I did write it out on the screen briefly but it's worth mentioning again here: You can't take subclasses **of the same class.** I cannot imagine how you would multiclass without taking a subclass in the new class. But also if you could somehow pick and choose subclass features from the same class I think you could probably make a very broken build very quickly.
@@cassianomatias1170 The Theurgy wizard subclass can choose a cleric domain. Absent this ruling, they could then take levels in Cleric and choose a second domain!
@@cassianomatias1170in theory it works by multi-classing into the same class enough to qualify for subclass in both. IE) a level 12 character with 6 levels in fighter(subclass1) and 6 levels in fighter(subclass2).
I too despised the "being able to see an invisible creature doesn't negate the advantage/disadvantage" thing. Stinks of them realizing they wrote it poorly but refusing to admit it. Like, it's okay bro, we'd forgive you, it wouldn't even be close to the worst mistake.
Honestly I feel like "Invisibility" shouldn't have been a condition at all. They should have had rules for fighting things while you are unseen or things you can't see and left it at that.
@@sechran Probably writing the spell slot rules to enable the coffeelock. Optional but still. Also a lot of cantrips can't be used to target objects eg. eldritch blast. Just plain weird and I doubt a lot of DM's care about the distinction.
I like the idea that the two mechanics at the end walk into their shop, just to find all these people just posing with their stuff and spare overalls for no reason in particular
My favorite "secret" mechanic isn't even a secret. It's just cover. +2 to AC and Dex for half +5 to AC and Dex for 3/4 Cannot be (directly targeted) for full cover, but must step out to take an action. My AC 14 gunslinger was suddenly MUCH harder to hit and I basically forced my DM to learn how to play XCOM
Hahahha the existence and use of the cover rules being a "secret" is hilariously accurate. It's amazing that almost the entirety of the balancing force keeping ranged attacks from being more OP than they already are _and_ a major source of cinematic immersive tactical combat that people often complain D&D doesn't have are both simply found, one in the same, in the cover rules. Use them!
@@JD-qq8fz Agreed, cover should be so much more of a thing than it is. It's insane how much everyone forgets about cover! It's integral to ranged tactics - archers, gunslingers and spellcasters should be using it as much as possible, both for players and monsters. I think the main problems are 1) It's an extra rule to keep track of during combat and 2) The DM doesn't always design battlefields with opportunities for cover, again because they forgot about cover.
"But the DM knows about our optimizations!" "Yes, and now they will have to optimize around our optimizations. And we can optimize around the optimizations that they are optimizing around our optimizations!" "Brilliant!"
This is why I always say that the best Paladin multiclass builds aren't necessarily the ones that optimize the raw potential output of Divine Smite, but the ones that have a plan B for when the Angels and Crystal Dragons attack.
@@daviddalrymple2284 My paladin multiclass builds have the plan B of "Fireball." This is because they're 4 to 6 pal and Sorc or Wiz for the entire rest of their levels.
They are changing it lol. One dnd it no longer works against creatures that can see in other ways like blindsight, tremorsense and true sight. Imagine using invisibility to gain advantage to shoot a barrel. Dumb spell.
See Invisibility is a misnomer. It doesn't allow you to SEE them but it allows you to sense where they are, which is still an improvement over having no idea where to attack the invisible creature in the first place. It's like hearing someone walking up behind you, your eyes don't help you know exactly what they're doing or where their body parts are moving around so defending against or attacking them would still be a challenge. @@azurewraith2585
0:53 I recognise that the Council has made a decision. But given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it. Seriously, I don't think anyone plays like that.
@@brushfire1989 Thank you! I also immediately went to mace windu, and then thought "that's not right" but couldn't stop reading it in Samuel L Jackson's voice. Without you, I don't know if I would have figured out why I was doing that.
@@zanforian Genuine question then: What's your rationale for giving advantage to a creature under the effects of the invisibility spell when they can be fully seen by their target? What is the purpose of "See Invisibility" or "True Seeing" if you still have disadvantage to attack a target you can now "see"?
Oh I was hoping this would include the fact that there's a sound propagation range chart that, as far as I can tell, only exists on the later version DM screens (I believe Reincarnated DM Screen was the first to have it) and in NO books in 5e. It's totally wild, but there's actually a table you can roll on to see how far sound travels. I like to mix it in with stealth sequences as a sort of additional fail-forward mechanic. If you succeed your stealth check, no worries, you don't make sound. If you fail you make sound, but then you might get lucky and the sound doesn't travel far enough. The chart breaks sound into three categories: trying to be quiet, normal, and loud as I recall. Though the chart doesn't go into detail I rule that sound traveling through walls will be one tier lower on the chart for every substantial wall it passed through (like say a stone castle wall). This makes it another good fail-forward in stealth situations because it sets a limit on how far the scuffle you got into with a guard might alert other guards. You might attract the attention of the next room over, you might attract the whole dungeon. I also use this as a way for players to attempt quiet casting without subtle spell. If you have subtle spell, congrats, it just works. If not, there's a minimum distance your verbal components can be heard across as determined by the chart. If someone's inside that zone, tough, you were heard. I also rule that certain spells are automatically loud once cast (the verbal components might not be, but the spell itself always is). Fireball here is the obvious candidate, but most hard hitting attack spells like lightning bolt also count. Again great for stealth sequences because it makes the players use their toolkits tactically. It can be used a few other ways like determining ambient noise pollution from environmental stuff (say a nearby waterfall or a warehouse full of magical industrial equipment). It's not something I use all the time, but I like it as a little tidbit to pull out.
@@drakegrandx5914 TBF it's a very small and simple chart, everything else is just me figuring out how to use it in real play. I'm not, by nature, a fan of overly granular system mechanics, but if I'm playing D&D that's the territory so I take it on its own terms. The game wants to be crunchy, so I lean further into crunch than I'd normally enjoy.
@@philiphockenbury6563 Therein lay the problem. Like I said, these rules are only on the later edition DM screens. If you have one (including the ones that came with the box sets from Essentials Kit onward) you've already got it. Now, if you don't, I have heard that if you search things like "DM Screen Reincarnated PDF" on google you may be fortunate enough to stumble across such things. I however cannot *myself* endorse piracy of intellectual product, even if it's been put out by a company that sicked the Pinkertons on folks, tried to muscle out the 3rd party development scene, and recently fired a bunch of their higher level art folks. *Some folks* (of course not myself) might say such a business has few enough morals itself that you would be justified in grabbing yourself what you might find with such a search, but I of course cannot condone such a viewpoint. Alas. You are out of luck. I know this must be sad (act sad).
Regarding that last one, as a DM I sometimes balk at the Help action just being blurted out by players to grand advantage or negate disadvantage whenever they please, so I often insist that players tell me how their familiars or characters help in those situations. If they can't come up with a plausible way that the Help action could occur, then they don't get it. Maybe that's a bit draconian, but it's a lot less immersion-breaking than "My bunny familiar gives me the Help action so I can hit this Invisible enemy" without any other context.
That's actually quite fair. They could go "Bunny ear good, No see still make sound, Bunny Point ear towards them so i punch" Did i hit? (Low int Barbarian)
My bunny familiar uses it's keen hearing to help me find and attack the invisible enemy. Boom. I actually use this rule too, it helps encourage players who aren't super good role-players get in some practice.
@@Grygus_Triss Absolutely, but if you use that explanation then the DM is much more justified to use a >11 attack roll to remove that nuisance from the field for the foreseeable future. Like I'm all for using familiars to their fullest extent, but if you're gonna use them as a "get free advantage button", then the consequences are that you're gonna be spending a lot of money and time on rituals to get those familiars back after they get squashed.
@@mofire5674 Or rather: "Optimize in SUPPORT of the game." Meaning: do it when it fits the character/drama, but don't do it otherwise. Let characters (pcs or npc) make sub-optimal choices when it fits; not *everybody* is "The Best X in the Entire World." This way everyone has one more point of personality to define them, and when someone *is* supposed to be The Best (or at least Very Good) it carries some weight. This assassin is a consummate professional; he's more optimized than that necromancer, who's basically a magical undertaker and just sort of mid. That band of gnolls? Unoptimized. The hobgoblin warlord? Optimized. Flawed characters are fun to play, and not every dangerous NPC is such simply because they have Bigger Numbers: you just designed them more effectively.
