D&D 5E Sage Advice August 17th

[Paraxis]

New sage advice article is up http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/rules-answers-august-2015.

Most of it is unsurprising.

I don't like the official ruling on goodberry + cleric of life combination.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Agreed: most of these are sensible.

I'm a bit surprised at the answer on delaying your action. They seem to suggest that it's open to all sorts of abuse. I simply don't see it. It's no real work to adjust the initiative order, and my instinct is to allow players to drop down (only down) in the initiative order, and stay at that point for the rest of the combat.

I also am very surprised with the reading of Goodberry; I don't know why that call would be made, frankly.

(Similarly, I understand that they've been very careful not to allow all melee attacks with dex (like the Monk weapons) NOT to be "finesse" (so that it doesn't also potentially trigger Sneak Attack? that's the only reason I can see). I don't agree with it, but it makes sense to prevent unforeseen possible future synergies.)

 

[Sacrosanct]

Agreed: most of these are sensible.

I'm a bit surprised at the answer on delaying your action. They seem to suggest that it's open to all sorts of abuse. I simply don't see it. It's no real work to adjust the initiative order, and my instinct is to allow players to drop down (only down) in the initiative order, and stay at that point for the rest of the combat.

I play initiative like this, because I find it speeds things up a lot:

Everyone rolls initiative. As the DM, I call out, "Everyone above X (where x=my initiative roll) can go."
Then I go as the DM
Then I call out, "OK, everyone else can go."

I've not encountered any issues with it at all, nor problems with spell durations. The only time I could think of it being a problem is like with the monk stun feature. It states "until the end of your next turn". It hasn't come up, but if it did where the PC wanted to delay his or her action, I'd let the full delay work, but stop the effect of the stun on the PC's initiative roll. But again, it's never come up.

 

[Celtavian]

Goodberry ruling gives them a somewhat equivalent ability to Prayer of Healing. I don't mind it. It doesn't break anything. Though it would have been cool if you could double the berries with each additional higher level slot.

 

[Psikerlord#]

The more I see of Sage Advice, the less I agree with it.

So they didnt include delaying your turn coz it is complicated/slows down play and wreaks havoc with end of your turn effects.... Yet, ready action already complicats/slows play and there is already an optional initiative system that does a lot worse to "end of your turn" effects!!

We use the optional initiative rule, and we use delayed turns, and it all works great. Much better than the vanilla rules. It is a shame this ruling might scare younger groups away from trying these kinds of rules.

As for Goodberry - Nay sir! That ruling makes it broken as all get out.

 

[epithet]

I have no problem with lowering initiative when it's rolled. Before your first turn in combat, you can absolutely lower your initiative if you want the guy with the heavy armor to go first. I've never had a circumstance where someone wanted to lower initiative after the first round, but I guess I'd deal with it based on the situation at the time.

The "sage advice" post is fine as a guideline for new DMs, but is pointless for anyone who's comfortable behind the screen.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Most of the Sage Advice rulings are sensible, but sometimes I am left scratching my head.

Would it really be game-breaking for monk/rogues to be able to sneak attack with their fists? I don't know what problem they're trying to prevent here by jumping through all of these semantic hoops.

Do they really want cleric/druids (or life clerics with magic initiate) to be able to heal 40 hp with a first level spell? They went out of their way to stop sorcerers and evokers from multiplying their damage bonus on spells like scorching ray, but they're fine with life clerics multiplying their healing bonus on spells like goodberry? What gives?

I can at least see where they're coming from on the delay thing. I just don't think it's as big of a problem as they make it out to be. I've been letting the players voluntarily lower their initiative for the rest of the battle as a house rule and our game hasn't ground to a halt yet. *shrug*

 

[pukunui]

I'm down with the no delay action. But then I'm also going to be using the passive initiative score variant for my next campaign. Anything to speed combat up even more!

 

[bedir than]

Do they really want cleric/druids (or life clerics with magic initiate) to be able to heal 40 hp with a first level spell? They went out of their way to stop sorcerers and evokers from multiplying their damage bonus on spells like scorching ray, but they're fine with life clerics multiplying their healing bonus on spells like goodberry? What gives?

I really want to be a Life Cleric with Magic Initiate of Druid. Druidcraft to know the upcoming weather (handy for farming type things) and either Resistance or Mending.

 

[the_redbeard]

What is going on with the spell list and rituals? Which list (or spells) was/were inaccurate before?