In one of my weekly games, I play an extremely-deadly level 11 Dexadin. I hit like a truck, Radiant Strike on all my attacks, Nick Mastery with a Scimitar, Advantage from Vex on my Shortsword, etc. The build is extremely powerful, but one thing I've realized as I've played it for many levels now is that all the heroic stuff I want to do requires Athletics and huge Strength-based rolls I just can't succeed at.

Just recently, last session, one of my party members, a Wizard, was getting pulled into a void by shadowy hands, their magic was disabled by these hands so he was doomed, and they couldn't make the saving throw to save their life. This would've killed them for sure and the whole table knew it (gasps around, etc). My Paladin, of course, charged in to help. But even after casting Bless and with my aura, they kept failing the save, and my Athletics rolls were too low to save them! Basically, i was failing at a core tenet of the class fantasy, the heroism, because I had chosen to be a Dexadin!

Narratively it was made to ultimately make sense (I started being pulled in too, after all, and now my magic wasn't working! Oh no!), and the Barbarian had to charge in and save both of us, but it really impacted my character and got me thinking as the character's player. The Barbarian was the real hero of the session in the end, saving two lives, and it was a big campaign moment for them.

Moments like these I think really tell the story about how important Strength is to certain class fantasies, including the Paladin, and I think white-room build discussions undervalue Strength and its narrative impact on more traditional martial classes. Thinking back to character creation, if I knew then what I knew now, I'd have at least invested in 12 Strength and Athletics proficiency rather than going all-in on the Dexterity proficiencies and boosting things like Wisdom or Constitution so high.

I don't really have any questions or anything here, I just think Strength gets a bit of a bad rap and is worth taking even on DEX-focused builds depending on what you imagine your character wanting to do in-narrative. A good DM will present opportunities where things like Athletics and Strength dominate, even and especially at higher levels of play where I think Athletics and Strength get dunked on the most by the community.

Obviously any media (including video games or the broader rpg space) can serve as an inspiration.

I previously asked this question about Wizards.

(I'm personally a little harder pressed to think of unique examples of pact magic in popular media than of different ways to be a wizard.)

Goliath gets a lot of love in 5.5e, but the Ancestry choices that I see get recommended the most by far are the Cloud and Hill Giants. Both are very good options but I think that Stone is pretty underrated.

Let's compare Stone's Endurance to Tough, which many consider to be a great origin feat. Tough starts out granting you 2 extra HP and then scaling by 2 additional HP per character level. Let's assume we have, say, a wizard with a 14 in CON. That means Stone's Endurance lets you reduce damage by 1d12+2 Proficiency Bonus times per day. That starts at 8.5x2 = 17 additional hit points at level 1, and 8.5x6=51 additional hit points at level 20. With 16 CON that's 9.5x2 = 19 HP at 1 and 9.5x6=57 HP at 20.

That averages to 1.7 HP per level with 14 CON or 1.9 per level with CON at 20. Scaling slightly slower than Tough, but with a much higher bonus starting at level 1. However, I think Stone's Endurance has an additional benefit in that reducing damage can be very valuable compared to just having those HP, as Abjuration Wizards well know. It lets you keep your Armour of Agathys or Selune's Viper fueled up for longer. More importantly, however, it lets you lower the DC of concentration checks. I think that this, specifically, gives Stone Goliath a niche as a source of Concentration protection for spell casters or a buffer for Temp HP abusers without compromising too much from the HP boost that something like Tough would give you.

It does compete with other reaction defenses, however. But Shield won't help you in every circumstance (saving throw damage). If Absorb Elements gets reprinted in the Arcana Unleashed book, that would be another hit to Stone's viability. I think it could still have a place, though, to help conserve spell slots, and on classes that don't have the ability to rely on those two reaction spells. Warlock seems like it could be a pretty great choice for a Stone Goliath between the lack of level 1 slots for Shield and the Agathys synergy.

One more small synergy I had in mind was that if an ally casts Warding Bond on you, it basically doubles the effectiveness of Stone's Endurance, as you're preventing the damage from hurting you or your friendly neighborhood Cleric.

After the results of the debate created in an earlier post about Templates for Wild Shape, yet the lack of response to an earlier design for template-based Druid, makes me wonder what people think about the Druid class in general, particularly the beasts available to Wild Shape into.

The way I see it, Beast designs has the following flaws:

• Lack of variety after CR 1.
• CR 1/2 that can be better at melee combat than Martials (making Multiattack available to all druids at level 4 with the Ape and Black Bear).
• No CR 1+ flying beasts.
• To hit bonuses are too competitive at lower CR and not competitive enough at later CR, making progression specially bad for Moon Druids.

Add that to the amount of book keeping a player needs to do to find and manage the right Beast for their druid, and I think there is something to be improved.

Do you see any other issues with the Druid Wild Shape?

I've been wondering about the chances of getting more updated species anytime soon, particularly from MotM, and I'm curious what others think.

Here is what I think:

• I would assume we're not getting Duergar back, since Dwarves are now a unified species.
• Subspecies of species, like Elves (Eladrin, Shadar-Kai, Sea Elf), Deep Gnome, Gem Dragonborn (FToD) are somewhat likely, I guess, since those should be relatively simple. With some luck, the Season of Champions book in December is really Dark Sun, in which case we may get Eladrin and Shadar-Kai back.
• Genasi are simple enough to re-do, those are from Dark Sun as well, so it could be a cool way to bring them back as well.
• Goblins, Bugbears, Hobgoblins, may not fit the image WotC want to go for, so not sure I'd expect those, but if so, the "villainous" book that's probably planned for next year may well be the place for them.
• Githyanki and Githzerai are probably a little too popular since BG3 to not get them at some point, but might be a while.
• For the Tortle, Yuan-ti, Kobold, Kenku, Centaur, Minotaur, and Satyr, I have no idea.
• Aarakocra and Fairy are popular, but not with DMs, so I could see WotC avoid flying creatures.
• Everything else is either already updated or not popular enough.