@@mofire5674 So people who enjoy the game in a different way are wrong? I could say that people who enjoy intrigue and murder mysteries defeat the point of the game (Stats and rolling detract from available data, and your character's int stat has nothing to do with the player's logic and reasoning) so they should go read a book. I'm sure plenty of people here have enjoyed a puzzle or riddle even though they "defeat the point of the game" for the same reasons. Do you ban all rogues and bards from your games because they have expertise, meaning they are optimized for certain situations?
Holding an action to cast a spell causes you to drop concentration on any spells you're concentrating on. While holding this spell, you're considered concentrating and if you take damage must roll to maintain concentration, potentially wasting the spell.
Casting a spell with a casting time longer than one action uses your concentration for the duration of he casting, meaning if you cast Conjure Elemental and then used Planar Binding without trapping the summon in a magic circle it would go beserk and try to kill you
*And*, if you don't encounter a trigger for the spell you held within one round; you expend the spellslot without effect. So basically just ignore readied actions as a spellcaster; or check with your DM about ignoring those rules.
You can use a readied spell to cast it around a corner then step out to cast it and bypass counter spell as they need to see it cast and it was cast when you readied it.
@@danniemiesse4643 That's why I taught my fellow players to ONLY use cantrips for held, conditional spells. "When the guard comes around the corner... Firebolt!"
"Some DM's don't use hitpoints at all"... this is how I played with my kids. Every roll I made behind the screen was fake, fudged, or deemed 'acceptable'. They didn't know how many hitpoints a goblin was supposed to have, so their damage dice were more about determining what 'combat narrative' was coming out of a hit. Case in point; a goblin got hit with the Dragonborn's acid breath attack. It wasn't enough to kill the goblin rules-as-written. But it was a lot of points of acid, so I had the goblin scream "my eyes" and fall off the adjacent cliff.
Wizard that wears a magical chefs hat that makes them immune to disadvantage. It's actually just their familiar pulling their hair Ratatouille-style to help
I used to be a part of a mini larp we ran once a week where by the end of the story, I played one of the BBEGs of a pair who were tethered to each other. We would talk before the last flight about who was going down first and we always just "felt it out" and it made for some incredible fights. Plus, once one of us went down, the other would get more "powerful" to finish out the fight, and again, we would just kinda feel out when was the appropriate time to go down. Good stuff, I miss it a lot.
That only applies if you already have darkvision, as only creatures with darkvision can see color in dim light. Nothing in Devil's Sight even suggests that you can see color in darkness with it inherently.
@@derekstein6193 Devil's Sight You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet. Darkvision (from Dwarf). Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Every instance of Darkvision specifies no color in darkness. Devil's sight, in contrast, doesn't have that wording. It says you can see normally in darkness. Normal sight includes color.
explained fully: if you dont have normal darkvision but have devil's sight, you see: -normal in a well lit space -badly in dim light (disadvantage and all that) -normal in absolute and even magical darkness (color and all) so you have a character that sees worse with a candle than without any light at all. of course if you have darkvision the dim light becomes well lit and theres no problem
one problem is that there are two instances of "devil's sight" the one that actual devils get basically just means they get darkvision in magical darkness. but the one warlocks get just says they "see normally" without all the usual characteristics of darkvision
Somewhat secret mechanic: you can choose to delay your readied action, but it must still occur immediately after the specified trigger otherwise it doesn't trigger at all. E.g. You have said 'I will ready my attack for when one of my allies is attacked', NPC A attacks ally 1 but you choose to wait, you can't use the held action unless another attack is made against an ally, regardless of the fact that it's already happened once
This is the primary reason I give my players the option of pushing their turn down the initiative track if they want instead if their readied action fails or if they choose to. Which I found out later is a mechanic baked into PF2e.
There is a non-obvious rule in the assignment of saving throw proficiencies to classes. Each class gets one proficiency in a classic saving throw (DEX/CON/WIS, previously known as Reflex/Fortitude/Will saves respectively) and one proficiency in a new-style saving throw (STR/INT/CHA) that tend to be used less often, because effects based off previous editions often kept the same saving throws.
So, technically, the invisible condition grants the following effect: “Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature's attack rolls have advantage.” This is the second effect it gives; the first is what describes how you cannot be seen. This is to say, rules as written, yeah invisibility grants you advantage and your opponents disadvantage regardless of whether you are seen. I’m not saying that makes any darn sense, mind you, but that is the rule they wrote into the book.
The optimiser one is real. I love optimising, but i dial it back pretty hard for my table because they aren't, and it would be disruptive to do so. The best way is to find a suboptimal subclass, race, and/or weapon, and make a sick build anyway. One only an optimiser can make work at all.
I'm pretty sure the reason for the weird Invisibility ruling is that the Invisibility spell, for convenience, re-states the benefits of being unseen as part of its effects. It neglects to say that these effects are contingent on being unseen.
And on the flip side, it doesn't matter if your opponent is restrained, paralyzed, prone, grappled by you and you have the grappler feat, blinded, and you have true strike, the help action, and steady aim active with reckless attack. If you're also considered prone after all of this, no more advantage.
I dont understand why you can't counteract disadvantage with two advantages for example. I think it makes more sense, you're blinded but the opponent is also blinded and your familiar is helping you- makes sense you could have advantage.
@@isaacsimpson8098 I homebrew that advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out 1 to 1. there was 1 time (only 1) where there were 2-3 sources of disadvantage and 3-4 sources of advantage. to sort it out, I had to grab a sheet of paper and write each source down and cross them out one by one until I figured out whether or not the roll had advantage. the rule being what it is prevents this sort of work over a single roll in these edge cases, even if it gets ridiculous.
If you have Lucky (and you were lucky your DM allowed it), you can increase your chance of something by making it worse. You wanna hit something hard to hit? Make it harder so you have disadvantage. Then roll and use the luck point. The feat says YOU decide which of dice you rolled is used. So you can pick the higher of the first two if the luck roll didn't help. Basically you're rolling three dice and pick from there anyway~XD
@@ImFangzBro Oh wow, I didn't realize it specifically calls out picking the d20, I thought it said pick the roll. That's some clumsy writing. Still wouldn't allow it at my table.
Would not work for my table. Disadvantage/advantage is ruled as roll 2 the lowest/highest does not exist. In other word lucky will only have the option of the new lucky roll or the lowest of the previous roll.
@@TrixyTrixter Exactly the same as I would rule it. Advantage/Disadvantage resolves before Lucky is applied, so choosing the discarded d20 is never an option.
Something nobody talks about is how Slow (in 5e) and casting interact. If a target affected by Slow tries to cast a spell, they have to make a roll. If they roll low, it has to use its action on their next turn to complete the spell. Which means it's now a spell with a casting time of more than one action. Which means it requires concentration. So they'd have to choose to keep a current spell or drop it and hope to finish it next turn. And the party gets a whole round to try and stop it/break concentration. I love Slow.
Fun point about Shield Master: It says "attack action," meaning you can grapple or disarm (optional rule) first and THEN use your bonus action to shove so that they are restrained and prone (which is a really strong combo). You can even use this special shove on a different target. This differs greatly from Tavern Brawler, which allows you to grapple as a bonus action only after making an *unarmed* or improvised *weapon* attack, and only lets you attempt to grapple the same target. Now imagine a level 11 Rune Knight or any level 11 fighter with a 1-point dip into Barbarian to rage: grapple with advantage, bonus action shove, then attack the immobile and restrained target with advantage for your remaining two attacks without having to use Reckless Attack. ((CORRECTION: GM would have to rule if you can maintain a grapple and still attack while also holding a shield.))
Definitely had a DM that didn't track enemy HP. It was intensely frustrating as a player, because we could tell our damage didn't actually matter and there was nothing at stake. We were effectively playing on "Story Mode" and weren't told. Bosses always died at the last possible moment, right before we died or when most of the party was downed. An NPC of MacGuffin was always there to make sure any other issues were cleaned up, because we were always completely spent.
it really has to either be secret, or have a stricter threshold. I can allow X amount of deducting from boss hp, if there is a dramatic finisher that brings them down to X hp, and there are unavoidable sources of damage coming soon after anyway. As long as it doesn't change the outcome. how much is X? differs for every person and every situation.
