It's not that it obviously needs work, it's more that there's base assumptions there that, again, make you wonder what game WotC are playing.
But, if they're going to put it in anyway, I'm glad they put it out as a playtest so we can at least try to comment on it before it's printed.
What assumptions are they getting wrong, in your estimation? I know the system seems pretty well in line with the game I'm playing, other than the fact that we give less treasure than recommended because there is little reason to have treasure anyway, and this would send us back the other way while giving ways to have rewards just go to our bastion instead of handwaving how we are carrying around 300lb of gold or whatever.
I think that customization is less needed if people can shop the Monster Manual, if both are open, but some would be nice.
I disagree, because the people who want customization don't always want a list of pre-customized packages. The point, for many of us, of templates, is to still have plenty of options to make a panther not feel like a bear without needing pages of statblocks of panthers and bears and every other beast imaginable.
My group will still end up homebrewing wild shape forms if it goes to print very similar to what we last saw, even if they bring back the terrible attempt at templates they used before.
They finally fixed True Strike!
But it's weird that True Strike does Radiant Damage and Shillelagh does Force damage. You would think it would be reversed.
I wouldn't expect either to do radiant damage, actually. I'd have assumed force for both, since apparently "magical bludgeoning damage" is weirdly just not on the table.
No, I didn't, and it's extremely rude to tell someone with severe ADHD that they're lying about not understanding a word. Didn't you do this before sometime? Or was that someone else?
No, it isn't. No one is obligated to remember that you, or I for that matter, have ADHD, nor how severe it is. I have had days recently when I couldn't work. I literally went home at lunch and was grateful that I have plenty of PTO and a good manager, and I was able to take the rest of the day without issues, but I've mostly not had those in my adult life, and just had to desperately try to keep up with a shadow of my normal work performance. Before I got medicated, I routinely had bad work reviews that I knew where because of the symptoms of ADHD and not because of any lack of work ethic, knowledge, etc, but could do nothing at all about that fact.
As I've told you before, most people don't remember interactions with someone online from months or years ago well enough to tell you who said something some time about ADHD, much less the context of it. So, acting like everyone knows already and is debating with you in full knowledge and understanding of what your brain saddles you with in a discussion is completely unreasonable and in fact quite rude.
And this particular case I have a hard time thinking happened because of ADHD, rather than the same sort of "no that wasn't obvious to everyone else, actually" dynamic that plagues online discource regardless of how spicy the brains involved are.
COnsidering how often people have to ask you to stop being rude and condescending, maybe try to have more patience to figure out what people are actually talking about before jumping to the "they're being ableist" conclusion.
Seriously? This is true? Ha ha ha yikes. Free magic items/effects and a save/Ress point. They actually did find a way to make 5E D&Ds combat even easier.
Neither is free. Both are limited, and have a cost. The magic item function has a cost based on rarity, and anything rare or higher is level gated. Res has a fairly high cost in BP and you can't use it again until the next time you level. And you're back at your Bastion, which might be a long ways away from the adventure.
Neither makes combat easier. If you find combat to be too easy, you or your DM if you're playing can fix that, even while using the guidelines in the rules.
You just have fewer encounters that are all Deadly. It's literally a trivial change to make. Easy combats are a choice for any group with more than 6 months experience with the game.
Blade Ward is now a reaction to give disadv on someone attacking you. That's... a poor man's Shield, so this is a must-pick now, thanks, hate it.
Friends is just a no-slot-cost Charm Person now? Wow.
True Strike is now the 'I need radiant damage' cantrip, but Clerics don't have access to it, but Bards do.
Oof.
Oof indeed. Blade Ward is not even the first at-will way to impose disadvantage on attacks as a reaction. It's nowhere near just a plain opportunity attack for any spellcasting warrior, absorb elements or actual shield, or any number of class specific reactions. Disadvantage just isn't
that powerful.
Friends is short duration, and is weaker than Charm Person. Charm Person lasts 60 times longer, doesn't require concentration, changes the target's attitude toward you beyond just giving it the Charmed condition (Charmed only makes them unable to attack you and gives you adv on social checks), can be used in a fight with disadvantage rather than having a bunch of "the target automatically succeeds if XYZ" exceptions, it's just a hugely more powerful effect.
Clerics don't need to get all radiant attack spells that exist. Some can be arcane or primal. The Cleric certainly wouldn't be weird to have the cantrip, but it's far from an issue of any kind for them to not get it.
I'm not even sure if the horde necromancer is viable for PC necromancers. Even video games try to keep the number of PC summons down due to how that adversely affects frame rates, and likewise in TTRPGs, summons tend to slow down the game. So having a necromancer who manages a massive horde of undead may sound great on paper but be a nightmare in practice, especially if turns the player from a master of undeath into more of a book-keeping accountant of summons.
There are probably better ways to translate the contemporary archetype - e.g., more temporary spell effect summons - but I'm not sure how willing WotC is to explore those options on account of maintaining "tradition" and "iconic" spells.
You just gotta make the horde a unit, it's attacks are one aoe save vs damage effect, and it has bonus damage that it loses along wth size, as you reduce it's HP.
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