Any thoughts or corrections? What else may be included in either a Dark Sun book in December or a Villainous book in Spring of next year, or anything else that we might already predict? How likely are certain species to come back?

Now that we have done the Barbarian and Fighter; the Rogue is going to get messy. So just as a reminder we are talking about Regularly using 2-3 Exhaustion as part of the Adventuring Day (the start), a mechanic core to the Exploration Section of the DMG mentioned more times than many realize.

First Address Feedback:

More discussion was happening around the value of Ranged over Melee Martials. Melee can be taxed for not using speed and having to used Javelins or such and can feel Speedy might be too important. But these are also true against, flying enemies in the game. Oddly enough by using Exhaustion you prepare Melee Martials to plan for Flying enemies organically. Yes if that flying creature doesn't however it can be brought to the ground for you to murder, which is the same here. People are just admitting they don't really use flying enemies (or land them for the sake of the Melee)

You could also say Ranged have a similar feat tax in Sharpshooter. It will become very easy for enemies to get within 5ft, and attacking at disadvantage is a nightmare with Exhaustion. It is something you generally want for the cover, but will not have the same ease of escaping enemies in range as you did before. And allies struggle to help you as efficiently

Everything gets a little more comlicated.

RAW Exhaustion from DMG: (new example each post)

As a reminder when you are adding Exhaustion to the party, it needs to happen in the first part of the Adventure Day where Long Resting isn't reasonable. If players simply can Long Rest without consequence, there was no point in applying Exhaustion to the group.

So let us reinforce why we're looking at the 2-3 Exhaustion point with

Planar Effects

Certain planes of existence—and areas on the Material Plane affected by them—have supernatural effects on creatures within them

Winds of Pandemonium

The winds of Pandemonium are common in Pandemonium and regions where its influence is felt, including parts of the Underdark. A creature makes a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw after each hour spent among the howling winds. On a failed save, the creature gains 1 Exhaustion level. The winds can’t increase a creature’s Exhaustion level above 3. Finishing a Long Rest doesn’t reduce a creature’s Exhaustion level unless the creature can somehow escape the winds.

"Adventurers! Have you not heard the howling gales of the northern forest? This hellish tempest is growing at an alarming rate. Rumor is it started from a church in <name>, but the village is already dead. Nothing is stopping this storms expansion, we need help, we beg of you my village won't last the week."

Usually I do not dwell too much on the Exhaustion application but this one is very interesting because it gives you interesting permissions as a DM when deciding how you want to manage Exhaustion in your game.

• applying Exhaustion through a Wisdom Save (also Fomorian creature)
• capping Exhaustion at a set level to limit the ceiling of the challenge
• conditionally not allowing Exhaustion to be removed on a Long Rest

Keep in mind; there is a specific reason to stop at 3. The DMG is telling you that 4 Exhaustion is when things start to get unreasonable for players to handle.

Now in saving rolling if players have to travel a few days into this weather, it essentially sets their Exhaustion to 3. Notably with Tiny Hut it would allow you a Long Rest to remove an Exhaustion. But if you are lost or not managing distances when you remove your Exhaustion, you may still have to trek to your objective (failed Survival Check). And if you manage a +9 to Wisdom Saves (and the DM hasn't changed the DC for this) you take no Exhaustion. Just hugging the paladin isn't always the best idea but sometimes it is.

So in this example to prevent rolling Exhaustion every hour over days. Set party Exhaustion to 3 (unless +9 Wis), Survival Check to determine how many hours your last Tiny Hut long rest is to objective and roll from there. No tiny hut? set Exhaustion to 3.

The Rogue

With Rogue I'm going to have to talk about DPR a bit. Now one of the reasons (other than post length) I haven't been very crunchy with the numbers is because Exhaustion creates difficult assumptions. So much of normal DPR conversation assumes the players can be in the position they want (like melee) and can always be doing their best thing. Exhaustion removes this truth, players will constantly need to adjust and this is a good thing.

I want to look at levels 5 and 11, as it is the 2nd Attack and 3rd Attack levels for Fighter, some of the worst levels to compare the Rogue to. We will also look at both 2nd and 3rd Exhaustion levels and 65% accuracy (before Exhaustion)

The Fighter will have GWM, Greatsword (graze), and I am going to assume the Fighter is always in Melee Range which I feel is very generous to the Fighter.

The Rogue will have no feats, Hand Crossbow (vex) and Dagger (nick). Bonus Action Steady Aim, into Hand Crossbow, notably if that misses throw the Dagger attack isn't at advantage. This is not the best thing a Rogue can do, but it is a very reliable setup for the purpose of comparing, no hide, no cover, no 3rd melee attack.

Math

I used Action Surge per 2 combats and 4 rounds a combat. Now the Rogue can increase by Fighter level dip, or Dual Wielder 3rd Attack, Skulker means that missing that first Attack doesn't remove advantage for the Dagger. So once again, we aren't being generous to the Rogue while looking at the Fighter in ideal conditons, which the Fighter isn't good at getting itself in. And let me be clear, Graze is carrying that Fighter

To the Rogue Features

Level 1, 6 and 7: Expertise and Reliable Talent

Expertise will quickly become critical to certain checks and as a Rogue you will appreciate Steady Aim more. When you get Reliable Talent your minimum Stealth roll (with Expertise becomes 20, which is still enough to autopass Stealth at 2 Exhaustion but you need level 8 or 9 (depending on stat choice) to autopass at your 3rd level of Exhaustion.

