What I hate most about 6th edition is the class abilities don't tell you what Lv. you get them at... Yeah really! You have to reference the class table and search for the ability name, but you know where that is? ON ANOTHER PAGE. So reading a class you have to be constantly flipping back and fourth (or scrolling up and down) to get a feel for the progression. AND IT GETS WORSE... The sub-classes? are NOT on the table, it just says "Subclass feature" & doesn't even number it, so when reading a subclass feature, you have to count what feature your up to, then reference the table. AND... IT... GETS... WORSE... Some Subclasses give you multiple things at 3rd level, but don't separate them from what you get at 6th Lv, so you need to read the subclass BACKWARDS, to make sure you are not counting a base element of the subclass for a "feature" and missing out. For Example, Monk-Warrior of Mercy gives you: Lv.3 Hand of Harm Lv.3 Hand of Healing Lv.3 Implements of Mercy Lv.6 Physician's Touch Lv.11 Flurry of Healing and Harm Lv.17 Hand of Ultimate Mercy THEY ARE ALL FORMATTED THE SAME, HAVE NO NUMBERS, AND NO BREAK BETWEEN Lv. 3 & 6! (im really mad, can you tell)
btw, tavern brawler's push feature doesn't specify that the push doesn't work if the creature is too big. Therefore, a small species could punch and push an ancient dragon 5 feet away. Useless except in ridiculous situations, but equally hilarious.
In the rules for "Making an Attack", "A Location" is a viable target. Thus, if you know(or think) that there might be a "Hidden" Enemy, you can make an attack at "This spot here" like normal(Probably as an assumed "Attack at Concealed Target"). If there is someone there and you beat AC you hit, if not then you treat as if you just didn't hit anything.
Yeah they’re seeming to miss that the 2024 book is basically just replacing the 2014 book. Supplemental updated material post 2014 is still usable, I guess unless it’s specifically replaced in the new book
you could attack invisible creatures in 2014 as well. In fact, per the rules, unless they took the hide action you knew exactly where the creature was with no checks. The change thats important here is before you still had disadvantage attacking invisible creatures even if you had something like see invisibility up.
So, with the changes to Counterspell, I immediately went to see the changes to Abjurer Wizard. And their level 10 ability now does the following: - Counterspell and Dispel Magic are always automatically prepared. - Dispel Magic is a BONUS ACTION and you add your prof bonus to the check for it. - Counterspell and Dispel Magic don't consume a spell slot if you fail to counter or dispel.
My only gripe is that it doesn’t waste the spell slot of the target. I always thought the important element of counterspell was sacrificing a slot to nullify their spell and take their slot too. Tbf counterspell not needing to be upcast against higher level spells compensates for that. Just loses it tactical edge a bit
Note: In 5e, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter makes the target prone and incapacitated, so as they noticed, the target can still move, though they have to crawl on account of being prone.
Double note : getting up does not cost an action, just half your movement. Meaning you technically can just get up and walk away while laughing like a maniac
I found it so funny how one of the biggest reactions Jacob has is something that wasn't even a change. Specifically, the rule about the incapacitated condition. You were always able to move. The 2014 PHB rules for incapacitated just states "An incapacitated creature can't take actions or reactions." It never reduced your speed or ability to use your normal movement.
@@adfdasdfadfadsfareae True, I've seen a lot of live plays where people just treat incapacitated as the same as stunned. Which apparently NOW doesn't reduce speed, which actually is pretty wild
@@abdulazizmohammed8797 OH wow I didn't even notice that. Yea, that's a weird choice. I mean, I like that you still get some benefit from expending the resource to do a stunning strike even if they succeed, but it does feel really odd that the effects for success vs failure are so different.
Cure wounds needed a buff. It didn't heal enough over healing word to justify needing to run over and touch the person. Most of the time you were better off just using healing word to pick them up from range.
If only it was just a requirement of running over to them... but the full action requirement has often stopped me from casting it over healing word. Though now at least you can do bonus action spells along with it I suppose.
I kind of agree, but at the mid-level range it balances out, because upcasting cure wounds is so much better than healing word. At level 1 though I absolutely agree
@@jeezuhskriste5759 Eh, I predict a nonzero number of DMs are just going to hand out levels of exhaustion willy nilly. Not really a rules problem, but it is something players need to push back on if they're just being given levels of exhaustion for trivial skill failures or something.
Correct, I have barbarians that are specifically built around grappling two enemy threats away from the spellcasters so they have no choice but to either attack me, break the grapple or shove me away.
@@nealenthenerd399 if we're going to get into the rules of MTG then I have even bigger problems with their designs to nerf counterspell. I guess they've made it just as bad here.
I think the real power of the counterspell at higher levels is that it forces the creature to burn a legendary resistance (if it doesn't have good Con) at the cost of a 3rd level spellslot. That leaves it unable to block a more dangerous spell like Feeblemind if you run it out of resistances.
I would agree, if not every single creature in the game should have pretty high Constitution. If you dont have high Constitution, that is an active detriment to the monster. Honestly, there just wont be successful Counterspells anymore
@@thestylemage2092 no, you trade a reaction for a _save_ to lose an action or a legendary resistance. If they make the save conventionally the counterspell just fails without achieving anything except your own spell slot. Sure, it is great if it succeeds in wasting the enemy's resources but the new version makes it much more of a gamble. I'd prefer if you could still upcast it and if spells of lower level than the Counterspell would be negated without a save. That way you'd still have more of a strategic element with its use but also wouldn't be able to guarantee Counterspelling everything.
Spencer's reaction was the best, and the way jacob in the spur of the moment phrased it perfectly to get her to say it was the best spell in the game just before shattering it before her eyes was peak cinema. 10/10 laughed so hard
@@ryankeith2712 Sharpshooter is okay but it doesn’t increase damage anymore. It’s not a bad choice for a Ranged attacker, but I’d probably take GWM before Sharpshooter now honestly
My favorite thing about tavern brawler is it's now an ORIGIN feat just right off the bat, if you're planning on doing an unarmed/grappler build, you've got what you need
That is actually really cool, i think all of those flavour over substance feats should be origin feats that you just get from the get go (like chef is another example, but i think that one is from tasha's)
@@jacobsiron6929 I should've specified: He should make a whole video of him just reading and reacting to the new book like he does with the 'bad homebrew' videos!
Incapacitated has always worked that way. All it says in the 2014 PHB is that you “can’t take actions or reactions”. BUT like you said, incapacitated is almost always paired with something else. The only examples that I can think of where it’s not paired are the spell Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, and the pain glyph from the spell Symbol
Move is an action. Incapacitated creatures cannot take actions (as you've even referenced), therefore they cannot move. It has always and still does stop movement.
@@westrah9425 the consensus is that incapacitated does not itself stop you from moving. Jeremy Crawford said eight years ago, "Being incapacitated doesn't immobilize you". At the very least it hasn't always stopped you from moving and there's a strong precedent for keeping it that way in 5.5e
@@westrah9425 movement is something that you can do as an action, but using your normal movement doesn’t count as an “action”. That’s why there’s specifically the dash action, so that you can use it. That’s why in the unconscious condition it also says “An unconscious creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings”. If incapacitated already prohibited movement, then that second part wouldn’t need to be put in there
So, it's much less punishing for a player to get counterspelled by a monster now. I think that's what the new version was aiming for. The drawback is that it's much less powerful for spellcaster players now.
Chromatic Orb needs to be 7th level to get the "always jumps" effect. (3d8 to start at 1st level, +6 levels for +6d8 extra, making 9d8 which guarantees the jumps)
Even then you still have to hit every one of those attack rolls, in sequence. If you miss even one, well, you don't even get to make the rest. Chain lightning is going to be superior in 90% of use cases.
@@voidbnuy Which is guaranteed to happen when you cast it at 6th level because you would be rolling 8d8. Since you would always roll 8d8, it will always bounce. The one downside is you technically don't roll damage if you don't hit the target, and so you would need to plan your attacks carefully to get the most hits, but 8d8 damage to even two or three targets is pretty nice.
And that's where the DM thinks of consequences for criminal actions like that. Specially if the players abuse it. Wanted posters start to crop up even in new towns and such.
Being unseen and being hidden are two different things. You can be attacked if you're invisible (with disadvantage), but if you take the Hide action and succeed your Stealth check creatures lose track of you and can no longer target you.
Under the 2014 rules, if I’m not mistaken, you were able to walk while incapacitated, and Psychic Lance only imposes the incapacitated condition. We ruled at the table that the target could technically still move while under its effects.
@@westrah9425 Movement is not a "move action" its a pool based on your speed. If it were as you say, it wouldn't say that your speed drops to 0 when you are paralyzed. Because you already have an incapacitated condition when you are paralyzed.
First, I watched and rewatched the 2 hour tomb of horrors video because I think it's a great idea to play these modules, RAW in a vacuum to show that some of them are awesome (and some really arent). B. I loved this video! Always love a seasoned DM/players take on things who don't go full ham on just everything being trash without some constructive ways to make them better. Thirdly, yes I posted this before watching the entire video.
We used a homebrew rule for old counterspell where the person getting counterspelled could spend a reaction and an equivalent spell slot to "contest" the counterspell forcing a contested spell ability check and the winner got their desired outcome. However contesting a counterspell and loosing means you lose the original spell and slot pluss another spell slot you use to contest. Made for some pretty cool wizard duels
Something they didn’t talk about with new Counterspell is that you could literally just fail to counter a cantrip because there is no more automatic counter anymore
I think the Sharpshooter nerf is fine for one reason: Dexterity was - and still is - the God-stat of DnD. It affects a stupidly large amount of rolls; letting the Strength stat shine in dealing more damage makes sense. Edit: @Zorae42 brought up a really good point that - as worded - Heavy Weapons Master would work with Longbows and Heavy Crossbows because they have the Heavy Property. I still think my point kind of stands since you'd still need to have at least 13 Strength to get the Heavy Weapons Master feat - but I agree with Zorae that this is a strange game design choice since it's most likely going to make anyone creating a ranged-build feel like they HAVE to use a Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, elsewise they're foregoing a LOT of damage. There is the dual-wielding you can do with Light Crossbows and maybe that can keep up with HWM/Longbow and Heavy Crossbow, but the rest of the ranged options are likely going to get ignored.
