Weapon Mastery is a new combat feature in the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons rules that allows martial classes to specialize in specific weapons and unlock unique combat abilities.  Each weapon has a specific mastery property that can be activated when the character masters that weapon type. Weapon Masteries are available to martial classes: Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue. Players can also gain Weapon Mastery by taking the Weapon Master feat, which allows any class to unlock a weapon’s mastery property.

I have been criticized in my review of the D&D 5.5 Classes for simply showing how they differed from the D&D 5E classes and not expressing my opinion on the differences. I will be doing that later, when I have finished comparing all the classes.  In this post I am doing something different. I’m calling this a “critical” review in which I will be expressing my opinions and also showing how I arrived at those opinions.

Some Background

As a DM, you learn to quickly evaluate the things that players want their characters to do. The way I do this is to visualize exactly what that would look like. Sometimes a player character’s desired action is imposable or would not result in his intended outcome. Sometimes this is a rule that the player misinterprets but more often they simply overlooked something in the current situation or in the environment.

I encourage my players to always try to imagine their character’s environment and have them do what makes sense in their current situation. Let me worry about the rules after they decide what to do. If there is a specific rule to cover their action I will use that, otherwise they just do it, or I come up with a rule to cover the unique situation.

I use this same technique when evaluating game mechanics.
I try to visualize what a character is doing and ask myself these questions:
“What would it look like? How are they doing that?”
“Is that something that makes sense?”
“Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis in a game I am running?”
“Would the players object to the monsters doing that?”

Applying this to the Weapon Mastery properties.

CLEAVE: If you hit a creature with a melee attack roll using this weapon, you can make a melee attack roll with the weapon against a second creature within 5 feet of the first that is also within your reach. On a hit, the second creature takes the weapon’s damage, but don’t add your ability modifier to that damage unless that modifier is negative. You can make this extra attack only once per turn.

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Greataxe and the Halberd.
  2. These are both Heavy, Two-Handed, bladed weapons and the Halberd has Reach.
• What would it look like?
  1. “Two monsters are directly in front of you, standing side by side. You make a tremendous swing with your Greataxe. It slices through the first one and continues on to cut into the other one as well.”
  2. “There are two monsters in front of you, one directly in front of you, only 5 feet away and another just behind the first one. You take a great swing with your Halberd and slash through the near one causing it a great amount of damage. Your Halberd provides you with the reach you need to attack the other monster, the one behind making this a more difficult target (half cover). You swing again at the second monster and hit it doing slightly less damage.”
• Does it make sense?
  1. It does for the Greataxe.
  2. It only makes sense for the Halberd (which has the “reach” property) if the arc that the head of the weapon makes passes through both creatures. As written, you could make the second attack on a creature standing behind the one standing in front of you that you hit first. That does not make as much sense.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. It is very cinematic, I think it would make combat more fun.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. I don’t think they would object to it, but wouldn’t want a monster to hit a second PC that was standing behind the one in front of the monster.

Conclusion: This could be fixed with a house rule to not allow a Halberd to attack a creature behind one in front of you. To speed up combat, I wouldn’t require a second attack roll. I’d use the one roll to determine if the other attack did damage. After all, this is really only one attack that is potentially hitting two creatures. A rule I have used in the past is that if there are two creatures directly in front of you, if you are swinging a heavy slashing weapon and you drop the first creature to 0 HP, if your to-hit roll is high enough to hit the adjacent creatures AC, you can give any remaining damage to that creature.

GRAZE: If your attack roll with this weapon misses a creature, you can deal damage to that creature equal to the ability modifier you used to make the attack roll. This damage is the same type dealt by the weapon, and the damage can be increased only by increasing the ability modifier.

