D&D 5E (2024) Lorwyn: First Light has been released

[bedir than]

So the Lorwyn Changeling is broken. As in, it has a feature that doesn't work at all.

It gets a feature that lets it take the Dash action as a reaction when you roll initiative. The Dash action grants you extra movement on the turn it is used. But you can't use that movement outside of your own turn, so the feature doesn't do anything at all except waste your reaction.

This is glaring, because every other time in the history of the edition, the designers have understood that they need to explicitly confer the ability to move when a feature lets a creature move outside of its normal movement. By trying to use the Dash action as a shortcut (most likely to encourage optimizing around this feature), they've made a feature that's entirely non-functional as written. (Even if your character gets the top initiative roll, there is no current turn for the benefit to apply to before the actual first turn anyway.)

I think we're talking a specific over general situation here.

The rule for the Changeling.

When you roll Initiative and don’t have Disadvantage on that roll, you can take the Dash action as a Reaction.

I read that as an immediate opportunity, prior to anyone else's Action, to Dash.

 

[Davy Greenwind]

What is gist of the two new Elf lineages?

Lorwyn elf - Thorn whip (replacing with any Druid cantrip on a LR), Command, and Silence.
Shadowmoor elf - 120 foot darkvision, Starry Wisp, Heroism, and Gentle Repose

 

[bedir than]

Lorwyn elf - Thorn whip (replacing with any Druid cantrip on a LR), Command, and Silence.
Shadowmoor elf - 120 foot darkvision, Starry Wisp, Heroism, and Gentle Repose

and horns! (not as weapons tho)

 

[Zaukrie]

I think we're talking a specific over general situation here.

The rule for the Changeling.


I read that as an immediate opportunity, prior to anyone else's Action, to Dash.

Agreed.

 

[TravDoc42]

I think we're talking a specific over general situation here.

The rule for the Changeling.


I read that as an immediate opportunity, prior to anyone else's Action, to Dash.

That does seem like a reasonable interpretation of that rule. It's slightly an edge case, but I'd say the intention is clear enough and follows the RAW enough that there shouldn't be any issues.

 

[TravDoc42]

The Lorwyn Changeling is also ADORABLE, which helps!

 

[TravDoc42]

Makes me hope we get the other paraelemental Genasi.

I need an Ooze genasi to exist. That would be Good!

 

[eclair~]

I think we're talking a specific over general situation here.

The rule for the Changeling.


I read that as an immediate opportunity, prior to anyone else's Action, to Dash.

There is nothing in the writing of that rule that supersedes the limitation that a creature may only use their movement on their own turn. As mentioned, other instances of features that confer movement not necessarily limited to one's own turn are written to allow the creature to move without it being their turn. Even the Banneret being able to let allies move with their 10th-level feature, in a book released in the same broad "set", is not written as using the Dash action.

Keep in mind as well that the Ready action, which can be used for movement akin to using the Dash action, doesn't use the Dash action for that movement but specifically states a creature can move up to their movement speed as a reaction. You don't take the Ready action and then Dash as a reaction; you take the Ready action and then use the ability to move as a reaction conferred by having taken the Ready action.

So yes, that feature does let the Changeling take the Dash action before anyone else's action. But the Dash action doesn't give them the ability to move when it's not their turn, and thus effectively does nothing. It's a failure of mechanics-writing, and it's an entirely unforced error because there is no reason the feature isn't worded like every other feature that allows movement external to the regular rules regarding movement.

 

[Reynard]

There is nothing in the writing of that rule that supersedes the limitation that a creature may only use their movement on their own turn. As mentioned, other instances of features that confer movement not necessarily limited to one's own turn are written to allow the creature to move without it being their turn. Even the Banneret being able to let allies move with their 10th-level feature, in a book released in the same broad "set", is not written as using the Dash action.

Keep in mind as well that the Ready action, which can be used for movement akin to using the Dash action, doesn't use the Dash action for that movement but specifically states a creature can move up to their movement speed as a reaction. You don't take the Ready action and then Dash as a reaction; you take the Ready action and then use the ability to move as a reaction conferred by having taken the Ready action.

So yes, that feature does let the Changeling take the Dash action before anyone else's action. But that action doesn't give them the ability to move when it's not their turn. It's a failure of mechanics-writing, and it's an entirely unforced error because there is no reason the feature isn't worded like every other feature that allows movement external to a character's regular movement.

I feel like this is an intentionally limited reading of the ability just to have something to wag a finger at. The intent is clear.

 

[Scribe]

I remember when we thought this was going to be a full scale book!

Oh this is it?