All the Race Reprints! Goblins, Goliaths, Harrengon, Hobgoblins, Kenku, and Kobolds

 Ok, we're on part three! If you missed the first post, here are the parameters of how we're examining each of the revised/reprinted races in Monsters of the Multiverse. With that out of the way, let's get started!

Goblins:

Like their Bugbear and Hobgoblin kin, the first thing you'll notice is that they've now got Fey Ancestry, which gives them advantage on saves against Charm effects (the sleep element of Fey Ancestry found on Elves is now part of the Trance ability). (Oh, and they now get the "goblinoid" tag tying them mechanically to the other goblinoid races).

The only real change beyond that is to how Fury of the Small works. The damage bonus is now equal to your proficiency bonus, rather than your level. But you can now do it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest (you can only use it once per turn). This is obviously a big nerf to the damage (except, I guess, at level 1) but the ability to use it multiple times causes it to scale up a bit later on. Still, I might count this as a nerf given that the ability to tack on a pretty huge burst of damage each short rest might be more appealing than tacking on a bit of damage more frequently - with just one short rest a day, a level 15 character is doing 30 damage with the old trait, but only 25 with the new one.

    Now, obviously, the general ability score flexibility and the fully new Fey Ancestry are buffs, and I think this version of Fury of the Small is still appealing, but this is at the least the closest I've seen to a nerf in all these revisions.

Goliaths:

Other than the ability score flexibility, the only change I see here is a change to Stone's Endurance. You can now use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, instead of once per short rest. I would generally call this a buff.

Otherwise, the only change is that they combined Natural Athlete and Powerful Build into a single trait called Little Giant.

Harrengon:

Like Fairies, these are unchanged from Wild Beyond the Witchlight, which is unsurprising.

Hobgoblins:

The last of the Goblinoids, these are... well, now tagged with the "goblinoid" creature subtype.

Here, we see some very significant changes, reflecting new lore regarding the Hobgoblins' origin and culture.

Like Bugbears and Goblins, you get Fey Ancestry, giving you advantage on saving throws against charm effects.

Martial Training and Saving Face are gone. Instead, Hobgoblins get Fey Gift and Fortune from the Many.

Fey Gift allows you to take the Help action as a bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. Once you hit 3rd level, when you use this trait, you can also pick an extra option. Hospitality gives you and the target of your Help action temporary hit points equal to 1d6 + your proficiency bonus. Passage gives you and the creature you 10 extra feet of walking speed until the start of your next turn. Spite makes it so that, until the start of your next turn, the first time the creature you help hits a target with an attack roll, that target (the one they hit) has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes within the next minute.

Fortune of the Many actually works the same as Saving Face, except that the maximum bonus is +3 instead of +5, but you can also use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, rather than once per short rest.

    This is a more extensive redesign, and so it's harder to classify it as a clear buff or nerf. Light Armor is, I think, less of a terrible loss than something like Medium Armor (which can buff your AC significantly more with less of an investment in stats) and I think it's rare that a character lacks proficiency with the kinds of weapons they would want to use. Fortune of the Many gets a buff and a nerf, but the nerf might be irrelevant if you're in a smaller party. So, I'd say this is probably more of a buff than a nerf, overall.

Kenku:

This race gets a change that I think will be devastating to some and powerfully relieving to others. Apparently the idea that Kenku can only communicate through mimicry was a new idea for 5th Edition, and this revision rolls that back. But, let's look at the specifics.

The Mimicry feature, interestingly, no longer contests another creature's Insight check against your Deception, but instead uses a DC determined by your Charisma. Obviously, this could be considered a buff or nerf depending on whether you're proficient in Deception.

And you might not be, because Kenku Training is gone. But you get something better. 

Expert Forgery has been renamed Expert Duplication, but seems unchanged. In place of Kenku Training, you now have Kenku Recall. You get two skill proficiencies of your choice (so, that's actually a flat buff). Additionally, when you make an ability check with any skill in which you have proficiency, you can give yourself advantage on the roll (before you roll) a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

In place of Kenku Training, you now have Kenku Recall. You get two skill proficiencies of your choice (so, that's actually a flat buff).

Also, you pick Small or Medium as your size when you pick the race.

    So, I think this is almost certainly a buff. While you might have scenarios in which you'd be better off being able to make a contested Deception check rather than having a flat DC for your Mimicry, I think the difference is pretty slim. (It also makes it feel different than a normal Deception check - the old version could arguably be done by any character). I think the change to the lore, though, is the biggest buff here. While I've seen players have a real ball when playing up the mimicry-only speech system, I think a lot more players will feel comfortable jumping into this (and nothing is preventing you from still going mimicry-only).

Kobolds:

So, Kobolds get some major changes. First off, they now have a 30-foot movement speed, which all the old 25-ft races are getting now.

Sunlight Sensitivity is gone, but so is Pack Tactics. Rogues will probably rejoice, given how any disadvantage (even if it's cancelled out) ruins Sneak Attack.

Grovel, Cower, and Beg is also gone. But in its place is Draconic Cry, which works the same but is activated as a bonus action, and you can use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, rather than once per short rest.

Additionally, you get Kobold Legacy. You choose one of the following three options: Craftiness gives you your choice of proficiency in Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Sleight of Hand, or Survival. Defiance gives you advantage on saving throws agains the Frightened condition. And Draconic Sorcery gives you one cantrip from the Sorcerer spell list, but you can choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma for the spellcasting ability.

