With the classes out of the way, we can now turn our attention to the other elements of Playtest 7.
Spells:
So, the big change here is the removal of the Arcane, Divine, and Primal spell lists. I think the main beneficiary of this is the Wizard, who has always gotten most of its strength by having the biggest spell list, with things that even Sorcerers can't cast.
I will say that while I think this might be the right call, it does have some negative consequences. The first is that I liked the idea of giving an in-game definition of these different kinds of magic. Even if Cure Wounds can potentially be any of these (Artificers being Arcane casters who can cast it) there was a kind of cool planar/cosmic explanation. There are also a couple classes that could use better spell lists (Warlocks' 6th+ spells are pretty underwhelming, and the excuse of "well, we can't give them the most powerful spells because they can recharge their spell slots too easily" doesn't work with Mystic Arcanum).
I also think that this makes it a little more complicated to add new classes. Moving forward, I hope we'll see any brand-new spells being specified as available to non-PHB classes. Thankfully, we have seen this in Fizban's, with Ashardalon's Stride calling out Artificers as eligible casters. So maybe it's not the end of the world.
Arcane Eruption, one of the few surviving Sorcerer-exclusive spells from playtest 5, is the same except it uses a Dex save instead of a Con save. This was a really good spell that I think most Sorcerers will be eager to pick up, and I'm glad to see it survived. It is a little funny that you can be charmed on a failed dex save, but oh well.
Counterspell has been redesigned in a few ways. First off, it requires you to see the creature casting a spell with Verbal, Somatic, or Material components. This makes it clear that monsters that use Psionics or Sorcerers using Subtle Spell, or other means of avoiding components will make you immune to this.
The next thing is that, rather than making an ability check to try to overcome the caster's spell, the caster now makes a Con save against your spell save DC. This means that it'll be much easier to counter that Apprentice Mage's Burning Hands than the Lich's Finger of Death.
And this is actually the same as a speculative design I came up with a month or two ago. The problem, in my mind, is that it becomes too easy to lock down a spellcasting monster - like a Lich. Sure, you aren't guaranteed to succeed, but given how important a single round of combat is in D&D, countering should be hard in a big boss fight.
That said, I think MCDM's Lich from Flee, Mortals solves this problem a different way - it makes each of the Lich's "multiattack" options count as 3rd level spells, even if it doesn't have to expend spell slots to cast them. That means that the Counter-er can interrupt one of these, but not the others.
But this makes Counterspell subject to things like Legendary Resistance and Magic Resistance. It's a nerf to the spell, for sure, but... *looks around to make sure no one's listening*... *whispers* I think it needed it. On my Wizard, I've kind of decided to just not take it, because I like it when creatures get to do things in combat. (This also applies to things like stun and incapacitate effects.)
The last change is that Counterspell no longer causes the spell slot to also be expended. The action, bonus action, or reaction used in casting it is spent, but not the spell slot.
And here, while this looks like a nerf, is actually a buff for players. Caster monsters basically never run out of spell slots because they only have to track them for a single combat (barring a DM who has a caster flee and party chase them down, or something like that.) For players, though, if a monster Counters them, they aren't down a spell slot, just the action. Granted, as a DM, I basically never want to run a monster that can couterspell, because... well, I want my players to be able to do things. But I will honestly feel less guilty using this version, because I want that Sorcerer to grin as he succeeds on the save.
Sorcerous Burst is here, though it's not automatically learned (neither is Arcane Eruption.) It has also had its damage die raised to a d8.
This creates some interesting math: it's less likely to "explode" but its usual damage goes up. And here, you'll have to forgive me as I do some math.
With the old version, which was a d6, here's what it would look like at each tier:
Tier 1: Assuming a +3 to Charisma, on a hit, your base damage was 3.5, but also 1/6 of 3.5, and then 1/36 of 3.5, and then 1/216 of 3.5. I believe that's an average of 4.2 damage (rounded). With a d8, you have 4.5 (already better) plus 1/8 of 4.5, then 1/64 of 4.5, then 1/512 of 4.5. That's 5.14 average damage.
