What I Like About Nimble 2e (So Far) — A Partial Review

[Matrix Sorcica]

Why not take a non-caster that gets to defend more than once then?

I'm the GM

 

[Mannahnin]

Oh… interesting. Do have a link to sage advice or anything? Both google and bing AI seem to get this wrong. I can find sage advice saying you can’t counter spell on your turn after casting a fireball, but nothing about reaction casting later in the same round.

I'm sure there are SA answers, but the basic use of the different rules terms "round" and "turn" is the key here. If you don't mistakenly conflate them, the issue vanishes.

Here is the text of the rule, from page 236 of the 2024 PH:

One Spell With a Spell Slot Per Turn

On a turn, you can expend only one spell slot to cast a spell. This rule means you can't, for example, cast a spell with a spell slot using the Magic action and another one using a Bonus Action on the same turn.

See also page 23:

The Order of Combat

A typical combat encounter is a clash between two sides: a flurry of weapon swings, feints, parries, footwork, and spellcasting. The game organizes combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of combat when everyone rolls Initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the fight continues to the next round if neither side is defeated.

And page 372:

Reaction

A Reaction is a special action taken in response to a trigger defined in the Reaction's description. You can take a Reaction on another creature's turn, and if you take it on your turn, you can do so even if you also take an action, a Bonus Action, or both. Once you take a Reaction, you can't take another one until the start of your next turn. The Opportunity Attack is a Reaction available to all creatures. See also "Opportunity Attacks" and chapter 1 ("Actions").

 

[Duncan_Rhodes]

I used the action cards which seemed to keep things flowing really well. The players really liked the action cards and found "you have 3 actions to use per round" much more intuitive than D&D 2024's Bonus action, Move action, Action action, Reaction action deal.

Even my son, who doesn't want to play anything but D&D, admitted he loved the action cards and they made things much easier for him.

As a side note to show how confusing "actions" are in D&D, this weekend I participated as a player in (all adult) D&D game in which another player got really upset because she couldn't use their Shield Spell as a reaction since they had already cast a level spell on their turn earlier in the round. At first I thought the DM was wrong, but with a little thought I realized he was probably right since WOTC went out their way to ensure that you can only cast one levelled spell per round. And a quick internet search seemed to confirm.

In contrast in Nimble you get 3 actions you can use at any time for anything, and they get refreshed at the end of your turn. That's pretty simple. And if you use the cards you don't even have an issue tracking how many actions a person has used in a round already.

For me it fixes (so far) many of the issues I have with D&D 2024 and is simpler. I think it will be my default system for "D&D style" games in the future. Although I'm hoping to run Draw Steel when I get a change to run another campaign.

I'm currently running Welcome to the Hellfire Club! starter pack for my son and his friends. They love it because of the stranger things tie in, but you can see how difficult the system is for them (10-11 age range). But when I ran nimble over the holiday's my son participated and it was obviously easier for him. And he currently plays in 3 D&D 2024 campaigns a week, but to be fair he just started this past Fall so he doesn't have a ton of experience with the system.

EDIT: SORRY, I see this was already discussed. Seems like replies are not nested under original comment, which confused me!

Quick point. As I understand, the DM was wrong... you can cast one level spell on your turn, but more than one in the course of a round. A reaction takes place on another creature's turn. This of course absolutely highlights your point that the D&D system is confusing!

 

[Mannahnin]

EDIT: SORRY, I see this was already discussed. Seems like replies are not nested under original comment, which confused me!

Quick point. As I understand, the DM was wrong... you can cast one level spell on your turn, but more than one in the course of a round. A reaction takes place on another creature's turn. This of course absolutely highlights your point that the D&D system is confusing!

Another tweak to this new in the 2024 rules- in the 2024 rules the "one spell per turn" limit only applies to spells that use a spell slot.

So, for example, you can use a Wand of Magic Missile to cast MM on your turn with your Action and still use your Bonus Action to cast Misty Step using a spell slot. Or use your 6th level Illusionist class feature Phantasmal Creatures to cast a half-HP Summon Fae or Summon Beast spell without using a spell slot by using your Action and once again still cast a Bonus Action spell using a spell slot.

 

[Duncan_Rhodes]

Another tweak to this new in the 2024 rules- in the 2024 rules the "one spell per turn" limit only applies to spells that use a spell slot.

So, for example, you can use a Wand of Magic Missile to cast MM on your turn with your Action and still use your Bonus Action to cast Misty Step using a spell slot. Or use your 6th level Illusionist class feature Phantasmal Creatures to cast a half-HP Summon Fae or Summon Beast spell without using a spell slot by using your Action and once again still cast a Bonus Action spell using a spell slot.

ok, interesting, and I think that's a good change actually. In the first case, you're not using your mental power so much as channeling an item... in the second, well, it's nice to have some niche cases where you CAN cast two levelled spells.