Hi everyone. The basic rules dropped yesterday, and I was fortunate enough to be able to work in reading everything but the spells. I won't delve into the stylistic things that I don't like (HP is too low at 1st level for me, but I understand that there are groups that want the realism of PCs and monsters being able to be taken down with one hit); this post is to highlight things that I think stand out, both positively and negatively, in the rules for me.
- Point buy doesn't let you buy higher than a 15 ability score, yet you can roll higher than a 15; you have a 56% chance of getting "at least" a 16 with 4d6(drop lowest)x6, so why can't you point buy them? There's a 30% chance of getting at least one 17, so I'd have made the cut off at 16.
- Proficiency bonus not applying to all saves worries me that high level characters will have bigger weak spots than low level characters. Whether this is just an annoyance if character HPs are high enough, or a true weakness, will have to be seen.
- Constitution is too important again. One of my favorite things about 4E was the ability to ignore Con; it granted starting HP, which became irrelivent after enough levels, and it granted healing surges, which didn't help you in one fight (but over the course of the day). A wizard with an 8 con was possible in 4E. Con is once again everyone's third (or second!) best score. Why is it even a score? Just set everyone's Con to 14 and move on (kidding).
- Mountain Dwarf +2 Str worries me. I think you'll see too many Mountain Dwarf Fighters. It'll get old real fast.
- The lack of any races getting +2 on a mental seems interesting; perhaps we'll see something else in the full PHB (Int gnomes, Cha tieflings?)
- Halfling subraces seem weak compared to the rest. Disregard that; elf subraces seem better than the rest (why not put "X weapon training" on the subraces of each race, instead of having it in the race? That would pad the dwarf and halfling subraces and make them look bigger.
- Considering +1 to 2 stats is worth a feat, the Human seems weaker than the rest of the races; the human is basically +3 feats (and is "skill proficiency" really going to be a feat, that seems weak compared to the likes of the others at the end of the playtest). I still don't like +1 to all stats, but at least the other races get a +2 so they stand above a little. I just don't like +1s to stats anyway, as they don't do much half the time and encourage metagamy things (put a 15 there, it will be a 16 at level X ...)
- Life Cleric has a lot of healing. A LOT. Like a really big lot. It has to fit like 200 cars, at least.
- I still really love that Cleric gets Divine Strike instead of extra weapon attacks. I hope to see more symetrical things like that.
- I'm still not sure about fighter getting 2 more ability adjustments than everyone else (Rogue gets one more). I don't like the lack of symetry, and I worry that the late adjustments will be worth less (not worthless) than the early ones. Lets look at a Mountain Dwarf (being a little hyperbolic) with the standard array. They start with Str 17, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8; mental stats don't matter much here. At 4th, they increase to Str 18, Con 16; level 6, Str 20; level 8, Con 18; level 12, Con 20. At this point, their choices for armor are AC 18 with Plate or AC 17 (and some more money) with Half Plate. If they raise their Dex at levels 14, 16, and 19, they won't gain any AC out of it (and won't break even with Studded until level 19 anyway). Maybe they can switch to raising Wis to shore up a low Wisdom save? I hope no groups go to 20 without having feats.
- About point buy again; if you are going to start at a high level, it's more efficient to spread your points thinner instead of buying a 14 or 15. You could go with a bunch of 13s, as a mountain dwarf fighter, and have 20 Str, Con, and Wis at level 20 (15, 12, 15, 12, 14, 10 to start; 20, 12, 20, 12, 20, 10 is doable at 20, and they have 4 more stat points than my last example at 20). Doing things in different orders shouldn't benefit someone one way or the other IMHO.
- Fighter's Extra Attack is a very choppy increase in damage; the levels before it, their damage will be "weak", and right when they get it their damage will feel "huge". I worry they'll be a bit behind the curve during like 6 levels, and I neither want them to be significantly ahead of the curve randomly either.
- Okay, the ways the writers avoid saying "per encounter" are cute, guys, but really? "and you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest" is very clunky compared to saying "X/encounter". Efficiency people.
- Champion's cool. I think it will be boring to play without a more strongly built action system (not maneuvers, just more things one can do with their attacks), but I can see the need for it in the game. I hope one of the Sorcerer builds is that symple, I think there are people who would want it too.
- I cannot say how much I love "Cunning Action" enough. It does mean, though, that rogues can be 1.5 times faster while in combat than out of combat (unless there's running rules somewhere that I missed).
- Uncanny Dodge is really cool too. Now I want to find a way to make a tanky rogue (or Fighter/Rogue).
