D&D 5E Fantasy Grounds Previews of Tasha's Cauldron

ph0rk · Oct 29, 2020

Aaron L said:
OK then, I just have to ask... what is the problem here?

I think it was a little too easy to run bladesong all the time. You could manage better AC than a fighter around levels 2-4, have access to shield, and all it took was a SR to get it back. I can go either way on the prof bonus change, really.

The other change, though, yikes. A shadow blade Bladesinger (Eventually upcasting to 5th) can outpace a shadow blade Eldritch Knight until 20, and then the EK only edges ahead by about 5 points or so - with or without advantage. (Accounting for accuracy, ac 16-20). Even if you argue that they won’t have enough 5th level slots to do that all day long, thats pretty impressive for a character that gets 9th level spells from an excellent list.

Kurotowa · Oct 29, 2020

grimslade said:
This is my issue. There are many other publishers and DMs Guild authors doing innovative design work. WotC has decided to cede that design space. It is a rejection of what the D&DNext experiment could be.

The "experiment" was always to produce a version of D&D that was widely acceptable and captured all the most familiar elements. They wanted to lure back people who'd fled 4e to Pathfinder, and to a large degree they've been successful. The goal was to be as iconically and generically D&D as possible, not blaze new trails.

As for ceding the design space, while it's true that everyone has their favorite niche book that just speaks to them personally, each of those personal favorites is spread out. Which means none of them reach the level of being popular enough to actually justify the work involved. So while thanks to the power of the Internet it's possible to find that bare handful of people who just love Ghostwalk or Magic of Incarnum or The Complete Ninja's Handbook to death, that doesn't mean going down that path is a good idea. The people who really desperately want that can get it from DMs Guild, where fans toil to make niche books on the shoestring budget they can recover. Meanwhile WotC can focus on the big broad books like Tasha's Cauldron.

doctorbadwolf · Oct 30, 2020

Aaron L said:
I absolutely love Bladesingers. I played my first Bladesinger PC back in '93 using the original 2nd Edition Fighter/Mage Kit, a Grey Elf from Celene in a Greyhawk campaign (I hate this modern assumption that Bladesingers are a specialty 'Realmsian thing; the CBoE was a general D&D sourcebook) whom I got up to the maximum levels for an Elf PC of his ability scores (Fighter 13/Mage 19.)
I later played a Gold Elf Bladesinger from Evermeet in a 3rd Edition/v3.5 Forgotten Realms campaign 16 years ago, and got him to 19th level (Fighter 4/Wizard 2/Bladesinger 10/Eldritch Knight 3.)
My current PC is now a 4th level Grey Elven Wizard of the Bladesinger Arcane Tradition in a campaign set in my brother's homebrew campaign setting.
I play them so infrequently even though I love them so much, because I love them so much, and I do not wish to have their specialness be diluted through overuse; I therefore reserve playing them for special occasions in campaigns with just the right conditions and flavor. No one else in our group has ever played one (although my brother would very much like to some day.)

And I very, very, intensely despise the idea of non-Elves being able to become Bladesingers.

Bladesingers were originally described in The Complete Book of Elves as champions of the Elven People, who practice a special, uniquely Elven, magically enhanced martial art, and this martial art was a closely guarded secret that was never taught to non-Elves (not even to revered Half-Elves) and altering these important details so as to allow non-Elves to become Bladesingers only serves to dilute its specialness and rarity, and renders this unique aspect of Elven culture that much more mundane and ordinary (which is yet another part of the ongoing trend of rendering rare and special things into commonplace and ordinary mundanities; if every other person in the world can do something that is supposed to be incredibly difficult, rare, and special, then there is no longer anything at all special about it, and its supposed difficulty is turned into nothing but a joke.)

The reason why the Bladesong was restricted to only Elves was for both cultural and for very practical reasons; it took decades to learn to do it, so that by the time a Human had managed to learn the steps he would be far too old to do anything with it. Also because Bladesinging requires the Elves special connection to magic and magical senses, which are a necessary part of the martial art, the Elf extending his senses out through the magic surrounding him.

