New Sage Advice: Class Features, Combat, Spells, & Monsters

There's a new Sage Advice column up from D&D designer Jeremy Crawford. This month he tackles class features, combat (bonus actions; reach weapons), spellcasting, and monsters. It's quite a long edition, covering 18 questions in total, all questions asked via Twitter.

You'lll find the article here. All Sage Advice material is added to the Sage Advice Compendium, which is a 6-page PDF of questions and answers.

 

[abelmort]

The note about DM choosing the exact creature for a conjure could be a hit to the utility of those spells. When my party is trapped in a tree trying to escape the goblin raiding party below, 8 giant lizards won't be near as helpful as 8 giant owls.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The one which surprised me is the conjure spells ones, where the DM gets to choose the summoned creature.

AFAIK it has always been up to the player to choose the summoned creature, but it has also often been a source of mess, and easy to exploit. So in more than one sense, it's for the better IMHO!

Not always. AD&D conjuring spells were big on random tables, and the Conjure Elemental spell explicitly doesn't let you choose: you get whatever elemental is associated with the area you cast the spell on.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The added benefit to this, of course, is that since the DM picks the monster, the DM has control over WHAT gets summoned and from what sources. No more cherry-picking the various books to find the best monster for the CR/level, nor does the DM have to worry that the druid is going to summon some OP monster from some obscure rulebook anymore.

While this is true, it must be noted that there really aren't any bad picks for Conjure Animals. 16 of the worst CR 1/4 monster in the MM is still a steal for the price of a single 5th level spell slot.

 

[Remathilis]

While this is true, it must be noted that there really aren't any bad picks for Conjure Animals. 16 of the worst CR 1/4 monster in the MM is still a steal for the price of a single 5th level spell slot.

But somewhere in the future, there will be new and powerful fey, celestials, and elementals; and the DM will probably want put a limit on which ones the PCs can call in...

 

[Wrathamon]

If you have a D of a DM, DM choosing will be no-one will use this spell.

I prefer Random Chart with good stuff at the higher end of the table and you can modify it based on caster bonus.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

If you have a D of a DM, DM choosing will be no-one will use this spell.

I prefer Random Chart with good stuff at the higher end of the table and you can modify it based on caster bonus.

There's no reason you couldn't ask you DM to choose to use a random chart. Offer to make it for him and then let him tweak it. He'll be happy that he doesn't have to do the work; you'll be happy that you got some predictability.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

There's no reason you couldn't ask you DM to choose to use a random chart. Offer to make it for him and then let him tweak it. He'll be happy that he doesn't have to do the work; you'll be happy that you got some predictability.

I believe the D in "D of a DM" meant "dick." So, presumably, the issue is that if the DM is already out to mess up whatever plans you have, the spell loses a lot of value. Why would an adversarial DM agree to use the random table?

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Why would an adversarial DM agree to use the random table?

Why would you let a jerk be your DM? If he wants to be a jerk, he can punish you in arbitrary ways, with death traps and trick monsters and spheres of annihilation falling from the sky. So yeah, he can create a custom CR 1/4 monster which has the defense of a CR 1/2 and the offense of a CR 0 (i.e. no offensive power) and a movement speed of 10', and that custom CR 1/4 monster will be totally useless to you. And he will laugh at you and point out that he followed Sage Advice and DMG monster creation guidelines to the letter. So what? You don't have to play with that guy.

 

[Yaarel]

Re the elemental spell.

The player should be able to choose which element it is: air, water, fire, or earth. This choice is too thematic to be random.

 

[Mistwell]

The one which surprised me is the conjure spells ones, where the DM gets to choose the summoned creature.

AFAIK it has always been up to the player to choose the summoned creature

They should errata conjure woodland beings by removing the obey orders part. As if the intent was for the DM to choose the summons! Hahaha, no, that is a stealth nerf, and a poor one. Still better than nothing, perhaps.

All editions prior to 3e, the DM chose using a list or as appropriate. It's not stealth nerf - it never said the player chooses, you just assumed they did because in 3e and 4e they did. Some spells give you a choice, like summon familiar, and some spells just give you a category choice. The later is intended for the DM to decide once the player chooses the category. On reading the language in the spell, it doesn't imply the player chooses the creature - it just says the player chooses the category, and the DM has the statistics for what appears. I don't think this was a change, but rather a reaction to people asking the question. I think it was always written as a DM decision - much like a whole lot of 5e. It's an assumed theme of 5e.