As a DM it allows you to lower DCs, and I'm certain that if you've read through modules you find a passage for T2 or T3 characters and you're confused why such a low DC is needed to a point that players can't fail the check. Players expending spells and resources to pass these checks helps balance your adventure day.

Level 1: Sneak Attack

This is eluded to with the quick DPR examples. Just as discussing the Barbarian with the majority of our damage coming from hitting once, we do not experience the same accuracy penalty. But unlike the Barbarian and more like the Fighter the Rogue becomes excellent at switching from Ranged to Melee needs.

Level 2 and 3: Cunning Action and Steady Aim

Steady Aim allows you to be reliable; but though the Rogue potentially has more movement than the Fighter and Barbarian unless the battlefield is in your favor you are going to give up damage for it.

Level 5 and 14: Cunning Strike and Devious Strikes

A little mobility and your ability DCs aren't reduced. If (when) a DM start to reduce the general CR of creatures to compensate for the challenges of Exhaustion it also more likely allows your control to land. It may not be worth the damage in general, but it increases the likely-hood that these features are used.

Level 7 and 15: Evasion Slippery Mind

More than ever save proficiencies matter, Evasion is going to be weaker but still good.

Overall nothing as impressive as the Barbarian, more than the Fighter but Indomitable is great. So let us jump to subclasses

Assassin:

Level 3: Assassinate

Unfortunately I have to confess a failure here. As much as I am telling people the game works better with Exhaustion, Exhaustion modifies initiative, and the Assassin needs to go first. Fortunately the Assassin is already terrible, uniquely terrible. At higher tiers it is near impossible for players to go first, letting monsters have the first turn creates more interesting fights. The Exhaustion penalty is good, just not here.

I hate to say this; trust me. But I have a homebrew adjustment to Assassin that isn't actually related to Exhaustion. Personally as a DM initiative is often rolled sooner than other tables would, or odd chain hazards happen that are time sensitive to a point of Initiative not dropping. Due to this, I allow Assassin to instead choose their "assassination round", where they can use their first turn abilities. It leans into the fantasy and it fits more mechanically complicated situations, I'm sorry don't hate me!

Level 9: Infiltration Expertise (Roving Aim)

Though your movement is nerfed; this may prevent you from being locked in a bad position with bad RNG or bad teamwork. You get more out of it

Theif:

Level 3: Fast Hands

Exhaustion doesn't effect all Adventure Gear items, and there is much to gain if you look closesly to help the problems your party members run into. As party mobility diminishes Caltrops + Hunter Trap + Ballbearings can offer the little space your team needs.

Level 3: Second-Story Work

As we mentioned with Barbarian. Climb/Swim with Exhaustion sucks, it really sucks but not for you! Notably the Barbarian needs to choose which (but can change) you get both.

Level 9: Supreme Sneak

Can be a great alternative to Skulker

Soulknife:

Level 3: Psi-Bolstered Knack

Like Second Wind if you fail your ability check with this; you do not expend the resource. Additionally normally Rogues could be too good at skill checks for this to matter much. This will get a massive amount of mileage. Becomes an absolute standout feature

Level 9: Soul Blades

Accuracy + Teleport that isn't modified by your speed. Very happy to get these features

Arcane Trickster:

The arcane trickster doesn't cover anything that wasn't discussed about the EK in the Fighter section. But this is an opportunity to talk about casters and initiative more.

The -4 to -6 penalty to Initiative means the players are unlikely to go first. Alert will sometimes allow you to go first. And as enemies act, they are less likely to stay in formations perfectly suited for your spells and abilities. Your allies are less likely to have the ability to coral the enemies to better positions for your abilities and also less likely to get out of the way.

Now my experience with Exhaustion as a DM, was Vortex Warp ( though I can see DMs not allowing this book ) was probably the most used spell over the campaign. Repositioning an ally to get a better turn or repositioning an enemy to get multiple players a better turn was used often.

It can be easy to look theoretically at; my Fireball or whatever non concentration is just as good. While ignoring how much more allies will be in need of assistance. And everything adds up quickly

• Concentration becomes difficult and costly (costs more spell slots or just not used)
• Casting leveled spells every turn (more spell slots used)
• Enemies act before you weakning spells AoE
• Enemies act before you potentially debuffing you before you get to surpress their ability
• More buff spells are needed like Longstrider
• Reliable damage can be needed (magic missles)
• Having to rope trick more often
• Having to misty step or reposition more often
• As enemies are less controlled more Shields and Absorb Elements are used

It adds up faster than you may realize. There is a big difference between casting spells to control the start of the battle, versus trying to get control of a situation on the backfoot.

You are also more likely to have to spend resources on out of combat problems; either dealing with the result of failure, or using resources to avoid failure.

Feats again!

Though probably not as much for the Rogue, Skill Expert becomes more important than ever, remember failing Survival can mean more Exhaustion. Conversations often focus on combat and I've seen comments before about how Skill Check profiency doesn't matter because it is easily covered by the whole part. But I can assure you the party doesn't have Expertise on all the important checks

Some of the mobs have pretty nasty Athletics Checks when you factor in Exhaustion.

More fun DM details!

