D&D 5E Basic already surprising us.

[kerleth]

So I was nerding out and reading Harbinger of Doom's blog and ran into an interesting comment. Someone pointed out that since initiative is a dexterity check, the champion fighter's "Remarkable Athlete" ability should add it's bonus to initiative checks, and that seems to be correct from what I read. If true I find it to be 1) flavorful and 2) encouraging. I've seen a couple of posts pointing out how horrible that ability is, and seeing something like this shows that maybe the designers thought these classes through more carefully than they are being given credit for. I know that I am going to make a point of trying to read these rules without preconceptions. It is way too easy to assume that something that looks similar to your edition of choice is exactly the same when it isn't.

So has anyone else noticed any unexpected rules quirks? Here's one I came up with. A strength based two-weapon rogue who picks up expertise in athletics can get a pretty huge bonus on checks to trip an opponent, and then gets advantage on attacking them while prone = auto sneak attack . Combined with the versatile background system it could allow your skill monkey to potentially have a very different ability score and skills spread than usual. Really loving the ability to make such customized and unique characters just in the basic rules.

Your turn!

 

[Ceylin]

Missed that one too. That makes it quite a bit nicer.

 

[E. Tallitnics]

A Long Rest of 8 hours can have up to 1 hour of interruptions and still be valid.

An Elf's Trance of 4 hours recovers all HP, spell slots, etc.

Using Darkvision means Wisdom (Perception) checks are at Disadvantage.

Thief's Reflexes means you get a Bonus Action on each of those turns.

 

[Jake Johnson]

As a player returning from a 25-year hiatus, having played mostly AD&D, I'm surprised at how clear and simply stated the rules are. The more specific rule supersedes the more general one. If you have an advantage, that's it. You don't have to spend half an hour determining how big the plus or minus should be. We're playing our first Starter Set game on Friday. I can't wait. We have a full table, and all I had to do was ask around a little.

 

[Capricia]

A +1-3 bonus to initiative is not flavorful.

The ability is horrible because in the same game where you can have a low-level common magic item that requires no attuning can triple your jump distances, they thought "jump stat mod extra feet" was 1. fun and 2. going to ever come up in a game. That the fact that all of the fighter's noncombat abilities are shoehorned into its subclass and that's as good as it gets. Trivial effects that are overshadowed by 1st level spells. Seriously, in the alpha phb Jump is a 1st level spell that triples the distance you can jump. So a Fighter with 20 strength can jump 25 with remarkable athlete. A wizard with 10 strength can jump 30 feet. Or at level 3 they can cast alter self and just grow wings. And as the fighter levels up, they get...an increase from +1 to +3 from remarkable athlete. So basically nothing.

The problem with Remarkable Athlete and the Champion/Fighter in general is that even IF you consider their combat abilities to scale well with level, outside of combat they do the same things they did at level 1, just a little tiny bit more reliable. Consider this. Proficiency bonuses go from +2 to +6, a difference of 4. A level 20 fighter can do anything impressive that doesn't involve hitting things with their weapon. Rogues too for that matter. On the flipside, holy crap can spells do incredible and frankly amazing things. The experience of playing a level 20 wizard is completely and utterly different from playing a level 1 wizard. The main difference for a fighter is that with how slowly their damage scales in comparison to monster hp, it takes them longer and longer to defeat moderately challenging enemies.

 

[Roger]

I'm not entirely sure how this rule from Backgrounds is supposed to be applied: "If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead."

The most charitable reading would seem to imply that my Cleric who knows Insight and Religion can go and take Acolyte, and then take *any* two skills... Perception and Stealth, maybe?



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Snapdragyn]

I'm not entirely sure how this rule from Backgrounds is supposed to be applied: "If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead."

The most charitable reading would seem to imply that my Cleric who knows Insight and Religion can go and take Acolyte, and then take *any* two skills... Perception and Stealth, maybe?



Cheers,
Roger

I would interpret it exactly thus. Apparently your cleric spent a lot of time eavesdropping on the other priests.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Thief's Reflexes means you get to take 2 reactions during any first round encounters!

 

[The Hitcher]

So I was nerding out and reading Harbinger of Doom's blog and ran into an interesting comment. Someone pointed out that since initiative is a dexterity check, the champion fighter's "Remarkable Athlete" ability should add it's bonus to initiative checks, and that seems to be correct from what I read. If true I find it to be 1) flavorful and 2) encouraging. I've seen a couple of posts pointing out how horrible that ability is, and seeing something like this shows that maybe the designers thought these classes through more carefully than they are being given credit for. I know that I am going to make a point of trying to read these rules without preconceptions. It is way too easy to assume that something that looks similar to your edition of choice is exactly the same when it isn't.

So has anyone else noticed any unexpected rules quirks? Here's one I came up with. A strength based two-weapon rogue who picks up expertise in athletics can get a pretty huge bonus on checks to trip an opponent, and then gets advantage on attacking them while prone = auto sneak attack . Combined with the versatile background system it could allow your skill monkey to potentially have a very different ability score and skills spread than usual. Really loving the ability to make such customized and unique characters just in the basic rules.

Your turn!

It was I who made that comment on Harbinger's blog, although I actually picked up that tidbit from elsewhere (probably an ENWorld thread). There are other implications for Initiative being a Dex check, though. For example, you can use Inspiration to get advantage on it, and halflings can re-roll if they get a 1. The Lucky feat that is being talked about in another thread should also apply to it, which may end up allowing someone to roll as many as three dice (pick highest) for initiative. Sometimes you just really need to go first!

I'm sure that the PHB will reveal further tricks that one could apply to Initiative.

And I like that there are now no d20 rolls in the game that don't fit into the basic three categories of rolls. (At least I don't think there are?)

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm not entirely sure how this rule from Backgrounds is supposed to be applied: "If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead."

The most charitable reading would seem to imply that my Cleric who knows Insight and Religion can go and take Acolyte, and then take *any* two skills... Perception and Stealth, maybe?



Cheers,
Roger

As a DM I'd rule you get the background skills, and then have to pick two different skills from the cleric list, since you have available options you haven't taken yet to choose from within that list.

But...I also allow complete customization of backgrounds, so it would never come up.