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

[Micah Sweet]

No one ever had a single problem with Wrathful Smite, Thunderous Smite, Staggering Smite, Blinding Smite, Banishing Smite, Branding Smite, ect

But now that Divine Smite is a spell it is blandification and Paladins are being pushed into being spellcasters instead of the smiting class, even though demonstrably, SEVEN smite abilities just got a massive buff and are now such viable options some people are saying they won't use Divine Smite at all.

The general prediction is actually that you will see variety of smite types, rather than simply divine smite. Yet, somehow, this makes everything more bland because Divine Smite now works like literally every other smite ability the paladin has had from the beginning?

Nerfing one thing does not buff everything else.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

No one ever had a single problem with Wrathful Smite, Thunderous Smite, Staggering Smite, Blinding Smite, Banishing Smite, Branding Smite, ect

But now that Divine Smite is a spell it is blandification and Paladins are being pushed into being spellcasters instead of the smiting class, even though demonstrably, SEVEN smite abilities just got a massive buff and are now such viable options some people are saying they won't use Divine Smite at all.

The general prediction is actually that you will see variety of smite types, rather than simply divine smite. Yet, somehow, this makes everything more bland because Divine Smite now works like literally every other smite ability the paladin has had from the beginning?

LOL this isn't a good argument. It's still blandification and I'm pretty sure you actually know it is.

As for these "massive buffs", have we got some actual details on what those buffs are, specifically? I'd be interested to know. Or is this the truly dreadful "Nerfing X is buffing Y" argument? Surely not?

EDIT - I mean you definitely could buff the other Smite spells so much that this was overall either parity or a buff to Paladins, or at least serious situational buff, like they had so much flexibility that whilst they couldn't hit as hard, they could apply some really vicious effects reliably. But that is definitely not how the Smite spells work currently, and also they weren't that good in the UA either (no "massive buffs" to the Smite spells there). So presumably you know something we don't?

 

[Mistwell]

Instead, they are weaving back and forth between the various lanes, trying to please everyone while not pleasing anyone at all with their antics.

This assumption that they're not pleasing anyone is false. Many are happy with the direction of this half-edition.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Of course, that breaks the old versions of certain subspecies. In particular, the MotM style elves and the ghostwise halflings are wildly out of step with their PHB equivalents. I suspect we may one day get a more PHB -ified version of them (reduced to bonus spell lists) but for now, they exist as the better of the two options.

I mean... not really?

Compare the Ghostwise to the Playtest halfling and it is literally just swapping proficiency in stealth for innate telepathy. That isn't "wildly out of step"

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Instead, they are weaving back and forth between the various lanes, trying to please everyone while not pleasing anyone at all with their antics.

You mean not pleasing the 5 (+x) people always complaining plus a few people on reddit.

x = number of people I chose to ignore for reasons.

That line of argumentation is going back to: I don't like it therefore noone likes it. A bit egocentrical for my tastes.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm very interested to see how the ranger will perform in real gameplay

Mechanically the ranger is fine. I don't like the flavour because my personal fantasy of ranger is not the constant muttering of spells.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm very interested to see how the ranger will perform in real gameplay

There is a screenrant interview with Jerwmy Crawford that confirms that some ranger spells lost concentration.
So yes, the ranger will probably be very fine.

 

[Chaosmancer]

4) Can use 2014 Feats from L4 onwards (I have some questions about this lol).

Seems really clear to me, what questions do you have?

 

[Chaosmancer]

My suggestion was to move the paladin further away from traditional D&D spell slots. Doing so could have achieved better balance (a 2024 design goal) while also retaining more of a unique paladin style (which would better satisfy those wanting something more similar to the 2014 paladin and less similar to a full caster).

I literally do not understand what "unique paladin style" there is that is lost by taking a single ability and making it work like the other SEVEN abilities that they had that shared the same name.

They still have auras, they still have channel divinity, they still have their lay on hands, they still have their transformations, they still have martial progression.... all they did was make Divine Smite work like the other smites. That's it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Nerfing one thing does not buff everything else.

No, but buffing those other things buffs them. And if you also nerf the other thing on top of that, then it is even more of a buff, isn't it?