- Spell Mastery is too cool. I haven't compared 1st and 2nd level unaugmented spells to high level cantrips, but the idea is cool. Potent Cantrip is cool too. Empowered Evocation seems weak for a 10th level ability; +5 damage? That's basically 1d8.
- Inspiration is cool; nice way to redo Action Points; I recognize it from other games, and it's nice to see their influence.
- About "Proficiencies": "If a character would gain the same proficiency from two sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead" has always been a houserule of mine (with skills and feats, that is) and I'm glad to see it here.
- Starting Wealth: Why are the classes different again? I get the Wizard; their spellbook is worth quite a bit, but why does the rogue get 25 less gold on average? Is it because the Cleric and Fighter need to buy their heavy armor? That's a weird way to subsidize "realistic" prices.
- You can't sell magic items, they're just too valuable; I hope there's good "high magic" guidelines in the DMG.
- You can't buy or sell magic items, but you can totally spend an extra 700/1300 gp on getting +1 AC for your Medium or Heavy Armor ... Make up your minds. Is money for RP or for power?
- Just a little nitpick about the crafting rules. Since Plate costs 1,500 gold, it takes 300 work days to make a suit of plate armor. It takes 15 days to make a suit of chain mail. I make chain mail. If I had to make it from scratch, as in forging my own wire, and spinning and cutting my own rings, I feel like it would take longer than making Plate armor from scratch. Time should not necessarily mean money; there's technique and difficulty in crafting that comes from Plate, and that should be what makes it cost more (though chainmail taking 120 hours to make is pretty close actually, just not made from scratch or riveted).
- Weapon Balance: A few things stand out to me; I won't go into them all. Why is Unarmed damage so low? Why is the dagger better than the sickle? Why a lot of things?
- Net's cool to see, Whips are very short (I liked 3.5's ranged weapon whips).
- The Loading property does nothing to make the weapon harder to use in the early levels. I forsee seeing a lot of heavy crossbow archers until 5th level.
- Thanks for the equipment packs.
- Tools are interesting; thank's for divorcing tools from skill proficiencies.
- Lifestyle Expenses benefitting RP is really cool! I want to play a stingy wizard who slums it with a Wretched Lifestyle so he can use every cent on his spell research. I also want to play a rich character who adventures every so often simply to keep up her lavish lifestyle.
- It's expensive to hire someone to cast a spell. This means a PC spellcaster between adventures can easily live an aristocratic lifestyle just from casting 1 2nd level spell a day for someone. Performance proficiency gets mentioned, but not spellcasting?
- I can't wait to dig into the Multiclassing rules.
- I need feats. Basic is so ... basic.
- Why did you have to call out Str (Intimidate) as a alternate ability score use again? Just leave it unsaid, please. Superman is not more intimidating than Batman. Agh! Personal preference, I know.
- Travel Pace is awesome. Thanks for making a real benefit for slow movement and a real penalty for fast movement.
- Marching Order codification is nifty too.
- Starvation rules are dumb. Sure, 1 pound of food I buy. 1/2 pound of food a day runs food clock at 1/2 speed; sure. But one normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero? This means that you can eat 1 pound of food every 4 days with no chance of penalty. Why would you eat 1/2 a pound of food a day to last 6 days (3 pounds in total) when you could use the same 3 pounds of food to last 15 days without penalty (eat on 4th day, eat on 4th day, eat on 4th day, start starving 4 days later).
- The roleplaying tips are nice.
- Saying something is usable after a short or long rest is dumb. By it's very nature, a long rest is also a short rest; why do you have to spell it out? X/encounter is so much more efficient anyway.
- Between adventure rules are cool.
- Being able to train in new languages and tools between adventures is great. Why it costs 250 gp and almost a year to learn how to use woodworking tools, though, I don't know. How to peasents learn how to use tools? Can't people learn things on their own? Where's all that money going? To commoners still earn 1 sp a day?
- Rules for using different movement modes are nice and simple, but they feel so weird. So I could move 30 ft. by foot, or 60 ft. by flying, or 30 ft. by foot and 30 ft. by flying? Doesn't that mean my 30 ft. by foot in that case was twice as fast as my previous 30 ft. of walking?
- About squeezing rules; can characters squeeze into the same space out in the open? I don't know why they'd do it, but can they?
- I like that the Dodge action gives (effectively) +5 to AC and Reflex (I mean Dexterity saves). I also like the range of the Disengage action. Help feels better than Aid another ever was too. I might see those actions used more now.
- Two-Weapon Fighting requires a bonus action? So 5th level fighters won't use it until we get a TWFing fighter build?
