We're Live on Twitch! www.twitch.tv/blaine_simple *Updates!* * You can actually force feed healing potions to downed character. You still can't throw them to heal people, though. * Critical hits also affect death saves by bringing up back to 1 hp, and also double the damage dice for attacks. I was mostly referring to how critical ability checks aren't official, but glanced over the extra effect on damage rolls. * Clerics were only locked into being one alignment tick off from their god in older editions! * Rest variants are actually another obscure rule from the DMG! It's essentially forgotten about though, and more often homebrewed than utilized, but it's there!
Most people aren't ignoring components, every caster class starts with either a focus or a component pouch suitable for their class. Except rangers, who seemingly don't have a focus for their class unless you use the optional rule that lets them use a druidic focus. "Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in chapter 5) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell." -phb chapter 10, 'components'
the dmg and phb does specify you can adminster a potion to a creature with as action, and it doesn't specify the creature needs to be conscious. sure you cannot throw them on them to simply get them back up, but you can adminster them when your allies are down.
Exactly. Potions, as a general rule, are _literally liquid magic._ Why "should" they be restricted to such mundane biological concepts as "digestion"? You just have to unambiguously get the potion fluid "inside the body" of the person you're trying to use it on (huh, homebrew potential for a combat medic with a syringe crossbow inflicting injected potion effects?)...
3:50 The components aren't random; they're references to how certain effects are made in reality, idioms, or magic tricks. Fireball requires bat poop and sulfur, common ingredients in simple explosives. Detect Thoughts uses a copper piece to play on "A penny for your thoughts." Lightning Bolt uses fur and amber to generate static electricity. And so on.
In regards to reviving a downed party member with a potion. It is, in fact, possible to force feed liquids to an unconscious person, so pouring a healing potion down the throat of an unconscious party member would work (in my experience, apart from BG3, giving a downed party member a healing potion requires being in an adjacent space). Also, the rules state that a potion can be administered to another creature and does not specify that the creature must not be unconscious.
And that's not counting the fact that in DnD, potions are magical in nature. So they wouldn't need to go through your whole digestive tract to be effective
@@ofnir123 ^ This. Also iirc the description of a Potion of Healing states that drinking or *administering* a potion takes an Action. Administering doesn't necassairy mean feeding. It can also mean just pouring the damn thing over someone. XD
To correct you on clerics, they had to be within one-step away from their deity's alignment, not that they had to be good. A better example would be 3.5 having bards/barbarians needing to be anything but lawful and druids having to be neutral somewhere on their alignment. Oddly enough, rogues had no such restrictions.
Pathfinder's Gray Paladins where nice for this reason. Had to be a good god, but you could be Neutral or Chaotic. Or even Lawful Neutral, with the right God.
On the first one about nat 1 & 20, "They just guarantee that some of your attack hit or miss" The rules do still state that you roll double the amount of damage dice. The way you said it makes it sound like a nat 20 on an attack gets no bonuses other than guaranteeing the hit. PHB chapter 9, Making an attack, Attack rolls: Rolling 1 or 20 Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. Later in the same chapter under damage and healing: Critical Hits When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.
Also, the vid just says "D&D", but it should be mentioned, this is only true for *5E* D&D. Critical hits and critical misses used to be more impactful in prior editions, mainly 3e and 3.5.
@@Niko__01 Good point. Though I feel like when the majority of people hear "D&D", their first thought would be 5E first, then think of other editions afterwards.
Also on the topic of Spellcasting Material Components, some forget the "which the spell consumes" note here and there. I remember thinking, if it had a gold cost, you expend the item regardless. Then I read the Sage Advice Compendium, and found out it has to say that an item is consumed in order to be consumed. Otherwise, you keep it and can use the costly component again and again.
In 5e... Spell Focus Item = Component Pouch... So unless it's money, consumed item, or artifacts. Then both of these items can forgo the Material stuff. Spell Focus ignores Material Costs and Component Pouch contains all Materials. Plus... You don't need a Free Hand to use both items because the Specific Rule gives you a Free Hand. Just remember that Semantics and Hand Gestures are not negated normally. This isn't like Dark Souls 1 where you had to hold a Staff separately from your other weapon or shield. And Paladins can put their Spell Focus on Shields. Turning their Shield into their Spell Focus.
So glad I read this! Holy shit! I just assumed that if the spell had a gold component it consumed the item. But also means that the players still need to find or expect to be given the items for whatever spells they chose?
Rest variants are actually a game option in the Dungeon Master's Guide. There are actually several optional rules in chapter 9 of the DMG, all of which read like some kind of homebrew rules. It's actually pretty wild; proficiency dice, plot points, and even additional abilities, honor and sanity. All things I've heard of, but thought were some homebrew rules that get passed around Reddit, I didn't think these were not only official rules options, but from CORE.
@@almondsai7214 I shared that with my party last night and the fighter got really excited. Good thing too, as we are currently fighting a horde of zombies.
@@almondsai7214 in the campaign I run, I have two PCs, a college of swords Bard and a bear totem Barbarian. The Bard has magic but is mainly martial, and the Barbarian is obviously also martial. They got cleave at level 4. They felt so much more powerful since they could now hit several weaker enemies with a single turn, which is important when you have two PCs being outnumbered.
2 mistakes on the critical rolls bit : firstly: they apply to death saving throws as well as attacks with nat 1 meaning 2 death saves and nat 20 meaning you heal 1 hp. Secondly: rolling nat 20 on an attack roll does more than just auto-hit, it also doubles the damage dice.
not to be a grammar nazi, but it should be noted, you are set to 1 hp on a nat 20 death save, you don't heal any. in cases like chill touch that prevent healing, you'd still get up at 1 hp because of the wording
@@SamLabbato You're wrong. Chapter 9: Combat - Healing details that healing is hit points "regained". Cure Wounds spell details target "regains" hit point. So, regain hit points = healing. And would ya look at that, right there in Death Saving Throws: "If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point." EVEN IF you don't wanna subscribe to "regain" meaning healing, the actual wordage of Chill Touch is "it can't regain hit points" which matches that DST nat 20 "regains 1 hit point" - so either way, Chill Touch does, in fact, prevent nat 20 effect on DST.
And you don’t need it, _so long as it’s not consumed_ The number of spells that actually do that below 5th level is like 4, and all of those are for balance concerns, eg Glyph of Warding.
Yeah, I can see requiring you to get components for consumables, but "you can't use that spell until you can find a place selling crystal balls"? Yeah, I'll just have them spend the gold when they get the spell and be done with it, thanks.
7:11 bg3 remade rule with getting up. revived characters loose ACTION for 1 turn, witch is much worser then just speed. most of classes cant do anything with bonus action only, and its good option against players who abuse thing with "fall, restore 1 hp, make attack , fall, again" (i forgot the name of it.)
I have a rule: if last turn you were down and now have hp, you need to make a con save, fail, you still sleeping and lose the turn, pass and you have your turn normaly. The test is 9+N(number of times you went 0 hp/down).
I have rarely seen DMs give a (deliberate) pass to casters not having the expensive components on hand. I've seen a DM who didn't know better allow a caster without the component to cast the spell, but when he went and looked it up, he put a stop to that. Getting the material component can sometimes be a mini-quest or a downtime activity all its own!
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 And anything that has a gp value. So you can't use an arcane focus to replace the 100 gp pearl required for _identify,_ for example. You need to get the pearl. Once you have it, you can cast _identify_ any time you have the spell slot, though. Or as a ritual.
@@segevstormlord3713 True... Also, Spell Scrolls can cast spells for free. Provided, that either an NPC or PC makes one. You already spent the materials, money, and time to craft a Spell Scroll. But no one will use a Spell Scroll.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 Sure they will, as long as the spell is already in the wizard's spellbook. If not, it'll be used to put it there. But I've seen people use scrolls. Scrolls, for some reason, don't get saved quite the way potions do.
@@segevstormlord3713Probably just the way people think of them as resources. Scrolls, if not used for spell book copying, are seen as prepared spell slots beyond the normal pool. Potions are seen more as a lifeline or an ace in the hole. Plan C versus plan Z.
@@almondsai7214 Funny enough, the dUltimate kickstarter from a few years ago is conceptually pretty close to a spherical d20 (as well as the other types of dice)... oh, and the Orbidice _literally are_ spherical d20s (and other kinds, but not all on the same die).
Spell material components are fun. People are just scared of them because they assume it makes spellcasting a lot more complex, which it doesn't. The majority of spells don't consume the material so you just have to acquire the component one time and you're set from then on. Which means a small side trip to the arcane shop or searching around an area where you could reasonably find the material you need in the wilderness and that can lead to some fun roleplay. Not much difference from needing to be acquire weapons at a blacksmith when you think about it, weapons are like a material component to do melee attacks really.
Facts. To expand a little bit the spells description usually specifically includes the phrase “component is consumed” for applicable spells meaning as long as you have a spell component pouch you are good to go.