Except you still can take Heavy Weapons Master with Longbows/Heavy Crossbows since it just specifies the "heavy" condition. All they've done is make silly ranged weapon builds even more unviable
@@Zorae42 Oh dang, that's a great point actually. I do think you need to meet a Str requirement to wield weapons with the "heavy" condition, so that kinda leans into the idea of higher strength higher damage, lol. I can kind of see how they could flavor/explain Heavy Weapon Master affecting using longbows/heavy crossbows.. but that's still pretty weird, ngl. Edit: I also still don't really mind that, tbh. Speaking personally, I've never really seen anyone use the heavy crossbow before. Seen a couple longbows, but still. I think letting them benefit from the feat is a decent way to incentivize an otherwise meh choice for ranged weapons.
@@ethanharris6226 The term "Great Weapon" doesn't specify ranged or melee. A heavy crossbow is the same to a crossbow as a greatsword is to a longsword. Str based ranged weapons has always been a thing in rpgs. GWM is now the feat based around weapons that need the use of both hands. Greatbows in Elden Ring are my favorite type of Str based ranged weapon archetype. Someone using a Greatbow is absolutely a "Great Weapon Master".
@@ethanharris6226 The Str requirement is only for Heavy Melee weapons. For Heavy Ranged weapons it's an equivalent Dex requirement. Longbows are literally the best ranged weapon. It is insane that they also can get the dmg boost from heavy weapons. And meanwhile if you want to do a "halfling with a sling" thematic build, you no longer have any ability to do so with any sort of viability. Personally, I think they should've left some sort of dmg component on Sharpshooter, but only for non-heavy type ranged weapons.
@@DwWarWolf It should. Nothing about new GWM indicates it should be usable with ranged weapons, it doesn't even have the option for a +1 Dex ASI and it requires 13 Str.
I haven’t seen anyone else comment on this, but Jacob is exactly right. Recent spell casting monsters say “x/day” which means it doesn’t use a spell slot. So counterspell would still get rid of that use, just like if a player uses a spell from a feat or something similar. Assuming the new Monster Manual sticks to this recent change, the only change when the player casts it is it’s now a saving throw.
unless you are fighting an NPC built like a player character with spell slots, or PvP. I feel like the spell needs a tweak there, like an additional d20 test to see if you can keep the spell slot
@ratchet1freak You would avoid this by building the NPC enemy like a monster. Honestly, for me at least, PVP in D&D as anything but a one shot defeats the purpose. You're meant to be a team.
16:00 The first part of the Heavy weapon master feat doesn't specify the attack you make with a Heavy Weapon has to be melee. You can add your proficency to the damage of Longbows and Heavy crossbow as well (they both have the Heavy property)
As other's have said, I believe the changes to monsters not using spell slots is why Counterspell works the way it does. If you counterspell a monster, they lose the use per day, but if a player gets counterspelled, they don't lose the slot, so they don't feel so bad about it.
Lots of enemies are PvP based (some character with a class level). In many situations it is going to significantly hurt those builds who relied on a counterspell for protection. But the saddest point is that the spell is a coinflip now, dependable on a saving throw, which would ALWAYS be bad for both dm and a player, since it only adds more chaos and diminishes strategic design capabilities. In my oppinion, defensive spells are obligated to have some reliable effect: wizard of the coast could've at least mitigate the effectivness of the counterspell by changing it's nature to a protection from direct harm or smth.
@@lemondruid2783 they could've made the upscaled levels of counterspell provide scaling penalty to the con save, then only legendary resistance is bad
Well... that does not seen to be the way Counterspell would work. A spell use is the same as a spell slot. I would say that the monster would keep the spell use, since the cast action is negated. So, it's like it never happened. It just postpones the casting to another turn, and the caster of the Counterspell loses the spellslot he used to cast it.
@@tuliotonheiroWizards made the wording specific, if you cast a spell with a spell slot you don’t lose it meaning if you cast a spell via other means such as racial spells or feat spells like fey touched and shadow touched you would lose that use of it. I’m pretty sure Jeremy Crawford had made that point in one of their interviews that they did. This was deliberately worded
I love it how, aside all the memes, Jacob basically liked every rule change he read for this video. I understand some of the hate, specially for power players, but many things are just more well put together and balanced in general for the common player, which i think is awesome. Also, yeah, that's Bigsby. And every other art of someone using a spell that has a character's name, presents THAT character using the spell. I mean, i'm not even into D&D lore, i actually know nothing aside from what i saw in BG3, but i thougth that is awesome. And particularly for me, because i don't know the characters, i found it pretty cool to meet them this way.
I hope they put out errata ASAP for the few glaring outliers and wonky interactions. They might deliberately delay it until after the initial launch window so as to not give the impression that there were any mistakes during the peak buying period.
From someone who actually enjoys power-building: I think the new rules are wonderful, because 2014 5e was trivially easy to break. 2024 also has strong combos, but they play a lot more tactical now and imo are more interesting build wise, like ranged characters having a reason to invest into str with the new GWM now.
The counterspell kind of tracks for how they plan on updating the monsters to not have spell slots anymore. The update is just x number of times a day. So the counterspell would still make them "lose a slot" but without the slot.
I think this could be a direct mention in the spell description, since it is a very rare occasion where it makes any real difference, and as such easy to overlook or misinterpret.
@@sportzaddict15 No? Legitimately go look at the Monster Manual creatures that can spellcast. They like almost all have certain uses per day of spells. Some of the high level spellcasting npcs used this like an Arcanoloth, Archmage, and Sphinxes, but the majority was use based
To answer the thing about attacking invisible things, they have to take the hide action to be unable to be attacked. If you're in the woods, running, your still making noise and stuff.
The spell casting changes for multiple spells a round is interesting. It’s now that you can’t do 2 leveled spells on your turn, which means if you cast a spell on your turn you can’t use reactions for things like counterspell, shield, or silvery barbs(on your turn), but it also means if you have a way to cost bonus action spells without a slot(items, fey touched, etc.) you can cast two spells per turn easily. Warlocks and other classes that have slotless spells just became way better
It's per turn. Not per round. You can still counter spell and use sheild on another creatures turn when they attack you or cast a spell. If you couldn't use reaction spells after casting a spell on your turn in combat, it would completely make those spells useless.
this is actually really easy to subvert since the PHB now covers making spell scrolls, on top of the various existing ways that different classes and species can cast spells without spell slots
@chrisg8989 That's not what they're saying. In 5e using a reaction on your own turn is easy. Where Silvery Barbs is allowed, you can literally SB your own saving throw spell, like casting Hold Person then immediately SB if they succeed. Because spellcasters are perfectly balanced, you can do things like just... walk out of an enemy in melee and cast Shield if they hit you.
When fighting a creature who is invisible it cannot be attacked if not detected. "I hear a noise over there." If detected, "I hear a noise over there." then you should be bale to try to attack the invisible foe but at disadvantage. I swing in that direction at shoulder level.
100% agree. Which is why I made my own ruling for it: Unseen Target. When you make an attack roll against a target you can’t see, you have Disadvantage on the roll. This is true whether you’re guessing the target’s location or targeting a creature you can hear but not see. To guess a hidden or invisible target's location, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check as part of the attack or magic action. If you succeed the check, you can make an attack against that creature, but with disadvantage. If you fail this check, you automatically miss the target and waste the action. If you are hidden or invisible when you make an attack roll, you give away your location when the attack hits or misses.
I think the big problem is that if two creatures can't see each other, advantage and disadvantage cancel, and it also cancels any other source of advantage and disadvantage. So if you're fighting at night and neither of you can see, you can attack at long range while wearing armor you're not proficient in, wielding a heavy weapon even though you're small, your opponent used a Dodge action, and you have several other sources of Disadvantage I didn't think of, and you still hit them just as often as normal because they can't see you either.
@@DanielLCarrier So shooting an arrow at a target with my eyes closed should be easier than shooting an arrow at at target dressed in a ghillie suit, in fog, at night, with my eyes closed?
Invisbility does in fact not hide your position. You need to use the Hide action while invis to actually not be detected. Otherwise your presence (with reasonable deniability) will be obvious as you still make enough sounds to be detected. Thus, you can alway attack an invisible creature at disadvantage.
I think the counterspell changes are mostly because it’s annoying to deal with as a player, especially if you don’t have access to counter spell yourself. If your spell gets interrupted it doesn’t eat the slot, so it basically just wastes your turn instead of wasting it AND consuming the resource
The exhaustion rules don't say "minimum 0", so it's technically possible to obtain a negative speed from them. You can get PCs so exhausted that they accidentally walk away from wherever they were trying to go.
Worth to point out on that counterspell implicit changes is that if a legendary monster uses it's resistance on counterspell, you get rid of it, so you wear them down fasterthrough it by forcing it even during their turn.
That implies that the spell that's being counterspelled isn't something that could kill the player characters outright. A lot of the enemies that have legendary resistances usually has something like that.
@@tobor88 That's just not true But also even if it was true, this is a new edition with a new monster manual. Look at that new monster manual to judge this change, not the old one.
@@tobor88 Some things like that, yeah, but how often in those cases do those spells get counter-spelled normally? Like yeah sure power word kill could drop a PC, but you would have to drop a level 9 counterspell to make sure, or roll the dice regardless to get over 19, which for a max level PC with a maximum roll of 31 is about 61% chance of failure. Worst case scenario if you want, you can just add the 2014 upcasting rules to the 2024 spell, and it will work pretty much the same as the old one with the small caveat that instead of being a spellcasting roll on your side it's a con save on the other.
So stunning strike is an unarmed stroke right? Could you take grappler and tavern brawler to 1) stunning strike 2)convert that into a grapple because stunned enemies automatically fail strength checks 3) move them 30 feet 4) flurry of blows, converting one into a shove If so, that's funny.
Talk about the Invisible condition reminded me of an argument I had with my brother over the difficulty/penalty to hit an invisible target that has bit down on or grappled your arm. Think he was arguing that there should be no penalty because you know the target's exact position (i.e. on your arm) and I was arguing that there would still be a penalty because of how the rules for being invisible worked.
