Darkvision being relegated to an "okay" feature is still insane to me. Vision and light control is super important in the way I learned to play the game, and the overabundance of that feature is wild.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
If it was more rare, it would definitely be more valuable.
@MrJerks93
5 ай бұрын
I houseruled it out of most races in my game. I'm not sure why DND is so deadset on destroying the Exploration Tier.
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
i think it also comes with a lot of DMs newer and older placing less importance on the need for it too, less encounters being in dimly lit dungeons and on open battlefields or volcanos, or other well lit places. or even when it's night time, in lit camps and such.
@EugeneGM1
5 ай бұрын
I located my original playtest rules and used the Low-Light vision rules from there. Now most races have low-light vision, not Darkvision.
@waltascher
5 ай бұрын
Darkvision definitely needs to be fixed, but the definition of darkness also needs to be fixed. The fact that so many races have darkvision but cats don’t is crazy, yet the idea that humans are blind on a moonlit night is also crazy.
@SteelShad0w_
5 ай бұрын
Gloom Stalker is one of those subclasses where I look at the 3rd level features and go "You could've spread just these over the entire subclass and it still would've been excellent" Lol
@yunusahmed2940
5 ай бұрын
We need monster powercreep
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
Yes we do!
@someoneelse4939
5 ай бұрын
I mean, the DM can definitely take care of that however he wants.
@wwade7226
5 ай бұрын
I usually adjust by doing some homebrew version (which keeps Metagamers on their toes) or, if I don't have time, I'll increase the monster's HP.
@yunusahmed2940
5 ай бұрын
@someoneelse4939 yes but wotc gets paid to make monsters. Dms don't. If we buy books for monsters we should have strong options relative to players
@someoneelse4939
5 ай бұрын
@@yunusahmed2940 Agreed
@Pharoom
5 ай бұрын
The best powercreep in 5e was probably allowing racial ability score bonuses to be assignd freely. That opened up so many new character options.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
That's definitely an example of power-creep done right.
@michaelmorrissey8983
5 ай бұрын
I get it but... 5E races are really just window dressing and cosplay to me. Does anybody actually PLAY an elf or a halfling or a tiefling or a yuan-ti pureblood in their games? Or are they just playing with an identical bag of Stats and Hit Points as the next person?
@jhonea6535
5 ай бұрын
The loss of identity is certainly a downer
@hweidigiv
5 ай бұрын
Such statements assume that mechanical benefits are the only way to create ++cultural++ or racial identity. Magic: the Gathering does the "mechanically similar, culturally different" ideas much better than any core D&D setting.
@jacksonletts3724
5 ай бұрын
For me it depends on the character. I certainly have loads where the race is secondary to the class and all the other things that go into a character. I think everyone does. But I also have several where the race is central. Here are two I’ve played recently. 1. Elven cleric of memory (knowledge) that explores elve’s trance and ancestral memory. 2. Changeling monk where the monk abilities are flavored as the changeling shifting its body around in unnatural contortions.
@RPGabe
5 ай бұрын
"DMs can just make harder encounters" is true to a point. Yes, a DM can create an encounter to kill any player at any time. But the goal is to challenge a party of players. And that becomes increasingly difficult when parties become omega powerful in specific niche ways. I've seen parties where someone created an unkillable tank. Now in order to challenge that player, the DM has to bring in monsters that become incredibly lethal for everyone else in the party. The same dynamic exists with high damaging characters and tanky mobs. This problem exists without power creep but it gets dialed up to 11 because of the layers of compounding benefits that are possible with creep.
@luminous3558
5 ай бұрын
That isnt necessarily true. There are still ways to attack players with absurd ACs because point buy does not let you perfectly cover every stat. There also is guaranteed damage via spells such as magic missile or simply saving throw spells that still deal half dmg on a successful save. As DnD doesnt really have a tanking mechanic its not actually very useful for 1 guy to be much tankier than the rest as monsters can decide to just go after the other 3 or so players. Also the reverse is just a encounter design problem. High single target damage always existed with fighter and it makes them a really feast or famine class that can easily destroy badly designed encounters that focus on 1 big enemy. Once you add in more encounters with lots of small enemies or add a few medium ones the fighter becomes noticeably less useful. Now thats likely gonna look a bit weird and targeted to that one player and its likely easier to just sit down with him and talk it over that his build is way above the party average and desired campaign powerlevel.
@pheralanpathfinder4897
5 ай бұрын
Targeting the weaknesses of OP power gamers is an art form. Every character should have their turn to shine but also need to depend upon the rest of the party.
@gordonmcinnes8328
5 ай бұрын
Power creep typically alienates some players/dms even if everyone does it. Party balance is not just the characters race and class, it is also the personality and preference of all the pcs as well as the dm.
@tetragrade
5 ай бұрын
@@luminous3558 This is true in a white room, but in a real game your monsters must fit the theme of a location. Taken in context of the fact that 5e attaches game mechanics to visual themes (ice = con save, fire = dex save), it becomes unfeasible to do in many cases. i.e. You're in the poison swamp & the problem player is immune to poison damage. Good luck with that one. There are also a number of other issues. If the player requires a niche strategy to be challenged, how do first-time opponents know about it? What if the enemy is specifically trying to kill one of the weaker players (i.e. an assassin)? So it's not really possible in a "regular" campaign, the players need to agree to susbend their disbelief for the sake of balance. If your player is the sort of immature crybaby that would make their character overpowered relative to the other PCs, they're going to refuse, and bitch & moan about being targeted. And here's the kicker: Even if it possible, why should the problem player have the right to impose extra work on the DM & the other players. Kick that motherfucker from the game.
@sharmakefarah2064
4 ай бұрын
@@pheralanpathfinder4897Problem is that at high level, those weaknesses are vanishingly few, if at all, and in order to give the OP power gamer a reasonable challenge, the monsters need to be ludicrously strong to the point that it will kill the non-power gamers.
@tridentgreen3346
5 ай бұрын
I’m honestly hopeful they make Gloom Stalker less of a nightmare to DM for. The single playtest we got for it kinda sucked, as I think the consensus was 3rd level was the problem, not much else. The fear effect is unironically so clunky to the kit and takes away from the CC based Fey Wanderer that it was honestly confusing. I hope the time in the oven helped them figure out a solution that’s both fun to play as, play alongside and DM for.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
I didn't like the playtest version either. It was a nerf, but as you say, they nerfed the wrong things. I'm hoping they come up with a better version.
@insertphrasehere15
5 ай бұрын
One of the main issues with Gloomstalker is how everyone seems to play invisibility wrong. Unless you hide, they still know where you are! So many groups and players I've been with say things like "I'm invisible so he doesn't know where I am." It gives them dis on attacks and you advantage, which is still really strong, but they can still target you pretty easily, or throw a light a torch and throw it to where you are to make you visible, etc. Gloomstalker plus a rogue dip is something I hardly ever see, but it is SO good for this reason (also Goblin+GS). The Goblin Gloomstalker is actually the scary one for the DM, not the Bugbear Gloomstalker.
@AlwaysGrowing0
5 ай бұрын
The one I hate the most is the Elf Gloomstalker. "I'm invisible." Elven Accuracy go brrrr.
@briang3598
5 ай бұрын
@insertphrasehere15 That's more a problem with the mechanics for invisibility combined with Umbral Sight needing a nerf (if people are handling invisibility the way it should *actually* be handled rather than RAW)
@foldionepapyrus3441
5 ай бұрын
@@insertphrasehere15 Very true, Invisibility is to often it seems ruled as in effect invulnerability to everything targeted. Which isn't how it is supposed to be at all, if you want to spend your action economy requirements to hide in the first place being invisible is a great boon, both helping you pull of the hiding and helping you stay hidden while moving in the open. Though the same is also true of lighting levels and cover in general in most games it seems. But in part that is IMO because its too easy to overlook them and often too awkward to keep track - The PC does not have LOS but I the player know exactly what is going on because I can still see the whole map or in theatre of the mind when its next to impossible to keep track of those sort of details so the DM tends to be capricious but leaning permissive. Though some VTT do have dynamic LOS which might help get players in the right mindset as they don't really get to know everything, but can still presumably hear the chat or see in the combat log the effects they can't see.
@epicazeroth
5 ай бұрын
The weirdest example of powercreep to me has always been Darkvision. In 2016 it was a genuine consideration that you wanted but couldn't always get. In 2024 if you don't have it you're probably the only one, and the DM might not even remember to care.
