One Dnd - Rules Glossary Part I

 

Now we are talking. Time for some bigger changes.

Arcane Spells/Divine Spells/Primal Spells – This is a rework of spell lists to something simpler. Discussed below.

Artisan Tools/Tool Proficiency/Gaming Set/Musical Instrument – Tools all now cost 15 gp and characters gain Tool Proficiency. Tool Proficiency allows a character to add a Proficiency Bonus with the Tools and Advantage. The Advantage is a buff.

Creature Type – No material change.

d20 Test – NERF

 d20 Test means ability check, attack rolls, and saving throws. Rolling a 1 is an automatic fail/Rolling a 20 is an automatic success. Homebrew rule forever – so not material to me but likely big for some.

The real issue is the change to Critical Hits.

Critical Hits was “you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage” then “add any relevant modfiiers.” This meant “if the stack involves other damage dice…you roll those dice twice as well.” Let’s ignore most folks also doubled the attack modifier (and should not have done so).

Now Critical Hits is “you roll the damage dice of the Weapon or Unarmed strike as second time.”

So this means Rogue do not get to double Sneak Attack damage, Paladins do not get Divine Smite damage, etc. It also means that spells do not critically hit. This is a tremendous change.

I expect a lot of homebrews will allow spells to critically hit. However, for now as written Critical Hits are much less potent.

One other note. If you have a Vorpal Sword with the +3 bonus to damage (lucky you). It does not turn it into a +6. It is only a +3.

Incapacitated – No Material Change.

Previously incapacitated meant that a creature cannot take actions or reactions. That is straightforward

Now Incapacitated adds that Concentration is broken, a character cannot speak and when an Incapacitated character rolls initiative the character has Disadvantage.

Honestly, I would make the Incapacitated character Initiative zero. However, none of this is game changing.

Inspiration – Buff.

Previously this was a reward by a DM to give advantage to an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. This is now renamed a d20 Test.

Also, you could only have one inspiration at a time. This is the same.

What is new is that if a game mechanic gives inspiration (rolling a 20, singing a song, or being human after good night’s sleep apparently) a character can give that inspiration to anyone who lacks it.

A slight nerf is that Inspiration resets when a character takes a long rest.

So, the reward of inspiration is being codified and gives the DMs less discretion. I do not think this is a per se bad thing. It just means that there will be a lot of rolls with advantage where there were no fewer rolls before.

Long Rest – Mild buff.

Previously this was a period of extended downtime 8 hours long with 2 hours maximum of light activity. Now it is the same.

Previously a character regained all its lost HP. This is the same.

Previously a character regains all spent Hit Dice up to a number of dice equal to half of the characters total number (minimum one). Again, same.

Previously a character cannot benefit from more than one long rest in a 24 hour period and must have at least 1 hit point at the start to gain the benefit. Same.

The new rule is on interrupting the rest, right? The old rule said if there is at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or adventuring activity – the character must rest again to gain the benefit. Now if it is interrupted, a character gains the benefit of a Short Rest.

The Short Rest benefit notwithstanding, this seems to be the same rule.