A heads up: the Spanish translation has a TON of mistranslations and errors, and things that straight up aren't translated. From a bilingual standpoint, it's hilarious.
It's wild to me that Spanish is one of the most common languages in the world and billion dollar companies still can't be bothered to have good translations
Sadly no, Incapacitated creatures can't move as they cannot take actions, and Move is an action. You technically have your speed, but you can't use it. I'm really surprised they missed this so many times in this video.
Except on new stunning strike if you succeed you loose half your movement. So failing you keep it all XD. even aside the rules and the mistake, stumbling about even if was a quarter or small amount of movement would fit fine.
You can attack a creature, an object, or a LOCATION. So if something is invisible, and you attack the location, they get hurt. I think the language is clear.
• Crafter Feat • Fast craft items in the morning • Crafted item falls apart after long rest • 'Ball bearings' is a fast craft. How do ball bearings fall apart? They are solid spheres of metal! Do they get attacked by a rust monster?
not just the ball bearings though how does a map simply fall apart in one day sure paper isn't the strongest thing on the planet but it just doesn't deteriorate after one day
They didn’t really “remove” chaos bolt in the same way they didn’t “remove” artificer. Since chaos bolt was introduced in xanathar’s guide, they just didn’t add it to the new book. It’s still in the game, but they can’t realistically fit everything from PHB, Tasha’s, Xanathar’s, and brand new stuff into the book, it’s just not feasible.
I like the current counterspell, it's a fun minigame where you kind of have to gamble/bet your spell slot and try to guess if it's going to be enough to counterspell
Also you have to plan ahead that you want to counterspell this round and not use a lvled spell on your turn. At least as far as I understood the new casting rules.
As a DM I really like the counterspell change. It makes it so that you can start using it against your player while at the same time not being a huge frustration for them. They keep the spell slot, and they have a chance to avoid it. Also, con save make sense, maybe a spellcaster would want to invest more in constitution for concentration and counterspell resistance now ? I like it :)
Another HUGE thing about counterspell is the "one spell slot per turn" rule cuz in 2014 if you cast a spell using a spell slot, and get counterspelled, you can counterspell their counterspell, but now you can't because you've already used a spell a spell slot that turn. Same with silvery barbs or any reaction spells, you can't use them if you've spent a spell slot already on your turn.
Which makes sense, why would you be able to stop casting the spell, reaction counter spell, and continue casting the original spell? You're already mid casting a spell, either drop the spell to counter the counter... Pointless... Or just do the con save
@@PolskaHerobrine that's true, RAW, but if you're already halfway through something, it doesn't make sense that can interrupt yourself doing it to stop someone interrupting you doing it...
@@PolskaHerobrine unless ofc the initial spell didn't have a S component, or you've got a 2nd free hand, since that's all that's needed for counterspell
Ok so I actually think the new counter spell is better because it scales with your level it’s a savings, throw So even at high level like 15 you have like an 18 Spell save dc There’s a decent chance they fail that Now they have to choose them to wasteing one of their turns Or using A precious legendary resistance And all you had to do Was use A third level spell slot now for only a third level spell slot You can Counter spell a 9th level spell with good odds not only that but Theoretically, your whole party could cast counter spell They have to choose all three of their legendary Resistances And getting turned into a turtle Or lose their Turn And you can do this every turn for only Your reaction and a Third level slot This gets even worse for the big bad because unlike old counter spell You can use Silvery barbs Now Your Opponent is better off useing unarmed strikes
The lich effectively losing like 75% of their turn with a lost action is a huge penalty in a game where combats are over in 3 to 6 rounds (and if not over yet, are effectively solved by then).
Counterspell is a reaction + 3rd level spell slot to potentially burn a legendary resistance or they risk losing their action. It's still good. Monster resources hardly matter in the long term, so the retaining spell slots is entirely a boon for the player.
One thing you gain as a player with new counterspell, is that enemies counterspelling you is way less punishing. Depending on the campaign, if you’re fighting a lot of spellcasters, the party probably has far fewer spell slots than your opponents can have.
I would probably still homerule that counterspell automatically succeed on spells that are the same level and lower. It gives you more reason to spend a lvl 6 spell slot as an example to counterspell a lvl 6 spell as to just simply saving your 3rd level slots just for counterspell.
Or if you want more of the gambling aspect it could automatically succeed on just lower leveled spells but not same level and up. Want a guaranteed Counterspell for Fireball? Use a 4th level slot.
Another thing to know, is that new counterspell doesnt take away threat, it prolongs it on either side, The BBEG cant make you waste your 9th level spell, they can only push it back a turn or two, and the same for fighting a boss, you dont negate the threat, but push it down the road so that you can react to it better, I believe the Abjuration wizard also gets the ability to not lose spellslots when you fail a counterspell. So you only use up spell slots on a successful counter.
Cool interaction I discovered with a new wording for Armor of Agathys. Previously, AoA gave temp HP and was worded “every time you are hit while you have these temp HP, you deal damage,” and once the temp HP runs out, it’s over. Now in 5.5, it says “for the duration, whenever you are hit with a melee attack, the attacker takes damage,” and “the spell ends when you have no temp HP remaining.” What that means is that you can replace the temp HP to keep AoA going. And the most fun combo I thought of is at level 13+, you can have a cleric or bard drop Power Word: Fortify on the warlock for 120 temp HP, have the warlock cast AoA at level 5, forgo the 25 temp HP, and you have 120 extra health, dealing 25 cold damage back to every melee attack.
Honestly I would be fine with it as long as they added a like 6th level version that just works the way the old one did. Ultimately having the chance that the enemy keeps their slot removes most of the reason to counter in the first place, at least as far as low level spells go. Now you are down one slot and they still have theirs, the resource meta game is now ruined. It SHOULD be if they fail the check the spell dissipates and they lose whatever they used to cast it and lose the slot but if they pass the check they only lose the action, not the slot. (the spell still dissipates because you countered their spell because you had to make a check to counter it so if you made that check the spell is countered) As it is there is not much reason to cast it especially as pointed out legendary resistance now just says no to the entire spell since if they succeed clearly they do still get to cast the spell because the fail text says the spell dissipates so naturally a pass would mean that doesn't happen.
@@ShiningDarknes Enemies don't use spell slots anymore, so the spell slot thing is strictly in the players' favor. Removing a legendary resistance with a reaction is strong.
@@elowin1691 monsters don’t, but other humanoid casters that the dm has built just like they would a PC do because no changing it to per day is just changing the name while mechaially being the same and making no in-universe sense.
note: when a creature succeeds on its save against stunning strike, its speed is reduced, but if it fails, its speed is not reduced. Stun not removing speed is clearly a mistake.
This is probably the most niche opinion ever but I hate the new Alert feat, all they did was steal a Battle Master maneuver and one of Harengons racial abilities and slapped a new label on it. this is probs cause I like playing harengon but it just miffs me for some reason
The art is pretty good, but i feel like 5e art has become pretty homogenised. I'd like to see the return of each campaign setting having its own unique aesthetic based on the work of a lead artist- Brom's work on Darksun, DiTerlizzi on Planescape, Larry Elmore on Dragonlance. It helped each world feel unique.
Sort of my problem with D&D art is each year it feels like it looks less and less D&D and more generic Fantasy art. Half the images I'd never know were D&D if it wasn't including something hyper specific to D&D such as iconic spells or items the franchise is known for specifically. The lack of identity in the style is kind of frustrating as even MTG has been sliding down this route. There's been a bunch of art over the last few years that don't feel like 'Magic'. WOTC's attempt at this 'uniform' art style between the games feels so bizarre.
While sharpshooter no longer gives you the risk/reward feature, Great Weapon Master now applies to Longbows and Heavy Crossbows since they both have the heavy property
The new Exhaustion doesn't affect spellcasters because it doesn't apply to spell save DCs (or any DCs at all). So spellcasters, once again, get to ignore basically any and all tactics imposed on them by just casting any of the 95% of the spells in the game that don't use attack rolls. Grappled or restrained? Teleport away, it doesn't inhibit somatic components so who cares, or just vaporize them with a blast spell or make them buzz off with a control spell. You could be on death's door with Exhaustion 5 and you're still equally as competent as you were before, minus your slow movement speed.
@@mikeesteves8427 But that applies equally to the martials and casters, but the casters get to ignore any penalties to their main way of "solving the fight", and I think for most fights, having a penalty to your saving throws isn't as bad as having a penalty to your attacks/save DCs.
@@AnaseSkyriderbest way to do this imo, is to have characters roll a concentration save at exhaustion level 2 onwards when casting a spell. We do have features to buff the saves. And just make it the spell fails and they dont lose a slot kinda thing idk
Consider, if a BBEG casts a big spell now and Legendary Resists through a counter spell that means multiple creatures can attempt to counter the same spell WITHOUT a counterspell chain. Which could be an even quicker way to remove Legendary Resistances AND think about how sick it would be to have 3+ wizards fighting off the big huge spell from the Lich.
One thing I like about counterspell is that you no longer have to worry about trying to match spell slots to cancel a spell - whether the opponent is casting a 3rd or 9th level spell, the effects of your counterspell won't change or get any less effective technically. Yes, there's no guarantee anymore, but you get more flexibility because the effect on your end will be the same regardless of what slot you use, letting you save higher slots for other things.
Saw someone mention it but the con save being used to save the spell slot mechanically feels better than just making counter spell useless in a boss fight with spells that can kill people instantly.
One thing you guys didn't mention is that it feels a lot better as a player to have your spell cancelled by the new counterspell. In the old edition, you just lose your action and spell slot. Now the player has a bit of agency with making a CON save, and even if they fail, they don't waste the slot. As a DM, I always avoided spells like counterspell and power word kill, because it felt bad getting them used on me as a player. They are basically like: "You don't get to play now." I think counterspell is a lot friendlier to use as DM now. It does seem pretty bad to take as a player though.
I understand where the "I don't get to play" mindset comes from. You want your dude to do cool stuff. But in this game of teamwork where your resources are pooled against the enemy I feel like most cases of counterspell are a way for you as a caster to in fact provide an important opening for your team. If your spell is counterspelled, yes, your big thing doesn't happen, but your teammates can rush in without worry of a reaction. Other spellcater can fire big spells without worry. Shouldn't the cooperative success overweigh the fleeting single frustration? Obviously, if only you are ever targeted by such spells and it happens every second encounter, yes, that's an issue, but we can all imagine terrible situation for any spell.
