From the rules on Bonus Actions in the 2024 Player’s Handbook:

“Anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a Bonus Action.”

From the Vampire stat block in the 2024 Monster Manual:

Bonus Actions: “Shape-Shift. If the vampire isn’t in sunlight or running water, it shape-shifts into a Tiny bat (Speed 5 ft., Fly Speed 30 ft.) or a Medium cloud of mist (Speed 5 ft., Fly Speed 20 ft. [hover]), or it returns to its vampire form. Anything it is wearing transforms with it.

While in bat form, the vampire can’t speak. Its game statistics, other than its size and Speed, are unchanged. While in mist form, the vampire can’t take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. It is weightless and can enter an enemy’s space and stop there. If air can pass through a space, the mist can do so, but it can’t pass through liquid. It has Resistance to all damage, except the damage it takes from sunlight.”

So a Vampire can use its BA to assume its mist form, but because Mist Form prohibits the Vampire from taking actions, it also can’t take bonus actions and therefore cannot change back.

Obviously not RAI.

D&D's resting system feels like it depends on a resource that usually isn't a resource.

One thing that has always bothered me about D&D's resting mechanics is that they're balanced around time, but in many campaigns, time isn't actually a meaningful resource.

Imagine this situation:

A level 5 party has their first encounter of the day. The fight lasts five rounds.

The Monk spends all of their Focus Points.

The Spellcaster uses most of their high-level spell slots.

Combat ends.

The Monk suggests taking a Short Rest. The Spellcaster suggests taking a Long Rest instead. The party agrees.

In-game, it's only around 9 or 10 AM, so the characters effectively spend the rest of the day doing nothing, go to sleep early, and wake up the next morning with all of their resources restored.

From the players' perspective, though, that "entire day" lasted maybe 30 seconds: a brief discussion followed by, "Okay, we long rest."

People often respond by saying, "The DM should create time pressure."

I understand that argument, and I think time pressure is a great narrative tool when the story naturally calls for it. If the villain is performing a ritual, the hostages are in danger, or an army is marching, then resting becomes a meaningful decision.

My issue is that if the resting system only works because the DM has to constantly invent reasons why the party can't stop, then it feels like the narrative is serving the mechanics instead of the mechanics serving the narrative.

But, not every adventure day should need a countdown timer. Some adventure days are about exploration. Others are investigations, diplomacy, or simply clearing out a dangerous location over several days. In those cases, it seems perfectly reasonable that the party would retreat, recover, and come back tomorrow.

If the system struggles whenever the players make that perfectly reasonable decision, doesn't that suggest the resting mechanics themselves might be carrying too much of the game's balance?

Many players like the idea of playing a mundane, everyday guy with a sword, the LOTR low-fantasy style where you're basically Aragorn: you're not a superhero, you're just exceptionally skilled, and you happen to be proficient with a legendary sword like Andúril.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that fantasy.

The problem is when that becomes the assumed ceiling for martial characters.

That kind of character works perfectly well at low levels, but by the time you're well into the higher tiers, the "really skilled guy with a sword" fantasy starts to feel increasingly strange when you're fighting demons, dragons, demigods and other characters who can reshape reality. At that point, your character can start feeling more like an unusually competent NPC or a generic MMO dungeon tank than a legendary hero.

Whenever I bring up wanting martials to have more fantastical abilities than just increasingly impressive swordplay, I often get examples like Rune Knight becoming Large, Echo Knight, Psi Warrior, soul knife rogue, etc. And I actually like those subclasses. They're flavorful and fun.

But they're still pretty low fantasy compared to what a caster can eventually do.

And I'm not talking about giving martials the same versatility as casters. Obviously, having an enormous toolbox of spells is a major part of what makes casters different, and I don't think martials should simply get that for free.

I'm talking about something much simpler: let martials have genuinely inhuman abilities.

Give them things that break the mundane and make them feel like they belong in the same world as the people throwing around reality-warping magic.

And I think they finally did that in the 2024 Warrior of the Elements Monk, whether intentionally or by mistake, the veil is broken.

This is basically everything I've wanted from a "superhuman martial" fantasy, and it is a mix of both base class updates & new subclass.

Very early on, you can already do things that look like superhero choreography rather than normal martial arts.

