New Sage Advice: Class Features, Combat, Spells, & Monsters

There's a new Sage Advice column up from D&D designer Jeremy Crawford. This month he tackles class features, combat (bonus actions; reach weapons), spellcasting, and monsters. It's quite a long edition, covering 18 questions in total, all questions asked via Twitter.

You'lll find the article here. All Sage Advice material is added to the Sage Advice Compendium, which is a 6-page PDF of questions and answers.

 

[Dausuul]

Still find it hard to wrap my brain around the idea that a polearm can hit enemies at both 5 and 10 feet, but doesn't let you hit them for moving only 5 feet away from you...

Doesn't bother me. You can draw back the polearm to strike at a nearby foe, but it takes too much time to do it as a reaction. Polearms should be less effective close-in; a pike is not a close-quarters weapon.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

All editions prior to 3e, the DM chose using a list or as appropriate. It's not stealth nerf - it never said the player chooses, you just assumed they did because in 3e and 4e they did. Some spells give you a choice, like summon familiar, and some spells just give you a category choice. The later is intended for the DM to decide once the player chooses the category. On reading the language in the spell, it doesn't imply the player chooses the creature - it just says the player chooses the category, and the DM has the statistics for what appears. I don't think this was a change, but rather a reaction to people asking the question. I think it was always written as a DM decision - much like a whole lot of 5e. It's an assumed theme of 5e.

Yes. This interpretation was part of 5E all along, and some of us have played it that way since the beginning. See posts #2 and #5 of the following thread, for example, and subsequent discussion.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?429527-conjure-spells-are-mainly-either-bad-or-broken

 

[Psikerlord#]

All editions prior to 3e, the DM chose using a list or as appropriate. It's not stealth nerf - it never said the player chooses, you just assumed they did because in 3e and 4e they did. Some spells give you a choice, like summon familiar, and some spells just give you a category choice. The later is intended for the DM to decide once the player chooses the category. On reading the language in the spell, it doesn't imply the player chooses the creature - it just says the player chooses the category, and the DM has the statistics for what appears. I don't think this was a change, but rather a reaction to people asking the question. I think it was always written as a DM decision - much like a whole lot of 5e. It's an assumed theme of 5e.

Even if you are right, and I don't think they intended the spell this way at all - or if they did, they expressed it woefully, especially given the expectations coming off the back of 3e and 4e - the same problem remains. It's the obey orders part that ruins the spell and makes it OP. If a DM allows 8 x pixies it still = OP. So DMs will simply never choose pixies now, on account of how OP 8 x pixies are in most situations. Which is a pretty ham fisted approach to fixing the problem.

But. On the other hand. If you don't houserule the "obey orders" bit, you are better off with (in practice) removing pixies from the list of summons, which is what this ruling will do. It's not all bad. It just ... could have been better with a slight tweak. Even a % table would have been better, with a list of beasts you could get. They fixed water whip by making it a full action. Fixed empowered cantrip or whatever it was called. Fixed hiding (kinda). Just fix woodland being and contagion and be done with it!

 

[Henry]

Why would you let a jerk be your DM? If he wants to be a jerk, he can punish you in arbitrary ways, with death traps and trick monsters and spheres of annihilation falling from the sky. So yeah, he can create a custom CR 1/4 monster which has the defense of a CR 1/2 and the offense of a CR 0 (i.e. no offensive power) and a movement speed of 10', and that custom CR 1/4 monster will be totally useless to you. And he will laugh at you and point out that he followed Sage Advice and DMG monster creation guidelines to the letter. So what? You don't have to play with that guy.

Totally agreed - the DM in this example doesn't deserve to be a DM if he's seeking to actively thwart the players in this manner, and should be fired. If no one else has ever taken a turn in the DM seat, now's the time to try.

 

[Fralex]

Re the elemental spell.

The player should be able to choose which element it is: air, water, fire, or earth. This choice is too thematic to be random.

The bigger elemental spell, conjure elemental, allows you to choose. I always thought it odd that trait didn't carry through to conjure minor elementals. I mean, the article does say you can express a preference, but still.

 

[hbarsquared]

As others have mentioned, nothing surprising, nothing too controversial. Though, I appreciate the transparency and clarification (bonus action != action, natural armor != armor, damage order wrt arcane ward).

I appreciate the "DM perogative" and "Player's don't get to flip through the Monster Manual" ruling.

I absolutely condone and encourage the base assumption that you start with a group of friends that reapect each other, enjoy ea h other's company, and seek to create an awesome story together. A player should be able to trust that tje DM will do something cool, and take PC suggestions into account, when casting conjure minor elementals .

 

[Celtavian]

I would be ok with conjure animals being random if the spell did not say that fey spirits show up and take the form of animals. I don't see why they wouldn't take the form you desire.

 

[Mistwell]

Even if you are right, and I don't think they intended the spell this way at all - or if they did, they expressed it woefully, especially given the expectations coming off the back of 3e and 4e

You're not supposed to be bringing assumptions based on 3e and 4e. For this sort of issue the game is clearly closer to TSR editions than 3e or 4e. All kinds of stuff in the game wouldn't work right if you bring assumptions from 3e and 4e. Wipe those mindsets out, and just read what it says. Does it say you choose the creature, or instead does it say you choose the category? Now compare it to other spells like Find Familiar, which specifies you choose the creature. Why are they different? Easy conclusion - for one you can choose the creature, for the other it's just a category. Unless you bring assumptions from another game, it reads like Crawford said it's intended to be read. It's only the outside baggage you brought to it, that causes it to read differently that what it says.

As for the rest of your comments concerning balance - none of this is about balance, he's just answering the question he was asked. If it's in the DM control, you get the level of balance the DM wants in their game. For me - if you happen to be in the Feywild, or deep in an Elven forest, you will likely get pixies. I won't care if they are the type that can do that and you get some huge benefit from it - the game won't break if you bypass a challenge faster and easier than the "norm". Who cares, as long as it was fun. Balance is just not that delicate for this game. So great, you have a cool scene, and you move on to another challenge faster, and get more challenges in for that session. That's not a problem for my games. If they are a problem for yours, OK you're free to not have pixies appear or to houserule the orders. But, for me, it works fine and I truly don't care about balance to the extent you do. It's not anywhere close to the top of my list for fun in RPGs.

 

[Coredump]

As noted in another part of the column, you can only take a bonus action on your
own turn; no bonus action 5' OAs with Polearm Master.

--
Pauper

Why did you not quote the part where I clearly said "this is a house rule"....

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The bigger elemental spell, conjure elemental, allows you to choose. I always thought it odd that trait didn't carry through to conjure minor elementals. I mean, the article does say you can express a preference, but still.

Except, it doesn't.

"You call forth an elemental servant. Choose an area of air, earth, fire, or water that fills a 10-foot cube within range. An elemental of challenge rating 5 or less appropriate to the area you chose appears in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of it. For example, a fire elemental emerges from a bonfire, and an earth elemental rises up from the ground."

If there's no bonfire in range, you can't choose a fire elemental. If you're underground in tiny tunnels, you can't choose an air elemental. Furthermore, if you cast it as a 6th level spell on a windy area, there's no guarantee you'll get an invisible stalker: you could get a larger air elemental or some kind of miniature genie or anything else the DM decides to give you.