"5e usually tries to avoid a bunch of effects being stacked on top of each other" My 5e Fighter/Cleric/Paladin using the Archery fighting style (+2) with Sharpshooter (-5) on their +2 magic bow, benefiting from Guided Strike (+10), Precision Attack (+1d8) and Sacred Weapon (+CHA), while also having Bless (+1d4), Bardic Inspiration (+1d12) and Emboldening Bond (+1d4) active on them: lol sure
Long rest for a week is an official optional rule, and I'm not convinced about potions Also, undisclosed house rules are the worst. "You roll a nat 1, so you hit your ally... And this time you roll nat 1, but nothing happens, because it isn't dramatic." It was far from the worst game I had, but all that "I don't do rules, I do rulings, ask about everything" was just annoying
@@RositaDepre I don't mind house rules. What I personally don't like (though some people are perfectly fine with it, so personal preference) is when the game just works the way GM likes it to work at the moment, without a set list of house rules and without consistency (it was not playing favorites in a particular case)
Honestly, the main reason I don't use flanking is not that the advantage is too powerful, but that it invalidates certain class/race abilities. E.g. why should ANY barbarian ever use reckless attack if they can just move a little? Why would a rogue hide to gain advantage? Why would you choose Kobold for packtactics if everyone gets the same ability? Sure Faerie Fire is a great spell, but... useless if advantage is so easily accessible. And so on.
1. Nat 20 on attack roll does give a ciritcal hit and you roll double dice. Also of note, nat 1s and 20s affect death saves. 2. There's nothing in the rules preventing an unconscious character from gaining the benefits of a health potion if its fed to them. Your rule that they can't is the homebrew rule. 3. Both flanking and rest variants are OFFICIAL optional rules. Just because they're optional doesn't make them any less official.
A simple amendment to flanking: a creature that is being flanked cannot gain advantage when flanking another. It logically makes perfect sense. You can still have a huge chain of flanking but if you leap at the end of the chain it makes it so that only those on the edges gain flanking advantage. It also adds combat depth to some extent. If a party member is being flanked, you can choose to hop on either end of the chain - this will let you flank one specific enemy but also mean the other one still gets advantage, or you could if possible position your character adjacent to both flankers and turn it into a 2-v-2 flank where nobody has advantage.
@@sleepinggiant4062 But it makes it more exciting. Having everyone shifting around (or five foot stepping, or whatever you wanna call it) forces the players to react. Keeps things at least somewhat interesting, while still making sense since, you know, harder to fight when two people are on either side.
@@tyrongkojy - right, I understand that, but adding one combatant can only go into the conga line if they want flanking. If they don't, they miss out on it for that round.
@@sleepinggiant4062 And with everyone shifting around (or five foot stepping, or whatever you wanna call it) around, the players have to adapt. It's SOMETHING, and makes sense that, well, if someone is on either side of you things are harder for you.
I always assume that they acquire the components for whatever spells they prepare. I always tell them to take out the funds if they don’t specifically state they found said components.
clerics had to be good in REALLY old editions, already by 3.5 you could be a cleric of whatever alignment as long as it was within one "step" of your deity (so a cleric of a neutral good god could be lawful good, neutral good or chaotic good) EDIT: also Warlocks could be good in 3.5, the restriction was "any evil or any chaotic" so you could be a chaotic neutral or chaotic good warlock without issues
I think the thing with Natural 20s and Ones is just the fact of necessity. Obviously they wont grant massive godlike power or horrible curse, but the fact is is that if a 20 won't succeed the check, why have them make the check in the first place? Same with natural ones, if the check doesn't fail on a nat 1, then there shouldn't be a check made. Exception for checks which check for varying degrees of success, and contesting rolls.
7:03 the way I think about this is the person who heals you also helps you get back up though this rationale does break down in the face of ranged healing spells
Critical nat 20 get double damage. Critical Hits When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once. For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.
And we will never see someone not use them. I had an online session, and 4 players needed to enter a mansion, retrieve a prisoner, and escape 2 attackers waiting for them. Pretty simple right? So I decided to do it in theater of mind. Yeah no, never again. Keeping track of who was in range of whom, and where generally in the building was pretty much consuming all my mental capacity I usually have when running combats.
@@deamon6681 Ya'know you could use a map without the grid. Just have a measuring stick to work out ranges and if the minis are at least nearly touching then they're in melee
I think the main thing regarding the spell components is the simple question, "is it fun"? Most DMs try to add options or work around what makes the game more fun for the players, and much like having to keep track of arrows for archers, or the weight of every gold coin in your bag, being told that you can't cast the cool new spell you got just because you haven't had a chance to go shopping kills the fun factor. Also, much like players being unwilling to use potions much because they're "limited", having even more limits on whether you can cast your spells beyond spell slots, means players would be a lot less willing to use them. "Sorry, I know you're being beaten to death by this troll, but it'd cost me 100 gold worth of diamond dust to cast stoneskin on you, and I'd rather save it in case we need it later."
I feel like higher lvl spells like wish and reivifiy need to be limited by components but other than that spells are made too problematic from a balancing stand point without components busted with components not fun there needs to be more widely used over all spell components eg: necromancy has a conpounet of ash it's easy and cheap to get and each spell could cost a cirten amount of grams to cast and by lvl 20 you have no worry as you can make tons of it quickly
That was such a bane in a couple of campaigns I was in (both to level 20). The first one because we couldn't afford much due to low payouts (I shouldn't be saving up money for Revivify at level 15-20 and be unable to afford Raise Dead or Restoration at all). The second one is the Dungeon of the Mad Mage and we haven't seen a town or other place selling stuff since the 3rd floor.
@@robinthrush9672 yeah that seems like the dms fault i dm and play it and give generous amounts of gold per battle and gatekeep them by shop stock eg magic items so they don't run into saving up for spells but i balance it by saying spell casters and archers can only have a set amount ready before restock eg archers 60 arrows can hold more but need to refill quiver before hand
@@MrFranklystickly I agree. The first one was a homebrew campaign, which was fun, but I made the DM very aware of my troubles as a cleric by letting the party know not to be reckless given my ability to afford one cast of Revivify and saving up or pooling coins for Restoration (we were on a mission to save a prior party member who looked a basilisk in the eye and had the statue stolen).
I started playing in AD&D 2e then switched over to old world of darkness and just recently started 5e. 2e had the critical fumble rule with a nat 1 that resulted in you losing your weapon or getting it stuck. My dm added to it that things could go bad depending on the situation. We had one player who ran at someone twirling a morningstar above his head. His nat 1 caused him to misjudge the swing, trip because he was running, and tumble down the stairs behind the baddie. It was more for comedic effect but sometimes it did result in self wounds. In old world of darkness it had a critical failure system that specifically said it may result in self-injury or wounding an ally. Especially if using something unwieldy like a chainsaw, you might lose a limb (that was the description in the book). I just started 5e and I use those just because it’s what my players and myself are used to. I didn’t not know about the skill check thing though.
3:33 I might know where this comes from. For the artificer subclass alchemist, you can use an action to feed a experimental elixir, which are like potions but made by you
I have never seen a game where healing a downed player got them back on their feet. Even in baulder's gate 3 it takes away your action on your next turn if you were brought back up.
One thing came up on a session today that I found interesting -- underwater spellcasting. RAW, being underwater doesn't affect spells in any way, including those that have verbal or material components. However, you'll probably have trouble convincing the DM that Power Word Kill works perfectly fine underwater.
...It's a word, you have the breath to be underwater, and the rules for breathing are insane. What more do they need other than their feelings are hurt? lol, unless they specifically outlined beforehand how spellcasting in water works that's on the DM.
I never understood why people don't like spell components, especially for wizards. I had a 3e wizard ages ago, and I'd make sure to go out of my way to find the components for any new spells I learned then describe how he used it in casting the spell. I think my favorite was ice storm because we were in a frozen tundra some distance from a volcano, so he took some of the snow on the ground, melted it with his hands, then threw it, making it refreeze into shards before appearing over the enemies we were fighting and crashing down. Having to explain to one of the locals why I need bat shit was funny enough to also make it worth it honestly.
@@Delmworks Plus if people don't bother keeping track of arrows just because it's tedious and boring, then they'll also not bother keeping track of the equally tedious and boring spell components. Yes it can be fun but you kind of need the DM to make it fun, otherwise 99% of the time it'll just be boring.
You mentioned flanking is optional rule but there's a more extreme example. A lot of DMs use flanking optional rule but a lot don't. I've never met a DM that didn't allow feats and feats are an optional rule! "At certain levels, your class gives you the Ability Score Improvement feature. Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking that feature to take a feat of your choice instead. You can take each feat only once, unless the feat's description says otherwise." - PHB165.
I like the interpretation of the dice rolls on ability checks/attacks are how good/bad your luck was when attempting something. Did you roll a 1 while trying to sneak into a fortress? Well, a guard decided now was a good time to go on a smoke break. Did the heavy armor paladin roll double 20s on a stealth check in the tavern? A barmaid had a heel break while serving drinks, causing a massive commotion, ensuring nobody notice the platemale clad holy knight slip through the celler door.
3:55 Recently had my DM take my wand away from me and mid fight I had to convince an NPC to hand me his leather tunic to use in the material cost for casting Mage Armour.
The only one where alignment actually matters in 5e (and even BG3 did away with it) was Oathbreaker paladin if your DM actually let you play it, which did explicitly say you had to be of Evil alignment (which people tend to ignore anyway, and moreso now with BG3 even including it).
