D&D 5E (2014) Sage Advice is back!

[Scribe]

Oh, I agree. I just think falling back on your definition of a word you used in an official statement would be poor form and may antagonize some folks.

We have reached a state where people who will be antagonized, likely already are, and will remain as such.

 

[jasper]

When did they make flight AL-legal for low level characters? I remember when the Aarakocra were first legal that flight was not allowed for AL play.

This season. What slightly ticked me off is I had a DM special due DM rewards which gave me flight. So my special PC is not that special anymore.

 

[Blue]

Sounds good to me. If someone wants to be a a squire of solamnia I certainly won't complain about getting Great Weapon Master or Sentinel at level 1. (Or even both - variant human).

They can avoid falling of their horse while I wreak havoc with the opposition. Seems fair. I may be better at slaughtering bad guys but they'll kick my butt at dressage competitions. They can even help me out when I fail a saving throw once a day.

Could you possible explain what you are talking about? Are you pretending like I am suggesting we are giving out a free choice of feat, or are you intentionally misunderstanding what is being talked about?

 

[Maxperson]

I mean all the magic feats are just gifts of new spells prepared with wide restrictions. This kills exclusivity especially with the weak mechanics in casters.

Are you talking about the background feats? If so, those are likely intended to be weak since they are free with the choice of background and aren't supposed to be like normal feats.

 

[Minigiant]

Are you talking about the background feats? If so, those are likely intended to be weak since they are free with the choice of background and aren't supposed to be like normal feats.

I'm talking about how

Shadowtouched
Feytouched
Adaptof the X Robes
Inititate of Lunar Sorcery

All can let characters know spells from different classes, destroying exclusivity. Which is bad because the base class features of most of the full casters are weakon their own.

Basically whenCrawford said feats are cleass features not bound to classes. Well for spellcasters, feats are duplicating their class features. Spellcasters are becoming blobish. which wasn't bad when you got feats at 4th and 8th unless you were human. But now, a feat at level1 is being normalized. If this keeps up eventually you will be able to get EldritchBlast/AgonizingBlast on your druid for little mechanical/lore/character cost.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm talking about how

Shadowtouched
Feytouched
Adaptof the X Robes
Inititate of Lunar Sorcery

All can let characters know spells from different classes, destroying exclusivity. Which is bad because the base class features of most of the full casters are weakon their own.

There's nothing sacred about exclusivity, or we have to ditch the bard for taking wizard, cleric and druid spells. Every other spellcasting class if you include magical secrets. We have to ditch the paladin for taking channel divinity. We have to ditch every class with extra attack that isn't the fighter for taking that feature. Multiclassing is right out! And so on.

There's nothing wrong with getting a tiny bit of what another class has if you invest resources to do it.

 

[Minigiant]

There's nothing sacred about exclusivity, or we have to ditch the bard for taking wizard, cleric and druid spells. Every other spellcasting class if you include magical secrets. We have to ditch the paladin for taking channel divinity. We have to ditch every class with extra attack that isn't the fighter for taking that feature. Multiclassing is right out! And so on.

There's nothing wrong with getting a tiny bit of what another class has if you invest resources to do it.

That's my point.

Spells list are being shared some wuch that if a class doesn't have a be core feature, the class itself begins to matter less. It wasn't a problem before as it didn't happen until high level. But due to the ways feats, multiclassing, and subclasses are now moving, 5e is becoming psuedo-classless. And this brings on the problem of characters setting on each others toes and DM maintaining spotlight balance.

 

[Nikosandros]

I know people who ran 1e monks in their 2e games, used 3.0 prestige classes on 3.5 characters, and ran warlords and invokers next to slayers and warpriests. I even know a guy who ran a BECMI elf in AD&D. If you don't mind converting or the odd corner case ad-hoc ruling, 5e and 5.5 will be fine. If 100% compatible is your goal, there might be issues.

Yeah. When 3e came out, I converted a high-level, high-powered hybrid 1e-2e campaign to the new rules. I broke all sort of rules and made up all kinds of ad-hoc stuff to preserve as much as possible of the feel of the characters. 5.5 doesn't faze me...

 

[Maxperson]

That's my point.

Spells list are being shared some wuch that if a class doesn't have a be core feature, the class itself begins to matter less. It wasn't a problem before as it didn't happen until high level. But due to the ways feats, multiclassing, and subclasses are now moving, 5e is becoming psuedo-classless. And this brings on the problem of characters setting on each others toes and DM maintaining spotlight balance.

That's a bit of hyperbole there. A few spells at low level does not even begin to move 5e to becoming pseudo-classless. That's like saying that if you move the minimum wage up a dollar, income is moving towards everyone becoming millionaires.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I suspect that pure and total balance between characters made with the 2024 revised edition and those made with the 2014 Player's Handbook will not be worried too greatly when it comes to the design-- seeing as how there's already imbalance between different options within the 2014 Player's Handbook. The 2014 Four Elements Monk is already considered weak as-is... so any changes with the 2024 is going to throw off additional balance.

Besides... DMs are already expected to take the power disparity between different types of characters and options into account when designing their encounters... so if we get additional disparities from the 2024 options, then we aren't going to be doing anything we weren't already doing.