    So, yes, Pack Tactics is amazing if you're consistently fighting indoors, at night, or underground. But Draconic Cry is a big buff over Grovel, Cower and Beg, and the Kobold Legacy feature can be really powerful - getting Green-Flame Blade as a cantrip for just about any melee class can be massive, and the other options are useful and flexible. I'll say this is a qualified buff - again, Pack Tactics is an insanely powerful feature, but losing Sunlight Sensitivity might balance out its loss. Also, of note, Kobolds (once their -2 to Strength was removed) only have a +2 to Dexterity in the old version, so you are going to be getting slightly better ability score boosts with the new system.

All the Race Reprints! Deep Gnomes, Duergar, Eladrin, Fairies, Firbolgs, Genasi* and Gith (-yanki and -zerai)

 All right, I'm not going to get bogged down in explaining the format of this post. Take a look at the previous one to see how these will work.

Without further ado, let's look at the next few reprinted races.

Deep Gnome:

This is the first reprint of a subrace, though because we won't be getting the updated general Gnome race until 2024, the Deep Gnome/Svirfneblin is going to have to stand on its own (wait... are Smurfs a bastardization of Svirfneblin? According to Wikipedia... no, not at all). So, some of the "changes" here are just integrating the base Gnome traits into the Deep Gnome.

The big buff here, which applies to all races that previously had a speed of 25 feet, is that you now have a speed of 30 feet!

You are still officially a Gnome, in addition to being a Humanoid.

Gnome Cunning has been renamed Gnomish Magic Resistance, but works the same.

Svirfneblin Camouflage works differently now. Rather than just always getting advantage on Stealth checks in stony environments, you can now give yourself advantage on any Dexterity (Stealth) check, but you can only do so a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

Deep Gnomes now get a brand-new trait: Gift of the Svirfneblin. This lets you cast Disguise Self at 3rd level and Nondetection at 5th level, each without requiring material components. You can do this once for free for each spell per long rest, but you can also spend appropriate spell slots on them to cast them again.

    So, I think the only way this is a nerf is if you've got a campaign that takes place primarily in rocky environments. Even still, the buffs here might outweigh that change, and being able to get advantage in other situations is pretty great.

Duergar:

Like Deep Gnomes, this subrace is portrayed here as its own race, but given a trait that officially makes them count as Dwarves.

Again, races that had a 25 ft. movement speed now get 30.

Duergar Magic still gives you Enlarge/Reduce and Invisibility (both self only), but like a lot of these racial spellcasting abilities, you can now choose between Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as the spellcasting ability and you can also spend spell slots on them after you've used your free casting of each per long rest. Notably, Enlarge/Reduce now requires you to be level 3 to use.

Duergar Resilience has been separated into two features; Dwarven Resilience (which handles the whole poison side of it) and Psionic Fortitude. The latter now affects Charmed and Stunned conditions, no longer affecting the Paralyzed condition or illusions.

Gone are Dwarven Combat Training (which gives some weapon proficiencies,) Tool Proficiency (which gives a choice of tool proficiencies,) Stonecunning, and the Dwarven feature of not getting your speed reduced if you're wearing heavy armor without meeting its strength requirement.

However, you also lose Sunlight Sensitivity, meaning you no longer get disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you're in direct sunlight.

    Hoo boy, this one's a bit tougher to evaluate. Getting rid of Sunlight Sensitivity is a huge deal - it makes playing this race as any attack-roll-based class possible in a campaign that isn't entirely indoors or underground. But boy do you lose a lot. In particular, losing the ability to wear heavy armor without high strength is a big nerf to Duergar Clerics the world around. Really, it seems like the design here was about noticing that Dwarves (and a lot of the PHB races with subraces) were really loaded up on a lot of racial features. This brings it closer in line with other playable races. So while I'd say that we're looking at a mixed bag of nerfs and buffs, the race is still perfectly viable.

Eladrin:

Man, aren't we just in the subraces-to-races pipeline here?

Again, because this is a subrace whose broader race hasn't seen a reprint yet, we're looking at a mix of subrace and racial features. But how does it all come together?

In this case, though, there are very few changes. First off, Fey Ancestry's sleep provisions have been moved into the description for Trance.

Trance has also received some clarification and a buff. The clarification is that yes, you can complete a long rest in 4 hours if you spend it trancing, and you also remain conscious while in your trance. The buff is that you can temporarily gain proficiency with one weapon and one tool of your choice until your next long rest (it does specify weapons from the PHB, so I guess you can't learn to use Laser Rifles).

The other changes come to Fey Step. First off, rather than getting to use it once per short rest, you now get to use it PB times per long rest (which will likely be a buff). You can also choose whether the saving throw DCs for the seasonal effects of the Fey Step are based on your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, rather than just Charisma. The damage of the Summer effect is also now based on your Proficiency Bonus rather than your Charisma modifier.

    So, this one I think is a pretty straight-up buff. Worst case scenario, if you're a Charisma-based class your Summer Fey Step ability is going to do slightly less damage. But the benefits far outweigh that minor inconvenience. (On my Eladrin Sorcerer, I don't think I was ever in Summer).

Fairies:

Given how recent Fairies were made a playable race, it should come as no surprise that this has received no changes whatsoever! But it's no longer just in an adventure book.

Firbolgs:

Ah, the giant-related goat-people - or cow people? But they're not Satyrs or Minotaurs. Irish Mythology, rather than Greek. You get it.

Firbolg Magic has gotten the broad treatment all racial magic has, so you can pick a spellcasting ability or it (Int, Wis, or Cha) and you can spend spell slots to use them more than once per day. Plus, you still have that buffed Disguise Self (being able to appear 3 feet taller or shorter).

Hidden Step can now be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest, rather than once per short rest, which I think is usually a buff.

    So, Firbolgs got some small buffs with no nerfs. Count it as a win.

*Genasi (Air, Earth, Fire, Water):

I went into pretty exhaustive detail about these in an earlier post, so I'm not going to revisit them. Click here to check it out.

