It kind of feels like an extra slap in the face. Especially since Divine favor doesn't even require having to use constant bonus actions to reapply the effect.
I don't get how they decide what is concentration and what not. I would say any mayor duration spell that does aoe or takes an enemy out of the fight should be concentration. The same for major buffs and debuffs. Minor damage or ac buffs to one player probably can do without concentraion. I think abou hunters mark and even things like spiritual weapon. Hex might be different as disadvantage on saving throws can be quite the debuff.
@lukerazer9565 I would normally use grasping vine to pull a creature into an area of effect, so double damage is nice. But grappling them in there potentially locking them down is definitely the part I am more excited about.
Literally yes, because you can use grasping vine to hold a creature in someone elses area spell, like, idk, Hunger of Hadar, you do have to cast grasping vine first, and then have the warlock cast HoH over it, then each turn you can grab enemies near the HoH and pull them in feet first like a fluffing horror movie, and up to 2 creatures if you upcast it to 5th level So cool
@aaronwilliams8887 it says the grapple has an escape DC, there were talks of grapple being a save at the end of your turn but it looks like that didn't go through, so it takes your action to repeat the saving throw, I will combo this with the warlock throwing a HoH over the top of the grasping vine for utter maddness and dragged into the darkness
Swift Quiver, ah yes, the pinnacle Ranger Spell, the most expensive (5th Level) resource they have, the most POWERFUL (4 attacks in turn) spell they have.... And you have have to give up Hunters Mark, Advantage and that potential messily DPS boost if at level 20. Never have I seen a class in any game that is so conflicted with itself that no matter what the player does they will feel like they are doing it wrong. How on earth did they ever approve this??
@@jacobjensen7704 exactly, the only unearthed arcana that got a good response for ranger was the first one where they just removed concentration on HM, sure ranger need a lot more, but the reaction was positive with that, they said their next steps was only to "fine tune" the ranger and we ended up with this, completely different and not fun.
In my games I'm going to homebrew it so that the hunter's mark feature that makes it so you can't lose concentration anymore reads that you no longer need to concentrate on hunter's mark period. I feel it's very fitting that a character that has presumably been spamming this spell for a vast majority of their career in battle (before and after, as well) can now do so effortlessly, and it's at such a high level you can't really dip for it.
@@waltercosta2067 except it really isn’t different which pisses me off even more. Half the classes “new” features were just ripped out of Tasha’s with minor tweaks and the rest were features tied to Hunter’s Mark, a mid tier spell at best that became a Ranger staple because the class had no damage features unlike every other martial and half caster because it was designed so poorly back in 2014 and now the band-aid features from Tasha’s, which I had long assumed to be stand-ins for a potential redesign down the road, now seem to be the permanent official fix because WotC clearly have no idea how to fix Rangers. Case in point, they fixed Monk and Monk was WORSE than the post-Tasha’s Ranger.
Druid really came out on top with the rebalancing, which shows how bad the spell list was in the past. Druid always had great spells, but it was a few great spells and mostly nonsense.
@@acephas3 Agreed. The druid got a lot of quality-of-life updates that remove or fix frustrating aspects of playing it! Now it feels like it competes with the wizard, sorcerer and cleric being an effective full caster, and similarities to the cleric being a fellow armored caster that can handle some physical combat if you want.
Eh, I actually really liked the druid spell list already. All of the concentration really forced me to be creative with them, and anticipate situations we might end up in to choose the appropriate options. The challenge of balancing that out was something I personally found really enjoyable. However, I also realize that I'm completely biased since druid is my favorite class. Lol
@@minikawildflower that's fair. I always really liked how the cleric and druid were really similar but leaned towards different specializations. Clerics have more damage, better buff/support skills, and generally better armor options, while druids have better crowd control and a lot more utility options . With them both having good healing, and being able to change prepared spells every day, they can end up having very different kits while still being able to fill in for each other when needed. Love having both in a party.
@@Armored-ArtisanAnd, if I read these rules correctly, you can cast a leveled spell with an action on subsequent turns and still do the BA 1d12 because that doesn't require a spell slot to do.
Another improvement to Witch Bolt is the range doubling from 30 to 60, especially with the ability to break the connection by stepping out of range. Before a caster dropping it on an enemy 30 ft away, all they have to do is take a step back and they are out of range and it drops. Now if you drop it on them at 30 ft, they'd have Move and Dash to break it, and that's if they realize that it can be dropped by distance. Much less likely for it to get accidentally broken by distance now.
I never ever ever ever ever support costly gold (especially consumed on-cast) components for spells. Especially as a way to "re-balance". The problem is, is that the severity (or lack thereof) of this cost entirely varies table to table. This could be crippling, or it could be trivial. Strange, because Jeremy has said that they wanted to move away from "mother may I...?" design elements, but costly consumed components is *exactly* that. Force cage needed rebalancing, that's not my issue, but yeah the component piece was not the way to do it.
They have better guidance for treasure by level in this edition. So it should be easier to control it or negotiate with a DM if you are under par. As a DM, I like this as a limiter. It keeps some of the rare and powerful spells in check. It is better than making them all 9th level or something.
@@johnmickey5017 Just nerf the magic if you need to keep it in check. 1500g should be a cosmetic cost at level 13, but some tables are giga-stingy. Each PC at the table should have 40,000g in coin wealth plus their magic items by level 13. Unless you're dropping force cages on kobolds and not saving them for demon lords, you should be fine - unless the DM is stingy like 70% of them are because they don't want to bother with coins often and just give out magic items.
@@mogalixir You can sell magic items... Also ever stopped to consider that 40.000 is a ridiculous amount of gold? You're basically DnD Bezos by that point. Fuck having 7th level spells. With that kind of money you could hire an army. If you think those DM's are being stingy for not letting you acquire the money to buy a bloody nautiloid by just randomly strolling through the country and finding it on the way, you simply have no grasp on worldbuilding or consistency.
Note on swift quiver. It specifically calls out the use of arrows and bolts now. While firearms were optional before you could technically use swift quiver to retrieve bullets provided they were stored inside of a quiver. No longer the case there.
@@cassun603 Depends on setting. Have guns entirely replaced all other ranged infantry weapons in your world? Then definitely. Is your world in that halfway point where guns are useful but too expensive to outfit normal soldiers with? Then give it some thought and decide, could go either way. Are guns either brand new or your party happens to have the only one that exists? Not a chance in hell.
I’m guessing the restriction was mainly to prevent rules lawyers from making some sort of “TECHNICALLY” argument for their homebrew item launcher. This way it’s explicitly defined to be standard ammunition and any exceptions to that are up to the dm to decide. I am in favor of this sort of change
Phantasmal Killer has such a striking name that I have to imagine it was a fairly common "trap" to fall into previously. Especially for anyone who was an Illusion Mage who wanted as many illusion spells as possible. So it's nice that it has been made so much more serviceable.
I still miss the 3.5e version of Phantasmal Killer that lived up its name... You got a Wisdom save AND and Constitution save, but if you failed both, you just died.
@@GrimViridianfeels awesome for a player to land it on someone but definitely not fun for a party without a cleric or some source of revivify to step on a glyph of warding with it inside and suddenly have to say goodbye to someone
Yeah that loophole has "but teeeechnicalllly..." written all over it. I don't think the majority of DMs would ever allow it. Then again I don't think the majority of players would want to ruin a campaign with simulacrum loop.
There's a tiny modification in the Wish spell implying that the duplication effect is in fact the same as casting the spell. So the loophole is closed.
Another valid pet peeve about the original daylight spell is that if you planned on using it against creatures that have sunlight sensitivity like drow for example it wouldn't effect them but it would effect the playable drow race because npc sunlight sensitivity specifically mentions sunlight while pc sunlight sensitivity specifically mentions bright light
Simulacrum says it can’t take rests. It does NOT say it doesn’t need them. Unless the resting rules have changed, it’s going to accumulate exhaustion every day until it dies.
Simulacrums are constructs, like Golems they don't sleep (that is also why cure wounds doesn't do anything on them). And they don't learn anything. They are kinda creepy if you really want to know. That's one reason why Clone is a higher level spell.
Thank you again for kindly showcasing the new content on a black background. I know it may not seem like much to most but it's so much easier on the eyes.
Grasping vine got buffed so much damn. Damage, pull distance, upcasting and the ability to grapple people on hit (NO SAVE). The grappling part was glossed over in the video but that's a huge improvement. Unless they changed it, the escaping the grapple condition takes an action. So not only are you pulling people (potentially into an AoE effect, or through spike growth), you're also forcing them to use their action to potentially move out, and this only costs you your bonus action. Definitely a spell worth considering on our nature boys. Especially when at 13th level, when rangers get this, your full casters have nastier AoE effects.
It's also a druid spell so you can pull it off much earlier than 13th level. Unfortunately druids are also the ones who would be casting spike growth but it can still be combined with any other casters doing a powerful concentration spell.
From the Daylight spell: _”Alternatively, you can cast the spell on an object that isn’t being worn or carried,”_ Cleric: “I ready an action to cast Daylight on the head of the longbow fighter’s arrow immediately after they fire at the vampire.”
or maybe at least it doesn't count towards concentration limit (it means you can lose it still, but it doesn't stop you from using a second concentration effect)
In some DnD coven somewhere: "Yes! Now that it always works, Witch Bolt will kill things! Is it this one? Or this one? Or this one?" *Concentration gets broken* "Which bolt were we talking about, again?"
2d12 damage for a 1st level spell is not abysmal, even without concentration. However, even if you don't concentrate, I believe Witch Bolt will break any concentration you have ongoing.
The change to Leomunds Tiny Hut feels more like a buff than a nerf. The people inside can now sling high level spells out of it. Since you can't see into it from the outside most enemy spells won't work anyway.
@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38 Honestly if I have a spellcaster that can cast 3rd level spells it wasn't a problem anyways as it could just be dispelled. You could give even lower level spellcasters just a scroll so they could deal with it. I just assume that any spellcaster probably has a dispel magic scroll if at all possible as it deals with so many problems. The important question is what counts as a magic effect. If more monsters have magical attacks this could be a mayor debuff.