Counterspell? You mean I have to spend spell slot, to stop a spell, and it doesn't use the enemy spell slot? So they can just re-cast it next turn? Useless. utterly useless
@@marimbaguy715 You mean a CHANCE at wasting their turn... It's a con save, could be argued as a Concentration save which is likely to be dc 14 or so... about a 60% chance to succeed. Assuming they have any kind of constitution score. You waste a whole spell slot to MAYBE make them miss an action.
20:32 A 'per day' spell is for sure not a spell slot. I think that's exactly why they implemented those Counterspell changes. It makes the spell less punishing against players (doesn't consume their spell slots) but also more dynamic when used against BBEGs (who can succeed the Con save using their legendary resistance).
People mad they can’t guaranteed completely shut down caster BBEGs anymore. Imma be real, using a 9th level slot for Counterspell was one of the lamest things imaginable.
@@brilobox2 Yup. Boss fights in dnd are almost always battles of attrition. You know as a player the BBEG's resources are limited, so you gotta do whatever you can to force them to spend them. Legendary Resistances, per-day spells, everything. Counterspell was just a fast-forward button in that sense. Boss casts a spell, you counter it, they counter your counter, someone counters their counter. In-game 6 seconds of nothing happened, except now you and your bud are two 3+ level spell slots down and the BBEG's trump card is gone, losing its turn doing nothing. Like sure, it's effective, but it's just plain boring. As both a player and DM I wanna see what the big bad can do! Lets see some big spells🔥
Another important thing about the new Great Weapon Master; it no longer needs to be a melee weapon. So its now the damage boosting feat for melee AND ranged weapons
I'm imagining crafting a tent using fast crafter, and as soon as your rest ends, the poles snap and you are fishing your way out of a tent that fell in on your head.
You can attack a space, roll with disadvantage, you might miss because of the disadvantage or you might miss because someone’s not there. I believe that’s the intent
Not for players above level 15 that's for sure. I think counterspell will have use in low level play but as soon as bigger badder monsters with resistance show up it is worthless yeah
They removed Chaos Bolt, but that's because A: Chromatic Orb does what Chaos Bolt did and B: they added a new cantrip for sorcerers that has a lot of similar feel to Chaos Bolt Sorcerous Burst level 0 - evocation Casting Time: Action Range: 120 feet Components: V, S Duration: Instantaneous You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged attack roll against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 damage of a type you choose: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder. If you roll an 8 on a d8 for this spell, you can roll another d8, and add it to the damage. When you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d8s you can add to the spell's damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier. Cantrip Upgrade. This damage increases by 1d8 when you reach level 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), and 17 (4d8).
You could actually move in standard 5e if incapacitated as well. There are some spells that incapacitate targets without imposing a restriction that stops movement, so you could not do anything but move. Tasha's Hideous Laughter for example, though you'd be prone, you could crawl around technically. Also with Beacon of Hope up, you can now heal more hit points than the Heal spell does with the same spell slot using Cure Wounds. So if you're not worried about removing the conditions Heal does, pretty powerful HP restoration assuming you already have Beacon up (which I personally have often in my games but our DM hits hard)
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wait there is some B.S. in grapple - so what if a tiny creature "grapples" a dragon, so the dragon's speed is 0 and can not increase . . . Really?
What I hate most about 6th edition is the class abilities don't tell you what Lv. you get them at...
Yeah really! You have to reference the class table and search for the ability name, but you know where that is? ON ANOTHER PAGE.
So reading a class you have to be constantly flipping back and fourth (or scrolling up and down) to get a feel for the progression. AND IT GETS WORSE...
The sub-classes? are NOT on the table, it just says "Subclass feature" & doesn't even number it, so when reading a subclass feature, you have to count what feature your up to, then reference the table.
AND... IT... GETS... WORSE...
Some Subclasses give you multiple things at 3rd level, but don't separate them from what you get at 6th Lv, so you need to read the subclass BACKWARDS, to make sure you are not counting a base element of the subclass for a "feature" and missing out.
For Example, Monk-Warrior of Mercy gives you:
Lv.3 Hand of Harm
Lv.3 Hand of Healing
Lv.3 Implements of Mercy
Lv.6 Physician's Touch
Lv.11 Flurry of Healing and Harm
Lv.17 Hand of Ultimate Mercy
THEY ARE ALL FORMATTED THE SAME, HAVE NO NUMBERS, AND NO BREAK BETWEEN Lv. 3 & 6!
(im really mad, can you tell)
btw, tavern brawler's push feature doesn't specify that the push doesn't work if the creature is too big. Therefore, a small species could punch and push an ancient dragon 5 feet away. Useless except in ridiculous situations, but equally hilarious.
In the rules for "Making an Attack", "A Location" is a viable target. Thus, if you know(or think) that there might be a "Hidden" Enemy, you can make an attack at "This spot here" like normal(Probably as an assumed "Attack at Concealed Target"). If there is someone there and you beat AC you hit, if not then you treat as if you just didn't hit anything.
if you're polymorphed into a giant squid you can grapple 10 people
To be fair that kinda tracks
This evokes an image straight out of a cartoon, which is how we know it is correct.
Takes ten rounds to do though. I suppose you could Haste to do it in five.
Or wild shape as a druid
if you're polymorphed into a giant squid on land, you're suffocating. PSA.
Is Spencer just playing Stardew Valley in the background???
I literally was not able to focus on the video because I was just watching the Stardew Valley gaming on the background.
I wasn't sure if it was stardew valley, the graphics look 3D from that angle but perhaps it's due to distance
@@TheDanibits petition to have a small window of Spencer playing Stardew Valley in any upcoming video!
i think it was hollow knight
nvm
i was wrong
26:30 I just checked. Chaos Bolt is a Xanathar’s spell. So they didn’t remove it they just didn’t update it. You can still choose the Xanathar one.
Yeah they’re seeming to miss that the 2024 book is basically just replacing the 2014 book. Supplemental updated material post 2014 is still usable, I guess unless it’s specifically replaced in the new book
Well, it was in 5e24 playtest. They even made it an automatic preparation for Sorcerers at one point.
@@oicmorez4129 I think they might have been done with trying to fix it and just leave it for later. Chaos Bolt isn’t very good
@@EpicRandomness555 They didn't even try to fix it, they put it in the playtest as-is
I hope they do more videos liek this, with Colton there to spot the details 👍🏻
Colton as a player hating the counterspell change, and Jacob as a DM loving the change is everything I need to know about how counterspell used to be.
you could attack invisible creatures in 2014 as well. In fact, per the rules, unless they took the hide action you knew exactly where the creature was with no checks. The change thats important here is before you still had disadvantage attacking invisible creatures even if you had something like see invisibility up.
Even many spells differentiate between "choose a target within range" or "target you can see within range"
So, with the changes to Counterspell, I immediately went to see the changes to Abjurer Wizard. And their level 10 ability now does the following:
- Counterspell and Dispel Magic are always automatically prepared.
- Dispel Magic is a BONUS ACTION and you add your prof bonus to the check for it.
- Counterspell and Dispel Magic don't consume a spell slot if you fail to counter or dispel.
My only gripe is that it doesn’t waste the spell slot of the target. I always thought the important element of counterspell was sacrificing a slot to nullify their spell and take their slot too. Tbf counterspell not needing to be upcast against higher level spells compensates for that. Just loses it tactical edge a bit
That seems... Kind of broken
That last one is broken as shit, you just dispel any and all spells regardless of DC cuz you can just keep trying
@@znorel1895it does if it isn't a player character.
They don't have spell slots now
@znorel1895 the newer monster designs don't really use spell slots anymore, right? Just x per day, type thing.
Note: In 5e, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter makes the target prone and incapacitated, so as they noticed, the target can still move, though they have to crawl on account of being prone.
Double note : getting up does not cost an action, just half your movement. Meaning you technically can just get up and walk away while laughing like a maniac
@@bonkoulrewiew Triple note: The spell specifies that you cannot get up.
@@bonkoulrewiew Alas, the spell specifies that the target can't stand for the duration. You're still free to ROFL your way out, though.
@@Bluhbear In that case, roll away. If you're on a slope, you gain free movement from that as well.
To be fair, the image of someone manically laughing while crawling away is badass.
I found it so funny how one of the biggest reactions Jacob has is something that wasn't even a change. Specifically, the rule about the incapacitated condition. You were always able to move. The 2014 PHB rules for incapacitated just states "An incapacitated creature can't take actions or reactions." It never reduced your speed or ability to use your normal movement.
I think a lot of people get incapacitated, paralyzed, and petrified mixed around.
@@adfdasdfadfadsfareae True, I've seen a lot of live plays where people just treat incapacitated as the same as stunned. Which apparently NOW doesn't reduce speed, which actually is pretty wild
It's wierd cause with monk stunning strike, if you succeed the targets movement is halved. But if they fail, with RAW they keep the speed. Tf WOTC
@@abdulazizmohammed8797 OH wow I didn't even notice that. Yea, that's a weird choice. I mean, I like that you still get some benefit from expending the resource to do a stunning strike even if they succeed, but it does feel really odd that the effects for success vs failure are so different.
@@abdulazizmohammed8797 too busy turning the orcs from black to mexican
Cure wounds needed a buff. It didn't heal enough over healing word to justify needing to run over and touch the person. Most of the time you were better off just using healing word to pick them up from range.
If only it was just a requirement of running over to them... but the full action requirement has often stopped me from casting it over healing word. Though now at least you can do bonus action spells along with it I suppose.
@@Can-uj5pv not if you cast it with a spell slot.
I homebrew Cure Wounds to have 60 feet range.
I kind of agree, but at the mid-level range it balances out, because upcasting cure wounds is so much better than healing word. At level 1 though I absolutely agree
Yeah I think cure wounds should have been at least 2d6 while healing word was 1d4. That would make it worth the movement and action cost.
"Nobody tell Spencer."
