Elven Trance, Spell Scrolls, Grappling & More: New Sage Advice

Jeremy Crawford's September Sage Advice column has appeared, and it deals with elven traces, thief features, various combat questions, plus a couple of queries about spells and scrolls. As usual, these questions and answers have also been added to the Sage Advice Compendium. "Elven Trance, spell scrolls, grappling, and other rules bits. This month, we touch on several rules questions that have come up quite a few times over the past year." (thanks to Ghost Matter for the scoop)

 

[Remathilis]

Not seeing anything too offensive.

 

[Psikerlord#]

The fast hands thing on it's face in PHB would permit magic item use. They nerfed it in DMG retrospectively (and rightfully so, it's broken as all heck otherwise).

Elven trace on the face of it in PHB also allows full recovery after 8 hours, so this is also a nerf. I dont know if it's necessary really. Anyone only needs 6 hrs sleep + 2 hrs light activity. If you can trance/sleep for 4 hours, you can usually sleep 6 + 2 light activity...

 

[Creamsteak]

It took me 5 minutes or so to grasp that there are scrolls that are not spell scrolls. That was confusing, based on preconceptions I have from other editions of the game. So if you have a one-time-use magic-item scroll that does X, but it is not a spell scroll anyone can use it. That is a very pronounced and subtle thing to me because of expectations built into me from so much prior experience. Was that a necessary distinction for the edition? I don't know. Perhaps two different words would have been useful rather than the distinction scrolls which have a subset spell scrolls which covers the majority of all scrolls (usually).

 

[SkidAce]

It took me 5 minutes or so to grasp that there are scrolls that are not spell scrolls. That was confusing, based on preconceptions I have from other editions of the game. So if you have a one-time-use magic-item scroll that does X, but it is not a spell scroll anyone can use it. That is a very pronounced and subtle thing to me because of expectations built into me from so much prior experience. Was that a necessary distinction for the edition? I don't know. Perhaps two different words would have been useful rather than the distinction scrolls which have a subset spell scrolls which covers the majority of all scrolls (usually).

First edition had the same separation. There were "Protection" scrolls anyone could use. And spell scrolls.

 

[Jiggawatts]

First edition had the same separation. There were "Protection" scrolls anyone could use. And spell scrolls.

Indeed, 2E had the same. In pre 3E D&D, a fighter could grab a protection scroll and read it to garner its benefits. So this is just a callback to the AD&D days Creamsteak.

 

[Creamsteak]

Fair enough. I realize that my assumption was implicit based on past experience, but I had to think about it a bit to grok it.

 

[Henry]

Kinda like Gauntlets of Ogre Power and belts of giant strength. Anyone with experience ranging back to 3rd edition often remarks how strange it is, and anyone from 2nd edition and prior says, "oh, yeah, I remember those."

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

The fast hands thing on it's face in PHB would permit magic item use. They nerfed it in DMG retrospectively (and rightfully so, it's broken as all heck otherwise).

Elven trace on the face of it in PHB also allows full recovery after 8 hours, so this is also a nerf. I dont know if it's necessary really. Anyone only needs 6 hrs sleep + 2 hrs light activity. If you can trance/sleep for 4 hours, you can usually sleep 6 + 2 light activity...

They aren't "nerfs", they are clarifications of intent for rules that failed to be clear in their intent.

Namely the Use an Object action being written in a way that doesn't bring an optional rule into consideration, and the misunderstanding of numerous people on what "the effects" of sleeping are according to the game rules.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The ruling on Darkness/Light spells is goofy, adds complexity, and doesn't match RAW. Yet another ruling that I plan to ignore.