Why the One D&D Bastion system is the best change so far
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #onednd
Unearthed Arcana Playtest 8 for One D&D was a surprise release and came with one of the most exciting updates to the game so far: Bastions. We explore how they work, what they do and why they are really good for the game.
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Oh, one facility that seems missing is sonr kind of animal farm or ranch. Animals like chickens, goats, and sheep are trade goods with a specific value so itd be nice to have a facility that can manage/produce them. I suppose you could adapt the rules for the storeroom or stable, but they should clarify this before the final realease
I think thats the menagerie
@@rorybeckstrom9602 yeah, but I mean more like raising livestock and trading them for money. Technically storeroom rules would apply so if you could just use that
Suggest it in the feedback form.
Stable
@@larilaa stable specifies larger creatures like horses and mules. You also can't keep very many. Though it does have a good profit margin.
The Bastion system looks nice, and provides a good base for the ideas I like about having a base, however I find that it feels too gamey - its tailored to be used exclusively for each person, so everyone ends up with their own large base, which I feel works against the collaborative feel that most parties have. Looking at the war room as an example, it's about the individual player having their own inner circle of battle-hardened of advisors, which is a nice idea, but that niche is already meant to be filled with your party, and its use is tailored for the bastion system itself rather than any grand conquest you want to have at that level.
My immediate reaction is basically your first sentence: it is too gameist.
And, I know, 5e (and thus now its successor) is supposed to be simple... One D&D, as they are so keen on calling it, even more so. And a good way to simplify it is to gameify.
But to me... They don't give enough meat... So if anything, anyone who wants a base will make a base using homebrew rules and then *maybe* the players will use this system as a "free stuff" mechanic.
A "bastion" mechanic could be great... Sort of a throw back to the Original OD&D where the end goal was to build a kingdom and just play Chainmail. But with our modern sensibilities it could also open the door to great Roleplay. Say you hire someone to manage your estate, you check in on him, restock your coffers, and off you go... But you realize he is kind of shady... You can play around with that. Investigate him? Duel to the death? Play out interviews for new managers of you estate? All could work in the right game. Or maybe your bishops are convincing the once benevolent Cleric who runs the Priory to extort the local citizenry by increasing mandatory tithes to the religious institution... All of these are evil, but imagine I listed good outcomes, too. The Merchant's Hall invites the local Merchant's Prince to haggle or set new trade routes; there, that is at least neutral.
But I feel like a system like this encourages you to just handwave all that and just show up every once in a while to tell your people to churn out magic goodies for you faster. But, strangely, Insight Check here has the opposite perspective, claiming it reduces handwaving... I guess in a sense, in that it does something instead of nothing... But I feel like it won't make you feel like you are managing and running an estate of some sort. Which is what I want in a rule set, usually: Either make it fun, which I don't see here, or make it immerse me in the world... Which I feel precisely the opposite is achieved here. Exceptions abound for exceptional GMs, but that stands for any rule ever to be penned for a TTRPG, so exceptions notwithstanding, I do not share his exuberance for such rules.
@@dontyodelsohard2456 if you want role-playing, you can always add it. But if you just want a home - now you have rules that lets it be something more than "well, I have a home somewhere"
And Bastion system definitely reduces handwaving compared to 5e
@@georgeuferov1497 Like I said, yes, technically there is more... But I feel what more they give just isn't the right direction, or perhaps simply not enough... I am not sure.
But to me, if I was a player, I feel like unless I am playing a game with Mathew Mercer or something it is going to feel really hollow. What is there that engages you? To me, it just looks like a mechanic that give you benefits without much buy in. The most in-depth you get is that the rooms have different sizes.