Rolling a 20 should be the equivalent of setting your strength score to +10 temporarily. That means that a strength 10 character has the equivalent of a 30 strength godlike creature. This also checks out realistically as feats of inhuman strength have been achieved through adrenaline removing limiters. All other ability score checks should follow the same logic in order to be fair.
I like alignment as a purely role play mechanic in my games. Players have an alignment and that alignment (hopefully) gives DM and party a way to predict what kinds of things they will try or want to do.
8:02 I would like to add that the entirety of the outer planes runs on that very philosophical structure to the point that entire realms can move to different dimensions when its inhabitants have the wrong alignment.
I personally like the alignment restriction* *As a Warlock player who specifically suggested the idea to my DM as a plot device regarding my Celestial patron. Forcing it on other players as a DM without their consent is a no-no.
I prefer alignment too. Without it, a lot of players seem to default to either themselves instead of a character or chaotic neutral impulsive. My only problem has been people thinking Neutral means I won't have the character do "evil" or dishonorable things, like kill an unconscious guard at the evil empire's base.
3:35 Usually the fantasy is that the character isn’t unconscious yet. They are unable to speak with blurred vision, fighting to stay alive. But they aren’t actually unconscious, which is why they can drink if necessary.
I have a unique ruleset that solves the problem of healing a downed player with a potion AND the getting up after a revive. 1. A player who is downed may not be healed by means such as a Healing Potion, Spells, etc. 2. Players have a new action: The Revive Action, where someone can spend their action to revive another party member (pulling them to their feet as part of it). They DO need to make a medicine check to do so (with the starting HP of the revived character being based on that, any rolls lower than 15 fail)
A home rule I've used for years when it comes to magic components is to ignore the components but have the magic user pay the cost. So if the component is 10,000 gp worth of diamond dust, they just mark off 10,000 gp instead of keeping a detailed inventory of components. It simplifies things and keeps the game rhythm from dropping. Narratively, if the players enjoy shopping, we say they bought the components when in town. Most of my players don't care for shopping so this works.
Just a mini homebrew potion rule: You can either take an action to guzzle a potion, or a bonus action to egg-smash it over your head. The former yields top results (i.e. 1d4+1 Healing would be 5 HP) while the latter is rolled normally
I have very recently started GMing a new campaign, and half the players are new to DnD. For the first session, I gave them a simpler version of the rules to learn, but none of it was homebrew rules. Every new session we play, I introduce a few more rules to help expand the new player's knowledge of the system, and I will also introduce a couple homebrew rules that I like to run at my table, while explaining to them what the rules as written are, and what change I made to those rules, so that they know what the actual rules are, and why I decided to change them. I feel like it helps the players learn the game a little more each time we play. It's the same thing with art; learn the fundamentals first, know what the rules are, and then decide how you want to break them afterwards.
The rule I use for healing potions is that you can use them as either a bonus action or a normal action. If you use a bonus action you roll for how much HP you get, but if you use a normal action you automatically get the maximum amount.
Clerics didn't need to be good in older editions, clerics of evil gods did exist, the only restriction was that you could only be one alignment away (either horizontally or vertically but not both) from your deity's alignment. So a cleric of a Lawful Good deity could only be Lawful Good, Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral. Also, Barbarians had to be Chaotic at character creation but could deviate from it after.
6:41; I do a little adjustment to this homebrew rule, if my player rolls lower than the average, I will then allow them to choose to take the 2, even though most of them actually do choose to take the average.
One time my game master said that we had advantage because an enemy was prone with ranged attacks, the official rules state the opposite; not only that, but it’s actually generally a pretty common rule in more than one RPG. If you are prone, you were a smaller target ranged attack, and are harder to hit.
another weird one is DMs who think spellcasters need to use a focus all the time by default, i don't know why but this happens very often whenever i join a game of 5e, im creating my character (usually a warlock) with the dm, and they suddenly hit me with "are you sure you want to start with a component pouch instead of a focus? you won't be able to cast spells if you do.", and the thing is, since it's such a small and insignificant detail, i never bother to argue against them.
I like the idea of contact healing potions specifically for healing on contact and not drinking. they would not heal at all if you drink them, and heal for less than a drinkable potion. but pouring it on a downed ally can get them back up.
4:22 I ignore spell components in my games, yes. But I also added a bunch of rules for martial characters, specifically the "stamina" system, where I let martials choose between doing damage to health or another counter, "stamina". Stamina is naturally less plentiful than hit points, and once a martial reduces their enemy's stamina to 0, they either lose their weapon, or if they don't have a weapon, they're knocked prone. I gave each official weapon an SP damage value and a special ability, to make each weapon choice feel unique. My aim was to give each weapon a function, some being better at disarming, others at actually dealing lethal damage, and the special abilities exacerbate each weapon's function. For example, I made so that Daggers are great weapons to get out of grapple locks or deal damage to grappled targets.
So about the flanking rule. We use a modified version of flanking that one of our friends tried when they did a oneshot. Simply to gain flanking advantage you must attack on the opposite side they were attacked at. For example a fighter on the right side of an enemy and had attacked them (they don’t have to hit) then the rogue goes to the left side of the enemy that one attack will have advantage unless it passes the enemy that was attacked turn. Love the content man keep it up.
I played with a bunch of old head types who loved 2nd edition for my old group, so I was hilariously aware of all of these, oh nothing like dropping to zero hit points over some water, slowly realizing and then beginning to roll a new character as quickly as possible while the group was still finishing combat
On Alignment: First, I'm pretty sure Cleric alignment has been "by your deity" choice since AD&D 2E. Pathfinder 2E chose to split the difference with Paladins by changing the class name to Champion and giving each alignment-based Cause a relevant title (LG is Paladin, LE is Tyrant, CG is Liberator, etc.). And now as of Remaster the alignment grid is gone for PCs (It's still functioning on a cosmic scale, but not relevant to mortals), replaced with either personal or religious Edicts and Anathemas as the character's moral guide rails, with some divine types being able to Sanctify as Holy or Unholy to gain those old Good Vs Evil alignment effects.
Flanking was a standard rule back in earlier editions, but it got demoted to optional in the oversimplification for 5th edition. The whole dis/advantage system is just a bandaid fix cutting out all the math of stacking adjustments.
I've never had the idea of administering portions to downed allies come up in an actual D&D game, but I kinda like to think of health potions like the water from the holy grail at the end of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
A really easy way to fix flanking is that you must be able to flank without being flanked yourself. If you are busy worrying what's on your back you can't really focus on ganging up on someone else. A good example of rules as written and using your brain.
as a dm, i do pseudo follow the allignment restriction rule but not to pure segrigation of classes, so basically, unless i rule it to be a part of said character's backstory (like an evil warlock who accidentally summoned a good patron), a warlock with a pact to a good patron will be good aligned in most scenarios unless it would restrict the things i can do with the party / break the continuity of the game
When I was a noob I never got my idea warped of what the rules were because I just simply assumed that the DM was using homebrew and improvised stuff half the time, which was cool with me.
The critical hit with a nat 20 and miss with a nat 1 is mostly because of previous editions of D&D where rolling a 20 was an automatic success and a potential critical hit, while a 1 was an automatic miss or failure. In 5th edition, they kept the benefits of rolling 20, but removed the penalty for rolling a 1, removing the 'risk/reward' nature of rolling the dice. This was partially offset by overall reducing the modifiers people could add to their rolls, and replacing most of the potential bonuses or penalties with 'advantage/disadvantage', which simplified the game, but removed a lot of the nuance of previous editions.
My DM has a homebrew rule for NAT 1's if you are making a ranged attack and there is a party member near where you are aiming they need to roll a DEX to avoid friendly fire. On the other hand if you are making a melee attack and roll a NAT 1 you need to make a DEX save or lose a grip on your weapon.
I never knew that people thought advantage/disadvantage stacked. I thought it was common knowledge that it was the exact opposite. Though to be fair, I thought that about most of these, that was just the most surprising.
Alignment is a core concept of the Great Wheel cosmology and Planescape. I can't see myself removing it from any of my 5e games as they will have ramifications in my planescape campaign
I like the 5×5 alignment grid. I use it as a reference for 'would my character think like this/do this readily?'. But dont use it to restrict players lol. We won't like that
Just wanted to say about why the Barbarian and the wizard with a boulder thing COULD work with the critical rules. The scrawny wizard getting a critical success could be attributed to finding just that right spot to nudge it and send it down a slope into the enemies, while the Barbarian could had just been standing on soft earth and sunk in while attempting to flirt it.
I only use alignment in my games to determine how the player character has acted during the sessions. I rarely use it. I mostly just use it. If a module requires a alignment check. If a player is mean they start floating towards the evil section, if they're a normal person, they're probably just going to float somewhere in neutral, if they go out of their way to help people, they would typically go into the good section. Again, it's totally based in my games based off of how that person in general presents themselves and actually acts as a person in game. I do not use it for any restrictions on items or classes though. I may in the future do so if I notice a particular player is acting mean to the party in general, I might Grant them a special item that is very useful but only usable if they repair their attitude.
