D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

[Cap'n Kobold]

And Adventurer's Guild. We have to remember that a number of people never get to play home games, there only dnd may lie in gaming events and AG adventurers.

All of the broken stuff is available to them by default.

Not all. Silvery barbs for example, are not available for Adventurer's League.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm really torn on this topic.

I feel that spells should scale better. Heck, most class features should scale better.

However, I don't believe that making spells MORE powerful is the fix that spellcasters need. It's limiting the power of a few gamebreaking spells.

In the panel, Hypnotic Pattern gets brought up. I find Hypnotic Pattern leads to degenerate play (as Matt Colville would say). You end up with a gaggle of mesmerized foes. Players gather around one of them and then slaughter them in a single turn. Then onto the next. And the next. Meanwhile, I'm very focused on if the players might do anything unintentionally that breaks the spell effect. Not particularly heroic or fun. The game does not need more spells like that.

I think Hypnotic Pattern is particularly egregious for this because there are no repeat saving throws. Most save-or-stun type effects allow the subject to repeat the save every turn and end the effect on a success. The few that don’t are the best-in-slot options for their level, because they take a target out of the fight completely, with no risk of them coming back into it.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think Hypnotic Pattern is particularly egregious for this because there are no repeat saving throws. Most save-or-stun type effects allow the subject to repeat the save every turn and end the effect on a success. The few that don’t are the best-in-slot options for their level, because they take a target out of the fight completely, with no risk of them coming back into it.

Yup the holy trinity of HP, Fear, Slow depending on the situation.

 

[TheSword]

I think Hypnotic Pattern is particularly egregious for this because there are no repeat saving throws. Most save-or-stun type effects allow the subject to repeat the save every turn and end the effect on a success. The few that don’t are the best-in-slot options for their level, because they take a target out of the fight completely, with no risk of them coming back into it.

That’s not quite true because unless they are on their own or every foe fails the save they can be brought round very quickly. Not only that if you want to then attack them they are then back in room. So it’s not quite as simple as that.

 

[Zardnaar]

That’s not quite true because unless they are on their own or every foe fails the save they can be brought round very quickly. Not only that if you want to then attack them they are then back in room. So it’s not quite as simple as that.

Youre buying time though. They're wasting there turns waking peopke up.

Its a huge temp swing.

If my NPCs can cast magic missile do that instead targeting your own.

 

[Staffan]

Moreover, if upcasting was an optimal strategy for D&D damage spells, then why have the upper level damage spells at all? Just introduce spells like "energy rays", "energy ball", "energy cone" and make them fully generic in damage and/or damage type and just set those variables based on the level of the spell slot expended.
It might be effective form a mathematical standpoint, but it would pretty much suck the D&Dness atmosphere out of the room.

I mean, back in the day fireball was pretty much the go-to offensive spell even at higher levels.

But one can make higher-level blast spells better in ways other than just having bigger numbers. You can add various riders to them, bigger AOEs, selective damage, and things like that.