D&D 5E messy's 5e newbie questions thread

messy · Jun 9, 2019

similar to this thread, i've only just delved into 5e, having read every word of the phb up to the spells section (which i've only browsed).

let's call this post 1 of this new thread. without further ado, my questions from my initial read of the 5e phb. please keep in mind this is the only 5e book i've read.

2. why do we get stats for the underdark elf (drow) but not the underdark dwarf (duergar) or the underdark gnome (svirfneblin)?

3. why isn't there a skill for constitution? it could be called stamina.

4. i see there's different damage rolled when using a versatile weapon two-handed. does this mean the 1.5 strength bonus is no longer added to damage? as i recall, in 4e the damage bonus was a flat +1.

5. what happened to the paladin's divine grace?

6. why do characters get an ability score improvement at level 19 rather than 20? is this an attempt to avoid dead levels?

7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

8. why are the sections on preparing and casting spells so complex? suddenly, i'm longing for the good old days of simple, vancian casting.

9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

13. why don't fear effects target charisma saves? one aspect of charisma is confidence, after all.

14. do critical hits need to be confirmed? i see no mention of this, so i really hope it was dropped...

15. what's with all the omitted spells? no prismatic sphere?

16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

many thanks for all replies!

robus · Jun 9, 2019

messy said:
similar to this thread, i've only just delved into 5e, having read every word of the phb up to the spells section (which i've only browsed).

let's call this post 1 of this new thread. without further ado, my questions from my initial read of the 5e phb. please keep in mind this is the only 5e book i've read.

2. why do we get stats for the underdark elf (drow) but not the underdark dwarf (duergar) or the underdark gnome (svirfneblin)?

They had to draw the line somewhere and knew they had Out of the Abyss in the plan to fill in those gaps.

3. why isn't there a skill for constitution? it could be called stamina.

It’s a good question. Stamina seems like a fine skill. My question would be they just didn’t think it would come up enough to warrant inclusion. When you think about it, there are tons of skills that aren’t included. Also the core stats used to mean something different and have been adapted to this current purpose.

4. i see there's different damage rolled when using a versatile weapon two-handed. does this mean the 1.5 strength bonus is no longer added to damage? as i recall, in 4e the damage bonus was a flat +1.

My memory is two handed rolls a bigger damage die. Away from books at the mo.

5. what happened to the paladin's divine grace?

Dunno?

6. why do characters get an ability score improvement at level 19 rather than 20? is this an attempt to avoid dead levels?

20 is for capstone abilities. An ability score increase would be a bit underwhelming.

7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

because fighters have a limited palette from which to choose so WotC filled it in with ASIs?

8. why are the sections on preparing and casting spells so complex? suddenly, i'm longing for the good old days of simple, vancian casting.

It’s to try and balance casters with other classes so they don’t overwhelm every encounter.

9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

Again, to try and constrain these abilities so the characters don’t dominate the party.

10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

No, and no.

11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

You have a limited set of hit dice, and you can roll some number of them two times in an adventuring day. You regain half your total hit dice after a long rest. So if Bob is on his first short rest and has all his hit dice available he can roll up to 8d10s. that number of hit dice are removed from his pool for the day. If Bob short rests a second time he can only roll his remaining dice in his pool. Once Bob has a long rest he gets back half of his total.

12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

It’s not complicated, just more random. Others have done the probability math, but it does work out to a decent bonus *over time*. Players like rolling twice and picking the better (when they have advantage)

13. why don't fear effects target charisma saves? one aspect of charisma is confidence, after all.

Because they chose wisdom? Confidence (separate from bravado) comes from wisdom. (After all, imagining people in their underwear when public speaking is the wisdom to recognize that underneath everything we’re all just human)

14. do critical hits need to be confirmed? i see no mention of this, so i really hope it was dropped...

No. If it’s not mentioned it’s not happening.

15. what's with all the omitted spells? no prismatic sphere?

This is a new edition, they’ve made some edits. You could take this up with the editors?

16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

not sure what you’re referring to? Some homebrew effort perhaps?

many thanks for all replies!

You’re welcome, I hope...

ccs · Jun 9, 2019

messy said:
2. why do we get stats for the underdark elf (drow) but not the underdark dwarf (duergar) or the underdark gnome (svirfneblin)?