Ok yes, crit 20's may not be official, but I have never seen anyone not use them, but I do feel like people should still have them make a little sense, like with the example you mentioned, there is no way in any of the hells that a scrawny wimp could life a huge boulder.
the deal I notice in some games I play or run when it comes to alignment is that mostly people ether just want to be chaotic neutral and do whatever they want, or want to play evil and play out their anger/frustration/darker urges. Examples are paladins who don't mind killing or doing slaughter(or were on a oath and were not following it at all while not being called oathbreakers), clerics who will let people die, wizards who will do fireball even if it kills a party member, etc. Don't get me wrong it can be fun to play some characters like that, but when like 3 of a 4 man party are like that, and that they do it in every game for years, it can get stale. Whenever a rule on not allowing CN or evil alignment characters get placed in a session 0 (or a restriction to where only one person can play CN or evil), a lot of the players lose interest. Last time this was done they thought backing out would derail and stop the game, until they noticed that there were five other people who wanted to play and were ok with the rule(also found out two of them were also constantly in games to where "everyone played evil all the time").
I uh... I didn't know just throwing healing potions onto someone wasn't an actual rule and neither did any of my players... I guess that ones really indoctrined. So I know the advantage and disadvantage stacking isn't an official rule, and once enough different disadvantages or advantages were applied to the same target I'd probably just opt for the actual ruling, but if it's only like, 3 effects, I think I'd rather stack it because that feels more fun.
We don't run the throwing healing potions in the game I play in, except for one specific circumstance. Someone was face first drowning in water, after a good roll someone managed to throw the potion next to them, breaking it and letting them swallow some of the potion. Would it be a common circumstance? No, definitely not. But I thought it was a creative and interesting idea.
I can’t believe how many people ask about flanking… it’s crazy, it was a good rule when a whole move was a 5foot step, not when you can run circles around people. The only way I would let rule work, is to bring back the “5 foot step” rule in tandum, and also need to do something with the mobile feat. Flanking should require some planning not just be nearly always on.
me and my friends run an alt version of flanking for advantage. instead of adv we get a +2 to the rate we hit them, and if they are surrounded it increases by +5. it's pretty handy honestly.
I use alignment as a DM - but its how people see the characters based on what they do. If you act lawfully evil, that's how everyone will see you. The character can change how they act and grow, and the peoples perception of them will change too.
In addition to Standing up after a revive, players also lose their carried items, like weapons. And I like to catch my players with it after they revive and walk away and then tell them when they want to make an attack that they don't have their weapon :)
I contemplated an advantage stacking option where it was a table and the advantage dice started at a d4 and goes up for each source in either direction (yes up to a d20+d20). If your “net-advantage” was 8 sources you just succeed or fail depending on if it was positive or negative. This encourages cooperation and not a whole party rolling to try and do something, could be exploited if the party is big enough though.
The problem with Lawful Good Paladins (and any other class, for that matter) is that people tend to play them as Lawful Stupid - that the character is so hide bound and inflexible that they make very bad decisions "because that is what my character would do". Alignment is meant as a guide, not a straight-jacket. Good doesn't always do good things, Evil doesn't always do evil things, life just isn't that cut and dry. Often the "evil" guy plays the part of the good and righteous leader, keeping his evil side in the shadows. The "good" guy, on the other hand, can do bad things in the name of the greater good. They can even be unsure if any particular action is good or bad, to the point of a tortured consciences.
I like spell components as they are as they help give more cost to casters to help a little bit in both evening the power gap of martials and casters, as well as preventing spam of more powerful spells. While non gp materials are there if a player really wants to get into the roleplay of describing how they cast their spells. As for alignment I like it as a guideline (for example I can look quickly at a new statblock and get a slight sense for what role it fills in a world, and if it's something that would make sense for what I need, without needing to read the full lore detail on the creature and potentially wasting time if it doesn't fit what I need, but I also feel like it can be bad if you use it as a hard rule, such as goblins having to be evil, or saying that a player character has to choose one specific alignment and punishing them if they don't stick to it.
Potions are magic effects tied to the potion not a chemical interacting with your body, so it makes perfect sense that a healing liquid can be applied by pouring it in the wound or simply over the body. It is not like drinking a small vial of liquid could realistically regrow your toes unless it is magic. Other potions might have different rules though: a potion of infravision might be an ointment you apply to eyelids, or instead of liquid you have a pill that needs to be eaten, a powder that is simpler to transport but needs to be mixed in liquid for drinking, or even a herb mix that has to be burned and the smoke inhaled. Actually, a potion of see invisible that is actually a pipeweed used by smoking it and the smoke will stick to invisible things so anyone can see them, but which only affects invisible things that enter the smoke might make an awesome scene out of simple side quest for fetching a magic item.
What I heard as he was talking through that first entry: Tell me you didn't research earlier editions of D&D before making this video, without telling me you didn't research earlier editions of D&D before making this video.
I mean, it's true that critical rolls do not apply in any way to skill checks, but if the official rulebooks say that all a nat 20 does is guarantee a hit, that's something new in 5th Edition. Every prior edition said right in the books, that a nat 20 means you get a guaranteed hit, but you also get to roll a second d20, and if the second roll would land a hit on the target, you get to roll damage twice and add them up for the *actual* damage that you do.
Listing flanking because it's an optional rule is like listing feats, which are also an optional rule (PHB 165). It's also weird that you brought up rest variants as "definitely not official" when they're both on DMG page 267.
As much as people might 'hate' alignment, there are mechanical features that are based on Alignment. Certain items and spells have alignment based rules, some enemies also have alignment based powers or effects.
2:57 I hate using potions because they are way way way too expensive for what they do. 7:10 needing to stand up after getting revived is pretty common. The real thing people ignore is that attunement ends if you die. So after the cleric revivifies you are unattuned from everything.
1:45 well you see, in uno stacking +2 is not official but guess what? as alot of people said "thanks for the great game we will take it from here" and everyone agreed to absolutely ignore the official rules and keep the +2 stacking
I honestly am very glad that many DMs ignore the rule of "1 disadvantage cancels out all advantage and vice versa". Cause if your opponent is blinded, bound, and you sneak up on him for your ranged attack, it would je really stupid that you lose your advantage just because they are prone.
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*Updates!*
* You can actually force feed healing potions to downed character. You still can't throw them to heal people, though.
* Critical hits also affect death saves by bringing up back to 1 hp, and also double the damage dice for attacks. I was mostly referring to how critical ability checks aren't official, but glanced over the extra effect on damage rolls.
* Clerics were only locked into being one alignment tick off from their god in older editions!
* Rest variants are actually another obscure rule from the DMG! It's essentially forgotten about though, and more often homebrewed than utilized, but it's there!
@BlaineSimple hey blaine, is Silver a girl or a femboy? WE NEED TO KNOW!
the crit roll house rule is dumb and i've always said it every table i've been at that runs it (even when i benefit)
Hello @BlaineSimple! Who is the artist of the girl in your Thumbnail? It's very good!
Rest Variants is not a homebrew rule, it's an alternative option found in the DMG
Most people aren't ignoring components, every caster class starts with either a focus or a component pouch suitable for their class. Except rangers, who seemingly don't have a focus for their class unless you use the optional rule that lets them use a druidic focus.
"Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in chapter 5) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell." -phb chapter 10, 'components'
the dmg and phb does specify you can adminster a potion to a creature with as action, and it doesn't specify the creature needs to be conscious. sure you cannot throw them on them to simply get them back up, but you can adminster them when your allies are down.
This. At my tables, you can drink a healing potion as a bonus action, but administering one takes a standard action.
@@samuelsouth.We do that with a bonus action you roll and with an action you get the max amount of healing from the potion.
Exactly. Potions, as a general rule, are _literally liquid magic._ Why "should" they be restricted to such mundane biological concepts as "digestion"? You just have to unambiguously get the potion fluid "inside the body" of the person you're trying to use it on (huh, homebrew potential for a combat medic with a syringe crossbow inflicting injected potion effects?)...
@@WackoMcGoose I like that last idea, like of of part of the attacks you can try to administer a potion
@@WackoMcGoose Good point. "Bran's been gored by a minotaur! How do we heal him?" Just pour the potion into his wound, duh!
3:50 The components aren't random; they're references to how certain effects are made in reality, idioms, or magic tricks. Fireball requires bat poop and sulfur, common ingredients in simple explosives. Detect Thoughts uses a copper piece to play on "A penny for your thoughts." Lightning Bolt uses fur and amber to generate static electricity. And so on.
... i had no idea, thats so funny, a wizard goin "Imma zap ya!" *shuffles feet around on the carpet*
The fact that darkvision’s material component is carrots is one of my personal favorites
Minor illusion is a piece of fleece; pulling the wool over their eyes. Sleep needs sand, rose petals, or a cricket.
@@polarknight5376 Mr. Sandman, a bed of roses (best I can figure for rose petals), and the sounds of the evening, I think. Yeah?
@@robinthrush9672 yep
In regards to reviving a downed party member with a potion. It is, in fact, possible to force feed liquids to an unconscious person, so pouring a healing potion down the throat of an unconscious party member would work (in my experience, apart from BG3, giving a downed party member a healing potion requires being in an adjacent space). Also, the rules state that a potion can be administered to another creature and does not specify that the creature must not be unconscious.
