Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Starter Spells; Plus UA Returning To Monthly & Sage Advice Returning

Chaos Bolt is the first Sorcerer-only spell. Interesting.

What I've read so far looks really good. I like the idea of Ceremony quite a bit, but some of the effects (Investiture!) might be a little overpowered.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I find it in poor taste to ever expand what full casters can do when the non-spellcasting toolbox is never or meekly expanded. Just more things spells can do that can't be done otherwise. Jump is a first level spell, but if a fighter attempts its effects most people would set the DC to 30. The fighter should know his place though, we're all equal, some of us are just more equal than others.

Historically, fighters have prospered by finding magical Boots of Jumping, not by developing spontaneous superpowers that allow them to jump like Spider-Man while naked. Do you hate magic items? Well, I can understand that. I kind of hate them myself. But I hate D&D: X-Men even more.

D&D is a game where, outside of binary gravity and HP, almost everything weird and fantastic that happens has to be explained by magic. Your magical Jumping Fighter can now be modeled as an Eldritch Knight who learns the Jump spell, or a regular fighter who multiclasses to wizard. You don't have to learn magic, but if you don't, you won't be doing magical things while naked, so you better stock up on magical items, give up on super-jumping, or persuade your DM to house-rule 5E until it's more like Marvel Super Heroes or Feng Shui.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Historically, fighters have prospered by finding magical Boots of Jumping, not by developing spontaneous superpowers that allow them to jump like Spider-Man while naked. Do you hate magic items? Well, I can understand that. I kind of hate them myself. But I hate D&D: X-Men even more.

D&D is a game where, outside of binary gravity and HP, almost everything weird and fantastic that happens has to be explained by magic. Your magical Jumping Fighter can now be modeled as an Eldritch Knight who learns the Jump spell, or a regular fighter who multiclasses to wizard. You don't have to learn magic, but if you don't, you won't be doing magical things while naked, so you better stock up on magical items, give up on super-jumping, or persuade your DM to house-rule 5E until it's more like Marvel Super Heroes or Feng Shui.

You would have a better point if D&D didn't currently set the limits of Martial prowess generally *below* that of real actual people.

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[FormerlyHemlock]

You would have a better point if D&D didn't currently set the limits of Martial prowess generally *below* that of real actual people.

Care to explain?

You know many real actual people who can effortlessly achieve 3' to 5' of vertical displacement on a jump? 5E fighters can do that all day, while carrying 150+ lb. of gear. The world record in high jump is only 8.5' off the ground--I'm not an anatomy expert but that seems likely to be about 5' of vertical displacement too, give or take.

Or were you talking exclusively about the world record for long jump?

 

[Tony Vargas]

, the fighter should have some special abilities that the spells don't do well. Don't know what at first thought, but there should be something.

Obviously, there would first have to be something spells don't already do well...

...


....



Yeah, nevermind.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I just now noticed Healing Elixir for Wizards and Warlocks. REALLY do not like. Steps on the cleric and Bard's toes too much. If wizards heal, it needs to come at a significant cost, not just a spell slot. Hell, that spell is better than Cure Wounds at first level!

Only if 'healing done' is the metric you use, and you care about half a hit point AND your spellcasting modifier is only +2. If you were paying attention to power level, you picked up the far, far superior healing word anyway.

If wizards want to heal, let them do it at cost of someone else's health, or a costly component, or at the least subpar for the expenditure.

Something on-par with cure wounds is already sub-par. Cure wounds is not a good spell to cast in the middle of a fight.

My main issue with healing elixir is that it'll be pre-cast the day before. That said, if it wasn't a problem with goodberry, it's not going to become a problem now.

 

[LapBandit]

Historically, fighters have prospered by finding magical Boots of Jumping, not by developing spontaneous superpowers that allow them to jump like Spider-Man while naked. Do you hate magic items? Well, I can understand that. I kind of hate them myself. But I hate D&D: X-Men even more.

D&D is a game where, outside of binary gravity and HP, almost everything weird and fantastic that happens has to be explained by magic. Your magical Jumping Fighter can now be modeled as an Eldritch Knight who learns the Jump spell, or a regular fighter who multiclasses to wizard. You don't have to learn magic, but if you don't, you won't be doing magical things while naked, so you better stock up on magical items, give up on super-jumping, or persuade your DM to house-rule 5E until it's more like Marvel Super Heroes or Feng Shui.

I like to call this "Monte Cook" syndrome: You can only do cool things if you can cast spells, otherwise you must jump through hoops to be good at things that don't break my sense of verisimilitude.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I like to call this "Monte Cook" syndrome: You can only do cool things if you can cast spells, otherwise you must jump through hoops to be good at things that don't break my sense of verisimilitude.

You might as well call it Gary Gygax syndrome, because it's been part of D&D all along. Hadn't you noticed?

(I'm honestly not sure I've ever played anything that Monte Cook ever wrote.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Care to explain?

You know many real actual people who can effortlessly achieve 3' to 5' of vertical displacement on a jump? 5E fighters can do that all day, while carrying 150+ lb. of gear. The world record in high jump is only 8.5' off the ground--I'm not an anatomy expert but that seems likely to be about 5' of vertical displacement too, give or take.

Or were you talking exclusively about the world record for long jump?

Sure, among other things like weight lifting. (As an aside, I'm not sure why you would call an 8.5' high jump 5' of verticle displacement - how is it *not* 8.5' of verticle displacement?)

At any rate, my point is, at the high end (you are right about the carrying gear and all-day oddities, sure) the game doesn't yet seem to model *reality* for martial characters, far or less break into superpowers.

Aside from some if the oddities, naturally.

I just mean to suggest that there is still wiggle-room in the middle, not that I think you can vastly add power to martial characters.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[LapBandit]

You might as well call it Gary Gygax syndrome, because it's been part of D&D all along. Hadn't you noticed?

Go back and look at the fighter over time when Gygax ran the show. He has stated and his work product made it obvious that he knew the fighter was continually falling behind. Fighters used to have the best saves in the game, making them a nightmare for wizards. Wizards used to have d4 HP and zero hit points meant you were dead. All those extra HP of the fighter meant a hell of a lot more then as did his d8 weapon damage. If we're getting Gygaxian, the frailty of full casters would actually be meaningful. There's no Shield, Absorb Elements, etc to save your arcane behind.

 

[cbwjm]

I just now noticed Healing Elixir for Wizards and Warlocks. REALLY do not like. Steps on the cleric and Bard's toes too much. If wizards heal, it needs to come at a significant cost, not just a spell slot. Hell, that spell is better than Cure Wounds at first level! If wizards want to heal, let them do it at cost of someone else's health, or a costly component, or at the least subpar for the expenditure.

I don't believe it is as good as you think it is. It takes a minute to cast for one thing so has no in-combat utility without first creating the elixirs which then takes away spell slots that could have been better used in combat. It also doesn't scale with spell slot level unlike a cure wounds spell.

I think it is a good addition to the game, requiring an alchemist pouch is also a flavourful addition for the spell and fits well with one of the archetypes of the old alchemist wizard.