D&D 5E What do you think of Fizban's races, subclasses feats and spells?

[Sten4321]

I mostly agree, but Fizban's Shield is pretty sucky for the level of spell and expensive material component. It's pretty close to an F.

Compared to Fizban's Shield Nathair's Mischief is awesome! (Bards especially).

I don't reckon Draconic Transformation is much good - I would rate it C on this rather ridiculous scale.

i would actually rate it higher evasion + resistance, is pretty good.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

i would actually rate it higher evasion + resistance, is pretty good.

It would be pretty good for a level two spell. With a level 6 slot you should be able to blow whatever you are evading/resisting out of the water.

It's a specialised anti-dragonbreath spell that only protects one party member and leaves everyone else to have their faces melted, doesn't work against gem dragons and requires concentration.

If it was 10 ft. radius AoE protection it would be ok.

You can't even upcast it to defend more party members. You could twin it I suppose.

 

[Burnside]

Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk is a v cool monk. Somebody who liked the flavor of the Way of the Four Elements monk but was turned off by the mechanics of that subclass may find this one delivers some of the stuff they were looking for - notably, it infuses your unarmed strikes with different damage types (fire, cold, acid, lightning, poison, or acid) and gives you a breath weapon WITHOUT massively draining your ki points to do so.

I'll have to see the Drakewarden ranger in play I think. I have a slight bias against summoned creatures, pets, and companions because they have a tendency to slow down play (especially in combat) AND starting at level 7 this thing invites you to use 5E's not-great mounted combat rules. But if you have to do this pet deal, the drake seems well done. I has a neat ability where as a reaction, the drake can imbue an ally's attack with extra damage based on its dragon type. It can attack on its own using the ranger's bonus action, which seems a fair trade-off. Note that you're not gonna actually be flying around on a full-sized dragon until level 15 (and I fully understand why).

I think the chromatic dragonborn is pretty bad. I have no idea why they would lower the breath weapon damage. 1/short rest vs a few times per long rest is a push. At level 5, you also get a thing where you can increase your single-type damage resistance to damage IMMUNITY to that type for 1 minute/long rest. That's situationally great, but that situation is probably gonna happen like twice in a campaign.

The new gem dragonborn is just straight-up mechanically better than the chromatic in every way. Breath weapon works the same but the damage types are much better (choose force, radiant, psychic, thunder, or necrotic - all of which are rarely resisted by enemies). They also get free one-way telepathy to 30', and, at level 5, manifest spectral wings for one minute of flight per long rest.

Metallic dragonborn are mechanically identical to chromatics except for that their breath weapon is a cone instead of a line, and the level 5 ability is a second, different 1/long rest breath weapon instead of the damage immunity. The level 5 breath weapon can do one of two pretty awesome effects: anybody in the 15' cone has to save or be incapacitated for a round OR save or be pushed back 20' and knocked prone (your choice every time you use it).

I think the gem dragonborn is the clear winner of the three followed by metallic, but ymmv.

Gift of the Chromatic Dragon gives 2 abilities: as a bonus action, infuse a weapon (doesn't have to be your weapon and doesn't have to be melee) with a chromatic damage type for one minute (extra 1d4 damage of that type) once/long rest. Also, gain resistance to a chromatic damage type as a reaction (number of times per long rest = proficiency bonus). That's a solid feat, albeit one you could pretty much duplicate with a couple of level 1 spells.

Gift of the Gem Dragon gets you a +1 to Int, Wis, or Cha plus a telekinetic reaction attack that's a bit like Hellish Rebuke but it does force damage and pushes the enemy 10' away from you. Again, number of times per long rest = proficiency bonus. Not bad, although not sure it really says "dragon".

Gift of the Metallic Dragon give you a 1/long rest Cure Wounds spell plus a reaction similar to the Shield spell where you can manifest wings to protect yourself or another creature within 5' of you, raising AC by an amount equal to you proficiency bonus. Number of times per long rest = proficiency bonus. Again, not bad but at least for some classes there are other, better ways mechanically to do those things. Flavor is nice, though.

 

[Inchoroi]

Nothing in Fizban's was truly inspiring to me, but I bought it anyway since one of my players wants to play a drakewarden.

 

[Nefermandias]

My salty opinion is that they should have left the player's options out of this book to make space for unique and fun Great Wyrms.

 

[jgsugden]

The new Dragonborn are an improvement that make the Dragonborn more attractive.

Binding Ice and Psychic Lance are both very interesting spells with key use cases- but neither is really on the level of a fireball, hypontoic pattern, banishment or polymorph.

I think people are underestimating the importance of the defensive side of the Chromatic Feat. If you resist two solid damage attacks per long rest, you're saving more hps than what is gained by toughness or similar feat options. The defense is more important than the offense to me with this feat. Same for the Metallic Feat - you're saving a lot of hps with these abilities, especially at higher level.

Ashardalon's Stride is interesting because it doesn't really hit stride until you cast it at 6th level or so and can murder a huge number of creatures with no save just by moving amongst them. In the right campaign it is an A for higher level spellcasters, epsecially if they have other speed bumps and face a lot of minion-y types. Other than that, it is a C.