I don't know, I just don't like it. To me, it feels like this: they add rules for hiring a party of adventurers to clear out dungeons. These rules state the party levels up when you do, gaining party members and given checkpoints, and the class you choose allows them to give benefits by spending TP. You don't have to give them gold because it is assumed they just make enough gold as it is. You can only give them an order once a week, if you don't give an order they just drink ale in the nearest tavern. After one week, if you gave them an order, they come back with 2d6 TP. Wizards with 50 TP can make magic items, Clerics with 100 TP can resurrect you, Rogues can train you in skills, fighters give bonus in combat... And that's basically the rules. There is nothing innately more interactive than pressing one of a few buttons and than waiting... Unless the GM puts in the work to make it better. And besides that, it also sort of ruins the verisimilitude of the game for me; ignoring upkeep, have an abstraction that are only used for benefits...
Just not a fan.
And what do you suggest for the other option beside “just make shit up, bro, DM can handle it just fine”
@@dontyodelsohard2456 I see it as a mechanical convention for players who don't have much time to deal with individual NPCs
I’m 38 and I was a “Jock” in HS. I literally just made my first character and started my first quest earlier tonight with my fellow-newbie G/F and some of our far more experienced friends…I HAD SO MUCH FUCKING FUN!!!
That’s amazing! Welcome to the club :)
The bastions playtest was needed to allow the WOTC team to read through the comments from playtest 7 before adding in the required re-worked classes/subclasses/features in playtest 9. while they could have done them concurrently, the more playtests means less focus on each of them. This playtest will take many months to really playtest.
It is very cool that there are party-wide benefits for players that don’t care to invest time and resources into their own bastion
I think if the party decides, that only some of them will be investing for the sake of the group than that's nice, but it feels off when all but one are investing resources for the last one to just enjoy the fruits of the parties labour
Everyone has different things to offer a bastion. Not everything is about gold. A Druid could tend gardens and deal with rodents. Someone needs to organize security. Workers need to be investigated before hiring. Is there a temple or shrine on the site? A bastion or Villa or tower may need to have an association with a local religion. A Bastion would need to have deals with local tradesmen. In the 80’s we had a villa and adventurers boarding house I got most of my ideas about this from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Someone must keep the keys to the Larder and that in itself is a very important position. Everyone on the team has talents to offer.
I would say that Wizards are only doing this because Strongholds and Followers made millions on kickstarter and they can't allow competition. I understand the why behind it, but it doesn't make them any less scumbags because you know that they will just do the bare minimum just so that they can tell players "Why would you want to support MCDM when you have Bastions right here! Sure we spent a total development time of 45 minutes on it, but it has the official WOTC D&D5e stamp on it!"
MCDM was filling an unmet demand for 5e with that (excellent) book, but this is not the first time WotC has published material on bastions. There was a robust Stronghold Builders Guidebook for 3.0/3.5, and previous editions have touched on it as well.
Personally while I love the depth of the MCDM book, it isn’t suited well for my campaign. This UA is a bit more streamlined, in a good way.
VTT is also on the horizon - establish player housing now, sell digital cosmetics for your digital bastion later!
Bastions seem really cool but I feel like the implementation is too rigid. Almost of the low level Facilities are just 50 gp per week or a discount on items at the cost of a lot of downtime. The rate you get Bastion Points is also was more conservative than it should be. Using the recommended 6-8 Bastion Turns per level a level 5-8 character will receive, on average, 30-40 BP per level. A common item costs 20 BP, flexing on the neighbors is 10, and resurrecting your character is 100. This means if a level 8 character has EVER spent BP on anything there’s a strong chance they’ll be unable to resurrect themselves if they die, at this point in the game the Cleric has been raising the dead for 3 levels and the Paladin is about to start. With BP being as scarce as it is players are highly encouraged to hoard it so they can get a strong Magic Item they’re interested in. I get the trepidation with players getting free Magic Items but the items need to be DM approved and are already hard coded to be once per level up, making it so that most levels you can’t afford anything you want just makes it feel like you lost a part of your level up. Again, Bastions are a cool idea, I just think this implementation needs improvement.
Oh totally 100%. I love the direction the system is taking but I don't think it's perfect quite yet, there are certainly some changes that need to be made before it should be just published. But where it is trending and moving it into 5e is a really great idea.