Definitely to sell you another book.
They're in the appendix of the Princes of the Appocalypse adventure. I think you can get just the player companion part of this on Drivethru or DMsguild.

messy said:
3. why isn't there a skill for constitution? it could be called stamina.

There's no need for a skill for every stat. Never has been.
Though I suppose if the situation seemed appropriate you could ask for an Athletics (Con) check.

messy said:
4. i see there's different damage rolled when using a versatile weapon two-handed. does this mean the 1.5 strength bonus is no longer added to damage? as i recall, in 4e the damage bonus was a flat +1.

It does exactly what the chart shows. Use a versatile weapon 2h, roll the larger dice listed. Use it 1h & you get the smaller dice.
There is no more x1.5 calculations.

messy said:
5. what happened to the paladin's divine grace?

Since you're coming from 4e you'll have to refresh my memory of what that did there.

messy said:
6. why do characters get an ability score improvement at level 19 rather than 20? is this an attempt to avoid dead levels?

So they can actually use them. Or get some more use out of them.
Consider; once you hit 20th lv that game is almost definitely over. Or soon will be. So what'd be the point of getting an ASI at 20th other than rules symmetry?
Of course you're not likely to play in a game that goes all the way to 20th lv in the 1st place.....

messy said:
7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

Perks for playing those classes.

messy said:
8. why are the sections on preparing and casting spells so complex? suddenly, i'm longing for the good old days of simple, vancian casting.

It's not really that complex, just maybe over written.

messy said:
9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

This is D&D. Other than in 4e there's always been numerous sub-systems. 5e has just re-named a few of them.
And these different systems make the classes feel different.

messy said:
10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

There are no 2h finesse weapons, so no.
No.
The property that you need to gain an advantage by using a non-2handed weapon 2handed is called Versatile. It ups the damage dice by 1 size.
I suppose that you could add a versatile finesse weapon to your games if you want.... Talk with the DM, expect most to say No.

messy said:
11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

Yep.

messy said:
12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

Somebody I'm sure will post about this/link you to some really boring (& possibly inaccurate) math debates.
In the end though? It's not important & works quite well in play.

messy said:
13. why don't fear effects target charisma saves? one aspect of charisma is confidence, after all.

(shrugs) This stuff was generally a Will/Wisdom based save in previous editions so I assume they just kept the theme for 5e.

messy said:
14. do critical hits need to be confirmed? i see no mention of this, so i really hope it was dropped...

Nope, this isn't 3x/PF.

messy said:
15. what's with all the omitted spells? no prismatic sphere?

(shrugs) Only so much space in 1 book? They plan to sell you another book with it included at some point?

messy said:
16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

Probably on the DMsGuild. It won't be official. Everyone & their brother can publish there so I'm sure you'll find something that'll work for you.
Unless you mean Unearthed Arcana articles. WoTC puts out playtest stuff under this heading on their own site - most notable are a few versions of the ranger as they tinkered with it, mostly to improve the Beastmaster.

Dausuul · Jun 10, 2019

messy said:
2. why do we get stats for the underdark elf (drow) but not the underdark dwarf (duergar) or the underdark gnome (svirfneblin)?

Because drow are more popular and space is limited. Those races do get stat writeups in other books, they just didn't make the cut for the PHB.

messy said:
3. why isn't there a skill for constitution? it could be called stamina.

I can only speculate on the designers' motivations, but my guess is they didn't want to make Constitution even more of a must-have stat than it already is.

messy said:
4. i see there's different damage rolled when using a versatile weapon two-handed. does this mean the 1.5 strength bonus is no longer added to damage? as i recall, in 4e the damage bonus was a flat +1.

No weapons get a 1.5 Strength bonus in 5E, regardless of how many hands you put on them. That's strictly a 3E thing.

messy said:
5. what happened to the paladin's divine grace?

It got moved to 6th level and renamed "Aura of Protection." And it affects all allies within 10 feet of you as well as you yourself. It's one of the paladin's most powerful class features.

messy said:
6. why do characters get an ability score improvement at level 19 rather than 20? is this an attempt to avoid dead levels?

Yep, that is exactly why. Each class has some kind of "capstone" ability at level 20, so they took the ASI for that level and moved it down one.

messy said:
7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

It lets them get more feats, which makes them more versatile/customizable. Most classes do that with spells instead.

messy said:
8. why are the sections on preparing and casting spells so complex? suddenly, i'm longing for the good old days of simple, vancian casting.

