D&D (2024) 2024 Spell Changes

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Speculation based on the comments of the designers.

Monsters will be adjusted to actually match their CR. Therefore some monster would have to get higher stats or get disrupting magic.

Or just do more damage and have more HP, that's the easiest thing to adjust. I don't think they're going to significantly adjust the hit bonuses.

The AC gap between AC-optimized characters and others is just too large. Any creature that can reliably hit a Bladesinger with Shield up will hardly ever miss a regular non-optimized character, and feeling like your character is defenseless is no fun for the player.

 

[Minigiant]

Or just do more damage and have more HP, that's the easiest thing to adjust. I don't think they're going to significantly adjust the hit bonuses.

The AC gap between AC-optimized characters and others is just too large. Any creature that can reliably hit a Bladesinger with Shield up will hardly ever miss a regular non-optimized character, and feeling like your character is defenseless is no fun for the player.

The problem is Bladesong. It's a extra stackable persistent Shield

A nonBladesing caster in Mage Armor is rocking 13+Dex AC for most of the played part of the game. Which is 15-17.

A martial in their top armor starts at 17 and goes up from there.

So the new MM monsters with boosted damage, more on hit effects, more nonhit set ups, and more spells would grind through the slot slots of a caster heavily reliant of Shield or avoid it altogether.

Whereas a Martials' better base combat defenses would withstand the same onslaught much better.

 

[ECMO3]

You know what they didn't nerf? Guidance. It's the same exact thing... only you need to define what skill it applies to this time, which just adds to the spam, because now instead of people going GUIDANCE they're going GUIDANCE PERSUASION followed by I MEAN GUIDANCE DECEPTION

So, anyway, I'll keep banning that.

It is not a reaction, so doing it after should not work:

Rogue: I check for traps
Cleric: Guidance
DM: One thing at a time - Roll an Investigation
Rogue: 12
DM: You don't find any Traps. Cleric I assume you want to cast Guidance on the Rogue, what skill do you want to give.

Another thing to note, at least in 5E is the DM can provide situational disadvantage and this would I think usually apply to guidance cast in the middle of Charisma checks. One PC casting a spell on another PC involved in a discussion - "why did that guy just cast a spell on you just as you were trying to convince me the King told you to come inventory the treasure in the vault .... something is fishy here" .... subtle spell would solve this of course.

 

[ECMO3]

Or just do more damage and have more HP, that's the easiest thing to adjust. I don't think they're going to significantly adjust the hit bonuses.

The AC gap between AC-optimized characters and others is just too large. Any creature that can reliably hit a Bladesinger with Shield up will hardly ever miss a regular non-optimized character, and feeling like your character is defenseless is no fun for the player.

This is true. The other thing is this is going to really pigeon hole builds and require characters to also get in the hit point race.

I play mostly 10 or 12 Constitution characters, including melee tanks, but I do it by driving AC very high. If you make monsters hit that reliably you require players who suffer a lot of attacks to run a high Constitution and essentially become hit point bags just liek the monsters are ... which equals boring PCs.

 

[ECMO3]

Is Feeblemind the only spell in the game that got a formal rename?

Its actually very surprising, WOTC has gone out of its way to keep spell names the same for backwards compatibility (even ones liek the sumon spells that were COMPLETELY changed in mechanics), but this one they were willing to change the name on. Why?....so strange

Maybe. It really is a different spell now ... and doesn't actually make their mind feeble.

It does not reduce stats, doesn't stop conversation and doesn't really even stop all spell casting. Based on descriptions I've read, RAW I believe it will only stop spells from being cast using an action, so it presumably won't stop rituals, things that have long casting time, bonus action spells or reaction spells. You might even be able to get off action spells using ready action (depends on the specific wording of the magic action and the ready action). In exchange for this it does a lot more damage.

TBH I think sleep should have been renamed too since it doesn't put enemies to sleep.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sorcerer has been voted most powerful class by a few. And quicken firebolt is still well worth a SP.

Obviously no one has experience yet, but still, I don't think it's weak anymore.

It is highly likely I am bitter and biased in this regard. We will see going forward

 

[lall]

Anyone know the specific changes to Wish?

Only change is you can Wish to replace a feat, but you have to risk the 1/3 chance of losing Wish.

 

[Maxperson]

Counterspell is a constitution save now, if the target fails the save he loses his action but does not lose the slot.

Sprit guardians no longer hurts an enemy at the start of their turn. This fixes the double damage from casting it and then pulling in an enemy.

I don't like that spirit guardians change. The damage at the start of the enemy turn made a lot of sense. I would have preferred it not to do any immediate damage in order to fix the double dipping.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, but why would invisibility give you an advantage against foes that ignore invisibility?

They shouldn't have written that part into the spell. It causes problems.

 

[pukunui]

And taking this from today's TM video comments - Otto's Irresistible Dance is now resistible.

Apologies if this has already been addressed. I came across the answer. There is a Wisdom save now, but if you succeed, you still have to dance. It's just that if you fail, you also get charmed and the effect is bigger and potentially lasts longer.