I think that they could also make the Magic Items cheaper instead, as they're certainly very expensive for getting only 1d4/6 BP per Facility. Some also need some further tweaks to make them all more balanced, with the Training Grounds and Artisan's Guild Hall being major ones that need improvement, even if the latter is hilariously on the nose in flavor so perhaps a 2nd function would be good. I also think that Druidic Foci Proficiency should offer some different Facilities to Holy Symbol Proficiency, as having all 4 be shared is perhaps a little underwhelming, so perhaps a unique Lvl 9 and 13 Facility would be cool.
RAW, sure, the bastion points do have their limits. However, I plan to tweak things a little bit if I implement it into my next campaign, similar to how I handled Salvage Bases in my Oracle of War campaign. Namely in addition to the normal way to implement bastion points, I'll likely also offer sidequests that yield bastion points to each of the members of the party. That said, probably would also cap BP per tier so that each PC isn't hording them excessively.
You can double check my math, but it looks like, by level 20, you're getting 792-1056 BP depending on if you're doing 6 or 8 turns per level. So if your table is only doing 6 turns per levels, you only have 92 points to spare if you want a legendary item at level 20, and if you're doing 8 turns per level, you can get 1 very rare and 1 legendary item by level 20 with 6 points to spare.
@williamgordon5443 I’ll take your math at face value. Honestly, that doesn’t seem unreasonable at all actually!
We were actually talking about doing something in a campaign that was kind of like this. We wanted more of a hub campaign with quests building off it. And this promises to be perfect for that. My son really liked the menagerie most of all. He likes collecting animals in Minecraft, Pokemon, and pretty much all the video games he plays, so this really appealed to him. I think there's something here for just about anyone who has tons of money and nothing to spend it on.
Building a stronghold used to be a standard achievement when you reached level 9 or 10. It helped fighters the most because they could develop an army at high levels that worked as a force multiplier to balance them against high level casters.
So they're adding back in strongholds and followers features that they had in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 3.5 editions
Better late than never ;)
I’m pretty sure they ditch the base section off 3E entirely
@@justnoob8141 it was in the DMG. the rules for it were split between the leadership feet and the dungeon building rules.
They later published an entire book for it. I think it was called strongholds builder's guide.
See, I know nothing about past editions, but as soon as I heard the title "Bastions" I felt like it was a name you'd only use if you were trying really hard to act like you weren't ripping off something else.
Bastion Builder and tile sets for it are a large part of vtt monetization plans.
I guessed 47 at the start of the video as a shot in the dark and would you look at that...
But in all seriousness I'm torn because this is a good beta of a system, but it definitely needs refinement. There's already 3rd party systems that did an idea like this in the past and I think comparing them to this makes it feel very paltry by comparison. This is definitely not to the crunchy quality they have but it's good streamlining.
One funny note that I think is that it never says or specifies HOW your character gets ressurected when you use that feature. I feel like that could lead to a very animosity filled almost "Munchkin-esque" feeling of beating the game because this feature doesn't care about the important criteria of a lack of a corpse or a timespan of having your character be ressurected. Say goodbye to any sense of mortality when you can die in battle, wait well past 200 years and then miraculously spend your bastion points. Which also feels like it makes no sense to me, how can one spend ANYTHING, when they're dead?
That alone really tells me that this isn't a "create a modest homestead that might grow into a successful town that helps you on your day to day questing" sort of system and more of an "Here's your Avenger's Tower, no need to think about any of this any deeper or it'll fall apart due to some plotholes found in Jarvis' code." sort of system and is definitely something that needs some time in the oven and I don't have faith that they'll deliver before the mid-to-late 2024 deadline without having to scrap the concept for time.
