D&D 5E New Spellcasting Blocks for Monsters --- Why?!

[Helldritch]

So you added spells to a monster and used lower level spells to kill half the party...


..and that proves my point that the spell slot paradigm of 5e is not made for many uses and if a monster gets down to lower level magic that they will kill the party wrong?

Because it sounds like if you weren't unlucky then the players would be making new PCs.

Unlucky with the breath recharge, but not with the criticals.

And again you reached wrong conclusions. It is not about TPK a group, it is about versatility. And spell casting dragons are already in the MM as an option. It does not even modify the CR.

I only played the dragon optimally and the players were very Unlucky leading to a very long battle but exciting as possible as thee scales could have tip in favor of one or the other. In the end the dragon left to save its skin. Had he stayed, it might have TPK the group, or have been stroke by the ranger's arrows and die. When it is 50/50 chance, you simply leave to fight another day.

 

[Seramus]

I don’t think they’re likely to use the 5.X terminology either, as that was in retrospect kind of a misstep in the 3.0 to 3.5 transition. And they already don’t really like calling the current edition 5e if they can help it. It’s almost always just “D&D” unless they specifically need to refer to it in contrast with other iterations of the rules. I think if they call the 2024 rules anything, it’ll be the 50th anniversary edition or 50th anniversary revisions.

Not really an argument, but more of an interesting anecdote. When I type 5E into Google, the first result is D&D. To narrow (but not eliminate bias), I get the same result at my work computer, and the library! Granted, fans of D&D might also be fans of libraries, but intentionally avoiding preference tracking still gets me to D&D as the first result.

 

[Reynard]

What if they bought the same book as you before they knew you'd run the adventure? What if they heard about how annoying it was online?

In the first case, I would expect them not to bring that knowledge to the table, or at least inform me ahead of time so I can make adjustments. In the latter case: still cheating, maybe even more so.

 

[Helldritch]

lol CR is garbage. You can add whatever you want to Vecna, he's still only gonna get so few actions i na fight it doesn't really matter so long as you don't improve his action economy.

CR is only an approximation of a creature power. It does not take into account terrain, situations and party's compositions and party's condition at the onset of an encounter. When used as such it is a good tool to get an idea. So far, only solo monsters are off. I use a small mod to them because I have groups of six and it works wonders.

And as such, retrofitting Vecna to the normal stat block can and will take time.

 

[pogre]

I can think of situations where it would for sure. I just don't think it should be treated as a core, essential, component of the game, ya know?

I hear you. Counterspelling in this edition has always been a bit clunky from my perspective. However, I have a current group of players who use it and like it a lot. I would be fine with just throwing the spell out completely, but again that would run counter to my players' expectations and wishes.

 

[Shardstone]

I have used this method regularly for about a year and it works great.

....A WONDERFUL idea. Thanks!

 

[Shardstone]

So I am privileged to be good at time management... I was forced to take a course in time management in college exactly because I was not managing my time well. Almost failed college and I would not have had my university degree without that course. So no, I am not priviledged, I simply took time to learn how to do it out if necessity.

And yes, D&D is for everyone that cares to try it. I know, I have introduced hundreds of people into the hobby over the 40+ years I have been playing. So give me a slack with the scorn.

How many will play in 3 years? I don't know. But there was a big boom in popularity for D&D in '80s and when it fell, boy was it hard for some to find players and for players to find DMs. There are reasons for tournament events to have disappeared. So how long will the popularity lasts? I do not know. But what I know is that once your player base moves on to an other system...

I encourage you to read the Dragon Lance UA and the threads about it. You will see that the feat chains aka feat taxes is pretty much what it was...

And I never meant disrespect. But it is true, I learned time management from a course. If I could do it, so can you. These courses are available online. Give them a try. Applying some of their advice is easy and proves to be very efficient. I went from:" Why do this today when you can do it next month to do it now and be done with it." Strangely, since that course, I went from wondering when I would have the time to what will I do with my time.

If you think time management can solve everyone's problems in 2022, and with the chaos of the last two years having upended countless lives with many once of a kind financial crises hitting the country, then I don't know what to say. Working 40 hours in "essential service" work is draining as all hell. Making the game easier for people who live this kind of life, who are very common, is only a good thing.

 

[Malmuria]

You work 40 hours, so do I (42 on average, actually sometimes a lot more if you count overtime) And yet, I have two groups + 1 exhibit game every 2 or three weeks. My wife does not play and yet we spend a lot of time together. All it takes, is time management and how to organize yourself. Playing a high level caster or 5 at the same time is not an impossible feat if you prepare yourself just a bit. But the main problem is exactly this, no one prepares his games...
The game does not need to be lighter, people need to be more concise and take the hobby more seriously. And if you still believe Crawford, the vast majority stop playing at level 7 to 10. They will never see Vecna type casters anyways... So why's the change in the stats blocks?

You get it wrong. Modify and applying what was from the the start is easy. All it takes is a little time. It can even be done while watching your favorite TV show.

But retrofitting the new stats block is a whole new ball game. Just like adding fixed stat to new races is nigh impossible without serious help/discussions with your players. Should an Owl folk receive +1 or +2 wisdom and what should be its other stat? Intelligence or constitution? Or something else?

With Vecna, what do you keep? What do you remove? And when you have done your work, you take the DMG and check if your intuition was good and If the resulting CR is close to what the devs tried to reach. And if you are off, you start again until you get it right. Harder than just saying, what prestigidiation? No way, Vecna earned that finger of frost. No shield spell? No way, I'll remove expeditious retreat... This is what the new stat block is imposing on us. Like it or not, they have not made our life easier, quite the contrary and they have lowered the versatility of the casters once again. The game is poorer this way than the other way around.

Well, fortunately for you, due to your superior time management skills, you should be able to modify the stat blocks to your liking. All it takes is a bit of organization! Just take the hobby more seriously, spend some time preparing, and apply yourself. You can do it!

 

[dave2008]

And as such, retrofitting Vecna to the normal stat block can and will take time.

It does take some time. It took me about 15-20 minutes to convert Vecna to a full spellcasting version. I'm a little rusty so I might have been able to do it faster if I had more practice recently.

OF course I have done the hard work for you, so you can probably tweak it in even less. As a bonus, I am pretty sure my version is more complete than anything WotC would have produced even if they didn't change the spellcasting format!

 

[Helldritch]

If you think time management can solve everyone's problems in 2022, and with the chaos of the last two years having upended countless lives with many once of a kind financial crises hitting the country, then I don't know what to say. Working 40 hours in "essential service" work is draining as all hell. Making the game easier for people who live this kind of life, who are very common, is only a good thing.

Welcome to my world as my work is considered an essential service too.

And yes, time management can do a lot. Of course there can be situations where even time management will do you no good. But these are normally the exception and not the norm.