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It's also possible that sales have slowed in anticipation of the 2024 edition. IIRC, there was a similar effect after the announcements of 4E and 5E.

That would make sense. On the other hand, it's still a substantial nerf to a spell that wasn't exactly topping the list to begin with.

The cantrips that got improved were the ones that sucked*. With the rare exception of acid splash, I don't think I've ever picked a single one of them. Some of them got improved... ahem... a bit too much. And the nerf to shocking grasp is just weird, I have no idea why they felt that spell...

First, shield is notoriously one of the best 1st-level spells in the game, ranging from "very very good" to "absolute no-brainer must-have" depending on playstyle and level. So this is not exactly making the case that the new blade ward is fine. Second, even if shield weren't borderline (or not...

Thoughts on the cantrip changes: Acid splash: I like this change. You still won't often get more than two targets, but once in a while you'll be able to blast three or even four. It's now high on my list. Blade ward: This seems a smidge too good. Disadvantage on a melee attack as a reaction...

Reading through the Bastion rules... 1. I love the idea of adding stronghold rules to the game. Definitely needed. Not sure about the name. 2. Not thrilled by the "magic item acquisition" function. I appreciate that they require DM approval, but I still don't think permanent magic items should...

To the (valid) distinction that OP is drawing between realism and verisimilitude, I would add a second: True verisimilitude vs. "stage verisimilitude." I believe that D&D aims for the latter, and that this is the most workable solution to the challenges involved. True verisimilitude is where...

I'm well aware that the Great Wheel is the default cosmology in 5E, thank you, and I don't like it, and I say so fairly regularly. However, in the 2014 rulebooks, it resides mostly in the DMG and the MM, which makes it mostly straightforward to excise or modify. The only PHB elements I can...

Oh hell no. Look, many people love Planescape. Great for them! The setting should be well supported. The full Planescape setting book was long overdue. But don't shove Planescape in the core books where the rest of us have to pick it out like anchovies.

The proposed fallacy is certainly something I've seen in other contexts, though. Spells are a good example. You propose a spell which sucks the life out of an enemy and transfers it to you. Someone points out that your spell is way better than vampiric touch, and is therefore obviously OP; in...

My guess would be that it's simply a matter of non-lawyers having very limited ability to assess whether a given lawyer is any good or not. Everything takes so long to play out in the legal world, and there are so many factors going into any given outcome, that it would be challenging for a busy...

If we are going for the simplest solution requiring the least change, then a 5-minute short rest capped at two short rests per day is the obvious fix. It addresses the problem and requires no other changes at all; you can drop it into standard 5E as a house rule and it works great (speaking from...

I think this is the approach a lot of tables take, even if not explicitly. And that's why the problem exists: This method erases the distinction between short and long rests. It's usually pretty simple to establish narratively whether it is safe to stop for a while, but is it a "long while" or a...

Fair point -- while two regular attacks are always* better than one with advantage, it is possible for two attacks with disadvantage to be worse than one regular attack. It doesn't happen often in 5E, though. Your base chance to hit has to be below 50% (i.e., chance with disadvantage is below...

You could, but it would not make the spell useful. Replacing an attack with true strike is almost always a losing proposition, because you are exchanging two attacks for one attack with advantage. Either way you're making two attack rolls, but with true strike you can only ever get one hit...

There's a key difference between 4E and 5E here, which is that where 4E gave you a list of one-shot powers, 5E generally gives you a pool of resources (spell slots, ki points, etc.) with multiple ways to spend them. For example, warlocks would generally lead off each fight with a spell; but...

These are certainly issues that would need to be tackled, although, let's be honest -- many of these were a worldbuilding problem already with regular wizard-style casting. The 5-minute warlock just takes that problem and sticks a neon sign on it. A simple solution for many of these would be to...

Quicken Spell a) specifies that it can only be used with a 1-action spell, and b) is not limited to cantrips, so the potential for abuse is much greater. Even so, I would consider allowing the sorcerer to Quicken a "limited" version of mending, probably with a 1-minute duration. But since this...

Or you need the short rest to restore fewer resources. The core short rest mechanic is spending hit dice to regain hit points. Since your hit dice don't recharge until a long rest, more short rests would not shift the balance significantly. (It would slightly increase the value of hit dice...

Well, yes, it is certainly not an accurate portrayal of reality; if one were trying to be realistic, the benefits of a short rest would be overlaid on top of accumulating fatigue penalties which require a long rest to erase. However, that kind of hard cutoff is standard in D&D across a wide...