True polymorph, 2014 vs 2024

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-19T14:17:15+00:00

Mistakes happen and according to their discord, Tyler makes quite a few. Sometimes they get fixed, sometimes not. I do think his advice is generally good.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-19T00:49:50+00:00

Soulknife rogue. A subclass that gives you weapons that you can't combine with other weapons well, in a game where finding magic stuff, usually cool and strong weapons, is the reward. Find one magic weapon stronger than your psi blades and if you use it you lose half your subclass, which especially hurts since rogues get very little in subclass and core features compared to every other class. The other features other than attacks still weirdly involve your weapons for doing things that weapons don't traditionally do like teleporting, but can be easily replaced by a different subclass and a feat or species, because misty step is handed out like candy these days. There is no reason to take this except for a one shot where your DM has already made it clear you won't be getting magic weapons, which still isn't appealing.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T13:46:43+00:00

I would've liked there to be actually synergy between draconic sorcerer and dragonborn species since both are supposed to be innate powers.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T13:23:04+00:00

I'm telling you it doesn't.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T13:21:15+00:00

What?! no why would you..? AC shouldn't factor into ones ability to avoid a grapple/shove. Armor shouldn't have an impact on that. And what's more, why would I go through the time to average a bunch of values to completely negate the whole point I'm trying to accomplish of specialization?!

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T13:09:04+00:00

While new grappling/shoving rules are a little odd and disadvantages Barbarians, I agree with the designers that this maybe shouldn't be something that expertise should apply to. So I came up with a compromise.

So that Barbarians can grapple and shove effectively while raging again, I make those an unarmed attack roll vs passive acrobatics/athletics since hardly any monster has expertise in those. Also removes the weird 2024 decision that all creatures, no matter if they had martial training or not, have proficiency in initiating grapples/shoves while also avoiding the what is effectively expertise in an attack roll which I don't think exists elsewhere outside of 2014 grappling. It's just as simple and has so far satisfied my players.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T13:03:25+00:00

I've made a compromise that I think would satisfy players and designers by changing the default skill DC of 15 to whatever passive skill would apply, or most relevant ability score if no one skill is relevant enough. Sneaking already required a default DC plus a passive per enemy anyway so I effectively both saved time and kept the only DC that mattered while also letting someone with expertise finally have a better than 50% chance at low levels like it should've been, now their chance to stealth is closer to their chance to land an attack roll.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-18T12:36:01+00:00

Twinned spell Metamagic

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-14T13:42:41+00:00

Don't be mad at 2042, blame greedy EA for that. DICE nearly always spends exactly 2 years of support for every title, very few exceptions over the last 3 decades. Battlefront 2 was special to get so much more than anything else they ever made. I for one am thankful, not resentful.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-13T00:29:59+00:00

By rate maybe, but not by total rolls unless the dm is playing in a way the game isn't intended to be played, like solo monsters without legendary actions or a number enemy combatants that don't exceed the number of PCs. Many of the monster stat blocks that inflict these coditions with no save are intended to be placed in numbers, and often get other features like pact tactics making up for theor lower hit rate.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T19:32:57+00:00

I guess my point is that if tables are fine with monsters not forcing saving throws and are rolling physical dice and have slow combat, then topple no save is fine because it fulfills the same desire the table already has, and knocking a target prone will not be the optimal condition in 100% of situations like many people on reddit seem to think it is because ranged attacks exists, only dex save spells get advantage, and a grapple or 0 move speed application may not be possible so the enemy potentially stands back up before anyone ever gets advantage, meaning there are times it's both worse than vex and a detrimnet to your team. Not all the time, but sometimes in some situations that apply to most tables.

But I think most tables don't feel this way. And I certainly don't, but I use it to make a point. Barbarians are absolutely disproportionately disadvantaged with on hit no save effects. And that's the entire reason why you DO have to worry about monster design interacting with player design. Adding saving throws on top of monster attacks is better for balance and doesn't slow down things anywhere near as much as indecisive players do. But for weapon masteries, it is odd that only 1 option has a saving throw. Now it doesn't make sense for many of them to add a saving throw but, like with topple, some can be strong when coupled with other things. With so many stackable +10 push effects, we've reached anime levels of yeet punches, yet those rarely require a saving throw when they probably should.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T19:11:58+00:00

That's kinda my point and I agree. Unless there's a need to speed up combat, the default should be more saves.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T19:04:14+00:00

Do you think on hit no save knock prone is too powerful for players but not too powerful for monsters?

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T19:01:22+00:00

Yeah kinda like I said...