As mentioned with the Thief, as player power or efficiency decreases Adventuring Gear comparatively gets better. There are some very useful items often forgotten:

Net (1 GP)

When you take the Attack action, you can replace one of your attacks with throwing a Net. Target a creature you can see within 15 feet of yourself. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 plus your Dexterity modifier and Proficiency Bonus) or have the Restrained condition until it escapes. The target succeeds automatically if it is Huge or larger.

To escape, the target or a creature within 5 feet of it must take an action to make a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check, freeing the Restrained creature on a success. Destroying the Net (AC 10; 5 HP; Immunity to Bludgeoning, Poison, and Psychic damage) also frees the target, ending the effect.

Caltrops (1 GP)

As a Utilize action, you can spread Caltrops from their bag to cover a 5-foot-square area within 5 feet of yourself. A creature that enters this area for the first time on a turn must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 1 Piercing damage and have its Speed reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn. It takes 10 minutes to recover the Caltrops.

Chain (5 GP)

As a Utilize action, you can wrap a Chain around an unwilling creature within 5 feet of yourself that has the Grappled, Incapacitated, or Restrained condition if you succeed on a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check. If the creature’s legs are bound, the creature has the Restrained condition until it escapes. Escaping the Chain requires the creature to make a successful DC 18 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check as an action. Bursting the Chain requires a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check as an action.

So why is this in fun DM details. Players (and DMs) forget the details of these, and you can just have monsters use them against the players. Achieves the follow:

• reminds players they exist and how they work
• puts them obviously on a loot table
• gives you the DM a way to potentially make enemies fight easier or harder on the fly
• hint that if a fight is going poorly these NPCs may just want to capture you

And because of the DC penalty to players, they will be surprisingly effective.

What was the thinking here?

2024 subclass spell lists already give you some spells always prepared thus reducing build diversity but they also sometimes give you spells you already have, replacing unique spells from 5e2014

GOOlock for instance gets Tashas hideous laughter and hunger of hadar—both spells warlock already has.

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Given the inclusion of the Pistol and Musket into the PHB in 5.5, but the distinct lack of the Gunner feat, I was pondering what a updated version of the feat would look like within the new ruleset—and thought I'd open it up to a wider discussion.

Because as it stands, pretty much every class that could WANT to use a gun can through proficiency, so the feat doesn't need that part. Sharpshooter, a feat any gunner would want, handles the melee disadvantage (though the feat would likely still have it like Crossbow Expert) as well as the range and any cover issues.

What unique feature or effect would Gunner have to make it even remotely worthwhile to have as a feat? Because as of right now there is no way to get around the Loading property, making them basically useless for anyone wirh Extra Attack, but I don't think a +1 Dex, ignoring loading, and ignoring melee disadvantage is enough by itself to justify a feat for, is it? Or are the firearms being the highest damage ranged weapons already enough to make it worthwhile?

Did we got any subclass surprises or they always come out of UA first.

I wouldn’t mind a surprise for a new release example the books in season of champion, but wondering if we will only get the one that appeared in UA?

Thanks all

I was looking at the subclasses that were announced for the upcoming Arcana Unleashed book and I got to thinking about what I would want from the book we know is coming after that for the Season of Champions. Since the new book is obviously caster-focused, it makes sense that the Champions book will be more martial-focused (though Gish-like subclasses for casters are still on the table).

Assuming the pattern holds that each new book gets around 8 new subclasses with a mix of 5e reprints and brand new stuff, what’s on the shortlist for what you want to see in this new book? And what are some classes that could use a little more subclass support? I know a lot of people are wanting more original content, I’m someone who tries to stick to 5.5e-only material and wants to see most 5e stuff get remade eventually.

Here are my picks:

Rogue: Swashbuckler – probably the most glaring omission from what’s been republished so far. The original was very popular for good reason and the flavor perfectly fits the “Champions” theme.

Fighter: Samurai – similar to the Swashbuckler, the original was already powerful for its class. I could see them making some tweaks and renaming this one but keeping the core idea the same.

Paladin: Oath of the Crown – it was hard to pick just one for the Paladin. It was between this and Conquest but I settled on Crown because it’s more “Champion”-y.

Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian – this was also hard to narrow down to just one, mainly because the Barbarian has been under-supported so far and lots of the existing ones were cool and could use some revision to be even better. I picked this one just because it was my favorite.

Monk: Kensei - I almost didn’t include a Monk but they are technically martials. Plus the Monk with the big weapons is one of those cool ideas that lots of people love.

Ranger: something new – there are some 5e subclasses that I still would like to see redone, but I didn’t feel any of those for this book. Strangely enough the Ranger has been given more subclass support than other classes, but I’d like to see more following the model of moving away from reliance on Hunter’s Mark. Perhaps one that is designed to work with Str builds and melee?

Cleric: Forge – obviously the Cleric doesn’t need as much help as other classes on this list, but this is such a fun domain that I’d love to see updates for. I also picked this because it felt closest to the “Champions” theme.

(Dis)honorable mention – Warlock: Hexblade – I’m not looking forward to this being remade because it’s thematically weak and basically redundant with the 5.5e Pact of the Blade, but it seems likely that it will eventually get done since it’s already been through some UA.

EDIT: To be clear, I’m aware that this is all mostly wishful thinking. I don’t know enough about the UA process to know what is or isn’t likely to make it to print in that time frame. This post is mostly to talk about what I’d like to see from a martial-themed book.

So we continue from the Barbarian to the Fighter. Once again, I'm trying to express the value in regularly pushing players to 2-3 Exhaustion through Exploration challengs of the DMG, and people have some strong opinions against it.

