D&D (2024) December 1st UA Spell changes

[Clint_L]

Ok so, Clerics. Clerics have less utility than Wizards, and do less damage.

I don't agree with either of those statements. Clerics can heal. Wizards can't. What's the most important utility in the game? Healing. And you can spec either class to be pretty strong DPS.

Put it another way: the one class every party would like to have is a cleric.

 

[James Gasik]

I don't agree with either of those statements. Clerics can heal. Wizards can't. What's the most important utility in the game? Healing. And you can spec either class to be pretty strong DPS.

Put it another way: the one class every party would like to have is a cleric.

Why a Cleric instead of a Bard?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That the problem with concentration, far, far too many spells rely on it, making too many of them unused.

Also the Divine Spell in need of the most change is Astral Projection and Planar Ally.

Oh yes. They are ruining my level 1 to 5 games far too often.
They are in need of an overhaul, but there are other offenders.
Bless for example could need a reduction to 1 per turn you may roll a d4... or something. To balance that I'd make the casting time a bonus action.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Buff spells definitely. I rarely see them used because casters generally have better uses for their concentration. I realize that concentration was added to prevent people from layering buffs on themselves, but now I rarely see any used, even ones that would obviously benefit the non-magical fighty characters.

Enlarge for example. +1d4 damage for one guy for a fight is so incredibly minor of a buff it really doesn't need concentration as a limiter.

Or how about Fly? "Oh man, it would be useful if I could just cast fly on a few of you guys, or give the melee flight when fighting those [insert flying enemy here], but...yeah sorry, I need it for my hypnotic pattern/sleet storm/whatever else."

I still think we need a second concentration slot. Minor concentration you can keep up next to standard concentration, which on top does need a concentration save if you are hit.
All self AC buffs and so on should fall into this category to make them actually useful.
Hunter's mark would also be a spell I'd put into this category.

 

[Neonchameleon]

A few spells I could see wanting to cast as needed; yeah, some of these have long durations, but you might not know you need them beforehand. Protection from Poison, Protection from Energy. Remove Curse could totally come up in a fight. Freedom of Movement. Greater Restoration.

The irony here, of course, is that Protection From Energy, Remove Curse, and Freedom of Movement are all also wizard spells. But they don't have the resilience

Most real healing, like Cure Wounds, Regeneration, or Power Word: Heal, though I realize there are other choices, and a lot of people seem to think that using a spell slot to Healing Word on a guy who dropped to 0 is perfectly fine- my experience is that they tend to fall over again not even 2 seconds later, lol.

In my experience Healing Word is enough to make the character last a turn for a spell slot - and still lets you attack. The best means of healing is preventing the enemy from hurting you.

Why a Cleric instead of a Bard?

Better healing (including revivify), more toughness (medium armour + shields), more damage (remember the bard's only damage cantrip is Vicious Mockery), and the ability to change out your spell list

 

[Maxperson]

I still think we need a second concentration slot. Minor concentration you can keep up next to standard concentration, which on top does need a concentration save if you are hit.
All self AC buffs and so on should fall into this category to make them actually useful.
Hunter's mark would also be a spell I'd put into this category.

Perhaps a second spell concentration slot as if you were 4 levels lower to a maximum of 7th level spells. So at 5th level you can concentrate on an extra 1st level spell. At 9th you'd be able to concentrate on a 3rd level or lower spell. And at 17th level your second one would be a spell of 7th level or lower.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Kind of interesting to see some of the discussion here. I'll quickly summarize my thoughts

• Guidance no longer being 1/day. Love it. SO glad that they fixed that.
• Resistance as a reaction. Love it, now the spell will actually be used.
• Banishment multiple saves. That... that is rough. Not sure if it is a good change. While something like hold person fine as multiple saves, the enemy has the chance to be messed up. Banishment actually makes them safer than being on the battlefield. Not sure.
• Aid, I'm not broken up about. temp hp instead of max hp, but double the number of targets. I can see the reasons people may say this isn't good, but I've never been highly convinced of the old version of Aid at low levels
• Spiritual Weapon, being concentration is a bit rough. Then again, the damage is MUCH higher as the game progresses. I find it interesting that the main argument against spiritual weapon has been Bless, no one is mentioning aura of vitality for instance. I think it is probably a balanced change, though I would want the speed increased

But, one thing I'm kind of shocked not to see discussed so far is Prayer of Healing. This got a rather massive boost. It is only 1/day now, but anyone affected by it treats the 10 minutes as a Short Rest. That really helps this spell a lot.

 

[Xamnam]

But, one thing I'm kind of shocked not to see discussed so far is Prayer of Healing. This got a rather massive boost. It is only 1/day now, but anyone affected by it treats the 10 minutes as a Short Rest. That really helps this spell a lot.

Oh shoot, didn't see that, there go my dreams for them to drop a short rest to 5/10/15 minutes across the board.

 

[Greg Benage]

But, one thing I'm kind of shocked not to see discussed so far is Prayer of Healing. This got a rather massive boost. It is only 1/day now, but anyone affected by it treats the 10 minutes as a Short Rest. That really helps this spell a lot.

Short Rest +2d8 healing! It's an improved catnap at a lower spell level. Very good, at least for that subset of tables that have more than one fight a day.

 

[Stalker0]

Short Rest +2d8 healing! It's an improved catnap at a lower spell level. Very good, at least for that subset of tables that have more than one fight a day.

I think the assumption is that short rest abilities will be going away, so this is really just a solid recovery spell (and no issues with that whatsoever). So it will be a very solid spell, but it won't give you some of the oomph that catnap used to give in the new model.