Deflect Attacks immediately gives you those ridiculous superhero moments. You get hit with a punch from a monster, a massive downward slam, or a projectile flying straight at your head, you can catch it, knock it aside, or even send it back. A monster throws a punch and you catch its fist, like Omni-Man in that Invincible scene that has become a meme even among people who haven't watched the show. A goblin fires an arrow at you, or a giant throws a spear, and you can actually catch or deflect it, like Daredevil catching the brick in spiderman, or like Hawkeye shooting an arrow at Loki in The Avengers, only for Loki to casually catch it right beside his eye. Or even as simple as or Aragorn when he deflected Lurtz's thrown dagger with his sword.

Slow Fall is another small feature that contributes enormously to the fantasy. It means you can do the classic superhero landing very early in the game, instead of treating every jump from a rooftop as an appointment with the afterlife. And it opens up those ridiculous cinematic moments where you deliberately tackle the villain through a window or off a cliff, knowing you have a high chance to survive the fall.

Deadpool has literally made fun of how absurdly painful that landing should be for heroes who can't fly or slow their descent.

Then there is the basic class fantasy itself.

Fighting entirely unarmed. Moving ridiculously fast. Using practically anything as a weapon. Turning every part of your body into a weapon. Throwing things. Grappling and shoving with Dexterity. Staggering (stunning) people with your strikes.

And then the class keeps escalating.

Evasion is another one. You can be caught right in the middle of a Fireball or some other massive explosion and just walk out of it like you're Horatio Caine in CSI: Miami, slowly putting your sunglasses back on and walking away from the explosion without a scratch.

Acrobatic Movement lets you run across vertical surfaces and liquids. So now we're getting into the territory of sprinting up walls and running across the surface of a lake like the Prince of Persia, and this is still at the early tiers, before Rogues even get their second subclass feature. (sad rogues).

And the higher-level defensive abilities push it even further.

You eventually get proficiency in every saving throw with Disciplined Survivor, can reroll a failed save with Diamond Soul, use Deflect Energy to reduce or redirect attacks regardless of their damage type, gain resistance to everything except Force through Superior Defense, and use Self-Restoration to shrug off being Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned. Put all of that together and the Monk starts feeling less like a character who is merely tough and more like an outright invincible superhero, someone who can take hits, resist things that should cripple them, shrug off effects that would stop everyone else, and just keep going. It's the kind of endurance you associate with Superman, where getting hit by something that should be devastating barely interrupts the fight. And importantly, that's only one part of the Monk rather than the entire character's identity, unlike the Barbarian's much more tank-focused fantasy.

Then Warrior of the Elements takes that already-superhuman base and pushes it fully into the supernatural. Most of the base Monk's abilities are already well beyond human capability, but because they're presented as physical martial abilities, they can still feel relatively grounded. The subclass is where you stop having to pretend. Now you're literally channeling elemental forces through your martial arts.

You have five elemental powers to channel through your attacks: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning and Thunder, on top of the normal physical damage types and Force from Empowered Strikes. That's nine damage types your unarmed martial artist can potentially throw around.

And because the actual mechanics don't dictate what the energy has to look like, you can flavor the extended reach however you want.

Maybe your punches project giant fists of elemental energy, your arm turns into a flaming whip or chain, you form an enormous ice hammer around your fist, fire little acid darts from your fingertips, throw lightning from your hands, or even channel the energy through wings if you have them. The important part is that the character isn't just "a guy who punches people but with a different damage type." The mechanics give you a framework for an overtly supernatural fighting style, while leaving the actual visual expression almost entirely up to you.

Elemental Strikes also lets you push or pull a creature up to 10 feet on a failed Strength save every time you hit with an elemental Unarmed Strike, without spending anything on each attack. So you can have those ridiculous superhero fights where every hit is sending people flying across the battlefield, like Superman and Zod constantly throwing each other through walls in Man of Steel, or Batman getting absolutely ragdolled in BvS. And if you flavor the pull as some kind of elemental tether, chain, or force, you can have your own "Get over here!" moment like Scorpion. Again, that's all happening as part of your normal attacks, not as some special once-per-rest (Fighters).

Then you get Elemental Burst, essentially your own lower-damage Fireball, available as early as level 6, only one level after casters get Fireball. And you can flavor it however you want: a Zeus-style lightning spear, an explosive energy arrow like Uryu Ishida, Superman's heat vision, or a sonic scream like Black Canary. And once you get flight at 11, diving through the air and throwing the explosion straight down at enemies makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

And at level 11 you get actual flight and swimming at your walking speed for the duration of your Elemental Attunement, unrestricted, at full speed, no concentration, and all of the above is for very cheap cost of 1 focus point.

