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<blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 8533409" data-attributes="member: 7635">So let me point out the major difference between Chill Touch and Necrotic bolt: the former had two riders on it: you can't heal for 1 round after getting hit with chill touch if you're living and you have disadvantage to hit the caster if your undead. Necrotic bolt has neither of these factors, and while the undead one isn't likely to come up, the healing one is huge as it can lockout a character from big healing effects (or more if he uses his legendaries) making a healer have to carefully use thier spells. Second, if you have a spell or ability that protects you from &quot;spells&quot; (such as spell resistance) it is useless against necrotic bolt. So effectively, they took away the PCs chance of resisting it at the cost of it no longer being an inconvenience when it hits the PC beyond damage. This is what &quot;dumbing down&quot; looks like; remove all the interplay and strategy from fighting a CR 23 boss monster so that it's easier to read the stat block.Now, WotC COULD have changed it to: Necrotic Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack. Orcus casts chill touch (+15 to hit, range 120 ft. One target Hit: 29 (5d8 + 7 damage, target cannot regain HP for 1 round). It captures the feel of the old ability with the convenience of the new. And to be fair, Orcus isn't even my worry here: he's a monster using an innate magical attack that could be anything the DM wants. I am concerned when a necromancer npc who is supposed to be a &quot;wizard&quot; has Necrotic Bolt in his stat block instead of chill touch, because then we set the precedent that cantrips are &quot;PC magic&quot; and NPCs get different versions that don't abide by the same laws of magic.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Remathilis, post: 8533409, member: 7635"] So let me point out the major difference between Chill Touch and Necrotic bolt: the former had two riders on it: you can't heal for 1 round after getting hit with chill touch if you're living and you have disadvantage to hit the caster if your undead. Necrotic bolt has neither of these factors, and while the undead one isn't likely to come up, the healing one is huge as it can lockout a character from big healing effects (or more if he uses his legendaries) making a healer have to carefully use thier spells. Second, if you have a spell or ability that protects you from "spells" (such as spell resistance) it is useless against necrotic bolt. So effectively, they took away the PCs chance of resisting it at the cost of it no longer being an inconvenience when it hits the PC beyond damage. This is what "dumbing down" looks like; remove all the interplay and strategy from fighting a CR 23 boss monster so that it's easier to read the stat block. Now, WotC COULD have changed it to: Necrotic Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack. Orcus casts chill touch (+15 to hit, range 120 ft. One target Hit: 29 (5d8 + 7 damage, target cannot regain HP for 1 round). It captures the feel of the old ability with the convenience of the new. And to be fair, Orcus isn't even my worry here: he's a monster using an innate magical attack that could be anything the DM wants. I am concerned when a necromancer npc who is supposed to be a "wizard" has Necrotic Bolt in his stat block instead of chill touch, because then we set the precedent that cantrips are "PC magic" and NPCs get different versions that don't abide by the same laws of magic. [/QUOTE]

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