I am currently playing with 3 family members and 3 friends who I had played with 27+ years ago. We had two undead fights the other night and the one friend asked if the Fog Cloud would stop the undead from seeing the PCs because undead detect life forms.
I had a total Deja Vu. I had totally forgotten that decades ago, we used to play undead as detecting the life force of the living. I suspect that we did this all those years ago because skeletons do not have eyes. They shouldn't be able to see in the traditional sense of the word.
My friend then went on to play Rolemaster for decades and his group took that concept with them.
Now, I suspect that many tables blow this off. Skeletons see because the magic / dark vitality that imbues them allows them to see, no extra thought involved. And I'm not suggesting that people allow undead to automatically detect life force. This is a very powerful ability (to see through illusions of creatures, to ignore concealment, etc.).
I have noticed, however, that undead are now no longer immune to mind altering magic like in some previous editions (this looks like it was mostly true in 4E as well). This opens up possibilities that were not available in some earlier non-4E editions. For example, some spells like Sleep state that undead are immune to it. But Suggestion does not have such a clause. Nor is a skeleton (or many other forms of undead) stupid and incapable of understanding commands. Suggestion should work just fine on them, regardless of some earlier editions of the game.
So, I was wondering what other "blasts from the past" where things are no longer work that way might be different in 5E. What stories do people have where things that they used to do in earlier versions, are no longer the case? Or what old ways of playing are you bringing to 5E?
I had a total Deja Vu. I had totally forgotten that decades ago, we used to play undead as detecting the life force of the living. I suspect that we did this all those years ago because skeletons do not have eyes. They shouldn't be able to see in the traditional sense of the word.
My friend then went on to play Rolemaster for decades and his group took that concept with them.
Now, I suspect that many tables blow this off. Skeletons see because the magic / dark vitality that imbues them allows them to see, no extra thought involved. And I'm not suggesting that people allow undead to automatically detect life force. This is a very powerful ability (to see through illusions of creatures, to ignore concealment, etc.).
I have noticed, however, that undead are now no longer immune to mind altering magic like in some previous editions (this looks like it was mostly true in 4E as well). This opens up possibilities that were not available in some earlier non-4E editions. For example, some spells like Sleep state that undead are immune to it. But Suggestion does not have such a clause. Nor is a skeleton (or many other forms of undead) stupid and incapable of understanding commands. Suggestion should work just fine on them, regardless of some earlier editions of the game.
So, I was wondering what other "blasts from the past" where things are no longer work that way might be different in 5E. What stories do people have where things that they used to do in earlier versions, are no longer the case? Or what old ways of playing are you bringing to 5E?