Background Spencer: 🤨
As a warlock, getting counterspelled the old way was devastating as half of your spellslots where gone
As a wizard, skill issue, get more spell slots
As a warrior, haha iron stick makes boom boom
As a warlock I'd just nap and get them back.
as a warlock, being able to cast Glibness and get *guaranteed success* on my counterspells was nice, though
I think that is just an issue with warlocks and why they need more spell slots.
I like how your wounds will magically seal up overnight, but you really can't shake being tired unless you rest for like a whole entire week.
It’s not just “being tired,” it’s things like spending 5 days without eating anything.
@@jeezuhskriste5759 Eh, I predict a nonzero number of DMs are just going to hand out levels of exhaustion willy nilly. Not really a rules problem, but it is something players need to push back on if they're just being given levels of exhaustion for trivial skill failures or something.
@jeezuhskriste5759 so healing from a week of hunger by eating a hearty meal and getting 8 hours sleep is where you stop suspending your disbelief?
@@nerco8194 yes
@@pluviaaeternum *chad's gif intensifies*
Spencer in the background is so funny to me and I don’t know why
Same! Does anyone know what game it is?
@@Fergus22 Stardew Valley
Spencer gaming
She has a camera, but why at that angle?
hope you watched till the end :)
i would no joke love to see you two just reading the whole book and memeing the hell out of it, that would be a delight
Turns out, you've always been able to double-grapple. It was just not written in a clear way in the 2014 handbook.
It's as they say, you have two hands
Yeah pretty devastating combo with the death touch dark gift from ravenloft.
Correct, I have barbarians that are specifically built around grappling two enemy threats away from the spellcasters so they have no choice but to either attack me, break the grapple or shove me away.
You also could always move under incapacitation.
*WELL I COUNTERSPELL THEIR CHANGES TO COUNTERSPELL!*
I CAST 😮 FFFFFFFFFIIIIREBALLLL on the 2024 player's handbook 😐
“WOTC’s used an ability to change Counterspell, not a Spell, so therefore the spell fails.”
WOTC casted it at 10th level
@@nealenthenerd399 if we're going to get into the rules of MTG then I have even bigger problems with their designs to nerf counterspell. I guess they've made it just as bad here.
Someone said to keep the 2014 ruling but keep the CON save to see if they can keep the spellslot
"If 2024 has no haters, I'm dead" - Spencer, 2024
Lmao so good
Chaos Bolt was from Xanathar's Guide it wasn't in the 2014 rules. So it still valid choice. It unchanged.
I think the real power of the counterspell at higher levels is that it forces the creature to burn a legendary resistance (if it doesn't have good Con) at the cost of a 3rd level spellslot. That leaves it unable to block a more dangerous spell like Feeblemind if you run it out of resistances.
I would agree, if not every single creature in the game should have pretty high Constitution. If you dont have high Constitution, that is an active detriment to the monster. Honestly, there just wont be successful Counterspells anymore
It is really good in general. You trade a reaction for an entire turn or a legendary resistance. That is amazing action economy...
@@thestylemage2092 no, you trade a reaction for a _save_ to lose an action or a legendary resistance. If they make the save conventionally the counterspell just fails without achieving anything except your own spell slot. Sure, it is great if it succeeds in wasting the enemy's resources but the new version makes it much more of a gamble.
I'd prefer if you could still upcast it and if spells of lower level than the Counterspell would be negated without a save. That way you'd still have more of a strategic element with its use but also wouldn't be able to guarantee Counterspelling everything.
Finally, they did it, RAW "See invisibility" allows you to negate disadvantages of fighting an invisible creature
Spencer's reaction was the best, and the way jacob in the spur of the moment phrased it perfectly to get her to say it was the best spell in the game just before shattering it before her eyes was peak cinema. 10/10 laughed so hard
16:17 Great Weapon Master also now applies to Ranged weapons with the Heavy property.
Longbows and heavy crossbows, yeah. Great spot! I totally would have missed it.
@@nyphron3109 A couple other TH-camrs have talked about it. It’s one of the few things that really helps Ranged now.
@@EpicRandomness555I thought that’s what sharpshooter is??
Sharpshooter doesn't increase damage anymore
@@ryankeith2712 Sharpshooter is okay but it doesn’t increase damage anymore. It’s not a bad choice for a Ranged attacker, but I’d probably take GWM before Sharpshooter now honestly
My favorite thing about tavern brawler is it's now an ORIGIN feat
just right off the bat, if you're planning on doing an unarmed/grappler build, you've got what you need
That is actually really cool, i think all of those flavour over substance feats should be origin feats that you just get from the get go (like chef is another example, but i think that one is from tasha's)
I like the fact that a level 10 Abjuration Wizard doesn't waste a slot on Counterspell/Dispel Magic if they fail to stop a spell.
If rolling to hit is a D20 test, a rogue can take Lucky and give themselves sneak attack.
thats so broken lol
Read the entire book Jacob. Read the ENTIRE BOOK Jacob.
He's working on it it's a whole book
@@jacobsiron6929 I should've specified:
He should make a whole video of him just reading and reacting to the new book like he does with the 'bad homebrew' videos!
He definitely should read the entire book, since his reactions certainly suggest he didn't ever read the previous ones all the way through.
Why ISN’T there an audiobook version to go along with the rule books?
Great Let's Play video Spencer! Kinda weird those other two guys were in the frame for a while, but great commentary nevertheless!
Incapacitated has always worked that way. All it says in the 2014 PHB is that you “can’t take actions or reactions”. BUT like you said, incapacitated is almost always paired with something else. The only examples that I can think of where it’s not paired are the spell Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, and the pain glyph from the spell Symbol
Tasha's Hideous Laughter makes someone incapacitated and prone, but still able to crawl
Right. The new version of Sleep separates the conditions as well. First fail, gain incapacitated. Second fail, gain unconscious.
Move is an action. Incapacitated creatures cannot take actions (as you've even referenced), therefore they cannot move. It has always and still does stop movement.
@@westrah9425 the consensus is that incapacitated does not itself stop you from moving. Jeremy Crawford said eight years ago, "Being incapacitated doesn't immobilize you". At the very least it hasn't always stopped you from moving and there's a strong precedent for keeping it that way in 5.5e
@@westrah9425 movement is something that you can do as an action, but using your normal movement doesn’t count as an “action”. That’s why there’s specifically the dash action, so that you can use it. That’s why in the unconscious condition it also says “An unconscious creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings”. If incapacitated already prohibited movement, then that second part wouldn’t need to be put in there
So, it's much less punishing for a player to get counterspelled by a monster now. I think that's what the new version was aiming for. The drawback is that it's much less powerful for spellcaster players now.
Honestly they could've made the effect of the spell vary depending on who's being targeted.
Ah yes buffing spell casters even further. LMAO.
@@arena_sniper7869at most is a neutral change its less punishing but also far less powerful
Chromatic Orb needs to be 7th level to get the "always jumps" effect. (3d8 to start at 1st level, +6 levels for +6d8 extra, making 9d8 which guarantees the jumps)
Yeah I mean if you’re upcasting it at 7th level you deserve the fuck ton of damage it’s gonna do lol
even at 6th level you will almost always get the full chain. I'm sure that even at 4th and 5th level it's gonna be consistent enough
It’s an attack roll every time, so you would need to succeed 7 attack rolls in a row
Even then you still have to hit every one of those attack rolls, in sequence. If you miss even one, well, you don't even get to make the rest.
Chain lightning is going to be superior in 90% of use cases.
@@voidbnuy Which is guaranteed to happen when you cast it at 6th level because you would be rolling 8d8. Since you would always roll 8d8, it will always bounce. The one downside is you technically don't roll damage if you don't hit the target, and so you would need to plan your attacks carefully to get the most hits, but 8d8 damage to even two or three targets is pretty nice.
Fast craft: build quaterstaffs, sell them and leave town before they break within hours
Artificers already had a similar exploit.
And that's where the DM thinks of consequences for criminal actions like that. Specially if the players abuse it. Wanted posters start to crop up even in new towns and such.
0:19 Even spencer agrees
"Yep yep "
Same.
People probably posted this, but you can still cast chaos bolt. It's a xanathar spell, and those are still available.
the neat thing about dnd is that i can ignore rule that are stupid. as long as my dm/players agree
Being unseen and being hidden are two different things. You can be attacked if you're invisible (with disadvantage), but if you take the Hide action and succeed your Stealth check creatures lose track of you and can no longer target you.
id like another one of these honestly...its fun seeing your guys imput on some of the changes
Under the 2014 rules, if I’m not mistaken, you were able to walk while incapacitated, and Psychic Lance only imposes the incapacitated condition. We ruled at the table that the target could technically still move while under its effects.
Move is an action. Incapacitated creatures cannot take actions, therefore they cannot move. It has always and still does stop movement.
@@westrah9425 Movement is not a "move action" its a pool based on your speed. If it were as you say, it wouldn't say that your speed drops to 0 when you are paralyzed. Because you already have an incapacitated condition when you are paralyzed.
First, I watched and rewatched the 2 hour tomb of horrors video because I think it's a great idea to play these modules, RAW in a vacuum to show that some of them are awesome (and some really arent).
B. I loved this video! Always love a seasoned DM/players take on things who don't go full ham on just everything being trash without some constructive ways to make them better.
Thirdly, yes I posted this before watching the entire video.
We used a homebrew rule for old counterspell where the person getting counterspelled could spend a reaction and an equivalent spell slot to "contest" the counterspell forcing a contested spell ability check and the winner got their desired outcome. However contesting a counterspell and loosing means you lose the original spell and slot pluss another spell slot you use to contest.
Made for some pretty cool wizard duels
Something they didn’t talk about with new Counterspell is that you could literally just fail to counter a cantrip because there is no more automatic counter anymore
I think the Sharpshooter nerf is fine for one reason:
Dexterity was - and still is - the God-stat of DnD. It affects a stupidly large amount of rolls; letting the Strength stat shine in dealing more damage makes sense.