And that's not counting the fact that in DnD, potions are magical in nature. So they wouldn't need to go through your whole digestive tract to be effective
@@ofnir123 ^ This.
Also iirc the description of a Potion of Healing states that drinking or *administering* a potion takes an Action.
Administering doesn't necassairy mean feeding. It can also mean just pouring the damn thing over someone. XD
To correct you on clerics, they had to be within one-step away from their deity's alignment, not that they had to be good. A better example would be 3.5 having bards/barbarians needing to be anything but lawful and druids having to be neutral somewhere on their alignment. Oddly enough, rogues had no such restrictions.
Bards didn't need to be chaotic, they just couldn't be lawful. That's a *huge* difference cause alignment used to actually matter.
pretty sure Rogues or Thiefs could be any alignment except lawful.
Pathfinder's Gray Paladins where nice for this reason.
Had to be a good god, but you could be Neutral or Chaotic.
Or even Lawful Neutral, with the right God.
@@casteanpreswyn7528 Seems like I misremembered. Thanks.
@@Malkuth-Gaming in 3.5 there is no alignment restriction for rogues, and I didn't see anything looking in the 2e Advance PHB.
On the first one about nat 1 & 20, "They just guarantee that some of your attack hit or miss"
The rules do still state that you roll double the amount of damage dice. The way you said it makes it sound like a nat 20 on an attack gets no bonuses other than guaranteeing the hit.
PHB chapter 9, Making an attack, Attack rolls:
Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter.
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.
Later in the same chapter under damage and healing:
Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.
They also have additional affect when it comes to death saving throws.
Also, the vid just says "D&D", but it should be mentioned, this is only true for *5E* D&D. Critical hits and critical misses used to be more impactful in prior editions, mainly 3e and 3.5.
@@Niko__01 Good point. Though I feel like when the majority of people hear "D&D", their first thought would be 5E first, then think of other editions afterwards.
@@almondsai7214 I mean, they mention prior editions later in the video for alignments and class restrictions, so...
@@Niko__01 Yeah, but he was just talking about how it used to be an old rule that doesn't apply anymore.
Also on the topic of Spellcasting Material Components, some forget the "which the spell consumes" note here and there. I remember thinking, if it had a gold cost, you expend the item regardless. Then I read the Sage Advice Compendium, and found out it has to say that an item is consumed in order to be consumed. Otherwise, you keep it and can use the costly component again and again.
In 5e... Spell Focus Item = Component Pouch... So unless it's money, consumed item, or artifacts. Then both of these items can forgo the Material stuff.
Spell Focus ignores Material Costs and Component Pouch contains all Materials.
Plus... You don't need a Free Hand to use both items because the Specific Rule gives you a Free Hand. Just remember that Semantics and Hand Gestures are not negated normally. This isn't like Dark Souls 1 where you had to hold a Staff separately from your other weapon or shield.
And Paladins can put their Spell Focus on Shields. Turning their Shield into their Spell Focus.
That might be a holdover from earlier editions. Back in 3.5, they consumed the material component by default.
So glad I read this! Holy shit! I just assumed that if the spell had a gold component it consumed the item. But also means that the players still need to find or expect to be given the items for whatever spells they chose?
Rest variants are actually a game option in the Dungeon Master's Guide. There are actually several optional rules in chapter 9 of the DMG, all of which read like some kind of homebrew rules. It's actually pretty wild; proficiency dice, plot points, and even additional abilities, honor and sanity. All things I've heard of, but thought were some homebrew rules that get passed around Reddit, I didn't think these were not only official rules options, but from CORE.
Yeah, I recently was told about the cleaving additional rule, and it's so good for martials.
@@almondsai7214 I shared that with my party last night and the fighter got really excited. Good thing too, as we are currently fighting a horde of zombies.
THANK YOU
@@almondsai7214 in the campaign I run, I have two PCs, a college of swords Bard and a bear totem Barbarian. The Bard has magic but is mainly martial, and the Barbarian is obviously also martial. They got cleave at level 4. They felt so much more powerful since they could now hit several weaker enemies with a single turn, which is important when you have two PCs being outnumbered.
2 mistakes on the critical rolls bit : firstly: they apply to death saving throws as well as attacks with nat 1 meaning 2 death saves and nat 20 meaning you heal 1 hp. Secondly: rolling nat 20 on an attack roll does more than just auto-hit, it also doubles the damage dice.
Yeah, I was coming down to see if anyone pointed out that critical hits ARE a thing for attacks. They just don’t do anything for skills.
not to be a grammar nazi, but it should be noted, you are set to 1 hp on a nat 20 death save, you don't heal any. in cases like chill touch that prevent healing, you'd still get up at 1 hp because of the wording
@@SamLabbato You're wrong. Chapter 9: Combat - Healing details that healing is hit points "regained". Cure Wounds spell details target "regains" hit point. So, regain hit points = healing. And would ya look at that, right there in Death Saving Throws: "If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point." EVEN IF you don't wanna subscribe to "regain" meaning healing, the actual wordage of Chill Touch is "it can't regain hit points" which matches that DST nat 20 "regains 1 hit point" - so either way, Chill Touch does, in fact, prevent nat 20 effect on DST.
Evil Clerics existed in First Edition. Evil Clerics even had variant Cleric Spells and different magic items geared towards them.
I was thinking about that, a better example would be rangers having to be of good alignment.
Yeah I miss the reversible spells!
Components suck because not every one has a lock of lesbian hair or a unicorn toe just to cast a spell
And you don’t need it, _so long as it’s not consumed_
The number of spells that actually do that below 5th level is like 4, and all of those are for balance concerns, eg Glyph of Warding.
I will next time I see your mom
You say that, but a lot of components are jokes, like detect thoughts, most illusion spells, message, darkvision, the list goes on
Yeah, I can see requiring you to get components for consumables, but "you can't use that spell until you can find a place selling crystal balls"? Yeah, I'll just have them spend the gold when they get the spell and be done with it, thanks.
@@maddie9602 cause the poor reality warpers need the help. Lol
7:11 bg3 remade rule with getting up. revived characters loose ACTION for 1 turn, witch is much worser then just speed. most of classes cant do anything with bonus action only, and its good option against players who abuse thing with "fall, restore 1 hp, make attack , fall, again" (i forgot the name of it.)
I have a rule: if last turn you were down and now have hp, you need to make a con save, fail, you still sleeping and lose the turn, pass and you have your turn normaly. The test is 9+N(number of times you went 0 hp/down).
@@Vykerocha pretty good idea
I have rarely seen DMs give a (deliberate) pass to casters not having the expensive components on hand. I've seen a DM who didn't know better allow a caster without the component to cast the spell, but when he went and looked it up, he put a stop to that. Getting the material component can sometimes be a mini-quest or a downtime activity all its own!
Depends... RAW wise... As only consumed items, money, and artifacts cannot be accessed by any Spell Focus nor Component Pouch.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 And anything that has a gp value. So you can't use an arcane focus to replace the 100 gp pearl required for _identify,_ for example. You need to get the pearl. Once you have it, you can cast _identify_ any time you have the spell slot, though. Or as a ritual.
@@segevstormlord3713
True... Also, Spell Scrolls can cast spells for free. Provided, that either an NPC or PC makes one. You already spent the materials, money, and time to craft a Spell Scroll.
But no one will use a Spell Scroll.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 Sure they will, as long as the spell is already in the wizard's spellbook. If not, it'll be used to put it there.
But I've seen people use scrolls. Scrolls, for some reason, don't get saved quite the way potions do.
@@segevstormlord3713Probably just the way people think of them as resources. Scrolls, if not used for spell book copying, are seen as prepared spell slots beyond the normal pool. Potions are seen more as a lifeline or an ace in the hole. Plan C versus plan Z.
Pentagon d20 is my worst nightmare
1:30 Worse, hexagon d20.
At least pentagon would be flatening all faces around a point.
@@aidanpalmer1075 Even worse, spherical d20.
@@almondsai7214 Funny enough, the dUltimate kickstarter from a few years ago is conceptually pretty close to a spherical d20 (as well as the other types of dice)... oh, and the Orbidice _literally are_ spherical d20s (and other kinds, but not all on the same die).
Whenever I change a rule I make it clear to my players as soon as I can that that's what we're going to be doing in the game, bans included.
Spell material components are fun. People are just scared of them because they assume it makes spellcasting a lot more complex, which it doesn't. The majority of spells don't consume the material so you just have to acquire the component one time and you're set from then on. Which means a small side trip to the arcane shop or searching around an area where you could reasonably find the material you need in the wilderness and that can lead to some fun roleplay. Not much difference from needing to be acquire weapons at a blacksmith when you think about it, weapons are like a material component to do melee attacks really.
Facts. To expand a little bit the spells description usually specifically includes the phrase “component is consumed” for applicable spells meaning as long as you have a spell component pouch you are good to go.