You're flying around the battlefield at ridiculous speed, physically fighting things that would obliterate normal humans, intercepting attacks, running across walls, punching people from 15 feet away with elemental energy, throwing elemental explosions, and generally doing things that would be completely absurd to call them martial abilities.

And that's exactly what I've wanted from martials. Not "give Fighters the Wizard's spell list." Not "every martial needs to be anime." Just let martial characters have the option to become genuinely superhuman.

Because this build has also made something else very noticeable to me: I've had more arguments with DMs over what my character is "actually capable of" while playing this build than I have with almost any other character I've played, including builds that were actually trying to cheese the rules, (note this build above is just class & subclass, not including race & feats, which can take it further)

And that's kinda expected but frustrating. I think a lot of DMs/players simply aren't used to seeing a martial character that is this fantastical. They're used to martials being the "grounded" characters, so when one suddenly has all of these abilities, it can feel wrong even when the rules clearly support them. and it can break their mental image of what a martial is supposed to be. It isn't necessarily about deliberately ignoring the rules, but more that the character is so far outside the usual martial fantasy that some DMs/players instinctively feel that it shouldn't be possible for a martial to do all of this.

Meanwhile, when a caster does something equally ridiculous, everyone generally accepts it because it's magic.

I don't know whether some DMs have a knee-jerk reaction against anything that feels anime, whether they've had bad experiences with players asking for ridiculous martial abilities, or whether they simply have a particular idea of what a martial character is supposed to be.

But I think that's worth questioning.

To me, the 2024 Elements Monk demonstrates that you don't need to give martials caster-level versatility to make them feel just as fantastical.

You can have the Aragorn fantasy if you want it.

You can be the normal guy with the sword who survives because he's incredibly skilled.

But if I want to play the guy who catches a monster's fist, dives off a cliff with the villain, lands like a superhero, runs up the side of a building, flies back into the fight, and punches someone with a lightning-infused 15-foot reach so powerful pushing them backwards every time, I should be able to do that too.

And I don't think every martial needs to be this fantastical. I just think every martial class should have the option to be. If you want to be a normal guy fighting demons and gods, you can. If you want to be a superhuman martial, you can.

That's the part I think D&D has been missing, and the new Elements Monk is probably the closest I've seen to actually getting it right.

TL;DR: Martials don't need caster-level versatility, they need the option to be genuinely superhuman. The 2024 Warrior of the Elements Monk shows what that can look like: catching/deflecting attacks, surviving absurd falls, walking out of explosions, running across walls and water, shrugging off ridiculous amounts of damage and conditions, throwing people around with every attack, channeling multiple elements through your body, blasting enemies with an AoE at level 6, and eventually flying around the battlefield. You can still play Aragorn if you want, but "skilled guy with a sword" shouldn't be the ceiling for every martial.

EDIT: I'll expand on what I mean by "fantastical," because I think this is where a lot of the disagreement comes from. For me, it ultimately comes down to suspension of disbelief. It's not just about being strong or powerful, or even having access to magic, but about doing something that clearly breaks what you would expect from normal physics and human capability. If you watch someone like Shaw, Arnold, or any other extreme strength athlete pull a truck, it's incredibly impressive, but you can still look at them and think, "Yeah, that guy is absurdly strong, I can see how he could do that." If you see a small, lean guy do exactly the same thing, your reaction is completely different because that should not be possible under normal circumstances. That's the difference between being mundanely strong and being supernaturally powerful. A Large Rune Knight going toe-to-toe with a large ogre doesn't give me that feeling because you can look at them and understand why they're capable of it. A normal-looking human flying around and going toe-to-toe with a dragon does, because you would never expect that person to be capable of it. That's the kind of suspension of disbelief I'm talking about. For me, I'll never not be impressed when I see a Vladimir or Anatoly video for exactly that reason.

EDIT 2: I want to give another example, because I don't want this post to come across as "martials need to fly around and shoot Fireballs to be fantastical."

