D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Parmandur]

I don't see any way that it "works", unless you ignore half of your features and play like a nerfed version of either a caster or a monk.



So, basically nothing, as in my experience these things rarely if ever come up in normal play. Because, let us be clear, if you assume "a party of equipped heroes-" then immediately these "advantages" to the monk are meaningless. It is only when you actively act to unequip the heroes that this matters. And this is incredibly rare.

I mean, Paladins don't sleep in their armor with their weapons in hand. Monks do. And I have seen this make a difference in real play. Simple as that.

A 4E Monk does not have to ignore half of their features, they get more options for their Ki that give them Spells, a lot of them in fact if the party manages rests well. The true core features of the Monk are hitting good, and not getting hit, which the 4E Monk still excels at.

 

[overgeeked]

I mean, Paladins don't sleep in their armor with their weapons in hand. Monks do. And I have seen this make a difference in real play. Simple as that.

A 4E Monk does not have to ignore half of their features, they get more options for their Ki that give them Spells, a lot of them in fact if the party manages rests well. The true core features of the Monk are hitting good, and not getting hit, which the 4E Monk still excels at.

In seven years of running 5E, I haven't had a single player ever mention they doff their armor until I pointedly ask if they're sleeping in their armor. After I ask, they make a huge point of sleeping with a shield or two handy and extra drawn weapons. Players really are ridiculously risk adverse.

 

[Parmandur]

In seven years of running 5E, I haven't had a single player ever mention they doff their armor until I pointedly ask if they're sleeping in their armor. After I ask, they make a huge point of sleeping with a shield or two handy and extra drawn weapons. Players really are ridiculously risk adverse.

As they should be. Sleeping in Armor does bad things, per the rules. Not recommended.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I mean, Paladins don't sleep in their armor with their weapons in hand. Monks do. And I have seen this make a difference in real play. Simple as that.

A 4E Monk does not have to ignore half of their features, they get more options for their Ki that give them Spells, a lot of them in fact if the party manages rests well. The true core features of the Monk are hitting good, and not getting hit, which the 4E Monk still excels at.

I'm not saying paladins don't sleep. I'm saying "typical play" doesn't involve ambushing the party while they are sleeping. It happens, but it isn't even 80% of the adventuring day. In fact it may happen once every few adventuring days, if the party is highly unlucky. And even then, it is immenitly reasonable for a weapon wielder to draw their weapon as part of waking up. Leaving only armor as the issue.

I also reject your simplistic explanation that monks are only "hitting good and not getting hit" as that just frankly doesn't require any class features at all. Level three clerics are "good at hitting and not getting hit" too. But no one would say that is their true core class features.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not saying paladins don't sleep. I'm saying "typical play" doesn't involve ambushing the party while they are sleeping. It happens, but it isn't even 80% of the adventuring day. In fact it may happen once every few adventuring days, if the party is highly unlucky. And even then, it is immenitly reasonable for a weapon wielder to draw their weapon as part of waking up. Leaving only armor as the issue.

I also reject your simplistic explanation that monks are only "hitting good and not getting hit" as that just frankly doesn't require any class features at all. Level three clerics are "good at hitting and not getting hit" too. But no one would say that is their true core class features.

It is typical enough: random encounters at night are a serious danger to consider. And that is just one example, not having to manage weapons or armor, ever, while staying even is a significant logistical advantage. Having magical weapons without DM buy-in is huge. Martial Arts are very much at the core of the Class, and just because the 4E provides more Ki abilities it doesn't negate any Class features at all.

 

[Hatmatter]

Sure, they could make a different psionic class. But they already got sufficient positive feedback for the current expression of psionics, so I don’t foresee them taking another crack at a full psy class any time soon. Psy subclasses, feats, and spells aren’t broken, no need to fix them.

There is nothing in the current psionic subclasses that would be mutually exclusive with a psionic-specialty class. In fact, the current subclasses still leave a void for the psionic specialist who trains to refine his or her powers.

 

[Hatmatter]

this is true, but from what they've said in the last psionic UA, they pretty much gave up on making a full psionic class...

They actually never said that. In fact, in interviews, Jeremy Crawford has been carefully to leave the door open for revisiting the class concept.

 

[Parmandur]

They actually never said that. In fact, in interviews, Jeremy Crawford has been carefully to leave the door open for revisiting the class concept.

This is true, but I don't know if a full Psionic Class is in their immediate plans at this point in time.

 

[Azzy]

Sure, they could make a different psionic class. But they already got sufficient positive feedback for the current expression of psionics, so I don’t foresee them taking another crack at a full psy class any time soon. Psy subclasses, feats, and spells aren’t broken, no need to fix them.

To be fair, the Psi Warrior and Soulknife don't really count as they were seperate classes in previous edition (where they existed), and wouldn't fit a psion/mystic base class. The Awakened Mind could maybe be a supposed replacement of the psion, but it doesn't obviate a psion base class.

 

[Hatmatter]

This is true, but I don't know if a full Psionic Class is in their immediate plans at this point in time.

I do not know either, my friend.