Yes. There were enough ways to get around leomund's that it wasn't a huge problem, just something you had to be prepped for as a GM. Oh, my PCs slept in the hut? They wake up to find the entire dungeon waiting for them because a giant opaque block just took up shop in the dungeon... any intelligent creature is going to just go back to their boss and say 'hey, something effed up just plopped itself in the middle of the hall back a ways, maybe we should be alarmed?'
Upcasting fireball or lightning bolt into a tiny hut is devastating. So is any aoe spell into the area. You're right about the visibility being a major issue though.
and bonus action cast. takes a meh spell that felt like a martial tax in tier 2 and turns it into something i'd look forward to running either as support for martials or on gish builds
Mordenkainen's sword now moves 30' as well, that is a huge improvement to only moving 20' - now it will likely get to hit something most rounds. Perhaps still underwhelming, but like Spiritual weapon in general I'd argue very useful in the right situation - the effective weaponisation of your bonus action for an entire combat is pretty darn good when you can really make use of it. Especially if you don't have any other great use for the BA.
Except wizards can weaponize their bonus action much more effectively with Bigby's Hand which is 2 levels lower spell and can do other things than just damage too.
@@Klaital1 I agree its still another good alternative though there are swings and roundabouts there still - at least assuming Bigby's hasn't been altered it can be destroyed and with the dex modifier probably will be quickly by the later game AOE effects. Also assuming the same casting level the upcast Bigby's has more die, but not your spell casting modifier to the damage - one has higher maximum potential the other a higher minimum damage and the average is going to be similar depending on what your hand is doing. And I doubt everyone who can get one will be able to get the other in the end either - making it only a choice between them for some.
I think Id still prefer Crown of Stars in almost any situation. Its 3 less rounds of possible hits, but like... that Really probably wont ever come up. Since MSword only lasts a single combat anyway.
@@MrSeals1000 For sure. Also Crown of Stars can target anything within 120'. And it lasts an hour (super easy to cast pre-combat, saving an action). And it doesn't require concentration. But, hey the sword does +5 damage and doesn't have to worry about all those radiant-immune creatures.
24:52 Simple homebrew that I think is true to the RAI in the wording of wish: I'd assume that you cast the duplicated spell through Wish with the specific differences described in the wish spell (which includes spell's requirements, but not the spell effect: if the spell description "simply taking effect" includes not being able to cast it as a simulacrum this incompatibility is not solved by casting it using wish because it is part of the spell effect).
From what I've seen, Animate objects also seems to have been severely modified. Number of objects down, total DPR down, AC down, object HP down and lower dex (which make the objects very vulnerable to popular AOE spells). Best results involve using the larger objects instead of tiny ones, but medium sized and smaller adventurers might find it awkward to carry around large objects with them. Damage is now force though, and the to-hit bonus is your spell attack mod so it does go with caster level instead of being stuck at +8, so a few minor benefits. I do like that they've made them act straight after the casting player.
I believe the intended flavor has always been improvisation with objects in the space. If so, "awkward to carry around large objects with them" would not be considered relevant by the designers.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the sheer number of hours you've put into clarifying things for the rest of us. I'm sure in some ways it's a labor of love, but I also imagine it's truly tedious at times, and your hard work is appreciated.
@@feltrix334 And also that it blocks line of sight, so you can't use any of the low level teleport abilities that require you to see where your going to get out of it. Or any other abilities that require you to see the target outside it for that matter.
@@DukeTrout Oh damn, it's even worse than I thought, would think a 'solid box' would be opaque, but I guess not. Well yeah then there really isn't any reason to cast forcecage over wall of force.
Either WoTC made a mistake and failed to clarify that the target has to be afraid because of Weird or it was intentional, which gives us some interesting character/BBEG options (e.g. CQ Paladin 3, Undead Warlock 17 as a literal death knight).
So an already-frightened target starts taking the Psychic Damage on its turn regardless of the initial Saving Throw, but still subject to a save each turn to end the chain of damage? Maybe occasionally useful, but who is going to use a 9th Level Slot (or indeed pick the spell in the first place) to exploit that?
I think it says frightened "target", not just frightened creatures. But I think that the effect spreading to other frightened creatures nearby would be cool.
Paladins getting a concentration-free bonus action spell that doesn't require a specific target is actually so funny compared to Hunter's Mark. I guess this is so turn 2+ they can smite with it, while the Ranger has a sliiiiiiiightly stronger bonus turn 1.
Wow. Ranger doing on average a whole 1 point of extra damage! Really broken there! And if have extra attack it does 2 extra damage😂. Honestly make the abilities of Ranger apply to divine favored as well and see how many people will still take hunter’s mark. If hunter’s mark didn’t take concentration and assuming it doesn’t have any buffs, I am always still taking divine favored just cuz I don’t have to keep on using a bonus action and d6 vs d4 is not worth multiple bonus actions in combay
Divine Favor does less damage than Hunter's Mark though, and has significantly shorter duration. And also paladins have much higher demand for their spell slots due to smites, so spending a 1st level spell slot for 1d4 damage per attack is probably not worth it for them.
@@Klaital1actually no, because rangers have quite a few out of combat utility spells that paladins lack, so they're much more likely to be using more spells out of combat than a paladin, which effectively evens out their spell usage.
Paladins are not going to smite unless its the free smite. HM deals more/same damage per round with nick compared to a lvl1 DS, and it lasts 1 hour. They had to buff DF somehow. Even with this paladin damage will be s**t.
I like the addition of Concentration to Force Cage. The component cost is too much, I think. It will be a while before I get to see this in play to solidy my opinion either way. EDIT: To be clear, I think costly components are the wrong way to balance spellpower. This might be very expensive or trivially so, depending upon the DM. I'd rather the balance be in the spell mechanics. Give the forcecage hit points or some form of a damage threshold.
The worst way to balance overpowered spells is by making them limited by gold cost. Spells should be balanced by their spellslot level, not how much gold your character has access to. The spell is still overpowered, it's just going to be used less often.
@@Kitusser I disagree and I think the change is completely reasonable. It's more powerful than Heroes Feast in that it's far more widely applicable and instantly wins fights. With regard to the material components, this is basically them saying that this effect is simply too powerful for something that you can do every single day of the campaign. And that was absolutely true of Forcecage. It's literally an instant win against virtually all creatures with no counter-play unless the DM is buffing them behind the scenes. Unless you're playing some sort of gritty rules, long rests are simply too common and give way too much power back to players. These late game spells are campaign-breaking and needed to be reeled in significantly. Forcecage is even more powerful than many higher level spells. This basically puts it in the same category as Heroic Feast in that you save it for the big, important fights or when it's otherwise absolutely necessary without just making that absurd power level baseline for all Wizards at all times. They could put it in as a class feature or magical item instead but those have more rigid usage limitations and this allows players to still have control over when and how often they use these effects.
We banned forcecage and wall of force at our table because they are just making the game boring. Seriously one of the best decisions we did in regards to homebrewing
@@tarrickmerdev2324 It's still an instant win if you can keep your concentration, now there's a gold cost attached to the spell which doesn't change that fact whatsoever. You realise wall of force is overpowered too, right?
Sanctuary and Animate Objects have been nerfed as well. Sanctuary now breaks when you cast any spell instead of spells that affect an enemy. Animate Objects is completely different in how many items and what you can animate and the damage that those objects do.
Except that now, forcecage has almost no use case unless dealing with teleportation, and it's no longer as good at stopping teleportation either. Wall of Force is just as mandatory as ever, while the higher level version is prohibitively expensive for a miniscule benefit. They may as well have removed it.
I know it wasn't talked about in this video but the changed to Conjure Elemental bum me out so much because while the new version may be a more balance spell all of the flavor of summoning an elemental to fight by your side has been completely lost
The main thing Im looking at is the ranger spells and whether or not they require concentration. My cope was that they were going to remove alot of concentration to make up for pidgeon holing hunters mark, and so far it's not looking reassuring.
Swift Quiver being concentration still is a god dam crime. Rangers, finally getting to 17th level and can cast a Single 5th level spell.. yet they can't properly use both of the rangerest ranger spells that ever rangered.
In games I run I typically give out a "swift quiver" magic item for this reason. 2 uses per day, non concentration since it comes from the item. You can combine an efficient quiver into it too so it feels more fun that just a 2 times per day item. Not great that I had to do this, but at least it's functional.
A spell I wish WOTC would fix is Magic Circle. If any spell should be a ritual it’s this one. Honestly it’s a useful spell for summoning and it would add to the drama of summoning a powerful being.
@@tommihommi1Why ban something that's cool in concept if the only problem you have with it can be so easily remedied? I only ban stuff that is irredeemable or the problem's solution is more complicated than a ban, and neither applies here.
I know these videos are already done but I do wish they would've been made without the assumption that we were all fully caught up on changes proposed during play testing. Just as a piece of fan feedback I guess, I only got into DnD earlier this year and I wish the coverage of changes was comparing to the old PHB instead of the play tests.
You can't really compare individual spells of different classes. Wizards are going to have lot more impactful things to concentrate on than witch bolt.
@@Klaital1 Witchbolt is a 1st level spell, which means it IS a Magic Initiate candidate. That said, Talon's kind of white-rooming this; Yeah, Witch Bolt will deal more damage if you're wailing on a big sack with infinite hit points, but in most cases you're probably going to have a lot of little guys running around that you need to swat, in which case Hunter's Mark obviously has more value.
@ilovethelegend I mean let's do some napkin math. Over 3 turns: HM: 3d8+3d6+9=34 damage WB: 3d8+4d12+9=43 HM + TWF = 12d6+9 = 51 So Hunters mark does exceed Witch Bolt but you have to be doing TWF in Melee to do so
@@mixmastermindYou're missing my point. The most damage a single casting of witch bolt can do, is the maximum hit points of whatever you hit with it; meanwhile, Hunter's Mark can bounce from target to target and pick up at least one of those D6's every turn. So, like I said, if you step out of the white room and into an actual combat scenario, unless you're fighting like and ogre or something at level 2, you're probably actually going to get more value out of hunter's mark.
@@mixmastermind Note that this is also assuming your just fighting one enemy with ton of hit points, if your fighting several smaller enemies, hunter's mark is WAY better, because you can't change the target of witch bolt.
