Andor
First Post
First look? The book is gorgeous. Lots of art most of it lovely, some ..not *cough* *halfling* *cough*
Going through in order. There is a distinction drawn between stat checks and saving throws, although I'm not sure what that accomplishes other than making Remakable Athlete even less amazing.
Races: I like that they split off the classic races from the Jonny-come-lately races and say "check with your GM."
I like all the races although for the first time I feel like you couldn't tell a halfling apart from a gnome. I mean what's the difference? Gnomes are slightly skinnier?
I think there was a missed opportunity with the Tiefling. They could have made the 3e devilish tieflings and the 2e chaotic tieflings seperate subraces and thereby pleased everyone. And yeah, Drizzt shouldn't be the iconic elf.
Classes: So much love.
Barbarian: What's not to love?
Bard: Great, great class, to the point where there is a 5 page thread complaining about it.
Cleric: It's a cleric.
Druid: I like the druid, although it's a little weird that one of your sub-classes specializes in Wildshaping, but still only gets 2 uses a day until 20th level.
Fighter: Love it: This is the class with the greatest flexibility in playstyle from the Champion whose abilitites are almost all static to the spell slinging Eldritch Knight.
Monk: The monk feels disappointing to me and I'm not sure why. Seems like any incarnation of it would be an effective class, but it seems.... slightly boring?
Paladin: Paladins are certified badasses in 5e.
Ranger: I don't get the hate being heaped on the Ranger, although I admit the beastmaster certainly looks underwhelming on paper.
Rogue: It's a rogue.
Sorcerer: Fulfills essentially the same niche as the 3e Sorcerer or Warmage. A Full on caster who can blast with the best but who simplifies book keeping for player who don't want to have to pick spells every morning.
Warlock: The Warlock is interesting, in that he is almost the opposite of the 3e Warlock. Ye olde warlock was a caster who could do only a few tricks but could do them all day long, so sod off Vance. In 5e the Warlock is running on the 4e model of encounter powers, except short rests are harder to come by. We'll see how that plays out, I suspect it will be campaign dependant.
Wizard: It's a Wizard. Except all wizards are now specialialists, and none of them suck.
Backgrounds are awesome, the Pirate is particularly amusing.
Skills: The skill section is weaker than it needs to be. Why is Nature distinct from Survival? Why is there both Perform and Instrument proficiencies? What possible use is there for Healing as a skill in the face of Medicine kits and the Herbalism proficiency? The skill section feels like it just didn't get enough love from the devs.
Equipment: Seems pretty typical
-Armour holds no great surprises, although I note it follows the 4e model of having cheap to expensive options within each catergory unlike 3e where costs and rewards climbed fairly linearly as you went down the chart.
-Weapons look good to me. There was some flak about the Great Sword being strictly superior to the Great Axe. Which, as with so much of 5e, is only true if you look at it in islolation. Consider however a Half-Orc Barbarian X/Champion 3. He's critting almost 20% of the time and getting up to 4 additional weapon dice on a crit. Would you rather crit for 6d6 (Avg 21) or 5d12 (Avg 32.5).
-Brewable Healing potions and anti-toxin look good to me.
Multi-Classing: Seems sound with a few system mastery quicks but nothing outrageous.
Feats: I like the 5e feat system, and I notice it's actually an excellent way to screw yourself with multi classing. The 1/2 Orc Babr/Champion 3 is actually going to be 1 feat/stat advance down on the straight Barb. Want a sticky fighter? Sentinal and Polearm master make a fighter stickier than any character short of a 3.5 Psi Warrior Spiked Chain/StandStill specialist. The Healer feat seems strong, but it also highlights just how immensely useless the Medicine skill is.
Magic: Feels like D&D to me. Contagion does seem over the top. I feel like not enough spells are available as rituals. Mind you if there is anything easier to house rule I can't think of one. I wonder if the DMG will include options for adjusting the ritual lists by campaign world. If you want an industrial magic vibe adding Wall of Stone and Move Earth to the list would go a long way to bringing that about.