Edit: @Zorae42 brought up a really good point that - as worded - Heavy Weapons Master would work with Longbows and Heavy Crossbows because they have the Heavy Property. I still think my point kind of stands since you'd still need to have at least 13 Strength to get the Heavy Weapons Master feat - but I agree with Zorae that this is a strange game design choice since it's most likely going to make anyone creating a ranged-build feel like they HAVE to use a Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, elsewise they're foregoing a LOT of damage. There is the dual-wielding you can do with Light Crossbows and maybe that can keep up with HWM/Longbow and Heavy Crossbow, but the rest of the ranged options are likely going to get ignored.
Except you still can take Heavy Weapons Master with Longbows/Heavy Crossbows since it just specifies the "heavy" condition. All they've done is make silly ranged weapon builds even more unviable
@@Zorae42 Oh dang, that's a great point actually. I do think you need to meet a Str requirement to wield weapons with the "heavy" condition, so that kinda leans into the idea of higher strength higher damage, lol.
I can kind of see how they could flavor/explain Heavy Weapon Master affecting using longbows/heavy crossbows.. but that's still pretty weird, ngl.
Edit: I also still don't really mind that, tbh. Speaking personally, I've never really seen anyone use the heavy crossbow before. Seen a couple longbows, but still.
I think letting them benefit from the feat is a decent way to incentivize an otherwise meh choice for ranged weapons.
@@ethanharris6226 The term "Great Weapon" doesn't specify ranged or melee. A heavy crossbow is the same to a crossbow as a greatsword is to a longsword. Str based ranged weapons has always been a thing in rpgs. GWM is now the feat based around weapons that need the use of both hands. Greatbows in Elden Ring are my favorite type of Str based ranged weapon archetype. Someone using a Greatbow is absolutely a "Great Weapon Master".
@@ethanharris6226 The Str requirement is only for Heavy Melee weapons. For Heavy Ranged weapons it's an equivalent Dex requirement.
Longbows are literally the best ranged weapon. It is insane that they also can get the dmg boost from heavy weapons. And meanwhile if you want to do a "halfling with a sling" thematic build, you no longer have any ability to do so with any sort of viability.
Personally, I think they should've left some sort of dmg component on Sharpshooter, but only for non-heavy type ranged weapons.
@@DwWarWolf It should. Nothing about new GWM indicates it should be usable with ranged weapons, it doesn't even have the option for a +1 Dex ASI and it requires 13 Str.
I haven’t seen anyone else comment on this, but Jacob is exactly right. Recent spell casting monsters say “x/day” which means it doesn’t use a spell slot. So counterspell would still get rid of that use, just like if a player uses a spell from a feat or something similar.
Assuming the new Monster Manual sticks to this recent change, the only change when the player casts it is it’s now a saving throw.
unless you are fighting an NPC built like a player character with spell slots, or PvP. I feel like the spell needs a tweak there, like an additional d20 test to see if you can keep the spell slot
@@ratchet1freake.g. if you fail the con save by more than the level of spell you used to cast it, the slot is wasted
@ratchet1freak You would avoid this by building the NPC enemy like a monster. Honestly, for me at least, PVP in D&D as anything but a one shot defeats the purpose. You're meant to be a team.
16:00 The first part of the Heavy weapon master feat doesn't specify the attack you make with a Heavy Weapon has to be melee. You can add your proficency to the damage of Longbows and Heavy crossbow as well (they both have the Heavy property)
As other's have said, I believe the changes to monsters not using spell slots is why Counterspell works the way it does. If you counterspell a monster, they lose the use per day, but if a player gets counterspelled, they don't lose the slot, so they don't feel so bad about it.
That’s cringe
Lots of enemies are PvP based (some character with a class level). In many situations it is going to significantly hurt those builds who relied on a counterspell for protection. But the saddest point is that the spell is a coinflip now, dependable on a saving throw, which would ALWAYS be bad for both dm and a player, since it only adds more chaos and diminishes strategic design capabilities. In my oppinion, defensive spells are obligated to have some reliable effect: wizard of the coast could've at least mitigate the effectivness of the counterspell by changing it's nature to a protection from direct harm or smth.
@@lemondruid2783 they could've made the upscaled levels of counterspell provide scaling penalty to the con save, then only legendary resistance is bad
Well... that does not seen to be the way Counterspell would work. A spell use is the same as a spell slot. I would say that the monster would keep the spell use, since the cast action is negated. So, it's like it never happened. It just postpones the casting to another turn, and the caster of the Counterspell loses the spellslot he used to cast it.
@@tuliotonheiroWizards made the wording specific, if you cast a spell with a spell slot you don’t lose it meaning if you cast a spell via other means such as racial spells or feat spells like fey touched and shadow touched you would lose that use of it. I’m pretty sure Jeremy Crawford had made that point in one of their interviews that they did. This was deliberately worded
Spencer, it’s okay. Chaos bolt was a Xanathar’s Spell.
I love it how, aside all the memes, Jacob basically liked every rule change he read for this video. I understand some of the hate, specially for power players, but many things are just more well put together and balanced in general for the common player, which i think is awesome.
Also, yeah, that's Bigsby. And every other art of someone using a spell that has a character's name, presents THAT character using the spell.
I mean, i'm not even into D&D lore, i actually know nothing aside from what i saw in BG3, but i thougth that is awesome. And particularly for me, because i don't know the characters, i found it pretty cool to meet them this way.
I hope they put out errata ASAP for the few glaring outliers and wonky interactions. They might deliberately delay it until after the initial launch window so as to not give the impression that there were any mistakes during the peak buying period.
From someone who actually enjoys power-building: I think the new rules are wonderful, because 2014 5e was trivially easy to break. 2024 also has strong combos, but they play a lot more tactical now and imo are more interesting build wise, like ranged characters having a reason to invest into str with the new GWM now.
The counterspell kind of tracks for how they plan on updating the monsters to not have spell slots anymore. The update is just x number of times a day. So the counterspell would still make them "lose a slot" but without the slot.
I think this could be a direct mention in the spell description, since it is a very rare occasion where it makes any real difference, and as such easy to overlook or misinterpret.
@@gathorall9136I mean spell slots are explicitly a PC feature, not an NPC feature, even in 2014. They require class levels.
@@Xynth25 Lol tell that to every spellcaster NPC from 2014 😂
@@sportzaddict15 No? Legitimately go look at the Monster Manual creatures that can spellcast. They like almost all have certain uses per day of spells. Some of the high level spellcasting npcs used this like an Arcanoloth, Archmage, and Sphinxes, but the majority was use based
@@condimentking3395 Open Volo's Guide and look at the NPCs. That's not the case
Sorry. Not Volo's. The one with the literal Mage statblock
To answer the thing about attacking invisible things, they have to take the hide action to be unable to be attacked. If you're in the woods, running, your still making noise and stuff.
The spell casting changes for multiple spells a round is interesting. It’s now that you can’t do 2 leveled spells on your turn, which means if you cast a spell on your turn you can’t use reactions for things like counterspell, shield, or silvery barbs(on your turn), but it also means if you have a way to cost bonus action spells without a slot(items, fey touched, etc.) you can cast two spells per turn easily. Warlocks and other classes that have slotless spells just became way better
Especially since all of the “you can cast ‘spell’ using a warlock slot” have been changed to free castings
It's per turn. Not per round. You can still counter spell and use sheild on another creatures turn when they attack you or cast a spell.
If you couldn't use reaction spells after casting a spell on your turn in combat, it would completely make those spells useless.
this is actually really easy to subvert since the PHB now covers making spell scrolls, on top of the various existing ways that different classes and species can cast spells without spell slots
@chrisg8989 That's not what they're saying. In 5e using a reaction on your own turn is easy. Where Silvery Barbs is allowed, you can literally SB your own saving throw spell, like casting Hold Person then immediately SB if they succeed. Because spellcasters are perfectly balanced, you can do things like just... walk out of an enemy in melee and cast Shield if they hit you.
@floofzykitty5072 Oh, I understand. Thank you for the clarification.
When fighting a creature who is invisible it cannot be attacked if not detected. "I hear a noise over there." If detected, "I hear a noise over there." then you should be bale to try to attack the invisible foe but at disadvantage. I swing in that direction at shoulder level.
100% agree. Which is why I made my own ruling for it:
Unseen Target. When you make an attack roll against a target you can’t see, you have Disadvantage on the roll. This is true whether you’re guessing the target’s location or targeting a creature you can hear but not see.
To guess a hidden or invisible target's location, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check as part of the attack or magic action. If you succeed the check, you can make an attack against that creature, but with disadvantage. If you fail this check, you automatically miss the target and waste the action.
If you are hidden or invisible when you make an attack roll, you give away your location when the attack hits or misses.
I think the big problem is that if two creatures can't see each other, advantage and disadvantage cancel, and it also cancels any other source of advantage and disadvantage. So if you're fighting at night and neither of you can see, you can attack at long range while wearing armor you're not proficient in, wielding a heavy weapon even though you're small, your opponent used a Dodge action, and you have several other sources of Disadvantage I didn't think of, and you still hit them just as often as normal because they can't see you either.
@@DanielLCarrier So shooting an arrow at a target with my eyes closed should be easier than shooting an arrow at at target dressed in a ghillie suit, in fog, at night, with my eyes closed?
@@randybellwood1778 No.
Invisbility does in fact not hide your position. You need to use the Hide action while invis to actually not be detected. Otherwise your presence (with reasonable deniability) will be obvious as you still make enough sounds to be detected.
Thus, you can alway attack an invisible creature at disadvantage.
I think the counterspell changes are mostly because it’s annoying to deal with as a player, especially if you don’t have access to counter spell yourself. If your spell gets interrupted it doesn’t eat the slot, so it basically just wastes your turn instead of wasting it AND consuming the resource
The exhaustion rules don't say "minimum 0", so it's technically possible to obtain a negative speed from them. You can get PCs so exhausted that they accidentally walk away from wherever they were trying to go.
Worth to point out on that counterspell implicit changes is that if a legendary monster uses it's resistance on counterspell, you get rid of it, so you wear them down fasterthrough it by forcing it even during their turn.
That implies that the spell that's being counterspelled isn't something that could kill the player characters outright. A lot of the enemies that have legendary resistances usually has something like that.
@@tobor88 Name a spell that can TPK a prepared party in one use...
@@tobor88 That's just not true
But also even if it was true, this is a new edition with a new monster manual. Look at that new monster manual to judge this change, not the old one.