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Glaive and the Greatsword.
  2. These are both Heavy, Two-Handed weapons and the Glaive has Reach.
• What would it look like?
  1. This is hard to visualize. It reads that you do a little damage even if you miss. I suppose, unlike any other time when an attack misses, it doesn’t “really” miss. Instead it just did a little damage as it passed. So here goes:
  2. “You swing your Greatsword at the monster. It dodges just in time to avoid the full force of your blow, only taking small cut as the blade touches its exposed arm.”
  3. “The evil mage has just cast a spell and is concentrating on maintaining it. He is 50 feet away, too fat for you to reach it to attack with your Greatsword so, out of desperation you throw it at him! You aren’t very good at throwing it, but it grazes him and he appears to be having trouble concentrating on his spell. “
• Does it make sense?
  1. I can see how it might make sense, in a way, but there are several situations where it might not.
  2. Where it says that it happens when an “attack roll with this weapon misses,” what if:
     1. The monster is invisible and you attack where you “think” it is, but it really isn’t there at all. RAW (Rules as Written) would have you make the attack roll and the DM would simply tell you that you missed. So you wouldn’t really know if it was there or not. But it wouldn’t make sense for it to “really” be grazed by the weapon. By the RAW you did attack with the weapon and it did miss, so it should do some damage.
     2. What about a situation where a player’s character makes an attack with a weapon that they weren’t holding? For instance, could a character use the Telekinesis spell to attack with their weapon? It wouldn’t really matter if they could hit anything with it, it will do some damage even if they miss.

• What happens if your weapon is poisoned? The description of basic poison says “A creature that takes Piercing or Slashing damage from the poisoned weapon or ammunition takes an extra 1d4 Poison damage.” A miss in this case would do slashing damage so the creature would also take poison damage. Does it make sense that you can always poison a creature when you attack, even if you miss? I don’t think so, but that’s RAW.

1. What if you roll a natural 1? The attack always misses on a nat 1, so does it make sense that it still does glaze damage? I don’t think so, but by RAW it does.
2. What if a ranged weapon had the GRAZE feature and you attack underwater beyond its normal range? According to the Underwater Combat rules “A ranged attack roll with a weapon underwater automatically misses a target beyond the weapon’s normal range.” It doesn’t mention long range. So as long as it is beyond normal range, no matter how far away it is, be sure to roll to hit, but it will miss and a missed attack does glaze damage. That’s RAW. (They obviously didn’t have the Glaze Weapon Mastery property in mind when they wrote the Underwater Combat rules.)
3. What if you throw your Greatsword at a monster? The target is less than 60 feet away (but if you are underwater it wouldn’t matter if you were further away). This would use the rules for Improvised Weapons. On a hit it will do 1d4 slashing damage, but if you miss it will do damage equal to your ability modifier which is probably more than what you would get if you rolled 1d4. Again, this is RAW.

• What if the target has the Shield spell? Let’s say you attack with your Glaive. Your roll hits, but the creature has a Shield spell that goes into effect when you hit. When the creatures AC is increased by +5 it causes your attack to miss. So the attack misses but you grazed the creature which did some slashing damage. This seems to me to be missing the point of having a Shield spell. It seems reasonable to me that if the Shield spell causes you to miss, you would completely miss and not get any damage. But that’s not RAW.

• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. No I wouldn’t. This is the only case I can find where, without magic, you are guaranteed to do some damage whenever you attack, whether you hit the target or not.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. If I was a player, I would object to monsters rolling to attack and, if the attack roll missed, the DM said that I took damage anyway. Even if it wasn’t very much. It wouldn’t feel “fare”.

Conclusion: I guess the thing that bothers me most about this one is that this weapon will do some damage every time you swing it. You will have to have a couple of house rules in place to cover the side cases.

NICK: When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn.

Bad Name: This is the worst possible name for a Weapon Mastery property. It doesn’t “nick” anything. It allows you to change which feature of the game you are using to make an extra attack.

Encourages weapon juggling: To understand the Nick property you need to know the Light Weapon property: “When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you don’t add our ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative.”

The Nick Weapon Mastery property simply allows you to use your Bonus Action for something else and add your extra light weapon attack to your attack action. It would have helped avoid confusion if they had changed the name of the attack action so you wouldn’t have to remember the difference between an attack action and an attack (they are two different things).

It should be noted that in the 2014 version if the PHB, it specifically says that the second weapon must be “a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand.”  Leaving out the rule that the second weapon must be in your other hand leaves open the possibility that you can sheath the first weapon and then draw the second weapon before making your extra attack.