They said in a video it represents your hirelings recovering your body and finding a cleric to resurrect it
42. Will edit later.
EDIT: Oh. That was pretty close. Anyway, I like this system, but I'd like some options (particularly in regards to purely GP generating stuff) to be shrunk down to a single, generic "produce gold!" action that functions for any facility, while also standardizing the rewards. Look at the Garden, for example: you produce perfume worth 50gp, or you produce food worth.... 50gp. And you can produce healing potions worth 50gp... so, uh, make the garden specific feature "produce healing potion" and trim the fat.
Very close! And yeah, honestly that sounds like a reasonable way to help streamline the system! Could even be a variant to provide additional flexibility to a DM.
the idea of basions is interesting but not really what I am hoping for in the new DMG. I am hoping for a DMG that provides new and old DMs clear guides on how to build and run campaigns & encounters, how the economy is suppose to work, how to build and use traps and puzzles, crafting rules with advices how to keep it balanced, etc... Not a bunch of new optional rules, that would be better in an expansion book, imo.
I also hope for all those same things. I don't think that stuff like Bastions is what we can expect from the DMG as a whole, I do think it will be more of what you described, especially based on the way they have talked about reorganizing and realigning the content in the book. The current DMG has a bunch of variant rules and alternative systems too so I'm hoping this is just another of those.
It’s a neat subsystem, but it has the problem of failing to answer, “what does this solve?” Like, for a GMs manual, I’d have an expectation for how it streamlines a concept, provides solutions or tips, or make things easier.
When you look at the general design of ONE D&D, there is an approach of accretion rather than innovation. I think that’s why I enjoyed how Pacts were tied in with the Invocations, and hope to see more like that with simpler but more expressive systems.
This idea of a bastion system has a lot of “okay neat but why?” I can see a tighter system tied with a companion system (making allied NPCs run faster with supports or commands, or even squads, or costing Inspiration to call).
I just want tools to support casual GMs and giving a strong enjoyable system for players instead of trying to appeal to its most sweaty followers
Though I respect it, I'm not sure I entirely agree with your premise that this is a solution in need of a problem. Many campaigns that I have played in and DM'd for nearly inevitably lead to a point where the players are interested in establishing some sort of a "home base" and this helps with that. Additionally, nearly every campaign that I have played in or DM'd inevitably leads to a portion of the campaign where there isn't necessarily a lot happening where players want to look for items, build things and this can help facilitate that.
The system isn't perfect but it's also intended to be optional, it's nothing that is "part of the game" unless the group wants it to be part of their game.
While the "problem" it's solving isn't necessarily something extremely detrimental to the experience or game breaking, it is certainly something that many campaigns will appreciate having and any DM will appreciate having the general rules and concepts established for them which they can use out of the box or adapt as they see fit.
It solve "crafting" and magic item acquiring, without turning those processes into video-game mechanics or setting a price tags.
I love this idea! Base management can be a lot of fun if you have cool systems to support it. I ran a pirate game that had a fun base system and my players loved engaging with it. I just didn't have enough system there to be great. I could see room to improve but i am even excited about that because then I can make my own rooms and systems to tailor to my game preferences with a good skeleton there to support those systems.
I am beyond excited. The best part is this seems to be a system I could also implement into other game systems.
are they gonna add how to craft items and magic items? brew potions and poisons? more detailed stuff on magic items, costs etc? Basically fleshing out downtime? Or is it gonna be another skeleton of a feature the DM has to figure out on their own. Because i really dont need a "you can add this to your bastion, no we are not gonna specify properly what each module does"
They gotta adjust the smithy so smithing artificers can qualify. Funnily enough extra attack would do the trick since battlesmiths and armorers get that feature
Also I don't think there's a class or subclass that can get fighting style or unarmored defense that can't get extra attack (usually at level 5 too)
I don’t think they’re going to use subclass features to determine it. They could always say, oh yeah Artificers get it too
@@EpicRandomness555 currently Smithy requires you to have the Weapon Mastery ability. Although if they would ever revise the Artificer, they would probably add Weapon Mastery to this class
@@EpicRandomness555 blade bards can get fighting style iirc
@@georgeuferov1497 didn't it say fighting style or unarmored defense?
