D&D 5E Vicious Mockery

[BryonD]

So my wife ran a L1 bard last night and killed a Kobold entirely with insults.

She is a 5E fan on that alone. (She already liked it. But know she likes it +1)

 

[Plaguescarred]

Cool! What was the mockery exactly?

 

[Plaguescarred]

[DUPLICATE DELETE]

 

[Neonchameleon]

So my wife ran a L1 bard last night and killed a Kobold entirely with insults.

She is a 5E fan on that alone. (She already liked it. But know she likes it +1)

One of the most fun powers from 4e

The 5e version has a few nice little touches - it's verbal only, meaning that you can use it while wearing a shield and holding a sword. It also forces a saving throw rather than being ranged, so you can use it in melee quite happily if you've gone for a bard that doesn't generally fight. (It also scales a little as the control effect is powerful - but enough that it'll be competitive with a bow before too long).

 

[Gladius Legis]

Yeah, it's definitely the go-to cantrip for Lore Bards.

 

[tuxgeo]

One of the most fun powers from 4e . . .

It is a fun power.

In 4E, the damage of Vicious Mockery was 1d6 + CHA mod. It's lower in 5E because of bounded accuracy. (The damage numbers are lower in many places.)

In 4E, I also liked the "Misdirected Mark" attack power. It involved tricking your target into taking untyped damage, but thinking the hit came from one of your allies, and winding up being "marked" by that ally.
Strangely, MisMark didn't have the "illusion" keyword despite that kind of trickery.

 

[BryonD]

Cool! What was the mockery exactly?

I don't recall the details. She threw out several things. Mostly comments on the kind of lizards they resembled (things very not dragon) and tail mocking.

 

[BryonD]

One of the most fun powers from 4e

Cool!

I look forward to finding more narrative coolness from the 4E era.

 

[Chaltab]

Vicious Mockery is the best thing about Bards. In my first 4E game one of the players was a Rogue multiclassed into Bard and it he always came up with something good when insulting goblins to death.

 

[ccooke]

It does less damage at level 1, but scales well and the rider effect is a bit more powerful:

The 4e version goes:

Range 10 (50')
Charisma vs Will
Hit: 1d6 + Charisma modifier damage and the target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn
(Damage increases to 2d6 + Charisma at level 21)

While the 5e version is:

Range 60'
Components: Verbal
If the target can hear you, it must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of your next turn
(2d4 at level 5, 3d4 at level 11, 4d4 at level 17

So: Longer range, better scaling of the base damage and disadvantage to one attack rather than -2 to all.