You also need to know the new rules regarding Equipping and Unequipping Weapons:  “You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.”

As an aside: I find it telling that they are calling it “equipping” and “unequipping” instead of the more natural “drawing” and “sheathing”. This is another example of moving the players further away from immersing themselves into the story and into playing a computer simulation. If you are a fighter about to go into battle, you draw your weapon. If you are sitting in front of tour computer you equip your character with his weapon before moving him into battle. To me D&D has always been about using your imagination to imagine what it would be like if you actually were that fighter.

In the previous version “you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.” And you could “draw or sheathe a sword” without taking an action. And “When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.” (The Use an Object action has been replace by the Utilize action which simply reads “Use a nonmagical object”.)

Confused yet? Don’t worry, you are not alone. And it gets worse.

You also need to know about the TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING Feat: Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature) “When you make an extra attack as a result of using a weapon that has the Light property, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of that attack if you aren’t already adding it to the damage.”
I should point out that this feat is NOT required to fight with two weapons. It just adds a little more damage to your second weapon.

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Dagger, the Light Hammer, the Sickle, and the Scimitar.
  2. These are all Light weapons.
• What would it look like?
  1. “You run up to the monster, a sickle in one hand and scimitar in the other. You swing your scimitar at the monster following that with a sickle attack.” Note that this wouldn’t have to be a different type of weapon.
  2. “You run up to the monster, shield in one hand and weapon in the other. You swing your scimitar at the monster, sheath it, draw your sickle and attack the monster again.” Note that this wouldn’t have to be a different type of weapon as long as it was physically different, but unlike the previous example your AC has a +2 bonus by holding a shield in your other hand.
• Does it make sense?
  1. I suppose it does make sense that if you are a master in the use of this light weapon you would be able to attack with it very quickly, but why wouldn’t it just allow you to attack with it twice on one attack action rather than requiring you to attack with it on the same attack action but only after you have already attacked with a different light weapon?
  2. Sheathing one weapon you have just attacked with and drawing a different weapon and attack with it would only rarely make sense. Perhaps if the first weapon hit and the monster was obviously immune to damage from it, you might logically switch to a weapon that was different in some meaningful way in the hope that the monster might not be immune to the damage from that second weapon. Changing weapons simply because the game rules require it will never make sense to me.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. Not if it involved weapon juggling. I doubt that I would even permit it.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. I think they would laugh at a monster that sheathed the first weapon and drew a second one that was identical to the first one. They might suspect that the other one has some hidden magical power the first one lacked. If the monster was doing this every round, my players might start readying and action to make some kind of attack when it was switching weapons.

Conclusion: To be fair, my problem with this isn’t based on any objection to the Nick Weapon Mastery property itself, but to the Light Weapon property. All (or at least most) my objections would be resolved if it required the second weapon to be in your other hand. I will be implementing that as a house rule.
However, this appears to have been changed on purpose. Probably in an attempt to increase the power of martial classes to align them more closely to the magic using classes.

PUSH: If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can push the creature up to 10 feet straight away from yourself if it is Large or smaller.

The weapons that have this Mastery property are all Heavy weapons. The heavy weapon property has changed. Note that in 5E small creatures couldn’t use heavy weapons.

5.5 Heavy Weapons: “You have Disadvantage on attack rolls with a Heavy weapon if it’s a Melee weapon and your Strength score isn’t at least 13 or if it’s a Ranged weapon and your Dexterity score isn’t at least 13.”

5E Heavy Weapons: “Small creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. A heavy weapon’s size and bulk make it too large for a Small creature to use effectively.”

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Greatclub, the Pike, the Warhammer, and the Heavy Crossbow.
• What would it look like?
  1. “You load your Heavy Crossbow, Take careful aim and release the bolt that flies into the monster, striking him in the chest. It not only penetrates his armor it also causes him to stumble 10 feet further away from you.”
  2. “You hit the monster in front of you with your greatclub. It recalls from the damage and staggers back 10 feet. (And, if you can make another attack.) You rush up to it and hit again. It is pushed back another 10 feet. ”
• Does it make sense?
  1. If you are a master in the use of this heavy weapon you might be able to push a creature away when you hit it. But maybe not every time. It would make more sense to me if the creature got to make an opposed DEX or STR check, and you were limited to only attempting this once a turn.
  2. I don’t think it makes sense for a small or weak PC to be able to push a large sized creature.
  3. It also doesn’t make sense for a range weapon to push back a creature.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. Not as written. I can envision a group of PCs just pushing the monsters all over the place every round. This would be funny the first time, but would get old very fast.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. What if the DM gave this to a hoard of goblins? Even if the PCs were at higher levels, what fun it would be for two goblins to be pushing a PC back and forth between them. I don’t think the players would enjoy this very much.

Conclusion: There is already a shove option of the Unarmed Strike action: “… a melee attack that involves you using your body to … shove a target within 5 feet of you. … The target must succeed on a Strength or Dexterity saving throw (it chooses which), or you either push it 5 feet away or cause it to have the Prone condition. The DC for the saving throw equals 8 plus your Strength modifier and Proficiency Bonus. This shove is possible only if the target is no more than one size larger than you.”

I don’t see the need for the Push Weapon Mastery property unless it were modified to read “If you hit a creature with this weapon, in addition to any damage, you can attempt to shove the creature. Refer to the shove option of the Unarmed Strike rule.” And I would remove the property from the Heavy Crossbow.

SAP:  If you hit a creature with this weapon, that creature has Disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn.

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Mace, the Spear, the Flail, the Longsword, the Morningstar, and the War Pick.
• What would it look like?
  1. “The bash the monster took when you hit it with your weapon shook it up so badly, it should have difficulty in making an effective attack.”
• Does it make sense?
  1. The way I read it, it will only effect the creatures next attack, even if it was “sapped” multiple times this round.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. I would like it better if it didn’t do this automatically, every time you hit with the weapon.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. I think so. They would much rather the monster did more damage than for it to make their PC attack with disadvantage.

Conclusion: I think I would like this better with a house rule to allow the target to make a save of some sort to overcome the sap.

SLOW: If you hit a creature with this weapon and deal damage to it, you can reduce its Speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. If the creature is hit more than once by weapons that have this property, the Speed reduction doesn’t exceed 10 feet.

This could be especially bad when used with slasher feat. Which reads, in part:

SLASHER: General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+) “… Hamstring. Once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack that deals Slashing damage, you can reduce the Speed of that creature by 10 feet until the start of your next turn…”

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Club, the Javelin, the Light Crossbow, the Sling, the Whip, the Longbow, and the Musket.
  2. This looks like a list of weapons that have nothing in common. It may just be the ones that didn’t work with any other weapon mastery.
• What would it look like?
  1. “You hurt the monster pretty bad. It looks like that will slow him down.”
• Does it make sense?
  1. Reducing a creature’s speed by 10 feet for no reason other than you did damage to it is stretching my imagination.
  2. When used along with the Slasher feat it will reduce the creature’s speed by a total of 20 feet.
  3. The Slasher feat makes sense (when the creature has feet) but the Slow Weapon Mastery property, not so much.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. If monsters were slowed 10 (or 20) feet every round, combat would soon quit being fun.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that to their PCs?
  1. I can hear the whining now.

Conclusion: It would be hard for me to allow this in my games without nurfing it somehow. Perhaps allowing the PCs to attack with damage, or attack to slow, but not both. Also, I wouldn’t allow it to stack with the Slasher feat.

TOPPLE: If you hit a creature with this weapon, you can force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus the ability modifier used to make the attack roll and your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, the creature has the Prone condition.

There are several other ways to cause the prone condition:

The Rogue has Cunning Strike (a level 5 feature). One of its features is Trip (Cost 1d6). “When you deal Sneak Attack damage … If the target is Large or smaller, it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or have the Prone condition.”

The Warrior of the Open Hand Monk has the Open Hand Technique (a level 3 feature). One of its features is Topple. “Whenever you hit … with … Flurry of Blows … the target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or have the Prone condition.”