@@yargolocus4853 Knowing something your character doesn't know isn't metagaming. Using it IN GAME as if your character knows it is metagaming. Every player knows things their character doesn't. Also, you don't have to know an enemy's HP total for it to be obvious it's inflated. Additionally, some people are bad liars.
Provided you have the right build and action economy you can cast as many spells as you have actions. It’s just difficult to gain more actions. At most you can cast 4 spells per ROUND and 3 spells per TURN
Action Surge is pretty much the only way you can multicast leveled spells in the game, so it's fine. By the time you can double cast Fireball (lvl 7 at min) enemies can take it.
@@federicopalacios7439 you could do a leveled spell and 2 cantrips along with a reaction spell on another turn or you could do 2 leveled spells and a reaction spell on another turn. Action surge is possibly no longer going to allow for casting with the rules changes just as a heads up
For the record, as of the last Fighter playtest for the 2024 PHB, the Action granted by Action Surge can be used for any action *except* the Magic Action, which means you can't use a Fighter dip as a Wizard to cast two leveled spells in the same turn. *However* that playtest also included an update to the Eldritch Knight. In that update, a level 7 Eldritch Knight, when they take the Attack action, can replace one of their attacks with a cantrip. At level 18, they can replace *two* attacks with the casting of one of their spells with a casting time of one Action. Assuming this makes it into the new PHB, then a level 18+ Eldritch Knight will be the only character that can use Action Surge to cast two leveled spells in a single turn, because the spell they cast with their Action Surge is not done using the Magic Action, but using the Attack Action.
@@CivilWarMan I don’t think it works that way. You’re still using a magic action I don’t think that feature suddenly changes it to a different type of action
Reaction spells present another big gap in the Bonus Action spell limit. A fifth level Eldritch Knight can cast three spells on their turn, for instance. (Say Action to cast Burning Hands, Action Surge to cast Burning Hands again, Reaction to cast Shield to block an Attack of Opportunity.)
I'm going to abuse the heck out of that first one. I've already given my DM fair warning. Of course this is the same DM that let me trap Acerak in an invulnerable sphere before rolling him into lava and dismissing it.
My group plays with a house rule that advantage and disadvantage cancel out on a one-to-one basis. So if you've got two effects that give you advantage and one that gives you disadvantage, you're still rolling at advantage. Same goes for the other way around.
I agree with this. If I have a friend distracting them, I am focusing solely on my attack and the Kobold invigorated me with a roar. I do not like that just cause I got a little sand in my eyes that cancels out everything else.
man that sounds horrible. It makes crowd control significantly stronger against attack rolls , since he effects stack you are never rolling normal at times same for creatures and barbarian just got even more worse gj DM. Just play casters and use saving throws since bro wants to cripple attacking characters even more.
@damanicampbell9567 How often do you really have multiple ways to gain advantage while only having 1 disadvantage? Outside of barbarians who have an on demand one I do not see this changing much outside of edge cases
@@CyberPunkBadGuy I also have this homebrew rule. It almost never comes up because there aren't many situations where players have 3 or 4 different sources of advantage. That's because advantage still doesn't stack so there's no benefit for having 4 advantages opposed to 1. Attacking characters aren't crippled by this at all since few monsters have abilities that give disadvantage to attack rolls and several characters have ways of gaining advantage or giving advantage to others.
The Action Surge for a second leveled spell is the only reason I take a 2 level dip in fighter when playing a Bladesinger. It's a huge advantage. Plus Second Wind saves lives
man, maybe just action surge cause 1d10 plus 2 doesnt sound very exciting. Tbh if you ask me the fighter levels are so bad its not even worth the slower spell progression.
@@CyberPunkBadGuyDepends when you take the dip? Casting Fireball twice is better than any 4th level spell in the game. (Also the heavy armor proficiency is often relevant)
@@FinetalPies Having more resources for spell slots is better, unless your DM plays like 1 or 2 combats an adventure then thats it, which would mean you dont even need to try his sessions. Heavy armor prof wont mean anything if he is a blade singer, that means he likely has +3 dex already and wearking heavy armor dis allows his Blade song ability. The only benefiit of going into fighter for a blade singer is + dueling +action surge (Once per short rest usage) cons are - Loses multiple spell slots ,2 caster level progression - action surge encourages burning through 2 third level which might not be worth. - loses spell singer 10th level feature or take longer to get to the 6th feature even..
Secret mechanic: using the ready action to hold a spell requires concentration, meaning you lose concentration of any spells you're currently concentrating on, and you can lose the readied spell and spell slot if you lose concentration (e.g. taking damage and failing a CON save). You may also lose the consumed components if interrupted, and be unable to cast if you lose access to one or more of the components (e.g. needing verbal and you get silenced) but not sure about these two
1:28, that seems like half of the quote from Jeremy Crawford, full quote goes like this: "...if a feature says you can do X as a bonus action if you do Y, you must do Y before you can do X ... You decide when it happens afterwards that turn" So the actual meaning is exact opposite, you DO have to use attack action before you can use bash, but in terms of the actual timing during your turn it can come up in any order you want.
Another great upload as always Zee! The multiple disadvantages getting canceled by one advantage was surprising. I always thought that it was a 1 for 1 cancellation, and that's how I would run it.
That's how a lot of people run it even when they know the rules on it because that's just the more sensible way to do it. I ran a Cavalier character once who had a Lance and the Mounted Feat, which, along with something else I have forgotten, meant that MOST of his attacks had two Advantage and a Disadvantage before any other circumstances, so I persuaded the DM to let me just cancel the Disadvantage with one of the Advantages even though they generally did not rule it that way.
@@ForOhFor Yeah that's the way! Optimization isn't making the strongest character possible... it's making a character that can achieve a goal optimally. Like Assassin rogue 3 paladin 2. Sure, you are shit in a fight... but you can do an average of 54 damage in one hit (Note you have advantage to hit but also I didn't take missing into account here) by blowing 2 spell slots on a surprise round! (More if you are using a rapier instead of a dagger but when I did the calcs I wanted a dagger because I think rogues assassinating with smallswords is dumb).
Just pick bad subclasses, races, and/or weapons and then make something optimal for that. It will be more than fine at a table where others don't optimise.
0:30 had that in a game I ran, making it impossible to run encounters that were balanced for the whole party. I recognize that some players like to play flawed characters (as do I), and others like to make their characters as efficient as possible. But looking back, I think the best way is to hold a group vote before deciding the kind of combat efficiency the party is aiming for.
Thanks for the vid Zee! There are a number of these gotchas peppered throughout the space, it can really scare away new players- thanks for the collection! Though the first secret mechanic wasn't quite as written, and here's how the difference could annoy YOU and YOUR DnD group! Relevant text: "A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. ...You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action." Thus if you (bonus action) cast Expeditious Retreat and also attempt to leave an enemy's reach without disengaging, you cannot also cast (reaction) Shield if they barely succeed on an opportunity attack against you.
Another thing to note about the bonus action casting is that it prevents you from casting ANY leveled spell on that turn. This means if you cast a spell with your bonus action like misty step or quicken a spell and someone tries to counterspell it, you cannot counter it back.
I always tell people you can cast whatever as long as it fits in action economy, making the fighter/sorcer player VERY happy that he can cast quickened fireball, fireball, action surge, and another fireball.
You also can get an extra cantrip per game day if you pay at least part for the pizza. You must use it on the turn the pizza arrives, which makes it a rarely useful but hilarious rule. Another is hidden mechanic is seduction in familiar VS familiar interactions leading to snitching. (-;
A somewhat hidden mechanic is that bonus action attacks predicated by an Action (like taking the Attack action to enable Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows, Polearm Master, etc.) are available as soon as you make a single attack. You are free to move and use your bonus action as you wish between attacks once you have Extra Attack. So you can take the Attack action, make an attack, move, Flurry of Blows and make two unarmed attacks, then move again and make another attack as part of Extra Attack.
The fact that readying an action to cast a spell in full cover and then releasing the spell once the target is in sight means your spell can't be countered is quite funny to me as well.
A lot of these are going away in the 2024 revisions, and I'm so glad. The invisibility advantage one makes me feel like we are in the stupidest timeline.
If you are the kind of DM who does not track HP, and you're sure the party hasn't noticed because you are a master of deception and the players are merely puppets in your grand performance, please be aware that they noticed months ago, they absolutely hate it, and the only reason no one mentions it is because accusing anyone (especially the DM) of cheating can be a pretty severe break of trust and often creates a ton of conflict at the table.
