Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7037866" data-source="post: 9357862">As I said, I believe it is something you've never seen, but it is out there and I have IRL. I mean, there are lot of things out there you know exist, even if you've never seen or experienced it.Again, because you've never seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. DMs certainly get upset/ miffed/ disturbed/ disappointed/ whatever when an encounter goes "badly" because a spell wipes out the encounter. Players get frustrated when their PC is overshadowed by anothers due to MCing. Or one player see his PC downed by a huge attack, and another is missed because of an overpowered 1st-level spell, then the first player is annoyed, yeah... it happens.Sure, and sometimes things like that happen. But other times it's clear it is a feature, spell, or whatever that is causing the imbalance.This actually happened in my game Friday. The fighter hit for poor damage despite having +5 to the roll, missed on his Action Surge, and then had the Warlock's fireball wipe out most of the enemies, including the one the fighter was trying to take out. The player was annoyed, and really felt the "why bother" thing.I have no idea why you are bringing up the fear spell.It is an example of things that could (and similar ones do). Again, the monk vs. bladesinger shield thing was your example...LOL everything you just mentioned is everything we don't ignore:1. Potions are actions, NOT bonus actions. Aww... you feel bad because you can't do stuff and drink your potion?2. Bonus action spell? Just a cantrip that turn. Cast a non-cantrip spell? No bonus action spell later that turn. Sorry, deal with it.3. Shooting into a melee with your ally in the way? Yep, that is +2 to the target's AC. Just consider yourself lucky that when you missed by 1 you didn't hit your ally instead. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />4. You want to stow your sword, draw your handaxe, and throw it? Well, that is your free object interaction, action, and... not possible. However, you can drop your sword (that doesn't cost you anything), free object interaction, and action. Sure, that works!Nerfing spells are NOT a minority IME. Come on, how many threads have been just here about nerfing this spell or that spell because it is OP and unbalanced!?That has nothing to do with what I said.Please, honestly, really, you think that? Half the games out there don't allow MCing at all! People play and stay in those games all the time. That would be a pretty poor reason to not play IMO.cough cough Ok, look at the "improvements" in the 2024 Monk... I know of at least one poster on EnWorld who would never go back to the 2014 Monk now.Or how rare is it for someone to play the original pre-Tasha's Ranger once Tasha's came out?And playing a Tasha's Ranger is different from pre-Tasha's. No one really takes Prodigy if Skill Expert is available.When a more powerful option is available to replace a less-powerful one, few "regress" to the "weaker" option.Sorry, I assumed your first pre-Cleric class already had medium armor.LOL, you just proved my point: a wizard (no armor proficiency AT ALL) takes a SINGLE level of cleric and gains:1. (potentially) all armor and shield proficiencies2. 3 cantrips and likely several prepared cleric spells3. another subclass with whatever features it has4. a better Hit Die5. and loses NO spell slots in the process!The worst part is without enforcement, IME groups just let a player grab that level dip with no in-story or in-game reason why or time to learn/gain everything they do.Without enforcement, it rarely is IME. Most players will take the dip for the power and/or options it grants, not for story. If your experience is always in-story--that's awesome.Definitely weak. And their story has to make sense and be plausible in my world as the DM. I'll totally work with a player for something they want, but they don't get to just toss out silly, weak ideas and expect me to just accept it.Ranger doesn't grant expertise, though, does it??? In Tasha's maybe?? I don't recall...Anyway, expertise is strong, especially by the time you get to tiers 3 and 4. However, it goes back to my point: if you are dipping for a class feature, don't dip. Prior to Tasha's a lot of groups have houseruled expertise available in many ways, from background skills to opening Prodigy to all races. With Skill Expert, that is all you need now.Expertise is a sad reason to need to dip into Rogue. Why does the player feel the need expertise, anyway? It is a "rogue and bard" thing, after all... (unless houseruled or Tasha'd as I mentioned...).Look at the level 1 cleric dip above. Depending on your class and dipping class, the tradeoff is most often worth it in terms of power and optoins, sadly.Great backstory! Thanks for sharing, I really like it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />When did you take the level of warlock? IMO if that was your first class, and then you transitioned to bard for the rest of the game, that would make a bit more sense in-story than if you began as a bard and just "dipped" into warlock.Anyway, you now have a 1st-level spell slot rechargable on a short rest, which can be great--especially since you aren't limited to using it only on warlock spells. Hex is great, as is Eldritch Blast.You haven't given anything up really, just delayed it by a level, for a subclass power, 2 cantrips, 2 spells (which you can also cast with your bard spell slots), and a short rest spell slot --- all for the low, low price of a single level. For another level dip, you'll also gain another 1st-level spell, another short rest spell slot, and two invocations, which can be supremely useful!Overall, I would see this as a sideways move more than anything. It might be a bit less powerful than straight bard, but not much IMO and you get some very nice things for it.Anyway, obviously our experiences concerning balance issues, OP spells/features, and MCing a very different. I appreciate the discussion, and expect all-in-all the reality of everything probably lies someplace between the two extremes.</blockquote>

Verification