"5e usually tries to avoid a bunch of effects being stacked on top of each other"
My 5e Fighter/Cleric/Paladin using the Archery fighting style (+2) with Sharpshooter (-5) on their +2 magic bow, benefiting from Guided Strike (+10), Precision Attack (+1d8) and Sacred Weapon (+CHA), while also having Bless (+1d4), Bardic Inspiration (+1d12) and Emboldening Bond (+1d4) active on them: lol sure
Long rest for a week is an official optional rule, and I'm not convinced about potions
Also, undisclosed house rules are the worst. "You roll a nat 1, so you hit your ally... And this time you roll nat 1, but nothing happens, because it isn't dramatic." It was far from the worst game I had, but all that "I don't do rules, I do rulings, ask about everything" was just annoying
Yeah, rules are really important for ttrpgs. And he was wrong about potions, as well. You can't throw them, but you can feed them to downed creatures.
It's good to add special rules per table, it's not good to not talk about it previously so that everyone can come to an agreement
@@RositaDepre I don't mind house rules. What I personally don't like (though some people are perfectly fine with it, so personal preference) is when the game just works the way GM likes it to work at the moment, without a set list of house rules and without consistency (it was not playing favorites in a particular case)
@@nabra97 I completely agree with you
Honestly, the main reason I don't use flanking is not that the advantage is too powerful, but that it invalidates certain class/race abilities. E.g. why should ANY barbarian ever use reckless attack if they can just move a little? Why would a rogue hide to gain advantage? Why would you choose Kobold for packtactics if everyone gets the same ability? Sure Faerie Fire is a great spell, but... useless if advantage is so easily accessible. And so on.
1. Nat 20 on attack roll does give a ciritcal hit and you roll double dice. Also of note, nat 1s and 20s affect death saves.
2. There's nothing in the rules preventing an unconscious character from gaining the benefits of a health potion if its fed to them. Your rule that they can't is the homebrew rule.
3. Both flanking and rest variants are OFFICIAL optional rules. Just because they're optional doesn't make them any less official.
A simple amendment to flanking: a creature that is being flanked cannot gain advantage when flanking another. It logically makes perfect sense. You can still have a huge chain of flanking but if you leap at the end of the chain it makes it so that only those on the edges gain flanking advantage. It also adds combat depth to some extent. If a party member is being flanked, you can choose to hop on either end of the chain - this will let you flank one specific enemy but also mean the other one still gets advantage, or you could if possible position your character adjacent to both flankers and turn it into a 2-v-2 flank where nobody has advantage.
Flanking also works diagonally, at least in 4e. It's less a conga line, if you're actually trying to make things interesting.
When adding one combatant to get flanking, you still need to make a line to get flanking, even diagonally.
@@sleepinggiant4062 But it makes it more exciting. Having everyone shifting around (or five foot stepping, or whatever you wanna call it) forces the players to react. Keeps things at least somewhat interesting, while still making sense since, you know, harder to fight when two people are on either side.
@@tyrongkojy - right, I understand that, but adding one combatant can only go into the conga line if they want flanking. If they don't, they miss out on it for that round.
@@sleepinggiant4062 And with everyone shifting around (or five foot stepping, or whatever you wanna call it) around, the players have to adapt. It's SOMETHING, and makes sense that, well, if someone is on either side of you things are harder for you.
I always assume that they acquire the components for whatever spells they prepare. I always tell them to take out the funds if they don’t specifically state they found said components.
clerics had to be good in REALLY old editions, already by 3.5 you could be a cleric of whatever alignment as long as it was within one "step" of your deity (so a cleric of a neutral good god could be lawful good, neutral good or chaotic good)
EDIT: also Warlocks could be good in 3.5, the restriction was "any evil or any chaotic" so you could be a chaotic neutral or chaotic good warlock without issues
I think the thing with Natural 20s and Ones is just the fact of necessity. Obviously they wont grant massive godlike power or horrible curse, but the fact is is that if a 20 won't succeed the check, why have them make the check in the first place? Same with natural ones, if the check doesn't fail on a nat 1, then there shouldn't be a check made. Exception for checks which check for varying degrees of success, and contesting rolls.
the thing on nat 20s wasn't entirely correct. Getting a crit on an attack roll also grants you additional damage (roll double the dice).
It also has additional affects while you're making death saving throws.
7:03 the way I think about this is the person who heals you also helps you get back up though this rationale does break down in the face of ranged healing spells
Critical nat 20 get double damage.
Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.
For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.
Yeah, I was gunna say this too. lol
That's as home rule not a book rule I'm 99% surw
Imagine, for 6:40 , you have a character with -2 con and roll a 2 on hp. Your character was born stillborn, reroll nerd.
No, they'd have 1 HP, because 1 HP is the minimum. Unless your GM is less into old-school D&D and more into old-school Traveller.
@@Viehzerrer fair enough, but if a DM sees a player effectively get 0 max hp, they should promptly offer a reroll regardless.
Fun fact, Gridded combat maps are technicallt a variant rule
And we will never see someone not use them.
I had an online session, and 4 players needed to enter a mansion, retrieve a prisoner, and escape 2 attackers waiting for them. Pretty simple right? So I decided to do it in theater of mind. Yeah no, never again. Keeping track of who was in range of whom, and where generally in the building was pretty much consuming all my mental capacity I usually have when running combats.
@@deamon6681 Ya'know you could use a map without the grid. Just have a measuring stick to work out ranges and if the minis are at least nearly touching then they're in melee
@@LordZeebee
I have a map, my comment was about thinking not using it is ok for a small encounter, and how wrong that idea turned out to be.
@@deamon6681yeah, that's why you only ToTM simple things, like combat with 2 guards at the gate or something similar
I gave potion tossing to heal as a feat in 3.5. Called it potion pitcher like ff tactics. The prerequite was potion making.
I think the main thing regarding the spell components is the simple question, "is it fun"? Most DMs try to add options or work around what makes the game more fun for the players, and much like having to keep track of arrows for archers, or the weight of every gold coin in your bag, being told that you can't cast the cool new spell you got just because you haven't had a chance to go shopping kills the fun factor.
Also, much like players being unwilling to use potions much because they're "limited", having even more limits on whether you can cast your spells beyond spell slots, means players would be a lot less willing to use them.
"Sorry, I know you're being beaten to death by this troll, but it'd cost me 100 gold worth of diamond dust to cast stoneskin on you, and I'd rather save it in case we need it later."
I feel like higher lvl spells like wish and reivifiy need to be limited by components but other than that spells are made too problematic from a balancing stand point without components busted with components not fun there needs to be more widely used over all spell components eg: necromancy has a conpounet of ash it's easy and cheap to get and each spell could cost a cirten amount of grams to cast and by lvl 20 you have no worry as you can make tons of it quickly
Also the arrow tracking is good as it keeps players imersted and weary also it gives artificers a use
That was such a bane in a couple of campaigns I was in (both to level 20). The first one because we couldn't afford much due to low payouts (I shouldn't be saving up money for Revivify at level 15-20 and be unable to afford Raise Dead or Restoration at all). The second one is the Dungeon of the Mad Mage and we haven't seen a town or other place selling stuff since the 3rd floor.
@@robinthrush9672 yeah that seems like the dms fault i dm and play it and give generous amounts of gold per battle and gatekeep them by shop stock eg magic items so they don't run into saving up for spells but i balance it by saying spell casters and archers can only have a set amount ready before restock eg archers 60 arrows can hold more but need to refill quiver before hand
@@MrFranklystickly I agree. The first one was a homebrew campaign, which was fun, but I made the DM very aware of my troubles as a cleric by letting the party know not to be reckless given my ability to afford one cast of Revivify and saving up or pooling coins for Restoration (we were on a mission to save a prior party member who looked a basilisk in the eye and had the statue stolen).
I started playing in AD&D 2e then switched over to old world of darkness and just recently started 5e. 2e had the critical fumble rule with a nat 1 that resulted in you losing your weapon or getting it stuck. My dm added to it that things could go bad depending on the situation. We had one player who ran at someone twirling a morningstar above his head. His nat 1 caused him to misjudge the swing, trip because he was running, and tumble down the stairs behind the baddie. It was more for comedic effect but sometimes it did result in self wounds.
In old world of darkness it had a critical failure system that specifically said it may result in self-injury or wounding an ally. Especially if using something unwieldy like a chainsaw, you might lose a limb (that was the description in the book).
I just started 5e and I use those just because it’s what my players and myself are used to. I didn’t not know about the skill check thing though.
3:33 I might know where this comes from. For the artificer subclass alchemist, you can use an action to feed a experimental elixir, which are like potions but made by you
I have never seen a game where healing a downed player got them back on their feet. Even in baulder's gate 3 it takes away your action on your next turn if you were brought back up.
One thing came up on a session today that I found interesting -- underwater spellcasting. RAW, being underwater doesn't affect spells in any way, including those that have verbal or material components. However, you'll probably have trouble convincing the DM that Power Word Kill works perfectly fine underwater.
...It's a word, you have the breath to be underwater, and the rules for breathing are insane. What more do they need other than their feelings are hurt? lol, unless they specifically outlined beforehand how spellcasting in water works that's on the DM.
Rule people think is offical
Landing on "Free Parking" means you can take all the money in the bank
I n t h e b a n k ? !
The whole bank? Damn, when can I land on free parking?