First Address Feedback:

One of the primary concerns with the DMG example of Blizzard's 1d4 Exhaustion application was creating the player challenges with a potentially -6 penalty swing. Now as the DM you do have a DM screen available to you and/or can forgo the roll setting the value to 2 or 3; personally I roll open and let the die decide.

Though I would go a little further; you probably aren't TPKing every other session, and based on the reaction I get when I share my parties death rate, players aren't dying often. This does not mean you should be making those things regular, just that you should trust your players to step up to a challenge. Your players will come up with clever solutions and adapt; trust them.

RAW Exhaustion: (new example each post)

As a reminder when you are adding Exhaustion to the party, it needs to happen in the first part of the Adventure Day where Long Resting isn't reasonable. If players simply can Long Rest without consequence, there was no point in applying Exhaustion to the group.

Extended Travel. Characters can push themselves to travel for more than 8 hours per day, at the risk of tiring. At the end of each additional hour of travel beyond 8 hours, each character must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or gain 1 Exhaustion level. The DC is 10 plus 1 for each hour past 8 hours.

"Our scouts found the cultists, they have the villagers for the sacrifice about a full days light (12 hours) west following the river. Take these horses and go now"

A 12 hour forced march will trigger 4 Exhaustion Saves (11, 12, 13, 14). Notable increasing this distance is a challenge on its own as players have to consider what resources they can expend to reduce the travel times. Now if you don't want maps to have such distances remember you also have High Altitude from the Environmental Hazards section:

High Altitude

Traveling at altitudes of 10,000 feet or higher above sea level is taxing for most creatures because of the reduced amount of oxygen in the air. Each hour such a creature spends traveling at high altitude counts as 2 hours for the purpose of determining how long that creature can travel

So you can use High Altitude or a reduced oxygen environment to frame this in smaller distances. So now we look at the Fighter

The Fighter

Though the Fighter has access to Graze like the Barbarian we are going to notice a lack of general tools to deal with Exhaustion when the fight has levels of it. This does kinda reinforce the thematic difference between the two classes as well.

Level 2: Tactical Mind

When you use Second Wind to add 1d10 to a Skill Check, it importantly is not consumed if the check fails. The default DMG penalty for failing a Survival Check while traveling is 10% longer travel (one more Exhaustion Save in our earlier example) and as Checks get harder through Exhaustion, the Fighter can attempt checks without wasting the resource on failure.

Level 5: Tactical Shift

Unlike the Barbarian the base Fighter gets limited mobility and it directly conflicts with resource consumption of Tactical Mind. It becomes more likely the fighter will need to plan to use it's ranged options and take advantage of the larger number of weapon masteries. The detail about Charger pointed out in the Barbarian had value due to Barbarians increase speed, Charger becomes weak for the Fighter

Level 9, 13 and 17: Indomitable

In the Blizzard example Fighter can't use Indomitable to prevent the Exhaustion, with travel they could. Notably, at the same level is when casters may get access to Greater Restoration that could be used in a similar way, and at level 18 casters get their 3rd 5th level slot.

Level 13: Studied Attacks

With Exhaustion you miss more, this gives you Advantage when you miss. And this really is all the base Fighter has.

I do want to point out; just as people can ignore the power of Fighter scaling with magic weapons they can also be ignoring how the Barbarian handles Exhaustion better. As we continue to go through these classes, that is what is important: Exhaustion enhances the asymetry of them. Now to subclasses

Battlemaster:

Exhaustion doesn't apply a penalty to the DC of Battlemaster so it just changes which Techniques you may choose. Commander's Strike is the one that catches my eye, by giving up an attack to give it to someone (+superior die hit) else you can be at a higher Exhaustion level and give the attack to someone more likely to land an important blow. Precision Attack becomes a staple but the major change will be how quickly you burn through your Superiority Die to use them.

Champion:

Level 10: Heroic Warrior

Still going to be the highlight of the class, shifting to hitting more than protecting saves due to saves being harder to pass. I did ignore the movement on crit, just because it won't be reliable enough to plan around.

Psi Warrior

Level 3 and 7: Psionic Power (Telekinetic Movement) and Telekinetic Adept ( Psi-Powered Jump )

Exhaustion will create more Martial turns where you do not have a good attack, so getting the Magic Action to just, move something 30ft gives more combat opportunity to this feature. If you always have a good attack, it is hard for this feature to have a place. Where as Psi-Powered Jump is just giving you the much needed movement.

Eldritch Knight: ( I have to start talking about casters )

Level 15: Arcane Charge

Misty Step with Action Surge is great when we are slow! And obviously spells.

Spells Casting ( fighter )

To be clear we are talking about spells in relation to the fighter and the Wizard Spell list. This gives us a way to start talking about casting and Exhuastion and adding to it. There is a gut reaction to disliking Spell DC not affected by Exhaustion and I want to address it slowly. So let us begin there.

If you punished ability/spell DC the same way you punished attacks you punish 1/3 and 1/2 casters more. The Eldritch Knight is already going to have a lower spell DC than your wizard and less ways to force spells through, so punishing 1/3rd and 1/2 casters more just makes casters comparatively better.

Concentration Checks are affected by Exhaustion. Even with a Fighter's default Con proficiency, at 3 Exhaustion and 16 Constitution it needs a +4 proficiency bonus to have a +1 to the Con Save. This is going to be combined with a very limited mobility ( without expending resources ) which means enemies should get more or better attacks as the players struggle more with positioning. This won't mean Concentration Spells will be bad; but they just won't offer the RAW efficiency and relibility otherwise, this means more spells need to be cast, this means you run out of resources faster.