    To summarize: Genasi got a lot of changes, and in almost all cases, it's a big buff. I've always loved the concept of Genasi (and the general idea of playable genies, which this gets close to) so I'm happy to see them looking more viable as choices.

Githyanki:

The Gith, despite appearing whole-cloth in this book, are counted as separate races. Interestingly, they don't get the same "creature type" rider that Deep Gnomes and Duergar get, despite, as I understand it, their differences being purely cultural rather than physiological.

Githyanki Psionics works more or less the same with the usual changes to spellcasting for racial magic. They also get the standard psionic benefit of requiring no components, and your Mage Hand is still invisible. But the usual change to allowing you to pick Int, Wis, or Cha to cast the spells and being able to spend spell slots to use them again is here too.

Githyanki now get resistance to Psychic damage, which is pretty nice (great for a Bear Totem Barbarian!)

Martial Prodigy and Decadent Mastery are gone. Instead, you get Astral Knowledge. This lets you gain one skill proficiency and one tool or weapon of your choice each time you finish a long rest, lasting until your next long rest.

    So... I could potentially imagine scenarios in which this is a nerf, but the flexibility of Astral Knowledge (and the Psychic Resistance) probably makes up for the fact that you aren't getting as many proficiencies as you do with Martial Prodigy and Decadent Mastery. I could imagine that where this hurts is if you wanted to play a Wizard who gets to wear Medium Armor, or something like that. Overall, though, I think the broader racial changes will wind up making the overall revision a buff - Githyanki previously had stats that were only likely good for an Eldritch Knight. Weird, though, that there's no "You are a Gith" rider.

Githzerai:

The other half of the Gith people have gotten fewer changes, but that's likely because the Mordenkainen's version of them was so thin.

Again, Githzerai Psionics gets the same racial spellcasting changes as everyone else.

And, like the Githyanki, you get resistance to psychic damage.

    In this case, I think we're looking at an unambiguous buff here.

All the Race Reprints! Aarakocra, Aasimar, Bugbears, Centaurs, and Changelings

 Well, my Wednesday game was cancelled this week. So let's take a look at the reprinted races in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

The races found here were previously printed for 5th Edition in a few sources, including Volo's Guide to Monsters, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, The Tortle Package, and The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (I think that's all?)

Except for the most recent races, which came out after the new rules for racial ability scores were introduced in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, each of these races has been at least somewhat revised - and all have been given flexible ability score boosts. This means that, at character creation, rather than having, say, Elves all get a +2 to Dexterity, you now just choose either a +2 in one ability score and a +1 in another, or a +1 to three different scores. This should make these races far more flexible in terms of what you want to play.

As a note, some of these races were introduced as subraces (especially in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.) However, perhaps because we won't be getting revisions of the base Elf, Dwarf, and Gnome races, instead things like Eladrin, Duergar, and Svirfneblin are presented here as their own races - albeit with a note in their "creature type" entry that specifies that they count as a member of that broader racial group.

The intent for these posts is not going to be to do an exhaustive examination of every racial feature, but instead to highlight what has changed. I will not be making note of the change to ability scores, as that's a universal change to every race. Likewise, races no long grant languages other than Common and one of your choice - so while it will make sense for your Eladrin to speak Elvish, you might decide they know something else (maybe they were raised by goblins?) Likewise, guidance on alignment and age is left out.

So, to reiterate: I'm not going to list every feature here, as that would bog things down by a lot. I'm just documenting changes.

Aarakocra:

The first and likely most pertinent change here is that your walking and flying speed are now at a base of 30 feet (as opposed to 25 walking and 50 flying,) though the restriction on medium or heavy armor remains. Actually, to be precise, your flight speed is now just equal to your walking speed, so a Monk will be able to fly faster.

Your natural talon weapons now deal 1d6 rather than 1d4 slashing damage.

Aarakocra, once they hit 3rd level, also now gain the ability to cast Gust of Wind once per day for free, and can spend 2nd or higher level spell slots to cast it again. Like most new in-born spell abilities, you choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for this.

    So, looking at this, I think the loss of flight speed might be seen as a big downside, but it's still at-will flight, and you get Gust of Wind for free, which can be a pretty useful ability. I'm hesitant to call this a buff other than the general change to ability score choice. But I don't think it's much worse unless you really wanted to be able to fly fast.

Aasimar:

Off the bat the biggest change is that there aren't any subraces here - except there kind of are. The subclasses always just determined your "ult" ability and one of your ability scores, so with the latter no longer based on race, the former is now just a choice you make within the singular race.

Necrotic Shroud, Radiant Consumption, and Radiant Soul are now all under the umbrella of "Celestial Revelation." These work similarly to the old versions, including the bonus damage and the broad effects, and you don't get to use it until level 3. However, they are now activated as a bonus action, rather than an action. While that's very welcome, the bonus damage is no longer equal to your level, but now just your proficiency bonus, which is a fairly substantial nerf. This also applies to the Scourge Aasimar's Radiant Consumption, which now does PB damage instead of half your level. Interestingly, Necrotic Shroud's fear effect has a DC based on your Charisma modifier, rather than your choice of ability score.

Healing Hands also works differently. Rather than healing for a flat amount (your level,) you now roll d4s equal to your proficiency bonus. I think this will generally average out to a buff at lower levels, and a nerf at higher levels, but I think balances out decently.

The last change is that Aasimar can now be either Small or Medium in size - I think the assumption was generally that you had human parents previously, but now it seems that the options are broader for Halfling or Goblin Aasimar.

