DM Timothy is such an underrated pillar of the D&D youtube community. Every single video he puts out is packed with helpful insight, positive energy, and a high percentage that cute cats will make at least one appearance. The humility at the beginning when he apologizes for his pronunciation of "melee"...this guy never ceases to impress.
I admit that I inwardly cringe when I hear him say melee, but that's only because I too used to pronounce it "mealy" and only managed to reprogram my pronunciation by overtly paying attention to the way I said it to the point that it just feels wrong now. Oh the trauma of learning words through reading and only finding out later in life how they are actually pronounced. I still hate how "cache" is actually pronounced.
9:36 If we consider damage dealt vs damage taken in the math, you'll find that range is ahead majority of the time. Now ofc there's a reward to go into melee, you do more damage but you do factually take more damage on average every single time. That's a cost. Health is a valuable resource. That might not be a big deal if your resources doesn't matter but I would say at that point, very few things matter. Use the biggest resource you have. It's 1 or 2 encounter days. The king has indeed lost it's crown but I wouldn't dismiss it. I'm not saying you are but I've seen people do it and it bothers me.
Treantmonk and Colby from D4 both put out videos going into detail on how to get truly INSANE damage from Conjure Minor Elementals (short answer is Valor Bard). Both concluded that the spell is overtuned, and unreasonable to compare to other options. The scaling *should be* 1d8 per two levels, instead of 2d8 per level.
At first I wasnt a fan of these changes, as it really nerfs ranged weapon builds. But after looking into to more I am a fan. The changes make the balance between Ranged and Melee a lot better. I think every martial is now always gunna be packing both, melee, thrown and ranged weapons for combat. Which is cool.
I think I mostly agree. It's too easy in 2014 rules to build a high damage character that can safely stay at range and do just as much damage as the melee characters. I feel like there may have been a bit of a missed opportunity, however. What I mean by that is I feel certain classes such as Ranger should be able to specialize in ranged combat and actually become roughly as effective at it as the melee characters are at melee.
@@MannonMartin I think a few more "bow smite" spells for the ranger would have been nice. They actually ARE really well set to deliver very solid ranged damage thanks to Hunter's Mark, subclass abilities, and Hail of Thorns, but a direct-damage spell ala Paladin's smites would go a long way to bring them into the A-tier.
You actualy don't need crossbow expert to bonus action attack with the hand crossbow, since it have the light property (and there's no restriction to only melee weapon for the bonus action attack from the light property anymore), you can always attack with a bonus action with the hand crossbow, the benefits from crossbow expert now is to add your ability modifier to the bonus action attack, ignoring the loading property and to fire in melee without disadvantage.
as a relatively new DnD player, the "light" property doesn't make sense to me. I can see that the Hand Crossbow weighs 3 lbs. - but there are so many weapons that weigh 3 lbs. or even lighter, but they do not have the light property :( For example, the whip only weighs 2 lb. and is not "two-handed", and yet it does not have the "light" property? Why not? There are so many cool characters in fiction that attack with whips in both hands that I would like to roleplay. Another example is the Pistol that also weighs the same 3 lbs. as a Hand Crossbow, but for some reason you cannot dual wield them like how so many iconic characters do What's also annoying is that crossbows are able to ignore their loading property with the Crossbow Expert feat. But from what I can see, firearms cannot do the same. I thought the 2024 PHB was supposed to incorporate content from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but it looks like the "Gunner" feat is missing from the 2024 PHB :(
@@PrabhablyAGoodUA-camr well, you can at least pick gunner from the legacy feats option on phb 2024, as for the light property problem... it's prabably how they tought they should balance it, the basic pistol deals more damege (1d10), wich for a 1 handed weapon, that's a lot, and the musket deals 1d12, so on their mind they tought they ought to be balenced this way, tough i think making then expensive is already enough.
@@PrabhablyAGoodUA-camr The Light property might be somewhat poorly named. It is more about how effectively you can wield the weapon with a single hand rather than how much the weapon weights. But let's be honest... it's a gameplay mechanic and has more to do with how the designers intended weapons to be used. Though I'd think a whip would make sense and unless they buffed it I doubt whips are OP. But I haven't read through the 2024 PHB yet.
I'm rolling up a beast master ranger, with a mix of range and melee. Heavy crossbow mastery plus beast strike until they get in range of my meat blender. I'm not looking to optimize but it's good to know that I'm not far off the curve playing how I want to!
Love the channel and love the content you create. Keep up the good work you have a lot of people who enjoy seeing the new videos you drop! I'm personally excited about sword and board builds with 2024. I love the idea of using your shield to protect your allies and not just yourself.
