D&D 5E concentration in 5th edition, whats your fix?

[jgsugden]

... Then there are completely awesome spells like spiritual weapon that for some bizarre reason don't require concentration. It totally doesn't make any sense to me.

Certain iconic spells are better than other spells of their level. Fireball, Spiritual Weapon, Wish, etc... The designers have talked about the decision to put some spells and items ata higher power level relative to similarly leveled/raritied items to mke them more iconic. While not every overpowered spell appears to be intentional, some just are.

 

[neogod22]

The only issue I have with Concentration is how easy it is to fail the Con Save, due to the minimum DC: 10. I would much rather total all the damage taken in a round, and have the caster make a single save at the start of their turn. It's more paperwork, but right now swarms of mooks doing 1 damage each is super strong at disrupting spells, which seems odd to me. Having a concentration spell fail in such a manner (especially after 1 round or less), really sucks. Given that only Sorcerer and Fighter (Eldritch Knight) are proficient, IME it happens far too often.

Not really, if you have a CON of 10, you have a 55% chance of passing, unless you take 22+ points of damage. If you take the war caster feat, it goes up to 80%. A higher CON and magic items that increases your saves will bring these figures much higher.

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[cmad1977]

Since concentration works and in any a problem there’s no fix needed.


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[Arilyn]

Certain iconic spells are better than other spells of their level. Fireball, Spiritual Weapon, Wish, etc... The designers have talked about the decision to put some spells and items ata higher power level relative to similarly leveled/raritied items to mke them more iconic. While not every overpowered spell appears to be intentional, some just are.

This reasoning makes no sense. Some spells are more powerful just cause of tradition?

My pet peeve is suggestion. Now the GM has to decide exactly when the triggering event occurs? Isn't this the kind of fiddly bit 5e discourages?

With so many spells requiring concentration, it makes magic feel more tenuous and more like psionics.

I've just dumped the concentration rules, and I thought that I was probably making a poor decision, and would have to bring them back in some house-ruled form. Hasn't affected the game's balance at all...Now my players aren't actively avoiding spells with concentration. There's no more defensive spells dropping before they do anything. We don't have extra rolls during combat, Too much stacking is not a problem as there are just not enough buff spells in the game to worry about. My only real niggling guilt is the rangers' s Hunter's Mark spell.

 

[neogod22]

This reasoning makes no sense. Some spells are more powerful just cause of tradition?

My pet peeve is suggestion. Now the GM has to decide exactly when the triggering event occurs? Isn't this the kind of fiddly bit 5e discourages?

With so many spells requiring concentration, it makes magic feel more tenuous and more like psionics.

I've just dumped the concentration rules, and I thought that I was probably making a poor decision, and would have to bring them back in some house-ruled form. Hasn't affected the game's balance at all...Now my players aren't actively avoiding spells with concentration. There's no more defensive spells dropping before they do anything. We don't have extra rolls during combat, Too much stacking is not a problem as there are just not enough buff spells in the game to worry about. My only real niggling guilt is the rangers' s Hunter's Mark spell.

I'm assuming your game is pretty low level, or your spellcasters don't have the right spells or haven't grasped the concept of the nightmare you are setting yourself up for, because when they can cast 4th+ level spells without concentration, there will be no way to stop a wizard. Just off the top of my head alone, I would create a nightmare senerio with greater invisibility, fly, and haste. No concentration, no fear of spell failure, there will be no way to dispel or counter anything I do.

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[Guest 6801328]

Having run older versions of D&D I was a little taken aback by the concentration of spells that will require concentration. I am just talking about spells with the mechanic right now but may address other concentration issues later. As it stands way too many spells have this and not to mention the wizard has been neutered beyond what he should be.

Is it that your experience has been that casters are underpowered relative to non-casters in 5e, or that they are simply less powerful than casters in previous editions?

Poll results are telling. Sure, it's just an EnWorld sample, but I've never seen a poll here this lopsided.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm assuming your game is pretty low level, or your spellcasters don't have the right spells or haven't grasped the concept of the nightmare you are setting yourself up for, because when they can cast 4th+ level spells without concentration, there will be no way to stop a wizard. Just off the top of my head alone, I would create a nightmare senerio with greater invisibility, fly, and haste. No concentration, no fear of spell failure, there will be no way to dispel or counter anything I do.

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Sure they can do this all at once, but that's three spell slots gone at once. They can be really cool and dominate this encounter, but what about the next?

You have a point, but I've played with the same group for years. When we play wizards we spread our spells around, casting on buddies and not using up a bunch of slots at once. My throwing out concentration works for us, it's not really something I'm advocating. I think at another table, I'd probably keep concentration but get rid of the rolling after damage. I would definitely go through the list and remove concentration from some spells, and maybe even add it to others.

 

[neogod22]

Sure they can do this all at once, but that's three spell slots gone at once. They can be really cool and dominate this encounter, but what about the next?

You have a point, but I've played with the same group for years. When we play wizards we spread our spells around, casting on buddies and not using up a bunch of slots at once. My throwing out concentration works for us, it's not really something I'm advocating. I think at another table, I'd probably keep concentration but get rid of the rolling after damage. I would definitely go through the list and remove concentration from some spells, and maybe even add it to others.

I play AL, so I don't have a choice, but I'm glad it exists because, like I said earlier, it's a w way street. When you encounter wizards and the 1st spell they cast is either greater invisibility or time stop, I'm always glad they can only concentrate one one thing at a time. Not only that but, the concentration mechanic allows for the disruption of the spells too. But it is a balance, or like in past editions, wizards will be all too powerful at high levels.

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[ccs]

Given that my preferred edition is 1e, I don't see any problem with spells simply having a duration....

As the DM:
So if I were fixing this in a vacuum I'd just drop the concentration mechanic.
But I'm not fixing it in a vacuum. So I just let the players decide if they wanted to keep it as is or change it somehow.
For the time being they've chosen to play it as is. We'll revisit the question next campaign.
And as the DM my monsters are not hindered by this if I don't want them to be because monsters don't have to work exactly like PCs.

As a player? I'll let the table/DM know my preferences. Then I'll roll with whatever the group has decided.
It's just a question of do I solve the problem using x aproach or y.

 

[stoneagewar3]

My table finds rolling concentration checks for damage too fiddly for us. So we changed that part, we only make concentration checks when the attack exceeds ac by 5 or more or if the blow bloodied the PC (we kept the concept, I throw a slight penalty on them when they are bloodied, this encourages the players to avoid playing whack a mole, they are less effective if they are low on hp)
It might be more things to track for other tables, but we already do magnitude of success even with attacks, right on ac = half dmg, beat ac by 5 = max dmg, beat ac by 10 = crit, so we are just tying another thing to the magnitude of success