Going through in order. There is a distinction drawn between stat checks and saving throws, although I'm not sure what that accomplishes other than making Remakable Athlete even less amazing.
Races: I like that they split off the classic races from the Jonny-come-lately races and say "check with your GM."
I like all the races although for the first time I feel like you couldn't tell a halfling apart from a gnome. I mean what's the difference? Gnomes are slightly skinnier?
I think there was a missed opportunity with the Tiefling. They could have made the 3e devilish tieflings and the 2e chaotic tieflings seperate subraces and thereby pleased everyone. And yeah, Drizzt shouldn't be the iconic elf.
Classes: So much love.
Barbarian: What's not to love?
Bard: Great, great class, to the point where there is a 5 page thread complaining about it.
Cleric: It's a cleric.
Druid: I like the druid, although it's a little weird that one of your sub-classes specializes in Wildshaping, but still only gets 2 uses a day until 20th level.
Fighter: Love it: This is the class with the greatest flexibility in playstyle from the Champion whose abilitites are almost all static to the spell slinging Eldritch Knight.
Monk: The monk feels disappointing to me and I'm not sure why. Seems like any incarnation of it would be an effective class, but it seems.... slightly boring?
Paladin: Paladins are certified badasses in 5e.
Ranger: I don't get the hate being heaped on the Ranger, although I admit the beastmaster certainly looks underwhelming on paper.
Rogue: It's a rogue.
Sorcerer: Fulfills essentially the same niche as the 3e Sorcerer or Warmage. A Full on caster who can blast with the best but who simplifies book keeping for player who don't want to have to pick spells every morning.
Warlock: The Warlock is interesting, in that he is almost the opposite of the 3e Warlock. Ye olde warlock was a caster who could do only a few tricks but could do them all day long, so sod off Vance. In 5e the Warlock is running on the 4e model of encounter powers, except short rests are harder to come by. We'll see how that plays out, I suspect it will be campaign dependant.
Wizard: It's a Wizard. Except all wizards are now specialialists, and none of them suck.
Backgrounds are awesome, the Pirate is particularly amusing.
Skills: The skill section is weaker than it needs to be. Why is Nature distinct from Survival? Why is there both Perform and Instrument proficiencies? What possible use is there for Healing as a skill in the face of Medicine kits and the Herbalism proficiency? The skill section feels like it just didn't get enough love from the devs.
Equipment: Seems pretty typical
-Armour holds no great surprises, although I note it follows the 4e model of having cheap to expensive options within each catergory unlike 3e where costs and rewards climbed fairly linearly as you went down the chart.
-Weapons look good to me. There was some flak about the Great Sword being strictly superior to the Great Axe. Which, as with so much of 5e, is only true if you look at it in islolation. Consider however a Half-Orc Barbarian X/Champion 3. He's critting almost 20% of the time and getting up to 4 additional weapon dice on a crit. Would you rather crit for 6d6 (Avg 21) or 5d12 (Avg 32.5).
-Brewable Healing potions and anti-toxin look good to me.
Multi-Classing: Seems sound with a few system mastery quicks but nothing outrageous.
Feats: I like the 5e feat system, and I notice it's actually an excellent way to screw yourself with multi classing. The 1/2 Orc Babr/Champion 3 is actually going to be 1 feat/stat advance down on the straight Barb. Want a sticky fighter? Sentinal and Polearm master make a fighter stickier than any character short of a 3.5 Psi Warrior Spiked Chain/StandStill specialist. The Healer feat seems strong, but it also highlights just how immensely useless the Medicine skill is.
Magic: Feels like D&D to me. Contagion does seem over the top. I feel like not enough spells are available as rituals. Mind you if there is anything easier to house rule I can't think of one. I wonder if the DMG will include options for adjusting the ritual lists by campaign world. If you want an industrial magic vibe adding Wall of Stone and Move Earth to the list would go a long way to bringing that about.
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