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D&D New Edition Design Looks Soon?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 8692895" data-attributes="member: 23"><p>I like your idea, but, since we are talking about presentation, something else I would like to see fixed is a <em>common</em> problem with the description of many spells and class powers. </p><p></p><p>Basically, most have the format of a title, a sentence of fluff/flavor, then a mechanical decryption. But HOW FREAKING OFTEN does the first sentence not really match the mechanics?!?</p><p></p><p>So we had an encounter with a weird monster (I'm GMing gates of firestorm peak, an excellent 2e adventure I converted to 5e.) and the party paladin decided to "detect evil, paladins can do that right?" </p><p></p><p>So here is the power. I have put the first "fluff" sentence in italic</p><p></p><h4>Divine Sense</h4><p><em>The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. </em>As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/hallow" target="_blank">hallow</a> spell.</p><p></p><p>The player tried to argue that the effect would detect evil... but it doesn't! It detects fiends, celestials and undead (and consecrated/desecrated stuff). The thing was <em>plenty</em> evil, but it was technically speaking an aberration but it was such a vile one that I ruled it as detecting evil, but RAW (and probably RAI) it shouldn't have.</p><p></p><p>In my experience, a lot of casual players are... not super aware what their powers/spells do. So they look at the name of a power, read the first line, think "that looks cool and makes sense for this situation, let's do that!" And all these powers/spells that have a miss-match trip up these casual players, and <em>there is no need for it</em>. There is <strong>no reason</strong> why the first sentence couldn't have said "The presence of extraplanar beings and undead register on your... " </p><p></p><p>I had a player make a 3rd level arcane trickster take friend and true strike as his 2 cantrips...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ancalagon, post: 8692895, member: 23"] I like your idea, but, since we are talking about presentation, something else I would like to see fixed is a [I]common[/I] problem with the description of many spells and class powers. Basically, most have the format of a title, a sentence of fluff/flavor, then a mechanical decryption. But HOW FREAKING OFTEN does the first sentence not really match the mechanics?!? So we had an encounter with a weird monster (I'm GMing gates of firestorm peak, an excellent 2e adventure I converted to 5e.) and the party paladin decided to "detect evil, paladins can do that right?" So here is the power. I have put the first "fluff" sentence in italic [HEADING=3]Divine Sense[/HEADING] [I]The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. [/I]As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the [URL='https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/hallow']hallow[/URL] spell. The player tried to argue that the effect would detect evil... but it doesn't! It detects fiends, celestials and undead (and consecrated/desecrated stuff). The thing was [I]plenty[/I] evil, but it was technically speaking an aberration but it was such a vile one that I ruled it as detecting evil, but RAW (and probably RAI) it shouldn't have. In my experience, a lot of casual players are... not super aware what their powers/spells do. So they look at the name of a power, read the first line, think "that looks cool and makes sense for this situation, let's do that!" And all these powers/spells that have a miss-match trip up these casual players, and [I]there is no need for it[/I]. There is [B]no reason[/B] why the first sentence couldn't have said "The presence of extraplanar beings and undead register on your... " I had a player make a 3rd level arcane trickster take friend and true strike as his 2 cantrips... [/QUOTE]
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