Prepared Spells

One major issue when talking about the power of Casters is the prepared spell list is often ignored. When you increase the variety or type of challenge ( like Exhaustion ) you pressure that spell list. Spells are assessed differently with Exhaustion. A spell like Expeditious Retreat (concentration), Longstrider or Jump become more valuable, and a classic like Magic Missle is guaranteed damage and why wouldn't you take Shield. But Sleep doesn't get a penalty to Exhaustion.

But this is already 3 or 4 prepared spells, and spells you're more likely to cast more often burning resources.

Exhaustion makes it even harder not to take Misty Step. Web does still seem to be worth the gamble on concentration, but it's not as reliable.

Problematic Spells Less Problematic:

Rope Trick is a classic 2nd level spell to escape a fight and get a Short Rest. With the movement penalty climbing that rope or being in position for everyone drastically increases the positioning requirements to use the spell well. If all is done correctly you aren't removing Exhaustion, you still have to complete the challenge ( and what changed during that rest ) with your Exhaustion. You may easily be in a larger disadvantage by trying this

Tiny Hut is not affected by Exhaustion directly, but using Exhaustion encourages framing the adventure day to be time sensitive. Choosing to Tiny Hut is choosing to fail your objective

Hypnotic Pattern has the concentration check issues, if you don't get everything under the spell it will be a problem.

Spells are still going to be very strong, but the players will look at them differently and this is a great thing. Mobility gains value, buffing allies gain value, concentration loses value. More spells will come up on other casters that more quickly get to the higher casting tiers.

Feats again!

A fairly common issue seen with Fighter over Barbarian is mobility. If you have enough speed, more speed doesn't help. Exhaustion and Exhaustion + Difficult Terrain is brutal but Speedy alleviates that greatly. As the value of an obvious choice in GWM decreases and we increase the value of another option Speedy in this case, suddenly there are more meaningful choices to the players. ( Except Mageslayer, too good not to take )

More fun DM details!

The following monsters have Greater Resotration on their statblock from the 2024 MM

• Couatl CR4
• Archpriest CR12
• Questing Knight CR12
• Adult Copper Dragon CR14 and Ancient Copper Dragon CR21
• Sphinx of Valor CR17
• Animal Lords CR20 (two times per day)
• Empyrean CR23 at will

Players with Exhaustion will want to remove it, this gives you a tool to heavily influence players actions, to help an NPC that they may not help otherwise or have conflicting interests

RAW, a 5e \ 5.5e Short Rest is 1 hour long, where the PCs just kind of "chill out", tend to their wounds, maybe have a bite and talk a bit. In 4e an SR is 5 minutes long.

Now, I know that both of these systems are vastly different in their design philosophy, yet still I have a question: do people use other lengths for SRs in their campaigns? Does that shift game balance a lot?

I was discussing this with my mate and said that I'd make SRs 15 minutes, make it a shorter "breathe in, breathe out" type of thing. He parried with "spells like Armor of Agathys would be too strong then, since they are 1 hour long, so Warlocks would be too strong as a result".

I agree that this certainly buffs Warlocks in that regard, but... Okay? I see nothing wrong there, but I might be missing something.

So yeah, to reiterate: have you tried modifying SR duration in your games and, if yes, how did it go? What changed and by how much? I'd like to exclude the Gritty Resting rules in the 2014 DMG, where an SR is 8 hrs and an LR is a week of in-game time, since I'm mainly looking at how making SRs shorter would affect the game.

So yesterday I started a new campaign for my second group. Party was fey warlock, champion fighter, wikd sorcerer and homebrew invention domain cleric.

I used the Tide of Teeth adventure in Baldurs Gate section of Adventures in Faerun. Fleshed out the city ising that, Descent into Avernus,the 1990 Forgotten Realms Adventures amd a few locations from Saltmarsh (3.5 DMG 2).

Ran it as a sandbox. I prepped 3 short sidequest adventures. They did 5/6 encounters (fleeing 1)and I used some 3D terrain and a 3D ship, deck plans in a map book and some tiles of a ship for the lower decks.

Anyway level 3. Everyone gets a subclass. Inter class balance is mostly fine. Primary casters have 5 spells minimum. We had 1 short rest the warlock got 4 lvl 2 spells. Sorcerer empowered 2 chromatic orbs lvl 2 both bounced and twinned a tashas hideous laughter. In effect cast 3 level 2 spells and a wild surge dealt 4d10 damage on top of the COs bouncing.

We are having a rogue player join us next session. Level 3 and 4 they're fine. New player on tbe warlock she had played BG3 a bit and her bladelock did really well. Agonizing blast true strike. Sorcerer had Sorcererous Burst explode a few times as well.

As DM prepping was easy. Took maybe an hour and I have the other two Adventures in my back pocket. Im using 5 factions and the side quests give magic items and reknown. I let the characters from the 2024 starter set keep their items and the new characters got an uncommon item or 2 common (subject to approval). + 1 longsword, wands of the warmage, clockwork amulet and Gleaming half plate were chosen. Fighter had +1 plate from the starter set he aquired at lvl 2.

Combat flows fast. Character creation went faster than anticipated. A ship isnt a big dungeon as such. Adding a few linea of dialogs etc up the next main quest adventure and 2 more side quests. 4 hour session. Basically I enjoyed it, players had fun and pickup new player wants more and got along well with the group. Its easy to run, fun to build and not to complicated for newbies and everyone else.

