It is using the inspiration off turn that is going to increase the length.
If they just reroll one attack when they miss then yes, then yes it wouldn't increase the time, but I don't see players doing that because then they are wasting an available ability.
You don't see people re-rolling missed attacks because it would waste a resource they get back every turn? Or do you mean that you don't see them only using it to do that? Because, sure, they will also use it to re-roll damage, to re-roll their second wind to heal more, or who knows how many other things. But at the end of the day... it isn't going to slow things down much at all.
I never said I hate it. I said I find it frustrating as a DM and I do think it is going to make the game noticibly slower.
I also think (and said) it will make the game more difficult for new players .... which is not the same as saying it is more difficult for a DM to run.
If we are only talking about new players, who cares about abilities from level 6 to 14? If I've taken a group of players from level 1 to level 10 over the course of eight months, they aren't exactly too new to be able to handle having two different reaction abilities.
If they do that, but I don't think most players will. The whole class idea is about making it a reaction and the uses are more powerful when you do that. There is both a thematic and a mechanical reason for using it as a reaction.
There are players who play against the subclass stereotype and intended design, but that is not typical.
What are you talking about? No, the Fey Warlock is not all about reactions. It is about teleporting. Their level 3 ability gives them a bonus action teleport pool, with one ability allowing them to grant temp hp to an ally, and another to draw attacks from enemies. Neither of these is a reaction. Then at level 6 you can use those same teleports defensively, but you do not have to. A Warlock could use Dreadful step on their turn to cause damage to a bunch of nearby enemies and then use their action to cast another spell, and that is fully within the stereotype and intended design of the class. The reaction is an OPTION not the POINT.
You just seem ill-informed on how these classes work.
There are entire threads about how Silvery Barbs is horrible, annoying and slows down play and numerous abilities are going to be doing that kind of thing now. There are more threads saying combat now, using 2014 rules is a slog and takes too much time. The new system certainly is not going to take less time.
I am aware of those threads. I am also aware of my own game, where we have two people who use Silvery Barbs quite often... and it doesn't slow down combat noticeably at all. In fact, in all those threads you mention, there are often people speaking up with confusion and saying that they do not understand where these arguments come from, because these things are fine.
Doing more things is going to take more time.
Ignoring Monsters for a moment if you break up what players can do - action, move, bonus action, reaction, object interaction and what I will call free stuff (the last one not something mechanically in the rules that a PC can do but something that takes time at the table .... like lucky feat or asking the DM if you can do X or asking to explain things or sharpening your pencil).
A combat round takes as much time as it takes for all players to finish as many of those things as they are going to do. IF we break this down:
1. Action - There will not be more actions, however the actions, especially the attack action are more complex and will take more time to execute than they did before.
2. Move - the move has not significantly changed and will likely take the same amount of time.
3. Bonus Action - used more often
4. Reaction - used more often
5. Object Interaction - no difference
6. Free Stuff - most won't change but there are more things explicitly available in the rules.
This adds up to combat taking longer. A round of combat can't be the same time or less time if players are doing more things in a round AND the things they are doing are not less time and are in some cases more complicated and take more time.
But let's apply this to a specific character.
A 5th level Eldritch Knight Human with Polearm Master and a Halberd with the Graze Property, they take the Defensive Fighting Style and have the shield spell.
What is ACTUALLY new for the this character? They deal 3 damage on a miss and can move when they use Second Wind. Nothing else is new. Nothing else is something that has not been available before. They have the exact same reactions they always had, the exact same attacks, the exact same bonus actions... nothing has changed.
The wizard? Any wizard? Nothing has really changed. They don't have new bonus actions or reactions.
Yes, many characters now do, but you have to remember that, for tables with optimizers and such, weaponizing your bonus action and reaction were goals. So seeing a table full of people with action, bonus action, reaction, and movement abilities... wasn't uncommon. This is why it seems to me like this isn't that big of a deal, the thing you are worried about was already common practice at every table I've been to. So nothing feels like it is changing to me except more concepts I will see in play.
Yeah, but what you are more likely to have is a Tiefling Feylock, a Glamour Bard, a Fighter with Defensive Duelist, A Barbarian with PAM, and a Cleric with Shield.
Which was already a 100% possible party in 2014.
It does change things quite a bit actually. Like you said they can only use a reaction to an attack if they get attacked. Having other options means they will have more opportunities. Getting more reaction options changes the number on reactions by raising the number of triggering conditions. The only time it does not change things is if you have already hit the ceiling and are capable of one reaction a round.
To put it another way - if your party of 6 is using less than 6 reactions per round then increasing the number of reaction triggers will increase the number of reactions they can take. The only time this is not true is when they are already saturated with an available reaction every round or when different reactions are triggered by the same condition (example Misty Escape and Hellish Rebuke).
For example, if my Feylock has Misty Escape and you hit them they can cast misty escape. If you hit them once every 3 rounds of combat they can cast it once every 3 rounds of combat which translates into about 1 reaction for that ability per combat.
If they can move off turn as a reaction because there is a Glamor Bard in the party, well now that is more reactions. We will call it 1 more time per combat they can use a reaction (it could mathematically be almost every single PC, almost every single round of combat, just from one Bard in the party but we will assume the Bard uses half their inspiration for other things).
Then let's give them Pole Arm master and now in addition they can attack anyone who approaches them. Let's say this happens three times per combat on average (pretty easily this considering interplay with Misty escape).
So now we went from 1 reaction per combat to one reaction per round by giving that Feylock 2 more things they can use a reaction on and one of them did not even come from their character build. At this point the player is saturated. They are using a reaction just about every round of combat and adding more things they could do will not increase it any more.
One reaction per round to be specific. and this illustrates my point directly above.
Cutting Words was and still is a limited ability. If all that Bard had was cutting words she could use a reaction any time an enemy rolled up to her number of inspirations. Then that is all the reactions she could use .... so using 2014 that is about one reaction every two rounds of combat if she uses inspiration for nothing else (a bit higher on the 2024 Bard).
Ok so the Bard is using cutting words every other round. Now she is not using cutting words she can use shield if she is hit. And then if someone fails a saving throw she can use countercharm. So now it is more often than every other round. Probably not every single round with these three examples, but more often than if she did not have the other two reaction options.
One or two more is a functional increase.
Something new that is added takes little time and resolves quickly = more time than it takes now.
You call it a functional increase... but if the Bard countercharms to cause a re-roll instead of using Cutting Words, it isn't actually an increase. You seem to maybe be looking at this from a position of counting every reaction that might take place in every combat over the course of the day? That is an odd way to look at it to me, because that doesn't make any given combat any longer. It just makes more combats about the same length.
And again, you are approaching this entire discussion from a "I am reading the rules and it might happen" and other people are telling you "I have played the game and it doesn't happen". So why should I believe you, who have not played it, compared to myself, who HAS played it and not experienced this issue? Especially since other people who have played it have also confirmed that my experience is not unique?