    The Celestial Revelation change is going to be the most impactful. While the damage nerf is significant, especially at higher levels, I think the fact that you can activate it as a bonus action might transform this into a buff. I cannot tell you how many times I've wanted to pop my skeletal wings on my Fallen Aasimar Paladin but felt it wouldn't be worth it to give up two attacks with my +2 Greatsword. So even if it's nerfed, now these abilities might actually be used, which is the ultimate buff.

Bugbears:

While I'm focusing a lot on mechanics here, overall goblinoids got a significant reworking to their lore. Goblinoids are now considered to have originated in the Feywild, and the influence of Maglubiyet is a more recent thing that pulled them from their old fey courts.

At first glance, Bugbears have lost nothing but gained some new features. They are also now explicitly "Goblinoid," creating a link to Goblins and Hobgoblins that future modular elements can hook onto.

First off, they now have Fey Ancestry, which gives them advantage on saving throws against charm effects.

Surprise Attack has been redesigned somewhat. Rather than requiring the target to be disguised, you now get the bonus damage if you hit a creature that hasn't taken a turn yet in combat. Additionally, the "once per combat" restriction on it has been removed. This sounds like a big buff (though I guess technically a surprised creature does take a turn while they're surprised... so there could be situations where this is downside).

Sneaky has also been buffed by adding that you can, without squeezing, move through or stop in a space large enough for a small creature. Certainly situational, but nice to have.

    So, looking at Bugbears, I think we've got a nearly universal buff. A dual-wielding or crossbow expert Bugbear could unleash an absolutely devastating first round of combat.

Centaurs:

Notably, this is the first non-MTG-related book to get playable Centaurs. But as a classic archetype from fantasy and myth, it makes sense to add them.

As far as I can tell, the only change at all here is that their Hooves attack now does 1d6 rather than 1d4 bludgeoning. 

    So, that's a buff, obviously, even if it's a tiny one. I do still find it odd that they have the Fey creature type when the ones in the Monster Manual have the Monstrosity type. Maybe the 2024 Monster Manual will change this. You'll still be very fast as long as you don't have to climb anything.

Changelings:

I really like how MotM argues for Changelings being in plenty of non-Eberron settings - they've been there all along. You just didn't realize it.

One of the big changes here is that your creature type is now Fey, rather than Humanoid. That's probably a buff given that it makes you immune to things like Hold Person. I guess in theory you might argue that this makes you more vulnerable to a Banishment spell, but I think if you were born and raised on the Prime Material Plane you'd still count that as your home plane.

You can also now choose Small or Medium for your size.

That choice of size also allows more flexibility when you use your Shapechagner feature, as you can now change your size while you change your appearance - allowing you to go from the shape of a goblin to the shape of an orc without issue.

Additionally, Performance has been added to the skills you can choose for Changeling Instincts.

    Again, we're looking at a buff, albeit one that is somewhat situational. Incidentally, in my Ravnica game, the Goblin Druid/Rogue/Cleric in House Dimir had to undergo a spell (Widowgast's Transmogrification) in order to burn his old identity, and race-changed into a Changeling. The character privately expressed regret that he can't take on his old form, so there'll be good news for him if his player can start playing again.

Well, with 5 of the 33 reprinted races taken care of, I think that's a good stopping point for this post. So far most of what we've seen has been a buff, and the flexibility with ability scores certainly counts as a buff to all of these races.

I'm really eager to see what they plan to put in the 2024 Player's Handbook for the base races. I suspect we'll see the Fizban's versions of Dragonborn replace the PHB one, but I also have a naive, foolish hope that we could see setting-agnostic Warforged there.

Napkin Math: Introducing Misfire to Firearms

 As someone who likes to run games with a mishmash of technology levels, my eyes went wide when I first got to the description of firearms in the DMG. One of my biggest fantasy influences is Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which blends post-apocalyptic sci-fi, high fantasy, and Westerns to tell a mind-bending epic across multiple worlds, and in which the main character is the last "Gunslinger," an order of profoundly deadly gunfighters who live by a strict code and basically never miss - that are basically the Knights of the Round Table of their lost culture.

As you might notice, living in the modern world, guns have basically replaced nearly every other type of personal weapon in our day and age, in large part because they're relatively easy to use (compared to a bow or a sword) and the damage they inflict at long range is very high.

That makes it a challenge in a game like D&D, where you still want people to be fighting with bows or with swords or other kinds of weapon.

The other RPG I've had the most experience with is World of Warcraft. WoW actually has guns as a very common weapon type, but they simply make guns equivalent to bows or crossbows - it's primarily an aesthetic choice (and, for about a decade now, only one class would use any of those sorts of weapons, meaning they're really basically indistinguishable on a mechanical basis).

D&D's statistics for firearms are different. But they're not in the base rules of the Player's Handbook, instead added in as part of the Dungeon Master's Guide as an option.

The problem is that guns are just... better.

Closest in style to the kinds of weapons found in the PHB are the "Renaissance era" firearms.

These are the Pistol and the Musket.

The Pistol does 1d10 piercing damage, and has the loading and ammunition properties, and has a range of 30/90.

If we compare this to the Hand Crossbow, we're up by two damage dice (meaning on average 2 more damage per hit) and we lack the light property and our long range is slightly shorter (90 instead of 120). But otherwise, the properties are the same.

The Musket does 1d12 piercing, has loading, two-handed, ammunition, and  a range of 40/120.

If we compare this to the Heavy Crossbow, we do 1 higher damage die, and the range is admittedly far shorter (40/120 instead of 100/400) but it's also not a heavy weapon, so a Small player character can wield it.

The range issue I think is maybe a counterbalance to the Musket's power, but honestly, I think it's rare to have fights where you'll be able to make use of that 100-foot range.