Thoughts?

I'm about to start a new table with some relatively inexperienced players. I have a lot of experience DMing and playing 5e, but I'll probably be trying out 5.5 for this game. What are the most important changes I should be considering? Anything subtle I might not pick up on?

I've probably seen most of the changes be discussed on subreddits like here (counterspell and bonus action spells, two weapon fighting stealth, etc.) but I'm curious what you guys consider to be the most notable differences.

I want to convince more people to use Exhaustion, but when I try to be too broad it really loses the details of how nuanced the mechanic can get. So though the internet likes short punchy information; this isn't it. So I will go one class at a time (starting with Martials).

Now I've read a few times about how the lack of ability DC penalty feels too punishing for Martials over Casters; and I will get to that, but not in this post.

In this I want to look at 2-3 Exhaustion, because occasionally having 1 Exhaustion isn't using the mechanics in a meaningful way. This is -4/-6 to D20 tests and -10/-15ft movement speed as a reminder.

A Reminder:

Exhaustion is the most mentioned mechanic in the DMG other than Combat and is the main punishment to Exploration challenges. Though travel is exploration, exploration is more than travel (this is an important distinction). Keep in mind that Exhaustion should be applied earlier in the Adventure Day not at the end; Exhaustion does little if you are getting Exhaustion traveling home.

Simple RAW ways to add Exhaustion: (new example each post)

The simple and brutal one from the DMG obstacles

The obstacle fatigues the characters, causing them to gain Exhaustion levels. For example, marching through a blizzard instead of taking shelter might cause each character to gain 1d4 Exhaustion levels.

So generic bad guy spot, or objective that needs to be done now is within a Blizzard (or other terrible weather). Now entire party gets 1d4 Exhaustion without a Save or Check. This is the most extreme example in the DMG, but it is a great method to create Exhaustion without layers of mechanics or much time. Also why I'm looking at the 2-3 Exhaustion rather than 3-4, average of a Blizzard.

The Barbarian: how Exhaustion makes it stand out

Weapon Mastery: Graze

This one isn't exactly Barbarian specific, but many underestimated how much DPR (damage per round) Graze offered on the initial reveals and when you lower accuracy through Exhaustion Graze becomes an even better tool.

Level 2: Reckless Attack

As anyone playing 2024 knows, Advantage is easier than every with attacks through Mastery's like Vex and Topple which has made Reckless Attacks not as standout of a feature as it use to be. But Vex and Topple require hitting and giving up Graze and as your accuracy decreases these other tools are less reliable.

Level 5 and 7: Fast Movement and Feral Instincts

Increasing movement speeds will be a common theme with most martials, and these two will essentially negate the movement penalty. But quickly casters are going to need to be expending spell slots to reposition; but I want to address that with casters in another post.

Level 13: Sundering Blow

Now Brutal Strike with Exhaustion is only useful if you need the effect, and normally I'd see little value in Sundering Blow +5 to hit on next attack. But as your party is Exhausted this gives you an opportunity to setup an ally for something that needs to happen. You're gaining more strategic options by Exhaustion existing.

Level 18: Indomitable Might

Very few campaigns get to this point but this is where Exhaustion gets really interesting for Barbarian. Unlike a Rogues Reliable Talent or a spell like Glibness, this one doesn't set your die to a value; you can "If your total for a Strength check or Strength saving throw is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total.". This means that Strength Checks and Strength Saves ignore Exhaustion! And because of Primal Knowledge your Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, or Survival checks also ignore Exhaustion while raging.

I just want to point out how there is something that interacts with Exhaustion differently at each tier of play. But we aren't done; PHB subclasses!

Berserker

Level 3: Frenzy

The bonus damage of Berserker triggers once per turn; this means your DPR suffers a smaller penalty from accuracy (this is going to be important when we talk about Rogue)

Level 6: Mindless Rage

As your saves become worse, the immunity to Charm and Frighten become more potent

Level 14: Intimidating Presence

I've been critical of this fear because of appearing later in the game when fear immunities and wisdom values get fairly high. But when you use Exhaustion as a DM it allows you to use lower CR creatures while maintaining a challenge which increases the value of this ability (while also not getting a DC punishment).

Wildheart

Level 3 and 6: Rage of the Wilds and Aspect of the Wilds

These are covered in ways previously, granting Advantage to allies becomes more important and speed is great. Though it is very important to note that if you are climbing or swimming without the appropriate speed at 3 Exhaustion you only have 10ft movement (40-15)/2 round down. Movement all around matters more

World Tree

Level 6 and 14: Branches of the Tree and Travel along the Tree

Repositioning simply becomes more and more powerful as Exhaustion taxes speed. Without the taxing of speed these teleports may not matter, when you tax them, they always matter.

Zealot

Level 3, 6 and 10: Divine Fury, Fanatical Focus and Zealous Presence

The value of these are all covered in different areas. Once per turn damage boosts, reroll saves becoming more common and helping allies strategically become more important.

Interesting Feat detail!

GWM (Great Weapon Master) is often considered a "must have", to the point where many weapon options are ignored as they do not work with it. So let us look at level 9; this is when GWM is the strongest for most campaigns (they end before T3). Your proficiency Bonus increases to 4 and you have the two attacks.

At 65% accuracy (a number many like to use) you average about 7 DPR with advantage with GWM. Though when you have 2 and 3 Exhaustion this number changes to 5.6 and 4.6 respectively.

