D&D 5E New playtest packet available.

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Barbarian: "I attack the darkness! So I rage for another round."

Why not the paladin or ranger, I wonder?

 

[howandwhy99]

As I remember it, the UA Barbarian class was loved by players and hated by DMs. Well not hated per se maybe, but it was seen to have serious mechanical issues. The Rage per Day mechanic was at the core of this.

Here was a Fighter sub-class who focused on mindlessly smashing its enemies by being bigger, stronger, and faster rather than enabling the player to engage in the combat system to learn how to fight better. (Nevermind learning being the central conceit of the D&D game).

Add to that a resource mechanic making them a super-warrior a few times per day, but only when they actually engage in combat - you know, when it's actually important & where fighters gain most of their XP from - and you get Fighter who has +2 class levels ...but only when in combat.

It's not that this cannot be fixed, but it was a really bad mechanic originally and a bad one still. 3e did a good job of making raging as much a drawback as a benefit as well as an unwise decision sometimes. Next will need something as good, if not similar as well.

 

[TarionzCousin]

He was able to get advantage on his melee attacks basically at will (two weapon fighting benefit), and so on just about every attack he had the choice of taking the double roll to hit, or using the sneak attack ability to double his martial dice damage on the attack.

Where does it say that two weapon fighting gets Advantage? I am a little confused about when to grant Advantage and when not to grant it.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Where does it say that two weapon fighting gets Advantage? I am a little confused about when to grant Advantage and when not to grant it.

Actually, it's the 9th level feat from Two Weapon Specialist, called Two Weapon Strike. (Top of page 11 in the specialties and feats section)

-rg

 

[TarionzCousin]

Is there someplace in the playtest documents that lists when to grant Advantage and when to grant Disadvantage--with specific examples, like "when flanking, from higher ground, on Tuesdays," etc.?

 

[Libramarian]

Iron Hide is just a pointlessly antagonistic name for that ability. It should be called Natural Born Warrior, or something like that.

In general, I wish whoever is writing the fluff for the classes would turn it down a tad. I prefer a slightly more clinical presentation than "you are as an alpha beast" blah blah. More show, less tell.

Other than that it's pretty cool. It certainly seems powerful.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Is there someplace in the playtest documents that lists when to grant Advantage and when to grant Disadvantage--with specific examples, like "when flanking, from higher ground, on Tuesdays," etc.?

In general, advantage in combat comes from special abilities and spells, although there are some conditions that grant advantage or disadvantage -- check out the conditions in the "how to play" section.

Remember, the game has no tactical module yet -- we don't have rules for flanking, for instance, so we don't know if flanking grants advantage or not. It's up to the DM, basically.

-rg

 

[FireLance]

Have fun finding that belt of storm giant strength.

I just looked in page 23 of the Magic Items section of the current playtest document, and there it was.

Seriously, though - if individual items are okay, but two or three of them combined could make the game less challenging than it ought to be, I am of the view that it should be called out in the DMG.

 

[Libramarian]

I just looked in page 23 of the Magic Items section of the current playtest document, and there it was.

Seriously, though - if individual items are okay, but two or three of them combined could make the game less challenging than it ought to be, I am of the view that it should be called out in the DMG.

My view is that the game should be robust enough that it's fun even when the battles aren't built with the engineering tolerance of rocket components.

 

[Klaus]

3e Barbs at least had a fatigue mechanic built in at the end of the rage to throw a bonus to realism. The new rage doesn't even do that.

I like the part where you can only rage again after you take a rest. That should be enough limitation, so I say get rid of rages/day and just make it an "encounter" power (or rather, a 1/rest power).