D&D 5E 02/08/13 New playtest packet to released today. [Udate: PACKAGE OUT!][

[Falling Icicle]

Basic and standard D&D are undoubtedly not designed for you.

I've hated rolling for hit points since I first started playing D&D, back in the 90s.

 

[lkj]

On the hitpoint front-- In the how to play document, it does mention 'taking the average' in the hitpoints section of damage and dying.

Someone mentioned traps and pickpocketing-- It's in the rogue class section. Get an extra die and advantage respectively.

AD

 

[Falling Icicle]

It seems that Druids in Wild Shape can no longer concentrate on spells.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I've noticed a few changes to the spells.

The flavor text that used to be on the top of every spell entry has been removed.

Animate Dead now creates permanent creatures, but you lose control over them if you dont cast the spell on them again every 24 hours. It still goes out of its way to say how "evil" and "badwrongfun" it is.

Charm Person no longer states that the person remembers being charmed.

Cure and Inflict wounds have no effect on undead. So it is now impossible to heal undead creatures, and you can't injure them with cure spells.

Mage Armor is now a 1st level spell, gives 13 + dex mod. AC, and lasts for 8 hours.

Meteor Swarm now specifies that the damage from overlapping meteors don't stack. So no more 48d6 damage nukes.

Suggestion and Mass Suggestion work alot like how they did in older editions, instead of charming the target.

 

[Kobold Stew]

More spell things:

Feather Fall (spell) and Ring of Feather Falling seem to be out by an order of magnitude.
Spell: 100 feet/round for a minute.
Ring: 10 feet/round

Flavor text for Sacred Flame now no longer flames from above ("tongues of divine radiance, like flame, engulf..." ). Also, since they are only "like flame" presumably they do not ignite inflammable objects.

 

[Kobold Stew]

All clerics now have armor proficiencies. That's a shame. I recognize that it's a good internal balancing mechanism, but the variation between clerics that existed before was, in my view, preferable. I liked the thought of agile lightbringer clerics boosting their AC with dex because they had no armour.

This is simpler (in that it's the same across the board), but less flavorful.

 

[JeffB]

I still call them magic-users. 1977 start date

I actually much prefer Mage over Wizard.

I cannot dl the packet right now, but sure sounds like they nixed some of the things I really liked from previous incarnation.

 

[Klaus]

Hmm, now that I see the rules for attribute increases down on paper, I'm really starting to go off it. I get that it's simple, that's definitely an advantage if you play without feats, but I think it brings out the fundamental flaw in pre-3E (and to some extent 3E) abilities: what's the point in increasing some of them?

Don't forget that every ability score doubles as a saving throw in DDN. After bumping Str to its max, a character should focus on shoring up his lowest scores (up to 10s and 12s, at least).

 

[Iosue]

I still call them magic-users. 1977 start date

I actually much prefer Mage over Wizard.

1987-88 start date, but the same here. I had little hope that they'd go back to "magic-user", but "mage" is a good compromise.

 

[Remathilis]

It seems that classes have to roll their hp now. Instead of saying "1d12 (or 7) + your Constitution modifier per barbarian level gained" it now just says "1d12 + your Constitution modifier per barbarian level gained."

This clearly seems to be a deliberate edit, and IMO is a huge step backwards. They know that a huge portion of the player base loathes rolling for hit points. So what gives?

Its probably moving into a rules module. Which is good, since I had a player assume it meant "1d12 OR 7, whichever is better" so he couldn't roll less than 7 on 1d12.