D&D 5E Primeval Awareness and other hidden gems

[Pickles JG]

I just wish we had Classes do weapon damage instead of the weapons themselves, like in 13th Age. And then specialization in a weapon itself adds on a perk. But that was just too far afield from classic D&D.

I thought everything did 1d6 in ODD?

I like the "it's the man not the weapon" philosophy too though. It is pretty flat in D&D to be fair & refluffing is a thing.

 

[Nebulous]

I thought everything did 1d6 in ODD?

I like the "it's the man not the weapon" philosophy too though. It is pretty flat in D&D to be fair & refluffing is a thing.

Oh, i was thinking 1e as classic, i actually never played ODD. But i'm not going to go shake up the rules like that just because I prefer it, my players would not appreciate that, and I have to take that into consideration. They prefer to stick to the RAW unless we collectively agree something seems broken or unwieldy.

 

[Ashrym]

Does the extra attack from polearm master function with shillelagh cantrip, when cast on the said quarterstaff?
Does the bonus attack use your caster stat, and is it d8 or still d4?

I thought it should, but the developers disagree with me. In my game it does but the official answer was the bonus attack was d4 per the feat description.

 

[PnPgamer]

I thought it should, but the developers disagree with me. In my game it does but the official answer was the bonus attack was d4 per the feat description.

Me and my DM came to conclusion that what the "official" sage advice was talking about, is practically only opinion of 2 guys. 2 regular guys.

 

[Ashrym]

Me and my DM came to conclusion that what the "official" sage advice was talking about, is practically only opinion of 2 guys. 2 regular guys.

That's like saying the judge and prosecuting attorney are only two guys giving their opinions on laws at a trial. Jeremy Crawford is the official rules authority; if he says it then it is the official rule. Mike Mearls led the design team for the rules. Jeremy stated specifically that it's d4 on the bonus attack. Agree or not, that makes it the correct answer per the rules. They also clarify the intended function of rules.

It's kind of hard to disagree that a rule is the official rule by disagreeing with the guys who wrote and determined the official rules, and dismissing it as opinion. You can follow them on twitter and see the rulings. We were instructed to tweet Jeremy for official answers when the PHB released.

On that same note, I still allow shillelagh to work on the bonus attack with a staff using pole arm master because shillelagh isn't a great cantrip to start with and 2 more average damage on a single attack doesn't break anything in the game.

 

[PnPgamer]

Eh I don't know what I was thinking, I came down a bit harsh.
There are few contradictions in their statements, such as regarding reach weapons.

 

[Ahrimon]

Mearls can't keep himself strait so I have no faith in his rulings and read those as no more authoritative than anyone else with a lot of DnD experience. Crawford I'll give more consideration to. But to worship at their feet as the RAW gods is a little ridiculous.

 

[Hriston]

The Light cantrip, I used to think that the Cantrip was really only of use to see, but it has more creative potentional.

Another use for Light is to cast it on a monster's eyes to blind them. I got the idea from the 1e DMG and I've found it to be very effective against creatures with sight based powers like the Nothic.

 

[Rune]

I just wish we had Classes do weapon damage instead of the weapons themselves, like in 13th Age. And then specialization in a weapon itself adds on a perk. But that was just too far afield from classic D&D.

Dungeon World does this, too. It wouldn't be hard to do in 5e, at all. Just have every class use it's HD type. Step down a die for one-hand weapons. Multi-class would go with the first class. Weapon master feat could boost die type by one step.

This would mean barbarians would make better use of weapons than fighters, though (unless the fighter used one of its extra feats for weapon master).

 

[Ashrym]

Mearls can't keep himself strait so I have no faith in his rulings and read those as no more authoritative than anyone else with a lot of DnD experience. Crawford I'll give more consideration to. But to worship at their feet as the RAW gods is a little ridiculous.

I've seen Jeremy over-rule Mike. Mike does give opinions and "what I would do is" and Jeremy might to that sometimes too, but Jeremy is the official rules guy.

Back on topic, I find quivering palm is a nice little gem. In an edition where save-or-die has been all but completely eliminated, open hand monks can pop off 6 save-or-die's every short rest, and at least once per encounter at level 20 if they do spend all their ki. If nothing else, that will run legendary creatures out of auto-save quickly enough, and it's still damage on save.