Level Up (A5E) Improving spells

[Giauz]

Spell descriptions should definitely remain alphabetized.

Yes, but I would like to search them under their different schools like for example picking Evocation spells for an Eldritch Knight. There's not much point in there being different schools of magic if it has no bearing on at least how the alphabetized spell descriptions are further organized. One might as well just have a PHB at the ready.

 

[Horwath]

FTFY

Hopefully Level Up will stick to the alphabetized listing used by 5E (simply adding which classes get each spell at what level)

no need to fix my quotes.

I know what I said.

divide by levels, then by alphabet.

so;

cantrips:
A-Z

1st level:
A-Z

2nd...
....
etc...

 

[EscherEnigma]

I think some formatting changes mentioned here would be useful. What comes to mind most readily is the formatting used in Roll20, but most of the ideas I'm seeing floated would work.

Regarding spells themselves (and this goes beyond formatting and into design) I would personally both more up-scaling, and up-scaling that continues the theme but in a new way. So revivify, raise dead, and the big super raise dead are all one spell cast at different levels, for example.

On that same theme, magic-users who build their spell-lists around themes/domains/tags would be interesting... While the effect can be marvelous reproduced via players choosing to restrain themselves, it can open up design space.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'd like to see a robust collection of spell indices included. Spells sorted by class and level, spells sorted by school, spells sorted by casting time, spells sorted by save throw, spells sorted by concentration...

 

[Eltab]

I'd like to see a robust collection of spell indices included. Spells sorted by class and level, spells sorted by school, spells sorted by casting time, spells sorted by save throw, spells sorted by concentration...

...Excel pivot tables are going to be the e-rulebook's best friend...

 

[Lanefan]

no need to fix my quotes.

I know what I said.

divide by levels, then by alphabet.

so;

cantrips:
A-Z

1st level:
A-Z

2nd...
....
etc...

Which works fine until the same spell appears at different levels for different classes (which they in some cases should). Then you're into space-wasting redundancy as you're printing the same write-up possibly several times.

Put the blocks/write-ups all in one great big alphabetical list a la 3e. But before that, have a bunch of alphabetical lists just by name, broken down by class and level, and put the page number for that spell's write-up next to each spell name on each list.

 

[Lanefan]

I'd like to see a robust collection of spell indices included. Spells sorted by class and level, spells sorted by school, spells sorted by casting time, spells sorted by save throw, spells sorted by concentration...

That sort of thing might best be left for an online supplement (or a homebrew creation), where one big list can have interactive filters and sorters similar to what you see if you look up player stats on a baseball or hockey site.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Haven't seen anyone mention it, but I'd like an even distribution of saving throws among the different abilities. Why do Illusion spells ask for an Intelligence (Investigation) check instead of an Intelligence saving throw? Why does thunderwave push the opponent away from the caster with a Constitution saving throw instead of a Strength one?

Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom are some of the best stats already, governing many (almost all) defenses of a character, and I believe reducing that dominance a little bit is a fairly simple way to improve spells (and the game overall) without losing backward compatibility.

 

[Haldrik]

Regarding the many ways to organize spells.

Probably the book should sort them alphabetically.

Yet there seems many who want the spell descriptions sorted by level.

The many other ways to organize spells work better if in an online database.

However, the database can be used to create many different .pdf documents, each with its own way of organizing spells, and then the .pdfs can be made available separately.

 

[Haldrik]

Creating brand new spells, according Level Up sensibilities, is also a way to be backward compatible. D&D 5e can easily import new spells.