@JLeeCline
5 ай бұрын
Power creep is to be expected in any game, but dnd has such an easy way of letting players test new options, especially high volume players like yourself. It’s crazy to me that some of things get printed.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
Me too.
@pollograssopollo
5 ай бұрын
Wotc knows very well that broken sells more. Balance was never relevant to them because "the dm can fix it"
@sharmakefarah2064
4 ай бұрын
Then again, Sleet Storm and Plant Growth are still as ludicrous as it was in 2014, and while there was quite a bit of damaging power creep, DnD was always broken past level 10 from the start.
@GentleBreeze-72
5 ай бұрын
I can agree to: powercreep is sometimes good. But it doesn't have to be the rule or it's just an endless climb up
@fomori2
5 ай бұрын
Ultimately the problem isnt powercreep, it is the players themselves. You are not required to be the most optimal character.... shocker, I know !! If you are playing in a competitive DnD game then sure, powergame till your hearts content. However, in a typical game the players should be making characters in tandem with the DM to figure out what is acceptable tuning. Blaming WOTC for making the rules "overpowered" is just gaslighting. Sure, they are objectively overpowered, but in the end it is the player that makes the conscience decision to powergame, and the DM that makes a conscience decision to allow that character to break their game.
@GentleBreeze-72
5 ай бұрын
@@fomori2 making it a rule meant that they dont have to always create even more powerful content than what they created before. Then i agree with you with the: "you're not required to be the most optimal character" damn it's my favourite way of playing. However my point was another one. Creating every time something that overshadows most of the older stuff, and not balancing it out eh doesn't feel good. You're gonna end up with subclasses or character options which feel useless. And even if it's up to us to decide whether or not those make it in the final version, do you think me opposing against thousands of players would make the difference? O.o Competitive and casual dnd are two separate things. However playing a class/subclass or race which is clearly overpowered. You can optimize or not but that's gonna be powerful anyway. Also, i didnt blame anybody.
@Mr_Welch
5 ай бұрын
In second edition the complete elf handbook was so broken they later issued an apology for it.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
"Kits" were a mess in general. Good concept, poor execution.
@Mr_Welch
5 ай бұрын
@@TreantmonksTemple it's been bad since the beginning. Female drow in 1st edition could end up with over 10 spells at 1st level at the cost of 20% XP penalty. Which for thief or cleric still meant they leveled up as fast or faster than fighters.
@TheZenBullet
5 ай бұрын
The apology was a KS stretch goal from a different company (same writer) and it was very much a forced non apology
@CruzaComplex
5 ай бұрын
Elf wank has been an issue since time began. There's a handful of features in 5e that either only work with elves or only work with elf flavoring even though numerically there's no reason to have the restriction.
@TheWayOfTheWott
5 ай бұрын
my first ever 5e character ended up reclassing into a Twilight Cleric and maybe it's because it was an online game and i was very engaged in combat, but i really enjoyed getting to hand out temp HP after basically everyone's turn. it kept me focused on everyone's turn and i could feel the impact of my ability happening every turn. it even became a running gag in the vein of stuff like "I would like to rage" where I always said "You are now the proud owner of [#] temporary hit points." that being said, being a Tasha's subclass in a party with three PHB subclasses and one of them being 4 Elements Monk... yeah, i could feel the gap in strength.
@MalloonTarka
5 ай бұрын
At the very least Twilight's powercreep benefits every character build at the table. It's a lot less annoying being significantly and consistently outshone when the outshining is making me better at what I do.
@TheWayOfTheWott
5 ай бұрын
@@MalloonTarka that's how i felt! it was really satisfying being able to passively keep everyone up and let them take more actions without having to worry about their hit points.
@insertphrasehere15
5 ай бұрын
Honestly it would be a whole lot less annoying to deal with at the table if it had been "level + spellcasting mod" instead of "Level+1d6" That 1d6 that needs to be rolled EVERY. EFFING. TURN. (not per round... EVERY TURN). It gets SO annoying. It's especially annoying because even if the player hasn't been hit since last time you gave them points you are incentivized to roll because you might roll higher than last time, even though the difference would be marginal. I played one as written once... never again. When I'm DM I typically rule that the player does not roll, it just gives average (4+level). The problem is that on Forge or Avrae, the automated feature can't be told to do the average, so it still has to be micromanaged every bloody turn (at least online if the Twilight player is onto it they can do it in the background without bothering the active player or the whole table). I agree with Chriss though, it should just give the temp HP at the beginning and that's it. It's already a solid feature even if you nerf it to this.
@Amia_the_Smol
5 ай бұрын
For what it's worth, you'd still feel a significant power gap with that monk if you were a PHB cleric.
@HeavyMetalMouse
5 ай бұрын
Playing a character that gives everyone good stuff every turn is always a lot of fun, especially because *most* of the time it doesn't come off as OP, even when it is Quite Powerful, because ultimately you're just making all your friends better at doing the thing they were already doing, just better now! I'm reminded of in Pathfinder, playing a Path of War character using Radiant Dawn and just handing out the heals and temp-hp like candy. Nobody is ever upset to have some extra temp hp, or an extra save against some condition that was bothering them. :)
@ilovethelegend
5 ай бұрын
10:24 I mean, if your players have the resources to scribe out 100 scrolls of goodberry (2,500 gold and 100 days), then they have the resources to secure food and water for their journey. In regards to silvery barbs; I don't think that it's a problem if ONE caster in the party has silvery barbs, but if the WHOLE PARTY has silvery barbs then it can be a problem. Also, like... I've died before because I used my reaction to cast silvery barbs instead of holding it for absorb elements.
@KirstenBayes
5 ай бұрын
I'm running a campaign for new players with builds just from the Players Handbook. Honestly with multiclassing and feats, plus what we have all learned about builds, the characters are really potent without being too complex. It's scary fun!
@dontokoi30
5 ай бұрын
2014 only? Rangers and Monks are pretty bad. But Lore Bards and Battlemaster Fighters are amazing!
@KirstenBayes
5 ай бұрын
@@dontokoi30 yes! I think with the original you have to be creative: start with the concept and put it together. So, perhaps not a Ranger, but maybe a bow-using Fighter with the Sharpshooter feat and a level or two in rogue. Perhaps not a monk, but maybe a high Dex Paladin with polearm master or the Tavern brawler feat.
@thomaschapman6530
5 ай бұрын
I just made a post that I have been doing the same thing and everybody seems to be having more fun.
@Shalakor
4 ай бұрын
Especially Monks are only weak/overly restricted in low level play, so any campaign starting around the mid-level range someone can safely go PHB Monk to be self-sufficient with minimal or no multiclassing. ...Except Four Elements, they never really have enough resources to reliably live out their fantasy alongside other people being smart about their builds. Maybe a Tavern Brawler Eldritch Knight for that? Shrug. That's probably too much of a tradeoff.
@KirstenBayes
4 ай бұрын
@@Shalakor we found monks played as archers who then use their speed and burst damage to close and mop up were pretty viable even at low levels.
@mattgopack7395
5 ай бұрын
While gloomstalker is certainly a very strong and heavily used subclass, I do think that it's the combination of things that gets it there - it's a bunch of good features that combine to a great total rather than each blowing it away. Also notably the last one is one I find heavily table dependent - because in my experiences it never really comes up (with there functionally always being dim or bright light when in combat) , while I know other tables and optimizers have it happening all the time (to the point where I've seen some people assuming it gives permanent advantage when doing the math on damage). More broadly for power creep, I think that it's usually bad when it pushes too much 'fixing' into somewhere it shouldn't be. Like hexblade includes a bunch of fixes for pact of the blade, essentially - but instead of an errata for that they put it into a new patron at lvl 1, which just isn't a good decision. Edit - Also silvery barbs is completely fine for me lol. Shield is by far the most egregious for me in lvl 1 spells that warp the game, and that's not power creep and baseline.
@drb10057
5 ай бұрын
I was hoping you would call out Wildmount. As a DM who has dealt with a chronurgy wizard for 15 levels I can attest that its totally broken.
5 ай бұрын
I have never played with chronurgy wizard, so I cant really see or appreciate what is so OP about it? Can you list something for uneducated? :)
@GravityAP
5 ай бұрын
@ It can concentrate on two things and can force fails or successes, this gets really bad when things like magic jarring into creatures immune to exhaustion come into play. 2nd and 6th lvl are good and useful but not broken. However having all features actually be good is sadly outside the norm for wizard subclasses.
