D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook preview: "New Spells"

[Henadic Theologian]

Happy Canada Day

I really enjoyed the changes they're implementing to Leomund's Tiny Hut, Goodberry, Create Food and Water, and...

Oh wait, uh, nevermind. Wrong game.

I just watched the Missanabie Cree First Nation doing their lovely traditional dances at Canada's Wonderland. Their cermonal clothes are gorgeous. So much to do today. Started celebrating yesterday at Wonderland too.​

 

[Vael]

Crawford mentioned that it was painful to cast action-wise, if I understood correctly.

But he also said that while playing BG3, which matches my experience.

The challenge is the game makes it a two step process.
Step 1: Ignite the orb/ cast the spell
Step 2: Attack with it

And it is annoying, you have to click on the spell, confirm the casting, click on the Throw fire icon, then click on the target, it does make it the most complicated attack cantrip to use.

Now, we can short-cut those steps while playing tabletop, but they are still present. As long as we aren't losing the "keep orb lit as a light source" functionality, I'm fine with cleaning up the spell's presentation.

 

[Kobold Stew]

But he also said that while playing BG3, which matches my experience.

The challenge is the game makes it a two step process.
Step 1: Ignite the orb/ cast the spell
Step 2: Attack with it

And it is annoying, you have to click on the spell, confirm the casting, click on the Throw fire icon, then click on the target, it does make it the most complicated attack cantrip to use.

Now, we can short-cut those steps while playing tabletop, but they are still present. As long as we aren't losing the "keep orb lit as a light source" functionality, I'm fine with cleaning up the spell's presentation.

The issue I have had with the spell as a player is that once you throw the flame, you lose the light source until your next action (which becomes an issue if you don't have darkvision).

I predict the change to the spell (or at least one change) is that attacking does not end the spell.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I hope they fix Planar Ally, its really very broken and stands out even more given conjure X and Summon X changes as it requires using the MM, it should be more like Find Steed but medium and your choice of a Elemental, Celestial, Fiend, or Fey. Or like Find Familiar, a small selection in the appendix in the PHB.

 

[Yaarel]

He's human, but given all the evil magic stuff he does, looks creepy.

Maybe Aberration magic altering him?

 

[DEFCON 1]

"[NEW] PRAYER OF HEALING boosted and gives the benefit of a Short Rest (1/day)"

Short rest? Hopefully this spell has some limits for use.

As someone who has made the Short Rest 10 minutes long in his games from the very beginning... overlapping it with Prayer of Healing has not been an issue at all.

Rituals, finding/removing traps, and short rests all being on a 10 minute counter in my games has made time calculation so much easier.

 

[Yaarel]

I've noticed this thing where in every edition of D&D Ice Knife has usually being among the first spells to be included when there's a book with new spells.

I think 2014 tried to make the elemental spells a separate splatbook, with the Elemental Evil Players Guide (thankfully aborted and offered online).

Elemental themes are central to D&D and to remove them from core rules was ill conceived. It looks like 2024 will correct this, and return the Elemental spells that mostly ended up in Xanathars, back to the core Players Handbook.

 

[Aldarc]

Call me if Shield gets nerfed.

 

[Yaarel]

What's a "Bastion"?

A Bastion is a homebase. According to the playtest, it is magical perks for having a homebase. Each character can have a Bastion, or pool their resources for a shared one. (Tho if I recall correctly, each character still accrues benefits separately.) The main critique of the playtest was, it was too much of a minigame, and it didnt integrate well with economic rules in the 2014 Players Handbook. Also, the minigame encouraged "saving up" the points for a better reward at higher levels, which effectively meant the minigame was less played. The designers confirm it will be in the 2024 DMs Guide, but we dont know if there was any revision of the playtest version.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Call me if Shield gets nerfed.

Good luck with that.