I will counter this with the sentiment that it’s ok to do this every once in a while, but never all the time. I’ve absolutely run encounters pivotal to one of my players backstories and character growth, and technically the player the turn before them killed the monster, but the other player had a plan on their turn to kill the monster in a thematic way, so “uh oh the monster is barely hanging on by a thread next guy you’re up” led to a much more satisfying conclusion than if the other player had done it. Even if you don’t agree with that though, always, ALWAYS fudge the boss HP if an NPC is about to kill them. Never let your players lose out on a kill to an NPC - ever
@@apophis456 What? Who is out here being upset an npc got the kill? As far as fudging you can always just opt to say its down and beaten instead and then give the backstory player a chance to roleplay it to death. I am never a fan of fudging things because you don't need to kill the dragon that burnt your village down with a mighty blow yourself. If anything the anticlimax of it falling before you struck the final blow its own part of the story. Still if your players agree to that then its fine. Just make it an agreed upon thing instead of a dm secret everyone knows.
Honestly, just keep it reasonable. Track HP, and have important monsters die within +/- 20%. Mooks you can play as-written, or if they get chunked by a player spending resources and would barely survive, you CAN just have 'em die. It's fine. Just don't do it all the time.
For that last one, I prefer not to run it like that. You may never roll more than 2D20 because of Advantage or Disadvantage, but I do count up how many sources of one you have versus how many sources of the other to determine what the final roll will be. If you have five sources of Disadvantage and four sources of Advantage, you're still rolling with Disadvantage.
This video could also fit in that with the lucky feat, if you have disadvantage on a roll and decide to spend a luck point on it, you roll 3 times and keep the highest result.
Mechanic that is not secret or hidden but often ignored: Tool Proficiency No, seriously, just about everyone ignores this mechanic and it is surprisingly the most useful thing ever. Aside from granting an addition (Proficiency bonus) to Intelligence checks (Dexterity if using thieves tools and Charisma if using an instrument or disguise kit) You can also USE the tools to create things that can be used for the party such as dagger boots if you're proficient with cobblers tools or a map of a dungeon for cartography tools. Tools are quite the game changer when you remember to use them.
My favorite "hidden mechanic" is while you are casting a spell with a casting time greater than a minute, you can still cast spells that take a bonus action. So you can cast Misty Step while you are using Mending, for example.
"you can take multiple classes but you can't take multiple subclasses", immediately I was like "what?! wait I- have I been doing this wrong?!" Then I stopped playing Nioh to look at the video and saw the "of the same class" thing... that's a relief, I thought I had the rules wrong for years.
That second mechanic is real. I was in a 3 PC group with two relative newbies to DND, but also with my forever DM. It eventually became clear that he would go for my more vulnerable, less optimally played companions rather than my 24 AC character. I had to start positioning even worse than them for my high AC to actually be of use to the party.
1:45 I've always done it by weighing them out. If disadvantages=advantages, roll normally. If disadvantages>advantages, roll with disadvantage, and vice versa. I also do double (dis)advantage, where you roll 3 and take the extreme, but no more, so even if you have 6 sources of adv, you still only roll 3. But that can still be helpful, because each source only counters one, so 6 adv and 2 d-adv balances out to 4 adv, which still reduces to double adv
I was already backing Floral Dragons, I got the core box and I can't wait. Yeah I know its going to take a long time, but I can't help but be a little excited. Absolutely beautiful art.
Кино
I did write it out on the screen briefly but it's worth mentioning again here:
You can't take subclasses **of the same class.**
I cannot imagine how you would multiclass without taking a subclass in the new class. But also if you could somehow pick and choose subclass features from the same class I think you could probably make a very broken build very quickly.
(I realize now though that "of the same class" is barely legible because of all the filters on the footage)
how may you even get two sublasses of the same class? I mean, without the DM saying you can because of homebrew or something like that
A DM would have to be crazy, without mercy, or an Agent of Suffering to utilize an NPC with 2 subclasses for the same class...
@@cassianomatias1170 The Theurgy wizard subclass can choose a cleric domain. Absent this ruling, they could then take levels in Cleric and choose a second domain!
@@cassianomatias1170in theory it works by multi-classing into the same class enough to qualify for subclass in both. IE) a level 12 character with 6 levels in fighter(subclass1) and 6 levels in fighter(subclass2).
A neat thing about D&D is that we can ignore things that Crawford says when they don't make sense.
Yeah, like Dragon's Breath and Twin Spells
Most RPGs explicitly say ‘use your common sense, and do what’s fun’ in the first paragraph of the rule book
he is probably playing a different game where that rules makes sense in context
I love ignoring Crawford
The best part of D&D is ALWAYS ignoring Crawford
I too despised the "being able to see an invisible creature doesn't negate the advantage/disadvantage" thing. Stinks of them realizing they wrote it poorly but refusing to admit it. Like, it's okay bro, we'd forgive you, it wouldn't even be close to the worst mistake.
Im up doing beholder bumps, snorting mordenkainen's nose candy. I havent long rested in three months and my god is gonna teach me karate
Honestly I feel like "Invisibility" shouldn't have been a condition at all. They should have had rules for fighting things while you are unseen or things you can't see and left it at that.
Now I'm curious though - what IS the "worst mistake?"
They are aware its dumb, the action surge 2 leveled spell thing and the invisible thing were addressed in one dnd.
@@sechran Probably writing the spell slot rules to enable the coffeelock. Optional but still. Also a lot of cantrips can't be used to target objects eg. eldritch blast. Just plain weird and I doubt a lot of DM's care about the distinction.
I like the idea that the two mechanics at the end walk into their shop, just to find all these people just posing with their stuff and spare overalls for no reason in particular
"So that's when I said-"
"... what?"
"bob. get in here."
"... what the hell are they doing?"
how are they going to find those people? they're hidden.
(shhh don't tell)
"Who made all this mess!? Why are all our overalls spread across the shop!? Were we robbed?! Call the cops!"
My favorite "secret" mechanic isn't even a secret.
It's just cover.
+2 to AC and Dex for half
+5 to AC and Dex for 3/4
Cannot be (directly targeted) for full cover, but must step out to take an action.
My AC 14 gunslinger was suddenly MUCH harder to hit and I basically forced my DM to learn how to play XCOM
Cover is so useful!
This is why we use grenades
Hahahha the existence and use of the cover rules being a "secret" is hilariously accurate. It's amazing that almost the entirety of the balancing force keeping ranged attacks from being more OP than they already are _and_ a major source of cinematic immersive tactical combat that people often complain D&D doesn't have are both simply found, one in the same, in the cover rules. Use them!
"I can hit you on anything but a 1!"
*rolls a 1*
'Welcome to X-Com!'
@@JD-qq8fz Agreed, cover should be so much more of a thing than it is. It's insane how much everyone forgets about cover! It's integral to ranged tactics - archers, gunslingers and spellcasters should be using it as much as possible, both for players and monsters. I think the main problems are 1) It's an extra rule to keep track of during combat and 2) The DM doesn't always design battlefields with opportunities for cover, again because they forgot about cover.
"But the DM knows about our optimizations!"
"Yes, and now they will have to optimize around our optimizations. And we can optimize around the optimizations that they are optimizing around our optimizations!"
"Brilliant!"
"I do not think you know what that word means."
Inconceivable!
This is why I always say that the best Paladin multiclass builds aren't necessarily the ones that optimize the raw potential output of Divine Smite, but the ones that have a plan B for when the Angels and Crystal Dragons attack.
make sure to feed Hans the gerbil, herr Major
@@daviddalrymple2284 My paladin multiclass builds have the plan B of "Fireball."
This is because they're 4 to 6 pal and Sorc or Wiz for the entire rest of their levels.
Zee's combination spine-wrench suggests he's some kind of necro-artificer here, and I think that's neat.
"I was driving along, and my car died!"
_"Died,_ you say?"
Necromancy makes everything better!
He runs a body shop.
Maybe there's a secret McGenk brother that went to trade school, and he never shows up because he's too busy reviving dead car batteries.
@@thebolas000Fair point.
I just want to see JCraw actually use that invisibility rule at at table he is DMing. His players would break his legs.