First, thank you so much! It really means a lot. I went into this YT thing the same way I went into pro-DMing "maybe a few people will like it..." and I feel very blessed by the wonderful subscribers and community that have helped keep me going! The new protection fighting style is awesome, and I, too, am excited to see people branching away from GWM and into all the other melee styles. It's gonna be great!
The short answer is no. The long answer is, heavy crossbow and long bow are heavy weapons. You can use great weapon master with them to add proficiency bonus to the damage. No, gwm does not specify melee weapons. So you can still deal quite a lot of damage ranged. The only "dead" build is firing a handcrossbow with your bonus action.
Totally true. Video identifies the option for GWM on Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, but it’s a strength boosting feat which definitely will make it more of a struggle for the optimizers. Not necessarily a bad thing, anyway, my desire is definitely for ALL weapon styles to be viable, which I think is the net result of these changes.
@@DM-TimothyJust homebrew it to be a Str/Dex feat and require STR/Dex to be taken. All the heavy weapons already have a srt or dex requirement to begin with.
@@guamae Yup, there is a genuine tradeoff and You cant just dump strength if You want to use the heavy x bow and the longbow to their fullest, which is fitting both thematically and balance-wise. Additionally, You can't use the hew bonus action attack because it specifies melee attack crits/kills. Overall I think its balanced really well
I dint think you can get two bonus action attacks even with Nick, because the light weapon mastery says you only get one two weapon attack bonus attack even if you use Nick. The car essentially allows you to take your second two w weapon attack with a non light, non heavy weapon, but only if you haven't already taken that bins action light weapon attack. I understand you can read it as giving a 4th attack, but I can't see how that is RAI. I how they clarify a couple of points about dual wielding, attacking with two weapons, and the Nick mastery.
We will probably get some clarification on intent at some point. For now, I’m fairly confident that it does mean an extra 2 attacks, simply because it’s a return to older edition plausibilities and works out with the math changes, but that’s just an opinion based on the wording.
Every time a system is either changed or introduced, there's invariably going to be a new meta for what works and what doesn't. I too anticipate a lot of nick property abuse in conjunction with the Dual Wielder feat. It's just going to be hard for a lvl 20 fighter to say no to 10 attacks a turn with action surge, even if they are all d6 attacks. I think the most common load out for fighters and others will be the shortsword/scimitar combo. While the Ranger is getting a lot of online hate, I'm not too dissuaded to try out a new Hunter having mastery in scimitars and longbows. Saving the free Hunter's Mark casts for ranged attacks and using Ensnaring Strike for my close range battles.
I think dual wielder is gonna be very desirable. I think optimizers might find that GWM pulls slightly ahead for many classes and will go that route, and I think we'll see grapple-tanks and sword/board too. There will eventually be a meta that's "the best" but shrinking the gap will help a LOT I think.
Cool, now you need to really invest in GWM to pump out the cheese. I still have my Quicken Metamagics, Sorcerer spell slots and Agonizing Blast. That's all I need. Somethings just needed toned down.
I would have liked some toning down in the spell casting side of things, too, but I’m hopeful that the general boost to martials will help… maybe that’s the optimist in me. Lol
The only thing bad about GWF and sharpshooter is that it was limited to only those weapon types. It should of been available to all martials like in past editions. The reason being this option was supposed to be used for martials to clean up weak badies fast, while casters just aoed them to death. Its a very important function of the game. When bosses have 20+ AC its not unbalanced. Now 2024 has vastly nerfed martial characters without giving enough back or also not nerfing casters enough to match. Martials are now the horrible underdogs of the game and will remain there indefinitely.
I have actually tested that hypothesis, and I'm of mixed minds. I adopted Treantmonks 3 house rules perhaps a year and a half ago? I've lost track, and thus have allowed all characters to take a -5 to attack for +10 to damage on any weapon attack as part of the attack action. It DID level the field, but it was overpowered in early tiers. The new scaling GWM will allow a boost that will grow as the threat does, and martials will just put out more damage all the time than they used to, with greater accuracy. I think it's going to net positive, but I'll know more in a hundred sessions or so! (Gimme 4 months!!)