5 ай бұрын
@@GravityAP I see, thx. Actually yeah, forcing failed saves is probably quite broken and double concentration should be big nono ingame. Makes sense
@drb10057
5 ай бұрын
Yup dead on my dude, better than I could have said!
@deathzexion
5 ай бұрын
@@GravityAP I feel like most problems with chronurgy wizards are solved by having a good talk with your player. I love chronurgy wizard, and I will talk with my DM about it whenever I play it.
@pallen2645
5 ай бұрын
Wildemont is in the same category as the Penny Arcade book, and yes, that Rick and Morty book. Its third-party content published by WotC, as paradoxical as that sounds. We even got an admission from Crawford that there was a missing paragraph in one of the Echo Knight's more egregious abilities (I dont remember which) but that the D&D team isn't able to issue errata on that book so its out of his hands.
@FlorisGerber
5 ай бұрын
that would probably be the 7th lvl ability to make your echo go 1000 feet. It lacks any mention of the (seemingly intended) restriction against attacking from said echo. Or from teleporting TO that echos location. Honestly, I was quite heartbroken that the design intention was so much weaker than the written class, I opted out of Echo knight after lvl 6 and are going with Dao warlock now.
@Shalakor
4 ай бұрын
@@FlorisGerber Talisman Warlocks can teleport with another character anywhere within the same plane of existence. I could see a fair way of handling this be splitting the difference between as written and as intended by making long range Echo swapping a limited resource ability in a similar vein to that Invocation. ...So, you could maybe participate in an assassination from a safe distance, or make a quick escape out of some situations, but wouldn't be practical for open combat.
@N0Name_btw
5 ай бұрын
Honestly I think powercreep is good for martials. With things like echo knight and gloom stalker (yes ik ranger isn't technically a martial), they were starting to move in the right direction on the martial/caster divide and buffing up weapon users. But of course, it didn't help because they went ahead and added things like chronurgy and peace.
@MagusKain
5 ай бұрын
That face when you realize you are the power creep.
@SortKaffe
5 ай бұрын
I hope Clockwork Soul and Aberrant Mind feature in the next video on examples that are ultimately good for the game. Sorcerers didn't have high satisfaction rating due to having the smallest number of spells known, thus, optimized sorcerers usually knew the same core spells with no room for picks that were only situationally useful. Tasha's helped show that going forward, every sorcerer subclass must have an expanded spell list that is always prepared (the same is true for Druid, Ranger, and Warlock). Luckily, we get a power level reset with the coming rules update.
@jacobjensen7704
5 ай бұрын
I find it really common now for DM’s to tell their Sorcerer to put together their own subclass specific spell list if they’re not playing an Aberrant Mind or a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer.
@AtesSu2006.
5 ай бұрын
This two is some type for power creep. Like gloomstalker vs rogue, it is clockwork soul vs wizard .
@marcos2492
5 ай бұрын
These 2 are so good is embarrassing WotC doesn't seem to be retroactively adding subclass spell to every other sorcerer sub
@wesselvanleeuwen7300
5 ай бұрын
Warlock only have them added to their Spell List, not their Known spells (sadly)
@tmzFRM
5 ай бұрын
The decision was good. The implementation not so much, I think the Clockwork Soul was an overcorrection. Sorcerer's already have a huge advantage over most casters because: a. they are the only full casters that have one free 'feat tax' covered by having proficiency with Con saves; b. they have more viable multiclass options than most full casters; c. they have much more flexibility with their casting with their metamagic. They should have a more limited spell list. The PHB was too limited and so those advantages were lost on a class that was too weak to be viable, but the Clockwork soul gave them access to most of the gamechanging spells that usually only wizards have access to and I don't think that it was good for the game. Not only because it is a power creep, but also because it bridged most of the gap that separated the concept of sorcerers from wizards.
@maybevoldemort8995
5 ай бұрын
The feat I really like but feels pretty power creep-ey, that I find really hard not to take on a wide range of characters is fey touched. Lots of characters can’t access Misty step and getting that plus one or a huge range of good spells (including silvery barbs), is really hard to not take. It is annoying that a lot of the time on a build I feel like I’m screwing myself by not taking that feat.
@CJWproductions
5 ай бұрын
Absolutely. Even if you don't cast spells it's worth considering. Even if you already know the spells!!
@ryancparker
5 ай бұрын
I love fey touched, but I make sure only to take it on my characters where it reinforces their story. They need to have a significant interaction with the Feywild. In addition to silvery bards, bless and dissonant whispers are great spells to consider.
@valentinrafael9201
5 ай бұрын
Peace dip is more like a taking the piss out of the dm dip.
@Ramschat
5 ай бұрын
Oddly enough, 'Shield' is actually still more broken that 'Silvery Barbs' as a defensive spell Silvery Barbs is only really broken when combined with spells such as 'hold monster'
@JaredHight-g4e
5 ай бұрын
As a more casual player, I feel rangers have gotten to the point where Gloomstalker isn’t an automatic pick. Drake warden and fey wanderer and swarm keeper seem strong enough to play by themselves, and I have a Tasha’s beast master who is effective. Gloomstalker is still the standout if you want to be an assassin, but I feel like it’s not a total nobrainer pick. As a dm I’ve tried to get my players to use spell scrolls and crafting them, but I’ve only had 1 player make them and he was a bit of a munchkin. And 8/10 times he didn’t even need them. Maybe it’s a power creep problem in the power gaming/optimizer community but as an average player at an average table most players hoard gold for magic items not scrolls. Compared to how busted shield is (+5 ac FOR THE WHOLE ROUND) I’m not against silvery barbs. Sure it can come in clutch at a bad moment but I prefer that to 30 ac wizard tank or counter spell. The advantage is cheep though, it didn’t need that.
@Tomeroche
5 ай бұрын
The Tasha's subs are good enough that you can actually pick one without feeling terrible for it, but in the end GS is still the most effective by far and the one that's still the Dip subclass for everything. Before it was like choosing a weapon between a rock, a pointy stick and a Gun. Now they added swords and halbeards to the mix, still nowhere near as good, but you won't feel completely jipped if you don't take the gun.
@slydoorkeeper4783
5 ай бұрын
Swarm Keeper looks the most fun to me. Gloom Stalker feels like a major table/encounter dependant subclass. But in those situations, kinda power gamey.
@donkeyfly43
5 ай бұрын
You also forgot to mention that “hex dip” gives you Eldritch Blast, the rarely resisted multi-target damage 120’ range attack roll cantrip
@irisinthedarkworld
5 ай бұрын
and shield, more importantly
@CruzaComplex
5 ай бұрын
Warlocks should get EB for free and it should scale off warlock level, not character level. Change my mind.
@floofzykitty5072
5 ай бұрын
A lot of people talk about powercreep as this inherently bad thing that developers should avoid at all costs or they aren't doing their job. Powercreep is inevitable. Period. I'm not going to go deep into the game design theory behind it but the TL;DR is that having more options is inherently a type of power, meaning even if you add some kind of "bare minimum" option you are increasing the power level within the game. That doesn't mean developers should just "give in" to it and let it run rampant, but it's like asking the government to stop inflation without understanding what inflation is or why inflation is bad. Powercreep is bad when the options that have been powercrept are so much weaker than the newer options that it begins negatively affecting how people feel about the game and how much fun they are having with it. It is so rampant in 5e because the game designers have a distinct philosophy where they cannot "invalidate" someone's book/merchandise they own by releasing an errata that directly contradicts it. They have to make new options and staple them as alternatives to the old one like they did with Ranger. I think this is an inherent design flaw in 5e because this contradicts their other design philosophy of not over-complicating 5e because it means that your previously simple Players Handbook characters now have all their constituent parts split across different books that, - surprise surprise, - you also have to purchase to acquire legally. This is quite literally a textbook example of the "simplicity paradox" where trying to oversimplify something leads to an incredibly complicated backend. The simplicity only works if you sort of squint and tilt your head sideways, but anytime you want to dig into something (say, to troubleshoot a ruling) it becomes unreasonably daunting than if it had originally been designed with fully explaining mechanics in mind.
@ryanwells137
5 ай бұрын
It gets so demoralizing when you're looking at options to build your character and having to dismiss half the subclasses because they don't reflect the current design philosophy of the game anymore. Warlocks have it really rough with the PHB subclasses feeling super old with effects that last one whole round with one use per short rest because WoTC didn't invent proficiency bonus times per day when the PHB came out.