The later "eras" of weapons go up in damage - and range - pretty quickly. All the "modern" firearms do two dice of damage. The lowest of these, the Automatic Pistol, does 2d6, which is the highest than any melee weapon can do, and then you get something like a Hunting Rifle doing 2d10. Futuristic weapons go even crazier, with the Anitmatter Rifle doing 6d8 necrotic damage. (Even if we consider that the exception, a Laser Rifle, which seems like it should be common in a sci-fi environment, does 3d8).

The point is, how does one balance this if you want to make these weapons available in-game?

Being able to shoot from range is a big advantage, and I think that's why we don't see things like Longbows or Heavy Crossbows every quite hitting the high damage that you can get from a Maul or Greatsword. But a Shotgun is already doing more than a Maul can, and you can be 30 feet away.

    Apparently, in earlier editions, the solution here was the chance for a Misfire. You might notice that Matt Mercer's Gunslinger Fighter subclass (which was used by Taliesin Jaffe's Percy once they switched to 5th Edition D&D from Pathfinder when they started streaming) introduces this risk when shooting firearms. At base, any weapon will, on a Natural 1, suffer a misfire, which then requires the Gunslinger to try to un-jam the gun in the middle of combat. And if they fail, they need to do so over the course of a rest.

Thus, the high damage of the gun comes with a big risk.

In all honesty, this is probably the most reliable way to counter the power of firearms. In Mercer's breakdown of the subclass, different weapons have different Misfire ratings, meaning that even a natural 2 or higher might cause a misfire, and some of the subclass features can cause you to increase the misfire chance.

While flavorfully it makes more sense that weapons from more advanced ages would have a lower chance to misfire (as manufacturing grows more effective) I think you could potentially adjust the misfire chance to get higher the more damage you put out - indeed, you might say that the number of damage dice is the misfire chance.

Let's do some speculative napkin math to see how these wind up affecting the damage output.

We're going to look at four scenarios - in each case, we have a level 11 fighter (giving us 3 attacks per round) who is going to be using a two-handed ranged weapon. We're just going to say that a misfire means that they cannot make any more attacks that round, rather than the whole "try to repair" thing. PHB weapons have no misfire chance. Renaissance ones have a Misfire on a 1. Modern weapons have a misfire on a 1 or a 2, and the laser weapon in the Futuristic category will misfire on 1, 2, or 3.

We'll assume a +5 to Dex, and +5 proficiency. We'll also say we've got a +1 weapon, and we're shooting a target with an AC of 18. We're also going to assume the character has either the Crossbow Expert or Gunner feats, to ensure that we're not worrying about the reload feature. The reason I want to compare damage per attack, rather than per hit, is to make sure that we're accounting for the misfires.

This will grow a bit more complex, as the possibility for subsequent shots becomes lower the higher our misfire chance.

Heavy Crossbow:

With +11 to hit and no misfire chance, we have the following hit array:

Miss 1-6 (30%) Hit 7-19 (65%) Crit 20 (5%)

Hit Damage: 1d10+6, or 11.5

Crit Damage: 2d10+6, or 17

Total Damage per Attack: 7.475 + 0.85, or 8.325

Damage per Round (3 attacks): 24.975

Musket:

Now, we introduce a chance to misfire. This essentially means that we're going to need to multiply the damage per attack by 19/20 (or 95%) once to represent the average damage per second attack (accounting for the chance there is no second attack) and then again for the third attack.

Misfire 1 (5%) Miss 2-6 (25%) Hit 7-19 (65%) Crit 20 (5%)

Hit Damage: 1d12+6, or 12.5

Crit Damgage: 2d12+6, or 19

Total Damage First Attack: 8.125 + 0.95, or 9.075

Total Damage Second Attack: 8.62125

Total Damage Third Attack: 8.1901875

Total Damage per Round: 23.8864375

    This is interesting: the chance to misfire actually winds up being a bigger detriment than the lower damage the crossbow is doing. The difference is relatively tiny, but I'd certainly count that as balanced to keep the firearm from being too powerful. But what about modern weapons?

Hunting Rifle:

Here, the damage of the weapon jumps up significantly - 2d10 is an average of 11, whereas the previous two weapons had an average damage of 5.5 and 6.5. However, we're also raising the chance for a misfire significantly - a 1/10 chance. Thus, each subsequent "damage per attack" is going to be only 90% of its previous potential. So let's see.

Misfire 1-2 (10%) Miss 3-6 (20%) Hit 7-19 (65%) Crit 20 (5%)

Hit Damage: 2d10+6, or 17

Crit Damage: 4d10+6, or 28

Total Damage First Attack: 11.05 + 1.4, or 12.45

Second Attack: 11.205

Third Attack: 10.0845

Total per Round: 33.7395

    Ok, so here we've seen a massive jump in damage output, so even if there's now a one in ten chance to misfire, the higher damage makes it totally worth it - in contrast to the Musket, where we've actually made the Heavy Crossbow a better choice.

Laser Rifle:

In this case, the damage is going up again, but arguably by a less steep slope, which might make the 15% chance to misfire balance it closer to the Heavy Crossbow. In this case, each subsequent attack is only 85% of the previous one because of that chance to misfire. Let's take a look:

Misfire 1-3 (15%) Miss 4-6 (15%) Hit 7-19 (65%) Crit 20 (5%)

Hit Damage: 3d8+6, or 19.5

Crit Damage: 6d8+6, or 33

Total Damage First Attack: 12.675 + 1.65, or 14.325

Second Attack: 12.17625

Third Attack: 10.3498125

Total per Round: 36.8510625

    I'll confess, I'm surprised this did better than the Hunting Rifle, because its damage wasn't that much higher than the modern weapon, and I'd have thought the misfire would be too big a deal.