This already exists in strongholds, which is better.
Pretty sure DMG offer absolutely nothing when compare to this playtest
I would want to be able to send orders while being away
As someone who's a huge fan of the unexpectables (campaign 1 especially) i do like where this system is going and hope more improvements happen so more players could use a system similarish to building a SweetDragon of their own
I love it, but I'd scrap all the "1 week" parts for spending downtime. Like the buffs last until you spend X downtime days, you can use Identify once per X downtime days. You want to spend downtime day to do stuff at your bastion, so it causes them to feed each other while still requiring you to go out on adventures to build up downtime.
I know this came out a while back and might be too late for this suggestion, but I just thought of an idea today. What if they allowed a level 5 facility to be combined with another facility.
Allow only certain facilities to be combined, these combines facilities would only count as 1, would only roll 1 bp and could only give 1 order. Maybe limit the number of times you can combine facilities. Examples, the Library and Archive, or the Sanctuary and either Sacristy or Sanctum
The only reason I thought of this is because players would probably upgrade as soon as possible, and the lower levels would not be used very often.
I'm also thinking, who would get and keep the armory, barracks and smithy into higher levels? The barrack can only be given the recruit order and, if at max capacity, can't be given an order, which might mean it automatically takes the maintain order (1d4 without the 25gp advantage) or can't roll at all. The armory is in a similar position with the trade order. But if they could be combines into one facility, then maybe people would use them.
It feels like an excuse not to introduce a decent crafting system. While I haven't read it in detail, at first glance I'm not a fan of the whole magic item farming idea.
Yeah that's totally fair. I think it probably should be something done at every level but the idea in itself isn't terrible but probably could use some tweaking. As for crafting, I just don't think that's an avenue that the design team is interested in exploring for D&D anymore. I'd love to see a detailed crafting system in the new DMG but I wouldn't hold my breath on that lol.
Imagine having a workshop/smithy/etc where crafting cost and time required is reduced by the Bastion Levels.
Agreed, the current DMG basically ignores crafting; something that is sadly lacking. Wonderful side-quest opporturites!
Age of Empires meets Dungeons and Dragons.
I'm pretty sure this was designed to be optimized through D&D Beyond, which would explain why it feels so much like a video game.
Earlier editions did this much better. A druid's grove should have little in common with a rogue's guild, which should have little in common with a cleric's temple or a wizards tower, etc.
Why can't I just cast sending to issue an order, when I am out adventuring? It's a rule, but the restriction doesn't seem logical to me.
And who are you gonna send the message to? Definitely not Bob, he’s a stable kid, and not Jeff, he’s a gardener, nor Garry, he’s a janitor
Watch this be entirely rolled back by the time one dnd actually happens, like all of the other promising changes so far.
For the sake of engagement: If I wasn't using my hands at work, I would have been right on the money, for # of Bastions! Haha
This is precisely the sort of "crunch" D&D rules have needed... ever since they axed the "Leadership" feat from 3.5E, there hasn't been a good system to *build* and *maintain* player housing nor to accurately establish enemy strongholds... you just sort of "describe the environment" and despite 4E's success in streamlining character class design it never built the world around them to let players "own" a piece of their world...
Excited for this, but not sure I'm as thrilled for the class changes...
Frankly Acquistions Inc rules got me into 5e so it feels like they used the rules there to framework Bastions
I like this I really want a wizard tower now
"...always possible before, but without any codified rules..."
I suggest you crack out some Old School D&D. They were called Keeps, and many characters were *required* to begin building one when they reached 9th level. Check a copy of 1st Ed. AD&D's DM Guide. There are extensive rules for where and how to build, and how much cost was involved. It could get quite detailed. Charisma was.*not* the 'dump stat' so many used to think it was. It determined the maximum number of 'hirelings' (carpenters, masons, smiths, etc. a character could employ), and the maximum number of 'henchmen' (ranger for scouting your land for intruders, fighting men to keep your lands safe, a mage for magical protection and research, etc.) that would work for you... and how loyal they would all be.