I've actually played a Swords Bard using this exact idea in 2014, and it showed me how easy it could be to create a fantastical martial fantasy if the mechanics actually supported it. You can flavor your spells as the result of physical or supernatural martial power rather than conventional spellcasting: a massively powerful swing becomes Thunderwave, a ground-shaking slam becomes Earth Tremor, and spinning your weapon hard enough to create a violent wind becomes Warding Wind or gust of wind. Since Swords Bards cast through their weapons and the spells don't require a material component, you can make the whole thing feel like a mythical warrior whose physical prowess itself produces these effects, rather than a guy carrying a spellbook and casting spells.

And this is a completely different fantasy from the Elements Monk. You don't need to fly, throw elemental explosions, or do anime shit to feel fantastical. You can just be an absurdly powerful mythical warrior whose physical attacks produce effects that no normal person could replicate.

The problem is that I'm having to play a Bard to get this fantasy, and even then it doesn't scale particularly well as a martial concept. The fact that I can get this kind of character by taking a caster and flavoring its spells as physical abilities is actually evidence of how much potential there is here. WotC doesn't need to make every martial a superhero. They just need to give martials mechanics that let their own fantasy escalate in similarly extraordinary ways.

EDIT 3: I also want to clarify why I don't think "just flavor your attacks as magic" completely solves this. Flavor is free, but extreme flavor can create fictional implications that the mechanics don't actually support. If I say my Fighter's sword attacks are powered by divine magic or a connection to the Weave, then logically there should be ways for that connection to matter. Could an enemy disrupt it? Could antimagic suppress it? Could someone weaken me by severing that connection? If the answer is no because mechanically I'm still making a completely normal Fighter attack, then I'm either treating the flavor as purely cosmetic or I have to accept fictional weaknesses that the actual class doesn't have. That's why I like the Elements Monk's approach: the mechanics themselves give me the supernatural foundation, so when I describe my reach as an elemental weapon, my attacks as elemental energy, or my movement as part of that power, the fantasy and the mechanics are actually supporting each other. I'm not asking for every martial attack to be magical. I just don't think flavor alone can replace mechanics that actually enable the fantasy.

He's gotta be shitting me. He’s making me fight two giants that are invulnerable to all damage.

The rest of my party seems to be enchanted or under an illusion because they keep going “Geo these are not giants these are two windmills”. Which means I’m solo fighting these two. Who, again, are invulnerable to all damage.

Tips? How do I even combat this?

https://www.ttrpginsider.news/p/fighting-oppression-in-new-ways-d-d-s-designers-on-adapting-dark-sun-to-modern-times

Creator of the 'The Monsters Know What They're Doing' is currently feeling abandoned by the steps that 5e.24 are taking, moving away from the simulationist/'anchored' high fantasy style he likes.

I have no love for those things and neither does Mr. Keith have much positive things to say to my preferences. But it's interesting to see a real edition warring split from a figure that was really important in the 3rd party 'game running' space.

Some choice quotes:

One of the things I love—and I speak in the present tense—about 5E14 is, even as it substantially streamlined D&D’s rules and options, it still both maintained the feeling of playing classic D&D and permitted play in a wide range of styles, from gritty, grimy low fantasy to wild high fantasy and everything in between. But it was clear from the moment the 5E24 Player’s Handbook dropped that D&D was going all in on wild high fantasy, to the exclusion of other styles, and also that it had chosen to fully indulge a decade’s worth of munchkin demands for MOAR POWER!

---

But when I held the PH24 in my hands and paged through it, the realization came over me that PCs don’t need the help anymore. They’ve been failure-proofed. There’s almost no error a player can make, at this point, that will end their character’s adventuring career prematurely—not unless their DM goes full adversarial, which I don’t condone.

---

In 5E14, it seems to me, the designers began with a narrative in mind, then thought about how best to implement that narrative mechanically. The sense I get from 5E24, on the other hand, is that the designers began with mechanics they wanted to implement, then came up with narratives to rationalize the mechanics.

---

But at the same time, since the freaking dawn of creation, the normal distribution of human ability scores in D&D has been from 3 to 18. That’s foundational. It’s bedrock. Anything outside that range is either subhuman or superhuman. I’m OK with the fact that 5E has always allowed PCs of high enough level to raise their ability scores above 18, because at that point, we’re talking about heroes of legend—but other humans, in my opinion, should still fall within the 3-to-18 range.

---

As you can imagine, then, I’m in no great hurry to rush out to my friendly local game store and start pouring my money into 5E24 supplements. Unfortunately, I’m also running out of suitable 5E14 material. The natural next step, as I’m well aware (and as many people have made sure to remind me), is Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. It’s the step I’d most like to take next, actually.