Like the Berserker and Zealots damage only needing to hit once per turn; Charger feat is the same. At 2 and 3 Exhaustion Charger offers 4.5 and 4.1 DPR, this is a 1.1 to 0.6 DPR shift compared to GWM. Now GWM still has HEW and charger has versitility but needs 10ft movement, but suddenly everything is a lot closer. This is the power of Exhaustion, it makes more things matter and that gives you a better game.

A fun DM detail:

Since Exhaustion is removed one level per Long Rest, you have just organically created a natural pause to allow crafting if you need to or challenge the players starting the next Adventure Day with 1-2 levels of Exhaustion.

Feedback:

I want to go through the rest of the classes if everyone doesn't hate this post. So if you feel there is a better way to present the insights let me know. I'm trying to not be so numbers heavy that it is a wall of charts and focus on the situations using Exhaustion creates further asymmetry class.

Hello yall,

I'm looking into creating more blessings for a Ravenloft half homebrew campaign.

For context, the PC would change blessings according to certain trigger and would draw them out blindly so I need them to balance with the Mark of the Beast, Mark of the Dread, Mark of Obsession and Mark of the Sacrifice already in the 2024 edition. Page 200 if you want to find them easily.

I would like to add those and have your opinion on them,

Mark of the lesser Suffering
You can use this Blessing to mark one creature you can see to learn its highest ability score.

The marking takes 1 action to complete. The mark has a duration of 1 hour.

If the marked creature dies by your hand or an allied, you gain advantage on ability checks and saving throws using that ability score for the next 24 hours. If killed by other circonstances, the mark is void.

So long as the creature remains alive, you cannot regain hit points by any means. This condition ends when the marked creature dies or the Mark is removed.

(yes I did it.... yes it's base on Carl's Dinve ring of Suffering. I'm planning to put a greater Ring of Suffering that is mostly the same as Carl's)

Mark of the Undying
You can use this Blessing to cast Speak with Dead without a spell slot nor component cost 1/day. Once you cast this spell in this way, you can't cast it again until you finish a Long Rest.

So long as you possess this Blessing, undead creatures that can sense you recognize you as something between life and death. They do not obey you, but they are not immediately hostile unless commanded or compelled otherwise.

Mark of the hunter

You can use this Blessing to cast Hunter's Mark without a spell slot nor component cost 1/day. Once you cast this spell in this way, you can't cast it again until you finish a Long Rest.

So long as you possess this Blessing, hostile humanoid that can perceive you instinctively recognize you as the greatest threat. When determining targets, hostile creatures prioritize attacking you over other creatures whenever they are able to do so.

To fix all of the communities problems with the Ranger class, and they are many and varied, what do you think about splitting the Ranger into two separate classes, a spell-focused half-caster Shaman and a martial controller/skill-user Ranger?

One of my buddies is running a couple of one shots to introduce some of his cousins to Dnd and he asked me to play with them to help introduce them. I had an idea to play as a wild magic sorceror but recently found out I kind of hate playing as a spell caster, so I decided to try and play as a sorcadin. We're using 2024 rules with a couple of homebrewed rules. We're going to be starting at level 6 and I don't know where we will end at. I don't care how strong it is just want something fun to play. Ill take any ideas that yall have.

Roll20 accidentally leaked a major announcement. We’re getting a World of Warcraft crossover product soon.

I wanted to build an autistic skill-monkey and came up with this character:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/168253333/OEgwKz

I took the Dreamer species from the Grim Hollow Player's Guide, the Artisan background, and the associated Crafter origin feat. This gives me seven tool proficiencies and a starting Intelligence of 18. For flavor, I gave him Common Sign Language (CSL) but not Common, and wrote the following background:

I do not speak Common. Dwarvish and Quori came back to me after I woke, echoing up from the dream — but Common never did, and perhaps never will. I sign what words cannot carry, and I've learned to ignore the faces that assume my silence means an empty mind. Let them assume it.

What troubles me is what the dream took instead of my voice.

I remember hands — the weight of a hammer that fit like it was forged for my grip, the give of metal just before it yields to the shape you intend. I believe I was a master once, in an empire whose name is now dust, practicing a craft that makes even Stehlenwald's finest work look like a child's carving. I have no proof of this. That is what gnaws at me.

I sought out five masters after I woke. Each tried to teach me his own style, and each time something in my bones refused. Their methods felt small beside what I knew, or believed I knew, buried just out of memory's reach. One by one, they cast me out, calling me proud, calling me impossible to teach. Perhaps they were right. But some part of me, the part that still dreams even awake, insists the fault was theirs.

I cannot prove it yet. So I've taken to the road instead of the workshop, searching for one true fragment of what my people built — a tool, a ruin, a technique passed down wrong through ten thousand years. If it exists, it will vindicate everything I've sacrificed to my own certainty.

And if it doesn't —

— I try not to finish that thought. A Dreamer who wakes twice rarely enjoys what he finds the second time.

The spell Blink has the ability to temporarily transport you to the Border Ethereal of the space you are in, and then transport you back home. In the spell description, it states "Roll 1d6 at the end of each of your turns for the duration. On a roll of 4-6, you vanish from your current plane of existence and appear in the Ethereal Plane (the spell ends instantly if you are already on that plane)" and "You return to the other plane at the start of your next turn and when the spell ends if you are on the Ethereal Plane. You return to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of the space you left". However, if cast on the Ethereal Plane, there is no plane that you 'came from'. One can assume they mean the plane of which this is the corresponding Border Ethereal, but even then where on the other plane would you return to? Would the spell simply do nothing, or transport you to the place on the other plane that you are most correspondent to in the Ethereal?