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

[Voadam]

I’d rather NPC spells all be recharge based, TBH.

I think a combo of at will and recharge is ideal for convenience of monster running (Go 4e monster design!). Slots versus x/day both require tracking and different per day resource management judgments than recharge mechanics. X/day means no upcasting option or allocating different prepared spells to different slots based on the situation.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Is recharge a 5E mechanic or did it appear in 4E? I honestly don't recall.

For me, 5E, because I never played 4E.... so it might have been in 4E. Others should know.

 

[Bill Zebub]

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.

Seriously?

You wouldn't just think to yourself, in the middle of combat, "What? No Finger of Frost? No Shield? Nonsense...of course he has them!" It's not really going to change the difficulty of the encounter. Mark off one use of expeditious retreat if it makes you feel better.

The new stat blocks are great for novice DMs. And expert DMs don't need no stinking stat blocs.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I think a combo of at will and recharge is ideal for convenience of monster running (Go 4e monster design!). Slots versus x/day both require tracking and different per day resource management judgments than recharge mechanics. X/day means no upcasting option or allocating different prepared spells to different slots based on the situation.

If I did a recharge design for monsters, I would make it something applicable to a group of features, not individually.

For example, if a creature has 3 features which all recharge, say 5-6, 5-6, and 6, if they use any of them, the recharge has to happen before they can use any of them again. I wouldn't want to track and roll for each feature separately--what a pain!

 

[Helldritch]

To the aside discussion, time management certainly can help, but it is also a matter of priorities in your life.

We have to deal with family, friends, work, school, current events, war, and all sorts of things; for many people D&D is not top on that list at all. It is also competing with every other form of entertainment out there.

For myself, I've noticed there are two types of players in general: hardcore and casual. It used to be hard cores only played D&D, now you have a lot of casuals playing it. Sessions tend to be more haphazard, when people have time to get together, and if not enough make it you do something else (video games, movie, whatever). To casual players, having to skip a session is no big deal.

I'm hardcore. I only get to play every other week, but for 8-10 hours or more. I would play every weekend, doing shorter sessions, like in the college days, but most people can't commit to that because they have other priorities. Nothing wrong with that, of course, just their priorities.

I love D&D. I spend my free time (like many) reading about it, making house-rules, thinking up the next adventure, etc. But I also spend free time with my family and friends doing other things, I work full-time, exercise, and (fortunately) get about 7 hours of sleep a night. Heck, like many of you (I imagine) I think about D&D when I am working!

I see nothing wrong at all with catering 5E towards the casual player (the new group I just joined are definitely casual players!), but don't forget us hardcore players are still out there--loving the game, too.

I fully agree with you.
For the last paragraph.
Simply underling theist useful spells in the creature's spell choice, adding a few words on combat tactics and where this creature would be the most efficient would have been way better than what they are doing right now. I did that with a few foes in the MM for young DM that I was helping to learn D&D and you can't imagine how fast they learned and started to do the same on their own.

Sometimes, just having someone pointing you the not so obvious can make you make leaps and bounds in bettering yourself. This forum is full of great ideas to improve ourselves. @dave2008 dies a great job.with his incredible monster thread but so does a lot of others. It is just sad that the changes are not incorporated into a new edition. Be it 5.5 or 6th.

 

[Reynard]

If I did a recharge design for monsters, I would make it something applicable to a group of features, not individually.

For example, if a creature has 3 features which all recharge, say 5-6, 5-6, and 6, if they use any of them, the recharge has to happen before they can use any of them again. I wouldn't want to track and roll for each feature separately--what a pain!

The problem with that is it leaves them devoid of the "interesting stuff" when not recharged. Now what, pew pew for minimal damage? I don't like that design. I want all foes to be interesting, but especially the bosses.

 

[Helldritch]

I

Seriously?

You wouldn't just think to yourself, in the middle of combat, "What? No Finger of Frost? No Shield? Nonsense...of course he has them!" It's not really going to change the difficulty of the encounter. Mark off one use of expeditious retreat if it makes you feel better.

The new stat blocks are great for novice DMs. And expert DMs don't need no stinking stat blocs.

I apply a strict rule of:" If it is not not written, it does not have it." Period. Acting any otherwise would simply be cheating in my POV. So no, I would not add powers or items to a foe in the middle of the fight. If the group dies, it dies. If it kills my BBEG swiftly because of luck, great tactics or both, so be it. Easy fights or hard kne will not be modified because I feel like it. I do not fudge and roll.on the open. A gritty realism game we play and doing this, modifying a creature on the fly, would be disrespectful to my players.

 

[Reynard]

I
I apply a strict rule of:" If it is not not written, it does not have it." Period. Acting any otherwise would simply be cheating in my POV. So no, I would not add powers or items to a foe in the middle of the fight. If the group dies, it dies. If it kills my BBEG swiftly because of luck, great tactics or both, so be it. Easy fights or hard kne will not be modified because I feel like it. I do not fudge and roll.on the open. A gritty realism game we play and doing this, modifying a creature on the fly, would be disrespectful to my players.

Really? Oof. That seems very limiting.

 

[Stoutstien]

I like the idea of recharge going away completely upon "bloodied" or mythic or whatever the state-shift condition might be.

Aye. The mystic actions in fizban is a nice idea but I prefer to go the other direction.

 

[DND_Reborn]

And expert DMs don't need no stinking stat blocs.

Actually, you know, we don't.

As I've read through comments and thought about it, while not thrilled with the new Vecna, if I actually had a party encounter him, mine would probably be worse and more deadly to the PCs because (as an "expert" DM) I know so much from my decades of D&D battles, tactics, etc. that my Vecna would be a pain in the butt to defeat.

The problem with that is it leaves them devoid of the "interesting stuff" when not recharged. Now what, pew pew for minimal damage? I don't like that design. I want all foes to be interesting, but especially the bosses.

Oh, no, I would not have all their features on recharge. Some would be at-will as well, and those, while not probably as equally "interesting" would still not be pew pew for minimal damage.