I despised it in 3rd Edition when they opened it to Half-Elves (The Complete Book of Elves made it very clear that no non-Elf was ever taught the Bladesong) and if it is indeed true that they have now opened it up to any race then I despise this retcon even more.

If they want to have a subclass for melee-oriented Wizards then they can make a general Battle-Wizard Arcane Tradition; they could even use similar game mechanics as the Bladesinger! But the actual position and title of Bladesinger is a uniquely Elven cultural tradition (the champions of the Elven People, for Goodness sake!) and opening it up to just anyone is actually insulting to those of us who love the idea and concept of Bladesingers as more than just a mere collection of game mechanics.

I’m happy to use Bladesinger as an ancient Gnomish tradition in a world that doesn’t even have the Seldarine. Arcane Tricksters are a derivative form. Elves of this world tend more toward Eldritch Knights.

Blue · Oct 30, 2020

Paul Farquhar said:
And I'm 52 years old. 2 years is nothing.

Okay. Would you be willing to wait a "short time", two to three years, before you game again? Shouldn't be hard if it's "nothing".

Or perhaps admit things are relative. Considering that since WotC acquired D&D, the editions have lasted 3 years (3ed), 5 years (3.5), and 6 years (4e). Adding 2-3 years to the life of an edition is not a small factor.

Blue · Oct 30, 2020

Aaron L said:
But the actual position and title of Bladesinger is a uniquely Elven cultural tradition (the champions of the Elven People, for Goodness sake!) and opening it up to just anyone is actually insulting to those of us who love the idea and concept of Bladesingers as more than just a mere collection of game mechanics.

Some of us play in other settings, or homebrew settings, were the lore of the Bladesinger is different. A setting creator's imagination need not be fettered by the institutions of the past. It seems an odd thing to become insulted over, that others may have different lore.

Warpiglet-7 · Oct 30, 2020

Mistwell said:
I don't like the change to the cantrips like that. I really dislike stealth errata. If this was an issue, why is it only being changed now?

I ask that about a number of these changes

Don Durito · Oct 30, 2020

Blue said:
Some of us play in other settings, or homebrew settings, were the lore of the Bladesinger is different. A setting creator's imagination need not be fettered by the institutions of the past. It seems an odd thing to become insulted over, that others may have different lore.

Some of us even play in settings without elves.

Vael · Oct 30, 2020

In my Eberron, Bladesingers are elite Arcane Knights, trained in Aundair. They are also an order of Valenar warriors. And an ancient tradition of Hobgoblins back in the days of the Goblin Empire that used to rule Khorvaire. IOW, I'm glad to see Bladesingers are no longer racially restricted.

doctorbadwolf · Oct 30, 2020

Vael said:
In my Eberron, Bladesingers are elite Arcane Knights, trained in Aundair. They are also an order of Valenar warriors. And an ancient tradition of Hobgoblins back in the days of the Goblin Empire that used to rule Khorvaire. IOW, I'm glad to see Bladesingers are no longer racially restricted.

Hell yeah, my Gnome Bladesinger projects an illusory field that only he sees (essentially an Augmented Reality Heads Up Display), mapping a ritual circle over the field of battle, with circles for each actor in the battle and vectors connecting circles. He sees a real time tactical map of his surroundings, which combined with protective glyphs and a very fast mind allow him to predict movement.

Maxperson · Oct 30, 2020

Thunderous Mojo said:
Kits and Powers and Options did not keep 2e fresh.

Because it was poorly done. The Dragon Magazine content, though, did keep it fresh.

Thunderous Mojo said:
Nor did new content keep 3e or 4e fresh....the Dragon Shaman class did not save 3e.

Dragon Shaman wasn't even remotely close to being the only new content 3e added. Tons and tons of good stuff kept it fresh. The tons and tons of bad stuff got ignored.