@@tobor88 Some things like that, yeah, but how often in those cases do those spells get counter-spelled normally? Like yeah sure power word kill could drop a PC, but you would have to drop a level 9 counterspell to make sure, or roll the dice regardless to get over 19, which for a max level PC with a maximum roll of 31 is about 61% chance of failure.
Worst case scenario if you want, you can just add the 2014 upcasting rules to the 2024 spell, and it will work pretty much the same as the old one with the small caveat that instead of being a spellcasting roll on your side it's a con save on the other.
@@thestylemage2092
I'm not getting into an argument over a hyperbolic statement.
So stunning strike is an unarmed stroke right?
Could you take grappler and tavern brawler to
1) stunning strike
2)convert that into a grapple because stunned enemies automatically fail strength checks
3) move them 30 feet
4) flurry of blows, converting one into a shove
If so, that's funny.
I stun the big bad and yeet him 35 feet
And elemental monks can make their unarmed strikes at range - letting you grapple them from like 15 ft away. Monks are wild now
Talk about the Invisible condition reminded me of an argument I had with my brother over the difficulty/penalty to hit an invisible target that has bit down on or grappled your arm. Think he was arguing that there should be no penalty because you know the target's exact position (i.e. on your arm) and I was arguing that there would still be a penalty because of how the rules for being invisible worked.
You're both right. In reality, your brother is right. In DnD, you are right.
@@chrisg8989 Depends on the DM.
@@DanielLCarrier I'm talking RAW.
Any rule can be DM fiat.
A heads up: the Spanish translation has a TON of mistranslations and errors, and things that straight up aren't translated. From a bilingual standpoint, it's hilarious.
It's wild to me that Spanish is one of the most common languages in the world and billion dollar companies still can't be bothered to have good translations
@@carterlist5766 its called money, and the desire to expend less of it.
Incapacitated movement isn't unheard of... Sleepwalking is a thing after all 😂
People...stunned that stunned isn't just a renamed paralyzed.
Sadly no, Incapacitated creatures can't move as they cannot take actions, and Move is an action. You technically have your speed, but you can't use it. I'm really surprised they missed this so many times in this video.
Moving while stunned kind of makes sense? A monk punches you real hard and you can kinda just stumble around, but not much else. I think I like that.
I’ll homebrew that it reduces speed by half. Stunned is rare outside of monks and I like it being very impactful
Except on new stunning strike if you succeed you loose half your movement. So failing you keep it all XD.
even aside the rules and the mistake, stumbling about even if was a quarter or small amount of movement would fit fine.
moving while *stunned* makes sense to me. Moving while incapacitated does not 💀
@@oystersaucee_ wait does that mean hold person doesn't stop you from moving now?
@@badideagenerator2315 Hold person makes the target paralyzed, which does set your speed to zero.
You can attack a creature, an object, or a LOCATION. So if something is invisible, and you attack the location, they get hurt. I think the language is clear.
You know you could still move while Incapacitated in 2014 too?
"An incapacitated creature can't take actions or reactions." 5e (2014)
• Crafter Feat
• Fast craft items in the morning
• Crafted item falls apart after long rest
• 'Ball bearings' is a fast craft.
How do ball bearings fall apart? They are solid spheres of metal! Do they get attacked by a rust monster?
not just the ball bearings though how does a map simply fall apart in one day sure paper isn't the strongest thing on the planet but it just doesn't deteriorate after one day
I’m just imagining from both of these that your character is just really good at making ball bearings out of ice and drawing maps on cocktail napkins
The ball bearings are actually just chocolate Whoppers and they melt and crack into crumbs in your pocket after a day of adventuring
That is a head scratcher though i assume the fast crafted tent may be a bigger day to day annoyance.
Its this thing called Balance.
They didn’t really “remove” chaos bolt in the same way they didn’t “remove” artificer. Since chaos bolt was introduced in xanathar’s guide, they just didn’t add it to the new book. It’s still in the game, but they can’t realistically fit everything from PHB, Tasha’s, Xanathar’s, and brand new stuff into the book, it’s just not feasible.
Wym? They could literally just add more pages to the book.
The problem is chaos bolt was unique, and only the sorcerer has access to it, now it's not unique
And they can just sell it to us in another $60 book
Didn't they just include 90% of Tasha's in the PHB tho? 🤔
Excuse me, chromatic orb is now chaos bolt. Or did you just miss that?
I like the current counterspell, it's a fun minigame where you kind of have to gamble/bet your spell slot and try to guess if it's going to be enough to counterspell
Poor wizards
Monsters can easily destroy their actions in higher levels
unless you're an abjuration wizard
no risk, all the reward
Also you have to plan ahead that you want to counterspell this round and not use a lvled spell on your turn. At least as far as I understood the new casting rules.
@@yarion4774 You misunderstood: The spell from slots rule is only per turn, not per round.
As a DM I really like the counterspell change. It makes it so that you can start using it against your player while at the same time not being a huge frustration for them. They keep the spell slot, and they have a chance to avoid it.
Also, con save make sense, maybe a spellcaster would want to invest more in constitution for concentration and counterspell resistance now ? I like it :)
Another HUGE thing about counterspell is the "one spell slot per turn" rule cuz in 2014 if you cast a spell using a spell slot, and get counterspelled, you can counterspell their counterspell, but now you can't because you've already used a spell a spell slot that turn. Same with silvery barbs or any reaction spells, you can't use them if you've spent a spell slot already on your turn.
Which makes sense, why would you be able to stop casting the spell, reaction counter spell, and continue casting the original spell?
You're already mid casting a spell, either drop the spell to counter the counter... Pointless... Or just do the con save
@@CorrosiveCitrus why not? You can still do that if the initial spell cast doesn't consume a spell slot.
@@PolskaHerobrine that's true, RAW, but if you're already halfway through something, it doesn't make sense that can interrupt yourself doing it to stop someone interrupting you doing it...
@@PolskaHerobrine unless ofc the initial spell didn't have a S component, or you've got a 2nd free hand, since that's all that's needed for counterspell
Ok so I actually think the new counter spell is better because it scales with your level it’s a savings, throw So even at high level like 15 you have like an 18 Spell save dc There’s a decent chance they fail that Now they have to choose them to wasteing one of their turns Or using A precious legendary resistance And all you had to do Was use A third level spell slot now for only a third level spell slot You can Counter spell a 9th level spell with good odds not only that but Theoretically, your whole party could cast counter spell They have to choose all three of their legendary Resistances And getting turned into a turtle Or lose their Turn And you can do this every turn for only Your reaction and a Third level slot This gets even worse for the big bad because unlike old counter spell You can use Silvery barbs Now Your Opponent is better off useing unarmed strikes
The Lich wouldnt even need his Legendary Resistance... He would just go "Okay, next Turn, i cast it again" because he DOES NOT LOSE THE SPELL SLOT.
Well they don’t have spell slots they have uses per day so they lose their uses per day. It’s just there to buff the player.
the lich also loses a full turn, the party is killing the lich by the next turn
@@dmichael8213 RAW no, they would lose their use per day. They used it, it got countered, that doesn't mean they didn't use it. Wording is important
@@tyeklund7221 I think you misread what he said.
The lich effectively losing like 75% of their turn with a lost action is a huge penalty in a game where combats are over in 3 to 6 rounds (and if not over yet, are effectively solved by then).
Counterspell is a reaction + 3rd level spell slot to potentially burn a legendary resistance or they risk losing their action. It's still good. Monster resources hardly matter in the long term, so the retaining spell slots is entirely a boon for the player.
This is the most wholesome D&D channel out there. Thanks for another awesome video!
One thing you gain as a player with new counterspell, is that enemies counterspelling you is way less punishing. Depending on the campaign, if you’re fighting a lot of spellcasters, the party probably has far fewer spell slots than your opponents can have.
I would probably still homerule that counterspell automatically succeed on spells that are the same level and lower. It gives you more reason to spend a lvl 6 spell slot as an example to counterspell a lvl 6 spell as to just simply saving your 3rd level slots just for counterspell.
Or if you want more of the gambling aspect it could automatically succeed on just lower leveled spells but not same level and up. Want a guaranteed Counterspell for Fireball? Use a 4th level slot.
Another thing to know, is that new counterspell doesnt take away threat, it prolongs it on either side, The BBEG cant make you waste your 9th level spell, they can only push it back a turn or two, and the same for fighting a boss, you dont negate the threat, but push it down the road so that you can react to it better, I believe the Abjuration wizard also gets the ability to not lose spellslots when you fail a counterspell. So you only use up spell slots on a successful counter.
Bosses don't have spell slots, and they do lose x/per day castings.
@@JoeThomas-lu6fy DMs will rule either way on that. Either way its good you can’t have 1 character completely nullify an enemy now.
@@JoeThomas-lu6fy depends on the boss
21:43 Oh! Sorcerer, Metamagic Hightened Spell. Makes Counterspell even stronger.
Trueeeee, plus any other ways you can impose disadvantage on saving throws, can also find ways to inflict exhaustion.
@@defiledsoul1658 Yep
Cool interaction I discovered with a new wording for Armor of Agathys. Previously, AoA gave temp HP and was worded “every time you are hit while you have these temp HP, you deal damage,” and once the temp HP runs out, it’s over. Now in 5.5, it says “for the duration, whenever you are hit with a melee attack, the attacker takes damage,” and “the spell ends when you have no temp HP remaining.” What that means is that you can replace the temp HP to keep AoA going. And the most fun combo I thought of is at level 13+, you can have a cleric or bard drop Power Word: Fortify on the warlock for 120 temp HP, have the warlock cast AoA at level 5, forgo the 25 temp HP, and you have 120 extra health, dealing 25 cold damage back to every melee attack.
Player: "I move up to my full movement."
Gm: "You can't, you're incapacitated."
Player: "I sleepwalk my full movement."
They didn't remove Chaos Bolt, they just didn't put it in the new PHB. It also wasn't in the 2014 PHB. It's still a viable option.
Love how I can see stardew valley in the background; based.
Counterspell has been turned into spell counter.
Honestly I would be fine with it as long as they added a like 6th level version that just works the way the old one did. Ultimately having the chance that the enemy keeps their slot removes most of the reason to counter in the first place, at least as far as low level spells go. Now you are down one slot and they still have theirs, the resource meta game is now ruined.