@raivo1768
5 ай бұрын
I had to leave dnd due to this, finding pathfinder much more balanced and it’s fun being able to be viable with most every build
@groovydude4511
5 ай бұрын
Yeah I feel this too!
@TheBucketOfTruth
5 ай бұрын
I get what you're saying but Fiend is still one of the best Warlock subclasses in my view.
@Claviceptic
5 ай бұрын
Fiend is a great subclass, though. It's lasted the test of time imo. Wizards are about to ruin it in the new handbook, sadly.
@Tomeroche
5 ай бұрын
Short Rest? I'm pretty sure a lot of them are One Use per Long Rest. And then there's the Invocations where is basically learning a spell and using a spellslot or Acanum to cast it, instead of just adding the damn thing to the Warlock Spell List. Even Tasha's took a dump on them by making their Expanded Spell lists OPTIONAL so you don't actually automatically learn them, they're just added to the list you can choose from.
@tokenamblyopiac4474
5 ай бұрын
A few predictions for the next video: Tashas new class features (ranger especially) Beast master revision Mercy monk Additional battlemaster maneuvers New half feats like crusher or fey touched Buffs to bad races in monsters of the multiverse
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
You shall find out Monday.
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
surprised there's no mention of rune knight and giant barbarian, which completely change how grappler builds work for the absolute better lol. also i'd probably argue that dragon monk was more better for the game than mercy. Mercy does the gloomstalker thing of overloading the class with good features to address it being called weak, whereas dragon actually does a thing to alieviate their actual issue of overdependence of KI by giving them some free once a days.
@CratthewF
5 ай бұрын
Mercy monk would be wild imo. it d o e s make monk feel powerful, but it also feels like it makes any other monk subclass obsolete
@mayhemivory5730
5 ай бұрын
I wouldnt add the ranger revisions, since those are more of a glorified errata and thus not really powercreep. Same with the races; as per Chris definition, they dont take anything away by overshadowing other options. Fey Touched on the other hand … that shits just straight broken and belongs in this weeks video; I‘ve not seen a character since it released that didnt take it.
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
@@mayhemivory5730 that's a bit of an over exaggeration, imo. yes has fey touched been a very popular feat? yes. but it's not a must pick for casters by any right. not when telekinetic/telepathic existed at the same time, and divine touched would follow, not to mention warcaster still existing and casters still needing to make the choice of taking it now vs. fey touched, or putting it off later. and that choice right there argues against powercreep, because if it's a conscious choice you need to make, then that means it's not an auto-pick
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
let's not forget that silvery barbs was so explosively reacted to, that people forgot that the same book introduced an even worse example of powercreep: feats through backgrounds before the option exists in the PHB.
@KaitlynBurnellMath
5 ай бұрын
It's my understanding that setting backgrounds are never paired against feat-less backgrounds. If the DM is allowing setting backgrounds that give feats, they're supposed to also give feats to other backgrounds. (There's a curated list of feats they're supposed to give out, off the top of my head it often includes Lucky, Skilled, and Tough). So yeah, as a DM you're never supposed to have Quandrix Student background going up against, say, the Sailor background, unless you give the Sailor background some feats to pick from. Not saying no DM has ever misunderstood this rule, but in theory this isn't supposed to be run as just raw powercreep. You're supposed to either run no backgrounds that have feats, or give a feat to all backgrounds.
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
@@KaitlynBurnellMath i dunno where your understanding comes from, but it's definitely not based on actual rules or rulings. There's nothing in the books addressing settings backgrounds vs sourcebook backgrounds, the only thing close to that is the group and specifically the DM having power over what material is and isn't usable at a table. granted, what you're saying is a totally reasonable way to look at setting content, especially the strixhaven backgrounds, however it's not a rule that all players must use a certain subset of backgrounds in order for them to be used by anyone. it's just that one would hope that if someone brought the strixhaven book to the table, they'd be willing to let all the players use it if they wanted lmao. as a matter of fact, only recently has the adventurers league addressed this issue by havign a currated list of feats for players to take alongside a background should they allow dragonlance/strixhaven/giants BG in their tables and a player isn't using those sources. mostly because this won't be too big of an issue come september since the new PHB will have level 1 feats baked into backgrounds. Edit: yeah it looks like we're thinking of the same thing. what you're describing is the adventurer league rules. but adventurer's league is a format of play, not exactly a standard in which the rules of the game enforce. though my point about backgrounds stands as the rules were made specifically in response to the backgrounds introduced in strixhaven and dragonlance, and then in bigby's it became no longer able to ignore since that's an actual sourcebook and not a setting
@KaitlynBurnellMath
5 ай бұрын
@@lighthadoqdawg "There's nothing in the books addressing settings backgrounds vs sourcebook backgrounds" Uh, yes that does show up in the books, or at least some of them? From the Glory of Giants book: "If the Dungeon Master allows players to pick any of the two new backgrounds, then all characters in the campaign start with a feat at level one. Those who pick the backgrounds will have their associated feats, while everyone else will be able to pick between Skilled or Tough." From what I read online a similar disclaimer showed up in most of the other books that have backgrounds that offer feats (Dragonlance and Book of Many Things apparently say something similar).
@lighthadoqdawg
5 ай бұрын
@@KaitlynBurnellMath also since youtube won't let me edit my reply: Also bigby's was released 2 years AFTER strixhaven. that's two years of only setting based background-feats with no official sourcebook alternative. Hell, I was even mistaken and spelljammer mentions feat stuff but let's be real. the setting backgrounds are still far in a way better than the alternative. and it's /again/ not an PHB addendum, it's a rule in the addtional books themselves. my point bout the power creep still stands.
@sharmakefarah2064
4 ай бұрын
Hoo boy, that allows you to get 2 feats at once, or 1 feat and flight, which is very, very problematic powercreep.
@coldhotshot2
5 ай бұрын
I think while subclasses like the Gloomstalker and Echo Fighter are stronger compared to their own subclasses, the biggest and worst power imbalance comes from the PHB wizard over all the other classes. Even just looking at your tierlist, the Wizard is just so high up that they are the only class with PHB options on the A Tier, and matter of fact they have 6 of them. I honestly think the other classes such as Gloomstalker and Echo Fighter needed to exist for the Ranger or Fighter to be on equal footing to just the base Wizard. The other subclasses from those classes just need to be stronger, remade so they are also options that are fun to play while being able to shine outside of what the Wizard does.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
For sure, though that's not an example of power creep since Wizards have been like that since day 1 of 5th ed.
@Suichimo
5 ай бұрын
@@TreantmonksTemple That's an awful way to think about it, in my opinion. The bad classes being made less bad while the good classes remain good shouldn't be looked at as a bad thing. It's like back in 3.5 when everyone ragged on Tome of Battle, Path of War got this in Pathfinder 1E as well, for making GOOD melee classes that weren't relegated to being flunkies. I don't remember reading your thoughts on the ToB at the time, were you of the same kind of opinion on that?
@rohitraghunathan
5 ай бұрын
You also have to consider the financial incentive for power creep. WOTC makes their money by selling new books. And powerful new features sell more books.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
Yep, for sure.
@bulldozer8950
5 ай бұрын
In my first ever campaign we rolled really high which we didn’t even realize, and I looked up some strong builds to help us make decent builds so people wouldn’t build something that felt really weak since that would suck, but I ended up with a half elf lore bard that, after racial bonuses, had an 18, 16, 16, 14, 12, 12 and my sister had an arrakora gloomstalker with 18 18 12 10 10 8. Ya, we were a bit strong.
@paulfelix5849
5 ай бұрын
After several decades of playing the game (since early 1977), I can state confidently that 'power creep' is nothing new, nor limited to D&D. Almost every successful game will continue to grow to the point of unplayability. Essentially, the game producers will milk the success of the game by adding new stuff until its too bloated to deal with. TSR got right to that point before it collapsed. It happened to 3e. Thankfully 4e didn't survive long enough. Its happening now with 5e. And the fools in development think they can avoid the inevitable fall by 'retooling'. Not. They haven't gone back to a simple base as they did with 3e and 5e. They've taken the already overinflated 5e and just made it worse. That's one of many reasons why I'll not adopt the new 'edition'. It's doomed from the get-go. I predict 3 years before it blows up.