Lots of players really did not like having to track what spell was in each individual spell slot. At the same time, they didn't want to get rid of Vancian spell preparation altogether, since it is a long-standing tradition. So we got this sort of half-Vancian, half-spontaneous system. It actually works pretty well once you get used to it.

messy said:
9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

Pretty much everything boils down to "X uses, recovered on long rest," "X uses, recovered on short rest," or "use at will." This is a direct import from 4E's system of at-wills, encounter powers, and daily powers, which was designed to encourage using a variety of abilities in combat rather than spamming the same thing every round.

messy said:
10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

The only time there is a benefit from using a one-handed weapon in two hands is if the weapon is Versatile. Since there are no versatile finesse weapons, there is never a benefit from using two hands on a finesse weapon. If you really want to do it anyway, even though it won't provide any benefit... ask your DM, I guess.

messy said:
11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

Not quite. He can roll up to 8 "hit dice," where a hit die is 1d10+Con. He regains 4 hit dice on each long rest. It's kinda fiddly and more complicated than it needs to be, but they were trying to find a balance between 4E and 3E, and nonmagical healing was one of the big points of disagreement between those editions.

messy said:
12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

Generally, you can think of advantage as being worth +4 to +5, and disadvantage as being worth -4 to -5. It is a good deal more complicated if you really want to sit down and crunch the numbers, but in the range where most of your d20 rolls take place (where the base chance of success is around 50-65%), that's about what it comes to.

Do note, however, that advantage nearly doubles your chance to land a crit, and disadvantage makes crits almost impossible.

messy said:
13. why don't fear effects target charisma saves? one aspect of charisma is confidence, after all.

5E has three "major saves" and three "minor saves." The major saves map directly onto the classic Fort/Ref/Will of 3E: Constitution save = Fort, Dexterity save = Ref, Wisdom save = Will. In most cases, anything which was a Will save in 3E is going to be a Wisdom save in 5E. Charisma saves are generally used when someone is trying to teleport you or send you to another plane.

messy said:
14. do critical hits need to be confirmed? i see no mention of this, so i really hope it was dropped...

It was indeed dropped. The crit confirmation roll is another thing that exists only in 3E.

messy said:
15. what's with all the omitted spells? no prismatic sphere?

A number of spells got merged or renamed. For instance, there is now only one Bigby's hand spell. Each round, you decide whether it should be a Clenched Fist, Interposing Hand, or whatever. Prismatic sphere was folded into prismatic wall - when you cast prismatic wall, you can choose whether to make it a flat pane or a sphere.

messy said:
16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

Not sure what you mean by this. Are you looking for the PHB errata?

Harzel · Jun 10, 2019

messy said:
7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

I've never seen a definite explanation from the authors. For fighters, I guess I've always figured they just couldn't think of anything better (which sounds a bit lame when you admit it explicitly). For rogues I guess it sort of goes along with their characterization as skill monkeys.

9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

So everything isn't samey, samey? Sorry, that is probably a little rude. I certainly remember a time when I preferred everything to be as regularized and as amenable to analysis as possible. I still feel that way about many things, such as dealings with business and government. For instance, I deeply resent insurance companies and many financial instruments. However, in a game, I now definitely love me some idiosyncrasy. I would much rather a game system be so irregular, situational, and full of different mechanisms as to defy analysis. As with everything, of course, it is possible to go overboard and wind up with something that is just too hard to learn and use. But for my taste, 5e is in a pretty good place on this continuum.

10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

Just to reiterate what others have said in slightly different words - each weapon has a list of properties. A weapon that has the two-handed property must be used with two hands; all others can be used with one hand. A weapon that has the versatile property can be used one-handed, but does more damage if used two-handed. Weapons that have neither of these properties could be used two-handed in the sense that there is no rules reason to forbid it, but RAW it would confer no benefit.

11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

Again, just to restate what others have said - "hit dice" that can rolled for healing at the end of a short rest are a pool resource. You start out with a number of these hit dice equal to your level and deplete your supply as you roll them to heal. At the end of a long rest, you get back a number of hit dice equal to your level divided by 2 rounded down, but with a minimum of 1.

