Level Up (A5E) Question for those who have bought the book

[VenerableBede]

They don‘t synergize with the updated pdfs.

How so?

reads through everything except Extra Blast
*reads Extra Blast, p273: When you use Eldritch Ray, Eldritch Scythe, or Eldritch Whip as part of your action on your turn, as long as you make no weapon attacks you can attack twice instead of once"
RIP, ultimate GlassCannonLock

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any circumstances in which I would take Eldritch Scythe over Eldritch Whip now. If your #1 concern is damage and you want to be in melee, Eldritch Whip just became undisputed king.

This does, I think, make Eldritch Scythe and Pact of the Blade/Thirsting Blade/Lifedrinker roughly comparable in damage until level 17, however.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

This does, I think, make Eldritch Scythe and Pact of the Blade/Thirsting Blade/Lifedrinker roughly comparable in damage until level 17, however.

Yep. Hopefully people don't get to that level only to find out their Polearm Savant feat is now obsolete, and they need to ask their DM if they can retrain both the Thirsting Blade and Lifedrinker invocations on the same level up.

I think it was too powerful before, but I'm not really happy that now that heavy investment doesn't pay off.

My personal house rules make investment in features and investment by being in melee both pay off. I let Lifedrinker apply to the single Thirsting Blade attack you replace with Eldritch Scythe, and I limit Agonizing Blast to one damage roll per turn (which of course you will get along with that Lifedrinker). It's rare for me to house rule a Nerf, but after way too many hours upon hours of analysis trying to fix it in O5e, that was the solution that did it (modified now for A5e). It allows for synergy if you invest in every thing, balances the relative power of each choice with its investment, and as a bonus makes Eldritch Disturbance no longer lag behind.

 

[Timespike]

So I have three things to say about this topic:

1. Everything everyone else has mentioned already. There's a pretty solid feat chain available.
2. O5E subclasses for fighter and wizard should work just fine. We used them during the internal playtesting before the official subclasses were written and they were perfectly usable.
3. I and several of the other designers from O5E are working on a 3PP supplement that will have a lot of "gish" support. I've written a lot of material that supports that concept. Frankly, I hope it'll be all you require for all your fighting spellcaster needs once it's out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how broad and how deep the support for that specific beloved character type is.

 

[Waffels]

So I have three things to say about this topic:

1. Everything everyone else has mentioned already. There's a pretty solid feat chain available.
2. O5E subclasses for fighter and wizard should work just fine. We used them during the internal playtesting before the official subclasses were written and they were perfectly usable.
3. I and several of the other designers from O5E are working on a 3PP supplement that will have a lot of "gish" support. I've written a lot of material that supports that concept. Frankly, I hope it'll be all you require for all your fighting spellcaster needs once it's out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how broad and how deep the support for that specific beloved character type is.

Mind PM'ing with details?

 

[lichmaster]

I and several of the other designers from O5E are working on a 3PP supplement that will have a lot of "gish" support. I've written a lot of material that supports that concept. Frankly, I hope it'll be all you require for all your fighting spellcaster needs once it's out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how broad and how deep the support for that specific beloved character type is.

Ooh, this is interesting! Any ETA?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

They don‘t synergize with the updated pdfs.

Good to hear. What has changed. I don't seem to have correctly downloaded the updated version or it eluded my perception.

 

[Timespike]

Mind PM'ing with details?

I'll go ahead and post publicly.

Ooh, this is interesting! Any ETA?

Probably March or April-ish.

So first of all, the project in question is five of us working together, and there's a lot more than just gish support. We're still writing/designing, and we've got the following written up so far:

• 8 new heritages (more than twice that many effectively when you consider the "branching options" on a lot of them - think of the way dragonborn work in A5E with three basic types)
• 14 new cultures
• 10 new backgrounds
• 4 new destinies
• 35 subclasses
• 2 new synergy feat chains
• 2 new stronghold types
• 2 new follower types
• 1 new "standard" weapon
• 4 new cultural weapons
• 1 new combat tradition
• 12-ish new spells

We're basically done with backgrounds, cultures, and destinies. One of the heritages is likely going to be getting another half-dozen options, I have about 10 more subclasses to write up, and we're planning to add 2 (or maybe more, this is being discussed) additional multiclass synergy feat chains, 3 transformational synergy feat chains (similar the revenant, vampire, or lycanthrope options, but for different creature types), 4 more new follower types, 2 rare weapons, and around 20 new spells. We also have 3 designers working on entirely new base classes.

I'm handling most of the subclasses (3-4 for all of the existing Level Up base classes, including the Artificer), most of the spells, and all of the synergy feat chains.

So as far as gish-specific content, here's what I've got so far. I am going to keep it fairly vague for now, but here's what I've written up:

• Tertiary-caster subclasses for the adept, berserker, and fighter and fighting-focused ones for sorcerer, warlock, and wizard.
• A bunch of new spells that will be useful to gish-style characters.
• The new full combat tradition with 15 new maneuvers is specific to spellcasting characters.
• I am contemplating some additional synergy feat chains, several of which would be gish-y.
• At least one of those new base classes is pretty gish-y.

Those who like to mix divine magic with fighting will also be pleased with various new subclasses, spells, etc.

 

[Anselm]

March or April-ish

That's very exciting. Where should we watch to be notified that it's available? Are you folks self-publishing through dtrpg?

 

[Timespike]

That's very exciting. Where should we watch to be notified that it's available? Are you folks self-publishing through dtrpg?

You can rest assured we'll announce it here, for one thing. This is the core of the Level Up community. The same goes for the Level Up fan Discord. I'm not present on social media, but several of my collaborators are and I'd assume they'll announce there as well. And yes, it will almost certainly wind up on DTRPG at some point.

 

[Anselm]

You can rest assured we'll announce it here, for one thing. This is the core of the Level Up community. The same goes for the Level Up fan Discord. I'm not present on social media, but several of my collaborators are and I'd assume they'll announce there as well. And yes, it will almost certainly wind up on DTRPG at some point.

Awesome, so no Kickstarter or did I miss that above somewhere?