D&D 5E Official D&D Basic Discussion Thread

[Agamon]

That is indeed how it reads. Unfortunately that means short rests are a bizarre metagame concept, because there's no explanation given for why stopping resting for a few minutes (even seconds) to perform a game-mechanic-involving activity would magically allow you to rest again.

There's also zero benefit to resting more than 1hr, so it's really strange to even suggest that it's still a "rest".

Except that you can rule that standing up and stretching is all that it takes to go back to resting again if you want.

My mind is boggled. You can literally run this however you want and what I'm seeing are a few posts that basically say, "Boo, I don't want to run it however I want. I would rather it state my terms exactly. Screw everyone else."

 

[steeldragons]

What better way to spend a sopping storm-filled July 4th than reading through the 5e Basic rules. I am ecstatic as a porcine in fecal matter.

Coupla nits n' noticed things so far...

Healing Word: 1st level evocation, Cure Light Wounds: 1st level evocation, Revivify: 3rd level conjuration?, Heal: 6th level evocation...Mass Heal: 9th level conjuration?? Spare the Dying? Necromancy cantrip?! Dunno if I'm on board (or at all follow their reasoning) with all this here.

Misty Step: a 2nd level mini [30 ft.] teleport. Definitely not on board with 3rd level mages getting a controlled Blink. We'll be blinking that right outta the game.

Really like the treatment of Material components being garnered through a component pouch (for the traditionalists, like moi) or a spellcasting focus (for the Harry Potter generation).

Really like seeing that Druidic casting will (or can) involve some kind of focus.

In general, loving the equipment list filled with all kinds of fun/extra goodies. The "Trinkets" table is full of fun potential.

Fluff material, in general, for the races, explanations of sub-races and classes are all really clear and evocative. The use of known D&D fictional characters in the examples are a cool nod/touch. Also, to reiterate, the nods to other classic D&D stuff in the disclaimer and such is good nostalgic fun.

All in all...on a strictly non-mechanics perusal, thumbs up.

EDIT: OH! And Thunderwave? (OP as a 1st level spell, imo) I'm no "physics has to work right with magic" proponent...breaking the rules of reality is what magic (particularly arcane) is for...BUT, that said, we know how sounds waves spread through the air. Why in the nine hells is the area of effect a cube instead of a sphere?! [yeah. yeah. I know. "It's magic." But...yeah...seems a simple/dumb error]

 

[DDNFan]

No.

If I have 1000 grains of sand in a pile and I add another 1000 grains, I still have one pile of sand.

You could drop those other 1000 grains right next to the first pile and call them two piles, because they aren't merged into a single continuous whole.

That's not what we're discussing. You can merge two one hour periods into a single logical two hour period called "a single short rest". No one is disputing that.

What we're saying is that, if you have two hours of rest, + one nanosecond in between of "non-rest activity", then that's two rests, not one. And there is no rule that can be added that is not worse than the problem it is trying to solve (spamming second wind or refreshing spell slots), that won't add very arbitrary and railroady restrictions on perfectly reasonable PC behavior.

They are going to have to errata this. The definition what consistutes a short rest does not refer to nor impose any restriction on taking multiple short rests, one after another.

 

[ExploderWizard]

They are going to have to errata this.

[Watto]

No........they don't

[/Watto]

 

[Agamon]

A short rest is a period of downtime of at least one hour.

A long rest is a period of extended downtime of at least 8 hours.

Using advanced math skills we can infer that a short rest duration is between 1 and 8 hours. Less than an hour doesn't qualify, and 8 hours or more counts as a long rest.

After one hour has passed, the short rest will continue until something more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, or tending wounds takes place. So if the party wishes to explore a hallway, and search an empty room, then take another short rest they can.

That is how I read it.

8 > X > 1

Hard to argue math.

 

[Thaumaturge]

They are going to have to errata this.

Nope.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Except that you can rule that standing up and stretching is all that it takes to go back to resting again if you want.

Sure you can read it that way. It's still bizarrely metagame-y.

My mind is boggled. You can literally run this however you want and what I'm seeing are a few posts that basically say, "Boo, I don't want to run it however I want. I would rather it state my terms exactly. Screw everyone else."

I can run any rule any way I want, Agamon. If you are going to keep making this argument about every potential issue with 5E (which it appears you may!), perhaps you should rename yourself Oberoni?

 

[Mistwell]

I read the rules and I am truly underwhelmed. This ruleset looks and feels really old-fashioned to me. We are back to almost 30% of the rules containing spells as class features for the wizard and the cleric only. Spells are walls of text again with fluff caked into the spell description (why is it important to spend ink on the fact that the ray of disintegrate is green or the beam of light from delayed blast fireball is yellow for example?). A look at the cleric advancement table with the spell progression list makes me want to cry (and not with joy).
HP are really low, even at 2nd level one or two only halfway decent hits will kill a wizard or a rogue. Hit dice recovery is very low at best because a short rest is one hour. My hero will need a really good reason to walk into a dungeon and come out alive.
We have spell components again, which I have definitely not waited for, really.
Minor unbelievabilities: a rogue's sneak attack works only with ranged and finesse weapons (you cannot sneak with a club or a handaxe or a longsword?) and the protection fighting style is for shield users only. Is this what D&D considers tactical options these days? Oh my.

So, this ruleset is something I have played a long long time ago back in the early 90s and feels like that, too. Been there, done that. Man, am I dissapointed. I kind of understand the bow to the old-fashioned folks. But this? It is definitely not for me. Those who like this sort of stuff: enjoy.

Sounds like you want the tactical options and character customization modules, both of which will be found in the DMG.

 

[Dausuul]

This right here is what I really don't like about the short rest rules. It's not that they don't work the way I want; it's that they're extremely ambiguous, as evidenced by the number of people with radically different takes on them. We should be arguing over whether the rules are good rules, not about what the rules are.

I also don't buy the argument that "This is a good thing because everyone can play how they like!" We could do that anyway. I was and am perfectly prepared to apply house rules if something really rubs me the wrong way. However, I don't want to have to write house rules just because the rulebook can't make up its mind. The whole point of a rulebook is to save me the trouble of making up all the rules myself.

Fortunately, rules ambiguities can usually be resolved by consulting Michaelus Mearlsus, the Twittersage. Though I expect today he's taking a well-earned break.

 

[Mistwell]

EDIT: OH! And Thunderwave? (OP as a 1st level spell, imo) I'm no "physics has to work right with magic" proponent...breaking the rules of reality is what magic (particularly arcane) is for...BUT, that said, we know how sounds waves spread through the air. Why in the nine hells is the area of effect a cube instead of a sphere?! [yeah. yeah. I know. "It's magic." But...yeah...seems a simple/dumb error]

Like magic missile is three missiles, thunderwave is three cones, only it's one in each of three adjacent directions, thus forming a cube? (I dunno, my attempt to explain it is a bit of a stretch).