So if Bob starts out fully recharged with 8 hit dice and then uses, say, 2 on one short rest and 4 on his next short rest (before a long rest), then he will have 2 hit dice remaining. If Bob then takes a long rest, at the end of the long rest he will regain 4 hit dice, bringing the number he has to use to 6. If he had only used 2 before the long rest, then at the end of the long rest he would have been back up to his full complement of 8.

And I really wish they had picked a term more evocative of their use, such as "recovery dice".

12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

Here I will diverge from some other commenters. It is more complicated. The "equivalent" +/- benefit (for some definition of equivalent) depends on the target roll you need to achieve. It varies from +1/-1 when the target roll is very high or very low to +5/-5 when the target roll is 11. So I usually think of it as sorta, kinda +4/-4.

However, I really don't think about what the equivalence is all that often and you won't need to either. RAW never gives you a choice between a +/- and advantage/disadvantage. If as DM I want to confer a minor bonus/deficit I use +/- 1 or 2; if major, then I use advantage/disadvantage and I just don't worry about whether it is in some sense equivalent to 3, 4, or 5.

16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

I don't know of anything from WoTC; there's lots of 3rd party stuff on DMsGuild.

many thanks for all replies!

YW.

ad_hoc · Jun 10, 2019

My #1 advice for new players to 5e is to forget everything you know about previous editions.

5e is its own game. If you try to bring in old rules you will confuse yourself.

Try playing it for a while too before introducing house rules. It is not as complex or convoluted as it reads. The rules are designed to be intuitive and that guessing at them is usually right.

This backfires if your guess is based on previous editions though. I find players new to D&D have an easier time learning it than players from 3e for example.

Shiroiken · Jun 10, 2019

2. why do we get stats for the underdark elf (drow) but not the underdark dwarf (duergar) or the underdark gnome (svirfneblin)?

Because there are people obsessed with the Drow due to the popularity of Drizzt. Additionally, Drow became more common on the surface in the Forgotten Realms (the focused setting when 5E was released) during the 4E era.

3. why isn't there a skill for constitution? it could be called stamina.

There is an optional rule to use different ability scores with skills that would cover this. A Constitution (Athletics) check would serve the exact same function, but be more useful overall.

4. i see there's different damage rolled when using a versatile weapon two-handed. does this mean the 1.5 strength bonus is no longer added to damage? as i recall, in 4e the damage bonus was a flat +1.

One of the hardest things about 5E for many players is to let go of previous edition concepts. There is no bonus for using a weapon two handed, except versatile weapons which use a higher damage die.

5. what happened to the paladin's divine grace?

It's gone. They now have an aura at 6th level that does basically the same thing, but also helps your allies.

6. why do characters get an ability score improvement at level 19 rather than 20? is this an attempt to avoid dead levels?

Pretty much, yes. Dead levels are decidedly no fun, and even though most games will never get to that point, they didn't want to leave it empty.

7. why do fighters get 2 extra ability score improvements (at levels 6 and 14) and rogues get 1 extra (at level 10)?

Balance. Rather than getting extra abilities, they decided to give them more ASI instead. This is particularly useful for Fighters if your game uses Feats.

8. why are the sections on preparing and casting spells so complex? suddenly, i'm longing for the good old days of simple, vancian casting.

The spell system is much simpler than it looks. You have a number of spell slots per day. You can use a spell slot on any spell you have prepared or known, so long as the slot is at least the level of the spell. Think of it as everyone being a 3E sorcerer.

9. why are there so many different ability-use systems (at will, regain after short rest, regain after short rest or long rest, point pool use, superiority dice, etc.)?

Pretty everything boils down to: at will, short rest, and long rest abilities. At will abilities (such as cantrips) are generally weaker than every other option, and are generally the default actions used. Short rest abilities are stronger, but you're only expected to use them 2-3 times per day. Long rest abilities are basically once per day abilities. Some classes focus on at will, like fighters and rogues, some on short rest, like monks and warlocks, and other on long rest, such as sorcerers and wizards.

10. can finesse weapons be used two-handed? would there be any benefit?

The assumption is that you can't really use a finesse weapon two handed, and even if you figured out some way to do so, there's no benefit for it.

11. i'm a little confused about short rest healing. let's say bob the 8th level fighter takes a short rest. he can roll 8d10 healing during this rest, and these dice are replenished after a long rest. is that correct?