On a crit, though, things start getting more complicated. Our chance to explode with a crit d6 is about 31%. Our chance to explode with a d8 crit is about 23%.
Honestly, the math is now getting a little more complicated than I feel like going through at the moment, but I suspect that this is a buff. At tier 3, the chance to explode becomes about 34%, and at tier 4, it becomes 41%. With a crit at tier 3, and thus 6 dice, you have a 55% chance to explode. And at tier 4, a crit has a 66% chance.
Now, do the bonus dice also get doubled on a crit?
Feats:
The only thing here is that the ASI feat continues, as in previous playtests, to let you bump an ability score to 22 if you take this at level 19.
Weapons:
Ok, some changes to Masteries, and the Heavy Property.
First off, Flex is gone. I'm glad to see this, because it was always the booby prize of masteries, not only giving you a marginal-at-best damage improvement but also effectively making Versatile as a feature no longer, you know, do anything.
Weapons that had Flex have been given new masteries.
The Quarterstaff now has Topple.
The Spear now has Sap.
The Longsword now has Sap.
The Warhammer now has Push.
The War Pick now has Sap.
And, as you might be able to tell, Sap no longer requires the weapon to have no properties - it will now be usable on Versatile weapons by Fighters.
Now, don't get me wrong, Flex was bad and I'm glad to see it gone. However... there's a new problem. Why would anyone use a Mace instead of a Quarterstaff? Why would anyone use a Morningstar over a War Pick? I think these weapons with no properties need... something.
The Push mastery has been changed slightly - you can now only push a target directly away from you, but it can be used on any creature that is Large or smaller. The previous version said you could move them up to "10 feet away from you horizontally," while the new version says "you can push the creature up to 10 feet straight away from yourself." So... does this actually then mean that if you're flying and it's below you you can push it down? The other difference is that the old version said you could push them as long as they were no more than one size larger than you. Now, you'll be able to push anyone Large or smaller.
So, let's break this down: If you're a Goblin, Gnome, Halfling, or other Small character, this is a buff, as you'll be able to Push Ogres and Trolls and other Large creatures. If you're a Path of the Giant Barbarian or Rune Knight Fighter or otherwise capable of becoming bigger this is a nerf, as you'll no longer be able to push around Huge or Gargantuan creatures.
Finally, the Heavy Property has been reworked. Rather than imposing disadvantage on attacks if you're Small or smaller, it now only imposes this downside if you have less than 13 Strength if it's a melee weapon or 13 Dexterity if it's a ranged weapon. (The only heavy ranged weapon is the Heavy Crossbow).
This is a welcome change, because we can finally have raging Gnome Barbarians with Greataxes. There are a couple of cases, though, where this can be a problem for existing builds. Characters who use other ability scores for attacks, like Battle Smith Artificers or Warlocks who take Pact of the Blade, will likely be restricted from using heavy weapons now. That's probably worth it, though, to open up species options for heavy-weapon builds.
And there we have it. The rules glossary didn't get a lot of big changes - they removed the section on Death Saving Throws, meaning we don't have to deal with the confusing "you have 1 HP but you're unconscious" notion, which I think is for the best - the existing system makes decent sense to me.
So, that's playtest 7. With only 5 classes, there wasn't quite as much to go through as the previous one. We're just now waiting on the second draft of the 2024 Monk - I'm hoping that they bring some more adventurous ideas to the design.
I think this one, while it did see some reversions, which I've criticized as being overly cautious, has nevertheless given us pretty workable versions of these classes. I'm genuinely excited to play this version of the Great Old One Warlock, which makes me feel very good.
I'm hoping that playtest 8 gives us that newer Monk and hopefully expands upon the magic items to boost unarmed strikes and improvised weapons, mentioned in the Brawler subclass.
But yeah, that's it for the next two months or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment