evildmguy
Explorer
I find it interesting where we differ. Thanks for the discussion!
I don't have system mastery. All I know is that when I throw effects at the high level human fighters, they can roll over or with advantage on a lot of saves. I think one of them took Fate, which is some of where this comes from. I don't know if there are maneuvers that helps with this as well? I'm not trying to negate their choices, that's fine.
Shield Focus makes no difference on AoE spells, unless I'm reading it wrong again. If it's a DEX save, they can use their reaction to negate damage.
I'm sure this is just me. I have had my days where I don't understand how an evasion character gets out of the way of something that fills the area. I have even thought about saying that if a character is engulfed in the AoE then it's a Fort/Con save instead. That changes the fundamentals, though, so I haven't.
As for shields, most of my issue is that the non magical shield takes no damage. The rest of it is subjective based on how I think of the magic. I don't see Fireball as a blast effect because it does no force damage. It's all fire. To me, magical fire fills that area for several seconds, so I don't see how a shield helps against that. On another point, shields are composite objects, made of metal, wood, and leather. All of those things are susceptible to fire, whether a spell or dragon's breath, and I don't mind the bonus to a save, I merely think it should damage a mundane shield. I still think wearing or having metal should impose disadvantage on saves with electricity effects but the rare version of lightning bolt seems to say standard lightning isn't conductive. Weird but whatever.
How much do your players move around during combat? For what reason?
Maybe you have seen it completely different from me but I still see fighter types getting into melee and stopping. Maybe they shift a square or two for support to be next to someone but it doesn't change the fact that fighters get into melee and bash the thing until it's down.
(I found positioning to be silly such as requiring two characters on opposite sides to get flanking. I would watch a player count out how to get opposite their ally in combat to give flanking. Now, this is me, but that got old. I allow the bonus if two allies attack one enemy, regardless if they are opposite each other. Sure, it's easier to get than maybe it should be, but it works. )
See, I think you aren't going far enough here in your thinking. Does Power Word Stun now require multiple instances of it? What about Contagion, Symbol, Divine Word, Psychic Scream, Hammer of Thunderbolts, and other things that cause stun? How many does it take to overcome your threshold?
Then what about other condition chains? Slowed restrained petrified? Deafened Blinded Rattled Incapacitated? Shaken Frightened panicked? Sickened staggered nauseated? Adding in condition chains, IMO, has a much bigger implication than stopping movement a bit too soon. To be clear, not all of these conditions are a5e. It's me expanding the thinking that if Stun gets a chain, then other conditions that are debilitating should as well.
I get these are still subjective. It's all of the things added up. I find that doing one action at a time and then being done makes sense for a six second round, you want people to be able to move all over until movement is done. We each have our limits.
I'm still looking at options. I still don't like it being equally effective against bigger, or smaller to be fair, opponents, much less non humanoid ones.
Most of the time, that's how it goes for me. As my groups are older, they understand what that means. I still have a few hold outs from time to time to who try and minimize it, mainly when they realize how bad what they do is when inflicted on PCs. I mostly like it so they see that from my side.
Thanks for the discussion!