The kneecaps are forfeit 😤
They are changing it lol. One dnd it no longer works against creatures that can see in other ways like blindsight, tremorsense and true sight. Imagine using invisibility to gain advantage to shoot a barrel. Dumb spell.
I’m more curious how a dm would even justify the disadvantage
Do you think JCraw plays DnD?
See Invisibility is a misnomer. It doesn't allow you to SEE them but it allows you to sense where they are, which is still an improvement over having no idea where to attack the invisible creature in the first place. It's like hearing someone walking up behind you, your eyes don't help you know exactly what they're doing or where their body parts are moving around so defending against or attacking them would still be a challenge. @@azurewraith2585
0:53 I recognise that the Council has made a decision. But given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.
Seriously, I don't think anyone plays like that.
Honestly I play like that.
Indeed.
For whatever reason, I read that line as Mace Windu instead of Nick Fury. Somehow its funnier
@@brushfire1989 Thank you! I also immediately went to mace windu, and then thought "that's not right" but couldn't stop reading it in Samuel L Jackson's voice. Without you, I don't know if I would have figured out why I was doing that.
@@zanforian Genuine question then: What's your rationale for giving advantage to a creature under the effects of the invisibility spell when they can be fully seen by their target? What is the purpose of "See Invisibility" or "True Seeing" if you still have disadvantage to attack a target you can now "see"?
I used my reaction turn to Instant click for Zee
I use action surge to do the same
I use metamagic to Quicken that click and then Twin my pressing of the Like button.
It's easy when his content is usually good.
@@Naguzoro1 So roll with advantage?
I just waited for my turn.
Oh I was hoping this would include the fact that there's a sound propagation range chart that, as far as I can tell, only exists on the later version DM screens (I believe Reincarnated DM Screen was the first to have it) and in NO books in 5e. It's totally wild, but there's actually a table you can roll on to see how far sound travels. I like to mix it in with stealth sequences as a sort of additional fail-forward mechanic. If you succeed your stealth check, no worries, you don't make sound. If you fail you make sound, but then you might get lucky and the sound doesn't travel far enough. The chart breaks sound into three categories: trying to be quiet, normal, and loud as I recall.
Though the chart doesn't go into detail I rule that sound traveling through walls will be one tier lower on the chart for every substantial wall it passed through (like say a stone castle wall). This makes it another good fail-forward in stealth situations because it sets a limit on how far the scuffle you got into with a guard might alert other guards. You might attract the attention of the next room over, you might attract the whole dungeon. I also use this as a way for players to attempt quiet casting without subtle spell. If you have subtle spell, congrats, it just works. If not, there's a minimum distance your verbal components can be heard across as determined by the chart. If someone's inside that zone, tough, you were heard. I also rule that certain spells are automatically loud once cast (the verbal components might not be, but the spell itself always is). Fireball here is the obvious candidate, but most hard hitting attack spells like lightning bolt also count. Again great for stealth sequences because it makes the players use their toolkits tactically.
It can be used a few other ways like determining ambient noise pollution from environmental stuff (say a nearby waterfall or a warehouse full of magical industrial equipment). It's not something I use all the time, but I like it as a little tidbit to pull out.
Damn, that's some 3.5 level of commitment (well, almost). I wish more parts of the DM material were written with that level of knowledge.
@@drakegrandx5914 TBF it's a very small and simple chart, everything else is just me figuring out how to use it in real play. I'm not, by nature, a fan of overly granular system mechanics, but if I'm playing D&D that's the territory so I take it on its own terms. The game wants to be crunchy, so I lean further into crunch than I'd normally enjoy.
Where can I get this online?
@@philiphockenbury6563 Therein lay the problem. Like I said, these rules are only on the later edition DM screens. If you have one (including the ones that came with the box sets from Essentials Kit onward) you've already got it. Now, if you don't, I have heard that if you search things like "DM Screen Reincarnated PDF" on google you may be fortunate enough to stumble across such things.
I however cannot *myself* endorse piracy of intellectual product, even if it's been put out by a company that sicked the Pinkertons on folks, tried to muscle out the 3rd party development scene, and recently fired a bunch of their higher level art folks. *Some folks* (of course not myself) might say such a business has few enough morals itself that you would be justified in grabbing yourself what you might find with such a search, but I of course cannot condone such a viewpoint.
Alas. You are out of luck. I know this must be sad (act sad).
Google encounter distance 5e or audible distance 5e and check the image search. You should find it there
Regarding that last one, as a DM I sometimes balk at the Help action just being blurted out by players to grand advantage or negate disadvantage whenever they please, so I often insist that players tell me how their familiars or characters help in those situations. If they can't come up with a plausible way that the Help action could occur, then they don't get it.
Maybe that's a bit draconian, but it's a lot less immersion-breaking than "My bunny familiar gives me the Help action so I can hit this Invisible enemy" without any other context.
That's actually quite fair.
They could go "Bunny ear good, No see still make sound, Bunny Point ear towards them so i punch"
Did i hit? (Low int Barbarian)
My bunny familiar uses it's keen hearing to help me find and attack the invisible enemy.
Boom.
I actually use this rule too, it helps encourage players who aren't super good role-players get in some practice.
Thankfully, an Owl flapping in someone's face is pretty self-explanatory.
@@Grygus_Triss Absolutely, but if you use that explanation then the DM is much more justified to use a >11 attack roll to remove that nuisance from the field for the foreseeable future.
Like I'm all for using familiars to their fullest extent, but if you're gonna use them as a "get free advantage button", then the consequences are that you're gonna be spending a lot of money and time on rituals to get those familiars back after they get squashed.
This makes animals with enhanced senses make sense. I'm surprised bats aren't being used more for this sort of thing
Actually the optimal choice is to optimize _just enough_ that it's not worth it to try to rebalance, but you still have an advantage.
In layman’s terms, optimize for the DM.
The optimal choice is to optimize in a way that makes the whole party more powerful. Or in other words, play support.
Or realize that optimizing defeats the point of the game. Play a video game instead.
@@mofire5674 Or rather: "Optimize in SUPPORT of the game." Meaning: do it when it fits the character/drama, but don't do it otherwise. Let characters (pcs or npc) make sub-optimal choices when it fits; not *everybody* is "The Best X in the Entire World." This way everyone has one more point of personality to define them, and when someone *is* supposed to be The Best (or at least Very Good) it carries some weight. This assassin is a consummate professional; he's more optimized than that necromancer, who's basically a magical undertaker and just sort of mid. That band of gnolls? Unoptimized. The hobgoblin warlord? Optimized. Flawed characters are fun to play, and not every dangerous NPC is such simply because they have Bigger Numbers: you just designed them more effectively.
@@mofire5674 So people who enjoy the game in a different way are wrong? I could say that people who enjoy intrigue and murder mysteries defeat the point of the game (Stats and rolling detract from available data, and your character's int stat has nothing to do with the player's logic and reasoning) so they should go read a book. I'm sure plenty of people here have enjoyed a puzzle or riddle even though they "defeat the point of the game" for the same reasons. Do you ban all rogues and bards from your games because they have expertise, meaning they are optimized for certain situations?
Holding an action to cast a spell causes you to drop concentration on any spells you're concentrating on. While holding this spell, you're considered concentrating and if you take damage must roll to maintain concentration, potentially wasting the spell.
Casting a spell with a casting time longer than one action uses your concentration for the duration of he casting, meaning if you cast Conjure Elemental and then used Planar Binding without trapping the summon in a magic circle it would go beserk and try to kill you
*And*, if you don't encounter a trigger for the spell you held within one round; you expend the spellslot without effect.
So basically just ignore readied actions as a spellcaster; or check with your DM about ignoring those rules.
You can use a readied spell to cast it around a corner then step out to cast it and bypass counter spell as they need to see it cast and it was cast when you readied it.
@@danniemiesse4643 That's why I taught my fellow players to ONLY use cantrips for held, conditional spells.
"When the guard comes around the corner... Firebolt!"
"Some DM's don't use hitpoints at all"... this is how I played with my kids. Every roll I made behind the screen was fake, fudged, or deemed 'acceptable'. They didn't know how many hitpoints a goblin was supposed to have, so their damage dice were more about determining what 'combat narrative' was coming out of a hit. Case in point; a goblin got hit with the Dragonborn's acid breath attack. It wasn't enough to kill the goblin rules-as-written. But it was a lot of points of acid, so I had the goblin scream "my eyes" and fall off the adjacent cliff.
