D&D 5E Is Tasha's Broken?

[Willie the Duck]

Tasha's has stuff in it I don't like, both too high (Twilight Cleric, the save-DC-boosters Ondath mentions) and too low (soulknife). On the other hand, Xanathars had Hexblade and Storm Sorcerer, SCAG had bladesinger and battlerager, and PHB had Zealot and Moon Druid (and Witchbolt and True Strike and Simulacrum and Force Cage and sorcadins and two weapon fighting and one-handed quarterstaves with shields and PAM and...). There isn't a time in the edition's lifespan where good balance actually existed (just 'better balance than _____' and 'worst balance than _____'). If you include the Eberron, MtG, and Acquisitions Incorporated books, things go even farther off the rails.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong if they don't like Tasha's. I find it an exceedingly hit-or-miss book. However, what I don't think it is is especially unique or unusual in that regard.

Edit: For me, the measure of a book is: What does it add or facilitate? Tasha's lets players in my groups: play rangers without feeling like they are fighting the game all the way to do so, play monks even if you aren't an expert on action economy and tactical thinking, play psionic theme-able character types, play fae-aligned non-cha-based classes, play sorcerers without having to weigh every spell-known choice for hours during level-up, play an interesting magic-themed fighter that doesn't mostly just cast shield, and play races against type. All these are positives. To the negative, I or the other DM have to watch out for the occasional OP situation, but again that didn't start with Tasha's so it isn't much of an additional burden.

 

[TwoSix]

Nah. Even the vaunted twilight cleric, while assuredly the strongest overall cleric subclass, is only particularly strong against a mob of melee mooks. Ranged attacks allowing for easy focus-fire or strong hitting single monsters make its primary strong ability much less overwhelming.

The racial flexibility rules have been a godsend, and the class variants have boosted a lot of classes that needed boosting. The new summon spells have made summoning types (a very popular archetype at my table) useful without the "8 wolves, go!" play-slowing shenanigans.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Anyway that's just me. Your thoughts?

Totally agree. Much of it is not useable unless you want a higher-power game IMO. Of course, much of it has merit in fluff/theme, just not design--which has too much power creep for me.

 

[Minigiant]

I believe it is meant to be the opposite of the Light Cleric, but without the implication of it being an "evil" subclass had they called it the Darkness Domain cleric or Night Domain cleric (not that those are inherently evil, but there are enough evil stuff in the darkness and at night that it could be misinterpreted). Basically the subclass for all the moon deities and the like. And because there already is the druid's Circle of the Moon they probably didn't want to cause confusion by calling it the Moon Domain either.

Is it the greatest name for deities of the moon? Not particularly, in my opinion... but it was probably the best they could decide on.

Not even really

Twilight is like the illegitimate child of Moon and Protection domains. It's an example of 5e's "just refluff it" and "few releases" aspects going wrong. A subclass doing double duty on an top tier classes just to produce content.

Twilight should have been just Nonevil Night/Moon/Dark domain and make a separate domain for Protection.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

If you remember 1e, then you remember Unearthed Arcana. To me, Tasha's is a lot like UA.

When it was first released, people mostly OOOH and AAAH about all the cool new options. Because hey, everyone likes new stuff. Everyone loves it when there are new options, new possibilities.

And, in fairness, UA did start to address some issues that were there in the underlying material - things like racial level limits.

Problem was, the more people actually played with UA, the more they quickly realized that it completely destabilized the framework that came before it. In other words, even if some of the decisions that went into the core rules in 1e weren't always good, they were there for a reason- and this new material went against the framework. Which meant that UA was never fully integrated into 1e. And couldn't be.

The decisions in UA were never really resolved into AD&D until 2e.

I think Tasha's is similar, albeit not as egregious. After all, very little is as egregious as comeliness, the Cavalier/Paladin rules, and the UA Barbarian.

 

[Umbran]

Nah. Even the vaunted twilight cleric, while assuredly the strongest overall cleric subclass, is only particularly strong against a mob of melee mooks. Ranged attacks allowing for easy focus-fire or strong hitting single monsters make its primary strong ability much less overwhelming.

In addition, it really matters what kind of balance you are talking about.

The Twilight domains top features are about supporting the party, rather than in taking direct action against the enemy. So, in terms of the balance between party members, they don't steal spotlight, but allow the other party members more time to be awesome themselves.

Do they make the party punch at a slightly higher weight class? Sure. But I'm okay with that.

 

[TwoSix]

In addition, it really matters what kind of balance you are talking about.

The Twilight domains top features are about supporting the party, rather than in taking direct action against the enemy. So, in terms of the balance between party members, they don't steal spotlight, but allow the other party members more time to be awesome themselves.

Do they make the party punch at a lightly higher weight class? Sure. But I'm okay with that.

100% agree.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Nope.

Even Twilight cleric is only 'broken' in the face of how anemic healing is.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Nope.

Even Twilight cleric is only 'broken' in the face of how anemic healing is.

Healing .... in 5e .... is anemic?

The one thing I appreciate about the internet and this forum is that you repeatedly learn that people have opinions that you did not think were possible.

(Unless this is sarcasm?)

 

[the Jester]

Racial ability score flexibility frees us from the tyranny of race/class combos. Now anyone can play any race with any class and make it work.

I just can't get behind this. Especially with the huge emphasis on bounded accuracy, that extra +2 is really not necessary. The whole argument for floating ASIs boils down to optimization, and I am just not sympathetic to arguments based on optimization. It would be different if having a slightly lower score had a huge impact, but it just doesn't.