It SHOULD be if they fail the check the spell dissipates and they lose whatever they used to cast it and lose the slot but if they pass the check they only lose the action, not the slot. (the spell still dissipates because you countered their spell because you had to make a check to counter it so if you made that check the spell is countered) As it is there is not much reason to cast it especially as pointed out legendary resistance now just says no to the entire spell since if they succeed clearly they do still get to cast the spell because the fail text says the spell dissipates so naturally a pass would mean that doesn't happen.
@@ShiningDarknes Enemies don't use spell slots anymore, so the spell slot thing is strictly in the players' favor.
Removing a legendary resistance with a reaction is strong.
@@elowin1691 monsters don’t, but other humanoid casters that the dm has built just like they would a PC do because no changing it to per day is just changing the name while mechaially being the same and making no in-universe sense.
@@ShiningDarknes counterspell is interupting their spellcasting, not nullifying the spell effect after it was cast. Ergo, slot is not expended.
@@brilobox2 Counter spell COUNTERS the SPELL it isn't "counterspellcasting" ergo you are wrong stop defending bad decisions.
I’m convinced that Spencer is there just to set up the joke at the end
1:41 I’m not here for a quickie I’m here for a long hard cover book reading.
note: when a creature succeeds on its save against stunning strike, its speed is reduced, but if it fails, its speed is not reduced. Stun not removing speed is clearly a mistake.
Good point. interestingly a stunned creature can't speak at all now, whereas before they could speak falteringly
This is probably the most niche opinion ever but I hate the new Alert feat, all they did was steal a Battle Master maneuver and one of Harengons racial abilities and slapped a new label on it. this is probs cause I like playing harengon but it just miffs me for some reason
The art is pretty good, but i feel like 5e art has become pretty homogenised. I'd like to see the return of each campaign setting having its own unique aesthetic based on the work of a lead artist- Brom's work on Darksun, DiTerlizzi on Planescape, Larry Elmore on Dragonlance. It helped each world feel unique.
Don't worry though even though it all looks the same your characters can have any color of hair.
@@haydoge They could before? Nothing was stoping you
Sort of my problem with D&D art is each year it feels like it looks less and less D&D and more generic Fantasy art. Half the images I'd never know were D&D if it wasn't including something hyper specific to D&D such as iconic spells or items the franchise is known for specifically. The lack of identity in the style is kind of frustrating as even MTG has been sliding down this route. There's been a bunch of art over the last few years that don't feel like 'Magic'. WOTC's attempt at this 'uniform' art style between the games feels so bizarre.
While sharpshooter no longer gives you the risk/reward feature, Great Weapon Master now applies to Longbows and Heavy Crossbows since they both have the heavy property
In all fairness, that 2-hour video was funny as hell, and the cutaways were a fantastic idea.
Also, Fast Crafting a Tent sounds funny.
The new Exhaustion doesn't affect spellcasters because it doesn't apply to spell save DCs (or any DCs at all). So spellcasters, once again, get to ignore basically any and all tactics imposed on them by just casting any of the 95% of the spells in the game that don't use attack rolls. Grappled or restrained? Teleport away, it doesn't inhibit somatic components so who cares, or just vaporize them with a blast spell or make them buzz off with a control spell. You could be on death's door with Exhaustion 5 and you're still equally as competent as you were before, minus your slow movement speed.
a d20 test is any roll to my understanding. so it would severely impair their own saving throws
@@mikeesteves8427 But that applies equally to the martials and casters, but the casters get to ignore any penalties to their main way of "solving the fight", and I think for most fights, having a penalty to your saving throws isn't as bad as having a penalty to your attacks/save DCs.
@@AnaseSkyriderbest way to do this imo, is to have characters roll a concentration save at exhaustion level 2 onwards when casting a spell. We do have features to buff the saves. And just make it the spell fails and they dont lose a slot kinda thing idk
@@defiledsoul1658 or...just have the stacking -2 affect spell save DC
the best part about the 2024 players hand book is I dont need to use it and everyone I know already knows 5e so I dont need to make em learn anything
Consider, if a BBEG casts a big spell now and Legendary Resists through a counter spell that means multiple creatures can attempt to counter the same spell WITHOUT a counterspell chain. Which could be an even quicker way to remove Legendary Resistances AND think about how sick it would be to have 3+ wizards fighting off the big huge spell from the Lich.
We cast counter spell!
@@awellner3285 Da, Comrade counterspell
It's almost like it is a healthy rules change, but people love to whine when their broken toys are taken away...
One thing I like about counterspell is that you no longer have to worry about trying to match spell slots to cancel a spell - whether the opponent is casting a 3rd or 9th level spell, the effects of your counterspell won't change or get any less effective technically. Yes, there's no guarantee anymore, but you get more flexibility because the effect on your end will be the same regardless of what slot you use, letting you save higher slots for other things.
Saw someone mention it but the con save being used to save the spell slot mechanically feels better than just making counter spell useless in a boss fight with spells that can kill people instantly.
One thing you guys didn't mention is that it feels a lot better as a player to have your spell cancelled by the new counterspell. In the old edition, you just lose your action and spell slot. Now the player has a bit of agency with making a CON save, and even if they fail, they don't waste the slot. As a DM, I always avoided spells like counterspell and power word kill, because it felt bad getting them used on me as a player. They are basically like: "You don't get to play now." I think counterspell is a lot friendlier to use as DM now. It does seem pretty bad to take as a player though.
I understand where the "I don't get to play" mindset comes from. You want your dude to do cool stuff. But in this game of teamwork where your resources are pooled against the enemy I feel like most cases of counterspell are a way for you as a caster to in fact provide an important opening for your team. If your spell is counterspelled, yes, your big thing doesn't happen, but your teammates can rush in without worry of a reaction. Other spellcater can fire big spells without worry.
Shouldn't the cooperative success overweigh the fleeting single frustration? Obviously, if only you are ever targeted by such spells and it happens every second encounter, yes, that's an issue, but we can all imagine terrible situation for any spell.
@@yarion4774 people are mad their character can’t automatically nullify any other spellcaster.
Counterspell? You mean I have to spend spell slot, to stop a spell, and it doesn't use the enemy spell slot? So they can just re-cast it next turn? Useless. utterly useless
If you don't think wasting an enemy's turn is valuable, you don't understand D&D combat.
@@marimbaguy715 You mean a CHANCE at wasting their turn... It's a con save, could be argued as a Concentration save which is likely to be dc 14 or so... about a 60% chance to succeed. Assuming they have any kind of constitution score. You waste a whole spell slot to MAYBE make them miss an action.
If it is a concentration check. Casters can almost always take warmage or whatever the feat and get advantage on it
unless they are dead next turn
Imagine if you were playing MTG and you cast counter spell and it countered the spell and untapped all the lands used to cast it...
20:32 A 'per day' spell is for sure not a spell slot. I think that's exactly why they implemented those Counterspell changes. It makes the spell less punishing against players (doesn't consume their spell slots) but also more dynamic when used against BBEGs (who can succeed the Con save using their legendary resistance).
People mad they can’t guaranteed completely shut down caster BBEGs anymore. Imma be real, using a 9th level slot for Counterspell was one of the lamest things imaginable.
@@brilobox2 Yup. Boss fights in dnd are almost always battles of attrition. You know as a player the BBEG's resources are limited, so you gotta do whatever you can to force them to spend them. Legendary Resistances, per-day spells, everything. Counterspell was just a fast-forward button in that sense. Boss casts a spell, you counter it, they counter your counter, someone counters their counter. In-game 6 seconds of nothing happened, except now you and your bud are two 3+ level spell slots down and the BBEG's trump card is gone, losing its turn doing nothing.
Like sure, it's effective, but it's just plain boring. As both a player and DM I wanna see what the big bad can do! Lets see some big spells🔥
Another important thing about the new Great Weapon Master; it no longer needs to be a melee weapon. So its now the damage boosting feat for melee AND ranged weapons
It can't increase Dex and requires 13 Str. Expect it to be errata'd at some point.
I'm imagining crafting a tent using fast crafter, and as soon as your rest ends, the poles snap and you are fishing your way out of a tent that fell in on your head.
You can attack a space, roll with disadvantage, you might miss because of the disadvantage or you might miss because someone’s not there. I believe that’s the intent
Yeah, counterspell is just not worth taking anymore
Tears over boring overpowered toys being made marginally less overpowered will never not be funny.
Not for players above level 15 that's for sure. I think counterspell will have use in low level play but as soon as bigger badder monsters with resistance show up it is worthless yeah
@@westrah9425 it's still a useful tool for removing resistance charges from an action economy standpoint since it only costs a reaction to use.
They removed Chaos Bolt, but that's because A: Chromatic Orb does what Chaos Bolt did and B: they added a new cantrip for sorcerers that has a lot of similar feel to Chaos Bolt
Sorcerous Burst
level 0 - evocation
Casting Time: Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You cast sorcerous energy at one creature or object within range. Make a ranged attack roll against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 damage of a type you choose: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Psychic, or Thunder.
If you roll an 8 on a d8 for this spell, you can roll another d8, and add it to the damage. When you cast this spell, the maximum number of these d8s you can add to the spell's damage equals your spellcasting ability modifier.
Cantrip Upgrade. This damage increases by 1d8 when you reach level 5 (2d8), 11 (3d8), and 17 (4d8).
Can’t increase your odds by upcasting tho so doesn’t hit the same at all
@@Skeleton_Archer you literally get higher odds just by leveling up.
@@brilobox2 much less higher odds than through upcasting
I was high as fuck and towards the end Jacob said Warhammer and I SNAPPED out of my daze and was like WHAT
You could actually move in standard 5e if incapacitated as well. There are some spells that incapacitate targets without imposing a restriction that stops movement, so you could not do anything but move. Tasha's Hideous Laughter for example, though you'd be prone, you could crawl around technically.
Also with Beacon of Hope up, you can now heal more hit points than the Heal spell does with the same spell slot using Cure Wounds. So if you're not worried about removing the conditions Heal does, pretty powerful HP restoration assuming you already have Beacon up (which I personally have often in my games but our DM hits hard)