Just want to say, seeing a Zee Bashew notification on my phone always triggers immediate joy.
Seriously, one of the few channels I have notifications on for.
Serotonin button
Wizard that wears a magical chefs hat that makes them immune to disadvantage.
It's actually just their familiar pulling their hair Ratatouille-style to help
"... Mechanics..." got me SOOOO bad.
I blurted out a laugh in the middle of my quiet office at work.
First :)
Haha darn it yinz beat me to it!? HOW?
@@zeebashew Shenanigans!
Love the new surge of content, but just don't burn out :) I'd rather have these nuggets of tasty dnd/ttrpg animation content sparingly than not at all
@@Morrvard Don't listen to him! Keep it coming! Burn baby! Burn!
I never realised how much I needed someone to sensually whisper d&d mechanics at me
I used to be a part of a mini larp we ran once a week where by the end of the story, I played one of the BBEGs of a pair who were tethered to each other. We would talk before the last flight about who was going down first and we always just "felt it out" and it made for some incredible fights. Plus, once one of us went down, the other would get more "powerful" to finish out the fight, and again, we would just kinda feel out when was the appropriate time to go down.
Good stuff, I miss it a lot.
Devil's Sight doesn't help in dim light, but lets you see color in darkness!
That only applies if you already have darkvision, as only creatures with darkvision can see color in dim light. Nothing in Devil's Sight even suggests that you can see color in darkness with it inherently.
@@derekstein6193
Devil's Sight
You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Darkvision (from Dwarf).
Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Every instance of Darkvision specifies no color in darkness. Devil's sight, in contrast, doesn't have that wording. It says you can see normally in darkness. Normal sight includes color.
I also never claimed Devil's Sight lets you see color in dim light. I literally said it doesn't help in dim light.
explained fully:
if you dont have normal darkvision but have devil's sight, you see:
-normal in a well lit space
-badly in dim light (disadvantage and all that)
-normal in absolute and even magical darkness (color and all)
so you have a character that sees worse with a candle than without any light at all.
of course if you have darkvision the dim light becomes well lit and theres no problem
one problem is that there are two instances of "devil's sight"
the one that actual devils get basically just means they get darkvision in magical darkness.
but the one warlocks get just says they "see normally" without all the usual characteristics of darkvision
"...unless your DM is cool" _ssssecret to every role playing gaaammmeee_
Somewhat secret mechanic: you can choose to delay your readied action, but it must still occur immediately after the specified trigger otherwise it doesn't trigger at all. E.g. You have said 'I will ready my attack for when one of my allies is attacked', NPC A attacks ally 1 but you choose to wait, you can't use the held action unless another attack is made against an ally, regardless of the fact that it's already happened once
This is the primary reason I give my players the option of pushing their turn down the initiative track if they want instead if their readied action fails or if they choose to. Which I found out later is a mechanic baked into PF2e.
More proof that 5E needed, and still needs, an editor that isn't drinking from the toilet before breakfast.
Some of the cr calculations on monster blocks are absolute proof that they write while drunk.
It seems like WOTC gave up caring long before I got into the hobby, and one DND won’t fix anything
5e was great for me! I played one session with it and went "Hey, where'd that Pathfinder book get to?"
I stopped drinking from toilets... too many rads.
There is a non-obvious rule in the assignment of saving throw proficiencies to classes. Each class gets one proficiency in a classic saving throw (DEX/CON/WIS, previously known as Reflex/Fortitude/Will saves respectively) and one proficiency in a new-style saving throw (STR/INT/CHA) that tend to be used less often, because effects based off previous editions often kept the same saving throws.
I still think the old way of doing things with Reflex/Fortitude/Will was MUCH better than the splitting the saves into the key attributes.
@@luketfer Agreed. Still don't understand why they thought that was a good idea...
All of these mechanics are still better than "Surprise Mechanics'.
So, technically, the invisible condition grants the following effect:
“Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature's attack rolls have advantage.”
This is the second effect it gives; the first is what describes how you cannot be seen. This is to say, rules as written, yeah invisibility grants you advantage and your opponents disadvantage regardless of whether you are seen. I’m not saying that makes any darn sense, mind you, but that is the rule they wrote into the book.
Very Magic: the Gathering wording and implementation.
The optimiser one is real. I love optimising, but i dial it back pretty hard for my table because they aren't, and it would be disruptive to do so.
The best way is to find a suboptimal subclass, race, and/or weapon, and make a sick build anyway. One only an optimiser can make work at all.
Yeah, that seems the optimal way to have fun, getting a chance to challenge yourself to make a suboptimal strategy optimal
Absolutely, and very fun to do, but careful or you'll corrupt the young'ns into thinking your bad class is good...
I never knew Rules Lawyering could make me feel this way 😍
Rules Defense Attorney.
The lawyers are only out for selfish reasons, while defense attorneys care about fair practice under the rules.
Sexy sounding Zee is not what I expected this morning.
I think his wife is the one doing the sultry voice.
I'm pretty sure the reason for the weird Invisibility ruling is that the Invisibility spell, for convenience, re-states the benefits of being unseen as part of its effects. It neglects to say that these effects are contingent on being unseen.
Loving all of these secret, sexy mechanics
And on the flip side, it doesn't matter if your opponent is restrained, paralyzed, prone, grappled by you and you have the grappler feat, blinded, and you have true strike, the help action, and steady aim active with reckless attack. If you're also considered prone after all of this, no more advantage.
I dont understand why you can't counteract disadvantage with two advantages for example. I think it makes more sense, you're blinded but the opponent is also blinded and your familiar is helping you- makes sense you could have advantage.
@@isaacsimpson8098 Agreed, sort of how Shadow of the Demon Lord does it. You have two boon and one bane? You have one boon.
This is why i rule that they only cancel out 1 to 1
@@15PaperSpearsProtectTheWise Thumbs up for referencing SotDL.
@@isaacsimpson8098 I homebrew that advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out 1 to 1. there was 1 time (only 1) where there were 2-3 sources of disadvantage and 3-4 sources of advantage. to sort it out, I had to grab a sheet of paper and write each source down and cross them out one by one until I figured out whether or not the roll had advantage. the rule being what it is prevents this sort of work over a single roll in these edge cases, even if it gets ridiculous.
“I don’t like it” made me chuckle
The like 80s themeing on this is AMAZING i love it
If you have Lucky (and you were lucky your DM allowed it), you can increase your chance of something by making it worse.
You wanna hit something hard to hit? Make it harder so you have disadvantage. Then roll and use the luck point.
The feat says YOU decide which of dice you rolled is used. So you can pick the higher of the first two if the luck roll didn't help. Basically you're rolling three dice and pick from there anyway~XD
I can't see letting that work that way RAW, RAI, or otherwise. Lucky is OP enough without people closing their eyes before they attack.
@@noahblack914 Incorrect. It is indeed RAW. It never says you can't do that, just that you have to "Choose one of the d20s."
@@ImFangzBro Oh wow, I didn't realize it specifically calls out picking the d20, I thought it said pick the roll. That's some clumsy writing. Still wouldn't allow it at my table.
Would not work for my table. Disadvantage/advantage is ruled as roll 2 the lowest/highest does not exist. In other word lucky will only have the option of the new lucky roll or the lowest of the previous roll.
@@TrixyTrixter Exactly the same as I would rule it. Advantage/Disadvantage resolves before Lucky is applied, so choosing the discarded d20 is never an option.
Something nobody talks about is how Slow (in 5e) and casting interact. If a target affected by Slow tries to cast a spell, they have to make a roll. If they roll low, it has to use its action on their next turn to complete the spell. Which means it's now a spell with a casting time of more than one action. Which means it requires concentration. So they'd have to choose to keep a current spell or drop it and hope to finish it next turn. And the party gets a whole round to try and stop it/break concentration.
I love Slow.
Fun point about Shield Master: It says "attack action," meaning you can grapple or disarm (optional rule) first and THEN use your bonus action to shove so that they are restrained and prone (which is a really strong combo). You can even use this special shove on a different target. This differs greatly from Tavern Brawler, which allows you to grapple as a bonus action only after making an *unarmed* or improvised *weapon* attack, and only lets you attempt to grapple the same target.
