D&D 5E Thank God These Spells Changed

[dmccoy1693]

Link to Original Blog Post


As my warlock, Sir Tim von Daggerdale, gains levels, I am learning more of the subtle differences that have changed in the spells from 3.5/Pathfinder to 5th edition. While many work the same (or close enough to the same), some have more substantial changes. Some spells that I have had a beef with for a long time have finally been changed and I am glad of it. Here are a few spells that I am glad got an overhaul.

• Teleport. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of bouncing around from place to place. Imagine if Gandolf could have just taken Frodo straight to Mount Doom. There wouldn't have been a story worth telling. Before before 5e and now if you didn't want to go a long journey but had to do so for the story, the GM could just say, "Yea, you had a couple of encounters along the way, but they were no match for you. No, Bob, you are not getting experience for that." Teleport is now a 7th-level spell. This means that your group is not going to be bouncing around all over the place until quite late in the game (more on teleportation circle another time). Additionally, teleporting to the wrong area is a significally higher possibility. In 3.5/Pathfinder, scrying the location before teleporting in means you have a 3 in 4 chance of showing up without a scratch on you. In 5e that success rate has been bumped down to a 1 in 4 chance. What even better, there are a few additional lines added to the table about how familiar you are with the destination. My favorite is the "associated object" entry. Don't like the 1 in 4 odds, your rogue can use this contacts in the thieves' guild to get the location of a book from the building next door. Sends the players on a short adventure that they are going to remember more than "ok, I cast teleport."
• Plane Shift. Plane shift if now a 7th-level spell for everyone. Sorry clerics. This means that not only are the number of people that can cast it are significantly reduced, the number of scrolls from which you can cast it are massively reduced. Add that to the fact that no spellcasting class can cast a second 7th-level spell per long rest before 20th level and you made sure that your group doesn't jump into the plane, adventure, and jump back to their home base to rest. If I want to do a planar adventure, I don't want the way back to be too easy.
• Dispel Magic. This one I just like because of how simple it now is. In Pathfinder, the whole spell is more than a solid column. In 5e, dispel magic is 6 lines (not counting the at higher level part). You can argue that it should be longer since counterspell is broken off to its own spell. But the two are so similar that if you understand one, you understand the other. Simplicity that works well is always a plus in my book. And lastly, ...
• Every spell with an At Higher Level section. I don't really like adding spells just because "this kind of spell is not available at this level." I mean sure there is a wizard fire damaging spell in the core 3.5/Pathfinder games at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels. So do we need to add one at 4th? Or how about a cleric's cure spells? Do we really need one at every level. I love that 5e allows many spells to be useful at higher levels. This is probably my favorite part of 5e's magic system.

So there you have it. Several spells that changed that I absolutely love about 5e. Thank you, designers. What spells have changed that you like? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. See you next time.

 

[jrowland]

I agree with you but on one quibble: God had nothing to do with it! Thank D&D Dev team at WotC and the playtesters

 

[dmccoy1693]

God had nothing to do with it! Thank D&D Dev team at WotC and the playtesters

I put "thank you, designers," at the end of the post, to give full credit where credit is due.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

You can still use a Plane Shift in a 7th-level slot to get somewhere, and then in an 8th-level slot to get back, but that pushes you back to level 15 at the earliest.

One issue with your evaluation is that, although the travel-bypassing spells are put off until later level, more of the game will be taking place at higher levels due to the fact that they're so much better balanced than they were in 3.x edition. Where you need to be level 13 to Teleport or Plane Shift in 5E, you might actually get there at some point, where a 3.5 game might decide to end the campaign by level 9.

 

[dmccoy1693]

You can still use a Plane Shift in a 7th-level slot to get somewhere, and then in an 8th-level slot to get back, but that pushes you back to level 15 at the earliest.

True, but do you really want to use both your 7th and 8th level slots for simple transportation instead of things like an 8th level cure spell, regenerate, earthquake, dominate monster, sunburst. At 15th level, clerics and wizards only have 1 6th level spell, which means that with the exception of transportation, you might as well be 11th level.

One issue with your evaluation is that, although the travel-bypassing spells are put off until later level, more of the game will be taking place at higher levels due to the fact that they're so much better balanced than they were in 3.x edition.

Again, I like the way teleport works now so much more than it did in 3.5. So I call that a good thing.

 

[Staffan]

(more on teleportation circle another time).

Teleportation circle, in many ways, is reminiscent of a feature of many computer games - and I mean that in a good way. Many games let you "auto-travel" in various ways to particular locations where you've already been. It's a way to skip over "repetitive content."

Traveling from Iriaebor to Baldur's Gate is cool. Going back the same way... probably still interesting, particularly if you picked up some side quests along the way that you get to deal with on the way back. Traveling back and forth ten times over a campaign? I'll pass.

But with teleportation circle, once you get to Baldur's Gate and pay the local wizard's guild for access to their teleportation circle, you don't need to travel the whole Trade Way back and forth again. You can now focus on traveling to new exciting locations. And the fixed locations of the circles means you don't get to use them to bypass actual adventure sites the way teleport does.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Even though I love playing wizards, I'm glad that these spells were changed. I'm actually looking forward to playing at higher levels now, rather than dreading it.

 

[Uller]

I really like how they made invisibility and fly scale with level (you can cast it on more targets). But I am left wondering why Mirror image wasn't made to scale. It makes it particularly weak as a Warlock spell choice.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I really like how they made invisibility and fly scale with level (you can cast it on more targets). But I am left wondering why Mirror image wasn't made to scale. It makes it particularly weak as a Warlock spell choice.

Yeah, it seems like such an obvious candidate for scaling. Each extra level could give you one more image.

 

[Pling]

Mirror Image is one of the rare buff spells without Concentration requirements. It is possible that this is why the designers chose not to scale the spell.

Aid, however, both scales AND does not require Concentration AND can be cast on multiple persons. It might just be the baddest buffing spell on the block in 5E