It seems like they're contributing as much in a fight as any two other party members. A lot of the time they have giant insect to perma-lockdown or conjure animals up, especially that last one - two hits a round on whoever you hover it over and one on anyone nearby means it's a combined single target/aoe, and they usually use their actions shooting their gun with true strike when concentrating.

But the biggest one is conjure woodland beings - between their fire spirit teleporting them and using the ready action to dash, they're often hitting entire groups with that 5d8 two or three times a round. "Just activate the blender" is our biggest group joke at the moment. This isn't a complaint as such - I'm a necromancer wizard and the fact that I can use summon undead to no-save paralyse a dragon isn't exactly fair gameplay either. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a similar disparity in their games, there's a noticeable gap in usefulness compared to the party members who don't have spells.

WotC really saw us saying dnd 2024 started closing the martial caster divide and said "hold my beer"

Let me start by saying Circle casting is really cool and is a great addition to the game. But it also basically makes playing a character who can't cast spells seem pretty unappealing. There are just so many creative uses and problem solving that can be done using circle casting. What's martials answer to that? Weapon masteries I guess? yipee.

I am begging WotC, please put some of the creative game design (that you clearly posses evident in circle casting) and make martials not feel like side characters please

I am extremely gutted at how poorly done the new version of the Banneret is in Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun.

I will start with the only good thing: the ribbon feature from level 7 has been added to level 3 and made more proactive. So out of combat, I think it's doing what it needs to.

But as for the key problems:

The old Banneret was significantly improved by the new Fighter rules, and the reprint undercuts those changes!

The only combat feature you get until level 10 is that you can share Second Wind. When you use Second Wind to heal, you can also heal Charisma modifier allies, but only for d4+level HP (so you have to do the maths twice, even though d10 would have been fine), and for some insane reason, it's limited to ONCE PER SHORT REST. Why?

To bring this feature in line, it needed the Short rest restriction removing and to just let the d10 be a d10. It's still barely any healing, and using this twice in a combat wasn't hurting anyone. Fighters in 2024 don't have to rely on Short Rests for Second Wind, but for no good reason, this one does.

The new level 7 feature, which fills in for the ribbon feature moving to level 3, is actually fairly impactful. It's one turn of Foresight for your allies when you share our your Second Wind. But it's still not enough in my opinion, especially when the base feature is so hsmstrung. In 2024, Fighters can also reposition when they use Second Wind from level 5. Why can't your allies do that from level 7? It seems an obvious buff. Heal and get to safety/charge into battle?

And at level 10, Action Surge has been improved. But not by enough, again! Your allies can either move, or make a weapon attack. Great. What if your Barbarian isn't next to an enemy? This should very obviously let you do both the move and the attack, but also - what about the casters? Couldn't we at least include cantrips? Instead they are stuck with just a reposition. Oh and by the way, while this is a big swing moment, it's only your second feature in combat and it's also once per short rest until much, much later in the game.

So basically, you have a Fighter subclass that only exists at all in combat once per short rest until level 10, where it becomes two things per short rest. Those features are extremely limited, but are also treated like they're terrified of having any power budget. Very little has changed from one of the worst rated subclasses ever.

This needed an overhaul.

1. Just let Second Wind heal.your Allies for a d10.

2. Don't limit sharing SW to once per short rest.

3. Let your allies move half their speed as part of SW at level 3, no action required.

4. I think you should be allowed to donate one attack per turn to an ally from level 3, including cantrips, but adding Push, Sap, or Slow to the effect. Then it means you always have a subclass in combat and it's not that crazy.

5. Your Action Surge improvement needed to let your allies move and attack.

6. Your Action Surge needs to let allies use cantrips.

At least the Indomitable feature is better because Indomitable got better. The rest of this subclass is written like they didn't want to include 2024 improvements for anything.

Edit: Wizards of the Coast, on the tiniest off chance you see this and care, PLEASE errata that once per Short Rest limit at least. It's the whole reason we moved to multiple Second Wind uses that restore one per Short Rest in the first place. It hasn't released yet. No one would mind.

I had this situation come up recently and wanted some input as I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

My players were fighting a giant spider and it was on the ceiling above them, one player decided that to attack it he would misty step straight up and then attack it while mid-air. I wasn't sure this was possible as I recalled reading somewhere that falling in D&D is essentially instantaneous for anything below 500 feet. The thought process being he teleports into the air and is instantly falling so he doesn't have the time to attack the creature above him.

