Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Maxwell's Silver Hammer: On Spells, Design, and the feeling of Sameyness in 5e
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Minigiant" data-source="post: 7916295" data-attributes="member: 63508"><p>Now that I'm not at work and had a nap. Let me tackle this.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'd say 50% of the problems with class flavor in 5e is due to the lack of unique spells. Of the complained about casters, the ranger and sorcerer are there because they lack enough unique spells. The sorcerer is missing the spells that display its raw manipulation of mana/weave/winds. The ranger is woefully missing wilderness knacks that rangers,, hunters, trackers, and survivalists had in fantasy media.</p><p></p><p>And there is no surprise that the two classes with the best representations in 5e is the paladin who has the most unique spells and the bard who can steal any spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>On the spell side, that's because a lot of classes are just too front loaded and lack unique spells.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't want to say it is long standing community class favoritism at work.</p><p>But it is long standing community class favoritism at work.</p><p>Sorcerer isn't a beloved class. And the work just wasn't done.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That was a design choice. The issue with D&D casters that were heavily based on slots was that they wouldneed to have a lot of slots. Veteran players could use those extra slots and steady flow of gamebooks to warp the game. This put a strain on DMs. </p><p></p><p>So the designers made casters more reliant on cantrips and made damage spells for novas and mob killing. Not for general use. So the number of slots could stay down.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's D&D, baby. </p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Combat rules</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Stealth rules</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The Spells</li> </ol><p>Those are the hard crunch. Anything that needed precise ruling on the player part refered back to these three. The rest is freeform or optional between players and DMS. This is what you get wen peopledon't what lockpicking, tracking, research, and crafting as hard core rules...</p><p></p><p>Everything that isn't "roll to pass or fail" becomes a spell.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Like the rest. Tradition. 5e really isn't that big on new ideas. It's just an old edition with a few fixes. And in the old editions, everything and everyone used the same 3-6 systems.</p><p></p><p></p><p> Yes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Minigiant, post: 7916295, member: 63508"] Now that I'm not at work and had a nap. Let me tackle this. I'd say 50% of the problems with class flavor in 5e is due to the lack of unique spells. Of the complained about casters, the ranger and sorcerer are there because they lack enough unique spells. The sorcerer is missing the spells that display its raw manipulation of mana/weave/winds. The ranger is woefully missing wilderness knacks that rangers,, hunters, trackers, and survivalists had in fantasy media. And there is no surprise that the two classes with the best representations in 5e is the paladin who has the most unique spells and the bard who can steal any spell. On the spell side, that's because a lot of classes are just too front loaded and lack unique spells. I don't want to say it is long standing community class favoritism at work. But it is long standing community class favoritism at work. Sorcerer isn't a beloved class. And the work just wasn't done. That was a design choice. The issue with D&D casters that were heavily based on slots was that they wouldneed to have a lot of slots. Veteran players could use those extra slots and steady flow of gamebooks to warp the game. This put a strain on DMs. So the designers made casters more reliant on cantrips and made damage spells for novas and mob killing. Not for general use. So the number of slots could stay down. That's D&D, baby. [LIST=1] [*]The Combat rules [*]The Stealth rules [*]The Spells [/LIST] Those are the hard crunch. Anything that needed precise ruling on the player part refered back to these three. The rest is freeform or optional between players and DMS. This is what you get wen peopledon't what lockpicking, tracking, research, and crafting as hard core rules... Everything that isn't "roll to pass or fail" becomes a spell. Like the rest. Tradition. 5e really isn't that big on new ideas. It's just an old edition with a few fixes. And in the old editions, everything and everyone used the same 3-6 systems. Yes. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Maxwell's Silver Hammer: On Spells, Design, and the feeling of Sameyness in 5e
Top