D&D 5E New D&D Next Packet Is Available

[gyor]

Yeah the skill system needs to be restored to the last one, they bundled this verison. In fact both the fighter and rogue should be restore to something closer to the last packet.

Paladin and Druid are awesome, they need some tweaks, such as dumping alignment restrictions for the Paladin and getting your mount at level one. Paladins should also get more channel divinity uses.

Plus the universal fix needed which is levels 11 to 20 which is pretty much one big dead zone.

Rangers should are fine except they should add favoured terrain, but not at the expense of magic, they should just get it.

Feat should continue past level 9.

Deity Archtypes and Oaths should offer choices when it comes to channel divinity, with you getting more types as you level.

 

[Klaus]

- Arcane Recovery: how to take a potentially interesting idea for a new Arcane Tradition benefit, and turn it into a Wizard-mandatory feature that nobody asked for

I asked for it, as did the wizard players I tested with. It's a nice way to push the adventuring day forward without allowing a character to spam a spell every 10 minutes.

 

[Consonant Dude]

The way skills now work, tied to abilities, epitomizes what's wrong with this packet. Needless complexity everywhere, designed by people who don't understand what the game is about and how you can gain flexibility through simplicity. If this is the way Next is going, with the return of tax form-like character sheets, I don't want anything to do with it. It's been going downhill ever since the first packet and this one has reached a point where I don't even plan to create characters, much less actually playtest it.

And I maintain what I said a few months ago: these guys have absolutely no idea what they are doing. No clear direction, just marketing buzz and empty promises. Luckily, thanks to the OGL, we have all kinds of options from Pathfinder to 13th Age to all kinds of OSR games that are beating WotC effortlessly and provide a good base to fine tune whatever game we each want.

 

[Li Shenron]

It's a nice way to push the adventuring day forward without allowing a character to spam a spell every 10 minutes.

"Once per day, you can recover one of your expended 1st-­‐level spell slots during a short rest."

How does this really work with/without arcane recovery?

1st level
- (without) you have 2 spells per day
- (with) you have 3 spells per day but max 2 per encounter

2nd level
- (without) you have 3 spells per day
- (with) you have 4 spells per day but max 3 per encounter.

3rd level
- (without) you have 4+2 spells per day
- (with) you have 5+3 spells per day but max 4+2 per encounter.

4th level
- (without) you have 4+3 spells per day
- (with) you have 5+4 spells per day but max 4+3 per encounter.

5th level
- (without) you have 4+3+2 spells per day
- (with) you have 5+4+3 spells per day but max 4+3+2 per encounter.

6th level
- (without) you have 4+3+3 spells per day
- (with) you have 5+4+4 spells per day but max 4+3+3 per encounter.

For higher levels it doesn't change since Arcane Recovery affects only spells up to lv 3.

How does it really improve your game?
If the problem is having too few slots per day, why not just giving one more spell per day per level?
Or is the problem not wanting the Wizard to burn all her spells (the real, total value) in the same encounter? How could this be, when at level 3 the number of spells per day is already more than the typical number of rounds in an encounter?

To me this system looks an unneeded complication, that can make the difference only in some corner cases, because otherwise you can bet that every Wizard will always choose to recharge the expended slots at the end of the first encounter, because there is no tactical reason not to do so.

If the improvement wanted is to allow for a longer adventuring day, why not just dial on the number of daily resources of everyone?
Or alternatively, why not having instead a general (but optional) rule for recharging anybody's one daily feature with a short rest, or at least anybody's spells (other daily features might be more scarce therefore valuable)?

And why are these limits of one 1st, 2nd, 3rd level spells supposed to work for everyone? That only pushes the adventuring day a little, maybe one encounter (or less), and become progressively less useful, and pushes the day only for the Wizard. Why ony the Wizard needs this? And if that's true, once again why not just increase the daily slots?

 

[VinylTap]

The way skills now work, tied to abilities, epitomizes what's wrong with this packet. Needless complexity everywhere, designed by people who don't understand what the game is about and how you can gain flexibility through simplicity. If this is the way Next is going, with the return of tax form-like character sheets, I don't want anything to do with it. It's been going downhill ever since the first packet and this one has reached a point where I don't even plan to create characters, much less actually playtest it.

And I maintain what I said a few months ago: these guys have absolutely no idea what they are doing. No clear direction, just marketing buzz and empty promises. Luckily, thanks to the OGL, we have all kinds of options from Pathfinder to 13th Age to all kinds of OSR games that are beating WotC effortlessly and provide a good base to fine tune whatever game we each want.

Please stop doing things like this. You're not helping anything.

 

[Salamandyr]

The way skills now work, tied to abilities, epitomizes what's wrong with this packet. Needless complexity everywhere, designed by people who don't understand what the game is about and how you can gain flexibility through simplicity. If this is the way Next is going, with the return of tax form-like character sheets, I don't want anything to do with it. It's been going downhill ever since the first packet and this one has reached a point where I don't even plan to create characters, much less actually playtest it.

And I maintain what I said a few months ago: these guys have absolutely no idea what they are doing. No clear direction, just marketing buzz and empty promises. Luckily, thanks to the OGL, we have all kinds of options from Pathfinder to 13th Age to all kinds of OSR games that are beating WotC effortlessly and provide a good base to fine tune whatever game we each want.

Wait...what? The skill system is complex? Compared to what has come before? Really?

I have some issues with task resolution in Next, but complexity isn't one of them. This is dog simple. Pick 4 skills...boom, done. Skills correspond to tasks in the game. When the DM asks you to complete a task, if it's one of those 4, you get a bonus. If not, you don't.

Short of flipping a coin, I don't know how much simpler they could make it.

Wait, you're complaining about its complexity compared to 3.5?!

 

[Consonant Dude]

Wait...what? The skill system is complex? Compared to what has come before? Really?

I have some issues with task resolution in Next, but complexity isn't one of them. This is dog simple. Pick 4 skills...boom, done. Skills correspond to tasks in the game. When the DM asks you to complete a task, if it's one of those 4, you get a bonus. If not, you don't.

Short of flipping a coin, I don't know how much simpler they could make it.

Wait, you're complaining about its complexity compared to 3.5?!

Where did I mention 3.5? The design team talked previously about not tying skills to specific abilities. But now we're back to such pointless micro-details. And like I said, this epitomizes what has been going with Next ever since the playtest started. I'm just seeing more and more details that are completely useless to me, all of them intricately tied to each others and making customization more difficult. Feats are another good example.

 

[Consonant Dude]

Please stop doing things like this. You're not helping anything.

And you are by uttering condescending gems like this? They're my thoughts on the playtest. If you don't like them, feel free to disagree.

 

[Salamandyr]

Where did I mention 3.5? The design team talked previously about not tying skills to specific abilities. But now we're back to such pointless micro-details. And like I said, this epitomizes what has been going with Next ever since the playtest started. I'm just seeing more and more details that are completely useless to me, all of them intricately tied to each others and making customization more difficult. Feats are another good example.

The OGL is 3.5.

It's fair to say that your observation does not match mine. That's fine; we can move on. I'd just ask that you be a tad bit less hyperbolic.

 

[Kobold Stew]

EDIT: Has anyone noticed that "Casting in armor" does not specifically mention arcane casters? Does this mean that Clerics are affected also?

I think this is a slip. They've made a big deal of differential armour proficiencies among worshippers of different god-types, and this would undermine all of that ("Oh, you wanted to be able to cast your healing spell...").