The thing is, for those of us that remember the dual wield hand crossbow discussions before the errata, this discussion is eerily reminiscent of that one. Ultimately the argument that prevailed was just because the books don’t say you need a free hand to reload a hand crossbow doesn’t mean you can do so without one. This has since been made 100% clear in the rules but the takeaway was that the fiction takes precedence over the rule.I can pretty much sum it all up as two sides. Those that agree with you because it would be illogical for it to work and those that disagree because the text is all that matters.
Copypasting from my previous reply in this thread, so you don't have to look:Uh, what? The new monk is AWESOME! What on earth is your issue they didn't address with the new monk? They completely destroy that Bard subclass now. [Edit - I see this is an old post which you probably already addressed - sorry about that]
Monk got better scaling of their damage die...but no access to weapon mastery, effectively midigating any improvements, ensuring they still are at the bottom.
Unarmored Defense is still a class feature that is worse than wearing nonmagical armor up until level 20, while Monk still doesn't have big hit die or defenses to be in meele with Fighter, Ranger, paladin or Barbarian
Monk still doesn't have enough ki points to keep up and isntead of permamently increase them, they just filled levels where they didn't have ideas with features to midigate it.
They nerfed Stunning Strike and removed the utility previous UAs added to it as a trade-off for the nerf.
At 18 level you get ability to pay for a thing thing Barbarian gets for free whenever they rage at level 3.
And on top of that, College of Dance bard casually can do Monk's main thing, on top of having access to spells. And then also gets one of Monk's best features a whole level earlier and also gets a STRONGER version of it. There is literally nothing Monk can do that won't be overshadowed by Bard. Any time anyone will want to play a Monk, this subclass will need to be banned outright unless you want Bard to bully Monk players.
It's even worse than that. It's nearly useless to use as a mimic detector. The area is one creature. One! When the party walks into a room that has 3 chests, 10 barrels, a desk, and a chair, the cleric would have to cast that spell 15 times in order figure out if there are mimic(s) present. Multiply that by the several rooms the party goes into before resting and the fact that nearly no rooms will have a mimic, and you can see just how monumentally useless the spell is for that purpose.What's wrong with either a stick to poke it with or a Detect Thoughts spell?
Who wastes a 2nd level cleric spell on this? Particularly in earlier editions where you had so few slots to choose from. My groups would beat me to death if my clerics did this.
Thus ensuring hand crossbows are less fun for all. A true victory for the game!The thing is, for those of us that remember the dual wield hand crossbow discussions before the errata, this discussion is eerily reminiscent of that one. Ultimately the argument that prevailed was just because the books don’t say you need a free hand to reload a hand crossbow doesn’t mean you can do so without one. This has since been made 100% clear in the rules but the takeaway was that the fiction takes precedence over the rule.
It's even worse than that. It's nearly useless to use as a mimic detector. The area is one creature. One! When the party walks into a room that has 3 chests, 10 barrels, a desk, and a chair, the cleric would have to cast that spell 15 times in order figure out if there are mimic(s) present. Multiply that by the several rooms the party goes into before resting and the fact that nearly no rooms will have a mimic, and you can see just how monumentally useless the spell is for that purpose.
The spell is also target creature, so you have to see the creature or know exactly where it is, which eliminates it as a pregnancy detector.
I cast Detect Unintended IronyNo. I would boot them for being an inconsiderate jerk and insisting things must be their way or the highway.
Howso?I cast Detect Unintended Irony
Without emphasizing that the other players agreed with you against the one you would boot, you made it sound like you too were doing my way or the highway.Howso?
I think it was a true victory. Maintaining the fiction is of upmost importance.Thus ensuring hand crossbows are less fun for all. A true victory for the game!