The Ranger can summon a Primal Companion (a level 3 feature). The Beast of the Land: If it moves 20 feet to hit ” … the target has the Prone condition if it is a Large or smaller creature.”

A Goliath with the Hill Giant Ancestry has the Tumble trait: “When you hit a Large or smaller creature with an attack roll and deal damage to it, you can give that target the Prone condition.”

The SHIELD MASTER feat. General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Shield Training). Among other benefits you get Shield Bash: “… you can immediately bash the target with your Shield … forcing the target to make a Strength saving throw … On a failed save, you … cause it to have the Prone condition …”

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Quarterstaff, the Battleaxe, the Maul, and the Trident.
• What would it look like?
  1. “You use your Quarterstaff to knock your opponent’s feet out from under him. He lands on his back with a thud.”
  2. “You walk up to the ancient dragon. You hit it with your Battleax in just the right spot and it falls to the ground.”
• Does it make sense?
  1. Allowing the creature a saving throw helps. But won’t that also slow down combat with creatures making CON saves all the time?
  2. Why does it not have any size limitations? Yes, larger creatures may be more likely to make their save, but should a PC be able to knock a Gargantuan prone just because he pokes it with his trident? That doesn’t make sense.
  3. What if it is a creature, such as an Ooze, that is immune to the prone condition? I must assume that it would not be effected, but that’s not clear.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. Occasionally maybe, but not every round of every combat.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. If they face a monster that requires them to make a DEX save or fall prone every time it hits them. They would tolerate it if one monster did that, but not if one monster did it in every round of every combat.

Conclusion: I think it is a little over-powered and will slow combat. Especially when used along with some of the other Weapon Mastery properties.

VEX: If you hit a creature with this weapon and deal damage to the creature, you have Advantage on your next attack roll against that creature before the end of your next turn.

Bad Name: This is also a badly named feature. I don’t know what I would have called it instead, but “vex” doesn’t say “you get advantage on your next attack” to me.

• What weapons have this feature?
  1. The Handaxe, the Dart, the Shortbow, the Rapier, the Shortsword, the Blowgun, the Hand Crossbow, and the Pistol.
  2. 3 of these are melee weapons, 6 are range weapons.
• What would it look like?
  1. “Your attack hits the monster. You now realize where it is most vulnerable so you try to hit it in the same way next time.”
• Does it make sense?
  1. I suppose it makes a little sense that you could learn about a creatures weak spots against a particular weapon. However, I see nothing about these weapons that would make them especially useful in this regard. In other words, why do these weapons have this specific Weapon Mastery property? It doesn’t make sense to me that they would as opposed to any other type of weapon.
  2. It feels like WoTC needed some other things that some other types of weapons could do, so they picked this.
• Would I enjoy seeing the PCs doing it on a regular basis?
  1. They aren’t doing anything other than hitting with a weapon, then – like magic – they get advantage on their next attack. It doesn’t interfere with the game, it’s just one more thing the player has to keep track of.
• Would the players object to the monsters doing that?
  1. Considering that most monsters get multiple attacks, if they got advantage on the next one after every hit, the PCs would be hit much more often. So no, I don’t think they would like the monsters to have this feature.

Conclusion: I don’t care for this one very much. I don’t really have any objection to the rule other than it just doesn’t “feel” right. You get advantage on the next attack you make on this monster, but only because you hit it with this particular weapon. But the next attack you make can be with a completely different weapon, or even with a spell that requires an attack roll. It might be that this is because the damage you did causes it to be easier to hit, but nobody else gets advantage to hit it. I can’t seem to visualize any reason that this makes logical sense.

Final thoughts:

I like the idea of giving different weapons additional features that can be used in combat. It makes the selection of a weapon more than the damage it does. It is also good that WoTC is attempting to make the martial classes more on par with the other classes by giving them things that they can use to control the battlefield and do more damage. But I don’t think that I like the weapon mastery system in D&D 5.5.

What do you think?

The Life Domain

D&D 5.5 PHB Review (Misleading Terms)

It is best practice to use D&D terms in their conventional sense whenever possible.

The 2024 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook introduces several new terms and concepts. However, many of these terms can be misleading if taken at face value. This post is not intended to explain their actual in-game meanings, I’m simply pointing out where the conventional meaning of the term differs from the terms meaning in the game.

Below is a list of terms from the 2024 Player’s Handbook that may not accurately represent their conventional meanings. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for both new and experienced players to navigate the updated ruleset effectively.

When compiling this list, I quickly realized that many of the terms were also incorrectly used in the 2014 PHB. I listed them as well.

This is not an exhaustive list.

RULES GLOSSARY
Bloodied: The term does not mean that a creature is actually bleeding
Object: does not refer to any nonliving thing but only to a discrete, inanimate item. Buildings and vehicles are not Objects because they comprise many objects.

CONDITIONS

Blinded: does not necessarily mean a creature cannot see. The Blinded condition can result from a variety of effects, such as being in an area of magical darkness.
Incapacitated: The creature cannot take any action, bonus action or reaction but can still walk.
Restrained: The creature has a speed of 0 but can still attack.

Invisible: Hiding gives you the invisible condition but ceratures can see you if they succeed in a Wisdom (Perception) check.

WEAPON MASTERY PROPERTIES
Nick: This doesn’t “nick” your target. The Nick mastery property allows you to make an additional attack with a light weapon as part of your Attack action, rather than using your bonus action.

FEATS
Actor: doesn’t make you a better actor in a general sense; it specifically provides benefits for impersonation and mimicry.
Alert: doesn’t make you more alert; it grants proficiency in initiative and the ability to swap initiative with an ally.
Athlete: grants a climb speed, makes it easier to stand up from prone, and allows running jumps after moving only 5 feet.
Defensive Duelist: grants the ability to use your reaction to increase your AC against a melee attack.

CLASS FETURES
Divine Intervention: you select a Cleric spell of level 5 or lower to cast.
Magic Initiate: allows you to learn a few spells from another class.
Monk Weapon: This doesn’t mean a weapon that is specifically designed for monks; it refers to a category of weapons that monks are proficient with.
Sneak Attack: This doesn’t involve sneaking up on someone and attacking; it allows rogues to deal extra damage when they have advantage on an attack roll or an ally is within 5 feet of the target.
Wild Shape: This doesn’t let druids take on any shape; it allows them to transform into specific beasts.

SPELLS

Beacon of Hope: There is no beacon; it gives allies advantage on Wisdom saving throws and death saving throws, and maximizes healing rolls.
Conjure Animals: conjures fey spirits that resemble beasts, rather than actual animals.
Conjure Fey: conjures a spirit that takes the form of a beast rather than an actual fey.
Contagion: doesn’t cause a contagion, it gives the target the Poisoned condition.
Detect Evil and Good: doesn’t detect good or evil, it detects the presence of celestials, fiends, or undead.
Find Steed: summons a fey, celestial, or fiendish spirit that assumes the form of a steed.
Fireball: doesn’t actually conjure a ball of fire, it creates an explosion of fire.
Illusory Script: doesn’t create an illusory script, it makes writing appear as gibberish to anyone you don’t designate.
Inflict Wounds: does not create actual wounds but rather channels necrotic energy to damage a target.
Locate Animals or Plants/ Creature/ Object: These spells sense the direction to the object, rather than revealing its exact location.
Protection from Evil and Good: doesn’t protect from evil or good, it protects from certain types of creatures.
Protection from Energy: doesn’t provide protection from all types of energy, it protects from one type of energy damage chosen by the caster.
Purify Food and Drink: doesn’t purify food and drink, it removes diseases and poisons from them.
Resilient Sphere: traps a creature or object inside an immobile sphere of force.
Revivify: doesn’t just revive a creature; it brings a creature back to life if it died within the last minute.
Sanctuary: doesn’t create a sanctuary, it makes it difficult for creatures to attack the target.
Sleep: doesn’t put creatures into a natural sleep, it magically renders them unconscious.
Shapechange: transforms the caster into any creature.
Telekinesis: doesn’t allow the caster to move objects with their mind alone; it requires verbal and somatic components.
True Seeing: doesn’t grant perfect vision; it enables the creature to see through illusions and perceive invisible creatures and objects.
Water Breathing: doesn’t let a creature breathe water, it allows a creature to breathe air underwater.

