D&D 5E I can haz WILD MAGE and the first DRAGONBORN art?

[Paraxis]

What, really? You must hate high tech games. The entire parties fate can hang on any number of skill checks. Piloting, bomb defusing, security system disabling, grenade scatter...

For that matter even in D&D the whole parties fate can hang on a rogue or rangers stealth check, or even a Bards diplomacy check.

I like high tech games just fine.

A failed skill check like a stealth roll or diplomacy in a tough situation doesn't = direct area damage which then in turn lead to a tpk.

A failed skill check often leads to another tense situation, an interesting encounter, a more difficult encounter, something unexpected and often cool and enjoyable.

8d6 damage save for half = possible dead players without any say so at all, and a wild magic sorcerer being asked to leave the party by my character if they live.

 

[Stalker0]

I will say this wild mage is pretty darn wild....it spans the gauntlet from letting you annihilate your enemies to destroying your party in a single moment.


Personally not my cup of tea, a bit too swingy for my taste.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Looks interesting, but the whole "your DM can have you roll..." is weird. I'm hoping that there is a bit more info in the book on what the intention is there. There probably wasn't anything on the prior page, but maybe there is a sidebar on the next page about it. Leaving it with nothing more than what we've seen is rather unfortunate.

 

[Lanefan]

I like high tech games just fine.

A failed skill check like a stealth roll or diplomacy in a tough situation doesn't = direct area damage which then in turn lead to a tpk.

Or it leads to direct sword damage which in turn leads to a tpk...same result, in the end, only slower.

8d6 damage save for half = possible dead players without any say so at all, and a wild magic sorcerer being asked to leave the party by my character if they live.

If your wild mage is killing players you might want to do a bit more than ask her to leave.

Like call the cops.

That said, if it's truly wild magic why isn't the number of dice variable? For mine it's usually (2d6)d6 for something like a fireball or lightning bolt generated by a WMS.

Lan-"sometimes the party you run with is the greatest obstacle between you and a long and happy life"-efan

 

[Dausuul]

Looks interesting, but the whole "your DM can have you roll..." is weird. I'm hoping that there is a bit more info in the book on what the intention is there. There probably wasn't anything on the prior page, but maybe there is a sidebar on the next page about it. Leaving it with nothing more than what we've seen is rather unfortunate.

It seemed weird to me at first too, but after thinking about it, I like it. Wild magic is the sort of thing that can really destroy the atmosphere of a serious campaign. Putting wild surges into the DM's hands means the DM can calibrate the amount of crazy to fit the game. If you like things wacky and weird, call for a wild surge every time the option arises! If you really dislike the whole thing, don't call for them ever. And if you want something in between, you can do that too.

As Ichneumon says, by using wild magic, you're putting your fate in the hands of a whimsical, capricious menace. I know at least one and possibly two players in my group who are going to leap at this class, and I'm looking forward to psyching out the party. Will I call for a surge this time or won't I?

(It also has the benefit of giving the DM a sense of control. A lot of us take DMing pretty seriously, and something as chaotic as wild magic tends to put our hackles up. If we know we get to decide when it's allowed to go boom, we'll be a lot more open to letting that happen.)

 

[Li Shenron]

(Posting my first impressions, before reading everybody else's)

- Due to its placement, my first thought was that this is not a picture of a dragonborn, but of a Sorcerer with Draconic Bloodline already under transformation. However I don't know if it can go that far in the transformation, since I can't see the previous subclass features.

- Dragon Wings and Draconic Presence are both very appropriate and flavorful, but aren't they a bit too late? Flying at 14th level at least it's at-will and with no concentration needed, compared to the Fly spell which you can have 9 levels earlier. But Charm/Fear at 18th level? For 1 minute? Requiring concentration? When a simple Charm Person spell at 1st level lasts 1 hour and doesn't require any concentration?? The Draconic Presence affects any creatures, so let's see how it compares with Charm Monster when we see it, but still...

- I like the Wild Magic table of effects, but that's all. Tides of Chaos and Bend Luck aren't bad, but they don't feel like "wild magic" to me, they feel just "luck" abilities, which is not the same thing. More appropriate to a Fatespinner-type magician. At least the way I see it, I would expect "Wild Magic" to be about random (but partially controllable to be useful) magic effects. Sure you can always explain the additional dice of advantage as "it's magic", but the feeling to me is different between luck (intangible, transparent, and essentially "out of character") and wild magic (untamed and hard to understand but still as "physical" as regular magic).

- Again more advantage... Everybody loves this rule, but if they go overboard with sources of advantage, to the point every PC always get some advantage when they need, there's a chance after a couple of years we'll be sick of it.

- Tides of Chaos not completely clear to me. Before you use it (daily), you still roll 1d20 each time you cast a spell and if you roll 1 then you get a wild magic effect (this is due to Wild Magic Surge). After you use it, i.e. "before regaining it", every spell you cast creates a wild magic effect automatically (no 1d20 roll)?? But "you then regain the use of this feature" does it mean that after using Tides of Chaos, the next spell you cast automatically causes a wild magic effect but also automatically recharges Tides of Chaos? If that's the case, they seriously could have worded this better!

- Both abilities say "the DM can have you roll" for wild magic effects. Why "can"? Is it up to the DM?

 

[Evenglare]

So after looking at the art it didn't set well with me and I think I found out why. Caution, you can not unsee this (at least I won't be able to). Anyway, WTF is up with the arm? If that is accurate then it looks VERY strange to me, and if the arm is just cut off on the page, they made a pretty bad positioning choice.

 

[Evenglare]

Looks interesting, but the whole "your DM can have you roll..." is weird. I'm hoping that there is a bit more info in the book on what the intention is there. There probably wasn't anything on the prior page, but maybe there is a sidebar on the next page about it. Leaving it with nothing more than what we've seen is rather unfortunate.

You may have misinterpreted those rules. The DM cant just willy nilly tell you to roll (well technically he can because he can do anything). There's another stipulation: you have to roll a 1. Only on that 1 on can a dm tell to roll wild surge... at least that's how RAW reads.

 

[LesserCure]

You may have misinterpreted those rules. The DM cant just willy nilly tell you to roll (well technically he can because he can do anything). There's another stipulation: you have to roll a 1. Only on that 1 on can a dm tell to roll wild surge... at least that's how RAW reads.

It's more like the DM can tell you to roll a d20, and if you roll a 1 you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table. If you've already used your Tides of Chaos feature that day, the DM can tell you to directly roll on the Wild Magic Surge table instead, and you regain the use of Tides of Chaos.

 

[fjw70]

Wild magic looks like a lot of fun.