5/7/2023 0 Comments Dnd guidance![]() ![]() And so forth.īut guidance? It’s a spell that can help the recipient with both a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check a Wisdom (Insight) check and I don’t even have to determine which one at the time I cast the spell. With knock we can imagine tendrils of magical energy turning the tumblers in the lock. If I cast absorb elements, we can visually imagine the flames of the fireball being absorbed or noticeably weakened around me. If I cast a fireball spell, it creates a giant ball of fire. Let’s start by pointing out that it’s actually difficult to explain what guidance actually does. It’s also just a terrible spell in actual play. It’s absolutely a character creation tax. If you’re the character in the group who has it on your spell list, you’re obligated to take it, and I’ve witnessed multiple Session 0’s in which players have specifically coordinated to make sure that someone has guidance covered. This makes guidance the auto-choose spell that we were just saying is a huge, neon red flag in game design. Guidance allows 5 th level characters to make skill checks as if they were 13 th level characters. That’s huge! To put that in perspective, getting a +2 proficiency bonus requires at least five levels of advancement. So any group without guidance is, on average, performing 12.5% worse on ability checks. ![]() It grants, on average, +2.5 on ability checks. It requires concentration, but because it’s a cantrip you can cast it as often as you like.įirst off, this is clearly a must-have spell. In 5 th Edition D&D, guidance is a cantrip that allows the caster to touch one willing creature and grant them +1d4 to any ability check of their choice made within the next minute. (Another common example of this in D&D are DMs who resolve traps as purely declaration gotchas: “Whoops! You forgot to say, ‘I search for traps,’ so here’s your random damage tax!” See Rulings in Practice: Traps for a better way of running traps. Just imagine Dennis Nedry laughing in your face for eternity: This is basically the, “Whoops! You forgot to say ‘Simon Says’ before collecting your victory points, so I automatically win the game!” school of game design and it almost always results in terrible experiences. Second, declaration gotcha mechanics aren’t fun. The auto-choose ability flattens the game by reducing the diversity and variety of characters. Whether or not the ability actually breaks the play of the game, it has broken the process of choosing abilities. There are two principles of game design on which this rant is based.įirst, in a game where players choose between different abilities, any ability which is so good that everyone should pick it every single time is almost always an indication that the ability is broken. Guidance is not only incredibly powerful, it is constantly useful. If you’re casting the spell, it’s absolutely fantastic. I mean, not if you’re the character casting it. It’s so bad, in fact, that I’d argue it flirts with being objectively bad. Warning: This is a rant about game design. ![]()
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