Please let me know in the comments below if I got any of these wrong, or if there are any other examples that you think should be pointed out.

Abbreviations: In the following I am referring to Dungeons and Dragons as D&D, the Players Handbook as the PHB, the 2014 version as 5E and to the 2024 version as 5.5.

The D&D 5.5 PHB: Review of “Chapter 3, Character Classes, Bard”

I am assuming that the reader is familiar with the 5E PHB, so I am only commenting on things that are new or different from the 5E version.

The Bard Class

Note: This chapter contains the twelve character classes: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. Each class is presented with 4 subclasses that they all get at third level.
I will be reviewing each class as it is presented in the D&D 5.5 PHB. The second one is the Bard.

The descriptions below have been abbreviated. They are intended to serve as a guide to the changes. Please don’t consider these to be the rules, refer to the text in the book.

TRAITS

The Bard’s Primary ability, Hit Points, and Proficiencies haven’t changed. An interesting change in wording is that characters no longer have proficiency in armor, it is now called “Armor Training”, but it is functionally the same as Armor Proficiency in D&D 5E.
STARTING EQIPMENT: This has been simplified. It is now “Choose A or B: (A) Leather Armor, 2 Daggers, Musical Instrument of your choice, Entertainer’s Pack, and 19 GP; or (B) 90 GP”

CLASS FEATURES

LEVEL 1, Bardic Inspiration: The only changes are;

• The creature has an hour to use the inspiration die (it was only 10 minutes before).
• It has removed the words “must decide before the DM says whether the roll succeeds or fails”, you can now use it when you fail a D20 Test. It looks like this will be true for everywhere that had this restriction before.

LEVEL 1, Spellcasting: Cantrips and Spell slots haven’t cjanged.

   Prepared Spells.

• This is another example of changing a term used in the 5E PHB, to a different term. In this case, what in 5E was referred to as “known” spells is now called “prepared” spells.
• What level you are when your number of “prepared” spells increases has changed slightly.

LEVEL 2, Expertise: You now get this feature at levels 2 and 9 (it was at levels 3 and 10).

LEVEL 2, Jack of All Trades: No change

LEVEL 3, Bard Sueclass: (Described later)

LEVEL 4, Ability Score Improvement: “You gain the Ability Score Improvement feat (see chapter 5) or another feat of your choice for which you qualify. You gain this feature again at Barbarian levels 8. 12, and 16.” This is the same as it was in 5E, it just made the ability score improvement a feat, and lets you choose another feat instead if you want to. Another minor change is that you don’t get this a level 19 anymore, you will get an Epic Boon instead (see below).

LEVEL 5, Font or Inspiration: Added “In addition, you can expend a spell slot no action (required) to regain one expended use of Bardic Inspiration”.

LEVEL 7, Cuntercharm: This changed quite a bit. {An improvement in my opinion.]

• This feature was moved from level 6 to level 7.
• In 5E, as an action, you give friendly creatures within 30 feet advantage on saves vs. being frightened or charmed.
• In 5.5, when a creature within 30 feet fails a save vs. being frightened or charmed, you can use a reaction for them to reroll, and the new roll has Advantage.

LEVEL 10, Magical Secrets:  

• In 5E you got two new spells from any class each time you got this feature, at bard levels 10, 14, and 18.
• In 5.5 at 10^th level and every bard level after that you can choose your new prepared spells from the Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spell lists.
• Whenever you replace a prepared spell, you can replace it with a spell from those class lists.

LEVEL 18, Superior Inspiration:

• Changed from level 20 to level 18.
• When you roll initiative; in 5E you regained 1 use of bardic inspiration if you had none, in 5.5 if you are down to 0 or 1 uses you now have 2.  

LEVEL l9, EPIC BOON: All classes get an epic boon feat at 19^th level. There is a separate list of feats that are in the Epic Boon Category.