Compared to that older system, these Bastions are a cheap knockoff (like most everything post A2E).
Edit to add: The whole thing comes across as some sort of Tower Defense mini game. Not thrilled.
I’m definitely aware that different games and different editions have different rules. The context for this is 5e which has a fundamentally different rule set, base and ethos than previous editions of the game had. I’m not saying you have to like it or that the older versions are even better or worse they’re just… different. Different systems for what ultimately amounts to different games.
I think they should have called them homesteads or a sort of guild hall or at a certain size, a keep.
No need for every player having one.
My big issue with it is that at least right now the choices are severely unbalanced and there are clear best choices. It is a really cool concept though.
I am modifying it as a keep and surrounding village that can grow into a full city over time.
I created a spreadsheet to Track it all and I modified each building to make them more balanced in their benefits to the party.
I also added airship to my level 17 possibilities because it makes sense in my game and it is one of the end character goals
Since a lot of early levels and maybe later levels (in another plane) you don’t have the means to get back to your place reliably enough, I think Bastion events need to happen with less frequency
Well you only get it at lvl 5
Already done reading Bastion rule and I’m gonna go recruit 500 soldiers just so that I don’t have to deal with those pesky goblin and kobold in front of the dungeon anymore
Just buy On Downtime and Demenses and start having fortresses and bastions and better downtime mechanics now, rather than waiting. Plus, way more awesome stuff.
It absolutely has potential but as a dam where my party has an entire city that they basically forgot to tax because they don’t need the income it feels like what defines the size of a bastion and how does the party acquire a bastion
Also it should be per party not per player imo
I feel like it's way too dense, I don't see why you need to have like 5 different types of "bastion actions" when each facility can use only one type of action at the same time. It would be way simpler to just say "bastion update" and see what each facility produces. Also BP is kinda dumb and totally video-game like. I also don't like how the bastion handwaves away pretty much all the narrative aspects, like, you get your facilities at level 5 at no mechanical gp cost and the like.
IMO, each facility should work kinda like a statblock, with a couple of bolded actions to produce something. Also each one should have a gold cost and level requirement to build. So in the end, you "buy" a facility and gets its statblock, which contains what you can get at each "bastion update".
I'd also prefer if they started by improving crafting and downtime activities themselves.
I think the reason it uses a separate economy is to make sure it doesn't become like a Mortgage Payment and keep it simpler for the more casual players to use without it getting ridiculously powerful if someone takes the time to maximize it. I think this system overall is good for what it is and doesn't need to become more complex than it needs to be. I also need to point out that making it cost Gold would actually make the system worse as it screws up the economy as players need to worry about sharing money to build their Bastions and get anything else they might need, with Wizards in particular likely hating this system given how much money they can require to keep expanding their Spellbook, so while BP are admittedly a bit video-gamey and abstract, I do greatly prefer it this way for a bonus system that is intended to be used by anyone who wants use it. Not every system needs incredible depth and complexity with intricate economy management, especially if it's supposed to be a bonus system for anyone to use alongside the core game.
Sounds like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which D&D is not nor will it ever be.
My guess was 50, I was close. Only 2 off. (Yes, I'm counting that one). Did you count the ones from before the guessing game was brought up, or only after that point?
Hahaha really close! I counted all instances, not just after the game was brought up.
So bringing back standard 1e/2e strongholds/followers, 1e item creation/research, and some PC biz ideas published in Dragon 40 years ago.
This will make smaller locations way more common. Traveling away from your central location will weaken this system.
As a pokemon player, BP could also be battle points or beach points lol
Rarely do players create a headquarters because it is a liability. Not being there to defend it makes it easy to lose.
I'm pretty sure basic rooms as a default generate bastion points. Only some special rooms do.
Here’s the quote from page 3 where it explains under “Accumulating Bastion Points”: “When a character issues orders to specific facilities in their Bastion, those facilities generate Bastion Points. (Basic Facilities don’t generate Bastion Points).”
@@InsightCheck I misread then. Thanks!
No problem!
Hey look, they put Clash of Clans in D&D. I can't decide if I like that concept or not......
The rewards look nice, but this feels like it could be distracting. I'm excited to try it.
Guessing an average of 3 times per minute if you’re trying not to say it too much so for 13 minutes that 39 times
My honest opinion... It sounds janky AF. Why is having a pub on the third tier with like the magical laboratory when a smithy is tier one? Probably because the mechanical benefit of the spy network is considered to be more "powerful" than the smithy benefit, if I had to guess but... Take a step back from the rules and imagine yrself in a game world... Is a pub as difficult to open and run as a magical laboratory? Which type of business is more common in a campaign setting? Being able to spend a mere 25 gold to roll twice means two things effectively, 1 any 5th level character can blow 25 gp every 7 days, so they're gonna re-roll way more often than not, upwards of 80% of the time, I would imagine. 2... Where is that gold going? They seem to over emphasize the importance of being there in person to take specific beneficial actions with the bastion, but I'll get to that in a second; if they can still spend the gp to buy a re-roll (meta) even without showing up at the bastion... Where in the hell is that money going? If there is a in setting explanation, such as, they send the money to the bastion, okay, but then why can't they send a letter detailing their orders? Most 9th level parties will be able to access remote communication through magic pretty regularly, especially if they can benefit from doing so directly... So why is it so important that they be there in person? Also... The dream of owning a small business is very 21st century IRL kind of thinking... It doesn't neccisarily make a lot of sense in a medieval anacronism like most DnD settings are, I disliked the old school assumption of keeps at lvl 10 as well, for the fact that characters settling in to the local economy feels like a very big assumption, if they do a lot of traveling, for one, then this entire system is immediately a lot less useful. Ofc it is labeled as optional, but things like this are easy to forget with such a gamified sounding system. It also feels arbitrary, much like the elder keeps, if you do implement the rule, lvl 5 now you just... Have a bastion? What if we didn't really work that into the campaign up to that point? Having this system in game would seem to require it to become yet another focus for the events of the campaign, which is ironic, considering their apparent attempts to make this as low effort as possible for the players, I mean for it to make contiguous sense in a campaign they're gonna be sending game time dedicated to establishing this bastion anyhow... What's a few extra upkeep dice at that point? This doesn't really sound appealing to me at all, in its current form. Great video though! Lol
2e "Holdings and Followers"
I think this is promising but it definitely needs tweaks i will be doing a review video on Monday as i am out of town for the weekend @InsightCheck
I like the new UAs, but is kind of weird that the playtests 2, 3, 4 ended up completely dumped into the trash.
If WotC wants to make OneD&D better, they must take more inspiration from older editions of DND like this
I guessed fifty. What do I win?
I vote that bastion points be renamed Glory.
Identify is a ritual, isn’t every caster class a ritual caster now? So what’s the point of a free identify
Only when physically there ... Sorry you missed that session Jim. No bastion actions or buffs for you. ...
This principle might work.
I actually counted it, it was 48 times
Mcdm,s K&W outshines Bastions by a mile imo.
More training wheels 😂.
All i can think about is Bastion Booger the wrestler.
I like the bastion system
It's not perfect, but I really like where it is heading.
@InsightCheck same on my first read through it definitely needs work
I feel like the Bastion system is just a poor mans version of Stronghold and Followers by MCDM.
A pub, at 13th level??
What if you just want to be a farmer?
I guessed 41. What do i win?
Bastion system should of been released in the first playtest, its a good idea but badly implemented, and a new idea like that should of had the most playtesting not the least. What I hate about it is that it should not of been tied to level. Other bad thing, lv 17 demiplane bastion grants your entire party 85-100 temporary hitpoints before an adventure, or say the long rest before a boss fight. To low lv5 boons like being able to cast identify spell over the course of a week without spending a spell slot or a material component.... its a ritual with a 100gp non-consumable component... at level 5... completely useless. And the best example on why these things should not be tied to lv.
Ok, fine. But nobody at my table is ever going to take the time to use any of this. So...what is the point. Bastions/Strongholds go back to AD&D, and NOBODY EVER USES THEM!
So...Great Change WotC! Glad you spent so much time doing this instead of doing somthing like...I don't know...fixing the spells?
currently at 1:20 in the video im guessing 83 times.
They likely didn't have a large enough team to do consistent UA releases.
WotC really just straight up stealing from MCDM now, lol /j
MCDM and WOTC are both stealing from older editions. This is open gaming at work, is it not?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but just about every 3rd party who's tried their hand at stronghold systems did it better. And I do mean just about every 3rd party.
I never said it was perfect or the best, just happy that it’s included first party and hopefully it’ll get some more refinements :)
Dunno, from my experience, it’s about as bad
3rd party feels unauthentic since they aren’t “Brand Named”
oh look, now we've got magic item vending machines and respawn points.
they're really doing everything they can to suck all the challenge outta this system aint they.
This is just a variation of the old stronghold system…
Bastion 42 times of course.....
I dont think this is Playtest 8. JC only said this is a bonus one, and all the PHB playtests are numbered; this one isnt.
I mean their RUclips video about it is literally titled “D&D Playtest 8” so I’m just using their own terminology.
I get that. What I'm saying is that this may not be the true playtest 8, but an extra one they threw in until the real one is ready. After all, the Bastion system is for the DMG, not for PHB which is what the current UA series is testing.
The system looks promising, and my current campaign kinda has a Bastion equivalent, so I'm already eyeing the Lab feature for my scientist character to use
Bastions are for such a specific play style and I doubt anyone I know will ever use this feature
60
Honestly I hate this. Rather than looking at core gameplay issues, they're shoving this MMO base building shit (which can be handled at the table by the DM) in.
Bastions are almost entirely dm fiat... thus either of the upmost importance or meaningless.....
Slightly r slured, there were already player made supplements.
This is just straight up 3e stuff but again
You kidding? All this stuff is as unnecessary to play the game of dnd as ghe advanced becmi rules were back in the days..... 😢
That’s precisely why it’s an optimal rule in the DMG and not a core rule :)
Talk slower please. There are no extra points for talking fast
Noted :)
True strike went from terrible to bad
It's actually a better damage cantrip than firebolt, for most adventure levels, and without accounting for magic weapons. Not bad at all if you can fit it in.
At least this one is actually playable, which is certainly a major improvement, and it is actually for various setups even if it currently doesn't play as well with the 2 Builds that want it most: College of Valor and College Swords Bards, as it doesn't work with Extra Attack, but I ultimately prefer this to the original by far if True Strike is staying a Cantrip.
It is only bad if you are already a spell sword class that has decent strength or dex already or you have extra attack. This is a solid pick for pure casters, and they can even put it on a ranged weapon, like a bow.
Blah more 4E style video game stuff.
I guess you're gonna say "Bastion" 50 times.
One D&D needs to put in some solutions for all the logistical problems the 2014 PHB added. By the 2014 encounter rules, all it takes is (on average) one "adventuring day" to level up. There are a few weird levels were it takes 1.5 days, but the XP totals line up nearly perfect with 6-8 medium to difficult encounters a day. So, if played by the book, a character can go from level 1 to max level in less than a month of adventuring which is bonkers. Yet the Bastion system wants 6-8 Bastion turns a level? One D&D needs to make all that make sense.
And while we don't want D&D to be an economic simulator, One D&D at least needs to do _something_ to help DMs here too. Prices of most goods and services make no sense compared to salaries of the people who are expected to use them. I think that's one of the reasons gold means nothing in 5e, because it has no grounding in reliability. It cost 500gp to build a cramped courtyard! 500! That's crazy. For downtime events to make sense, the world needs to make sense.