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Two (non-magic) AoE items I mentioned elsewhere: Blackpowder: For 140 gp, anyone (caster or no) can deal 3d6 force + 3d6 fire in a 30 ft. sphere, vs. 175 gp. via a 3rd level fireball spell scroll only a spellcaster can use. There's no cap on the max damage you can deal with black powder, but at...

DPR is hardly the only thing that matters in combat, though - and even there, I'm skeptical. Some of the massive changes affecting wizard combat effectiveness include: "Signature Spells" (more spell slots), "Wizard Flair" (add control to any spell once per combat), "Bestow Magic" (one extra...

They're not just new, they're more powerful. The wizard is an easy comparison to make here: side by side, the A5E wizard gave up none of the O5E wizard's abilities, and gained eleven new class features. So what I'm saying is there's a fundamental imbalance between O5E and A5E classes (in a...

Wellll...they made a stronger claim than that. The Kickstarter campaign page actually says: And the differences are bigger than with Tasha. I think a better comparison is D&D 3 vs Pathfinder. Pathfinder also claimed it was compatible with 3E when it first came out, but I don't think anyone...

Yeah, very true. I wonder if the designers considered a tiered approach: "Press the Attack" could grant advantage to Berserkers, but expertise to everyone else, and against Berserkers, maybe "Fall Back" could reduce a berserker's advantage to expertise instead of cancelling it outright. This...

"So the closest comparison is probably a ring of protection. You get +1 to all saves and +1 to AC for 1k, or about ~34 hours of the save boosters." ...and crucially, requires attunement to limit buff stacking...

Oh, and check out unstable arcanum! For example, 12000 gp will let anyone (caster or no) deal 200d10 force damage in a single action. This stuff has no weight, so presumably increases without limit - and it's in the regular (non-magical) equipment section! ...just don't get hit with a spell! =D...

Are there any mechanical limitations that I've missed that'd prevent every player from downing all six save-boosting medicinals ahead of every major or planned fight? I can't imagine the paltry cost of 5 gp each (or 30 GP to get a +2.5 on all six saves for an hour) being any sort of impediment...

Would it really be a problem to give an academic class like a wizard several of knowledge skills? Kinda seems like a feature to me! And the bard's still gonna beat the wizard handily at perception, athletics, acrobatics, stealth...And on It's true skill proficiencies are more valuable than...

I'm not convinced this is the intended reading. If you take the interpretation that the "if" clause requires you cannot be proficient in "Arcana, Culture, Engineering, History, Nature, Religion" in order to gain a proficiency, I think you also have to read it as saying that proficiency in any of...

One more thought - what about adding a rare version of "counterspell" with the original A5E wording, but using my cantrip wording by default? Or alternately, add a rare version with the O5E wording, since the design team took this approach with other, less sweeping decisions (like fireball).

In core O5E, I think the only options without cantrips are Paladins and Rangers, right? Both of which have them in A5E... But honestly, yes, if there's a class without cantrips I think that's an acceptable price to pay. The narrative and tactical cost of removing the game's only hard-counter to...

Well, my bigger point is that by always limiting the follow-up spell to cantrips, the caster still gets a consolation prize, but can't cast a nearly arbitrary alternate spell that might similar enough to the original spell to make the counterspell effectively meaningless (such as my plane shift...

What are your thoughts about Time Stop? I feel like the new language is more ambiguous than in O5E - e.g., are delayed blast fireballs now allowed? If so, it seems OP. More broadly, I'd have liked explanation about what narratively during a time stop. Do objects freeze or keep falling? etc. I...

That's great to hear -- I wish this was called out explicitly in the rules somewhere!

Mmm, perhaps another place to ask for clarification, then... If that's the intent, I guess my suggested rewording would be: "If the original spell was not a cantrip, the creature can use its reaction to try to reshape the fraying magic and cast a cantrip with the same casting time."

Right! I was assuming the preceeding wording about a level 2 or lower spell fizzling (without a chance to "reshape") covered that case: a cantrip is <= level 2, so no chance to cast something else!

Agreed, very confusing. Did you file an issue for this wording here? I imagine they don't want to change it at this point, but I do feel the better fix would be to change this to just: "The creature can use its reaction to try to reshape the fraying magic and cast a cantrip with the same...

@Morrus -- Fair point - I will run some play tests of my own to see how these classes perform in practice, not just in theory! @VanguardHero -- My reason is simplicity. It sounds like you're playing games with experienced players who play optimized builds and intentionally look for exploits...

I like lots of the stuff added to A5E -- including some of the new character class design -- but after reading through the character classes, I'm quite convinced the A5E classes are a good deal more powerful than their O5E counterparts. The Wizard is a good benchmark for this; the O5E wizard was...