Now imagine a level 11 Rune Knight or any level 11 fighter with a 1-point dip into Barbarian to rage: grapple with advantage, bonus action shove, then attack the immobile and restrained target with advantage for your remaining two attacks without having to use Reckless Attack. ((CORRECTION: GM would have to rule if you can maintain a grapple and still attack while also holding a shield.))
Where is restrained coming from? Grapple only inflicts the grappled condition (You'd have advantage anyway if they're prone)
Not sure what barb gets you. Rune knight already gives you advantage with its enlarge.
One of the few channels that I click the video as soon as I see, no matter what I'm doing. Always excited for your uploads.
Sorcerer-fighter
Twinning spells and surging actions to cast 4 spells in one turn
Definitely had a DM that didn't track enemy HP. It was intensely frustrating as a player, because we could tell our damage didn't actually matter and there was nothing at stake. We were effectively playing on "Story Mode" and weren't told. Bosses always died at the last possible moment, right before we died or when most of the party was downed. An NPC of MacGuffin was always there to make sure any other issues were cleaned up, because we were always completely spent.
it really has to either be secret, or have a stricter threshold. I can allow X amount of deducting from boss hp, if there is a dramatic finisher that brings them down to X hp, and there are unavoidable sources of damage coming soon after anyway. As long as it doesn't change the outcome.
how much is X? differs for every person and every situation.
@@yargolocus4853Oh, he thought it was a secret. It was pretty obvious to us.
@@DoggoDogman how can you tell that? unless you metagame existing monsters, there should be no way for you to know targets hp?
@@yargolocus4853 Knowing something your character doesn't know isn't metagaming. Using it IN GAME as if your character knows it is metagaming. Every player knows things their character doesn't.
Also, you don't have to know an enemy's HP total for it to be obvious it's inflated.
Additionally, some people are bad liars.
@@DoggoDogman fair. this too, is a skill.
That casting multiple levels spells is busted. I’m gonna have to make sure to use that next time I play a wizard
Provided you have the right build and action economy you can cast as many spells as you have actions. It’s just difficult to gain more actions.
At most you can cast 4 spells per ROUND and 3 spells per TURN
Action Surge is pretty much the only way you can multicast leveled spells in the game, so it's fine. By the time you can double cast Fireball (lvl 7 at min) enemies can take it.
@@federicopalacios7439 you could do a leveled spell and 2 cantrips along with a reaction spell on another turn or you could do 2 leveled spells and a reaction spell on another turn.
Action surge is possibly no longer going to allow for casting with the rules changes just as a heads up
For the record, as of the last Fighter playtest for the 2024 PHB, the Action granted by Action Surge can be used for any action *except* the Magic Action, which means you can't use a Fighter dip as a Wizard to cast two leveled spells in the same turn.
*However* that playtest also included an update to the Eldritch Knight. In that update, a level 7 Eldritch Knight, when they take the Attack action, can replace one of their attacks with a cantrip. At level 18, they can replace *two* attacks with the casting of one of their spells with a casting time of one Action. Assuming this makes it into the new PHB, then a level 18+ Eldritch Knight will be the only character that can use Action Surge to cast two leveled spells in a single turn, because the spell they cast with their Action Surge is not done using the Magic Action, but using the Attack Action.
@@CivilWarMan I don’t think it works that way. You’re still using a magic action I don’t think that feature suddenly changes it to a different type of action
Reaction spells present another big gap in the Bonus Action spell limit. A fifth level Eldritch Knight can cast three spells on their turn, for instance. (Say Action to cast Burning Hands, Action Surge to cast Burning Hands again, Reaction to cast Shield to block an Attack of Opportunity.)
I'm going to abuse the heck out of that first one.
I've already given my DM fair warning.
Of course this is the same DM that let me trap Acerak in an invulnerable sphere before rolling him into lava and dismissing it.
Sounds like a cool DM. Don't take advantage _too_ often. ;)
Was Acerak ok.
@@MeriliremI would think so. That’s guys not keeping his phylactery on his body so he would come back.
Honestly I think it balances itself.
The level setback it requires if you’re going the action surge route is fair payment.
My group plays with a house rule that advantage and disadvantage cancel out on a one-to-one basis. So if you've got two effects that give you advantage and one that gives you disadvantage, you're still rolling at advantage. Same goes for the other way around.
I agree with this. If I have a friend distracting them, I am focusing solely on my attack and the Kobold invigorated me with a roar. I do not like that just cause I got a little sand in my eyes that cancels out everything else.
man that sounds horrible. It makes crowd control significantly stronger against attack rolls , since he effects stack you are never rolling normal at times same for creatures and barbarian just got even more worse gj DM.
Just play casters and use saving throws since bro wants to cripple attacking characters even more.
@damanicampbell9567 How often do you really have multiple ways to gain advantage while only having 1 disadvantage? Outside of barbarians who have an on demand one I do not see this changing much outside of edge cases
@@CyberPunkBadGuy I also have this homebrew rule. It almost never comes up because there aren't many situations where players have 3 or 4 different sources of advantage. That's because advantage still doesn't stack so there's no benefit for having 4 advantages opposed to 1. Attacking characters aren't crippled by this at all since few monsters have abilities that give disadvantage to attack rolls and several characters have ways of gaining advantage or giving advantage to others.
I think I've always been playing that way but by accident lol
The Action Surge for a second leveled spell is the only reason I take a 2 level dip in fighter when playing a Bladesinger. It's a huge advantage. Plus Second Wind saves lives
man, maybe just action surge cause 1d10 plus 2 doesnt sound very exciting. Tbh if you ask me the fighter levels are so bad its not even worth the slower spell progression.
@@CyberPunkBadGuyDepends when you take the dip? Casting Fireball twice is better than any 4th level spell in the game. (Also the heavy armor proficiency is often relevant)
@@FinetalPies Having more resources for spell slots is better, unless your DM plays like 1 or 2 combats an adventure then thats it, which would mean you dont even need to try his sessions.
Heavy armor prof wont mean anything if he is a blade singer, that means he likely has +3 dex already and wearking heavy armor dis allows his Blade song ability.
The only benefiit of going into fighter for a blade singer is
+ dueling
+action surge (Once per short rest usage)
cons are
- Loses multiple spell slots ,2 caster level progression
- action surge encourages burning through 2 third level which might not be worth.
- loses spell singer 10th level feature or take longer to get to the 6th feature even..
Secret mechanic: using the ready action to hold a spell requires concentration, meaning you lose concentration of any spells you're currently concentrating on, and you can lose the readied spell and spell slot if you lose concentration (e.g. taking damage and failing a CON save). You may also lose the consumed components if interrupted, and be unable to cast if you lose access to one or more of the components (e.g. needing verbal and you get silenced) but not sure about these two
I now have a fetish for mechanics.
I love how Crawford said: Melee attack cantrips are so op, so now they have a range of self and 5 feet.
I love the quick rundown on this stuff, and the presentation made me chuckle several times.
1:28, that seems like half of the quote from Jeremy Crawford, full quote goes like this: "...if a feature says you can do X as a bonus action if you do Y, you must do Y before you can do X ... You decide when it happens afterwards that turn"
So the actual meaning is exact opposite, you DO have to use attack action before you can use bash, but in terms of the actual timing during your turn it can come up in any order you want.
Another great upload as always Zee! The multiple disadvantages getting canceled by one advantage was surprising. I always thought that it was a 1 for 1 cancellation, and that's how I would run it.
That's how a lot of people run it even when they know the rules on it because that's just the more sensible way to do it.
I ran a Cavalier character once who had a Lance and the Mounted Feat, which, along with something else I have forgotten, meant that MOST of his attacks had two Advantage and a Disadvantage before any other circumstances, so I persuaded the DM to let me just cancel the Disadvantage with one of the Advantages even though they generally did not rule it that way.
*10 seconds ago* - wow I'm on time!
Hello Zee! Thank you for your wonderful work, it's always a joy to watch you
Roll perception to recognize the wizard’s shoulder ballsack.
I really liked this video and its format! This could be a whole series of general DnD advice videos!
Sensual AND educational. Thanks Zee!
I felt that optimization one in my soul, but I can’t not optimize because I have a problem
Just optimize for Dumb Shit(tm) instead.