@SourceOfViews
5 ай бұрын
I think the worst problem for the caster-martial divide in D&D is that powercreep is mostly affecting casters. When a new book comes out, it's almost guaranteed to include spells, which means that casters get more powerful (unless all of the spells are bad, of course) while it's a true rarity for books to include new options for existing martial characters. So to take part in the "powercreep" as a martial, do I now have to abandon my character and make a new one with the cool new subclass?
@ryancparker
5 ай бұрын
I used to think the same thing about full casters being superior to martial characters, but at higher levels (starting in tier 3) where monsters have more resistances, immunities, solid saving throws and legendary saves, having a character with a magic weapon that can hit really hard takes center stage while casters are relegated to supporting roles.
@WombatDave
5 ай бұрын
@@ryancparker If you're playing a full spellcaster and you're using your turn to deal damage, you're doing it wrong anyway. Let the mortals swing their swords if they must, you control the entire battlefield. They may be on center stage, but the spotlight is aimed where you decide.
@ryancparker
5 ай бұрын
@@WombatDave What are your go to control spells at t3/4?
@WombatDave
5 ай бұрын
@@ryancparker Heavily depends on class, of course, and even more so on what the enemies can do. Mainly enemy movement options, as flying, burrowing, and teleporting all require different considerations. Wall of Stone is excellent against enemies that rely on walking to get where they need to be. Use it to divide the enemy forces, thus making some of them spend actions getting around the wall. If I spend one action to cast it, and getting around it eats up 3+ enemy actions, it is a cost well counted. Flesh to stone is another good one, given that it more or less forces the target to start making death saves if it fails the initial save. Granted, it targets constitution, making it less useful than it might otherwise be. If you have a way to force a failure on the initial save, however, it is basically 3 rounds of the restrained condition with the possibility of up to 5 rounds as well as taking that enemy out entirely if you get lucky. Power Word: Pain can be quite useful against enemy spellcasters. Reverse Gravity is incredible for the same reasons as Wall of Stone. If the party is fighting a group of creatures, half of them can be removed from the fight or reduced to less powerful ranged attacks. Also, saving against the spell is a lot less helpful than with other spells. Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Imprisonment. All very good. The best, in my opinion, is Maze. No save to resist the spell, a DC 20 Int check to escape, and escape attempts require an action on behalf of the target. This removes an enemy from the fight for at least one of their actions, and bypasses legendary resistance entirely. Also, that is an Int check, not a saving throw, meaning that even at the hard cap of 30 intelligence, the target has a 50/50 chance. A surprising number of high CR creatures also have a penalty to intelligence, which means they cannot succeed at all. There are other spells, of course, but those are some of my favorites at higher tiers.
@SortKaffe
5 ай бұрын
New feats is a stable of any new book too. Fighters and Rogues get to pick more feats than anyone else, so you can often access some interesting choices without changing your subclass. Magic items are also common in new books, so talk to your DM if you feel like your martial PC lacks interesting options.
@jonathanfaulkner878
5 ай бұрын
Words cannot describe my hatred of echo knights. I used to run an open campaign for my LGS, and there was this dude who made it his mission to cheese every single dungeon with that stupid unlimited teleport. I also originally agreed with your initial assessment of silvery barbs when it was released. But after seeing in an action with my group, I had to tweak it so that could only affect a creature once per round. I understand why DM‘s want to ban it. Otherwise everyone is a silvery barby girl in a silvery barby world.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
I also gave Silvery Barbs a chance and decided ultimately it was annoying.
@this_epic_name
5 ай бұрын
I made it a 3rd level spell.
@TheEliteJohan
5 ай бұрын
I find it odd that it doesn't just give disadvantage to an enemy and advantage to an ally. That might still be too powerful but rerolling is absurd and makes it more complicated than it has to be. Also lacking the pretty common "it must use the new roll" which would prevent stacking it.
@verdurite
5 ай бұрын
@@this_epic_name this, i'm not sure who at wotc thought it should be a first level spell
@insertphrasehere15
5 ай бұрын
@@TheEliteJohan I have done this as my ruling at my table (it just gives disadvantage to a roll that an enemy makes, and advantage to an ally)... the issue is that since this HB version requires the player to intervene BEFORE the DM rolls the dice, the player has to be hyper vigilant, and the DM has to announce everything before he rolls, pause for silvery barbs, then continue, which is its own flavour of timewasting and annoying (especially when the player says after you rolled without thinking and announced a hit/crit that they would have silvery barbsed). The Divination Wizard is annoying in the same way, that (as written) it has to be triggered before it is rolled, but the DM might roll something without telling the player. Most groups I've played with play the Divination wizard as a replacement, which is adding power to the feature, but also it has very limited use, so it's fine. Silvery Barbs being able to be cast lots and lots of times, and being able to be picked up via a feat dip by everybody is what makes it different than Divination.
@morganpetros9635
5 ай бұрын
Methinks you forgot your own bugbear fighter/wizard build when you said there was only one specific build for which bugbear is overpowered ... 😉
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
lol, true.
@KamasiFitzgerald
5 ай бұрын
I really dont think Echo Knights are in the same conversation as Chronurgy Wizards in terms of brokenness. They're by far the most fun I've ever had with a martial character (I love martials), and neither me nor my dm nor anyone in my party had an issue with any aspect of it 🤷 Teleporters are my favourite archetype so I was overjoyed to get to play one.
@luminous3558
5 ай бұрын
Echo Knight is mostly deserving of flak for being poorly written. The concept is good but its a class you gotta feel more than actually go with the RAW. Matt Mercer is a great DM but terrible game designer as shown by all his homebrew being janky and his own system being terrible.
@AlwaysGrowing0
5 ай бұрын
@luminous3558 As said by @KamasFitzgerald Echo Knights are not necessarily broken power wise, but they are definitely broken in terms of having horribly worded abilities Try explaining how a Ghost Lance/Force Lance build works to casual player. Hopefully, in OneD&D Echo Knights, come back as a subclass but with clearly written abilities.
@jasonfurumetarualkemisto5917
5 ай бұрын
Honestly, the fact that one of the best Martial Subclasses must use Magic to even feel on par with the average spellcaster is proof of how broken the game is overall.
@DuppyBoii187
5 ай бұрын
It was pretty jarring honestly. I've never played with anybody worried about echo knight power level. Fighters aren't good and it's not even at the peak of fighter. Oh no now you have 3 choices as a fighter to be half as good as picking a wizard. At least the dips make sense for the other complaints.
@sharmakefarah2064
4 ай бұрын
Yeah, while I do think it's poorly worded in it's abilities, it's clear that they're not nearly as broken as Chronurgy Wizard or Peace/Twilight Clerics. One's from Critical Role that has been officialized as a official book on DnD called Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, and the other ones come from either Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
@ChristnThms
5 ай бұрын
I either mostly or emphatically agree with each of these. But, you didn't even touch on what my biggest beef is with this creep. Options paralysis. Even with pen and paper, at release we could sit down and create a new character in a couple minutes, with the possible exception of spell selections if you didn't already know what you wanted. Each addition, even the good ones, slowed this down. It's become so cumbersome now that it's not even limited to creation. Every level up is a chore, and so many ambiguous feature interactions that I spend as much time explaining things to my players as I do introducing encounters. I'm not against an option heavy game with mechanical complexity, but we already had that before 5e came out. What 5e (supposedly) offered was a streamlined rules system and simple mechanics to facilitate newbie friendly and casual player friendly play. That's gone. Examined individually, I really do like MANY of the features and options that have been added. But taken as a whole, it completely undoes the thing that 5e was actually really good at.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
When the new PHB comes out, that's potentially a good time to start over and stop using some previous material.
@ChristnThms
5 ай бұрын
@@TreantmonksTemple yup. I've already begun the "PHB + Xanathar + current setting" rule for most settings based campaigns. It doesn't fix everything, but it keeps things a bit more manageable.
@ryancparker
5 ай бұрын
Feeling like you have lots of options is a good thing. This sounds like more of a personal problem with indecisiveness. I would implore you to focus on your character rather than the meta game. All of the sudden your decisions will become much more natural.
@Omnifarious42
5 ай бұрын
Each level-up is a chore? There's nearly nothing interesting in levelling-up, except the possibility of multiclassing... What are you smoking?
@ChristnThms
5 ай бұрын
@@Omnifarious42 obviously, the MC option is a part of it. But if you think that's it, and that the added options over the years don't make it more complex, then you're not paying attention. You can always choose a simpler game I guess.
