D&D Beyond shared some stats about the things people are using from Explorers Guide to Wildemount. These are stats from 28 million characters.
I still don't understand why D&D Beyond exists. I use it only when required by a DM. And I greatly dislike it. It is a way to double the work (making a character on Roll20 and on here) and triple the cost (buying the hard copy, buying on Roll20, and on D&D Beyond).
I would concur with the conclusion that Magnify Gravity, is a top tier 1st level spell, a functional replacement for the Shatter spell, (one does not need both spells), and a bit overpowered.
Not broken.
Facepalm You've stated exactly what you considered the loophole is. We know your opinion. The fact that other people were not worried about it enough to raise it first is a clue that you're not necessarily seeing this the same as others.The fact that, in response to my talking about the loophole, you mention something which can get multiple concentration spells up at once...tells me you don't even understand what the loophole is. THAT isn't the loophole. You can ALSO do that with this ability but that's not the loophole my man.
READ TINY HUT. YOU CAN'T CAST SPELLS OUT OF IT. "Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it. Spells and other magical effects can't extend through the dome or be cast through it." Crimany. No wonder you think the rules are broken. You break them.And yes, I definitely don't think Mercer spotted it as I don't think they used the ability that way. They used it like a ring of spell storing - I think they thought the wording was so similar it was obvious that's how it worked. Nobody was summoning steeds with a single action or conjuring minor elementals with a single action or using a third level spell slot to create an impenetrable barrier you can cast spells out of but foes cannot attack into.
I'm sorry you did not spot it. I, and a lot of other people that have played wizards for a while, especially ones that have used spells with longer casting times, did not have the same trouble spotting it as you. I also spotted the risks of having spells lost when you put them in a bauble that is carried. As a DM, I had a fun little idea about framing a PC for a crime by tricking them into putting one of their signature spells into this thing and then having a BBEG steal it and use it to attack people. I hope someone someday plays one of these wizards so that I can use that as a fun little story twist.And no, the wording does not make this aspect of it obvious. People were talking about multiple concentration spells, but not the avoiding long casting times. It is not in fact obvious from the text. Most reviews of the class didn't mention that aspect. It's only when you consider something like, "What would happen if I put a Hallucinatory Terrain spell in this thing" that you realize you can suddenly turn that otherwise pretty mediocre spell into a killer one-action battlefield control spell with this ability, once every short rest.
READ TINY HUT. YOU CAN'T CAST SPELLS OUT OF IT. "Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it. Spells and other magical effects can't extend through the dome or be cast through it." Crimany. No wonder you think the rules are broken. You break them.
You do realize there are a lot of ways to make a Tiny Hut in a dungeon right now? My wizard PCs often made a tiny hut WITHOUT A SPELL SLOT (OMG - HOW BROKEN)
I'm done with this and. Let's summarize: You think it is broken, that nobody could see the casting time "loophole" but you, that there was no playtesting, that the people building the book are all idiots
Arguing about if something is balanced? What is this, 4th Edition?
So true. Seems like everything in 5th Edition is as balanced as you want it to be.It's a pretty dull argument in 5E, since the answer eventually boils down to "yeah, basically."
Nah, I'm doing it pretty effortlessly.It feels like you're making an effort to misunderstand.
Roll20's character sheet is dreadful. If you're comparing that and the Beyond character sheet and saying Roll20 is better, then you're basically the guy who claims his Skoda is better than a new BMW, and okay, well, fine but that's ridiculous. I don't know why you "dislike it". Doesn't make any sense and you haven't explained beyond a weirdly outdated claim that the character sheet didn't work right.
You don't need to double-effort or double-pay. Literally the only things you put into the Roll20 sheet are your AC and initiative mod (and Beyond20 is hoping to not even have to do that eventually). There's absolutely no requirement to buy all the books and so on, on Roll20.
And for books and material in general, Beyond does a vastly better job than Roll20. The book mobile app is particularly good - actually better than PDFs by a large margin - and it works even if you have no connection to the internet (it just can't update anything).
We don't even use the paid version of Roll20, and it all works fine.
As for "triple the cost", well, that's 100% on you. If you insist on buying the books in all three formats, when all you need to do is buy them on Beyond, I don't know what to tell you. Pretty sure an awful lot of 5E play on Roll20 will move on to Beyond's VTT once that's up and running, too.
BUT a battlemaster's maneuvers are a limited resource. A readied action might take out a dupe for one round - but the echo knight will immediately re-summon them next round with a bonus action.
Even if the enemies understand that the dupe isn't "real", in many cases that won't matter because the dupe is still a threat - and if the enemy can't target the real character, the dupe is effectively an unkillable threat that will reappear every round. Better keep readying that action every single round. And that's assuming the enemies hit the dupe - it has a decent AC of 16, which means lower level enemies will sometimes waste a round or two just swinging at it.
And yes, an AOE effect will shut the dupe down - but how often are you really going to drop damage auras on a level 3 party?
Again, at level 5 I think this ability is fine. At level 3 it's OP compared to what most other characters are doing.