D&D (2024) PHB Playtest Packet 7 drops Thrusday, September 7.

[Vael]

Listening to it now. The wizards' 'identity' being 'having the biggest spell list in the game' and this being taken as an unbreakable Truth says just... so much.

To be fair ... this isn't their takeaway, this is what they have gotten from survey feedback.

 

[Scribe]

I will praise it. Just watch videos of people wielding greatswords longer than they are tall. A halfling barbarian with a strength of 16 can totally wield a greatsword, but their style may look a little different.

Guts, but Halfling, the size of a SMALL HUMAN CHILD.

It will never not be nonsense to me. Which is fine, you do you, but I'll never accept it.

A Fairy with a massive Great Axe? No.

 

[OB1]

A Fairy with a massive Great Axe? No.

So much fun. I play a Wild Magic Barbarian Fairy with a Greatsword in my wife's campaign (she lifted the restriction for me) and I'm personally thrilled to see the change.

 

[Scribe]

So much fun. I play a Wild Magic Barbarian Fairy with a Greatsword in my wife's campaign (she lifted the restriction for me) and I'm personally thrilled to see the change.

See, I just wanted Fairy to be Tiny. Not a Toddler with a Greatsword who hits as hard as a 7 foot talk 300 lbs Goliath.

It's just a bridge too far to me.

Glad you enjoy it but it's a day 0 patch for me.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

The absurdity is a selling point for me. Also, there's just too many things to know where to stop at. As dragons can fly, and giants can exist without collapsing under their own mass, so can fairies bench-press orcs, okay.

I would not be opposed at all to a game where races had more concrete rules to them - fairies being unable to pick up anything bigger than a book, etc, but this game with multiplicative hitpoints is not that sort of a game.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the Wild Magic Surge ability is little more than a ribbon ability that introduces the concept

And that part is fine. What I don't like is all the rolling for little gain (again needing a 20 on a d20).

If they just want to do wild surges through tides of chaos that's fine, but having to roll a d20 over and over again praying for a 20 isn't good mechanics imo.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Guts, but Halfling, the size of a SMALL HUMAN CHILD.

It will never not be nonsense to me. Which is fine, you do you, but I'll never accept it.

A Fairy with a massive Great Axe? No.

We're talking are exceptional characters with training in class levels, not farmers. An adult halfling is not a human child. They have adult muscle-mass for their size. Size does not equate muscle. Go ahead, arm wrestle a chimpanzee (a small non-human) and see what happens. If the gameworld mechanics say that adult members of Small non-human species have appropriate lean muscle mass to be 3ft.tall and have a 20 Strength, then enjoy the fantasy.

I've seen 5'6ft.-tall humans wield 7ft.-long greatswords (and they aren't fantasy fighters with a 16 Str). I can see a 3'6-tall adult halfling wielding a 5ft.-long greataxe. They may not wield it the same way, but as expert warriors who train for their own survivability, it can totally work.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

And that part is fine. What I don't like is all the rolling for little gain (again needing a 20 on a d20).

If they just want to do wild surges through tides of chaos that's fine, but having to roll a d20 over and over again praying for a 20 isn't good mechanics imo.

I think the problem here is the expectations that it is a primary ability. It isn't. It represents the rare wild surge that you didn't expect (or necessarily even want if you are casting a spell in polite company).

The controlled aspect lives in the Tides of Chaos ability, as it has an ebb and flow built in.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

If they just want to do wild surges through tides of chaos that's fine, but having to roll a d20 over and over again praying for a 20 isn't good mechanics imo.

If you don't like the extra roll part, then don't roll? You CAN roll after casting a spell, you don't have to.

If you want wild surges to happen often... you just need to make any d20 roll at all for Tides, and you're good to go.

Now, I could get with the complaint that it's weird to have so much control over your wild magic...

 

[Shardstone]

I think the Wild Magic Surge ability is little more than a ribbon ability that introduces the concept (which is necessary), and that it is fine, because at the same level they include the accomanying Tides of Chaos ability that lets the Wild Sorcerer have more, renewable control over when they Surge.

Tides of Chaos says once you use it to get advantage on a d20 Test, the next spell you cast with a spell slot results in a Wild Surge (no d20 roll). Then it also says Tides of Chaos recharges the feature after that spell (this bypasses the long rest requirement). As long as you have a reason to roll d20 Tests, the next spell you cast recharges the entirety of Tides of Chaos so you can do it all over again.

Tides of Chaos essentially gives you a regularly rechargeable Advantage on any d20 Test (even multiple times in a combat) as long as you are willing to use spell slots that trigger Wild Surges to recharge it. This also means it is a rechargable Wild Surge. This is a very interactable mechanic. Maybe not for everyone, but for a Chaos Caster? Heaven. Controlled Chaos makes it even better.

Now how often can you roll d20 Tests without using Actions or Bonus Actions? Because this is the true limit to being able to Wild Surge every round, or every other round. Having a spell that lets you make attack rolls every round can trigger it easily.

It's a very nice feature, Sorcerers got some more enjoyable mechanics this round. Still a little too conservative imo (I preferred changing all three metamagics on a long rest instead of on a level) but the subclasses are more engaging now, except Draconic, which imo is very boring.