I never understood why people don't like spell components, especially for wizards. I had a 3e wizard ages ago, and I'd make sure to go out of my way to find the components for any new spells I learned then describe how he used it in casting the spell. I think my favorite was ice storm because we were in a frozen tundra some distance from a volcano, so he took some of the snow on the ground, melted it with his hands, then threw it, making it refreeze into shards before appearing over the enemies we were fighting and crashing down. Having to explain to one of the locals why I need bat shit was funny enough to also make it worth it honestly.
Most people do not want to go to that level of effort for them.
@@Delmworks Plus if people don't bother keeping track of arrows just because it's tedious and boring, then they'll also not bother keeping track of the equally tedious and boring spell components. Yes it can be fun but you kind of need the DM to make it fun, otherwise 99% of the time it'll just be boring.
You mentioned flanking is optional rule but there's a more extreme example. A lot of DMs use flanking optional rule but a lot don't. I've never met a DM that didn't allow feats and feats are an optional rule!
"At certain levels, your class gives you the Ability Score Improvement feature. Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking that feature to take a feat of your choice instead. You can take each feat only once, unless the feat's description says otherwise." - PHB165.
I like the interpretation of the dice rolls on ability checks/attacks are how good/bad your luck was when attempting something. Did you roll a 1 while trying to sneak into a fortress? Well, a guard decided now was a good time to go on a smoke break. Did the heavy armor paladin roll double 20s on a stealth check in the tavern? A barmaid had a heel break while serving drinks, causing a massive commotion, ensuring nobody notice the platemale clad holy knight slip through the celler door.
How exactly would the guard being on smoke break make it harder to sneak i to the fortress?
@@patrickholzer6415alternate unplanned route, bumping into the party, I'd assume?
@@patrickholzer6415 he went out the back door the second you were going through
3:55 Recently had my DM take my wand away from me and mid fight I had to convince an NPC to hand me his leather tunic to use in the material cost for casting Mage Armour.
I like flanking for +2 because advantage is really powerful
2:21 this is how our halfling wizard pushed a boulder
Actually, a nat20 doesn't just "guarantee a hit", it also increases damage. So it does make you stronger.
The only one where alignment actually matters in 5e (and even BG3 did away with it) was Oathbreaker paladin if your DM actually let you play it, which did explicitly say you had to be of Evil alignment (which people tend to ignore anyway, and moreso now with BG3 even including it).
Rolling a 20 should be the equivalent of setting your strength score to +10 temporarily. That means that a strength 10 character has the equivalent of a 30 strength godlike creature.
This also checks out realistically as feats of inhuman strength have been achieved through adrenaline removing limiters.
All other ability score checks should follow the same logic in order to be fair.
I like alignment as a purely role play mechanic in my games. Players have an alignment and that alignment (hopefully) gives DM and party a way to predict what kinds of things they will try or want to do.
Natural 20s on attack rolls also do double your damage dice, on top of automatically hitting.
8:02 I would like to add that the entirety of the outer planes runs on that very philosophical structure to the point that entire realms can move to different dimensions when its inhabitants have the wrong alignment.
I personally like the alignment restriction*
*As a Warlock player who specifically suggested the idea to my DM as a plot device regarding my Celestial patron. Forcing it on other players as a DM without their consent is a no-no.
Bro this kinda thing is mentioned at the start. If the player doesn't wanna deal with it they can just fuck off.
I prefer alignment too. Without it, a lot of players seem to default to either themselves instead of a character or chaotic neutral impulsive. My only problem has been people thinking Neutral means I won't have the character do "evil" or dishonorable things, like kill an unconscious guard at the evil empire's base.
3:35 Usually the fantasy is that the character isn’t unconscious yet. They are unable to speak with blurred vision, fighting to stay alive. But they aren’t actually unconscious, which is why they can drink if necessary.
I have a unique ruleset that solves the problem of healing a downed player with a potion AND the getting up after a revive.
1. A player who is downed may not be healed by means such as a Healing Potion, Spells, etc.
2. Players have a new action: The Revive Action, where someone can spend their action to revive another party member (pulling them to their feet as part of it). They DO need to make a medicine check to do so (with the starting HP of the revived character being based on that, any rolls lower than 15 fail)
Fun Fact: Bat guano was used in explosives in the real world, so making it an ingredient for Fire Ball actually makes some sense. lol🔥
A home rule I've used for years when it comes to magic components is to ignore the components but have the magic user pay the cost. So if the component is 10,000 gp worth of diamond dust, they just mark off 10,000 gp instead of keeping a detailed inventory of components. It simplifies things and keeps the game rhythm from dropping. Narratively, if the players enjoy shopping, we say they bought the components when in town. Most of my players don't care for shopping so this works.
Just a mini homebrew potion rule: You can either take an action to guzzle a potion, or a bonus action to egg-smash it over your head. The former yields top results (i.e. 1d4+1 Healing would be 5 HP) while the latter is rolled normally
I have very recently started GMing a new campaign, and half the players are new to DnD. For the first session, I gave them a simpler version of the rules to learn, but none of it was homebrew rules. Every new session we play, I introduce a few more rules to help expand the new player's knowledge of the system, and I will also introduce a couple homebrew rules that I like to run at my table, while explaining to them what the rules as written are, and what change I made to those rules, so that they know what the actual rules are, and why I decided to change them. I feel like it helps the players learn the game a little more each time we play.
It's the same thing with art; learn the fundamentals first, know what the rules are, and then decide how you want to break them afterwards.
The rule I use for healing potions is that you can use them as either a bonus action or a normal action. If you use a bonus action you roll for how much HP you get, but if you use a normal action you automatically get the maximum amount.
Clerics didn't need to be good in older editions, clerics of evil gods did exist, the only restriction was that you could only be one alignment away (either horizontally or vertically but not both) from your deity's alignment. So a cleric of a Lawful Good deity could only be Lawful Good, Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral. Also, Barbarians had to be Chaotic at character creation but could deviate from it after.
6:41; I do a little adjustment to this homebrew rule, if my player rolls lower than the average, I will then allow them to choose to take the 2, even though most of them actually do choose to take the average.
One time my game master said that we had advantage because an enemy was prone with ranged attacks, the official rules state the opposite; not only that, but it’s actually generally a pretty common rule in more than one RPG. If you are prone, you were a smaller target ranged attack, and are harder to hit.
another weird one is DMs who think spellcasters need to use a focus all the time by default, i don't know why but this happens very often whenever i join a game of 5e, im creating my character (usually a warlock) with the dm, and they suddenly hit me with "are you sure you want to start with a component pouch instead of a focus? you won't be able to cast spells if you do.", and the thing is, since it's such a small and insignificant detail, i never bother to argue against them.
I like the idea of contact healing potions specifically for healing on contact and not drinking. they would not heal at all if you drink them, and heal for less than a drinkable potion. but pouring it on a downed ally can get them back up.
4:22
I ignore spell components in my games, yes. But I also added a bunch of rules for martial characters, specifically the "stamina" system, where I let martials choose between doing damage to health or another counter, "stamina". Stamina is naturally less plentiful than hit points, and once a martial reduces their enemy's stamina to 0, they either lose their weapon, or if they don't have a weapon, they're knocked prone. I gave each official weapon an SP damage value and a special ability, to make each weapon choice feel unique. My aim was to give each weapon a function, some being better at disarming, others at actually dealing lethal damage, and the special abilities exacerbate each weapon's function. For example, I made so that Daggers are great weapons to get out of grapple locks or deal damage to grappled targets.
So about the flanking rule. We use a modified version of flanking that one of our friends tried when they did a oneshot. Simply to gain flanking advantage you must attack on the opposite side they were attacked at. For example a fighter on the right side of an enemy and had attacked them (they don’t have to hit) then the rogue goes to the left side of the enemy that one attack will have advantage unless it passes the enemy that was attacked turn.
Love the content man keep it up.
I played with a bunch of old head types who loved 2nd edition for my old group, so I was hilariously aware of all of these, oh nothing like dropping to zero hit points over some water, slowly realizing and then beginning to roll a new character as quickly as possible while the group was still finishing combat
On Alignment:
First, I'm pretty sure Cleric alignment has been "by your deity" choice since AD&D 2E.
Pathfinder 2E chose to split the difference with Paladins by changing the class name to Champion and giving each alignment-based Cause a relevant title (LG is Paladin, LE is Tyrant, CG is Liberator, etc.). And now as of Remaster the alignment grid is gone for PCs (It's still functioning on a cosmic scale, but not relevant to mortals), replaced with either personal or religious Edicts and Anathemas as the character's moral guide rails, with some divine types being able to Sanctify as Holy or Unholy to gain those old Good Vs Evil alignment effects.
Flanking was a standard rule back in earlier editions, but it got demoted to optional in the oversimplification for 5th edition. The whole dis/advantage system is just a bandaid fix cutting out all the math of stacking adjustments.
I've never had the idea of administering portions to downed allies come up in an actual D&D game, but I kinda like to think of health potions like the water from the holy grail at the end of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
A really easy way to fix flanking is that you must be able to flank without being flanked yourself. If you are busy worrying what's on your back you can't really focus on ganging up on someone else. A good example of rules as written and using your brain.
