D&D (2024) Abilities as Spells: splitting your abilities between class section and spell section

[tetrasodium]

This is not a serious issue, but I think it will annoy me, so I'm curious what thoughts people have on it as well.

Regardless of whether abilities being turned into spells is a good idea or not, a minor annoyance/concern of mine that will certainly come up if handled the way its been done in the past is that you will no longer see your class abilities in the class section of the book instead you'll see:

"You gain the cantrip Pact Blade"

and no other information and so then you have to find that spell in the spell section to see if that is an ability you want. That's annoying.

This does happen now, there are class features now that read "You can cast etherealness once per day" and it bugs me, just enough, now when it happens, but it doesn't happen that often.

But when it's a key, class-defining, feature and you want to A) look up an ability B) compare abilities (e.g. the three pact styles for the warlock), C) quickly learn what a class does - not having the FULL information centralized in the Class write up is going to bug me, and I suspect others. Its a step backwards in quality of life. Its not game breaking, world ending, despair inducing, agony; its just the sort of thing that's going to be a "!@#$% it, that's in the spell section not the warlock section" moment at the table.

There is an easy fix for this, of course, put the "spell" abilities in the class write-up and this concern evaporates [though then you can split hairs over which spells this should apply to etc.], so this is not an argument against spellitization of abilities, its just a concern that I think may be worth mentioning to people so it can be part of the conversation with survey feedbacks and such.

There's a second & third much larger issue with some of the spell abilities too.

• One of the threads has some discussion about how a wizard who loses their spellbook without scribe spell prepared is incapable of ever replacing the spellbook or even starting a new one because you need it to copy a spell & it's a wizard rather than arcane or something like "arcane, (wizard)"
  • This is obviously dumb & should be fixed with the always prepared wording sorcerer & warlock have on some of theirs
• Warlocks have eldritch blastpact weapon book of shadows & pact familiar cantrips. They start with one+EB & have two cantrip choices from the arcane list but none of them are on the "arcane list" so they are incapable of choosing them
  • This is probably to limit invocations but it makes more sense to have the pact & cantrip named differently so the invocations can key off the pact while a warlock (or perhaps some non-warlock archetype/feat) can choose the cantrip.

 

[Yaarel]

I am surprised no one mentioned 4e.

In 4e design, everything is made out of "powers".

 

[UngeheuerLich]

why build in a extra cost when other melee characters just get it?

Because they don't get 3rd spells usually. The warlock would have a choice.

That said, I agree with you.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

I am surprised no one mentioned 4e.

In 4e design, everything is made out of "powers".

yeah but those powers were not all spells, some where (Arcane , spell) but some were psionic or martial
and even in 4e wizards didn't need a spell to write down one

 

[Yaarel]

yeah but those powers were not all spells, some where (Arcane , spell) but some were psionic or martial
and even in 4e wizards didn't need a spell to write down one

Yeah. Not all 4e powers are spells, but all spells are powers.

They use the same mechanics and format.

For example, a 5e "Warlord" could easily be a full caster or half caster, but whose "spells" are nonmagical exploits.

 

[OldSchoolGamerGirl]

For example, a 5e "Warlord" could easily be a full caster or half caster, but whose "spells" are nonmagical exploits.

as long as they are called Martial: Exploit (or something similar, maybe martial, extortionary, or uncanny) not spells I would LOVE that.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Spellcasters cast spells.

Other classes use abilities.

Making all (or most) abilities simply spells does two things- it makes all classes "spellcasters," and it makes spellcasting less cool.

In other words, it is the worst of both worlds. Simplifying things does not always make things better.

 

[Yaarel]

as long as they are called Martial: Exploit (or something similar, maybe martial, extortionary, or uncanny) not spells I would LOVE that.

Names that I like for martial features include: maneuver and technique.

The way I use the realworld meaning of "exploit" is for some great accomplishment, like a Herculean task. So the gaming technical term for something routine sounds a bit off in my ears. Then again, tech terms are tech terms.

 

[Yaarel]

Spellcasters cast spells.

Other classes use abilities.

Making all (or most) abilities simply spells does two things- it makes all classes "spellcasters," and it makes spellcasting less cool.

In other words, it is the worst of both worlds. Simplifying things does not always make things better.

Maybe.

At the same time, for the highest levels of the game, it is vital for martial characters to seriously consider what exactly the spellcasters can do, so that the martial characters can have abilities that are meaningfully competitive.

At the highest levels, spellcasters obsolete the "Lord of the Rings" expectations. The game becomes more like superheroes or a pervasive scifi supertech way of life.

Martial characters need to be able to adapt, survive, and even flourish in this new high-tier gaming environment.

Old school mostly solved this problem by throwing magic items at martial characters. But really, the features of a martial class itself must be able to adapt to high level play. Even if: martial classes include high level features that guarantee the acquisition of one or more powerful magic items.

 

[Tonguez]

Well things like Hunters Mark, Snare, Zephyr strike and animal friendship should already be Abilities rather than spells. Especially snare which takes a minute to cast and requires you to hide a rope circle on the ground - you know like an actual rl snare Made with Skill!

Fifth level Swift Quiver gives you an endless supply of ammunition and says ‘ you can use a bonus action to make two attacks with a weapon that uses ammunition from the quiver.” Why is that a spell?

Snare
Casting Time: 1 minute
While you cast this spellprepare a snare you use the cord or rope to create a circle with a 5-foot radius on a flat surface within your reach. When you finish casting, the cord or rope disappears is hidden to become a magical trap.The trap triggers when a Small creature or larger moves into the area protected by the snare.

Hunters Mark

“You study a creature you can see within range, marking the movements, traits and habits of your quarry. You gain advantage on perception and survival checks to spot it and deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target whenever you hit it with a weapon attack”