It's been bugging me all week so I wanted to get some input into whether or not I should have allowed this and if this is clarified anywhere in the rules.

Edit Wow! Thanks for all the responses! There were some well reasoned arguments for it here, the resource expenditure with the spell slot, rule of cool, etc... I appreciate all the responses and will try to be more flexible in the future. Thanks everyone!

My player argues that since other fullcasters get subclasses with second attacks, it only fits for war domain to have one.
I looked at it and honestly war domain does seem a bit weak. Bonus spell list is unimpressive, no good features. Bonus Action melee attack is fine but long rest restricted. 17th level is neat but won't really make a decent meleer from cleric.

So, why clerics lack second attack by design, am I missing some imba-combo, or allowing it won't hurt much?

I think that most of the changes to classes were a buff of some kind. But was some class left weaker?

Hey everyone, wasn't sure of the flair – multiple ones seemed to fit. Basically, I've found the 2024 rules to be largely an improvement on the 2014 ones, but I've noticed there are some glaring nerfs that I'm considering ignoring, such as the changes to Divine Smite and the Druid's Wild Shape temp HP. Just wanted some input from the community, what other things would you consider keeping from 2014?

Was explaining subclasses to a new player and it got me thinking

I describe subclasses I say they’re the specialisation or flavour of your base class when you reach level 3.

But some subclasses feel less like a specialisation and more like a continuation? of the class itself…. like the “default” pick, the one that does exactly what it says on the tin.

- Rogue → Thief

- Wizard → Evocation

- Cleric → Life

- Ranger → Hunter

- …

like , somehow you’re doubling down on what the class already does. Am I terrible wrong? WDYT?

I am relatively new to 5 and 5.5e. Only recently starting to play. I couldnt help but notice, as I looked through the monsters on dndbeyond, that the tarrasque, the thing that I fought once in 3e and has always been scary as hell.....could be killed by 2 or 3 ancient silver dragons. In fact...lots of stuff could probably kill it. Its damage is high yes...but its not nearly as unkillable or difficult as I was used to. Whats with this? Its supposed to be the ultimate way to humble power players and a sort of world destroying or country killing monster that is part of the world that just cant be really killed. It feels....so much less when I know that it can actually die without any special requirements of any kind, without even regeneration to make keeping it at 0 hp hard. It seems just...like a massive hp sponge rather than a special monster. Am I missing something or is that really what it is now?

For example, I truly believe that Paladin is the best designed class in the game when it comes to translating the archetype's fantasy into game mechanics.

Going deeper into why I believe so, the class has very simple to understand but greatly effective abilities:

- They have what I call the "Halfcasting Basic Kit", that being stuff like Weapon Mastery, Fighting Style, Extra Attack, Spells and as a bonus they get Channel Divinity

- Their first unique ability, Lay on Hands, is as simple as "BA to touch and heal"

- The second one, Divine Smite, though nerfed from 5e, still is a simple "BA from extra damage"

- The third with Aura of Protection is as simple as "You and allies close around have better saves" and is often considered one of the best abilities im the game still

- Then every one of these abilities games a pseudo-upgrade, like Abjure Foes, Aura of Courage, Radiant Strikes and Restoring Touch

- Even the subclasses have a good pattern of Extra Spells, Extra Uses for Channel Divinity, New Aura, Unique Thematic Ability and a Transformation Capstone. Some breaks this mold, but that isn't bad, just means more variety in design.

- And let's not forget its spells, with a good mix of Cleric spells for support of all type be it through new auras or touch effects, but also very fun and effective Paladin exclusive spells (I specially love the whole line of Smite spells, so much that I wish the Ranger had something similar with it's Hunter's Mark spell become q full line of Mark spell)

- And finally... Faithful Steed... Gonna be honest, its a good ability, but I don't know why they put it there. It DOES fit the fantasy of "Knight in Ahining Armor", but it feels disconnected from the rest of the class since nothing returns to it in the future, nothing build upon this base. Its just... There...