However, I think misfire numbers could be tweaked, potentially, to balance these out. I'm tempted to try the Hunting Rifle at a misfire of 3 and maybe the laser rifle at a misfire of 4 or even 5.

Well, we've got time! Let's try:

Hunting Rifle (Misfire 3):

We can hold onto some of our earlier values. The first attack with the Hunting Rifle did an average of 12.45. But this time we'll multiply it by .85 instead of .9 for each subsequent attack.

Second Attack: 10.5825

Third Attack: 8.995125

Total: 32.027625

We're still almost ten damage per round beyond what the Heavy Crossbow and Musket were doing. What about Misfire 4?

Hunting Rifle (Misfire 4)

First attack: 12.45

Second Attack: 9.96

Third attack: 7.968

Total per Round: 30.378

    So, we've gotten to a point where we're totally screwing up our weapon once every five shots, and it's still doing significantly more overall than the more archaic weapons.

Granted, this could very well be one of those "how it feels" versus "how it works" situations. Even if your overall damage output is going to be better with a high-misfire hunting rifle, the danger of misfiring might feel like a bigger risk overall than it really is.

Still, I do feel like maybe misfires aren't the best way to balance these weapons.

    In Starfinder, ranged weapons don't add your Dexterity modifier to the damage. This means that melee weapons have a slight leg up, as you've always got that base damage modifier. Maybe this could be a way to keep their damage in check?

Given that we're going to try this instead of misfires, the math will be a lot simpler (though crits favor more dice rather than static bonuses). But let's get a basic idea here:

If you have a +3 to Dexterity, your nonmagical longbow will deal 1d8+3, which is an average of 7.5 damage.

If we don't get that bonus, a Musket's 1d12 does an average of 6.5 damage. Ok!

The Hunting Rifle does 2d10, which is an average of 11.

The Laser Rifle does 3d8, which is an average of 13.5.

    Now, your Dex might go up to +5. In that case, the longbow is now doing 9.5 damage. It's outstripping the Musket, but not the modern or futuristic weapons.

In fact, even if we changed it so that a +X bonus on firearms only affected their chance to hit, and not the damage they dealt, a +3 Longbow would still only do an average of 12.5, while a Laser Rifle is outpacing that with no modification.

Essentially, what I'm learning here is that balancing these weapons is very tricky.

I think that perhaps the ultimate decision you've got to make is how important balance is to your campaign. If it is, the best solution might be to treat firearms as mere re-skins of the base weapons from the PHB - your Hand Crossbow is actually a Flintlock Pistol, and your Heavy Crossbow is actually a Rifle.

On the other hand, D&D doesn't really need to be balanced on the edge of a knife like some computer games are expected to be. These weapons could simply be more powerful, and just rarer.

Measuring a Revised Monster and the DMG Monster Modification Table!

 In the Dungeon Master's Guide, there's a table I make a lot of use of - on page 274, it's called "Creating Quick Monster Stats." While the table's purpose is meant to give a quick way to conjure up a monster by just going to the appropriate CR row and using the stats found there, it's also used as a tool in tuning a monster, but through a more complicated process that continues on later pages.

The table is useful, though it has some oddities. For example, the AC column only goes up to 19 - even as the CR rises to 30. I cannot imagine any monster with a CR of, like, 25 or higher having less than 20 AC, so this is, of course, an imperfect tool. Surely just because something is wearing plate armor and a shield doesn't put it outside of the computations to create a CR. But in such cases, you might just have to wing it.

The thing is, I've actually found this table and the process that the DMG describes to be pretty useful in creating fairly balanced monsters that are good for the CR they earn.

However, in interviews, the folks at WotC said that in their earlier books, their monsters didn't need to meet all those requirements, which might account for why sometimes, a monster's CR doesn't always really match up with expectations.

I wanted to see if some of the new monsters did wind up meeting these standards. I'm going to try to go somewhat middle-of-the-road here (I'd initially thought I'd go for Baphomet, the demon lord, but let's build to that). One of the big goals of MotM was to make spellcasting characters have more straightforward options for damage-dealing.

The Alhoon is an undead Mind Flayer who has become an outcast for practicing arcane magic, rather than relying on their natural psionics. The original Alhoon from Volo's Guide to Monsters had a big mess of Wizard spells and spell slots. In the revision, their "spellcasting" feature has been simplified to a number of at-will spells and a few spells that can be cast once per day - none of which do damage.

For damage output, they have a classic Mind Flayer's Mind Blast, as well as two types of attacks - the melee Chilling Grasp attack or the ranged Arcane Bolt, each of which they can do twice per round.

The DMG rules have us calculate two values: Offensive CR and Defensive CR (what I abbreviate to OCR and DCR). Each of these is based on averages of where various values they have land on the aforementioned monster stat table - for example, if their effective HP (we'll get into that shortly) lands at CR 7 and their AC lands at CR 5, we consider their DCR to be 6.

The Alhoon is listed as CR 10. So we'll ultimately want the OCR and DCR to average out to that.

Let's start with their DCR. To do this, we need to look at their AC and their effective HP.

Effective AC is a little complex - we need another table, found on page 277. Based on the expected CR of the monsters, we see how resistances and immunities to certain damage types will affect the "effective" health of the monster - after all, if it's only taking half the damage it normally would, it's like it has twice the health. In the Alhoon's case, we have resistance to cold, lightning, and necrotic damage, and immunity to poison.

There is definitely some flexibility here, of course. If the monster is resistant to acid damage, that might not even come up in combat. However, if it's resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, that's more likely to be a thing.

In this case, I think that with cold and lightning being somewhat common damage types, and necrotic particularly common for folks like Warlocks and Clerics, I'd say this counts. However, while monsters do a ton of poison damage, I think players do so less often, so I'm not really going to account for the poison immunity. Thus, in this case, we'll say it has the resistance multiplier, which increases its effective HP by 50%.