@@DM-Timothy The usefulness of the -5/+10, varies by encounter design. Usually mass groups of low cr monsters are vulnerable to it because they have low AC. but a single boss monster low AC zombie or Ooze, is also destroyed by it. It supposed to be a big situational buff in areas the martials are lacking in. And thats the point (like a caster finding a target vulnerable to a damage type, martials exploit low AC), it also encourages caster trying to get their melee advantage with debuff spells, thats great for teamwork play. The new GWF is nice because it requires no thinking it is a straight buff. At lv 5 with two attacks its a flat +6 damage every round, lv 11 three attack fighter is +12 damage per round. However against the right targets say at lv 5 when GWF can make three attacks (2 plus bonus action GWF) at +10dmg per attack for +30 damage. This is the onlyway a martial can compete with the damage casters can unleash with a fireball. and even then its still not that great since all their targets need to be fairly close in movement range. Their is no way they can hit 6 or more creatures like a fireball can. What really annoys me about the new GWF is that its doesnt work on reaction or bonus action attacks. meaning players need to be aware of multiple damage calculations depending on when they are attack.. and not based on the choice to impose the -5/+10 penalty/bonus. Thus in my VTT's I need to make multiple buttons for the players normal attacks. one for the attack action another for opportunity attacks and bonus action attacks. And players constanly "forgot" about the lower damage button because it has no penalty. Never happens when that button comes with a -5 penalty to hit. it because a significant choice to use that attack.
@@scetchmonkey007 I can definitely see and understand your points. My experience in actual play has differed, it seems, from your own. That happens! :) I concur that the flat bonuses should have applied to all attacks to keep it simple. As a VTT user, myself, I know it'll get old fast.
@@DM-Timothy I've been playing since AD&D. so I have seen the first introduction of this mechanic and how it has grown over time. I like it best in 5E. In older editions you chose how big of a penalty you take for how big of a bonus. thus the number crunching was everywhere. looking for the optimal. but since attack bonuses where so high optimal was to use it all the time at max bonus except in the most extreme cases. in 5e with bonded accuracy the -5/+10 static bonus meant it always had a great risk to reward ratio, you see more players using it trying to decide now is the time to take that risk against a big boss versus, and much less use it all the time. And watching how this evolution to the 2024 version hurt. In the playtest the damage bonus was only meant for the first attack per round. For some reason the 5E team was really trying to nerf every exploit that made martials have any chance at all on being comparable to a caster. Thus you get these clunky and weird mechanics like it only works on your attack action attacks and not other actions..... and that comes up with the more vague questions such as does it work on your hasted action or not. Its always best to keep things simple... but what I found to simplify the damage bonuses and keep a decent scaling I needed to up the HP of players and monsters in my homebrew to keep things balanced and keep the bonuses noticable and fun. But of course you cannot do that when hasbro demands you keep things backwards compatible.
I would love if WotC would specify that you can use Great Weapon Master with longbow, heavy crossbow and musket. Because yes, RAW, it's possible but I can already smell all the arguments with DM about this. Also, for some reason, WotC haven't included the Gunner feat into the 2024 rulebook, which means, that right now, you cannot bypass the loading trait on firearms like you can with crossbows...
I actually had a conversation with a black powder gunsmith the other day that made me realize that not letting characters shoot multiple times every 6 seconds with flintlock era pistols was pretty sensible. It’s quite generous in fact that we allow them to fire once per round!
@@trixus4768 tis true. For whatever reason, firearms just bug me more. Lol. I prefer my fantasy pre-firearm. That’s totally just personal preference tho, of course. I suspect the Gunner feat is being saved for an Artificer release, perhaps in an Eberron setting book akin to the Forgotten Realms books announced for 2025?
Or you can be borderline useless when fighting flyers or telepirters, and you have to resort to throwing handaxes with disadvantage. Also, half cover gives you the same benefit as a shield, and three-quarters cover gives you the same benefit as a shield spell.
@mappybc6097 I mean there are ways to handle range. You can be an eldritch knight and have spells, use magic initiate for range, or swap to a ranged weapon. There are lots of things that do it. Most of the time melee is just fine.
@@Razdasoldier If you are melee based you are less effective as a ranged attacker, end of story. Sharpshooter makes it so you are equally effective at any range. Also, half-cover gives you +2 to AC and Dex saves, and you know what gives half cover? Creatures, both allies and enemies. If I'm in melee with both an enemy and an ally there is a good chance I get half cover from any ranged attacker. Or, if they don't come from me I can find the nearest tree, boulder, wagon, column, or even the corner of a dungeon wall to three-quarter cover instead for that sweet +5 to AC and Dex saves. My own shots won't get affected in the least. Like I said, sorry if you lost your dpr, I'm now way more effective at fighting in closed and open spaces, so to me the feat works just fine.
Druidic fighting style is essentially a Ranger only option now, however, there is an origin feat that can get you shillelagh if that’s your goal for a fighter. :)
Idk if I feel like nerfing Sharpshooter was the best idea cause honestly the best approach would be to just buff EVERYTHING about martials so everybody would feel cool and useful playing every style. But I will be stealing new ideas from the new book even if I don't end up using the new rules so soon
Having allowed the -5 +10 thing at my table for all martial styles, I personally think this approach is better. Shooting from range is still an awesome option that comes with tons of its own perks (init, ac, dex saves, and not being in melee range are the biggies!) so I don’t think archers are being nerfed out of existence, just out of being the absolute runaway best. :)
@@DM-Timothy Oh, I get that. My problem is that by nerfing a martial skill, it's not being in favor for martials overall since they are less powerful than casters. They could've buffed melee more and/or made them more interesting/useful playstyles instead. Just buffing melees more would already be a better option. At least weapon mastery is a thing now!
Your build was nerfed. I'm eating good. My shortbow wielding rogue assassin now gets to sneak atk in melee. Even better, once I hit I get advantage again thanks to the vex property of the bow. And hey, if I ever see you struggle throwing javelins at fliers, I can use the trip cunning strike to bring them to the ground as long as they are within 300ft.
@@mappybc6097 Damn, that whole comment feels kinda childish. Really weird. Anyway, I don't play this build. I only played as casters. I say this as a GM that has to think about homebrewing stuff for my players so that everybody can feel like their build is pretty good to play.
Me who likes playing a dex based melee fighter with duelist style + rapier, getting always behind and seeing no feat is released for this playstyle. Sad
Actually there is one! Defensive duelist got buffed a lot and only works with finesse weapons. It’s basically resource-free shield now because it lasts until the start of Your turn and gives You prof bonus to AC. Rapier also has the vex property which is in essence perma advantage if You can get the first hit in.
Also to add onto what others have said Dueling fighting style doesn't stop you from using a shield so it's still vaild to be a str fighter and pick that up to prone people hit them with your rapier and when they get up to attack you in melee you can defensive duelist to raise your ac by your proficiency bonus against melee attacks until the start of your next turn Stat wise and armor wise I'd recommend investing mainly in str and con and have dex at 13 so when you get defensive duelist it'll go to 14 and be in prime range for medium armor and potentially medium armor master later down the line from there you do you and have fun
Remember kids, your DM is the arbiter of their game, so when they tell you you can't mix and match versions (and that you shouldn't have tried, just to cheese the mechanics more than the rules allow), don't be angry. Be a grownup.
I’m sure there will be some tables where that kind of thing will be enjoyed and possible. They won’t be MY tables, lol, but if everyone is having fun, have at it!
Hi I'm a grown up that recognizes that wotc pushed out a product that needs a ton of errata to a book ppl have paid for 1 months after coming out cuz they were more concerned with sales and "anniversary" budget quotas. Had they done more extensive play testing the best martial probably wouldn't be a bladelock who has access to 9th level spells... That being said try out the DC20 game by dungeon coach who actually cares about the product they put out and not "getting their money out of people's wallets"
DM Timothy is such an underrated pillar of the D&D youtube community.
Every single video he puts out is packed with helpful insight, positive energy, and a high percentage that cute cats will make at least one appearance.
The humility at the beginning when he apologizes for his pronunciation of "melee"...this guy never ceases to impress.
Thank you so much for this message. You absolutely made my day! I really appreciate you, and all the other awesome folk who watch my videos!!
I admit that I inwardly cringe when I hear him say melee, but that's only because I too used to pronounce it "mealy" and only managed to reprogram my pronunciation by overtly paying attention to the way I said it to the point that it just feels wrong now. Oh the trauma of learning words through reading and only finding out later in life how they are actually pronounced. I still hate how "cache" is actually pronounced.
@@MannonMartin I resonate with your comment so much. Sigh.
9:36 If we consider damage dealt vs damage taken in the math, you'll find that range is ahead majority of the time. Now ofc there's a reward to go into melee, you do more damage but you do factually take more damage on average every single time. That's a cost. Health is a valuable resource. That might not be a big deal if your resources doesn't matter but I would say at that point, very few things matter. Use the biggest resource you have. It's 1 or 2 encounter days.
The king has indeed lost it's crown but I wouldn't dismiss it. I'm not saying you are but I've seen people do it and it bothers me.
I definitely agree! Ranged is still a great option for a load of good reasons including the one you outline. Thanks for providing a moderate voice! :)
Read this in your voice Kobold!
Treantmonk and Colby from D4 both put out videos going into detail on how to get truly INSANE damage from Conjure Minor Elementals (short answer is Valor Bard).
Both concluded that the spell is overtuned, and unreasonable to compare to other options.
The scaling *should be* 1d8 per two levels, instead of 2d8 per level.
Solid agreement with both of them. Nerfing that spell is almost a must.
At first I wasnt a fan of these changes, as it really nerfs ranged weapon builds. But after looking into to more I am a fan.
The changes make the balance between Ranged and Melee a lot better. I think every martial is now always gunna be packing both, melee, thrown and ranged weapons for combat. Which is cool.
Yeah, I think it’s gonna be great for the game all told, and with a loadout like that actually makes fighters extra weapon masteries feel useful, too!
I think I mostly agree. It's too easy in 2014 rules to build a high damage character that can safely stay at range and do just as much damage as the melee characters. I feel like there may have been a bit of a missed opportunity, however. What I mean by that is I feel certain classes such as Ranger should be able to specialize in ranged combat and actually become roughly as effective at it as the melee characters are at melee.
@@MannonMartin I think a few more "bow smite" spells for the ranger would have been nice. They actually ARE really well set to deliver very solid ranged damage thanks to Hunter's Mark, subclass abilities, and Hail of Thorns, but a direct-damage spell ala Paladin's smites would go a long way to bring them into the A-tier.
You actualy don't need crossbow expert to bonus action attack with the hand crossbow, since it have the light property (and there's no restriction to only melee weapon for the bonus action attack from the light property anymore), you can always attack with a bonus action with the hand crossbow, the benefits from crossbow expert now is to add your ability modifier to the bonus action attack, ignoring the loading property and to fire in melee without disadvantage.
as a relatively new DnD player, the "light" property doesn't make sense to me. I can see that the Hand Crossbow weighs 3 lbs. - but there are so many weapons that weigh 3 lbs. or even lighter, but they do not have the light property :(
For example, the whip only weighs 2 lb. and is not "two-handed", and yet it does not have the "light" property? Why not? There are so many cool characters in fiction that attack with whips in both hands that I would like to roleplay. Another example is the Pistol that also weighs the same 3 lbs. as a Hand Crossbow, but for some reason you cannot dual wield them like how so many iconic characters do
What's also annoying is that crossbows are able to ignore their loading property with the Crossbow Expert feat. But from what I can see, firearms cannot do the same. I thought the 2024 PHB was supposed to incorporate content from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but it looks like the "Gunner" feat is missing from the 2024 PHB :(
@@PrabhablyAGoodUA-camr well, you can at least pick gunner from the legacy feats option on phb 2024, as for the light property problem... it's prabably how they tought they should balance it, the basic pistol deals more damege (1d10), wich for a 1 handed weapon, that's a lot, and the musket deals 1d12, so on their mind they tought they ought to be balenced this way, tough i think making then expensive is already enough.
@@PrabhablyAGoodUA-camr The Light property might be somewhat poorly named. It is more about how effectively you can wield the weapon with a single hand rather than how much the weapon weights. But let's be honest... it's a gameplay mechanic and has more to do with how the designers intended weapons to be used. Though I'd think a whip would make sense and unless they buffed it I doubt whips are OP. But I haven't read through the 2024 PHB yet.
🥳🫂👍🏿
Thank you very much ❤ good to see they’re bringing back Drizzt builds
No, thank you! And yes indeed!! The classic Drizzt is a solid build again! Admittedly, he’s a Ranger/Barbarian/Monk now, which is kinda wild… :D
@@DM-Timothy you’re very welcome - as for Drizzt, I stopped reading after Thousand Orcs, so I don’t know what’s been going on after the time skip
@@TwinSteel fair enough. Lol.
Awesome video. By the way, the Verdgris Table has been a great channel, so I am happy to see you giving a shout out to that one!
Happy to do it, I really appreciated TwinSteel giving me a list to check out in order to find a few channels I vibed with for shout outs.
I'm rolling up a beast master ranger, with a mix of range and melee. Heavy crossbow mastery plus beast strike until they get in range of my meat blender. I'm not looking to optimize but it's good to know that I'm not far off the curve playing how I want to!
Which is my favorite thing about the rules changes! No one should feel penalized for their cool idea.
Just thought how cool it would be to play a Thri Kreen fighter that uses 4 weapons, each with a different weapon mastery property.
Totally! I’m loving the idea of characters with different weapon loadouts and tactical options.
Love the channel and love the content you create. Keep up the good work you have a lot of people who enjoy seeing the new videos you drop!
I'm personally excited about sword and board builds with 2024. I love the idea of using your shield to protect your allies and not just yourself.
First, thank you so much! It really means a lot. I went into this YT thing the same way I went into pro-DMing "maybe a few people will like it..." and I feel very blessed by the wonderful subscribers and community that have helped keep me going!
The new protection fighting style is awesome, and I, too, am excited to see people branching away from GWM and into all the other melee styles. It's gonna be great!
The short answer is no. The long answer is, heavy crossbow and long bow are heavy weapons. You can use great weapon master with them to add proficiency bonus to the damage. No, gwm does not specify melee weapons. So you can still deal quite a lot of damage ranged. The only "dead" build is firing a handcrossbow with your bonus action.