Why does it seem like nobody throws burrowing monsters at Tiny Hut? Just because you can't pass through it doesn't mean you can't go before the ground and in from the bottom. It's a dome, not a sphere, not a container.
They also doubled the range for the witch bolt. It was 30 feet and now it's 60. That's good. And now, the 1d12 damage is a bonus action instead of an action, so, you can use the ray of frost cantrip or any other spells to reduce their speed and force them to remain inside the range. This spell is honestly much better, specially for a 1st level spell
There is actually something to be considered about the new Simulacrum text; it says the Simulacrum cannot *take* short or long rests. That means that Spells like Catnap would still allow you to cheat out a short rest out of the simulacrum, which is obviously begging for an Exploit from Warlocks as they still refresh their spells on a short rest. Naturally these happens only once as Catnap requires the creature to take a long rest before being able to affect it again, but this can be used for looping, or refreshing Simulacrum slots, under the condition of the Simulacrum being one of a Warlock.
Witch Bolt is actually guaranteed damage now, so even if you are fighting the 40AC super boss with infinite shield spells, you can get him as long as you stick close to him. It’s pretty niche, but it is a niche that does come up sometimes
At the very least, the new Ranger feature that makes it so damage doesn't break concentration should have instead removed concentration and been dropped down from level 13 to somewhere around level 6. That way the Ranger can start using it without concentration soon after they start getting more powerful spells to concentrate on, while requiring enough Ranger investment that it's harder for it to be potentially exploited by other classes dipping into it.
@@CivilWarMan That's honestly my plan for when I DM. Rangers get a level 5 ability where HM doesn't require concentration. Then they're actually a pretty decent class.
I would include Magic Jar in this. It appears to have been changed such that you don't get all the statistics of the target in addition to your own mental stats. Now you won't have access to their features/spells/immunities etc.
Magic Jar is such a wild spell. In a way I’m glad it’s rebalanced but my players never take it because of how complex and risky it is. (Become jar and leave meat body, etc) It’s very old school dnd. It’s fun that it’s so odd and not balanced in 2014.
Interested to see how the "Spells of level 3 or lower" (for Leomund's) interacts with the shift they seemed to be heading in with many stat blocks getting spell-like effects rather than spell slots?
Indeed. Another question I have about it is something like a dragon breath weapon. Enough creatures have something like it, but most of them are technically not magical. So are the blocked under the creatures and objects are barred from passing through clause? Also, this just actually made the spell better if your opponents are martials, because casters can now throw stronger spells out while martials can't hit the people inside. It's honestly still sometimes a powerful option to use wish on in combat if you have the right situation.
@@Bookworm159 Yes. They made it so spell casters can put the hut on their stronghold wall and as long as it does not get dispelled, you're immune to while raining down 4th and higher spells.
Thanks! Great video! Just noting a few things you might have missed. Grasping Vine also saw its range extended to 60 feet (instead of 30 feet) As written, it seems the caster of Tiny Hut can't leave the Emanation (hut) without ending the spell. Mordenkainen's Sword: range has increased to 90 feet; you now add your spellcasting ability modifer to damage (as well as the increased damage), and I think you can now move the sword up to 60 feet according to another youtuber's report, not 30 feet (have to check). If so, that makes it much faster than spiritual weapon at least. Prismatic Spray is now part of the bard's spell list. Witch Bolt, as others mentioned, also saw a range increase to 60 feet.
ONE SPELL SLOT FOR CASTING PER TURN - think about reactions! No shield as you move out of reach, then fireball. No counter- counterspelling your spell. No casting fly, entering a trap or sleet storm that knocks you prone, then casting feather fall. Very surprised this wasn't mentioned last video.
Good points, but 🤷♂️ relative to martials, magic users have needed nerfing for a long time. Making them less spell-spammy is a valid idea to that end. We may be looking at a deliberate judgment call to make the game more balanced. I'll be reserving judgment until I see a few months of varied gameplay and get a sense of the new meta.
Very hot take, but the leomunds tiny hut change is a buff not a nerf. You can't see into the hut which means that, while you can cast spells into it, it's really hard to actually get good spells onto characters inside the dome. In exchange for that, the wizard who used it can now torpedo you from inside it and you can't even counterspell him because you can't see him. It now isn't total immunity, but any encounter you do is going to be trivialised. If you are against a strong enough caster for this to be relevant, they could have just dispelled the dome anyway.
Spiritual Weapon needing concentration may have always been intended, but by keeping the damage of it and simply adding conc now, it goes from one of the best Cleric spells to a will almost never be used spell. There are much better conc options out there. I'm surprised that didn't make this spell list, it's one of the biggest nerfs imo because it was such a frequently used spell.
@@Klaital1 Then they should have made it a subclass feature instead of a spell. I don't like spells that are designed to be useless for all but one subclass.
@@Klaital1 Why would you ever use it instead of wall of force? Unless you're Meta gaming, you're not gonna know whether an enemy can teleport until after they do it. Teleporting enemies are now the one and only reason you would choose forcecage over wall of force. Now, you may as well take wall of force and ignore forcecage, because in the vast majority of situations, wall of force is just free forcecage.
@@3of6mylove There's still reasons to use forcecage over WoF. Forcecage can have bars which let you shoot arrows through to hit the thing (nice if it's a melee-only attacker), you can also use forcecage in a wide open area where they could otherwise walk around, burrow under or fly over a wall of force.
I'm surprised he didn't mention Spiritual Weapon's big nerf. I know at the end he said that there were a handful of spells that only got minor buffs/nerfs that weren't worth mentioning, but Spiritual Weapon now having concentration is genuinely a *big* nerf, because Clerics have way more important utility spells to concentrate on like Bless, Aid, Warding Bond, Shield of Faith, and more. Spiritual Weapon was pretty much sort of the one consistent means of support-focused Clerics to contribute damage (occasional attack spells that cost a resource each use doesn't count as consistent), and if consistent damage was needed, Spirit Guardians was kind of always better. I really don't see any Clerics using SW anymore other than War Clerics (because they don't have to concentrate on it), because the utility buffs are too important. Yes it scales damage better now, but honestly almost no amount of scaling on a single target hit is gonna be better than how ridiculously good and cost-efficient Bless is.
About Leomund's Tiny Hut, it used to say that it creates a dome of force, which as I understand was destroyable by Disintegrate, now it just says it's an emanation, kinda like Spirit Guardians, so there's nothing "physical" created. So while now Disintegrate can pass through it freely, as it only blocks lv 3 or lower spells, then it's now truly indestructible since there's nothing there to hit. Is this right or is there something about Emanations that I'm missing?
Yeah, in many cases it's actually a buff because now it goes in all directions, instead of just being a dome, that someone could potentially burrow though.
@@Klaital1 Did it? The description before was a dome of force "around and above you", so I never saw it played that it had a floor, only that it generated walls and a roof.
counterspell is nerfed because many monsters with spells will have them as magical effects now which are not technically spells so unvalid targets, you can also only cast one leveled spell on your turn so unlike in 2014, if you fireball and an enemy wizard counterspells you, you cannot use counterspell to counterspell the counterspell
@@finalfantasy50 yeah and according to the playtest, counterspell didn't even automatically work against lower level spells and didn't expend the spell slot if the target failed. Hopefully they don't go through with that.
Hey! Thanks for all your great content! Are you planning on covering the final versions of the play test spells that aren't "conjure" spells? I'm super SUPER curious about True Strike.
Removing concentration from magic weapon sort of turns it from craptastic spell that you would never upcast to a pretty good use of a 3rd level spell slot and perhaps even a 6th level spell slot. This should also reduce the cost of +1/2/3 weapons significantly. This might be more significant than it might first appear.
Barksin: what happens if you're AC was 14 or 16 with a shield... is it 17 now or 17 + the shield? or should you drop your shield when casting barkskin as it becomes irrelevant ? What if you didn't have a shield, and then you picked one up after casting barkskin ? I the optimal play to drop your shield and then cast the spell and then pick up the shield?
Well Chris does say that if you go behind cover that will increase the AC, so I think we could say that adding a shield afterwards does apply the AC bonus.
@@JugglingAddictHalf Cover is separate to your actual Armor Class. Shields are used when calculating your base AC. I'd rule it doesn't let you use a shield.
My problem with Forcecage as it is now is... it has become quite niche, unless you are swimming in gold? I'm in a level 15 campaign at the moment and my warlock only has 500 gp. I couldn't afford to cast Forcecage now unless I KNOW it will do its job and the target has no way of teleporting. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. Which also means, I'd rather use my 7th level Arcanum on a different spell. It's basically become a Wizard only spell now as they can quickly prepare it when needed without paying the cost of opportunity like Bards and Warlocks have to. I like that it uses concentration, but the price tag is insane. Or am I supposed to get 1000 gp per combat at that level? I don't think so.
Yeah you should be getting about ~1,000 gp for a properly levelled encounter according to the loot tables. And that's not including magic items you could likely sell for much more. In my games we'd be buying fortresses by 15th level.
@@Rubycule according to the individual treasure table in the DMG, a single monster of CR 11-16 should reward somewhere between 500-1500gp worth in coins/gems/art/etc depending on the d100 roll. A treasure hoard of the same level should provide between 1k-10k gp, along with up to 10 item rewards from the various magic item tables, which themselve can have prices anywhere between 500-10k assuming you can find anyone willing to buy/sell them. Tasha's added some more tables that I hear are more generous. I've played since 3.5 so I've seen all kinds of setups, but by the book D&D has always been fairly generous with wealth. At it's core D&D is a dungeon crawler; getting rich is the point. Pretty much as soon as you escape the low levels you're supposed to have quite a lot of money, which you then feed into gear/supplies/etc to go back and get more treasure. Alot of DMs though either hate rich parties or simply forget about rewards entirely, so poverty does seem to be more common than the game design intends.
REALLY excited about Witch Bolt. Always wanted to take it on my casters to be different from the typical picks, but it was just so bad. This actually feels so good (especially for me so can't roll well lol)
Isn't the best comparison vs Mordenkainen's Sword really Vs. Crown of stars which is more than 60 times better? Duration 1 hr , non concentration, bonus action also, same amount of damage, good range?