@dreamwanderer5791
5 ай бұрын
Ah yes, Explorers Guide to Wildemount. The book only book that I've straight up banned from my games. Why? Because I've told players the *only* way I'd allow it is if they understood the rulings around what their subclass did. Universally, they get confused, and I have to explain I'd have to do that with every single interaction with the poorly worded features.
@BenHighley
5 ай бұрын
I love the echo knight. That's how powerful all martial classes should be.
@rylprd
5 ай бұрын
I'd call EGTM an official source book only because, along with Strixhaven, I've had players spend *significant* lengths of time arguing for content from the book (well...player...the artificer 1/rogue 1/wizard X simply *had* to be Chronurgy and have Silvery Barbs)
@zenovkayos5811
5 ай бұрын
Let me elaborate briefly on the comment you made " the new options overshadow the old options". The options available in the player handbook include basic fantasy tropes. Like a draconic sorceror or evocation wizard or a fiend warlock. But now, you cant pick these fantasy tropes because you must pick something like the moon/abberant mind/ clockwork sorceror, chrono/scribe wizard, or hexblade or even hexadin. As for races, elves can teleport as a racial ability. Some races just fly. Other races resist or are immune to some damage types. Among other things. And i am aware of the argument: a pro dm can handle / balance around it. But the scale got way too rediculous.
@RyanWBL
5 ай бұрын
To that point that of fantasy tropes being overshadowed, the genre of the game seems to have changed from classic fantasy to Furry/Scaly sci-fi or anime steampunk. Everyone is an anthropomorphic animal with an edgy hexblade dip (a dip with zero RP behind it). For my current campaign with both new and experienced players I've stopped allowing multiclassing as well as kept the races that only make sense to the setting (Classical Greek Mythos) and the game as improved significantly. Players are much less concerned with gaming the system and more into the campaign itself. Much easier to prep without having to calculate for wildcard power builds mixed with the newer player's vanilla PCs. Not to mention the genre of the campaign isn't subverted by Plasmids or a party that belongs in a Richard Scarry children's book.
@bdhatc
5 ай бұрын
It’s part of the sales model of their books. If the book doesn’t have better, a lot of people aren’t going to buy them. Cool new races, but they’re not any better; likewise on subclasses and feats and spells. I used multiple AIs to rate early class features. Gloomstalker, Twilight Cleric, Divination Wizard were three of the highest. I didn’t use Chronurgy or other later subclasses like Path of Giant. But everyone agrees those later ones are more powerful than Divination Wizard. Likewise with Barbarian.
@mayhemivory5730
5 ай бұрын
One thing that stands out to me is that Peace Cleric (as opposed to Hexblade) and flexible-stat YuanTi or costume lineage (as opposed to Bugbear or Haregon) are simply a lot more universal. They fit and display their full power on any build that you put them on. Peace dip isnt gonna out-hex the Hex dip on paladin; but only on paladin. Where you never put a hex dip on a rogue, you can totally put a peace dip and benefit.
@beybas5381
5 ай бұрын
I really hope every sorcerer and ranger subclass will get expanded spell lists in the new phb, not just tasha's and xanathar's
@FabRD
5 ай бұрын
Hunter deserves extra spells too, I think the new version of Jump would make sense and Beastmasters Share Spells sounds great on paper but other than using Zephyr Strike and Absorb Elements theres almost no good spells for the Ranger to use with that feature
@NotYourAverageNothing
5 ай бұрын
The weird thing about power creep in my experience with 5e is it’s hard to tell if things are actually too strong, or if the stuff they’re creeping over were weak to begin with.
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
There's no objective truth either way.
@dndhydrate
5 ай бұрын
Honestly my thoughts on Echo Knight is I like it because usually Fighter subclasses that isn't Battle Master tend to not do much to push the envelope for excitement and play VERY safe due to the existence of Action Surge and x3 Attacks. It does need a bit of tuning though, but I like how... crazy it is. Give me more fighters that try crazy things!
@matthewconlon2388
5 ай бұрын
The Xanathar and Tasha outliers aside I just don’t think this problem is as bad as presented. Yuan-Ti is a good example. “Snake person” is a rare concept for the average player. You’re basically only seeing YT PCs from scaly furry players who are universally not powergaming and usually opt for dragonborn anyway, or power gamers. Whiteroom builds and death matches just aren’t representative of the game in the wild. I’m a perfect example, I’ve built tons of murder machines but played only one (nuclear wizard in a one shot) largely because no matter what a hypothetical 11th level or 20th level looks like, the thought of not getting 2nd level spells at third and 3rd at 5th etc, is just unbearable. No amount of AC or martial proficiency makes up for it. But that’s me because I like wizards and warlocks and sorcerers.
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
You have a good point but then again it only takes one campaign with a single character who is light years ahead of the others to really sour the room.
@TheMoistOink
5 ай бұрын
It’s funny, when a player gets immunity it’s OP but monsters get so many immunities it makes certain builds completely useless for example, the poison condition is practically useless cause almost every monster has immunity to it. So why make a big deal when the player gets it? Some immunities make sense like a flame elemental not being hurt by fire but for every immunity there should be a counter weakness to balance the monster, example flame elemental weak to ice attacks, that would make fights much more interesting… I’ve looked at monster stats and honestly most limit players to go to the power creep route from the high limitations
@ThePF2EWizard
5 ай бұрын
"The DM could just run harder encounters" is the same mindset as in PF1E where number scaling gets so out of control that a party could be anywhere from a full group of tiny chickens to literal superheroes. If power creep gets out of hand, eventually 5e will run into the same problems that PF1E does in that the GM has no idea how to balance encounters because of how significantly different each player character is to the next in power. Granted, CR is practically meaningless in 5e as it stands, so I guess that's not too different to how it is now. Also, I'm not sure if others had mentioned this. Explorer's Guide was largely written by Matt Mercer, so it was absolutely a hands off project of WotC. It offers busted options that aren't technically official content, so a GM shouldn't feel bad refusing them.
@nolanatterbury157
5 ай бұрын
Re partnered content, I believe that labeling came about once they started adding 3rd party non official content like Taldorei and Grim Hollow and Drakkenheim. I had been running Call of the Netherdeep and went to look after finishing the campaign, only to find it there now rather than under adventures.
@nolanatterbury157
5 ай бұрын
Feels like the Rick and Morty, netherdeep and Wildemount are now the “attacks with a melee weapon” to official contents “melee weapon attacks”
@ChickenSoupMusic
5 ай бұрын
Power creep and diversity is easy to counter. Add an extra monster or two or environmental or lair effect or time challenge. Easy to do on the fly too with extra HP. And a usable power loops can be avoided with a session zero friendly conversation. I think a good balance is if your character can do something cool like that you’ll allow it once or twice for cool RP moments but you aren’t going to let it break things over and over and take away from other players. For Al builds being feat starved and custom lineage etc the solution is to just give everyone a first level feat and take it off the table.
@mythrilsentinel1
4 ай бұрын
2 Power Creeps of my own: #1:Bugbear Assassin. Yikes; he killed 4 BBEGs in a row, right off the hop (they didn't even get a round of combat). #2, Tabaxi Shadow Monk (17) Assassin Rogue (3) c/w Mobility feat. I assassinated a Quickling before he knew what hit him. Wildmount, I believe, was a Critical Role setting, IIRC. Hence why it is listed on Beyond as it is. That, and take a look of the recent divergence of CR from D&D.
@AlwaysGrowing0
5 ай бұрын
For good examples of power creep I really like Steady Aim for rogues. Additionally the Genie warlock was really cool and a breathe of fresh air for a different style of warlock.
@aldrinvendt8524
5 ай бұрын
I'm sure someone already mentioned it, but shepherd druid is insane from xanithars guide. combine that with one of the tasha clerics ( my favorite being twighlight) and you just kinda win everything. In a druid8/cleric2 split, you have exploration(wild shape) damage (conjure animals) tanking (conjure animals) and healing and support, (twighlight cleric). You get major main character syndrome, and it doesn't even rely on you having good stats. The only thing you can't do very well is be the party's face.
@pdubb9754
5 ай бұрын
One of my pet peeves was there all along. The Guidance cantrip. It boosts ability score rolls. You know what is an ability score roll? Initiative. What is more annoying than the 1d8 boost to initiative that Gift of Alacrity gives a player for 8 hours? Another player spamming Guidance every minute to get a boost to initiative, just in case the DM calls for it. Bonus annoyance points if they keep reminding you.
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
Yes they need to absolutely limit it to once per character per day as in the first UA. Help action + Guidance makes skill monkey characters utterly irrelevant and that sucks.