Totally true. Video identifies the option for GWM on Longbow or Heavy Crossbow, but it’s a strength boosting feat which definitely will make it more of a struggle for the optimizers. Not necessarily a bad thing, anyway, my desire is definitely for ALL weapon styles to be viable, which I think is the net result of these changes.
@@DM-TimothyJust homebrew it to be a Str/Dex feat and require STR/Dex to be taken. All the heavy weapons already have a srt or dex requirement to begin with.
@@DM-Timothy not quite, since to use heavy weapons now there's a 13 str restriction, right? Or is it 13 str or dex?
@@moonlight2870the Feat requires 13 Strength a Longbow requires 13 Dex, so while it's a little MAD, it's not terrible.
@@guamae Yup, there is a genuine tradeoff and You cant just dump strength if You want to use the heavy x bow and the longbow to their fullest, which is fitting both thematically and balance-wise. Additionally, You can't use the hew bonus action attack because it specifies melee attack crits/kills. Overall I think its balanced really well
I dint think you can get two bonus action attacks even with Nick, because the light weapon mastery says you only get one two weapon attack bonus attack even if you use Nick. The car essentially allows you to take your second two w weapon attack with a non light, non heavy weapon, but only if you haven't already taken that bins action light weapon attack. I understand you can read it as giving a 4th attack, but I can't see how that is RAI. I how they clarify a couple of points about dual wielding, attacking with two weapons, and the Nick mastery.
We will probably get some clarification on intent at some point. For now, I’m fairly confident that it does mean an extra 2 attacks, simply because it’s a return to older edition plausibilities and works out with the math changes, but that’s just an opinion based on the wording.
I will miss the +10 to damage, but it is nice to not have the penalty to hit.
Totally fair.
Im excited to try out a dual wielding melee ranger!
I’m excited to see them! Beast Master could potentially be pumping out 5 attacks a round at level 11 with hunters mark on 4 of them!
Every time a system is either changed or introduced, there's invariably going to be a new meta for what works and what doesn't. I too anticipate a lot of nick property abuse in conjunction with the Dual Wielder feat. It's just going to be hard for a lvl 20 fighter to say no to 10 attacks a turn with action surge, even if they are all d6 attacks.
I think the most common load out for fighters and others will be the shortsword/scimitar combo.
While the Ranger is getting a lot of online hate, I'm not too dissuaded to try out a new Hunter having mastery in scimitars and longbows. Saving the free Hunter's Mark casts for ranged attacks and using Ensnaring Strike for my close range battles.
I think dual wielder is gonna be very desirable. I think optimizers might find that GWM pulls slightly ahead for many classes and will go that route, and I think we'll see grapple-tanks and sword/board too. There will eventually be a meta that's "the best" but shrinking the gap will help a LOT I think.
Cool, now you need to really invest in GWM to pump out the cheese. I still have my Quicken Metamagics, Sorcerer spell slots and Agonizing Blast. That's all I need.
Somethings just needed toned down.
I would have liked some toning down in the spell casting side of things, too, but I’m hopeful that the general boost to martials will help… maybe that’s the optimist in me. Lol
The only thing bad about GWF and sharpshooter is that it was limited to only those weapon types. It should of been available to all martials like in past editions. The reason being this option was supposed to be used for martials to clean up weak badies fast, while casters just aoed them to death. Its a very important function of the game. When bosses have 20+ AC its not unbalanced. Now 2024 has vastly nerfed martial characters without giving enough back or also not nerfing casters enough to match. Martials are now the horrible underdogs of the game and will remain there indefinitely.
I have actually tested that hypothesis, and I'm of mixed minds. I adopted Treantmonks 3 house rules perhaps a year and a half ago? I've lost track, and thus have allowed all characters to take a -5 to attack for +10 to damage on any weapon attack as part of the attack action. It DID level the field, but it was overpowered in early tiers. The new scaling GWM will allow a boost that will grow as the threat does, and martials will just put out more damage all the time than they used to, with greater accuracy. I think it's going to net positive, but I'll know more in a hundred sessions or so! (Gimme 4 months!!)
@@DM-Timothy The usefulness of the -5/+10, varies by encounter design. Usually mass groups of low cr monsters are vulnerable to it because they have low AC. but a single boss monster low AC zombie or Ooze, is also destroyed by it. It supposed to be a big situational buff in areas the martials are lacking in. And thats the point (like a caster finding a target vulnerable to a damage type, martials exploit low AC), it also encourages caster trying to get their melee advantage with debuff spells, thats great for teamwork play. The new GWF is nice because it requires no thinking it is a straight buff. At lv 5 with two attacks its a flat +6 damage every round, lv 11 three attack fighter is +12 damage per round. However against the right targets say at lv 5 when GWF can make three attacks (2 plus bonus action GWF) at +10dmg per attack for +30 damage. This is the onlyway a martial can compete with the damage casters can unleash with a fireball. and even then its still not that great since all their targets need to be fairly close in movement range. Their is no way they can hit 6 or more creatures like a fireball can.