But you can only attack 7 times with it, and it does not add spellcasting ability modifier to the damage. Still, 10 attacks vs 7 attacks is comparable, and +5/6 to damage is easily countered by superior range. Oh, and Crown of Stars has NO CONCENTRATION. So yeah, Crown is still a superior spell at the same level.
Sigh they are just incompetent at this point. Mordenkainen's sword should have been given two attacks a round to make it competitive. It's a spell of the same level as simulacrum ffs. The spell should have used the rules of black blade of disaster to be honest
That divine favor without concentration is so juicy now, at low levels i would gladly cast it instead of smiting, against smaller weaker enemies is so good PS: With magic weapon don't requiring concentration it feels like in 3.5/pathfinder where you could stack spells before battle like a crazy maniac and become op
Magic weapon might not require concentration, but it also doesn't affect already magical weapons. Once you get to higher levels most people are going to have a +1 sword anyways. So it's not stacking any bonuses we don't already have. There are other spells that are much worse in terms of stacking
I'm all here to see all the spell changes. Crazy how shield didn't get any nerfs or changes. I'm not super worried about simulacrum. Most people understand that's either s loophole and wouldn't do it or honestly, people just don't get to levels that high. Even I have only played twice over level 11. Fare more interested in the new spells more than anything. I'm still kinda meh about witch bolt. Maybe I'll pick it sometimes but can't see myself using it on any major builds.
I'm of the same opinion about simulacrum. It's a fun idea to make a BBEG that is just a sorcerer with a giant army of simulacrums that stores them in demiplanes and has countless clones set up... But I'd never bring that to the table as a player.
@@nikcantsnipe the best answer to shield is to talk with each other and agree not to use armor + shield + shield spell combo spellcasters at your table unless everyone is ok with it
@@snowsun538 yeah, we did a low-level adventure one time where the BBEG was a moderately powerful dragon who had found a machine to manufacture simulacra of himself... and the simulacra ganged up and killed him, then started causing trouble while trying to solve the whole can't-regain-HP-or-rest thing. Which is to say: while the text of the Simulacrum spell indicates that the simulacrum is friendly and obeys commands, there's no guarantee it STAYS that way, y'know?
So glad they revised Tiny Hut... I've created a variant that I use in my campaigns, just because it completely took away the threat of a long rest in dangerous areas. My version removes the ritual aspect -- if you want a safe zone, you should at least have to burn a spell slot. It also limits vision from inside the sphere to outside to just 30 feet, making it less of an invulnerable guard tower, and more of a bunker.
The simulacrum can't rest; that is what closes the loop. A simulacrum created by casting Wish doesn't have a 9th level slot. The prevention of casting Simulacrum just fixes it 'the hard way', preventing you from doing it with scrolls.
I think it goes like this: wizard#1 (the PC) creates wizard#2 using the spell simulacrum. The simulacrum wizard#2 has Wish because wizard#1 has wish. Wizard#1 takes a long rest (and swaps simulacrum for another spell) and then orders wizard#2 to cast Wish to make a simulacrum of you (creating wizard#3). Then wizard#3 casts wish to make another simulacrum of you (wizard#4) etc. None of the wizards#2-n know or can cast simulacrum, but they can still cast wish to create copies of you that can cast any other level 1-8 spell (and the last one can have a ninth level spell as well).
depending on the wording, half cover adds to your AC so it would not stack with barkskin. divine favour no longer works with unarmed strikes or natural weapons, and presumably crusaders mantle no longer works with unarmed strikes or natural weapons. Grasping vine doesn't technically forbid you from attacking someone else with the vine even when it is grappling a creature. Simulacrum is slightly buffed in one way, it no longer requires an alchemical labratory and doesn't specify what the components required to heal are. It got massively nerfed in another way, now because it no longer can take long rests, it is guaranteed to start accumulating levels of exhaustion.
Witch Bolt also used to end if you used your action to do anything other than inflict its persistent damage, that has been removed...which is also quite nice.
The changes to Witch Bolt seem decent enough for just about any Warlock except maybe Great Old One. The guaranteed damage allows the Warlock to squeeze a bit more out of their extremely limited spell slots, but Hex is so powerful in the hands of a GOO Warlock after level 10, especially one with Pact of the Blade, that it's hard to justify concentrating on anything else.
I love the new witch bolt. I agree it’s still not the best first level blast spell, but it’s actually a good spell now. I would’ve been fine with double the range and a bonus action on subsequent turns, but it got more. That being said, I’d have been ok without the more if I could move it to a different target after it downed the target with a successful attack roll.
I personally don't care much about spells since I mostly play and want to martial classes. Still, loving your videos and glad you present and comment all those spells. These videos will do as I wait for the feat video(s) which is what I'm the most impatient to see.😅
as someone whos playing a lowish level sorcerer, witch bolt is very very fun to use now. its a great spell for me to cast if i don't want to quicken spell much.
Witch Bolt: I like that the range has increased to 60' so that my caster does not now have to remain within threat range. [Now that I read through, I see that many others have noted this buff.]
The new Simulacrum's "statistics of the original creature *at the time of casting* " is a welcome clarification. I've seen a lot of people not realize that if the subject of Simulacrum was missing a spell slot (say, the slot they used to *cast* Simulacrum or Wish), then the Sim would also be missing that slot. BTW, how did you not even *mention* the addition of grappling to Grasping Vine?
This video might be the one I’ve most anticipated from Chris. Ever since he revealed that he was given an advance copy I’ve been waiting to hear if the spells that needed fixing were rebalanced (I’m looking at you shield and simulacrum)
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Removing concentration from Divine Favor but not from Hunter's Mark (a core part of the new Ranger features) is SO funny
It kind of feels like an extra slap in the face. Especially since Divine favor doesn't even require having to use constant bonus actions to reapply the effect.
I don't get how they decide what is concentration and what not. I would say any mayor duration spell that does aoe or takes an enemy out of the fight should be concentration. The same for major buffs and debuffs. Minor damage or ac buffs to one player probably can do without concentraion. I think abou hunters mark and even things like spiritual weapon. Hex might be different as disadvantage on saving throws can be quite the debuff.
@@SGast hex doesn't impose disadvantage on saving throws on its own.
But, but, but, hear me out... Hunter's mark damage increases to a d10 at level 20.
Really starting to feel like WoTC is telling us to stop playing Ranger sometimes lmao
Grasping Vine also pulls an additional 10 feet, and grapples! I think the addition of a grapple is more impactful than the damage!
yeah they will need to use an action to escape, so they can't dash away, so a standard movement creature can now get locked down.
@lukerazer9565 I would normally use grasping vine to pull a creature into an area of effect, so double damage is nice. But grappling them in there potentially locking them down is definitely the part I am more excited about.
@@SGast or put it high up on walls or ceilings so creatures take fall damage when escaping.
Literally yes, because you can use grasping vine to hold a creature in someone elses area spell, like, idk, Hunger of Hadar, you do have to cast grasping vine first, and then have the warlock cast HoH over it, then each turn you can grab enemies near the HoH and pull them in feet first like a fluffing horror movie, and up to 2 creatures if you upcast it to 5th level
So cool
@aaronwilliams8887 it says the grapple has an escape DC, there were talks of grapple being a save at the end of your turn but it looks like that didn't go through, so it takes your action to repeat the saving throw, I will combo this with the warlock throwing a HoH over the top of the grasping vine for utter maddness and dragged into the darkness
Swift Quiver, ah yes, the pinnacle Ranger Spell, the most expensive (5th Level) resource they have, the most POWERFUL (4 attacks in turn) spell they have....
And you have have to give up Hunters Mark, Advantage and that potential messily DPS boost if at level 20.
Never have I seen a class in any game that is so conflicted with itself that no matter what the player does they will feel like they are doing it wrong. How on earth did they ever approve this??
Seriously, someone who has never played a Ranger was tasked with redesigning the Ranger.
Really annoys me too because you know this would have been ripped to shreds in unearthed arcana.
@@jacobjensen7704 exactly, the only unearthed arcana that got a good response for ranger was the first one where they just removed concentration on HM, sure ranger need a lot more, but the reaction was positive with that, they said their next steps was only to "fine tune" the ranger and we ended up with this, completely different and not fun.
In my games I'm going to homebrew it so that the hunter's mark feature that makes it so you can't lose concentration anymore reads that you no longer need to concentrate on hunter's mark period. I feel it's very fitting that a character that has presumably been spamming this spell for a vast majority of their career in battle (before and after, as well) can now do so effortlessly, and it's at such a high level you can't really dip for it.
@@waltercosta2067 except it really isn’t different which pisses me off even more. Half the classes “new” features were just ripped out of Tasha’s with minor tweaks and the rest were features tied to Hunter’s Mark, a mid tier spell at best that became a Ranger staple because the class had no damage features unlike every other martial and half caster because it was designed so poorly back in 2014 and now the band-aid features from Tasha’s, which I had long assumed to be stand-ins for a potential redesign down the road, now seem to be the permanent official fix because WotC clearly have no idea how to fix Rangers. Case in point, they fixed Monk and Monk was WORSE than the post-Tasha’s Ranger.
I really like the improved bark skin, now it synergizes well with the Druid’s great concentration spells by helping you keep them active.
Druid really came out on top with the rebalancing, which shows how bad the spell list was in the past.
Druid always had great spells, but it was a few great spells and mostly nonsense.
@@acephas3 Agreed. The druid got a lot of quality-of-life updates that remove or fix frustrating aspects of playing it! Now it feels like it competes with the wizard, sorcerer and cleric being an effective full caster, and similarities to the cleric being a fellow armored caster that can handle some physical combat if you want.
Eh, I actually really liked the druid spell list already. All of the concentration really forced me to be creative with them, and anticipate situations we might end up in to choose the appropriate options. The challenge of balancing that out was something I personally found really enjoyable. However, I also realize that I'm completely biased since druid is my favorite class. Lol
@@coltonhorton4225 Heh, that's how I feel about cleric when people say it's not flexible. I take it personally lol
@@minikawildflower that's fair. I always really liked how the cleric and druid were really similar but leaned towards different specializations. Clerics have more damage, better buff/support skills, and generally better armor options, while druids have better crowd control and a lot more utility options . With them both having good healing, and being able to change prepared spells every day, they can end up having very different kits while still being able to fill in for each other when needed. Love having both in a party.