The Alhoon's average hit points are 150, so we'll treat its effective HP (or EHP) as 225. That lands us in the range for CR 11. Now, it's AC is 15. That could fit in CR 5, 6, or 7. Given that the 225 is toward the lower end of its range for CR 11 (221-235) I'm going to skew this downward, saying the AC is earning the CR 5 rank. We the CR 11 we get for EHP with the CR 5 we get for AC and land at a total DCR of 8.

Ok, so damage needs to step up to justify a CR 10 - we're hoping it'll be an OCR of 12 to average out to that.

The Alhoon has three damaging options that are going to be relevant in different situations. Its big hit is Mind Blast, but this is a recharge ability. It recharges on a 5 or 6, making it usable in about one out of every three turns. This complicates things.

To calculate OCR, we need to use the monster's average damage output per round (if it hits with its abilities,) finding the CR earned by that value, and the averaging it with the value earned by its chance to hit. Again, the Alhoon complicates things for us, because its "chance to hit" is a saving throw DC in one case and an attack bonus in the others - and even though both are based on the Alhoon's Intelligence, the DC of 16 is considered a lower CR value than the hit bonus of +8.

Let's save that for later. Now, let's do damage. We want to calculate how much damage the thing will do on an average turn. To do so, we're going to average it out over three rounds of combat - one with the Mind Blast, and one with the attacks.

The Mind Blast is an area-effect ability, so we're going to treat it as if it's hitting two targets. It does an average of 22 damage (and stuns the target, which might skew it upward if we need a tiebreaker) so we're going to count this as 44 damage for that first round.

The attacks, which it does twice per turn, actually do different amounts of damage (sigh, this wasn't the easiest monster to choose for this). I'm going to say we'll act as if it's not in melee on turn 2 and then it is on turn 3, so we'll just average them.

Its Arcane Bolt does an average of 28 damage on a hit, so two means 56 damage.

Chilling Grasp does 14 (and heals it for 14, which, again, complicates this) for a total of 28 damage per round.

So, we'll average the damage here, and find that on a typical turn, the Alhoon does about 43 damage per turn. That's a CR 6 damage output, but we might skew it a bit higher given the extra effects.

Now, its attack bonus is +8, which can fit in the 11, 12, and 13 CR rows, while its save DC is 16, which can be in 8, 9, and 10. Given the potential to stun, and thus get advantage on rolls, I'm going to be generous and put that at CR 12 levels.

Thus, the OCR looks to be about 9. With a DCR of 8, that winds up being a bit lower than what we were hoping for. I'll grant that the healing from Chilling Grasp and the stun from Mind Blast (which could, of course, hit more than two targets) might push it up farther.

Perhaps I chose the wrong monster to test this on. Let me try to go for something a lot simpler.

Enchanter Wizard has no resistances or immunities, and while its Instinctive Charm bonus action could be considered an inflation of its DCR, I think we'll have an easier time here. We're just going to use its Arcane Bolt attacks to calculate OCR. So:

DCR:

We're going to assume they've got Mage Armor up at all times, giving them an AC of 15, and their average HP is 49. While 49 HP is only enough to get them a CR of 1/4, 15 AC puts them in the 5,6, or 7 AC range. When dealing with the fractional CRs, rather than truly averaging them, I just count the row that is directly between them. 49 is the very top of the CR 1/4 range, so we're going to count from the CR 7 row regarding AC, giving us a DCR of 3.

OCR:

The Enchanter's only offensive abilities are Arcane Bolt, which deals 19 (average) psychic damage and has a +6 to hit. It does three of these, so we multiply the 19 by that - giving us 57 damage per round. 57 puts us in the bottom of the CR 9 range. Then, +6 can be in the CR 5, 6, or 7 range. Given that 57 is the very bottom, we'll go with 5. Thus, between the damage and the bonus to hit, we're looking at a DCR of 7.

And wouldn't you know it? With a DCR of 3 and an OCR of 7, that averages out to a CR of 5 - which is what the Enchanter Wizard is listed as. Clearly a bit of a glass cannon, but it has the cannon to back it up.

Obviously, the more complex a stat block, the trickier, more subjective it is to use the table. But with a little finesse, it's a pretty useful tool

Blood Hunter in Practice!

 Tonight we did a one-shot as our usual Sunday DM has been dealing with some real-life issues that have kept our Spelljammer game from taking off, as it were. With the sort of restrictions that I'd normally get from the DM of the one-shot (we're a D&D group with three experienced DMs) lifted, I decided to give Matt Mercer's Blood Hunter a try.

I rolled up a Reborn Blood Hunter with the Order of the Ghostslayer subclass (the one that seemed the easiest to pick up.)

While I only got a single turn in combat, so far the kind of "premise" of the class is starting to coalesce. My general sense is that Mercer does a bit of over-designing, though a virtue of his style that I hadn't really appreciated is that it's more about character-building choices than things to choose between in combat.

By level 3 (the level at which we were playing,) I had the following features:

I have a Blood Maledict, choosing Blood Curse of Binding. You learn more curses as you level up, but at this point you have just one. Once per short rest, you can use a bonus action to curse a target. They typically make a saving throw (determined by the curse) with a DC based on your intelligence (I had a +2, so DC was 12). The target has to have blood to be a valid target, unless you amplify it.

Amplifying the Blood Maledict requires you to lose HP equal to a roll of your Hemocraft die, which starts at a d4 and goes up a die with each tier of play - basically like a Martial Arts die. Amplifying the curse will typically make it more powerful and last longer.