What really annoys me about the new GWF is that its doesnt work on reaction or bonus action attacks. meaning players need to be aware of multiple damage calculations depending on when they are attack.. and not based on the choice to impose the -5/+10 penalty/bonus. Thus in my VTT's I need to make multiple buttons for the players normal attacks. one for the attack action another for opportunity attacks and bonus action attacks. And players constanly "forgot" about the lower damage button because it has no penalty. Never happens when that button comes with a -5 penalty to hit. it because a significant choice to use that attack.
@@scetchmonkey007 I can definitely see and understand your points. My experience in actual play has differed, it seems, from your own. That happens! :)
I concur that the flat bonuses should have applied to all attacks to keep it simple. As a VTT user, myself, I know it'll get old fast.
@@DM-Timothy I've been playing since AD&D. so I have seen the first introduction of this mechanic and how it has grown over time. I like it best in 5E. In older editions you chose how big of a penalty you take for how big of a bonus. thus the number crunching was everywhere. looking for the optimal. but since attack bonuses where so high optimal was to use it all the time at max bonus except in the most extreme cases. in 5e with bonded accuracy the -5/+10 static bonus meant it always had a great risk to reward ratio, you see more players using it trying to decide now is the time to take that risk against a big boss versus, and much less use it all the time. And watching how this evolution to the 2024 version hurt.
In the playtest the damage bonus was only meant for the first attack per round. For some reason the 5E team was really trying to nerf every exploit that made martials have any chance at all on being comparable to a caster. Thus you get these clunky and weird mechanics like it only works on your attack action attacks and not other actions..... and that comes up with the more vague questions such as does it work on your hasted action or not.
Its always best to keep things simple... but what I found to simplify the damage bonuses and keep a decent scaling I needed to up the HP of players and monsters in my homebrew to keep things balanced and keep the bonuses noticable and fun. But of course you cannot do that when hasbro demands you keep things backwards compatible.
I would love if WotC would specify that you can use Great Weapon Master with longbow, heavy crossbow and musket. Because yes, RAW, it's possible but I can already smell all the arguments with DM about this.
Also, for some reason, WotC haven't included the Gunner feat into the 2024 rulebook, which means, that right now, you cannot bypass the loading trait on firearms like you can with crossbows...
I actually had a conversation with a black powder gunsmith the other day that made me realize that not letting characters shoot multiple times every 6 seconds with flintlock era pistols was pretty sensible. It’s quite generous in fact that we allow them to fire once per round!
@@DM-Timothy yes, that's absolutely valid. But in that case, the same thing should apply to crossbows. Especially the heavy crossbow.
@@trixus4768 tis true. For whatever reason, firearms just bug me more. Lol. I prefer my fantasy pre-firearm. That’s totally just personal preference tho, of course. I suspect the Gunner feat is being saved for an Artificer release, perhaps in an Eberron setting book akin to the Forgotten Realms books announced for 2025?
Sharpshooter? When I can be a fighter for 18d6+55 damage (at level 20) while using a shield?
Lots of internet arguments about the value of a shield vs not being in melee. I just want ALL styles to be viable! :)
@@DM-Timothy oh I agree. I just find it fun hiw viable fighter is now
Or you can be borderline useless when fighting flyers or telepirters, and you have to resort to throwing handaxes with disadvantage.
Also, half cover gives you the same benefit as a shield, and three-quarters cover gives you the same benefit as a shield spell.
@mappybc6097 I mean there are ways to handle range. You can be an eldritch knight and have spells, use magic initiate for range, or swap to a ranged weapon. There are lots of things that do it. Most of the time melee is just fine.
@@Razdasoldier If you are melee based you are less effective as a ranged attacker, end of story.
Sharpshooter makes it so you are equally effective at any range.
Also, half-cover gives you +2 to AC and Dex saves, and you know what gives half cover? Creatures, both allies and enemies. If I'm in melee with both an enemy and an ally there is a good chance I get half cover from any ranged attacker.
Or, if they don't come from me I can find the nearest tree, boulder, wagon, column, or even the corner of a dungeon wall to three-quarter cover instead for that sweet +5 to AC and Dex saves. My own shots won't get affected in the least.
Like I said, sorry if you lost your dpr, I'm now way more effective at fighting in closed and open spaces, so to me the feat works just fine.