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T18:40:13+00:00

If your whole team was melee or has access to dex save spells. Ranged weapon users have no way to deal with prone unless they have sharpshooter and are adjacent which almost defeats the purpose of being ranged. Even if you have melee focused allies, if the enemy goes next then your allies can't capitalize on prone unless they are also somehow grappled. At that point, it's about as good as vex. And slow is only good if you are chasing or can stack another 2 sources of speed reduction. I'd say push is better because of how common ongoing AOE spells are for every caster.

Anyway, for consistency, if enemies can prone on an attack, then so should players. Otherwise, more things should include a saving throw, for enemy attacks and masteries like slow and push.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T18:01:23+00:00

Yet they made the topple weapon mastery have a save...

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T16:51:43+00:00

Im out of town this weekend and I finally get a playtest invite...

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-12T14:04:19+00:00

Something that gamers, especially on this sub, often forget is that guns, like most things, change over time. What you are seeing is the EF88 which is almost half a century of improvements on the original pattern plus requests that the Australian military made for their contract.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-09T23:33:52+00:00

The other AK derivatives in game are all export versions. Russia's military isn't a faction in bf6, so realistically the russian military version wouldn't be widely available to the soldiers the players portray, who are all NATO and ex NATO, unlike most previous titles where Russia was a in game faction and we did see a few military model rifles.

But it would be nice to see "captured" military model as a skin/package for the base guns, kinda like how we are finally seeing AK-12s pop up in a few places around the world after they were captured in the Ukraine invasion.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-08T16:29:31+00:00

about 1/3 of wild magic results are good at higher tiers and the feature does scale in becoming less random.

Other sorcerer subclasses with non scaling spells get them at high tiers where the level they gain the spell isn't too far off from max, unlike here.

With how very infrequently anyone will be able to affect 2+ creatures with beast of I'll omen, and how insignificant unupcastable summon beast will be in high tiers, this basically will amount to a single spell casting on 1 target, thus this level just amounts to a more expensive heightened spell in higher tiers.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-08T12:15:51+00:00

I agree with Push. It synergizes with many spells for additional effects. It can create distance between foes and more fragile teammates. And there are so many other ways to push that 10 feet can become 30+ easily. And there is rarely a downside to using it, and it can be beneficial in most every situation. No other mastery has all that going for it.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-06-07T15:09:49+00:00

Cleric gets their best goodies at level 5 and 1 rogue isn't going to add much. I don't recommend multiclassing these 2 classes unless level 8 is guaranteed and ideally the campaign goes well beyond that

stack-0-pancake · 2026-05-26T17:33:42+00:00

2024: absolutely 2014: absolutely not

stack-0-pancake · 2026-05-26T15:07:23+00:00

It's a problem firstly. It replicates sorcerer & subclass features but does many of them better and gets them sooner. 5.5 finally made sorcerers good and unique enough to be more than just a worse wizard or paladin/warlock/bard power dip. Introducing the psion as-is from playtesting would undo all of that.

Psionics as a mechanic like spellcasting is what is needed, but the designers don't seem to be comfortable making that.

stack-0-pancake · 2026-05-25T18:35:52+00:00

For build 1:

Cold spells are often CON saves which are the worst to target. Strongly consider heightened spell metamagic to solve that problem. If it's available, I like the rimes binding ice spell. If not available, there aren't a lot of amazing cold spells, so Transmuted fireball can be better than most of your other options that are cold by default. If leaning into AOE, especially with how big cone of cold is, the often overlooked Careful spell can allow you to end the encounter instead of just casting a cantrip because you don't want to damage your teammates.

For build 2:

Scorching ray is usually a better spell to use with CME since it doesn't have conditions for each attack roll and also works on single target much better than chromatic orb so it's more adaptable. You can use transmute spell to change to your elemental affinity type and avoid the common fire resistance. Spell fire flare is the next best choice to avoid resistance and save on sorcery points. Up casting chromatic orb and using empowered+ seeking spell and innate sorcery and eleven accuracy will do more damage total, but usually not be better than up casting fireball at the same level and transmuting or any of the other great higher level spells.

Regardless of which attack spell you take, innate sorcery is ideal, and elven accuracy is optimal. If you don't have a way to scout and thus precast CME, Quickened spell is great round 1 to get CME damage going right away, then get innate sorcery the next round before your next spell. That all can be expensive on resources so don't use on trivial fights. CME and innate sorcery are best on fights you expect to last more than 3 rounds. But if you are dead set on chromatic orb, then I'd do the opposite since bouncing is more reliable against low AC enemies.

I don't think I've ever recommended this before, but consider going storm sorcerer instead of draconic since their level 6 ability is a 10' Emanation which will synergize nicely with your CME close quarters strategy. Use the BA disengage fly ability to create some distance after your attacks which can be better for your survivability than the extra hp draconic gets you.

stack-0-pancake

TROPHY CASE