D&D 5E (2014) Official D&D Basic Discussion Thread

[Grazzt]

Regarding the bless spell, wouldn't it be "cleaner" to say it grants advantage to those affected? (I know the average/mean of advantage vs. adding 1d4 can be greater, but still.)

 

[Raunalyn]

Fireball now does 8d6 damage? Am I reading that right?

Flamestrike does the same damage for a 5th level spell, and has a smaller radius...

 

[whydirt]

Fireball now does 8d6 damage? Am I reading that right?

Flamestrike does the same damage for a 5th level spell, and has a smaller radius...

Fireball is a Wizard spell and Flame Strike is a Cleric spell.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Stuff about the wizard I noticed:
While arcane recovery does indeed have a spell level limit.
I've noticed they've actually boosted the damage on many arcane spells, Meteor Swarm actually does 20d6 bludgeoning + 20d6 fire damage now!
Permanency and that 20th level evoker ability from the playtest has been replaced with spell mastery and signature spell.

Fighter:
The champion fighter is really hard to kill at 18th level and gets a half prof bonus to all non-prof con, dex, and str checks.

Cleric:
Divine strike seems to have been moved to a domain ability, instead of something common for all clerics.

Rogue:
Sneak attack is now back to the 3e progression.
Rogues get blindsense, which actually does allow a rogue the ability to sneak attack someone in the dark. It was an issue brought up about the Rogue before.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Regarding the bless spell, wouldn't it be "cleaner" to say it grants advantage to those affected? (I know the average/mean of advantage vs. adding 1d4 can be greater, but still.)

Yes. But then bless couldn't affect characters who have advantage from some other source.

And it would auto-cancel disadvantage. Blind? Cast bless. Poisoned? Cast bless. And so on. Of course there are other effect of blindness and poison, but having disadvantage to all checks and rolls is a big part of it in combat.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Grazzt]

Fireball now does 8d6 damage? Am I reading that right?

Yep. Cone of cold does 8d6 damage as well. Likely jacked up to balance against increased monster hit points (if the ogre preview, for example, is any indication).

 

[Thaumaturge]

Stuff about the wizard I noticed:
While arcane recovery does indeed have a spell level limit.
I've noticed they've actually boosted the damage on many arcane spells, Meteor Swarm actually does 20d6 damage now!

The way I read it, it's 40d6. 20d6 fire AND 20d6 bludgeoning.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Grazzt]

Yes. But then bless couldn't affect characters who have advantage from some other source.

And it would auto-cancel disadvantage. Blind? Cast bless. Poisoned? Cast bless. And so on. Of course there are other effect of blindness and poison, but having disadvantage to all checks and rolls is a big part of it in combat.

Thaumaturge.

Good calls. It would be weird to be blinded and/or poisoned, and then bless takes the sting away.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The way I read it, it's 40d6. 20d6 fire AND 20d6 bludgeoning.

I just noticed that. It finally makes it a viable spell for something you can only do once a day.

 

[WayneLigon]

I like how some spells do more damage/more effect/more targets/whatever when prepared at higher levels. Prevents us from having five separate cure spells, ten separate 'do damage to a guy with fire' spells, etc.