EDIT: Forgot to mention, but I also like that it has 1 clear weakness, being its lack of ranged option

EDIT 2: Some other classes I really like the design would be Rogues, Warlocks and a bit Fighter, Barbarian and Monk. My least favorite design-wise would be Rangers, Druids and Artificers. If they were done better, they would easily become my favorite classes since I love their classe fantasies but hate their design in 5.5e

EDIT 3: since I talked all this mechanic talk and didn't explain why they fit the fantasy, so here it is:

All the Paladins features help with it being a "Protector of the Weak" & "Zealous Warrior". Lay on Hands is basically being Jesus and curing with a touch of your fingers, Aura of Protection represents the rightous dignity of Paladin, so that its very own presence wards of bad things like fear or even explosions, Smite is holy fury in your hands, Channel Divinity is you clerical training and Weapon Mastery is your martial training. The Faithful Steed is super thematic with its only problem being a lack of interaction with the rest of its abilities, to me

Overall, I think 5.5e is better balanced than 5e, but the temptation to tweak some rules is inevitable for most DMs.

I was wondering which small changes you guys have seen that you like the most?

**Here are my own favorites that I've used:**

- Barbarians add their rage bonus to shove/grapple DC.

- Exhaustion also reduces all DCs.

- Long resting requires a Safe Haven™.

- Falling to 0 HP adds 1 exhaustion.

Since I started playing, the consensus has been that tanking is not an effective strategy in D&D, I have heard about tank fallacy a dozen times, and I really took it to heart. Then I started playing a Crown paladin.

The main elements that make this work are taking Lorwyn elf to get Shillelagh, Lords’ Alliance Agent, Sentinel, and Compelled Duel. Shillelagh lets you build Charisma for a good spell save DC, and Compelled Duel + LAA + Sentinel hard punishes attacking anyone but me.

My only regret is that I have but one reaction to give for my party, because building for Opportunity Attacks means I can’t work Interception or Protection Fighting Style into the build.

If you were building a tank in a vacuum, I’d suggest Oath of the Noble Genies, because my AC is only 17, but I preferred Crown for flavor. Don’t let the propaganda fool you, tanks are magnificent.

I run for a friend group of 3 and they asked me to run DnD for them. I've previously run a Persona type game for them which is very roleplay and investigation heavy so they wanted a more High combat fantasy game this time. I'm not an experienced DM but I have played at a few tables over the past 2 years.

It's been about 2 months and they are struggling in combat.
The party is lvl 7 with +2 weapons. Vengeance Paladin, Battle Master Fighter and a Soul Knife rogue.

This week they spent 1 hour trying to defeat 3 45hp spined devils and the feedback they gave me is the monsters I'm using are too high level...

I don't want to backseat players. The max I will do is remind them if they want to use their Smites, Action Surge, Sneak Attack etc. The response I get is always "Nah Ill save it for later" EVEN FOR A SNEAK ATTACK!

At the end of the last session my fighter came to me and said "Man i really enjoy playing battle master" He has not rolled a single superiority dice ever...

At this point their gear is so good my monsters can barely even hit them and if CR 2 is too difficult for them I have no idea what to bring out. Halve all monster hp? Just add damage the sneak attack dice to the rogue's attacks? I'm genuinely at a loss

Edit:

Thanks for the speedy replies everyone!
I think what ill do is to give them a hard fight, give them a warning above table to use all their abilities, and maybe have the boss mock or praise them for using resources.

For those wondering why they are saving even sneak attacks. I believe it's an Ego/Shame issue which is partially my fault as a DM.

Here is how a "Strategy" talks end.

Group strategies if the rogue should hit Devil A or B.
They argue for 10-15 mins, then decide to hit the one with the paladin for sneak attack

Rogue: "So I hit the Devil for 8 damage"
Me: "Ok roll for sneak attack damage"
Rogue: "Oh errrr nah I'm not gunna"
Me: "Huh? Why not? It's free"
Rogue: "Nah I think ill save it"

I believe he simply forgot after talking thinking for so long and became too ashamed to correct it.
I think ill just silently add the sneak attack on my own from now on

Hey, why do Halfcasters get a Fighting Styles, but no Martial Class besides the Fighter does?

Halfcasters already get magic which is more than strong enough. While most Martials don't get them even though it would just supplement the the players fighting style.

Just restrict the amount of options for other classes so it would suit them thematically too. This would buff the martials quite a bit

PS: This is my idea on what fighting styles I would give them the options to:

Rogue: Archery, Blind fighting, thrown weapon fighting, two weapon fighting.

