D&D 5E Sage Advice is back!

[Jer]

It doesn't really break the math of the game.

It doesn't break the math, it breaks the perceived level of compatibility between characters built with the 2014 rules and the 2024 rules. A character that is essentially the same but has an extra feat is obviously better than the character without the feat. Making them give up something of value in exchange for the feat would keep the numbers similar and also the perception that the game hasn't really changed among players. (And since most feats also give a bonus to an ability score it's clearly better to have a character with a free feat than to have one that doesn't).

If they go too far with adding new stuff to characters they will create an edition break. They really don't need to do it so I'd really like to see them avoid it.

 

[Parmandur]

None of it was Sage Advice, though. They should have just called it an interview.

This I'd a continuation of the "Sage Advice" interviews Crawford used to do on Twitch with Bart Carroll for the Dragon+ streams: often Crawford explaining UA and discussing UA survey results.

 

[Charlaquin]

I thought they made a deliberate decision to move away from feat chains in 5E. I wonder why they decided to go back on that.

Well, during the 5e playtest, the audience was pretty much split down the middle on whether or not the game should even have feats, and the problems with feat chains in 3e and to a lesser extent 4e were one of the things the anti-feat crowd were most vocal about wanting to avoid. Keeping feats, but granting fewer of them and making each more powerful to balance them against an ASI was the compromise WotC landed on. The demographics have changed since then, and now the majority of players don’t have the same hangups about feats that the early playtesters did. And WotC probably figures that feat chains won’t cause the same problems with the fewer, more powerful feats model than it did with micro-feats every other level.

 

[Maxperson]

This I'd a continuation of the "Sage Advice" interviews Crawford used to do on Twitch with Bart Carroll for the Dragon+ streams: often Crawford explaining UA and discussing UA survey results.

So interviews.

 

[Parmandur]

Im ambivalent about feat chains, but this sounds cool to me otherwise.

I thought they made a deliberate decision to move away from feat chains in 5E. I wonder why they decided to go back on that.

He said why. They got a lot of positive feedback from people who enjoyed the short chains in Strixhaven.

Yeah, he said that the negative feedback was about long chains with branches that had big implications. Two Feat long chains with clear narrative reasoning, ad with the Strixhaven and Dragonlance options, is different.

 

[Parmandur]

So interviews.

Yup, basically.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, he said that the negative feedback was about long chains with branches that had big implications. Two Feat long chains with clear narrative reasoning, ad with the Strixhaven and Dragonlance options, is different.

Yeah. I think three feats are possible, but I doubt they will go beyond that number and most will be two feats long.

 

[Charlaquin]

When he talked about it he talked about the later feats being better than the standard for feats. That means that the intro feats will be of standard quality and then later ones a bit better.

Hmm… That’s a little concerning because I could see it making a-la-carte feats and/or ASIs suboptimal. In theory I would prefer the chain feats stick to standard feat power level and the prerequisites mostly be a flavor thing. Of course, in practice the “standard feat power level” is wildly inconsistent, so this will probably work out fine.

 

[Burnside]

Regarding the expanded use of hit dice going forward, I am pretty sure the Short Rest will not exist in the updated PHB. I think all short rest recharge abilities will be changed to "number of uses equals Proficiency Bonus per long rest", like we've seen in all the recent books. You'll be able to burn hit dice to recover hit points without having to rest for a hour to do it (it'll probably take 1 minute, though, so you can't do it during a combat encounter). Warlocks will get a "recover all spell slots" ability that they can use a number of times per long rest equal to their proficiency bonus. Same with monk ki points.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, he said that the negative feedback was about long chains with branches that had big implications. Two Feat long chains with clear narrative reasoning, ad with the Strixhaven and Dragonlance options, is different.

Yeah, this is why I say I’m ambivalent (literally, “of two minds.”) I like what we’ve seen in Strixhaven and UA and I’m excited to see more of the same. At the same time, I can imagine a world where this opens the door for stuff I’m not as keen on. While I don’t think the slope is slippery enough to be a serious concern, I have seen what’s at the bottom and still think it’s best to use due caution when playing around it.