http://io9.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-5th-edition-d-d-p-162451988...

Has anyone had a look at this yet?

No, I need to go to my favorite shop to buy the books...

Since tomorrow it's PC building day... it won't be this week... I hope to manage to go shopping next friday though.

3 More Days before I have the book(s)... Need them in my collection.

For anyone interseted, you can get a copy of the PHB on Amazon for $30, which is $20 cheaper than in a store.
And you can download a copy to take a look at it from here if you want.

It seems to incorporate aspects from all the various editions, taking what was best about them and ignoring most of the shitty stuff, while also introducing some new concepts that work very well.
I'm a fan.  2e was always my favorite edition, but 5e is quickly becoming my second fav. In time, once supplements are released, this could become my favorite edtion yet, assuming those supplements don't ruin the game like we've seen in the past.

My first character is currently a level 1 forest gnome urchin background monk 2 / cleric 1 / wizard 17. 

• acceptable melee (monks can use Dex with staves and get an unarmed strike as a bonus action, and as class attack bonus progression is a thing of the past he can actually hit)
• decent AC (10 + dex + wis = 14 for now, +3 mage armor next level, +1 from dex boost at 7 = 18, which is decent under these rules, +2 from shield of faith when needed = 20, + magic items eventually = good AC)
• great saves (str & dex prof, advantage on int, wis & cha vs spells)
• capable trapsmith (tool prof from background)
• healing when needed (cure wounds at lvl1 is all you need for hp management)
• 9th level arcane spells with 18 caster levels

And even with all that he won't be OP, but simply versatile.

Aaaarrrrrrgh, matey!
Umm, I mean, no sweat.

Read through PHB (apart from spell and item descriptions, doesn't look like they changed a lot). Lots of streamlined things that are really newbie-friendly to understand, but not really dumbing down things.

Nice idea on 'advantage/disadvantage' to D20 rolls, where you get to roll 2d20 and choose highest (advantage) or lowest (disadvantage) result. Seems more interesting than just saying "you have a +4 bonus to this roll".

I liked the new spell scaling thing, where spells can be cast using higher-level slot and getting additional effect due to this. Shooting 11 magic missiles with 1 cast should be funny.

Wizard specs are neat and really flesh out the class options without hampering them like specialists were in 3.5E. I haven't made my mind on cantrip scaling though - a spellcaster can spam free 2d10 spells each round starting level 5, and by level 17 they spam 4d10 cantrips; doesn't it devalue spells like Magic Missile? While MM doesn't have a save, its damage is lower than your "auto-attack" unless you spend higher spell slots.

Feats became better without convoluted feat trees - they simply work now. Also, wizards/sorcs casting without problem in heavy armor if they spend enough feats for proficiency is interesting. I'd say that feats are awesome for making NPCs, because some of the feats have nice background flavor, and still powerful in the hands of PCs.

Spellcasting as pure Fighters and Rogues is interesting (Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are now variants of the base class and not prestige classes). No need for Mage/Rogue or advanced prestige class to get some arcane defences as melee chars.

I don't really like the idea of a single Proficiency bonus applying to everything, from attack to skills, and elimination of BAB. A bard or rogue can now attack with almost the same efficiency as a fighter, especially as ability scores are capped at 20 - just a bit slower. And if your fighter is high level, he can go stealth as good as a rogue.

Nice to see Action Boosts from 3E Eberron Campaign setting baseline, but kinda strange to see many 4E features gone, like Healing surges.

Overall, this edition brings back "Advanced 3E" feeling - everything is familiar, but different in details and neatly structured, and without excessive complexity (like grappling rules... bleh). It's not chaotic AD&D or soulless MMO-like 4E, for sure. Looking forward to reading DMG.

So, to expand on the impressions, some highlights (I'm not really good with 4E, so mostly from the 3E/3.5E/Pathfinder perspective):

BAB is gone, and difference in to hit with a proficient weapon between a level 1 char and a level 20 char is much lower - your attack is D20+Stat Bonus+Proficient Bonus. Stats are capped at 20 (at least without items or anything special, and nothing like that in PHB, possibly in unreleased DMG) and you can start with 18 (or even 20 for some races); Proficient Bonus is +2 at level 1 and +6 at level 20 for all classes, so without items a level 20 char will only have 4 more to-hit than a level 1 char. It's an... interesting decision, because it almost removes power creep and makes your to-hit relevant even at high levels, but takes away from your overall power.