LEVEL 20, Words of Creation: This one is new.

• You always have the Power Word Heal and Power Word Kill spells prepared.
• You can target a second creature within 10 feet of the first.

SUBCLASSES

The D&D 5E PHB only has 2 subclasses; the College of Lore and the College of Valor. The 5.5 PHB has the following four.

The College of Dance (a new subclass)

LEVEL 3, Dazzling Footwork: While not wearing armor or a shield;

• Dance Virtuoso. Adv. on CHA (Performance) checks while dancing.
• Unarmored Defense. Your base AC = 10 + DEX + CHA modifiers.
• Agile Strikes. When you use your Bardic Inspiration you can also make an unarmed strike.
• Bardic Damage. When you make an unarmed strike, you can use DEX instead of STR for the attack roll and can roll your Bardic Inspiration die + DEX modifier for the damage.

LEVEL 6, Inspiring Movement: Cost one Bardic Inspiration use.

• Use a reaction to move half your speed.
• One ally within 30 ft. can use a reaction to move half their speed.
• Doesn’t provoke Opportunity Attack.

LEVEL 6, Tandem Footwork: Cost one Bardic Inspiration use, if not incapacitated.

• When initiative is rolled.
• You and allies within 30 ft. add the number you roll on your inspiration die to their initiative.

LEVEL 14, Leading Evasion:  If not incapacitated

• Take no damage on a DEX save, and half damage on a fail.
• Also applies to others within 5 ft.

College of Glamour (a new subclass)

LEVEL 3, Beguiling Magic:

• Always have the Charm Person and Mirror Image spells prepared.
• Once per long rest unless you expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration;
  • When you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell, a creature within 60 ft. makes a WIS save or is Charmed or Frightened for 1 minute.
  • They can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.

LEVEL 3, Mantle of Inspiration: Cost one Bardic Inspiration use.

• As a bonus action, select a number of creatures equal to your CHA modifier, within 60 ft.
• They each gain temp. Hit Points = your roll on the Bardic Inspiration die.
• They can also use their reaction to move their speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

LEVEL 6, Mantle of Majesty:

• You always have the Command spell prepared.
• As a bonus action, once per Long Rest, or by using a 3+ spell slot.
  • Cast command without expending a spell slot.
  • Take on an unearthly appearance for 1 minute (requires concentration).
  • While you have unearthly appearance;
    • As a bonus action, you can cast command without expending a spell slot.
    • Creatures charmed by you fail its saves against the command you issue.

LEVEL 14, Unbreakable Majesty: Once per Short or Long Rest.

• As a Bonus Action, you can assume a majestic presence for 1 minute.
• This ends if you become incapacitated.
• For the duration, when you are hit by a creature the first time on a turn, the attacker makes a CHA save or it misses.

College of Lore

LEVEL 3, Bonus Proficiencies: No change

LEVEL 3, Cutting Words: The same, but you can now wait until after you know the creature’s roll succeeded before you roll “reducing the damage or potentially turning the success into a failure”.

LEVEL 6, Magical Discoveries: (This one has changed.)

• You learn two spells from the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell list. Must be a cantrip or a spell for which you have Bard spell slots.
• You always have the chosen spells prepared.
• Whenever you replace a prepared spell, you can replace it with a spell from those class lists.

LEVEL 14, Peerless Skill: Cost one Bardic Inspiration use.

• When you fail an ability check or attack roll, add your roll of the Bardic Inspiration die.
• If you still fail, the Bardic Inspiration isn’t expended.

College of Valor

LEVEL 3, Combat Inspiration: The same, but you can now wait until after you are hit to use your reaction to roll your inspiration die to up your AC.

LEVEL 3, Martial Training (Was called “Bonus Proficiencies” in 5E): Same as in 5E, with this addition;

• You can use a Simple or Martial weapon as a Spellcasting Focus to cast Bard spells.

LEVEL 6, Extra Attack: Same as in 5E, but has added.

• You can cast one of your cantrips that has a casting time of an action in place of one of your attacks.

LEVEL 14, Battle Magic: No change.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.