be given at level 1, which is part of the reason I no longer allow Variant Humans at my home games. However, there are also a significant number of feats that only shine at levels 1-4, and those feats feel like things that should have been given out to any character at level 1.
While there is merit in doing this going forward, it is also a huge blow to backwards compatibility. Backgrounds that aren’t from the MtG setting books, such as the adventure book backgrounds, are nowhere near this power level. Could those also be patched with a generic rule that applies feats to any background? Yes, but then we end up back at the same “some feats are too good for level 1” problem again. Could that be patched? Only with PHB feats, they missed the window for fixing that particular problem in the TCoE and XGtE gift set reprints. Which will mean either some feats are left out, or that those books get another set of errata, which I know I won’t be happy about because I bought the things a second time with the gift set.
In short, if background feats are the future, it’s going to be a problem for backwards compatibility somehow.
Feats
And now we get to the other MtG mechanic, feat trees. I don’t like them. Unless you get a feat for free (and not all of these starter feats are free) you are looking at waiting until level 8 to realize your character, at the cost of two ASIs. While trailing by 1 on all your main class rolls is workable, trailing by 2 is just not fun. And that’s ignoring the actual power of the feats. Historically speaking, feat trees tend to have substandard feats to start off with, as a “downpayment” for the extra powerful feats you end up with later. Over all, the mechanic just isn’t a proper fit for 5e’s tighter power curve. When Strixhaven did it as a hack to replace the multiple-class subclasses they were experimenting with, I just gave a sigh with the consolation that it was another weird experimental mechanic confined to a MtG setting. But here we are.
Anyway, I’m listing the entry feats first because they establish context.
Divinely Favored / Initiate of High Sorcery
These feats are basically the same, with the exception of the High Sorcery being tied to a Background.
They are a weaker Magic Initiate, the spell selection is locked behind a submenu. And you get only one cantrip. The only upside is you can pick your spellcasting stat.
These feats are exactly why I dislike feat trees.
Squire of Solamnia
This feat, on the other foot, is quite powerful, well maybe. This feat is transformative for an arcane caster, but a whole lot of meh for a martial class.
Medium armor (but not light armor) and Martial weapons
Advantage on staying on your mount (ok that’s not really common
Can use a reaction to grant advantage on a saving throw.
The rest of these feats are the capstones to their respective feat trees.
However, you are able to take multiple capstones that you qualify for, if you really hate ASI’s for some reason.
Adept of the Black Robes.
One minute workday is becoming more like a one minute workweek!
In addition to getting a second level necromancy or evocation spell, you can spend your HD to deal more damage. This feat is sooo baaad. The return on investment you get is pitiful, you spend 2 hd and get 1 die in damage, which is a caster hd so they aren’t very big to begin with. And it’s just damage, for one spell, on one target, in return for HD. Which are effectively only replenished every other day. Oh, and you can also blow all of your HD on this spell, just because they want to tempt people with bad ideas.
At least you can pick up Prayer of Healing to recoup your blood loss.
Adept of the Red Robes.
Why is this one so much better?
A second level spell from Divination or transmutation. But more importantly, you can just Take 10 any time you roll a 9 or below on an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. PB/LR uses, not HD needed.
Adept of the White Robes.
This one is also bad.
2nd level abjuration/conjuration. But also you can use an entire spell slot to reduce damage when someone is it and get -1d4 damage per level of spell + casting mod! That’s right, why cast Counterspell on the Fireball, when you can just ward one target for an average of 10 damage instead?
The variance in power between these feats that are competing capstones is just wild.
Divine Communications
A half-feat that also grants you two languages, and the Augury and Commune spells. To make this feat less desirable, you can cast one of them every 1d4 days, instead of each of them every day like similar feats. Maybe. The wording is sort of similar to the Lunar Sorcerer, so who knows what they meant.
Knight of the Crown.
Another half-feat that lets you use your reaction to grant advantage to an ally who is attacking the same target as you pb/lr style. The trigger is very strict, the target of the attack has to be within 5’ of you, and your ally has to be within 30’ of you. This feat could be significantly better (like ditch the pb/lr recharge) and still not break the power bank.
Knight of the Sword.
Here is the overpowered option. It’s like Resilient, but only for mental saves. It has a different name so it’s possible to pick up both. Instead of the stat bump, whenever a creature fails a mental save, you can use your reaction to spend on HD. You use that HD as a bonus die on the Saving throw. Which can change the failed save into a successful one.
This is a MUCH better ROI than whatever the Black Robes were trying to Pull. Additionally, it’s converting HD into saving throws, which is trading one defense for another. One of the few types of HD expenditures I can get behind.
Knight of the Rose.
Inspiring Leader, but a half-feat. So it hits half the targets.
dnd.wizards.com
