D&D (2024) 2024 Spell Changes

[Minigiant]

Why? Have the designers mentioned any intention to make such abilities more common than they were previously?

They said they were going to put high level monsters more in line with the idea of what their CR was.

They also said they're not changing the CRs.

Therefore if the monsters were too weak before they're going to power them up to match their CR.

For monsters that are big dumb brutes they're only four things to increase:

HP
Damage
To hit
AC

 

[Bacon Bits]

It's a nerf to Temporary AC.

If you can't keep your AC high, you'll be grinded out

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Shield working as written on low AC characters. Like the Wizard in Mage Armor with AC 14-15 casting Shield is fine. I think the only time we really have had a problem with Shield was when we had a high-level Bladesinger. He had Dex 16 and Mage Armor, so had base AC 16. Bladesinging gave him AC 21, and Shield gave him AC 26 with no magic items. That's when it got to be a problem.

 

[mellored]

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Shield working as written on low AC characters. Like the Wizard in Mage Armor with AC 14-15 casting Shield is fine. I think the only time we really have had a problem with Shield was when we had a high-level Bladesinger. He had Dex 16 and Mage Armor, so had base AC 16. Bladesinging gave him AC 21, and Shield gave him AC 26 with no magic items. That's when it got to be a problem.

My house rule.

Shield gives you 20 AC until the end of your next turn.
+1 AC when upcast at a higher level.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Shield working as written on low AC characters. Like the Wizard in Mage Armor with AC 14-15 casting Shield is fine. I think the only time we really have had a problem with Shield was when we had a high-level Bladesinger. He had Dex 16 and Mage Armor, so had base AC 16. Bladesinging gave him AC 21, and Shield gave him AC 26 with no magic items. That's when it got to be a problem.

The problem isn't Shield in that case.

It's Bladesong.

 

[Bacon Bits]

The problem isn't Shield in that case.

It's Bladesong.

No, it isn't.

The problem is that Shield works that way with anything that improves AC, right? It can combine with anything that improves AC. So Shield is only a good design in a game that doesn't let the caster's AC ever get beyond AC 14 or AC 15. That's not the case.

Meanwhile, Bladesong already doesn't work if you have medium armor, heavy armor, or a shield. So the best you can do is Studded Leather, Barbarian/Monk Unarmored Defense, Sorcerer Draconic Resilience, Lizardfolk Natural Armor, etc. Which are basically just Mage Armor. So the design of Bladesong by itself looks questionable, but in truth it's actually AC 13 + Dex mod + Int mod. Which is a good buff, but it's not that stellar or out of line.

Shield, on the other hand, breaks with anything similar. You can just multiclass Cleric and use heavy armor and use Shield. Even that's not even necessary. If you're a Battlemaster Artificer, you can have full plate and shield very easily, and your subclass-granted Shield spell suddenly takes you to AC 25.

 

[dave2008]

My house rule.

Shield gives you 20 AC until the end of your next turn.
+1 AC when upcast at a higher level.

I don't know that the AC is correct, but that is the correct idea. Not a bonus to AC, but a fixed AC. Makes so much more sense with bounded accuracy.

 

[pukunui]

In my Mad Mage campaign, I currently have one player playing a dwarf forge cleric / watcher paladin / storm sorcerer. He has full plate that he has enchanted through his forge cleric feature. He also has a shield. And he’s got something else that gives him +2 to AC, so his base AC is 23. Thanks to his sorcerer level, he can also cast shield, making his AC 28 for a round.

He also likes to Dodge to impose disadvantage on enemy attack rolls. Oh, and for the rare occasion where I actually manage to get through all his defenses, he has the Lucky feat and can make me reroll (which more than likely causes me to miss).

He used to rely heavily on dodging plus spirit guardians, but “Halaster” got sick of him doing that, so for a while, every time he cast SG, some mage hunter creatures would appear and attack him. He now doesn’t use SG nearly as much, but he’s still all but impossible to hit.

Dex saves are one of his only weaknesses. (He also has things like the Dungeon Delver feat and a high Perception, so he can automatically find secret doors and resist damage from all the traps.)

He’s as close to being an unkillable “I win!” machine as it’s possible to get in vanilla 5e. One of the most frustrating character combos I’ve ever DMed for! We’re nearly finished the campaign, and I’ve asked the player not to make a character like this again.

 

[Nadan]

Not sure how it interacts with a sorcerer’s Quickened Spell metamagic, without seeing the text on that

Quickened has its own rule : "You can't modify a spell in this way if you already cast a level 1+ spell on the current turn, nor can you cast a level 1+ spell on this turn after modifying a spell in this way."

I think this is a very bad extra restriction, quickened is already weird to use for pure sorcerer. Is cast another sorcerous burst really worth the 2 SP?

Edit: Don't included for Lv.20's 1 free metamagic per turn.

 

[Minigiant]

No, it isn't.

The problem is that Shield works that way with anything that improves AC, right? It can combine with anything that improves AC. So Shield is only a good design in a game that doesn't let the caster's AC ever get beyond AC 14 or AC 15. That's not the case.

Meanwhile, Bladesong already doesn't work if you have medium armor, heavy armor, or a shield. So the best you can do is Studded Leather, Barbarian/Monk Unarmored Defense, Sorcerer Draconic Resilience, Lizardfolk Natural Armor, etc. Which are basically just Mage Armor. So the design of Bladesong by itself looks questionable, but in truth it's actually AC 13 + Dex mod + Int mod. Which is a good buff, but it's not that stellar or out of line.

Shield, on the other hand, breaks with anything similar. You can just multiclass Cleric and use heavy armor and use Shield. Even that's not even necessary. If you're a Battlemaster Artificer, you can have full plate and shield very easily, and your subclass-granted Shield spell suddenly takes you to AC 25.

Then...
The problem is Bladesong.

Bladesong lets a mage have an base AC higher than its supposed to.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Find Familiar was made more powerful. Now you can look through your familiar's eyes as a bonus action. This causes a problem because you can use it to target an enemy you could not otherwise see with a spell. This is a pretty big buff.

They also removed the ability for your familiar to perform the Help action, which is what 90% of all familiars did in combat. Major Nerf.