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<blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 9557115" data-attributes="member: 54629">This is one area where we could really do with some “under the hood” commentary from Crawford.Many of us assume that Arcane Burst is meant to be shorthand for a variety of cantrips, and we can just tweak it on the fly. Sure, experienced DMs can do that. A melee Arcane Burst can be shocking grasp and deal lightning damage instead of force. A ranger Arcane Burst can be a fire bolt or a ray of frost or whatever. But is a new DM going to realize that they can do that?I hesitate to use the word “permission” here; however, I feel like some DMs might want reassurance at least from the designers that that is what they intended (or not!).But maybe they’re counting on the horses of new players not caring / knowing enough to complain if NPC spellcasters don’t work the same way.I, however, have a group of veteran players who track the spells NPCs cast so they can try to guess how many spell slots the NPC had left.Luckily none of them seem to have noticed the new NPC spellcaster design, so I just quietly avoid giving them any indication that the paradigm has shifted.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pukunui, post: 9557115, member: 54629"] This is one area where we could really do with some “under the hood” commentary from Crawford. Many of us assume that Arcane Burst is meant to be shorthand for a variety of cantrips, and we can just tweak it on the fly. Sure, experienced DMs can do that. A melee Arcane Burst can be shocking grasp and deal lightning damage instead of force. A ranger Arcane Burst can be a fire bolt or a ray of frost or whatever. But is a new DM going to realize that they can do that? I hesitate to use the word “permission” here; however, I feel like some DMs might want reassurance at least from the designers that that is what they intended (or not!). But maybe they’re counting on the horses of new players not caring / knowing enough to complain if NPC spellcasters don’t work the same way. I, however, have a group of veteran players who track the spells NPCs cast so they can try to guess how many spell slots the NPC had left. Luckily none of them seem to have noticed the new NPC spellcaster design, so I just quietly avoid giving them any indication that the paradigm has shifted. [/QUOTE]

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