You get additional uses of Blood Maledict as you level up, eventually getting four at level 17. You also learn more curses over time as well, eventually getting 5 by level 18.

At 2nd level, you get a fighting style - choosing between two-weapon fighting, great weapon fighting, archery, or dueling. I went with Archery, as I wanted to (I guess hypothetically, eventually) go with Crossbow Expert.

You also get Crimson Rite. This is the class' big source of damage and also a somewhat weird mechanic. You basically choose fire, cold, or lightning damage (the rites have cooler names) and then, as a bonus action, you can take damage equal to a roll of a hemocraft die and then a weapon you have in hand will now deal extra damage of the chosen type, using your hemocraft die. So, with Rite of the Frozen, my hand crossbow deals 1d6+4 (I rolled well for stats) piercing damage plus 1d4 cold damage. This lasts until you finish a short or long rest... or until you aren't holding the weapon at the end of your turn. And this, I think, is a little odd. Basically, you can use your crimson rite through a whole slew of combat encounters as long as you hold on to your weapon. You learn more of these at later levels, eventually getting three, the last of which can be necrotic, psychic, or thunder damage.

At level 3, I picked my subclass, the Ghostslayer, which gives you a bonus Crimson Rite, called Rite of the Dawn, which does radiant damage and, on top of that, also gives you resistance to necrotic damage, deals an extra hemocraft die to undead targets, and causes your weapon to shine bright light for 20 feet.

Additionally, you get to use Blood Maledict an extra time, and you don't need to amplify it to use it on creatures without blood.

So, one thing of note is that paying the HP for your crimson rite is not too bad even after a couple levels. The one time I used it, I lost only 2 of my 28 HP, for a pretty substantial buff that lasts until you take a rest. Granted, a bad roll when you're already in trouble can give you a very bad day - as we saw in Campaign 2 of Critical Role.

I suspect Crossbow Expert might be a strong way to maximize Crimson Rite damage - you can actually put it on two weapons for dual-wielding, but this requires paying the HP cost twice. (Technically the rules say nothing about a weapon being unable to bear multiple instances of your Crimson Rite, but I cannot possibly imagine that the rules intend for that kind of behavior). I also think that, given the self-damage you do, it might be wise to adopt a ranged fighting style.

The class does have some support for two-handed weapons, but I will say that after my experiences as a strength-based dual-wielding ranger, having to balance Strength, at least +2 to Dex, decent Con and decent Wisdom, that can be a lot - here you'd just swap Wisdom out for Intelligence. By going Dex - either with finesse or ranged weapons - you can let that be your top stat. Indeed, because I started with a +4 to Dexterity, I was even able to just use Studded Leather instead of Scale Mail and have decent AC with no penalty to Stealth.

The Blood Hunter most certainly fits the "monster hunter" archetype that I've often written about, and while I think that the Ranger could fit, thematically, in that role (especially with the Monster Slayer subclass) this one does bear some examination. I cannot decide if it's overpowered or not. I'm always hesitant to allow players to use unofficial player options, but I might examine this a bit more thoroughly and see if I'd allow it in my campaigns. I love the flavor of it. It'll just be a question of what I think about its mechanics. But there's a lot of stuff to go over.

With 12 Minutes to Spare!

 Well, I beat Metroid Dread for the 4th time, this time under four hours with a time of 3:48:something. I know that speed-runners are doing this in just over two hours, but I'm less concerned with pushing super-fast victories than just seeing if I could do it in that time.

It's funny - the bosses in Dread are, I'd say, more punishing than those in Super Metroid, but the fluidity of movement and the ease with which you can aim means that it's far easier to dodge attacks and hit incoming missiles.

One thing that had worried me going into the Raven Beak fight at the end of this run is that, since I didn't pick up any Power Bomb upgrades (I went straight from getting them to the boss... well, to the fifth Chozo Warrior boss, and then to Raven Beak,) I thouhgt I'd run out of Power Bombs when Raven Beak summoned the big sun-like thing. You can, to be fair, simply dodge things to deal with that when it's out, but it's way harder to dodge the boss' attacks when you have this giant burning sun above you.

However, as it turns out, while you don't seem to get power bombs from the little black-hole things Raven Beak tosses at you, or by blowing up those sun-like things, you can get some if you counter attack some of his melee attacks - things that in previous runs I'd really just tried to dodge. It can be tricky telling whether the incoming attack is counterable, but if you do, it'll refresh your PBs.

Luckily, I believe that if you die, the timer rolls back to whatever checkpoint you're sent to, so my two failed attempts on Raven Beak didn't count against me (the fight is lengthy, so that might have deprived me of getting under 4 hours, or at least made it a lot closer).

I'd be really overjoyed if they announced some sort of DLC for the game. I used to dislike DLC in the era of DVD-Roms, as I would often play with my console offline then. However, in this age when half my video game library (if only half) is just downloaded to the console, I don't find this quite as alien.

To be fair, Metroid games are kind of tightly constructed - it's harder to add a new zone like you can do with, say, a Dark Souls game.

I'd actually really love it if Mercury Steam did a remake of Super Metroid with Dread-style controls. You'd certainly have to rejigger a few things - the way that Dread handles missile upgrades, for example, wouldn't really work with Super Metroid's existing gameplay flow. But the truth is that a ton of the upgrades in Dread are the same, and work similarly, to their antecedents in Super Metroid.

Also, while I think Dread is a phenomenal achievement, I do think I like the music from Super Metroid better, and I'd love to hear updated versions of those tunes (beyond Red Brinstar, which we got in the Quiet Robe cutscene in Dread). I think it'd also be really cool to get a less abstracted, 16-bit version of the lush greens of... Green Brinstar and the fiery caverns of Norfair.

This might be a bit much for DLC, to be fair.