D&D 5E Please understand your spells

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I find your specificity both amusing and, as I thought about it, depressing. I don't need the feels, man.

Hey man, you are the one that took it somewhere dark... I was just saying I've never kidnapped anyone

 

[allenw]

I know where to find all the rules. There's a handy-dandy index in each and every book.

Have you READ the PHB index? (The one that's actually in the book, not the various alternate ones people have come up with). At least 10% of the fun my players had at our 3rd 5th-Edition session was marveling at how long it took to actually find anything useful in the PHB index.

Regarding spell cards: I like http://maragnus.com/5e-spells/

 

[Tony Vargas]

DM: Two of the worgs are blasted directly away from you and take 12 points of damage. One of them resists the brunt of the electricity and takes only 6. He's still right here.

Thunderwave doesn't do electricity damage. Electricity damage would be Lightning, and Thunderwave doesn't do lightning damage either.

Finally got to do it to you. ;P

The problem you had last night was that no one, not even the DM, understood how the spells worked. That's a table issue, not a specific player issue. Fortunately it should go away over time.

It's a DM issue. With great Empowerment comes great Emresponsibilityment.


Seriously, though, I have nothing serious to contribute at this point.

sorry

 

[Sunseeker]

Have you READ the PHB index? (The one that's actually in the book, not the various alternate ones people have come up with). At least 10% of the fun my players had at our 3rd 5th-Edition session was marveling at how long it took to actually find anything useful in the PHB index.

Regarding spell cards: I like http://maragnus.com/5e-spells/

Yeah actually I have, thanks to college, I'm actually pretty good at surfing an index and referencing. I think it's an absurdly poorly done index don't get me wrong, but surfing 3 pages of 8 point font for a key word is easier than surfing 300 pages of 12 point text for the same.

I actually own most of the GF9 cards, but that's a neat website, is it SRD/OGL-legit?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

that's a neat website, is it SRD/OGL-legit?

It contains spells that aren't in the SRD. Seems it has all from the players' handbook, and the elemental evil player's guide, but not the sword coast adventurer's guide.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Thunderwave doesn't do electricity damage. Electricity damage would be Lightning, and Thunderwave doesn't do lightning damage either.

Heh.

Seriously, I struggled with that description. Why does making a Con save prevent you from getting blasted away? What is physically happening with healthy creatures that prevents them from moving when the spell hits them? "Resists the brunt of the electricity" was my equivalent of "*coughcough*handwave*coughcough*". Clearly it wasn't handwavey enough to fool you, Tony.

 

[Dausuul]

Seriously, I struggled with that description. Why does making a Con save prevent you from getting blasted away? What is physically happening with healthy creatures that prevents them from moving when the spell hits them? "Resists the brunt of the electricity" was my equivalent of "*coughcough*handwave*coughcough*". Clearly it wasn't handwavey enough to fool you, Tony.

It really ought to be a Strength save.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I keep wishing that the spellcasters on Critical Role would read their spells and how to cast them for once, that's for sure.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It really ought to be a Strength save.

Thunderwave attacked FORT in 4e, when FORT was based on the higher of STR or CON. But, FORT maps to 3e FORT saves which used CON bonus, and 5e CON saves map to 3e FORT saves, so it was probably just a no-brainer that it would be a CON save. Calling for a STR save instead of CON, though, would be a very reasonable, flavorful, ruling - whether across the board or situationally, say when the target has something immobile to grab onto or has encountered the spell before and braces himself for it.

 

[Sunseeker]

Thunderwave attacked FORT in 4e, when FORT was based on the higher of STR or CON. But, FORT maps to 3e FORT saves which used CON bonus, and 5e CON saves map to 3e FORT saves, so it was probably just a no-brainer that it would be a CON save. Calling for a STR save instead of CON, though, would be a very reasonable, flavorful, ruling - whether across the board or situationally, say when the target has something immobile to grab onto or has encountered the spell before and braces himself for it.

I really do wish D&D has kept the "defenses" system of 4E and particularly the "better of..." way of calculating it. It felt like it significantly reduced the MAD of certain classes from prior editions, but also increased the MAD of SAD classes. I also liked the idea of putting the burden of rolling on the person using an ability. I really dislike, particularly now with a caster-heavy party, the amount of saves I'm having to make DM side. Your character wants to do something? You should be responsible for its full execution.