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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 9095817" data-attributes="member: 23484">Nothing stops you making a charismatic druid or an intelligent ranger. Both of those sound great, and would be fun to play. Would they be optimized? No.So let's distinguish three things:(a) wanting to optimize. The most DPR, or whatever metric you choose.(b) wanting some sort of a consistent story within the game world. Charisma represents "force of will" and is the appropriate casting stat for innate spellcasters. (c) wanting a variety of player options from a few operating principles. I call this "emergent complexity", and for me it's the quality that identifies when a proposed rule change resonates -- a small change that leads to diverse and interesting opportunities for the game as experienced at the table, widening outcomes instead of focusing them. Both the designers and the players are invested in all three of these, to different extents.Allowing anyone to choose their casting stat serves (a) but not (b) and (c). That's not a payoff that interests me. Providing a means to access a range of casting stats, though, with an opportunity cost, is better. Currently anyone in a game that allows multiclassing can dip into Blade to get access to a charisma attack. That's fine, but (as suggested above) the opportunity cost is too low -- by making it available with a one-level dip it becomes too easy a choice. Finding the right balance achieves (a) and (c); (b) will sometimes be there, but not always.Weapon Mastery serves all three of these -- that's why it's a good addition. The version of Magic Initiate we saw in the first playtest packet also serves all three -- it allows you to pick a casting stat and pick a spell list, which means you could have an arcane cantrip being cast with Wisdom, for example. A simple change (c) that led to more interesting builds, the possiblitiy to optimize (a) and to create a cool story (b). It comes at an opportunity cost (=one feat) but opens up a lot of diverse builds (emergent complexity), without giving too much (you only get two cantrips and a first-level spell). I hope that this feat doesn't change when we lose the combined spell lists. One of the nice things (for me) about the revised warlock is that you don't choose your patron until level 3. That makes a dip into Warlock more viable (since i am not interested in playing a character who sells their soul for hedge magic). It opens up some narrative options for me as a player (b) that were closed previously, while still allowing me to try to make an effective character (a) and explore a range of creative build options (c).So yes you should be able to make a go of a charismatic druid. I think that should be possible even keeping Wisdom as the class's casting stat. Maybe it costs a feat, and maybe you'll be a little bit behind on damage or on your spell DC compared to an optimized build. For me, that's an acceptable trade. But it also is a more interesting trade than just letting characters choose their casting stat without consequences (both good and bad).</blockquote>

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