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WotC is part of a massive, publicly-traded corporation, so anything that cuts costs, appeases investors, or otherwise increases shareholder value is in generally in-play. And it's reasonable to ask (and speculate about) how this change in survey strategy helps them with that. FWIW, I think that...

Microcosm of the internet (and maybe society at large) these days. There's little trust, especially in faceless institutions. The assumption is that someone is a position of power is exploiting something. When you can't trust the fundamental claims of a group, then conspiracies flower like...

I want the new math SO bad! I like that they're paying attention to higher CR monsters, too - higher level play needs some goosing. And the new titans sound interesting. I was also a fan of 4e abominations, which are kind of in the same wheelhouse. I do anticipate being a little...

I think I need a bit of clarification. If the question is why are there stat blocks for Good creatures, the answer is, primarily, so that they can be fought. Not all PC's are Good, not all "Good" creatures are benevolent or helpful for the PC's goals. Good creatures can make for some...

This is a very good breakdown. The name ain't great. It's got some niche legacy reference, but that's a reason, not an excuse. That said, it's not a dealbreaker for me. Blood Hunter is also a bad name. So is Barbarian. And Fighter. Sorcerer doesn't tell you much about a class. Illrigger can...

There's a family similarity, for sure, especially in 2024's revision, but "action" is a much broader and less strictly defined group of verbs in practice. Actions and powers aren't the things that a skill system is really meant to support, anyway- they're combat language. And skills have...

Maybe. Though, I'd consider that damning with faint praise. The 4e system was a big improvement on 3e to my mind, but there's a few huge glaring weaknesses, and skill powers was one of those weaknesses. Can't have something outside the Powers system, gotta make skills relevant by making...

Some questions you might want to consider: Are you providing them with bears, or is it on them to acquire the bears in play? Having the first few levels be "befriend these bears" might be pretty impactful, but you also might just want to give them free bears. Are you running them through...

Everything that's not Perception. Followed closely by Perception.

Don't make me get up on my soapbox about how bad D&D's skill system has been for the last 25 years. ;)

The redesign should definitely include some kind of Expertise, I think, given that's our "Expert Mechanic" in 2024. Maybe they have Expertise in tools? I do think the Ranger is a good point of comparison, since they're also a half-caster Expert. And this comparison drives home how important an...

I'm not really whiteboxing ideal conditions to maximize effectiveness and see who is the best at bonus action healing, I'm just seeing if bonus action healing for a cleric and an artificer are reasonably close. Looks like they are. Having a more effective turn with Mass Healing Word or the life...

Hell, Artificers are more than capable of going into melee, no reason this character couldn't have done greataxes or greatswords if they wanted to.

Hmmm...if I'm a level 5 cleric doing my best to use bonus actions for healing, I'm casting mass healing word and then healing word. So basically 4x (2d4 + Wis) (assuming we cure two people with mass healing word) for healing. So 20 base, plus 4x Wis. Let's say +4 wis, so another 16, total of 36...

This mostly tracks. Not sure how they were getting d12's with the heavy crossbow, but even dropping that to d10's, an Extra Attack and a bonus action to make the pet attack and clever use of spells, I buy it. When I talk about Artificers rewarding system mastery, this is the kind of thing I...

As a Cleric, you should be spending your action casting your highest-level spells. As an Alchemist in this playtest, you should be spending your action casting your damaging cantrip, and then your Bonus Action to heal or buff. So you're probably doing a worse job buffing than the cleric, but...

I mean, neat, but not really necessary. The difference between "a bomb of acid you can throw" and "I cast acid splash" is pretty academic. The alchemist I played was flavored as "bronze age doctor at the beginnings of medicine" and I could easily fluff most spells I cast into using some weird...

The Alchemist version of extra attack is Alchemical Savant. The unstated design intent: Alchemists use cantrips as their main damage source, so we're going to power up the cantrips we want them to use - acid splash, fire bolt, or poison spray, This feature keeps these cantrips competitive as...

What would be kind of cool is a mechanics update (races, dragonmarks, artificer) plus an anthology of adventures a la Radiant Citadel or similar - something that goes beyond just the setting and gives us a bunch of things to DO in the setting.

I was pretty happy with the Alchemist I played, but let's see what they'd do differently... Pro Fond of the new magical tinkering. Kind of like the idea of an alchemist character carrying around "bottled lamp." Delivering Elixirs as a bonus action is huge. In line with some of the other...