D&D 5E (2024) New Jeremy Crawford Interviews

[Aldarc]

I don't care. That's not the point of the discussion.

If you don't care, you also have the option not to reply. Seems even easier than getting unnecessarily heated at someone.

 

[Sulicius]

Can we not ruin this thread with talk about species? There’s some actual fun stuff in these interviews…

 

[Oofta]

Can we not ruin this thread with talk about species? There’s some actual fun stuff in these interviews…

I agree, discussion of the role and implementation of different species is what gets threads shut down.

 

[Parmandur]

No. That's not what he means, and they're doing the opposite of that - what we're seeing is blandification, for better or worse (it's not always bad in TT RPGs), rules-wise. By pushing these classes demonstrably further into being casters and significantly more actually spell-reliant, they're inarguably changing them, but essentially to be more similar to each other and other classes, rather than to more unique or to have stronger mechanical identities.

Instead of nerfing Paladins in this rather hopeless way, they could have leaned in to how Paladins operated, and made them less about casting spells, and more about smiting. And achieved the same DPR result without making the big mechanical mess they've made simply by limiting this special ability Smite (rather than spell) to 1/turn.

What mechanical mess...? Paladins were half-casters already, they are half-casters now. Why make a special rule that an ability that uses Spell Slots acts juat like a Spell, but not make it a Spell...?

 

[Corinnguard]

Indeed, doing away with subspecies appears to have been a goal of the 2024 species redesigns. They seem to be shifting towards the dragonborn ancestry model, where you pick an option from a table that determines the selection of a number of options for a common feature for the species. E.G., damage type for the breath weapon and damage resistance with dragonborn

Like the table in the 2014 PHB where it lists the color/metal of the Dragonborn, the damage type of their breath weapon, and their resistance to said damage type? Only better?

 

[Charlaquin]

What mechanical mess...? Paladins were half-casters already, they are half-casters now. Why make a special rule that an ability that uses Spell Slots acts juat like a Spell, but not make it a Spell...?

Yeah, I’m generally in the “dissatisfied that everything is spells” camp, but divine smite being a spell is such a huge no-brainer, and just letting it actually be one also happens to resolve a bunch of niggling issues with 2014 divine smite. There’s a lot of places where I think there’s room for features to be divorced from spellcasting, but this is one case where actually making something a spell is just the more sensible design choice.

 

[Charlaquin]

Like the table in the 2014 PHB where it lists the color/metal of the Dragonborn, the damage type of their breath weapon, and their resistance to said damage type? Only better?

Yes, exactly like that.

 

[Oofta]

What mechanical mess...? Paladins were half-casters already, they are half-casters now. Why make a special rule that an ability that uses Spell Slots acts juat like a Spell, but not make it a Spell...?

Playing a paladin I always ignored the smite spells instead of simply smiting. The smite spells just weren't worth it although I did use my other spells now and then.

I think making smite a spell is more logical and consistent.

 

[Minigiant]

Can we not ruin this thread with talk about species? There’s some actual fun stuff in these interviews…

Okay

So We have starvation suffocation and dehydration but no exhaustion from lack of sleep?

 

[Charlaquin]

Okay

So We have starvation suffocation and dehydration but no exhaustion from lack of sleep?

Which is also the case in the 2014 PHB, funny enough. I can only assume that the interviewer hadn’t read (or had forgotten) those rules in the 2014 PHB, or that they have undergone some revision in the 2024 version. Or both.