 

[Carlctrl]

I was comparing Dragonborn to all races. I agree they are better than PHB, but I don't think they for the most part that they are much better than most of the other races.

I'm curious to hear more on why you see these races as equivalent to other PHB races. To me the dragon breath changes feel substantially more powerful. One of my players wants to adopt these changes and I'm leaning toward saying no, so I'm looking for another perspective.

The fact that the breath does 3 things bothers me:
1. It scales damage with level. Most racial combat abilities do this, no issue here.
2. It scales uses with level by tying it to proficiency. I don't think any other racial does this (though I love the idea, it just needs to be applied to all racials).
3. It allows you to do elemental damage in place of a single attack (not using a whole action like other racial abilities).

If you remove even 1 of those I think it's probably fine, but I'm not sure how any other racial ability can compare to the power of that breath weapon.

p.s. If this is a new direction for racials, I love it. If all the racials were this dynamic and powerful I'd be fine with it. But I don't want my other players feeling left behind when my pally Red-Dragonborn is melting everything in sight, every combat...

 

[ECMO3]

I am guessing you like predictability - I do too, but they're all predictably bad for your foes and all can disable a foe in one way or another.

I think that is it. When I cast a spell I want to know what it is going to do, especially since my use of spells is very situational.

 

[NaturalZero]

p.s. If this is a new direction for racials, I love it. If all the racials were this dynamic and powerful I'd be fine with it. But I don't want my other players feeling left behind when my pally Red-Dragonborn is melting everything in sight, every combat...

I played the playtest chromatic dragonborn for months and the thing is that the breath weapon is still just bad compared to whatever else you have available most of the time - and this final version is nerfed on top of that. I was a fighter and I almost always attacked with melee because it was just more optimal than doing less damage with a breath weapon and then having to deal with a save that makes it even lower. It doesn't benefit from hex, or hunter's mark, or GWM, or sneak attack, or smite, et al. If you're running a spellcaster, the breath weapon takes your whole action and does less than just casting a spell. It doesn't matter if you can do it every combat if casting spells or using melee is better anyway.

PHB dragonborn are generally regarded as one of the lowest-powered racial options in the game. This makes them a little better. If you're disallowing it at your table, you're preventing your player with an underpowered option from catching up just a little to what other folks are playing. Its not a huge deal, but I think you're missing exactly why the dragonborn isn't considered a strong option.

 

[ECMO3]

Comparing it to overpowered top tier feats is not enough to rate something poor. The equivalent of 1+PB 1st level spell slots per long rest makes GCD a strong average.

I compared it to three feats, Fey touched is top tier, but I don't think most would say magic initiate or fighting initiate are overpowered top tier feats.

The resistance is the better part of this feat and the multiple uses are nice, but they are only equivalent to spell slots if you actually use them. I love absorb elements, which is slightly better than this, but I don't think I have ever cast it 3 times in a day, in part because it uses a reaction which is not always available.

Hunter's Mark and Hex are concentration, and rarely last to the end of one fight if you play RAW. But still, as a half feat Fey Touched is GWM overpowered. That doesn't make anything else poor.

I think playing RAW you will generally get more damage per casting of HM or Hex. Even if it does not last an entire combat it does more per hit, so you are going to be ahead on the very first turn you cast it, when the damage matters the most and you will keep pulling further ahead every turn you get to use it. While you may lose concentration in the first battle you use hex, you will rarely get more than 3 or 4 turns with COI. This is especially true since hex works on all attacks, where disarming you or making you do a ranged or spell attack loses the COI damage for that attack.

Also FWIW GWM is not as OP as everyone makes it out to be.

The majority of classes already have cure wounds on their spell list. If you don't already have it someone else in the party almost certainly does. GMD is also equivalent it 1+PB 1st level spell slots, making it almost exactly equal to GCD.

Right, but it sucks up a spell known for most classes to and most classes are not going to take it when other better spells are available. Wizards are who can benefit from it the most, because they have nothing on their list to bring up a downed ally or do any healing at all. Other classes who have healing available are probably going to take or prepare something else.

I think it is rare that someone has cure wounds specifically prepared. Virtually no one has it as a known spell and Druids and Clerics rarely prepare it when better healing spells are available, even at 1st level where healing word and goodberry are the go-tos.

I am playing 6 games right now, of those:
5 player game - Paladin, Warlock, Rogue, Barbarian, Rogue/Cleric (me). No one has cure wounds

4 player game - Ranger/Cleric, Monk, Sorcerer/Warlock, Barbarian, Rogue/Wizard (me). I don't think anyone has cure wounds prepared, although the Ranger/cleric has a lot of healing and it could include this (I just don't remember her ever casting it).

3 player game - Sorcerer, Barbarian, Rogue (me). No one has any healing spells at all.

5 player game - Wizard, Artificer, Monk, Warlock, Rogue/Fighter (me). No one has any healing spells

5 player game - Wizard, Rogue, Rogue/Bard, Sorcerer, Rogue/Ranger (me). No one has cure wounds, the sorcerer is a divine soul and has other healing.

3 player game - Fighter, Cleric, Rogue (me). No one has cure wounds.