Witch bolt... also range was doubled from 30' to 60'
Not having to be within skull crushing range of your target? That's probably the most effective buff to it, hear hear for Witch Bolt!
Witch Bolt is honestly kind of broken now. 1d12 as a bonus action even if you miss? 1d12 is more then most cantrips in tier 1.
I think it could be a solid candidate for the 1st level spell from magic initiate. Some martials could use that.
@@Armored-Artisangood considering it's a 1st level spell, it should be better than a cantrip
@@Armored-ArtisanAnd, if I read these rules correctly, you can cast a leveled spell with an action on subsequent turns and still do the BA 1d12 because that doesn't require a spell slot to do.
Another improvement to Witch Bolt is the range doubling from 30 to 60, especially with the ability to break the connection by stepping out of range. Before a caster dropping it on an enemy 30 ft away, all they have to do is take a step back and they are out of range and it drops. Now if you drop it on them at 30 ft, they'd have Move and Dash to break it, and that's if they realize that it can be dropped by distance. Much less likely for it to get accidentally broken by distance now.
I never ever ever ever ever support costly gold (especially consumed on-cast) components for spells. Especially as a way to "re-balance". The problem is, is that the severity (or lack thereof) of this cost entirely varies table to table. This could be crippling, or it could be trivial. Strange, because Jeremy has said that they wanted to move away from "mother may I...?" design elements, but costly consumed components is *exactly* that. Force cage needed rebalancing, that's not my issue, but yeah the component piece was not the way to do it.
They have better guidance for treasure by level in this edition. So it should be easier to control it or negotiate with a DM if you are under par.
As a DM, I like this as a limiter. It keeps some of the rare and powerful spells in check. It is better than making them all 9th level or something.
The cost for 'Summon' spells is gross for this reason.
@@johnmickey5017 Just nerf the magic if you need to keep it in check. 1500g should be a cosmetic cost at level 13, but some tables are giga-stingy. Each PC at the table should have 40,000g in coin wealth plus their magic items by level 13. Unless you're dropping force cages on kobolds and not saving them for demon lords, you should be fine - unless the DM is stingy like 70% of them are because they don't want to bother with coins often and just give out magic items.
@@mogalixir What point is there in being an adventurer if all of the best loot is in towns, not dungeons?
@@mogalixir You can sell magic items...
Also ever stopped to consider that 40.000 is a ridiculous amount of gold? You're basically DnD Bezos by that point. Fuck having 7th level spells. With that kind of money you could hire an army.
If you think those DM's are being stingy for not letting you acquire the money to buy a bloody nautiloid by just randomly strolling through the country and finding it on the way, you simply have no grasp on worldbuilding or consistency.
Note on swift quiver. It specifically calls out the use of arrows and bolts now. While firearms were optional before you could technically use swift quiver to retrieve bullets provided they were stored inside of a quiver. No longer the case there.
I'd say most dms would homebrew a reflavor if someone wanted to use a firearm. Theyd be kind of dickish not to
@@cassun603 Depends on setting. Have guns entirely replaced all other ranged infantry weapons in your world? Then definitely. Is your world in that halfway point where guns are useful but too expensive to outfit normal soldiers with? Then give it some thought and decide, could go either way. Are guns either brand new or your party happens to have the only one that exists? Not a chance in hell.
I’m guessing the restriction was mainly to prevent rules lawyers from making some sort of “TECHNICALLY” argument for their homebrew item launcher. This way it’s explicitly defined to be standard ammunition and any exceptions to that are up to the dm to decide. I am in favor of this sort of change
Phantasmal Killer has such a striking name that I have to imagine it was a fairly common "trap" to fall into previously. Especially for anyone who was an Illusion Mage who wanted as many illusion spells as possible. So it's nice that it has been made so much more serviceable.
I still miss the 3.5e version of Phantasmal Killer that lived up its name... You got a Wisdom save AND and Constitution save, but if you failed both, you just died.
@@drewforchic9083 nah save or die feels bad just like any stun effect
@@GrimViridianfeels awesome for a player to land it on someone but definitely not fun for a party without a cleric or some source of revivify to step on a glyph of warding with it inside and suddenly have to say goodbye to someone
As a DM I would rule that "not being able to cast the spell Simulacrum" means it can't cast it in any way - directly or indirectly.
thats fair
Yeah that loophole has "but teeeechnicalllly..." written all over it. I don't think the majority of DMs would ever allow it. Then again I don't think the majority of players would want to ruin a campaign with simulacrum loop.
There's a tiny modification in the Wish spell implying that the duplication effect is in fact the same as casting the spell. So the loophole is closed.
Yeah but that doesn’t change the RAW reading. You could just say no as a DM even before the change.
@@Redacted_Ruler I meant this is how I interpret RAW
Another valid pet peeve about the original daylight spell is that if you planned on using it against creatures that have sunlight sensitivity like drow for example it wouldn't effect them but it would effect the playable drow race because npc sunlight sensitivity specifically mentions sunlight while pc sunlight sensitivity specifically mentions bright light
Oh that's awful. I actually hate that
Simulacrum says it can’t take rests. It does NOT say it doesn’t need them. Unless the resting rules have changed, it’s going to accumulate exhaustion every day until it dies.
That's actually neat, even if unintended.
getting exhaustion from not long resting is an optional rule (Tasha's?) or DMs discretion, not in the base rules
Simulacrums are constructs, like Golems they don't sleep (that is also why cure wounds doesn't do anything on them). And they don't learn anything. They are kinda creepy if you really want to know. That's one reason why Clone is a higher level spell.
You do not gain exhaustion from missing rest in 2014 or 2024 PHB.
To get rid of Sim exhaustion, use new Nystul's magic aura to turn the Sim into a different type then follow up with Greater Restorations.
Thank you again for kindly showcasing the new content on a black background. I know it may not seem like much to most but it's so much easier on the eyes.
I find it harder to read.
I'm sure others mentioned it, but 3rd buff to Witch Bolt: range is doubled from 30 ft to 60 ft.
Grasping vine got buffed so much damn. Damage, pull distance, upcasting and the ability to grapple people on hit (NO SAVE). The grappling part was glossed over in the video but that's a huge improvement. Unless they changed it, the escaping the grapple condition takes an action. So not only are you pulling people (potentially into an AoE effect, or through spike growth), you're also forcing them to use their action to potentially move out, and this only costs you your bonus action.
Definitely a spell worth considering on our nature boys. Especially when at 13th level, when rangers get this, your full casters have nastier AoE effects.
It's also a druid spell so you can pull it off much earlier than 13th level. Unfortunately druids are also the ones who would be casting spike growth but it can still be combined with any other casters doing a powerful concentration spell.
Double range too, from 30 to 60.
Comically bad in the old version though.
If in a large cave or dungeon, cast it from the ceiling…
From the Daylight spell:
_”Alternatively, you can cast the spell on an object that isn’t being worn or carried,”_
Cleric: “I ready an action to cast Daylight on the head of the longbow fighter’s arrow immediately after they fire at the vampire.”
Is daylight now sunlight?
@@ZarHakkar
Yep. That’s one of the spells that was slightly changed in the new PHB.
@@ZarHakkar YUUUP!
I will be house ruling that Hunters Mark does not require concentration.
or maybe at least it doesn't count towards concentration limit (it means you can lose it still, but it doesn't stop you from using a second concentration effect)
@@Itomonooh that’s interesting I like that one
In some DnD coven somewhere:
"Yes! Now that it always works, Witch Bolt will kill things! Is it this one? Or this one? Or this one?"
*Concentration gets broken*
"Which bolt were we talking about, again?"
2d12 damage for a 1st level spell is not abysmal, even without concentration. However, even if you don't concentrate, I believe Witch Bolt will break any concentration you have ongoing.
@@carlcramer9269 Yeah, I mean, it's still a niche spell, just maybe relevant enough to write a ridiculous series of puns about.
good spell on low level if DM pushes the party's resources
The change to Leomunds Tiny Hut feels more like a buff than a nerf. The people inside can now sling high level spells out of it. Since you can't see into it from the outside most enemy spells won't work anyway.
I will make my players fear a synaptic static in their hut
@mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38 Honestly if I have a spellcaster that can cast 3rd level spells it wasn't a problem anyways as it could just be dispelled. You could give even lower level spellcasters just a scroll so they could deal with it. I just assume that any spellcaster probably has a dispel magic scroll if at all possible as it deals with so many problems.
The important question is what counts as a magic effect. If more monsters have magical attacks this could be a mayor debuff.
Yes. There were enough ways to get around leomund's that it wasn't a huge problem, just something you had to be prepped for as a GM.
Oh, my PCs slept in the hut? They wake up to find the entire dungeon waiting for them because a giant opaque block just took up shop in the dungeon... any intelligent creature is going to just go back to their boss and say 'hey, something effed up just plopped itself in the middle of the hall back a ways, maybe we should be alarmed?'
Upcasting fireball or lightning bolt into a tiny hut is devastating. So is any aoe spell into the area.
You're right about the visibility being a major issue though.
AOE effects can still hit it, so dragon’s breath and upcast fireballs are going to annihilate this spell
You missed that Magic weapon scales to +2 one level sooner!
and bonus action cast. takes a meh spell that felt like a martial tax in tier 2 and turns it into something i'd look forward to running either as support for martials or on gish builds
@@lpgraphix502 It already was a bonus action to cast.
Thanks Chris, you do a mountain of work and I'd like to say how much we appreciate it. Love your channel.
Mordenkainen's sword now moves 30' as well, that is a huge improvement to only moving 20' - now it will likely get to hit something most rounds. Perhaps still underwhelming, but like Spiritual weapon in general I'd argue very useful in the right situation - the effective weaponisation of your bonus action for an entire combat is pretty darn good when you can really make use of it. Especially if you don't have any other great use for the BA.
It also adds your spellcasting modifier to damage, which is a good boost to its minimum damage per turn.