Don't forget to add your Con modifier to each die spent. Also, you only recover half your HD (round down, minimum 1). HD are a great boost of extra healing, but they don't last long during extended adventuring.

12. what's the math behind advantage/disadvantage? does it correspond to a simple +2/-2? or is it way more complicated than that?

Much more complicated. It's a bell curve, where if you need to roll a 10, it's the equivalent of a +/- 5. The higher or lower you need, the less of an impact it has, down to about a 1-2 modifier equivalent.

13. why don't fear effects target charisma saves? one aspect of charisma is confidence, after all.

Because instead of spreading out the saving throws evenly to all 6 abilities, they decided to keep 3 "good" saves and 3 "weak" saves, where every character gets one of each. It's a carry over from 3E and 4E, and I personally feel it was a huge mistake.

14. do critical hits need to be confirmed? i see no mention of this, so i really hope it was dropped...

A roll of a 20 on an attack roll is a critical hit, which deals double damage dice. Don't forget that "rider" damage, such as sneak attack and smite, are doubled, but secondary affects, like poison that has a save, are not. Easiest way to think of it is anything that is "save for half damage" isn't doubled.

15. what's with all the omitted spells? no prismatic sphere?

There was only so much room, and a lot of spells were cut. There is a 3PP that tries to fill in the gaps, but my group feels the balance of these are off.

16. i've heard there is a pdf of revised classes available for download somewhere. where can this be found?

They made various attempts to revise the Ranger, since it seems to fall behind the curve of the other classes. Eventually they've given up, and decided to leave it as it is. They still exist in the Unearthed Arcana section of Wizards website, but they are not considered official use, as they were playtest versions.

messy · Jun 23, 2019

robus said:
not sure what you’re referring to? Some homebrew effort perhaps?

ccs said:
Probably on the DMsGuild. It won't be official. Everyone & their brother can publish there so I'm sure you'll find something that'll work for you.
Unless you mean Unearthed Arcana articles. WoTC puts out playtest stuff under this heading on their own site - most notable are a few versions of the ranger as they tinkered with it, mostly to improve the Beastmaster.

Dausuul said:
Not sure what you mean by this. Are you looking for the PHB errata?

ccs is closest to what i mean. i heard there was a revised beastmaster ranger (and a few other classes; possibly the four elements monk?) posted by wotc, presumably to make these classes a little stronger.

17. why was mage armor changed to +3? is this part of bounded accuracy?

18. where are the magic item creation rules? in the dmg?

Ovinomancer · Jun 23, 2019

messy said:
ccs is closest to what i mean. i heard there was a revised beastmaster ranger (and a few other classes; possibly the four elements monk?) posted by wotc, presumably to make these classes a little stronger.

17. why was mage armor changed to +3? is this part of bounded accuracy?

18. where are the magic item creation rules? in the dmg?

17. It wasn't changed to +3. Be mindful that 5e has changed how ACs work from everything being bonuses to different formulas. Magic armor is a formula that sets AC to 13+Dex. If you use Barbarian Unarmored Defense, that formula is 10+Dex+Con. You can (theoretically) cast Mage Armor on a Barbarian, but then the Barb has to choose which formula to use -- they don't stack.

Some things, like shields or rings, are straight pluses and just add to AC. Armors, Unarmored Defense, and many spells all use different formulas.

18. There aren't any. Make your own or look around for some you like.

Xaelvaen · Jun 23, 2019

messy said:
18. where are the magic item creation rules? in the dmg?

There aren't any creation rules, so to speak, but there's some easy to access information to help get a good feel for how to do this.

In the DMG, page 128, there is a Downtime Activity for crafting magic items. While it doesn't help you, as a DM, choose what goes on a magic item, it does give you a guideline based on rarity, with a price for said magic items.

There is also a pdf out there called 'Sane Magic Item Prices' or something along the lines, with player rebalanced cost of magic items, weighted for function in combat.

On top of that, I'd recommend taking a look at D&D Beyond. Here, you can see other player made magic items. The ones that are horribly flawed or right-out don't get many positive reviews, so you can filter the types of player-created magic items, and try to compare your own efforts to create magic items. Also, the template to -make- magic items on D&D Beyond is pretty cool.

Overall, though, it's suggested to look at sample magic items that already exist, and try to gauge how your own compare.