D&D 5E (2014) Is Xanathars The New UA? AKA A Munchkins Book

[SkidAce]

 

[Mistwell]

I agree that Healing Spirit and Rope Trick are similar in value, in many situations. Healing Spirit is also vastly superior to Prayer of Healing, in other situations.

Rational people can disagree between whether to cast Healing Spirit or Rope Trick, in a situation where either would be beneficial, because there are benefits and drawbacks to each. No rational person can suggest casting Prayer of Healing rather than Healing Spirit, because Healing Spirit is superior in every way, to an extreme degree.

So? Some spells stink. This is well known. Healing Spirit being on par with other 2nd level spells like Rope Trick and Pass Without Trace is fine. It really has nothing to do with the spells which stink.

 

[Ancalagon]

Sometimes, though, and WotC has admitted doing this with Magic the Gathering, crappy things are deliberately designed so as to make the other stuff look better. If everything is good, then nothing actually LOOKS good. The contrast makes good things pop.

This was very prevalent in 3.X, I think they tried to reduce it in 5e.

 

[cbwjm]

So people are saying prayer of healing isn't a good spell, I'm not disputing this I've just never thought about it. How would people suggest improving it? Change the cast time to 1 minute? Make it a 1 action spell with concentration that lasts 2 rounds enabling the cleric to use their action in round two to do the same healing again?

 

[Guest 6801328]

Not to get off-topic, but role-playing means that you make decisions as your character would.

Not to get even more off-topic, but as I always do when you make this claim, I refute it.

You may strive to roleplay this particular way, and that's great, but it's just one way of thinking about it. And a particularly poor one, in my opinion. First of all, given the complex ways people make decisions...often even lying to themselves about why they make them...I would assert it's basically impossible to determine what a character "would do". You may as well (which is what I suspect anybody trying to roleplay your way actually does, if entirely subconsciously) is decide what you, the player, want to do and then retroactively justify it as roleplaying. And that's not a judgment: I don't think there's anything wrong with roleplaying that way, and it's what human beings do.

Second, I think it's horrendously boring to repeatedly execute "Most Likely Course of Action" for a fixed personality. In any good story the characters evolve, and I like my game characters to do the same thing. I much prefer to come up with a couple of ideas for a new character and then opportunistically grow it from there. Something happens in the game, and I think, "Oh, I just thought of an interesting idea for my character..." and right then and there I'll (in my own head) flesh out his background and personality and then take action accordingly.

Finally, controlling your character in an entirely metagame/mechanistic way, with zero "acting", treating D&D as simply a tactical miniatures game with persistence is still roleplaying. You are still "playing a role" as a mage or thief or fighter, you are just not bothering with the personality/backstory side of it. And, before you get all high and mighty, unless you tell me that you describe every urination and defecation of your character, YOU are not roleplaying every facet of your characters, either. You are picking the aspects that you think are fun & interesting and focusing on those. Good on you. Now please get off your high horse, because really it's just a toy rocking horse.

Anyway, I have no illusions I'm ever going to convince you to stop repeating the quoted falsehood, but neither am I going to let you get away with it when I spot it.

 

[Mistwell]

So people are saying prayer of healing isn't a good spell, I'm not disputing this I've just never thought about it. How would people suggest improving it? Change the cast time to 1 minute? Make it a 1 action spell with concentration that lasts 2 rounds enabling the cleric to use their action in round two to do the same healing again?

Maybe if it let PCs spend hit dice as if they had taken a short rest, up to 1/2 your caster level in hit dice?

 

[cbwjm]

Maybe if it let PCs spend hit dice as if they had taken a short rest, up to 1/3 your caster level (rounded down) in hit dice?

Actually, I do think that the game could do with more abilities that allow the spending of hit dice outside of short rests (so far, I think there is only the dodging dwarf feat) so something like that might be quite good. I'd probably also provide the caster's spellcasting modifier as bonus healing.

 

[Gradine]

My experience with 5e is still very limited. We just started playing it and nobody is a cleric. I'm also going to start running a game soon to learn that side of things. I say that, because I've seen pretty much everyone say that Prayer of Healing is bad, but have had no personal experience with it yet. Sometimes bad spells happen due to design error. Sometimes, though, and WotC has admitted doing this with Magic the Gathering, crappy things are deliberately designed so as to make the other stuff look better. If everything is good, then nothing actually LOOKS good. The contrast makes good things pop.

To be fair, there is a certain set of challenge-seekers that derive great satisfaction from seeking out the “bad” or <shudders> “trap” options and finding ways to make them work. I once DMed a 3.X era whip fighter that was a constant thorn in my side. It did keep things interesting though.

 

[Maxperson]

To be fair, there is a certain set of challenge-seekers that derive great satisfaction from seeking out the “bad” or <shudders> “trap” options and finding ways to make them work. I once DMed a 3.X era whip fighter that was a constant thorn in my side. It did keep things interesting though.

I would often go with sub-optimal choices if the feat fit the character, but I never deliberately made a crappy character. They were all average or better, even with some sub-optimal choices.

 

[Gradine]

I would often go with sub-optimal choices if the feat fit the character, but I never deliberately made a crappy character. They were all average or better, even with some sub-optimal choices.

Granted, it's a challenge-seeking behavior much more typically associated with computer and video games, but I've seen it play out in D&D before too.