D&D 5E Is 5e "Easy Mode?"

[Umbran]

Not by 5e's rules.

Oh, so there's that super-valuable spellbook right there, with a wizard? Awesome! The Bad Guy is going to love that!

There's always a trade off.

 

[tetrasodium]

Oh, so there's that super-valuable spellbook right there, with a wizard? Awesome! The Bad Guy is going to love that!

There's always a trade off.

You are the one that said a wizard specifically needs to spend a spell slot to cast tiny hut. The fact that a wizard or tomelock* does not need to burn a prep or spell slot to cast tiny hut every night (or sometimes even more often) is a big part of why the spell is so problematic. I've never seen an AT or EK take it, but I have seen a bard take it & in that case the bard is not giving up a spell slot to cast tiny hut because.....

That makes it more efficient hp/spell level recovery than healing spirit and if the bard has even one spell slot spent they actually wind up with an increase in their unspent spell slots tover what they had before casting once the rest is complete.

*I'm not sure I've ever seen one in play at my tables, but they could with the right invocation.

 

[Lanefan]

The older editions were the problem specifically 1st edition. Even as someone who started in older editions I would not tolerate the random F ery that existed in those editions.

In D&D the world is out to get you, and death awaits the unwary around every corner.

Approach it on that basis and what you call 'random F ery' suddenly doesn't look so random: it's how the world works.

For example, if our party of PCs encountered a room full of cockatrices at level 1 that wiped out the party.

If the DM just dropped these on you without warning that's a problem.

But if the DM had indicated that where you were intent on going was above your pay grade and you went there anyway? Too bad. Roll up new ones.

Much of the stuff was not fun back then.

Only if one defines fun as winning every encounter, and never having to run away or be frustrated or fail a mission or lose a character.

Winning every time would get - and does get - boring in a hurry.

 

[Lanefan]

Oh, so there's that super-valuable spellbook right there, with a wizard?

There'd better be, 'cause without it ol' Wizzy ain't getting any spells back in the morning.

 

[Mepher]

"Abusing". They are giving up a fireball, lightning bolt, or similar for that. A wizard only ever gets three spell slots of 3rd level, so that's not a minor thing.

There's other consequences for camping in a threatening area than "you are attacked while you rest." You have time to heal up, sure. But so do all the monsters - they have time to heal up and prepare just like the PCs do. And you have put up this entirely visible dome in their space, so they know exactly where you are. Your monsters and NPCs don't do anything about that?

Not to mention any other issues of time pressure that may be involved.

I disagree about giving up fireball or lightning bolt. They are both classic class defining spells in older editions of D&D, in 5E though they really are just a shell of what they once were. An 8d6 5E fireball isn't quite what a 6d6 1E fireball was. Everyone has more hit points now and everyone saves easier. By the time you are level 5 and casting Fireball you will regularly be fighting creatures of CR 4 and above. Expect to be fighting things with 85 hp and above. Personally I think giving your whole party full hp and all of their abilites and spell slots back is much more powerful than the most likely resisted 8d6 fireball. Not saying it's worthless by any means but it's just not what it used to be.

 

[Mepher]

There'd better be, 'cause without it ol' Wizzy ain't getting any spells back in the morning.

You only need the book if you wish to change which spells are prepared.

You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

Casting the spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells.

You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of wizard spells requires time spent studying your spellbook and memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast the spell: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

.

My position is not that you can not make something difficult, it's that 5e lacks the sort of fine grained precisely targetable tools present in 5e are no longer available & that what remains is crude overly blunt hacks. I covered that earlier & even gave you examples of the sort of tools I'm referencing , to which you dismissed as being too long for more than a quick skim & clutched at "but resistance". Instead of claiming the tools exist, look at the specific problems people raise & do more than imply they are a poor gm.

I never said that was your position, so...idk what to tell ya there.

As for 5e's tools for creating challenge, I'm sorry but you're just wrong. If you're running 5e and finding it easy, you need to listen to people who have no trouble whatsoever challenging their players.

 

[Garthanos]

Expect to be fighting things with 85 hp and above.

not several lesser ones? I mean isn't that what we gave up advancement for I mean ie the point of bounded accuracy. And level 5 is what how many ... bet that isn't even a horde of goblins in a deadly encounter

 

[tetrasodium]

You only need the book if you wish to change which spells are prepared.

I think out of the abyss or one of its AL uppliments (ie aldmg)even had a sidebar or something reiterating that.

@doctorbadwolf if your position is that those tools exist but you can not show even a few examples then you've not even shown that you understand the complaint or realized what kinds of tools that are missing from a dm's toolbox.

 

[Mepher]

Of course you are going to fight lesser creatures also but lets use some examples....at level 5 with a group of 5 players....2 Black Puddings are a medium encounter and they are CR4. They have 85 HP each. If you hit them both with Fireball for full damage you just did a good bit of damage to them. Lets say you rolled half and then one saved....now its significantly less.

Now lets hope that prepared spell is fireball because if your wizard casts lightning bolt instead on that same group, they are immune.

We can throw examples back and forth all night. Plenty of examples on both sides. I am just saying that while they are still good spells they aren't nearly as powerful as they used to be. Plenty of more uses for those 3rd level spell slots today including Leomund's Tiny Hut.