D&D 5E Legends and Lore July 28: Keeping it Classy

[Raith5]

I like the way the classes and subclasses shaped up!

Agree.

I really hope that the Eldritch Knight bucks the trend of previous editions attempts and enables the creation of a decent fighter-mage.

Also I wonder if there is any way the hunter ranger will have a quarry ability. I am sure there will be some form of favoured enemy but I really liked the quarry ability in 4e as way of modelling focusing upon a single enemy.

 

[Evenglare]

So this pretty much proves the alpha is pretty close to the final release. I understand there will be some changes but it seems pretty spot on as far as what content is in there (other than backgrounds being omitted.)

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I could see there being a Druid subclass that's focused on a companion, and it'll probably be one that ends up absorbing the 4e Shaman.

 

[1of3]

You cannot be a generalist (non-specialist) wizard?

It was in the playtest at one point. Their special shtick was casting ritual spells directly from the book without prepraring. Then it turned out that Wizards were somewhat handicapped compared to Clerics in spell selection and Generalist gave its shtick for the clan.

I'm only sorry to see so few options for the Rogue, which used to have 5-7 subclasses at some point during the playtest, and even the Cleric's domains are not that much compared to previous editions.

I remember. Those subclasses (Scout, Treasure Hunter, Spy...) were comparativley thin to current rogue subclasses. They kind of got folded in. Thief took Treasure Hunter, Assassin took Spy. What is missing is a Scout type and think the Acrobat has some merit, even though Rogue is already super mobile.

Also the Ancient Paladin kind of took the freedem theme. I think that makes it much better than their first take on the Green Knight, who I found bit bland.

Also I wonder if there is any way the hunter ranger will have a quarry ability. I am sure there will be some form of favoured enemy but I really liked the quarry ability in 4e as way of modelling focusing upon a single enemy.

In the playtest, it was a 1st level spell available to rangers and Avengers. Deals +1d6 damage with attacks and gives you advantage on tracking the quarry for 1h.

 

[jadrax]

My one sad thought: a diplomatic, fast-talking merchant rogue subclass. Who remembers Silk, from the Belgariad? To me, Silk is the quintessential rogue, thoigh I rarely see his character expressed mechanically...

He was also probably the most skilled killer in the world.

Rogue (Assassin), Noble Background, Use Expertise on the Deception Skill.

 

[jadrax]

I'm only sorry to see so few options for the Rogue, which used to have 5-7 subclasses at some point during the playtest, and even the Cleric's domains are not that much compared to previous editions.

Its worth noting that subclasses are not necessarily about delivering options, they are often about cutting options off. The more sub-classes a class has, the more the designers though that the class is over-powered if allowed to buy everything and started forcing you to only take a sub-sect of them.

 

[Juriel]

You cannot be a generalist (non-specialist) wizard?

All Wizards are generalists, they can all do everything, you just get a few bonus powers in your specialization on top of that.

I'm more bothered by all Clerics following the same pattern, everyone getting the same spells, and then a few Wizard spells on top of those, nevermind the theme.

 

[Prism]

But I still think that Abjurer and Diviner would be a hard sell to most players. Diviner could have things like lots of advantage rolls and automatic 20's on dice rolls, and even then I still think they won't get picked by most players.

It looks like Abjurer steals a bit from the 4e defending swordmage. Not sure where the assault swordmage went.

One of my favourite 3e characters was a diviner. It took a while to get going but provided invaluable information about most upcoming encounters and locations. Drove the DM nuts sometimes

 

[Juriel]

I really hope that the Eldritch Knight bucks the trend of previous editions attempts and enables the creation of a decent fighter-mage.

Based on alpha, Eldritch Knight is stuck with 2nd-level spells by 12th level still, and limited to abjuration/evocation, so hope you like that Shield spell.

With multiple attacks, attack spells rarely have a function, but perhaps you can squeeze a Thunderwave in there somewhere...

But wait, you need a hand free to cast any spells, so, uh, enjoy losing the effectiveness of a shield/two-hander in exchange for a few lowbie spells?

Better to just pick a Warlock with Blade pact. There's your actual fighter/mage.

 

[Evenglare]

I actually made a pretty high level eldritch knight level 10 or so, we played a bit and I didn't really notice being any worse than any other character.../shrug. The worst thing was picking the spells because they aren't listed by type only level, that was really really annoying.