I made a tabaxi eagle totem barbarian to optimize move speed. He's awful, but can move 200 feet in a turn :V
@@ForOhFor Yeah that's the way! Optimization isn't making the strongest character possible... it's making a character that can achieve a goal optimally. Like Assassin rogue 3 paladin 2. Sure, you are shit in a fight... but you can do an average of 54 damage in one hit (Note you have advantage to hit but also I didn't take missing into account here) by blowing 2 spell slots on a surprise round! (More if you are using a rapier instead of a dagger but when I did the calcs I wanted a dagger because I think rogues assassinating with smallswords is dumb).
Just pick bad subclasses, races, and/or weapons and then make something optimal for that. It will be more than fine at a table where others don't optimise.
@@ForOhFor exactly. Optimize in a different direction.
0:30 had that in a game I ran, making it impossible to run encounters that were balanced for the whole party. I recognize that some players like to play flawed characters (as do I), and others like to make their characters as efficient as possible. But looking back, I think the best way is to hold a group vote before deciding the kind of combat efficiency the party is aiming for.
Thanks for the vid Zee! There are a number of these gotchas peppered throughout the space, it can really scare away new players- thanks for the collection!
Though the first secret mechanic wasn't quite as written, and here's how the difference could annoy YOU and YOUR DnD group! Relevant text:
"A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. ...You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action."
Thus if you (bonus action) cast Expeditious Retreat and also attempt to leave an enemy's reach without disengaging, you cannot also cast (reaction) Shield if they barely succeed on an opportunity attack against you.
Another thing to note about the bonus action casting is that it prevents you from casting ANY leveled spell on that turn. This means if you cast a spell with your bonus action like misty step or quicken a spell and someone tries to counterspell it, you cannot counter it back.
Phenomenal video!
I always tell people you can cast whatever as long as it fits in action economy, making the fighter/sorcer player VERY happy that he can cast quickened fireball, fireball, action surge, and another fireball.
Getting some strong CarnikCon vibes off this one. I love it.
I kibash the "help" action. It has to be more specific than that, and make sense contextually.
For the Mastermind Rogue, who can Help as a bonus action from up to 30 feet away, does basically giving tactical combat advise work?
@@josephperez2004 most of the time, yes. But not if the teammate being helped is prone and attacking an obscured or invisible creature.
Hope this doesn’t unlock something in me
Too late
I think it unlocked something in me faster even, not sure how it works but it do
You also can get an extra cantrip per game day if you pay at least part for the pizza. You must use it on the turn the pizza arrives, which makes it a rarely useful but hilarious rule.
Another is hidden mechanic is seduction in familiar VS familiar interactions leading to snitching. (-;
A somewhat hidden mechanic is that bonus action attacks predicated by an Action (like taking the Attack action to enable Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows, Polearm Master, etc.) are available as soon as you make a single attack. You are free to move and use your bonus action as you wish between attacks once you have Extra Attack. So you can take the Attack action, make an attack, move, Flurry of Blows and make two unarmed attacks, then move again and make another attack as part of Extra Attack.
I enjoyed this. Please don't make another like it.
Hahaha! Fair.
The fact that readying an action to cast a spell in full cover and then releasing the spell once the target is in sight means your spell can't be countered is quite funny to me as well.
A lot of these are going away in the 2024 revisions, and I'm so glad. The invisibility advantage one makes me feel like we are in the stupidest timeline.
Love the bit, and super useful info. Thanks!
If you are the kind of DM who does not track HP, and you're sure the party hasn't noticed because you are a master of deception and the players are merely puppets in your grand performance, please be aware that they noticed months ago, they absolutely hate it, and the only reason no one mentions it is because accusing anyone (especially the DM) of cheating can be a pretty severe break of trust and often creates a ton of conflict at the table.
I will counter this with the sentiment that it’s ok to do this every once in a while, but never all the time.
I’ve absolutely run encounters pivotal to one of my players backstories and character growth, and technically the player the turn before them killed the monster, but the other player had a plan on their turn to kill the monster in a thematic way, so “uh oh the monster is barely hanging on by a thread next guy you’re up” led to a much more satisfying conclusion than if the other player had done it.
Even if you don’t agree with that though, always, ALWAYS fudge the boss HP if an NPC is about to kill them. Never let your players lose out on a kill to an NPC - ever
@@apophis456 What? Who is out here being upset an npc got the kill?
As far as fudging you can always just opt to say its down and beaten instead and then give the backstory player a chance to roleplay it to death. I am never a fan of fudging things because you don't need to kill the dragon that burnt your village down with a mighty blow yourself. If anything the anticlimax of it falling before you struck the final blow its own part of the story.
Still if your players agree to that then its fine. Just make it an agreed upon thing instead of a dm secret everyone knows.
@@Merilirem an NPC should never steal a moment from your players
Honestly, just keep it reasonable. Track HP, and have important monsters die within +/- 20%. Mooks you can play as-written, or if they get chunked by a player spending resources and would barely survive, you CAN just have 'em die. It's fine. Just don't do it all the time.
For that last one, I prefer not to run it like that. You may never roll more than 2D20 because of Advantage or Disadvantage, but I do count up how many sources of one you have versus how many sources of the other to determine what the final roll will be. If you have five sources of Disadvantage and four sources of Advantage, you're still rolling with Disadvantage.
This video could also fit in that with the lucky feat, if you have disadvantage on a roll and decide to spend a luck point on it, you roll 3 times and keep the highest result.
Mechanic that is not secret or hidden but often ignored: Tool Proficiency
No, seriously, just about everyone ignores this mechanic and it is surprisingly the most useful thing ever. Aside from granting an addition (Proficiency bonus) to Intelligence checks (Dexterity if using thieves tools and Charisma if using an instrument or disguise kit)
You can also USE the tools to create things that can be used for the party such as dagger boots if you're proficient with cobblers tools or a map of a dungeon for cartography tools.
Tools are quite the game changer when you remember to use them.
Oi! Don't be giving away my cinematic boss battle HP ignoring!
This was awesome, Zee. Stay gold!
This was very funny and engaging. Love your content, thank you for the laughs.
Another 5e video! And an absolue banger! Ima add this to my ASMR playlist ngl
Love it! Just as a shout out to an earlier video question, I am ready.
And THIRDLY, the DM>G< is more of what you call GUIDELINES than actual RULES.
Thanks Zee! “Cheating Mechanics,” will be whispered in a sexy voice during, pretty much every game we play from now on.
My favorite "hidden mechanic" is while you are casting a spell with a casting time greater than a minute, you can still cast spells that take a bonus action. So you can cast Misty Step while you are using Mending, for example.
I really, really can't get enough of this pun.
Thank you for another awesome video - good stuff!
"you can take multiple classes but you can't take multiple subclasses", immediately I was like "what?! wait I- have I been doing this wrong?!"
Then I stopped playing Nioh to look at the video and saw the "of the same class" thing... that's a relief, I thought I had the rules wrong for years.
These transitions are the best part
man you had a vision for this one
That second mechanic is real. I was in a 3 PC group with two relative newbies to DND, but also with my forever DM. It eventually became clear that he would go for my more vulnerable, less optimally played companions rather than my 24 AC character. I had to start positioning even worse than them for my high AC to actually be of use to the party.
had to re-watch, I kept getting distracted by the sexy beats and mechanics.
That bit about true sight and See invisibility is crazy.
this was very educational, thank you
1:37 I HAVE NEVER FELT SO CALLED OUT IN MY LIFE HOW DARE YOU SIR
What a strange format, i love it.
Great video!
I had to get a pen and paper to track the double negative cancellations from the second tip. lol Well done!
1:45 I've always done it by weighing them out. If disadvantages=advantages, roll normally. If disadvantages>advantages, roll with disadvantage, and vice versa.
I also do double (dis)advantage, where you roll 3 and take the extreme, but no more, so even if you have 6 sources of adv, you still only roll 3. But that can still be helpful, because each source only counters one, so 6 adv and 2 d-adv balances out to 4 adv, which still reduces to double adv
I was already backing Floral Dragons, I got the core box and I can't wait. Yeah I know its going to take a long time, but I can't help but be a little excited. Absolutely beautiful art.
That second one is one of the greatest mechanical secrets/problems in the game.
Man I love your videos
Saw this and thought it was going to talk about the
mark action
Cleaving through damage
Tumble
Shove aside
Don't forget chases!