@davidholman6709
5 ай бұрын
There's another form of power creep where players get abilities rhat undermine parts of the game that might be tricky to deal with. Things like darkvision, dealing force damage, and immunity to fear/charm effects.
@croket07
5 ай бұрын
I have a player who uses Silvery Barbs and I never really thought of it as much of a problem. In fact, I think it has had some of the more exciting moments for the players when they get to dodge a crit that would have taken someone out of the fight. I do agree it's a very powerful spell but it also has some fun moments to it.
@BrandonPaul
5 ай бұрын
The bugbear feature comes up in my game a lot, but the reason why it bothers me is that it makes our stealth characters feel really awkward when the bugbear barbarian is somehow doing more damage with 'surprise attacks' than they can do.
@PrivateUsername
5 ай бұрын
You are basically explaining why I ban multiclassing outright. No multiclass. No hex dip. No Gloom-anything. Pick a class, a subclass, and that's "you" for 20 levels.
@timothyburger6715
5 ай бұрын
This might be a controversial opinion but I love the fact that the baseline of power in 5e has gone up. I played 3.5/PF for quite a few years in to 5Es lifespan, and XGtE and TCoE was a REASON to switch. Early 5e seemed TOO much of an overcorrection from the excessive crunch of 3.5 to me and I'm very happy that it's finally meeting in the middle of those points.
@joshuahampton6141
5 ай бұрын
I think a feature like Twilight Sanctuary that was active rather than passive would work better. Spells that hand out temporary hit points are sorely lacking, so an archetype or spell list oriented around them would be cool. Alternatively, just make the cleric use a bonus action on their turn to pump out more temp HP with the feature. Maybe even their Action.
@LordNerfherder
5 ай бұрын
Silvery barbs most powerful tool is not the defensive one as mentioned - it effectively double many characters spell slots, giving them two chances to land their, perhaps only, high level spell - giving an exponential increase in chance to end a fight during the first turn. This is absolutely ridiculous for a level 1 spell. Your level 1 spell can give double the odds of you landing your high level spell slots. This is almost like doubling the ammount of highest spell slots you have. Absolutely crazy design. PC defensive power is fine to me as a DM. I dont mind the heroes heroically surviving. I can always make encounters deadlier when needed. But them just shutting things down with too much ease makes it not worse for me as a DM but for the players. But doubling the odds on every single highest level spell use for the rest of their career? ....
@damianmagecraft2402
5 ай бұрын
I have (and still) argue that the level 1 designation is an editing error and WotC has just kept doubling down on it rather than admit to a mistake.
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
It's equivalent to a feature that costs 3 sorcery points. It's not "double your spell slots".
@Amia_the_Smol
5 ай бұрын
I'm honestly a bit surprised there was no mention at all of the feats and backgrounds in the Strixhaven section. Most of the arguments I've seen for banning Strixhaven content as a whole come down to either the mascots being overtuned for a familiar or the backgrounds being overtuned in general.
@jukie102
4 ай бұрын
Honestly, the most universally used but broken options are sharpshooter and great weapon mastery. It almost trivializes every melee or ranged attack build without it. Every D&D rankings video I've seen subtly suggests these as must-have feats. I've played since AD&D and I've never seen so many players using great weapons. It's not even questioned since its in the player's handbook. It would balance out slightly if one handers could get a feat with -3 hit, +5 damage. Honestly, the only reason not to use it is sneak attack, but then your rogue definitely has sharpshooter. I just want to see how the game plays out if either none of the players have these two feats or most of the enemies have them.
@sharmakefarah2064
4 ай бұрын
A dishonorable mention goes to Mizzium Apparatus from Ravnica, for 2 reasons. One, it lets spellcasters prepare too many spells, especially situational ones. And 2, it gets worse with multiclassing into full casters allowing you to get more spells from different spell lists, allowing you to take exclusive spells like Synaptic Static/Feather Falling/Silvery Barbs/Shield while getting the other situational spells from spell lists. It really should be an example of why sometimes you need to be very careful with introducing new items without considering the other rules of the game.
@brentpnw9091
5 ай бұрын
It seems like they should just update more subclasses to even things out… they could use informatics on DnD beyond for a start. If only a few players use the least powerful subclasses… give them a minimally or moderately useful feature. Who wouldn’t like an Arcane Archer with a free woodworking tool proficiency, extra utility or combat options for a Fathomless warlock’s Tentacle (think a weaker bigbys hand) or an extra fighting style on a Hunter Ranger? Subclasses no one uses might as well not be in the game… adding a few fun features might make them playable enough to see some action. This works for PC races as well. Gnomes, Sea elves, Tiefling, tritons, etc could use some serious love to get players excited to use them again. So many players want to play Shadar Kai Vengeance paladins with a Hexblade multiclass. It would be nice if they supported more variety by balancing things better.
@JobbutBlade
5 ай бұрын
The fact that Echo Knight, a class that would be a novel sidegrade at best in any other edition or system, is treated as if it was a world-shaping level of powercreep for D&D 5e is the perfect proof of how absolutely WotC fumbled Martials in every aspect of play.
@1217BC
5 ай бұрын
Yeah, I read the Wildemount content and immediately relegated that book to the "fun to read, not showing up at my table" pile.
@NotRealAkira
5 ай бұрын
Honestly the whole Yuan-Ti thing was never really a problem in our group. Nobody picked it because we play custom campaigns, not modules, and because of that poison damage wasn't all that common in our games. Same for enemy casters. People in my group felt like the race was too situational and simply never used it.
@Mando0Melkor
5 ай бұрын
As far as I know CR kinda broke apart from wizards after the ogl debacle. They made a game system and all. Wizards shot it's own foot so bad I'm really amazed it took this long for the ceo to be replaced.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
They didn't even get rid of her, she quit.
@lucaspiresribeiro4293
5 ай бұрын
When it comes to CEO, quitting a lot of times means she was invited to leave by the board
@thomashull7776
5 ай бұрын
I'm currently playing as part of a meme-team known as "The Silvery Bards". You can guess what our schtick is.
@frankiepineda9
5 ай бұрын
I find it surprising to hear you say this stuff after having just listened to your video on Lvl 20 play (especially your thoughts on Silvery Barbs). PHB already has a lot of powerful things (Conjure Animals👀). D&D always requires a social contract between everyone to make sure the game feels fun. If you are pulling shenanigans (scribing a ton of scrolls of goodberry for unlimited healing, orrrrr summoning 24 velociraptors) and one of your friends say they don’t enjoy participating in that play style, you should stop doing that. But if everyone is on board (including the dm) that level of power can be super fun!
@MrSpectralfire
5 ай бұрын
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the backgrounds with a feat from Strixhaven and Glory of the Giants.
@MrDavidKord
5 ай бұрын
Battlemaster is as good as Echo Knight and is better than Rune Knight. Echo Knight is amazing, but the way it's most amazing is in utility, which the fighter was sorely lacking in. The only way I'd consider it the outright best fighter is at 17th-20th level, where it has a second clone. This is a crazy strong feature, but all it does is allow it to keep up with 8th and 9th level spells, which martial characters should be able to do. It's certainly not more powerful than a smite crazed Vengeance Paladin/Champion Fighter/Sorcerer build, or even a pure capstone Vengeance Paladin at 20th level. I dunno. It's great, but I think it's great in a fun way, and allows for creating a character that literally has to have a good story in order to work mechanically.
@virplexer1428
5 ай бұрын
Speaking of power creep… I think cartomancer deserves a mention. With magic initiate they put a lot of restrictions on that first level spell you get, but with cartomancer it seems like they forgot any of them.
@KingKevin108
5 ай бұрын
A paladin 2 / Full-caster 8 can cast Destructive Wave. Helluva oopsie
@dappercadavear7677
5 ай бұрын
The warforged before the physical version of the Eberron book had the same problem as the yuan-ti where they could have effective scaling magic armor over the levels
@powernade
5 ай бұрын
They likely moved the Wildemount book ever since the crit role team started making their own rpg
@zaraizabella
4 ай бұрын
playing a heist campaign, lots of sneaking around a robbery I'm a mobile thief druid legacy Yuan Ti We have a gloomstalker ranger who abuses being invisible all the time One of the people who pops in as a guest player had an echo knight for a few sessions, and he had a bug bear for another few sessions our party is full of power gamers lol but the GM is very brutal, so it evens out The echo knight blew me away when I saw how much damage he did, and how he could attack through a ghost
@ren_suzugamori1427
5 ай бұрын
Hot take: if you, as a dm, dislike how the player options in expansion books take the power away from you and make the players a challenge to challenge, just don't allow them in your game. If *ALL PLAYERS MUST HAVE ALL OPTIONS AVAILABLE* D&D is not for you.