- Grappling is nice and simple now. Thanks.
- About Shoving: Is "push 5 ft." really worth the same as "prone"? Maybe the push distance could at least be partially determined by the check result?
- Thanks for keeping the same Hit Point description that clearly shows that HP DOES NOT STAND FOR HAMBURGER POINTS!!! Sorry.
- Specifically spelling out that "Different DMs describe things differently" was a nice touch for the edition to bridge all editions.
- Instant Death rules won't matter past the first couple of levels. Why have them then? If something can deal your Max HP in damage with one hit at 10th level, you have no business fighting it. Really. I shudder to think of something that could deal 84 damage with one hit (level 10 fighter hp, standard 6 hp per level, 14 con).
- Death saving throws are nice. Why not have Con modifier there, though? That seems right.
- Mount rules; you can't command your horse to kick someone in the teeth? Maybe I've been to Medieval Times one too many times.
- Wait, a crossbow and a regular bow use different physics under water. That doesn't make sense to me.
- Okay, out of order, I realize this, but why does a running start increase your vertical jump distance by x2? I keep testing this IRL and I don't notice any significant gain of my vertical jump height whether I'm standing or running. Like, if you're standing, obviously you squat down first to put some spring in your jump, but still. x2 height? Definitely not. Thanks for normalizing jump distances, though. Now, how do olympic long jumpers get their jumps in D&D, though?
- 1 concentration spell at a time; thank you.
- Spell damage seems to be rather contained (1 die + 1 die per spell level seems the norm. Yay).
TL:DR, I'm still on the fence about the edition, but I'm going to give it a shot. My house rule document might be bigger than the book, though.
Also, really? You put a copy/paste block on the document? So now I have to retype the spells myself so I can do some better wording/formatting? Fine ...
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Lawngnome4hire wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
•Halfling subraces seem weak compared to the rest. Disregard that; elf subraces seem better than the rest (why not put "X weapon training" on the subraces of each race, instead of having it in the race? That would pad the dwarf and halfling subraces and make them look bigger.
Are dueling, twf and gwf balanced to each other? Even if it means that they are balanced depending to the ocasion.
EdTheMad wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Regarding running starts granting a bonus to your vertical jump- that's how professional high jumpers do it. I'd hazard a guess that your tests lack technique, suffer from missing athleticism, or didn't have an accurate way to measure the results. I know I can jump noticably higher with a running start.
Reg06 wrote:
Jay_Ibero_911 wrote:
Just a thought, in regard to your nitpick about the Shove action. Cliffs, my friend, cliffs. And bridges, roofs, stairs, and high hills. 
Xeviat-DM wrote:
TWF fighters can get high dex (finesse weapons) and thus be very good with a bow as well. Great Weapon Fighters get a bit MAD when they try to do ranged combat too. Dex is a more common save stat against spells or environmental hazards too.
Unahim wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
- Okay, the ways the writers avoid saying "per encounter" are cute, guys, but really? "and you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest" is very clunky compared to saying "X/encounter". Efficiency people.
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Just stop! No game ever has been or will be perfectly balanced. DnD especially dies not follow the line of 10th level of x class is equal to 10th level of y class.
Its ts never, ever going to happen so just stop already. If perfect balance is that important to you here are 2 suggestions;
1) make your own game
or
2) everyone gets the same stat block, same background, same class, same sub-class abilities, same everything.
Have fun
Samotep wrote:
Samotep wrote:
Huh, I just assumed, because every other race had a +1 as their secondary ability score. I do not care if everything is balanced or not, and am not saying that it should be. I was looking at trends and extrapolating to what became my assumption.
That being said, I think the developers try to make things fairly balanced, or at least make every option enticing, to keep from having an obvious choice. Without diversity, the game will fail.
Just my opinion, of course...
Also, for what it's worth, Mike Mearls has said that not all races have the +2/+1 stat boost. As seen with the mountain dwarf, some might have +2/+2. Others might even conceivably have +1/+1/+1 or something.
Well, humans get +1 to all ability scores. 
Yes, there is that as well. Alternatively, they just get +1/+1.
Archon007 wrote:
I thought this one, under Vision and Light (currently on page 65 of the Basic Rules) was a little awkward...
Basic Rules wrote:
Definitely odd. The RAW works for things like magical darkness, but light can enter normal darkness just fine. In fact, when you're in a dark area, you can see into light areas very well.
mellored wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Saelorn wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Saelorn wrote:
Jay_Ibero_911 wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Saelorn wrote:
Caliburn101. wrote:
Xeviat-DM wrote: