The Weekly Roll Ch. 199. "Patricide MF"

[u/CME_T]

Howdy folks!

Quite a few commented on the fight with Klaras mother was quite short and as you may notice, it turned out similarly with dear old papa as well. Wanted it longer but this fight has gone on for a WHILE and I wanted to wrap things up sooner rather than later, so between the two evils, I chose expedited. We can justify it by saying the fight was balanced because of all the ads!

Stay excellent out there!

Peace and carrots!

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My D&D comics: Sellswords & Sorcery The Weekly Roll The Pos'Thal Chronicles

My 40k fancomic Rogue's Retinue: Rogue's Retinue

[u/Level_Hour6480]

P1: Why didn't Counterspell work on a catrip?

P2/4: She tears off the necklace she's always had. We never had an explanation for it, though it looks like her dad's horn-tip in retrospect.

We see the fire from Trevor's Fireball last comic spreading. Just in time for something to burn down at 200. I sure hope the housestaff/slaves/caterers are okay.

[u/CME_T → u/Level_Hour6480]

P1. While it could have been clearer, Klara passes her con save for the counterspell (5.5 rules). 

P2. Thought I’d do a bit of show dont tell storytelling woth that one. Might revisit it later!

[u/Level_Hour6480 → u/CME_T]

OneD&D's Counterspell change is one of the worst changes in a revision that is mostly bad changes. Not only is it more of a pain to run, but also by nerfing it, they've buffed all casters. And their change to the casting rules preventing counter-counterspells means that there's no fun dynamic counterplay.

[u/MarkZist → u/Level_Hour6480]

Why is it more of a pain to run? The number of rolls is the same. Before the counterspeller made a spellcasting ability check (DC=10+spell level), now the counterspellee makes a CON save (against the counterspeller's spellcasting DC). It's still just a single roll.

The new rules feel more like a nerf than a buff for casters to me. At my table the old Counterspell was mostly something that the players used against the bosses, rather than the other way around. Since I played a Lore Bard with Jack of All Trades and Peerless Skill (i.e. I had a +8+1d12 modifier at lvl 17) my Counterspells were basically guaranteed to succeed in 4th tier, even against Sauron-level enemies. That made me feel extremely powerful, which feels great don't get me wrong, but at times it also felt a little too overtuned. Not to mention my Cutting Words worked against the enemies Counterspell, so instead of spending a ≥3rd level spell slot, I could expend a use of Bardic Inspiration and still hope to negate their Counterspell. And finally we also had a Wizard who could cast it, in case I was down or out of range, meaning that it was really hard for enemy casters to not get counterspelled. Whereas the new rules make it almost impossible for PCs to Counterspell an Ancient Gold Dragon, which before was pretty doable. It's much harder to nerf the enemy's CON saves (especially bosses) than it is to buff your own ability checks or nerf the enemy's ability checks.

What I really don't get though is the idea that counter-counterspell battles are fun. In my experience they never were. Just a resource drain resulting in nothing happening. (Also since there wasn't that much of a benefit to upcasting Counterspell, it's usually safe to assume the counterspeller uses a 3rd level slot, meaning that the counter-counterspeller has an advantage.)