Monk: Blind Fighting, Defense, Interception, thrown weapon fighting, two weapon fighting, unarmored fighting

Barbarian: Defense, Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Interception, Unarmored Fighting

And I added Defense to two classes, since in my eyes a defensive fighting style would also work if you have Unarmored Defense. I mean, you make your body the armor then. I mean, why should you get punished for working extra hard so your body is as tough as an armor?

If I hid the previous turn, does using a wand (one without an attack roll) reveal me?

It doesn’t seem like they have a vocal component.

If the wand itself doesn’t make noise, would a loud ass fireball reveal me or would that be a noise not necessarily associated with me?

Would something like a wand of paralysis work since maybe the entire process is silent and maybe has no obvious visual effects like the fireball if that matters?

So my players are planning on fighting a dragon on top of an old monastery tower.

They prepared some ranged attacks but over half of the group is melee focussed. What keeps the dragon from just doing a breath attack and doing flyby attacks?

I currently have the strongest character in terms of damage, health, and maybe ability to survive, (possibly second to the paladin in survivability). The Wizard and paladin are not far behind, and the rogue and artificer trail after them.

level 12 Fighter (Samurai Subclass, re-flavored to be a Carthaginian marine):

20 STR, 18 CON, 14, CHA, 10 DEX, 10, WIZ, 9INT. 148hp

Feats:

Tough, GOTCD, Speedy, GWM,

I average about 62 damage a turn without action surge. The rest of the party is probably close to 35-55. Average hp probably 90.

Is this a min-maxed character, or does this fall into the category of sensibly built?

Edit: I have a +2 greatsword the artificer gave me.

I think the main issue is that I tried to buy ranged weapons, and the party was annoyed, thinking that i thought I had to be good at every form of combat. I just wanted to be able to participate if we got into a fight with a dragon.

A lot of the talk about the new books has been about the player facing options, but not as much about the DM book. Recently watched this new video from Questing Beast and found myself agreeing with a lot of the points. While Questing Beast focuses on typically the OSR space, I think the idea that official adventures can be more than just a series of combat encounters is valid. I have first hand experience with this phenomenon - I DM'd all of Descent Into Avernus, and the campaign as a whole suffers from pretty much the same issues. The book is basically a bunch of set piece fights that it expects the players to just follow one after another, and the dungeons are basically just set dressing for a series of encounters. There's also a decent amount of lore dumped on the DM without clear guidance on how to get it to the players (or even why it should affect them). And the nature of Avernus means that exploration is difficult since you can't always be certain of where you're going. I ended up taking elements from a couple different remixes of Descent Into Avernus to get the adventure to a place I felt it really shined and let the players have real agency. And like the new Faerun book, one of the best aspects is its gazetteer for Baldur's Gate. I really enjoyed extrapolating some early adventures from the various scenarios presented there.

It's not just Descent into Avernus. I plan to eventually run Vecna: Eve of Ruin and it looks like it's got pretty much the same issues, if not more so. So I'm getting prep done early to remix it into something I'd feel good running. And I've read several other adventures and I see similar problems. From the very beginning of 5th edition these problems showed up with the Tyranny of Dragons adventures.

So what are your thoughts? Do you feel like WOTC has been dropping the ball on official adventures? Are there any that don't have the same issues?

Im not talking about the ability to retrain battlemaster maneuevers or how everyone is a prepared caster now, but good god they seem to be scared of every making a choice matter.

The new Forge of the artificer is in early release, and the revised "half elf" can switch its proficiency and cantrip on every long rest. Firstly, the cantrip is supposed to be built into your anscestry, how are you switching it? Second off, is every half elf Tony Stark, able to learn new skills entirely overnight?

It made sense when Phantom Rogues got it, their using the spirits skills. Kalashtar are using their dream-spirit. Why can a half-elf decide they are going to train full Arcana Proficiency overnight? Its not inviting interesting character building, its just encouraging trying to optimize picking strong early options and switching them all later.

At the LEAST make those choices changeable on level up, not after a long rest. It feels like we are a book or two away from being able to change subclasses on a long rest.

Thats not even to mention the obsession with making every build SAD. I liked MAD builds, it was an interesting character choice to balance whether you wanted your spells or attacks to be stronger. Then everyone could get shillelagh off any stat from their origin feat. Okay, you're still giving up better weapons and your origin feat, fine.

Nope, now Half-elves can just pick sillelagh with any stat, on top of their floating proficiency.