Except wizards can weaponize their bonus action much more effectively with Bigby's Hand which is 2 levels lower spell and can do other things than just damage too.
@@Klaital1 I agree its still another good alternative though there are swings and roundabouts there still - at least assuming Bigby's hasn't been altered it can be destroyed and with the dex modifier probably will be quickly by the later game AOE effects.
Also assuming the same casting level the upcast Bigby's has more die, but not your spell casting modifier to the damage - one has higher maximum potential the other a higher minimum damage and the average is going to be similar depending on what your hand is doing.
And I doubt everyone who can get one will be able to get the other in the end either - making it only a choice between them for some.
I think Id still prefer Crown of Stars in almost any situation.
Its 3 less rounds of possible hits, but like... that Really probably wont ever come up. Since MSword only lasts a single combat anyway.
@@MrSeals1000 For sure. Also Crown of Stars can target anything within 120'. And it lasts an hour (super easy to cast pre-combat, saving an action). And it doesn't require concentration.
But, hey the sword does +5 damage and doesn't have to worry about all those radiant-immune creatures.
24:52 Simple homebrew that I think is true to the RAI in the wording of wish: I'd assume that you cast the duplicated spell through Wish with the specific differences described in the wish spell (which includes spell's requirements, but not the spell effect: if the spell description "simply taking effect" includes not being able to cast it as a simulacrum this incompatibility is not solved by casting it using wish because it is part of the spell effect).
From what I've seen, Animate objects also seems to have been severely modified. Number of objects down, total DPR down, AC down, object HP down and lower dex (which make the objects very vulnerable to popular AOE spells). Best results involve using the larger objects instead of tiny ones, but medium sized and smaller adventurers might find it awkward to carry around large objects with them. Damage is now force though, and the to-hit bonus is your spell attack mod so it does go with caster level instead of being stuck at +8, so a few minor benefits. I do like that they've made them act straight after the casting player.
I believe the intended flavor has always been improvisation with objects in the space. If so, "awkward to carry around large objects with them" would not be considered relevant by the designers.
Just wanted to say I appreciate the sheer number of hours you've put into clarifying things for the rest of us.
I'm sure in some ways it's a labor of love, but I also imagine it's truly tedious at times, and your hard work is appreciated.
Witch Bolt will be amazing on Eldritch Fighters now
On one hand, Force Cage was absolutely busted before. On the other... why do I cast this instead of Wall of Force now?
It's still harder to get out of the Forcecage than Wall of Force, but yeah it's definitely significantly weaker than before.
@@Klaital1 Is it just the teleportation restriction?
@@feltrix334 And also that it blocks line of sight, so you can't use any of the low level teleport abilities that require you to see where your going to get out of it. Or any other abilities that require you to see the target outside it for that matter.
@@Klaital1? Forcecage is an invisible prison of force. How does it block line of sight?
@@DukeTrout Oh damn, it's even worse than I thought, would think a 'solid box' would be opaque, but I guess not. Well yeah then there really isn't any reason to cast forcecage over wall of force.
I'm glad Colby and Chris are doing different topics for their videos so I don't have to watch the same topic twice!
Weird RAW for Weird: if you cast it on an already-frightened creature, it reads as though it would trigger the 2nd half of the spell
Weird.
Either WoTC made a mistake and failed to clarify that the target has to be afraid because of Weird or it was intentional, which gives us some interesting character/BBEG options (e.g. CQ Paladin 3, Undead Warlock 17 as a literal death knight).
So an already-frightened target starts taking the Psychic Damage on its turn regardless of the initial Saving Throw, but still subject to a save each turn to end the chain of damage? Maybe occasionally useful, but who is going to use a 9th Level Slot (or indeed pick the spell in the first place) to exploit that?
Its pretty cool that it'd allow synergy with another player causing fear
I think it says frightened "target", not just frightened creatures. But I think that the effect spreading to other frightened creatures nearby would be cool.
Weird is an illusion, which is fun if you are an illusionist - less components - which feels 100% appropriate.
Same for phantasmal killer. The new GOOlock will also cast sans components, which helps fulfill my dream of a psionic blaster.
Witch Bolt also got a range buff going from 30ft to 60tt which is also a big buff to it as well 👌
Huge buff because normally anyone bothered by witch bolt can snap the tether by walking at least they need to dash now
Paladins getting a concentration-free bonus action spell that doesn't require a specific target is actually so funny compared to Hunter's Mark.
I guess this is so turn 2+ they can smite with it, while the Ranger has a sliiiiiiiightly stronger bonus turn 1.
Honestly as Paladin I'd probably concentrate on bless, cast divine favor, and not even worry about smiting most of the time.
Wow. Ranger doing on average a whole 1 point of extra damage! Really broken there! And if have extra attack it does 2 extra damage😂. Honestly make the abilities of Ranger apply to divine favored as well and see how many people will still take hunter’s mark. If hunter’s mark didn’t take concentration and assuming it doesn’t have any buffs, I am always still taking divine favored just cuz I don’t have to keep on using a bonus action and d6 vs d4 is not worth multiple bonus actions in combay
Divine Favor does less damage than Hunter's Mark though, and has significantly shorter duration. And also paladins have much higher demand for their spell slots due to smites, so spending a 1st level spell slot for 1d4 damage per attack is probably not worth it for them.
@@Klaital1actually no, because rangers have quite a few out of combat utility spells that paladins lack, so they're much more likely to be using more spells out of combat than a paladin, which effectively evens out their spell usage.
Paladins are not going to smite unless its the free smite. HM deals more/same damage per round with nick compared to a lvl1 DS, and it lasts 1 hour. They had to buff DF somehow. Even with this paladin damage will be s**t.
“You want the meat!”
MEATS BACK ON THE MENU BOIS!
Never ran to Patreon faster! I’m so excited to watch all the new videos but I think I’ll stick around for a while lol 😊
Because Leomund’s Tiny Hut is an Emanation now, it’s actually 9 squares bigger. No longer quite so tiny!
I like the addition of Concentration to Force Cage. The component cost is too much, I think. It will be a while before I get to see this in play to solidy my opinion either way.
EDIT: To be clear, I think costly components are the wrong way to balance spellpower. This might be very expensive or trivially so, depending upon the DM.
I'd rather the balance be in the spell mechanics. Give the forcecage hit points or some form of a damage threshold.
The worst way to balance overpowered spells is by making them limited by gold cost. Spells should be balanced by their spellslot level, not how much gold your character has access to.
The spell is still overpowered, it's just going to be used less often.
@@Kitusser I disagree and I think the change is completely reasonable. It's more powerful than Heroes Feast in that it's far more widely applicable and instantly wins fights. With regard to the material components, this is basically them saying that this effect is simply too powerful for something that you can do every single day of the campaign. And that was absolutely true of Forcecage. It's literally an instant win against virtually all creatures with no counter-play unless the DM is buffing them behind the scenes.
Unless you're playing some sort of gritty rules, long rests are simply too common and give way too much power back to players. These late game spells are campaign-breaking and needed to be reeled in significantly. Forcecage is even more powerful than many higher level spells. This basically puts it in the same category as Heroic Feast in that you save it for the big, important fights or when it's otherwise absolutely necessary without just making that absurd power level baseline for all Wizards at all times. They could put it in as a class feature or magical item instead but those have more rigid usage limitations and this allows players to still have control over when and how often they use these effects.
And yet, Wall of Force is still free and a lower level spell slot. Strange how they didn’t change that spell but Forcecage got a big overhaul
We banned forcecage and wall of force at our table because they are just making the game boring. Seriously one of the best decisions we did in regards to homebrewing
@@tarrickmerdev2324 It's still an instant win if you can keep your concentration, now there's a gold cost attached to the spell which doesn't change that fact whatsoever.
You realise wall of force is overpowered too, right?
Sanctuary and Animate Objects have been nerfed as well.
Sanctuary now breaks when you cast any spell instead of spells that affect an enemy.
Animate Objects is completely different in how many items and what you can animate and the damage that those objects do.
33:00 Didn't mention that range is doubled, which is huge since the range is a constraint on the spell's continuing feature.
Wow, making the 1500gp component on force cage consumed is rough.
As a forever DM, I approve! It’s amazing how many of these 2024 changes I like looking through the lenses of a DM!
Except that now, forcecage has almost no use case unless dealing with teleportation, and it's no longer as good at stopping teleportation either. Wall of Force is just as mandatory as ever, while the higher level version is prohibitively expensive for a miniscule benefit. They may as well have removed it.
I know it wasn't talked about in this video but the changed to Conjure Elemental bum me out so much because while the new version may be a more balance spell all of the flavor of summoning an elemental to fight by your side has been completely lost
The main thing Im looking at is the ranger spells and whether or not they require concentration. My cope was that they were going to remove alot of concentration to make up for pidgeon holing hunters mark, and so far it's not looking reassuring.
Swift Quiver being concentration still is a god dam crime.
Rangers, finally getting to 17th level and can cast a Single 5th level spell.. yet they can't properly use both of the rangerest ranger spells that ever rangered.
In games I run I typically give out a "swift quiver" magic item for this reason. 2 uses per day, non concentration since it comes from the item. You can combine an efficient quiver into it too so it feels more fun that just a 2 times per day item.
Not great that I had to do this, but at least it's functional.
A spell I wish WOTC would fix is Magic Circle. If any spell should be a ritual it’s this one. Honestly it’s a useful spell for summoning and it would add to the drama of summoning a powerful being.
I'm probably going to argue at my table that a simulacrum using Wish to cast Simulacrum is just casting Simulacrum with one extra step. There; closed.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't DM but would even suggest that to my DM if he doesn't think of it first.
you can just ban something at your table without making up a wrong reading of the rules
@@tommihommi1 It's still a good idea to explain to a table *why* you want to change rules as they are written.
That's how I interpret wish too. I'd love to hear why that might be incorrect
@@tommihommi1Why ban something that's cool in concept if the only problem you have with it can be so easily remedied? I only ban stuff that is irredeemable or the problem's solution is more complicated than a ban, and neither applies here.
Thanks for the video. Looking forward to the next one.
