D&D 5E December Package is here, it was about time!!

[Ultimatecalibur]

* Martial character damage leaves spellcasters in the dust. Wizard cantrips, at their highest level, deal 4d10 damage (avg. 22). A high level fighter deals [W] (let's say d8 for the sake of example) +5 +6d6 +20 (avg. 50.5) damage, and that's not even including a magic weapon! Even meteor swarm, a 9th level spell (of which even the mightiest wizard gets ONE per day), deals 12d6 (avg. 42) damage! Sure, it hits multiple creatures, but come on! When fighters are hitting harder than meteor swarms every round of every day, playing a blaster wizard or "laser cleric" isn't going to be fun in the least.

Many wizard attack spells are AoE (i.e. multitarget) and save for half damage. With targets that save 50% of the time, Meteor Swarm deals an average of 31.5 damage per target to all targets within a 4 40ft radius clouds. With targets he can hit 75% of the time, a Fighter deals 37.875 average damage to one target a around. With 6 or more targets, a single Meteor Swarm deals the roughly the same average damage (189) in one round as a Fighter would do in 5 rounds (189.375).

 

[GX.Sigma]

Cleric: Freaking awesome! Just what I wanted in terms of channel divinity. I still think domains should be called domains, though.

Fighter: Holy , that is a lot of damage dealing and damage reduction. You can parry every round and deal full attack damage? Are... are you sure that's balanced?

Complexity: Not sure if better or worse. There seem to be a few feats that are simpler than the previous packet, but the classes seem more complex.

Races: Still bad.

Grapple rules: Still not quite there yet. You can "pin" someone with only one hand? While you're both standing upright?

Radiant and Necrotic damage definitions, and removal of Holy and Unholy: Finally. Yes. This is good. Keep this.

Wizards can't use rituals from their spellbook anymore, only spells they've prepared. This takes away what was the best thing about ritual casting!

Academic tradition can cast rituals from the book.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I feel there is a significant improvement on both the rogue and the cleric with this package. The rogue is no longer fighter-light, and I can imagine all sorts of exciting builds that one might wan to pursue. As I play around with some possible builds, there's a real sense of wanting just that little bit more, which suggests that they have hit exactly the right spot. This is the best we've seen of the rogue since the very first packet in June.

The cleric is also more exciting, even if the undead-controlling has been nerfed and/or removed. Clerics of different gods will look and act differently -- has that ever happened in D&D before? I don't think so. Pretty cool.

We're light on necromancy (again, gone since the first packet).

They seem to have done nothing with races in 6 months -- hmm. I'd have liked to see their plans for half-orc or half-elf.

Fun stuff, all 'round. I'm looking forward to playing!

 

[variant]

Only four feats through all twenty levels?

Also, Scholarly Wizard seems a lot more powerful than the other two traditions. +1 spell per level is almost doubling the Wizard's power at high level. Also, the spell list cutting off all progression at 17th level seems wrong.

I don't like Ace in the Hole nor Combat Surge as I don't like daily limits placed on the non-magical classes. I don't see why they shift away from new Maneuvers and Skill Tricks. I think Advanced Maneuvers and Advanced Skill Tricks that require previous Manuevers and Skill Tricks would be better. The Martial Damage Bonus seems pointless as well when they already have Martial Damage Dice.

I do like that the Weapon Attack Bonus has been scaled in.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Academic tradition can cast rituals from the book.

Noted, but I'm still extremely unhappy that only one type of wizard can do this.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Scholarly Wizard seems a lot more powerful than the other two traditions. +1 spell per level is almost doubling the Wizard's power at high level.

+1 spell prepared per spell level. Not +1 spell slot per spell level. They're using the "fire and don't forget" system that the Cleric had last packet.

Noted, but I'm still extremely unhappy that only one type of wizard can do this.

It seems fair to me. They don't cost gold anymore, so there has to be some limit.

 

[variant]

+1 spell prepared per spell level. Not +1 spell slot per spell level. They're using the "fire and don't forget" system that the Cleric had last packet.

Ah, I interpreted it wrong. Thanks for the correction. That isn't as bad, but still very powerful.

 

[Sonny]

I like the overall framework and class ideas shown in this packet, but the *actual* details (like number of martial dice being tossed about) is a mess.

Skill dice don't do anything for me. And while flat bonuses can be boring, they're also easier to balance against and quicker to use in actual play then constantly rolling extra dice for everything. Which is not only more swingy, but also, a less elegant solution.

I understand trying out new ideas is part of the playtest. But, I think it's high time for Wizards to stop trying out new mechanics for things that aren't broken and really start getting the core balanced and lean, so they can move on already.

 

[variant]

School of Evocation and School of Illusion need some serious bump in power to match Scholarly Wizardry.

 

[Falling Icicle]

It seems fair to me. They don't cost gold anymore, so there has to be some limit.

The limit is the time required, which can be minutes or even hours. There's also the limit that only certain spells can be used as rituals. If it's not overpowered for academic wizards to be able to cast rituals out of their book, it's not overpowered for any other type of wizard to have that ability.