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<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8071385" data-attributes="member: 93670">I hate the excessive use of &quot;fiddly&quot;&nbsp; in 5e discussions.&nbsp; It's a way of saying words that imply badness without actually saying anything.&nbsp; There is pretty much&nbsp; zero mechanical difference to the player between saying that casting a spell requires a focus item plus a free hand unless your focus item subs itself for the somatic gestures by way of being a 2h staff &amp; gish types have limited spell selection vrs a focus item aimed at full casters that is two handed while these other 1H focus items are aimed at partial casters &amp; gish types are capable of casting a limited subset of spells if they are on your class list.&nbsp; The only difference is that one is easier to design around &amp; is less likely to have accidental loopholes from combining unintended features since you can only use one focus at a time.It's complicated.&nbsp; A lot of why certain casters feel kind of unfulfilling &amp; people say they need fixing is because gish types don't have any restrictions that used to be there in the past so now spells need to be scaled back to account for the fact that anyone including some awesome gish can cast the same spell in plate+shield with extra attacks &amp; so on.&nbsp; 3.5 still had a lot of limitations &amp; powerful casters but those limitations proved to be both too harsh &amp; not strict enough when it came to gish types, 5e dialed them all wayy back or even removed them and gave casters the exact same cantrips/spells as a gish so you have things like toll the dead (poor range, ok damage &amp; no effect) alongside frostbite/ray of frost (poor range poor damage minor effect) alongside things like <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items?filter-type=0&amp;filter-type=9&amp;filter-search=&amp;filter-requires-attunement=&amp;filter-effect-type=&amp;filter-effect-subtype=&amp;filter-has-charges=" target="_blank">all of this</a> &amp; frequently extra attacks each adding +AbilityMod as well as&nbsp; class features that can&nbsp; enhance those attacks in various ways.... Great balance for a gish... not so much for a full caster. Even the switch from DR to 50% resist favors many small hits that add an AbilityMod from a gish like warlocks over one big hit for an equal number of dice regardless of if an ability mod is added &amp; that holds for both hit chance as well as total damage.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 8071385, member: 93670"] I hate the excessive use of "fiddly" in 5e discussions. It's a way of saying words that imply badness without actually saying anything. There is pretty much zero mechanical difference to the player between saying that casting a spell requires a focus item plus a free hand unless your focus item subs itself for the somatic gestures by way of being a 2h staff & gish types have limited spell selection vrs a focus item aimed at full casters that is two handed while these other 1H focus items are aimed at partial casters & gish types are capable of casting a limited subset of spells if they are on your class list. The only difference is that one is easier to design around & is less likely to have accidental loopholes from combining unintended features since you can only use one focus at a time. It's complicated. A lot of why certain casters feel kind of unfulfilling & people say they need fixing is because gish types don't have any restrictions that used to be there in the past so now spells need to be scaled back to account for the fact that anyone including some awesome gish can cast the same spell in plate+shield with extra attacks & so on. 3.5 still had a lot of limitations & powerful casters but those limitations proved to be both too harsh & not strict enough when it came to gish types, 5e dialed them all wayy back or even removed them and gave casters the exact same cantrips/spells as a gish so you have things like toll the dead (poor range, ok damage & no effect) alongside frostbite/ray of frost (poor range poor damage minor effect) alongside things like [URL='https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items?filter-type=0&filter-type=9&filter-search=&filter-requires-attunement=&filter-effect-type=&filter-effect-subtype=&filter-has-charges=']all of this[/URL] & frequently extra attacks each adding +AbilityMod as well as class features that can enhance those attacks in various ways.... Great balance for a gish... not so much for a full caster. Even the switch from DR to 50% resist favors many small hits that add an AbilityMod from a gish like warlocks over one big hit for an equal number of dice regardless of if an ability mod is added & that holds for both hit chance as well as total damage. [/QUOTE]

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