I know these videos are already done but I do wish they would've been made without the assumption that we were all fully caught up on changes proposed during play testing. Just as a piece of fan feedback I guess, I only got into DnD earlier this year and I wish the coverage of changes was comparing to the old PHB instead of the play tests.
This video compares the old books with the new books
@@thomasquesada7248 Yeah, but he also says "spells that Crawford and the playtest changed stay changed." I wish there had at least been a list.
Thanks again for the detail in this coverage.
Witch Bolt is now stronger than Hunter’s Mark. We are truly in the most cursed timeline.
You can't really compare individual spells of different classes. Wizards are going to have lot more impactful things to concentrate on than witch bolt.
@@Klaital1 Witchbolt is a 1st level spell, which means it IS a Magic Initiate candidate. That said, Talon's kind of white-rooming this; Yeah, Witch Bolt will deal more damage if you're wailing on a big sack with infinite hit points, but in most cases you're probably going to have a lot of little guys running around that you need to swat, in which case Hunter's Mark obviously has more value.
@ilovethelegend I mean let's do some napkin math.
Over 3 turns:
HM: 3d8+3d6+9=34 damage
WB: 3d8+4d12+9=43
HM + TWF = 12d6+9 = 51
So Hunters mark does exceed Witch Bolt but you have to be doing TWF in Melee to do so
@@mixmastermindYou're missing my point.
The most damage a single casting of witch bolt can do, is the maximum hit points of whatever you hit with it; meanwhile, Hunter's Mark can bounce from target to target and pick up at least one of those D6's every turn.
So, like I said, if you step out of the white room and into an actual combat scenario, unless you're fighting like and ogre or something at level 2, you're probably actually going to get more value out of hunter's mark.
@@mixmastermind Note that this is also assuming your just fighting one enemy with ton of hit points, if your fighting several smaller enemies, hunter's mark is WAY better, because you can't change the target of witch bolt.
Why does it seem like nobody throws burrowing monsters at Tiny Hut? Just because you can't pass through it doesn't mean you can't go before the ground and in from the bottom. It's a dome, not a sphere, not a container.
They also doubled the range for the witch bolt. It was 30 feet and now it's 60. That's good. And now, the 1d12 damage is a bonus action instead of an action, so, you can use the ray of frost cantrip or any other spells to reduce their speed and force them to remain inside the range. This spell is honestly much better, specially for a 1st level spell
There is actually something to be considered about the new Simulacrum text; it says the Simulacrum cannot *take* short or long rests. That means that Spells like Catnap would still allow you to cheat out a short rest out of the simulacrum, which is obviously begging for an Exploit from Warlocks as they still refresh their spells on a short rest.
Naturally these happens only once as Catnap requires the creature to take a long rest before being able to affect it again, but this can be used for looping, or refreshing Simulacrum slots, under the condition of the Simulacrum being one of a Warlock.
That vinyl scratch on simulacrum almost made my heart stop... Holy cow!
Truly had me grasping my desk in terror X'D
Thanks for the heads up!
Witch Bolt is actually guaranteed damage now, so even if you are fighting the 40AC super boss with infinite shield spells, you can get him as long as you stick close to him. It’s pretty niche, but it is a niche that does come up sometimes
I think the ranger really shouldn't have had concentration on hunter's mark if it was going to be such a large core part of the class.
At the very least, the new Ranger feature that makes it so damage doesn't break concentration should have instead removed concentration and been dropped down from level 13 to somewhere around level 6. That way the Ranger can start using it without concentration soon after they start getting more powerful spells to concentrate on, while requiring enough Ranger investment that it's harder for it to be potentially exploited by other classes dipping into it.
@@CivilWarMan That's honestly my plan for when I DM. Rangers get a level 5 ability where HM doesn't require concentration. Then they're actually a pretty decent class.
25:50 I just splooged all over my desk
I would include Magic Jar in this. It appears to have been changed such that you don't get all the statistics of the target in addition to your own mental stats. Now you won't have access to their features/spells/immunities etc.
Magic Jar is such a wild spell. In a way I’m glad it’s rebalanced but my players never take it because of how complex and risky it is. (Become jar and leave meat body, etc)
It’s very old school dnd. It’s fun that it’s so odd and not balanced in 2014.
Thanks Treantmonk! ❤
Interested to see how the "Spells of level 3 or lower" (for Leomund's) interacts with the shift they seemed to be heading in with many stat blocks getting spell-like effects rather than spell slots?
Indeed. Another question I have about it is something like a dragon breath weapon. Enough creatures have something like it, but most of them are technically not magical. So are the blocked under the creatures and objects are barred from passing through clause? Also, this just actually made the spell better if your opponents are martials, because casters can now throw stronger spells out while martials can't hit the people inside. It's honestly still sometimes a powerful option to use wish on in combat if you have the right situation.
@@Bookworm159 Yes. They made it so spell casters can put the hut on their stronghold wall and as long as it does not get dispelled, you're immune to while raining down 4th and higher spells.
Thanks! Great video! Just noting a few things you might have missed.
Grasping Vine also saw its range extended to 60 feet (instead of 30 feet)
As written, it seems the caster of Tiny Hut can't leave the Emanation (hut) without ending the spell.
Mordenkainen's Sword: range has increased to 90 feet; you now add your spellcasting ability modifer to damage (as well as the increased damage), and I think you can now move the sword up to 60 feet according to another youtuber's report, not 30 feet (have to check). If so, that makes it much faster than spiritual weapon at least.
Prismatic Spray is now part of the bard's spell list.
Witch Bolt, as others mentioned, also saw a range increase to 60 feet.
ONE SPELL SLOT FOR CASTING PER TURN - think about reactions! No shield as you move out of reach, then fireball. No counter- counterspelling your spell. No casting fly, entering a trap or sleet storm that knocks you prone, then casting feather fall. Very surprised this wasn't mentioned last video.
Good points, but 🤷♂️ relative to martials, magic users have needed nerfing for a long time. Making them less spell-spammy is a valid idea to that end. We may be looking at a deliberate judgment call to make the game more balanced.
I'll be reserving judgment until I see a few months of varied gameplay and get a sense of the new meta.
Very hot take, but the leomunds tiny hut change is a buff not a nerf. You can't see into the hut which means that, while you can cast spells into it, it's really hard to actually get good spells onto characters inside the dome. In exchange for that, the wizard who used it can now torpedo you from inside it and you can't even counterspell him because you can't see him. It now isn't total immunity, but any encounter you do is going to be trivialised. If you are against a strong enough caster for this to be relevant, they could have just dispelled the dome anyway.
I can’t help but notice shield wasn’t here
Uh oh! We didn’t talk about shield! 😅 great videos
Spiritual Weapon needing concentration may have always been intended, but by keeping the damage of it and simply adding conc now, it goes from one of the best Cleric spells to a will almost never be used spell. There are much better conc options out there. I'm surprised that didn't make this spell list, it's one of the biggest nerfs imo because it was such a frequently used spell.
You forgot that war clerics can cast spiritual weapon without concentration.
@@Klaital1 Then they should have made it a subclass feature instead of a spell. I don't like spells that are designed to be useless for all but one subclass.
@@3of6mylove It's not useless to other subclasses, it's just no longer overpowered.
@@Klaital1 Why would you ever use it instead of wall of force? Unless you're Meta gaming, you're not gonna know whether an enemy can teleport until after they do it. Teleporting enemies are now the one and only reason you would choose forcecage over wall of force. Now, you may as well take wall of force and ignore forcecage, because in the vast majority of situations, wall of force is just free forcecage.
@@3of6mylove There's still reasons to use forcecage over WoF. Forcecage can have bars which let you shoot arrows through to hit the thing (nice if it's a melee-only attacker), you can also use forcecage in a wide open area where they could otherwise walk around, burrow under or fly over a wall of force.
I'm surprised he didn't mention Spiritual Weapon's big nerf. I know at the end he said that there were a handful of spells that only got minor buffs/nerfs that weren't worth mentioning, but Spiritual Weapon now having concentration is genuinely a *big* nerf, because Clerics have way more important utility spells to concentrate on like Bless, Aid, Warding Bond, Shield of Faith, and more. Spiritual Weapon was pretty much sort of the one consistent means of support-focused Clerics to contribute damage (occasional attack spells that cost a resource each use doesn't count as consistent), and if consistent damage was needed, Spirit Guardians was kind of always better.
I really don't see any Clerics using SW anymore other than War Clerics (because they don't have to concentrate on it), because the utility buffs are too important. Yes it scales damage better now, but honestly almost no amount of scaling on a single target hit is gonna be better than how ridiculously good and cost-efficient Bless is.
About Leomund's Tiny Hut, it used to say that it creates a dome of force, which as I understand was destroyable by Disintegrate, now it just says it's an emanation, kinda like Spirit Guardians, so there's nothing "physical" created. So while now Disintegrate can pass through it freely, as it only blocks lv 3 or lower spells, then it's now truly indestructible since there's nothing there to hit. Is this right or is there something about Emanations that I'm missing?
You can still dispel magic it.
Emanation is a new effect area term like “Cone” or “Line.” It means a radius effect with you at the center point.
Paladin auras are emanations too.
Yeah, in many cases it's actually a buff because now it goes in all directions, instead of just being a dome, that someone could potentially burrow though.
@@taragnor It had a floor before too.
@@Klaital1 Did it? The description before was a dome of force "around and above you", so I never saw it played that it had a floor, only that it generated walls and a roof.
Thanks for the video, some good info in here.
Can definitely see myself taking witchbolt on a warlock
Very happy to learn about these nice updates! Yes, a few parts could have been better, but overall the updates are welcome
What about Counterspell and Hypnotic Pattern?
As of the playtest, Counterspell is destroyed. Idk about Hypnotic Pattern tho.
counterspell is nerfed because many monsters with spells will have them as magical effects now which are not technically spells so unvalid targets, you can also only cast one leveled spell on your turn so unlike in 2014, if you fireball and an enemy wizard counterspells you, you cannot use counterspell to counterspell the counterspell
@@finalfantasy50 yeah and according to the playtest, counterspell didn't even automatically work against lower level spells and didn't expend the spell slot if the target failed. Hopefully they don't go through with that.
