D&D 5E (2024) The Great Wizard Extinction.

[FrogReaver]

TLDR Is it a bad spell? No. Not by far. Is it overrated? Yes. Because it is often best in situations where a different tactic yields way better results.

Exactly.

My favorite misconception about bless is that it always does something because it allows players to roll 1d4’s. But in reality there’s a decent chance it changes absolutely nothing over whole encounters.

Im not a fan of bless. I think it was a bit better in 2014 because the overall lower accuracy’s and how it interacted with -5/+10 feats.

Lower levels guiding Bolt or inflict wounds is typically much better. Higher levels command is much better.

There are a few niche uses for bless like precasting before facing a known spellcaster.

If one is trying to make a healbot cleric then using a low level bless in your encounters and saving higher slots for healing is viable, though healbots in general are very suboptimal.

 

[Zardnaar]

1.5 million is a huge number and WotC would be fools to leave that money untapped.

The only time I've ever played with random DMs is at game conventions, and yes, sometimes they hand out tier 4 PCs. With the non-random DMs I've played with over the decades, every DM from 3e on has gone to 10+, yes.

They're fools of they cater to that q.5 million over the 13.5 million.

Old sales figures and interviews with extra designers revealed high level stuff also doesn't sell well.

Thats been a recurring trend since early 80s.

 

[FrogReaver]

On the thread premise my current group is a man down and are playing an artificer, 2024 wizard and a 2024 echo knight fighter.

the wizard player leans much heavier into roleplay than power. As such I even allowed his casting stat to be strength.

Anyways the point is that at my table the wizard is well represented.

 

[Zardnaar]

Exactly.

My favorite misconception about bless is that it always does something because it allows players to roll 1d4’s. But in reality there’s a decent chance it changes absolutely nothing over whole encounters.

Im not a fan of bless. I think it was a bit better in 2014 because the overall lower accuracy’s and how it interacted with -5/+10 feats.

Lower levels guiding Bolt or inflict wounds is typically much better. Higher levels command is much better.

There are a few niche uses for bless like precasting before facing a known spellcaster.

If one is trying to make a healbot cleric then using a low level bless in your encounters and saving higher slots for healing is viable, though healbots in general are very suboptimal.

We got bored once and kept track of the extra damage it did via turning misses into hits.

Its worth using at low opportunity cost even into higher levels.

It consistently out damaged every other 1st level spell and a bit of insurance if you get targeted with a save.

Doing nothing can happen its a minority though. Better in 5.0 though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

1.5 million is a huge number and WotC would be fools to leave that money untapped.

Haven't they been doing that though? How much of the game really supports high level play?

 

[FrogReaver]

We got bored once and kept track of the extra damage it did via turning misses into hits.

Its worth using at low opportunity cost even into higher levels.

It consistently out damaged every other 1st level spell and a bit of insurance if you get targeted with a save.

Doing nothing can happen its a minority though.

In 2014 with a bunch of -5/+10 feats?
It’s just not impactful in 2024.

And I’m sorry but going from +2 wisdom bonus to 2+1d4 vs higher level dcs of 17+ is pretty meaningless. You’re going to still fail that save.

Just command the enemy so it can’t act and use that wisdom save ability

 

[Zardnaar]

In 2014 with a bunch of -5/+10 feats?
It’s just not impactful in 2024.

Yeah it was 5.0, 1 player was using -5/+10.

Its still good though as 5.5 enables more attacks early and later on they come close to 5.0.

3 attacks a round level 4, 6 at 11 sort of thing.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yeah it was 5.0, 1 player was using -5/+10.

Its still good though as 5.5 enables more attacks early and later on they come close to 5.0.

It’s not the number of attacks, it’s how much relative damage the party outputs with and without bless. In 2014 due to lower accuracy bless was more impactful.

 

[Zardnaar]

It’s not the number of attacks, it’s how much relative damage the party outputs with and without bless. In 2014 due to lower accuracy bless was more impactful.

Accuracy hasn't changed much.

Roll more attacks you'll see those 1 in 3 or 4 attacks flub more often.

Bless smoothes that out.

Had a player whiff hard the other day. Missed 4 or 5 attacks out of 6.

Vs AC 15 or so at level 11 or 12.

Bless woukd have made enough difference to turn 2 of them into hits.

Double ones he was still screwed.

 

[FrogReaver]

Accuracy hasn't changed much.

Roll more attacks you'll see those 1 in 3 or 4 attacks flub more often.

Bless smoothes that out.

Had a player whiff hard the other day. Missed 4 or 5 attacks out of 6.

Vs AC 15 or so at level 11 or 12.

Bless woukd have made enough difference to turn 2 of them into hits.

Double ones he was still screwed.

Accuracy hasn’t changed much????
What the heck?