D&D Errata Nerfs Conjuring Spells, Makes Other Changes

A new errata for Dungeons & Dragons' revised 5th Edition has provided a significant nerf to conjuring spells and provided some clarity on how the Hide action works within the game. Wizards of the Coast released a new errata for its various D&D Core Rulebooks today, with a host of mostly minor changes to the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. Two of the biggest changes came to the Player's Handbook, with various conjuring spells receiving a notable debuff to upcasting, and the Hidden rules receiving a round of clarifications.

The Conjure Elemental, Conjure Fey, Conjure Minor Elementals, and Conjure Woodland Beings spells all received debuffs to their "Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot" sections, with the amount of increased damage decreasing from 2 attack die of a certain size to 1 attack die of a certain size. Several shapeshifting spells that granted temporary hit points now clarify that those temporary hit points go away once a spell is cast.

Additionally, the Hidden rules now explicitly state that the Hide action grants the Invisible condition "while hidden" and states what ends a player character hiding, which includes an enemy finding you via a Perception check. The Hide action received some notice during the initial Player's Handbook release for some alleged loopholes in the rules.

A full list of errata can be found on D&D Beyond.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Of course it's not an auto-win - there's still a saving throw, there's still the concentration requirement, and it still only affects one creature leaving their allies/minions to try to break that concentration. It's just no longer so subject to an extended litigation about what's "reasonable". Is handing over the maguffin reasonable? Is suggesting the PC leave the adventure site and go home reasonable? Is telling the PC to stop fighting and lay down their weapons reasonable? Is giving me the shop's cash drawer reasonable? If ANY of those are no, the whole reasonability issue makes the spell very weak.

The spell is good enough.

Give me the cash drawer is reasonable if you point a weapon at the enemy. Lay down weapons sometimes is reasonable.

The spell used to not be a blanket do x thing.
It was more like jedi move of "they can pass, because those are not the droids you are looking for"

The spell is called suggestion. Dominate is a higher level spell.

But play as you like.

 

[Stalker0]

If anyone needs to know why Suggestion unchecked is too powerful, watch the anime Code Geass.

 

[pukunui]

It was more like jedi move of "they can pass, because those are not the droids you are looking for"

The new Friends cantrip does a decent job of emulating a Jedi mind trick now.

The spell is called suggestion. Dominate is a higher level spell.

Suggestion lets you force someone to do one thing. Dominate lets you control them like a puppet.

 

[TerraDave]

In play we actually had the “wait, how does the grappler end the grapple?” come up. The grappler wanted to throw a pc off a ravine, which might still be an edge case, but at least it’s confirmed that the grappler can just end the grapple. So at least that is fixed.

 

[Reynard]

In play we actually had the “wait, how does the grappler end the grapple?” come up. The grappler wanted to throw a pc off a ravine, which might still be an edge case, but at least it’s confirmed that the grappler can just end the grapple. So at least that is fixed.

See, that doesn't feel "fixed" to me, because sometimes you don't want to get free from a grapple (like when you are about to get thrown off a cliff). As a former wrestler, I can say for sure that there are ways to NOT end a grapple even as the grappled party.

 

[KYRON45]

See, that doesn't feel "fixed" to me, because sometimes you don't want to get free from a grapple (like when you are about to get thrown off a cliff). As a former wrestler, I can say for sure that there are ways to NOT end a grapple even as the grappled party.

How many pages would a rule book be if publishers and game designers tried to account for everything?

 

[Reynard]

How many pages would a rule book be if publishers and game designers tried to account for everything?

They don't need to account for "everything."
"A grappled creature can attempt to continue the grapple with a successful Athletics check if the grappler chooses to release the grapple."

 

[TerraDave]

See, that doesn't feel "fixed" to me, because sometimes you don't want to get free from a grapple (like when you are about to get thrown off a cliff). As a former wrestler, I can say for sure that there are ways to NOT end a grapple even as the grappled party.

Hence the reason we were wondering. I would still take the 5e approach over, say, 3e.

 

[Reynard]

Hence the reason we were wondering. I would still take the 5e approach over, say, 3e.

Grapple in 3e was definitely a monster, but in general while 3e was overly wordy, but I think that having concrete DCs for specific actions using skills makes it easier to make up DCs on the fly by way of comparison.

 

[KYRON45]

They don't need to account for "everything."
"A grappled creature can attempt to continue the grapple with a successful Athletics check if the grappler chooses to release the grapple."

And that’s fine. You just solved de-grappling…for you. How many other people are going to find your well intended errata not to their liking? See what I’m saying?

Now start on page one of the PHB and go through and solve all of the problems anyone has ever had with any rule/class/etc. and get back to me the new page count and cost.

The rules for any RPG are broad strokes. Think about it….if they weren’t we couldn’t have 3500 post arguments on the rules for peek-a-boo as often as we do. And then where would be be Reynard?!?! WHERE WOULD WE BE?!?