Hey! Thanks for all your great content! Are you planning on covering the final versions of the play test spells that aren't "conjure" spells? I'm super SUPER curious about True Strike.
If you use forcecage on a wealthy NPC to hold them ransom, maybe you’ll only need to worry about the costly component once I guess.
Removing concentration from magic weapon sort of turns it from craptastic spell that you would never upcast to a pretty good use of a 3rd level spell slot and perhaps even a 6th level spell slot.
This should also reduce the cost of +1/2/3 weapons significantly.
This might be more significant than it might first appear.
Barksin: what happens if you're AC was 14 or 16 with a shield... is it 17 now or 17 + the shield? or should you drop your shield when casting barkskin as it becomes irrelevant ? What if you didn't have a shield, and then you picked one up after casting barkskin ? I the optimal play to drop your shield and then cast the spell and then pick up the shield?
Similarly, if you cast Shield with Barkskin up, and your AC without Barkskin would be 12, does your AC change?
Well Chris does say that if you go behind cover that will increase the AC, so I think we could say that adding a shield afterwards does apply the AC bonus.
@@JugglingAddictHalf Cover is separate to your actual Armor Class. Shields are used when calculating your base AC.
I'd rule it doesn't let you use a shield.
@@JugglingAddict Cover doesn't increase AC, it penalizes your attacker's roll
@@MisterCynic18 I don't think that's true
32:30 Witch bolt also had its range doubled so it's no longer completely trivial for enemies to break it with movement.
My problem with Forcecage as it is now is... it has become quite niche, unless you are swimming in gold? I'm in a level 15 campaign at the moment and my warlock only has 500 gp. I couldn't afford to cast Forcecage now unless I KNOW it will do its job and the target has no way of teleporting. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. Which also means, I'd rather use my 7th level Arcanum on a different spell. It's basically become a Wizard only spell now as they can quickly prepare it when needed without paying the cost of opportunity like Bards and Warlocks have to. I like that it uses concentration, but the price tag is insane. Or am I supposed to get 1000 gp per combat at that level? I don't think so.
Yeah you should be getting about ~1,000 gp for a properly levelled encounter according to the loot tables. And that's not including magic items you could likely sell for much more. In my games we'd be buying fortresses by 15th level.
My thoughts exactly.
BTW 1500 GP
@@MisterCynic18 No DM i know has ever awarded that much gold at any level of play.
@@parheliaa oh, I was thinking about one casting in 2 out of 3 encounters max, that's why I landed at "1000 gp per encounter".
@@Rubycule according to the individual treasure table in the DMG, a single monster of CR 11-16 should reward somewhere between 500-1500gp worth in coins/gems/art/etc depending on the d100 roll. A treasure hoard of the same level should provide between 1k-10k gp, along with up to 10 item rewards from the various magic item tables, which themselve can have prices anywhere between 500-10k assuming you can find anyone willing to buy/sell them. Tasha's added some more tables that I hear are more generous.
I've played since 3.5 so I've seen all kinds of setups, but by the book D&D has always been fairly generous with wealth. At it's core D&D is a dungeon crawler; getting rich is the point. Pretty much as soon as you escape the low levels you're supposed to have quite a lot of money, which you then feed into gear/supplies/etc to go back and get more treasure. Alot of DMs though either hate rich parties or simply forget about rewards entirely, so poverty does seem to be more common than the game design intends.
REALLY excited about Witch Bolt. Always wanted to take it on my casters to be different from the typical picks, but it was just so bad. This actually feels so good (especially for me so can't roll well lol)
Isn't the best comparison vs Mordenkainen's Sword really Vs. Crown of stars which is more than 60 times better? Duration 1 hr , non concentration, bonus action also, same amount of damage, good range?
But you can only attack 7 times with it, and it does not add spellcasting ability modifier to the damage.
Still, 10 attacks vs 7 attacks is comparable, and +5/6 to damage is easily countered by superior range. Oh, and Crown of Stars has NO CONCENTRATION. So yeah, Crown is still a superior spell at the same level.
Sigh they are just incompetent at this point. Mordenkainen's sword should have been given two attacks a round to make it competitive. It's a spell of the same level as simulacrum ffs. The spell should have used the rules of black blade of disaster to be honest
Witchbolt looks great! (never ever thought I would be able to say this un-sarcastically)
That divine favor without concentration is so juicy now, at low levels i would gladly cast it instead of smiting, against smaller weaker enemies is so good
PS: With magic weapon don't requiring concentration it feels like in 3.5/pathfinder where you could stack spells before battle like a crazy maniac and become op
Magic weapon might not require concentration, but it also doesn't affect already magical weapons. Once you get to higher levels most people are going to have a +1 sword anyways. So it's not stacking any bonuses we don't already have.
There are other spells that are much worse in terms of stacking
I kept hearing there was big illusion changes and explanations on how illusion magic works but I am not seeing anyone talk about those changes.
I'm all here to see all the spell changes. Crazy how shield didn't get any nerfs or changes. I'm not super worried about simulacrum. Most people understand that's either s loophole and wouldn't do it or honestly, people just don't get to levels that high. Even I have only played twice over level 11. Fare more interested in the new spells more than anything.
I'm still kinda meh about witch bolt. Maybe I'll pick it sometimes but can't see myself using it on any major builds.
I'm of the same opinion about simulacrum. It's a fun idea to make a BBEG that is just a sorcerer with a giant army of simulacrums that stores them in demiplanes and has countless clones set up... But I'd never bring that to the table as a player.
@@snowsun538 yeah. It definitely feels like a great spell for a BBEG. Not for a PC.
@@nikcantsnipe the best answer to shield is to talk with each other and agree not to use armor + shield + shield spell combo spellcasters at your table unless everyone is ok with it
@@snowsun538 yeah, we did a low-level adventure one time where the BBEG was a moderately powerful dragon who had found a machine to manufacture simulacra of himself... and the simulacra ganged up and killed him, then started causing trouble while trying to solve the whole can't-regain-HP-or-rest thing.
Which is to say: while the text of the Simulacrum spell indicates that the simulacrum is friendly and obeys commands, there's no guarantee it STAYS that way, y'know?
So glad they revised Tiny Hut... I've created a variant that I use in my campaigns, just because it completely took away the threat of a long rest in dangerous areas. My version removes the ritual aspect -- if you want a safe zone, you should at least have to burn a spell slot. It also limits vision from inside the sphere to outside to just 30 feet, making it less of an invulnerable guard tower, and more of a bunker.
The simulacrum can't rest; that is what closes the loop. A simulacrum created by casting Wish doesn't have a 9th level slot. The prevention of casting Simulacrum just fixes it 'the hard way', preventing you from doing it with scrolls.
I think it goes like this:
wizard#1 (the PC) creates wizard#2 using the spell simulacrum. The simulacrum wizard#2 has Wish because wizard#1 has wish. Wizard#1 takes a long rest (and swaps simulacrum for another spell) and then orders wizard#2 to cast Wish to make a simulacrum of you (creating wizard#3). Then wizard#3 casts wish to make another simulacrum of you (wizard#4) etc.
None of the wizards#2-n know or can cast simulacrum, but they can still cast wish to create copies of you that can cast any other level 1-8 spell (and the last one can have a ninth level spell as well).
In theory you can still do it on a cleric.
genielocks also benefited a lot from simulacrum (as they get access to it via wish) as mystic arcanum are not spell slots, now that loophole is closed
Witch Bolt: UNLIMITED POWER!
Mace Windu couldn’t handle the buffs Witch Bolt got.
depending on the wording, half cover adds to your AC so it would not stack with barkskin.
divine favour no longer works with unarmed strikes or natural weapons, and presumably crusaders mantle no longer works with unarmed strikes or natural weapons.
Grasping vine doesn't technically forbid you from attacking someone else with the vine even when it is grappling a creature.
Simulacrum is slightly buffed in one way, it no longer requires an alchemical labratory and doesn't specify what the components required to heal are. It got massively nerfed in another way, now because it no longer can take long rests, it is guaranteed to start accumulating levels of exhaustion.
Yay! DnD is for everyone again! :D
Witch Bolt also used to end if you used your action to do anything other than inflict its persistent damage, that has been removed...which is also quite nice.
The changes to Witch Bolt seem decent enough for just about any Warlock except maybe Great Old One. The guaranteed damage allows the Warlock to squeeze a bit more out of their extremely limited spell slots, but Hex is so powerful in the hands of a GOO Warlock after level 10, especially one with Pact of the Blade, that it's hard to justify concentrating on anything else.
I love the new witch bolt. I agree it’s still not the best first level blast spell, but it’s actually a good spell now. I would’ve been fine with double the range and a bonus action on subsequent turns, but it got more. That being said, I’d have been ok without the more if I could move it to a different target after it downed the target with a successful attack roll.
I personally don't care much about spells since I mostly play and want to martial classes. Still, loving your videos and glad you present and comment all those spells. These videos will do as I wait for the feat video(s) which is what I'm the most impatient to see.😅
That record scratching noise at force cage with my earbuds in
😱😱😱
as someone whos playing a lowish level sorcerer, witch bolt is very very fun to use now. its a great spell for me to cast if i don't want to quicken spell much.
Witch Bolt: I like that the range has increased to 60' so that my caster does not now have to remain within threat range. [Now that I read through, I see that many others have noted this buff.]
The new Simulacrum's "statistics of the original creature *at the time of casting* " is a welcome clarification. I've seen a lot of people not realize that if the subject of Simulacrum was missing a spell slot (say, the slot they used to *cast* Simulacrum or Wish), then the Sim would also be missing that slot.
BTW, how did you not even *mention* the addition of grappling to Grasping Vine?
This video might be the one I’ve most anticipated from Chris. Ever since he revealed that he was given an advance copy I’ve been waiting to hear if the spells that needed fixing were rebalanced (I’m looking at you shield and simulacrum)
Witch Bolt's 60 feet range (instead of 30) is another big improvement, since it was too easy for the target to end the spell by leaving the range.
Leomunds Tiny hut, ALSO no creature limit!, as long as all creatures fit in the emination at cast!!
This thumbnail made my day
For Leomund's Tiny Hut - They also now specify it is an Emanation - Which spreads in all directions. No more questions about if it has a floor.