D&D 5E Lightning Bolt should be better.

[Mort]

Sure. Another improvement for 5e. Some people still talk about 5e wizards as if they have schroedingers spell though.

Well, a wizard can still be a swiss army knife. They just can't do it all at once.

In 3e, with easy access to scrolls, wands and leaving a few spell slots open, a wizard could make a rogue superfluous and still be a powerhouse in melee.

with 5e, the wizard actually has to switch out spells: so has to kind of have an exploration list, combat list, etc. It's a vast improvement, but the versatility remains (it just finally has some tradeoffs).

 

[Mistwell]

Another sample of how lightning bolt works. This one hits three targets, on a grid, using an angle.

 

[tetrasodium]

Well, if there were no tough decisions, that would kind of obviate the point of spell prep, 'eh?

I do find that there's certainly more flexibility than in older versions, and the addition of Ritual Magic freeing up slots I might have spent on spells like Detect Magic or Comprehend Languages also gives more options.

You can't cover everything, but you can do quite a lot.

The problem is that the niche of being prepared for anything was the wizard's bread & butter & that they can't do that because they can now freely split fewer spells that are generally a pale shadow of the old ones across their spell slots on the fly when before the question was what ratio of these two or three spells rather than if these two or three spells are prepared at all

 

[Mort]

The problem is that the niche of being prepared for anything was the wizard's bread & butter & that they can't do that because they can now freely split fewer spells that are generally a pale shadow of the old ones across their spell slots on the fly when before the question was what ratio of these two or three spells rather than if these two or three spells are prepared at all

3e gave wizards WAY to big a boost.

5e has scaled it back. In 5e they still contribute massively, they just can't "step back, I've got this..." much of the time like they could in 3e (as in they often actually need party support - something necessary in a team game).

 

[tetrasodium]

3e gave wizards WAY to big a boost.

5e has scaled it back. In 5e they still contribute massively, they just can't "step back, I've got this..." much of the time like they could in 3e (as in they often actually need party support - something necessary in a team game).

Problem is That it created quadratic fighters, made spells are scaled back to individually avoid quadratic wizards. made spell selection ultimately more limited to avoid quadratic wizards, tuned monsters in favor of those quadratic fighters & against casters to prevent quadratic wizards, , and then topped it all off with the mass overuse of concentration to prevent quadratic wizards if the spells were better and monsters different & spell selection were a bigger bucket. All of those things add up to far more than just "scaling it back" because they each raise the impact of the others. That's neither here nor there thoufgh & has nothing to do with how int+caster level prep spells has been massively overinflated by people in this thread like @TheSword pointed out earlier which @houser2112 was factually incorrect on once outside of a very narrow very low level level range.

 

[Voadam]

Another sample of how lightning bolt works. This one hits three targets, on a grid, using an angle.

Unless you are using the token method from Xanathar's page 87 in which case you missed them all by shooting the 5' line at the intersection between opponent's squares. Or am I misreading the rules in thinking a five foot line would be one five foot square wide and not two?

 

[houser2112]

I wasn't really comparing the 3E wizard to the 5E wizard, though. I was pointing out that the 5E wizard is constrained by his spell slots more than his prep slots. If you want to argue that his slot capacity is too low, that's a different argument than I was making.

 

[Lanefan]

Sure - any kind of summon is more useful in a confined space, as is stuff like Entangle,

Doesn't Entangle only work when there's plants around to do the entangling? If not, that's a hella useful spell anywhere.

AoE spells are almost always better because enemies tend to be forced into smaller spaces thus more get hit, Goodberry is broken OP wherever you are, Faerie Fire good wherever you are, I'm actually struggling to think of any Druid spells which aren't useful indoors/underground. Transport via Plants maybe? Plant Growth depending on how your DM interprets it maybe?

Faerie Fire rocks; it's a go-to spell anytime the opponent doesn't have magic resist.

I can't remember the last time I ever saw someone cast Goodberry - even though we do track rations! It's just not on our radar, for some reason.

 

[Mort]

Doesn't Entangle only work when there's plants around to do the entangling? If not, that's a hella useful spell anywhere.

Nope, the weeds and vines sprout out of the ground - they do not already have to be present:

"Grasping weeds and vines sprout from the ground in a 20-foot square starting from a point within range..."

 

[Mistwell]

Unless you are using the token method from Xanathar's page 87 in which case you missed them all by shooting the 5' line at the intersection between opponent's squares. Or am I misreading the rules in thinking a five foot line would be one five foot square wide and not two?
View attachment 135953

I am using the "Make a Template" method. You create a template for Lightning Bolt, 1 inch wide, 20 long. Then apply it to the grid as per XGtE (p.86):

Making a template is simple. Get a piece of paper or card stock, and cut it in the shape of the area of effect you’re using. Every 5 feet of the area equals 1 inch of the template’s size. For example, the 20-foot—radius sphere of the fireball spell, which has a 40—foot diameter, would translate into a circular template with an 8-inch diameter.

Using a Template. To use an area-of-effect template, apply it to the grid. If the terrain is flat, you can lay it on the surface; otherwise, hold the template above the surface and take note of which squares it covers or partially covers. If any part of a square is under the template, that square is included in the area of effect. If a creature’s miniature is in an affected square, that creature is in the area. Being adjacent to the edge of the template isn't enough for a square to be included in the area of effect; the square must be entirely or partly covered by the template.

You can also use this method without a grid. If you do so, a creature is included in an area of effect if any part of the miniature’s base is overlapped by the template.