If you were to roll a 1 for hp at first level and your con modifier was -2, would you start your death saves immediately when the game starts? 💀
You can administer a potion of healing to another character as an action, therefore reviving someone with a potion is, in fact, within the rules
as a dm, i do pseudo follow the allignment restriction rule but not to pure segrigation of classes, so basically, unless i rule it to be a part of said character's backstory (like an evil warlock who accidentally summoned a good patron), a warlock with a pact to a good patron will be good aligned in most scenarios unless it would restrict the things i can do with the party / break the continuity of the game
When I was a noob I never got my idea warped of what the rules were because I just simply assumed that the DM was using homebrew and improvised stuff half the time, which was cool with me.
The critical hit with a nat 20 and miss with a nat 1 is mostly because of previous editions of D&D where rolling a 20 was an automatic success and a potential critical hit, while a 1 was an automatic miss or failure. In 5th edition, they kept the benefits of rolling 20, but removed the penalty for rolling a 1, removing the 'risk/reward' nature of rolling the dice. This was partially offset by overall reducing the modifiers people could add to their rolls, and replacing most of the potential bonuses or penalties with 'advantage/disadvantage', which simplified the game, but removed a lot of the nuance of previous editions.
My DM has a homebrew rule for NAT 1's if you are making a ranged attack and there is a party member near where you are aiming they need to roll a DEX to avoid friendly fire. On the other hand if you are making a melee attack and roll a NAT 1 you need to make a DEX save or lose a grip on your weapon.
I never knew that people thought advantage/disadvantage stacked. I thought it was common knowledge that it was the exact opposite. Though to be fair, I thought that about most of these, that was just the most surprising.
Alignment is a core concept of the Great Wheel cosmology and Planescape.
I can't see myself removing it from any of my 5e games as they will have ramifications in my planescape campaign
I like the 5×5 alignment grid. I use it as a reference for 'would my character think like this/do this readily?'. But dont use it to restrict players lol. We won't like that
Just wanted to say about why the Barbarian and the wizard with a boulder thing COULD work with the critical rules.
The scrawny wizard getting a critical success could be attributed to finding just that right spot to nudge it and send it down a slope into the enemies, while the Barbarian could had just been standing on soft earth and sunk in while attempting to flirt it.
I only use alignment in my games to determine how the player character has acted during the sessions.
I rarely use it.
I mostly just use it. If a module requires a alignment check.
If a player is mean they start floating towards the evil section, if they're a normal person, they're probably just going to float somewhere in neutral, if they go out of their way to help people, they would typically go into the good section.
Again, it's totally based in my games based off of how that person in general presents themselves and actually acts as a person in game.
I do not use it for any restrictions on items or classes though.
I may in the future do so if I notice a particular player is acting mean to the party in general, I might Grant them a special item that is very useful but only usable if they repair their attitude.
Ok yes, crit 20's may not be official, but I have never seen anyone not use them, but I do feel like people should still have them make a little sense, like with the example you mentioned, there is no way in any of the hells that a scrawny wimp could life a huge boulder.
the deal I notice in some games I play or run when it comes to alignment is that mostly people ether just want to be chaotic neutral and do whatever they want, or want to play evil and play out their anger/frustration/darker urges. Examples are paladins who don't mind killing or doing slaughter(or were on a oath and were not following it at all while not being called oathbreakers), clerics who will let people die, wizards who will do fireball even if it kills a party member, etc. Don't get me wrong it can be fun to play some characters like that, but when like 3 of a 4 man party are like that, and that they do it in every game for years, it can get stale. Whenever a rule on not allowing CN or evil alignment characters get placed in a session 0 (or a restriction to where only one person can play CN or evil), a lot of the players lose interest. Last time this was done they thought backing out would derail and stop the game, until they noticed that there were five other people who wanted to play and were ok with the rule(also found out two of them were also constantly in games to where "everyone played evil all the time").
I uh... I didn't know just throwing healing potions onto someone wasn't an actual rule and neither did any of my players... I guess that ones really indoctrined.
So I know the advantage and disadvantage stacking isn't an official rule, and once enough different disadvantages or advantages were applied to the same target I'd probably just opt for the actual ruling, but if it's only like, 3 effects, I think I'd rather stack it because that feels more fun.
We don't run the throwing healing potions in the game I play in, except for one specific circumstance. Someone was face first drowning in water, after a good roll someone managed to throw the potion next to them, breaking it and letting them swallow some of the potion.
Would it be a common circumstance? No, definitely not. But I thought it was a creative and interesting idea.
I can’t believe how many people ask about flanking… it’s crazy, it was a good rule when a whole move was a 5foot step, not when you can run circles around people. The only way I would let rule work, is to bring back the “5 foot step” rule in tandum, and also need to do something with the mobile feat. Flanking should require some planning not just be nearly always on.
me and my friends run an alt version of flanking for advantage. instead of adv we get a +2 to the rate we hit them, and if they are surrounded it increases by +5. it's pretty handy honestly.
I use alignment as a DM - but its how people see the characters based on what they do. If you act lawfully evil, that's how everyone will see you. The character can change how they act and grow, and the peoples perception of them will change too.
Alignment is actually pretty simple the problem is many people use it a personality trait and not a moral code as it is meant to be.
In addition to Standing up after a revive, players also lose their carried items, like weapons. And I like to catch my players with it after they revive and walk away and then tell them when they want to make an attack that they don't have their weapon :)
1:30 i learnd that one myself; and lern the origin;
is quite common caryy in difrent systems too
I contemplated an advantage stacking option where it was a table and the advantage dice started at a d4 and goes up for each source in either direction (yes up to a d20+d20). If your “net-advantage” was 8 sources you just succeed or fail depending on if it was positive or negative. This encourages cooperation and not a whole party rolling to try and do something, could be exploited if the party is big enough though.
The problem with Lawful Good Paladins (and any other class, for that matter) is that people tend to play them as Lawful Stupid - that the character is so hide bound and inflexible that they make very bad decisions "because that is what my character would do". Alignment is meant as a guide, not a straight-jacket. Good doesn't always do good things, Evil doesn't always do evil things, life just isn't that cut and dry. Often the "evil" guy plays the part of the good and righteous leader, keeping his evil side in the shadows. The "good" guy, on the other hand, can do bad things in the name of the greater good. They can even be unsure if any particular action is good or bad, to the point of a tortured consciences.
i like the idea of a potion being poured over a wound like peroxide, and a drinking it would help with wounds throughout the body.
I like spell components as they are as they help give more cost to casters to help a little bit in both evening the power gap of martials and casters, as well as preventing spam of more powerful spells. While non gp materials are there if a player really wants to get into the roleplay of describing how they cast their spells.
As for alignment I like it as a guideline (for example I can look quickly at a new statblock and get a slight sense for what role it fills in a world, and if it's something that would make sense for what I need, without needing to read the full lore detail on the creature and potentially wasting time if it doesn't fit what I need, but I also feel like it can be bad if you use it as a hard rule, such as goblins having to be evil, or saying that a player character has to choose one specific alignment and punishing them if they don't stick to it.
Potions are magic effects tied to the potion not a chemical interacting with your body, so it makes perfect sense that a healing liquid can be applied by pouring it in the wound or simply over the body. It is not like drinking a small vial of liquid could realistically regrow your toes unless it is magic.
Other potions might have different rules though: a potion of infravision might be an ointment you apply to eyelids, or instead of liquid you have a pill that needs to be eaten, a powder that is simpler to transport but needs to be mixed in liquid for drinking, or even a herb mix that has to be burned and the smoke inhaled. Actually, a potion of see invisible that is actually a pipeweed used by smoking it and the smoke will stick to invisible things so anyone can see them, but which only affects invisible things that enter the smoke might make an awesome scene out of simple side quest for fetching a magic item.
What I heard as he was talking through that first entry: Tell me you didn't research earlier editions of D&D before making this video, without telling me you didn't research earlier editions of D&D before making this video.
I mean, it's true that critical rolls do not apply in any way to skill checks, but if the official rulebooks say that all a nat 20 does is guarantee a hit, that's something new in 5th Edition. Every prior edition said right in the books, that a nat 20 means you get a guaranteed hit, but you also get to roll a second d20, and if the second roll would land a hit on the target, you get to roll damage twice and add them up for the *actual* damage that you do.
Listing flanking because it's an optional rule is like listing feats, which are also an optional rule (PHB 165). It's also weird that you brought up rest variants as "definitely not official" when they're both on DMG page 267.
As much as people might 'hate' alignment, there are mechanical features that are based on Alignment. Certain items and spells have alignment based rules, some enemies also have alignment based powers or effects.
2:57 I hate using potions because they are way way way too expensive for what they do.
7:10 needing to stand up after getting revived is pretty common. The real thing people ignore is that attunement ends if you die. So after the cleric revivifies you are unattuned from everything.
1:45 well you see, in uno stacking +2 is not official but guess what? as alot of people said "thanks for the great game we will take it from here" and everyone agreed to absolutely ignore the official rules and keep the +2 stacking
I honestly am very glad that many DMs ignore the rule of "1 disadvantage cancels out all advantage and vice versa". Cause if your opponent is blinded, bound, and you sneak up on him for your ranged attack, it would je really stupid that you lose your advantage just because they are prone.
Alignments are actually very good concept. Deleting them is a bit dumb. At least they can be re-tooled as sort of Karma-like system.