Was there a Druidic Fighting Style? Is it Gone? I wanted to try and make a Staff Fighter...FIGHTER. Not a Ranger.
Druidic fighting style is essentially a Ranger only option now, however, there is an origin feat that can get you shillelagh if that’s your goal for a fighter. :)
Idk if I feel like nerfing Sharpshooter was the best idea cause honestly the best approach would be to just buff EVERYTHING about martials so everybody would feel cool and useful playing every style.
But I will be stealing new ideas from the new book even if I don't end up using the new rules so soon
Having allowed the -5 +10 thing at my table for all martial styles, I personally think this approach is better. Shooting from range is still an awesome option that comes with tons of its own perks (init, ac, dex saves, and not being in melee range are the biggies!) so I don’t think archers are being nerfed out of existence, just out of being the absolute runaway best. :)
@@DM-Timothy Oh, I get that. My problem is that by nerfing a martial skill, it's not being in favor for martials overall since they are less powerful than casters. They could've buffed melee more and/or made them more interesting/useful playstyles instead. Just buffing melees more would already be a better option. At least weapon mastery is a thing now!
Your build was nerfed. I'm eating good.
My shortbow wielding rogue assassin now gets to sneak atk in melee. Even better, once I hit I get advantage again thanks to the vex property of the bow. And hey, if I ever see you struggle throwing javelins at fliers, I can use the trip cunning strike to bring them to the ground as long as they are within 300ft.
@@IottiPH they did buff all maritals, but they also nerfed the broken builds.
@@mappybc6097 Damn, that whole comment feels kinda childish. Really weird.
Anyway, I don't play this build. I only played as casters. I say this as a GM that has to think about homebrewing stuff for my players so that everybody can feel like their build is pretty good to play.
FYI Melee is pronounced may lay
Hehe, I did warn people. Old habits die hard I’m afraid.
@DM-Timothy I looked up the pronouniation at one point to make sure I was correct about maylay being correct. There's supposed to be accent marks
@@MrMuddyWheels All totally true. I've just been mispronouncing it for 3 decades now, and struggle to remind myself in the moment.
Mealy Weapon
Me who likes playing a dex based melee fighter with duelist style + rapier, getting always behind and seeing no feat is released for this playstyle. Sad
Actually there is one! Defensive duelist got buffed a lot and only works with finesse weapons. It’s basically resource-free shield now because it lasts until the start of Your turn and gives You prof bonus to AC. Rapier also has the vex property which is in essence perma advantage if You can get the first hit in.
Sketchyfox beat me to it, but yes, the defensive duelist feat is amazing now!
@@sketchyfox7368 I was about to comment the same thing!
Also to add onto what others have said Dueling fighting style doesn't stop you from using a shield so it's still vaild to be a str fighter and pick that up to prone people hit them with your rapier and when they get up to attack you in melee you can defensive duelist to raise your ac by your proficiency bonus against melee attacks until the start of your next turn
Stat wise and armor wise I'd recommend investing mainly in str and con and have dex at 13 so when you get defensive duelist it'll go to 14 and be in prime range for medium armor and potentially medium armor master later down the line from there you do you and have fun
Never will range Will be weak
Its just plane better in world most of the times.
Specialy since the enemies mostly are melee ones
100% agree with you. It’s just nice that in addition to that benefit, it’s no longer the automatic go-to best damage option.
@@DM-Timothy yep making melee more usablee is very Nice it avoids shoe horn players into range
@@LordDany 100%
Great weapons master works with heavy crossbows lol
A bit odd, right? Lol
your background is very distracting.
Sorry you found it so! Thanks for the feedback.
Remember kids, 4.5 is backwards compatible so now you can stack new great weapon master and old sharpshooter on your heavy xbow
Remember kids, your DM is the arbiter of their game, so when they tell you you can't mix and match versions (and that you shouldn't have tried, just to cheese the mechanics more than the rules allow), don't be angry. Be a grownup.
I’m sure there will be some tables where that kind of thing will be enjoyed and possible. They won’t be MY tables, lol, but if everyone is having fun, have at it!
Also just not how the backwards compatibility works, it's anything that didn't get changed moves forward as if nothing happened
Hi I'm a grown up that recognizes that wotc pushed out a product that needs a ton of errata to a book ppl have paid for 1 months after coming out cuz they were more concerned with sales and "anniversary" budget quotas.
Had they done more extensive play testing the best martial probably wouldn't be a bladelock who has access to 9th level spells...
That being said try out the DC20 game by dungeon coach who actually cares about the product they put out and not "getting their money out of people's wallets"
@@DeadpoolAli Welcome! We happen to disagree on a few things, but I appreciate your comment nonetheless.