@shamuswilliams
5 ай бұрын
You're correct, JC did say Wildmount was official content because it was published by WotC, regardless of who thought up the material in the first place. As for discussion of power creep in general, I always wonder who play tested new material when it's found to be overpowered - or even worse, underpowered. Don't the developers play games using the new options before they publish them? And if not, why not?
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
It costs money and they'd rather make it than spend it.
@maybeitsbroken
5 ай бұрын
love to hear what you have to say about the giants book, wow those feats are crazy
@pheralanpathfinder4897
5 ай бұрын
I intentionally built a weak character with the Giant Strike background feature. It has helped close the gap. The level four feature should put me in the mic with the power gamer builds.
@MemphiStig
5 ай бұрын
Good to know "hex dip" (which *of* *course* I did). In my AD&D group, we didn't consider anything beyond the PHB, DMG, and Monster books as official, and therefore, they weren't allowed. Later, I played at more open tables, but the OG's I knew didn't allow anything unofficial for just this reason. The options in Dragon magazine or Unearthed Arcana were unbalanced and frequently way op. UA especially was a power gamer's paradise. 2e seemed a lot more balanced in that way, but it was bloated like a Hutt, and like Jabba, it deserved what it got.
@Shadraen1
5 ай бұрын
Why are you listing all my favorite options? :D
@pontusleblanc1481
5 ай бұрын
This is why you should homebrew. If someone picks something too powerful then give the other players a boost. Pick the race/class that thematically you like and then balance. Honestly race should be a point buy of different racial abilities and you can skin it however you like.
@anfromanx1981
5 ай бұрын
Look at the time it takes to make it on scrolls, not broken in any campaign I play. We actually made it quicker because we literally spend 1 night for 1 day in game
@SpruceReduce8854
5 ай бұрын
I wonder if gloomstalker and echo knight were meant to "fix" the imbalance between martials and casters
@felipepincelli6466
5 ай бұрын
They were. They did the same with the Warlock class. Warlocks are very weak because they only have 2 spellslots. So now they release overpowered subclasses to compensate (looking at you, Hexblade).
@jasonfurumetarualkemisto5917
5 ай бұрын
Ah Release more magic based subclasses to fix the Martial Caster divide. Absolute ClownWorld decisions from WoTC.
@DuppyBoii187
5 ай бұрын
Gloomstalker was a heavy handed way of trying to not make a shit ranger subclass. Echo knight is no better than battle master. Is a subclass too strong if its worse than 80% of full caster builds, worse than most pally builds and worse than playing another class with the usual fighter dip instead? Are we really complaining that now there's 3 ways for a fighter to be a middle of the pack combat character, which is it's strong point? Is it power really power creep that every ranger now goes gloom? Idk considering none of these people would touch ranger otherwise. Gloom breaks the game in multiclass sure, but so do 100 other things if you're power gaming. On the other hand just picking the caster/cha classes is still stronger than gloomstalker on its own. Same for hexblade, not particularly good without multiclass. I don't play with people trying to break the system anymore and these subclasses are very cool and well balanced on their own.
@eightbyte1
5 ай бұрын
"an obvious choice is less choice, and overwhelming choice is no choice" - tsun zu, probably
@XiremaXesirin
4 ай бұрын
15:39 I will say, my experience with Silvery Barbs has been that the spell is more /annoying/ than it is powerful, because it's a 1st level interrupt that slows down combat because a player could declare an attempt to "counter" an effect at pretty much any time. More versatile than Shield and also has a secondary effect (give Advantage to someone else) that just make the game slower. Also, it *NEEDS* to be banned in any PvP scenario, because that problem gets exponentially worse, and it's a lot less fun (and debateably more powerful) when it's used against players.
@andyik9009
5 ай бұрын
The new sorcerer subclasses getting more spells is good powercreep. I am currently playing one of the old sub classes. And i feel so restricted by only having 7 leveled spells on character level 6.
@avengingblowfish9653
5 ай бұрын
So what do you do about all this power creep? Fix it, ban it, or just roll with it?
@PiroMunkie
5 ай бұрын
I think Wildemount was recently added to Partnered Content once D&DBeyond starting including other third party sources like Dungeon Dudes, etc. I remember discovering this when trying to find the Critical Role-specific spells that I used to be able to find but now had to toggle Partnered Content to "yes". In my opinion, they always should have been listed a Parterned Content/unofficial because regardless of whatever hand WotC had in their publication, so many aspects of the spells and classes lack the kind of verbiage we'd expect from an official publication. There are a lot of things I've never allowed because they're not written well. To be fair, this is just Critical Role, the Witch class playtest from Brennan Lee Mulligan's Worlds Beyond Number podcast was also riddled with things that were either just wildly overpowered or utterly useless. As much as we love our actual play shows, you really have to take their content with sort of a grain of salt because they're designed specifically with their table in mind. Where it only works because of mutual trust and investment between player and DM and the fact they're trying to make an entertaining show.
@wazzledog1007
5 ай бұрын
Whenever a player pitches a twilight or peace domain cleric for a campaign, I make it very clear that they may do so, but I will have more fun if they don't. Sometimes we talk about the math behind them, sometimes we don't. Either way, everyone has found something else they've been excited about. I get a ton of them in one shots tho.
@chriscampion6721
5 ай бұрын
I know you have done some great content on DC20 already, and the game is in a bit of flux being in an alpha state but is there any plans to consider doing some optimized build videos or rule analysis for that system?
@godminnette2
5 ай бұрын
I would strongly recommend against this for the reason you stated: the game is in high flux due to the alpha. The devs have overhauled both core options and specific overtuned features, and are highly likely to do so again once or twice more before the beta.
@chriscampion6721
5 ай бұрын
@@godminnette2 only one more alpha (0.7) is due before beta which will be coming when the Kickstarter closes (starts 6/4). Also that's why I said plans, as in the future when the system is more set.
@godminnette2
5 ай бұрын
@@chriscampion6721 I was counting the 0.8 release in the "two major updates" bit, but yeah.
@TreantmonksTemple
5 ай бұрын
I'm definitely planning to cover more DC20 content at some point, though builds will probably not happen until it's officially published.
@mtr2457
5 ай бұрын
did not expect to see smite art on this channel haha! contextually relevant for talking about powercreep tho.
@Seraphzero0
5 ай бұрын
I appreciate the time and attention you bring to these topics and I eagerly await the follow up video to this but I fear this video stokes a fire that doesn’t need to be there. Let’s not forget that this game works on collaboration. More options help players and DMs bring new character concepts into existence. If built correctly, non-multi classed “subpar” choices can out perform the “meta” choices. (Like Colby’s nature cleric). Instead of worrying over a power ranking, shouldn’t we work on our people skills and work to fit character concepts into to story we want to tell together? I have the highest respect for you and your content so I hope this didn’t come off harsh but I’m getting tired of hearing about this because it does more damage to the game than the content to which it is directed. (At least in my opinion)
@tjrooger1092
5 ай бұрын
On the fence with Strixhaven Backgrounds, now anyways. Before, they were crazy OP with free feats. Now, more books are giving them. The only reason I bought Book of Many was to add the backgrounds to my automated player options, so everyone didn't have to copy/paste anymore. Actually looking forward to 5th Revision just for the fix to free feats.
@zachbreth9696
5 ай бұрын
Just for a bit of texture I want to mention some power creep that is a mixed bag. I was thrilled when booming blade and greenflame blade came out because it was so very helpful for rogue dpr. But by now I am very very very tired of those cantrips. Especially booming blade.
@apjapki
5 ай бұрын
There need to be waaaay more options for blade cantrips just for variety in parties. They need like 5x.
@plissken2245
5 ай бұрын
In AD&D, you got land and followers at high level. 5e is superhero D&D and the world is more like Animal Jam than Tolkien.
@12ARedSon
5 ай бұрын
But Chris, my one level dip in Peace Cleric turned my Grippli Mercy Monk into a useful party member 😢😂
@KnightoftheRose98
5 ай бұрын
I don't know if it is fair to include Explorers Guide to Wildemont in this. Those classes are setting specific classes and a DM should understand they aren't necessarily meant for other settings.
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