Feats are optional, and you can either take a feat or increase stats - either take +2 to a single stat or +1 to two different stats (max 20). Feats/stat increase is not uniform "every 3 levels", but depends on the class: a fighter gets it at levels 4,6,8,12,14,16,19 (7 total) and a wizard only gets it at levels 4,8,12,16,19 (5 total), as an example. No feat 'trees', they all are standalone, though some obviously have requirements (like medium armor prof for heavy armor feat). Some feats also grant +1 to a single stat, probably as compensation for being weaker.

There are no skill ranks anymore. You are either proficient with a skill (i.e. you can apply your +2 to +6 proficient bonus to skill checks) or not. There are only ~20 of skills, many old ones consolidated (like Stealth for both Hide and MS) and different Knowledges separate skills now (Arcana, History, Religion etc). Skills can have a passive score (i.e. you use 10 instead of D20 and add modifiers to get the skill, +-5 for advantage/disadvantage), such as spotting something or searching for traps (both Perception skill) continuously - useful for NPCs.

All classes got a lot of features akin to 3E monk that they receive every 1-2 levels. Some of the old feats are rolled into class features, like metamagics, and sometimes limited. For instance, Sorcerers now get additional resource called "sorcery points", up to 20 per day, that they can use to apply metamagic effect to spells (i.e. cast a spell Heightened spending 2 sorc points). Wizards get specialty with additional features depending on school chosen, such as Necromancers get better undead and their HP total can't be reduced by Necromancy, and Evokers can cast Maximized spells several times a day (1st time for free, 2nd and others for damage dealt to themselves).

Fighters are the only ones who get more than 2 atk/action, and only at higher levels, up to 4 atk/action; other melees get 2atk/action, pure caster only base 1. As far as I can see, rogues are better at both attack rolls and extra damage than pure fighters, but fighters attack more. Bards get level 7,8,9 spells, though their choice pool is smaller than Sorc/Wiz; they are also much less about songs and much more about abilities and magic. Rangers got more unique spells to help them as shooters and trackers - like Conjure Barrage, which converts a bow attack into a cone AoE. Warlock class is baseline and its casting is different (called Pact Casting), allowing for access to more spells, but severely limited in amount (4 spells per day total at level 20). No Artificers, psionic classes, Warlords in this PHB.

Some classes got secondary resource pools for stronger or enhanced abilities, like Monk Ki, Sorcerer "sorc points" and Fighter Maneuvers. While most of the resources and 1-per-day spells/abilities are refreshed after a long rest (8 hours, effectively what was previously called "a day"), there are some that refresh or partially restored after a short rest (1 hour non-straining activity).

Spellcasting is more flexible. You don't have to memorize several copies of the spell, it's more akin to DDO where you simply choose which spells you memorize for the day and can cast them as long as you have "spell slots". To cast a spell, you expend a spell slot of its level or higher, and the spell can get additional effect if the slot is higher - so you choose spell slots at the time of casting. On the flipside, spells don't get "per level" scaling without higher slot usage anymore, though some do get fixed "2 bolts at level 4, 3 bolts at level 9".
For instance, a basic version of Magic Missile shoots 3x(1d4+1) bolts, but if used in 2+ spell slot, gets an extra missile per spell slot level above 1st - if you shoot MM spending 3rd level slot it becomes 5x(1d4+1). These scaling effects are individually set for each spell, and overall not a lot of spells have them.

Some spells changed. I haven't read them all, but Wish is somewhat nerfed - you can use Wish to emulate 1-8 level spell without problem, but using it to actually wish something unique drains your Strength to 3 for weeks and has 33% chance to NEVER use Wish spell again. There is a level 9 Power Word Heal spell now, which replenishes all HP, and removes all effects from a single target; a level 9 Mass Heal spell heals 700hp total divided as you choose and removes diseases and blindness/deafness only.

Oyster wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2014 at 3:07pm:

If for any reason your player wants to ever use Wish again after the first use, you've failed as a DM.

Mimicking spells is fine, raising the dead, etc.  But "I wish to be rich" or "I wish to be the most powerful <whatever>" is met with strange consequences.  The last time I tried to use Wish in a game, I spent 3 hours trying to decide the wording & still screwed myself.  Think of Wish as 'Summon Corporate Lawyer' and find every single loop hole imaginable to screw the player.  Forget the dice roll, make it painful and you won't have to worry about it.

Cale wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2014 at 8:14am:

Well, fighter20 gets 4 attack per action, while a rogue20 only gets 2. So I'd say that even if rogue's individual attacks are better, he wouldn't touch pure fighters DPS. But for multiclass splashes, where extra attacks of a fighter won't matter (because he gets them at higher levels), a rogue might be better. Also, I don't see how Dex is better than Str in terms of attack power - it's arguably better defensively, but not offensively.

Cale wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2014 at 8:14am:

That is actually a function of your AC, resistance and regeneration, not the function of attack - and we currently don't know a lot about magic items available. If all those mobs get disadvantage on attacks and deal half damage even if they hit your huge AC while your Ring of Regeneration or self-cast heals are ticking, they won't be a bigger threat than one huge golem whacking you always for a ton.

Also, a ton of kobolds will have a lot of problems with a level 20 character unless he's standing there laughing. They won't even touch a spellcaster, for instance, because invisibility + fly (available even to lower level chars) - and I'm not even talking of more advanced stuff like Time Stop, Ethereal Projection, Mass Hold, Mass Suggestion and any of a huge number of other tricks - trumps numbers. Of course, a million kobolds would eventually kill an adventurer - but that was the case in AD&D and 3E too, because you must have a negative Intelligence to fight a million kobolds in melee.


I think that Attack bonus "flatting" will help more with making both extra AC and to-hit bonuses relevant in high levels without eternal power creep, unlike in previous editions. I mean... what level 20 char would take 4-5 extra points of AC or to-hit as opposed to saves bonus and damage? And in the low levels the opposite was the case, where every point of to-hit increased your chances to actually hit much more, and an extra point of damage was much more useless.

Oyster wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2014 at 12:50pm:


I would've made that half-elf a pureblood MALE elf.

And I would've restored the city to its original roots - a fertile pristine forest or plains, depending on its ancient source.

Wishes are meant to be granted - just not in 100% of the way you want it to be.

(Yeah - my players really, REALLY thought over using up Wishes; granted, said Wishes are one-time use rewards, usually)

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/63...

Quote:

Oyster wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2014 at 12:43pm:

My nitpick was about your last comment.
"And if your fighter is high level, he can go stealth as good as a rogue."
No, he can't.  Rogue has better Dex, no disadvantage on check via armor, expertise, etc etc etc.
A fighter will not be as good as a rogue at stealth.

As for combat:
Dex is just as good as Str for combat.  Finesse/Ranged weapons use Dex for attack and damage.
Rogue, +3 weapon(s): 11d6+8 +1d6+3 TWF with zero feat/class suport = 53 average damage. If either one of those attacks miss, removes only 6-11 off the average (you can only sneak attack once per turn, but you don't have to call it before the attack, so if your main hand misses, your off hand sneak attacks).
Fighter, +3 greatsword: 4*2d6+8 with greatsword and zero feat/class support = average 76.  Each of those four attacks that misses drops the total by 25%.  If even one of them misses, the rogue is doing comparable damage.  Bounded Accuracy means that misses do indeed occur.
The classes are balanced well.

As to your second point regarding invis + fly + whatever other spells you want to throw in there.  Spells like that are Duration: Concentration (up to max xXx).
Yu can only concentrate on one spell at a time.
Do you want to be invisible, or do you want to fly?
Either way, a pack of kobolds can either find you via hearing/experimenting (in the case of invis) or fire off ranged attacks at you in the air (in the case of flight).
You can't do both, so they aren't powerless against you.

Started an RPG class at school this year. Now a bunch of nerds stay after school to game. They're using AD&D atm.

The groups I run use 3.0.


BUT, I may be able to get the school to buy the three new core books as materials. WIN.

I looked through the basics, and I like it.