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Evocation Adept is a new feat from the Arcana Unleashed books. It gets you additional prepared spells as you level including Chromatic Orb, Shatter, Fireball, Vitriolic Sphere, and Wall of Force. You also get a bonus to your Spellcasting Ability Score and the ability to spend hit dice on extra damage for evocation spells.

I've seen a lot of opinions on here and on Youtube that this feat is an automatic must-pick and that any spell caster who doesn't take it is nerfing themselves, so I want to dive into why I think that this feat, while strong, is not a must-pick and should not be banned at your table.

1. Fireball

One reason that everybody is screaming from the rooftops about this feat is access to Fireball. I'm of the opinion that Fireball (and all blasting, for that matter) is a little overrated for optimized play. When you first get Fireball, it does good damage in a very large area. It's a great spell that can tune down the difficulty of an encounter by reducing enemy count. However, Fireball is not better, even when you first get it, than Hypnotic Pattern, Fear, and I'd even maybe include Slow and Sleet Storm in that list.

At these levels, you only have limited 3rd and 4th level slots, and AoE control is king in DnD. Sure, if there's a swarm of goblins sitting there, Fireball will do the trick. But at ~21-25 average damage (when you include chance to save), there's a lot of enemies that Fireball won't take out of the action economy, while control spells will. Concentration is an issue, but every spell caster should be optimizing for maintaining concentration and protecting themselves well.

Fireball, additionally, does not scale super well. Adding 3.5 damage (if enemies don't save) per spell level will not keep up with creature HP, and you want to use your slots on control anyways, especially as you unlock more powerful control spells. A 3rd level Hypnotic Pattern will have the same effect against higher-CR creatures, while a 3rd level Fireball will not. Fireball doesn't compete very well with higher-level control spells, either.

"But, but, Charm and Fear immunities!", I hear you argue. Sure, enemies gain immunities to these conditions as you climb in level. Guess what else creatures commonly gain resistance to? Fire damage. Even fire immunity isn't too uncommon.

Finally, even if you want to blast, most builds you can make offer you a way to do that already. One or two subclasses give you access to Fireball. Outside of that, there's a bunch of blasting spells that, even if they aren't Fireball, are good options. A few subclasses get you access to Lightning Bolt, which, while a little worse than Fireball, is pretty close (watch Treantmonk's video on the topic). Laeral's Silver Lance and Astral Flood are both spells that don't do quite as good damage as Fireball but come with de-buffs that allow them to be good spells. They also both do better damage types than Fireball. Druids don't get any of these spells, but many situations where Fireball is going to be good also mean that Spike Growth or Moon Beam or Conjure Animals are going to be good. The same goes for Cleric, where Spirit Guardians means that they don't need non-concentration blasting.

I'm not trying to argue that Fireball is not a good spell. It is, especially in Tier 2. The Evocation Adept bonus gives you a way to semi-upcast the spell without using a higher-level slot, which is also very good, but balanced by the fact that you have to expend hit die. All I'm saying is that while Fireball is good, there's a plethora of reasons that getting it with a feat is not overpowered, because most builds either have other things they want to focus on or Fireball replacements on their list.

2. Wall of Force

Wall of Force is a great, great spell. No-save control is always powerful and this is the best source of it. The thing is, you probably only have 2 level 5 slots, Wall of Force is concentration, and you probably don't want two people in a party concentrating on a Wall of Force at a time.

For example, on a Cleric, Wall of Force is of course good, but it means you aren't concentrating on Spirit Guardians, or later Conjure Celestial. If you want to concentrate on Wall of Force, why would you play a Cleric and then use your feat on it? Why not just play a Wizard? Spirit Guardians is central to what that class does and then you can use your feats on other things.

Bards are mostly all picking Wall of Force at level 10 with their first Magical Secret, one level after you can get the spell through other means.

Druids have a niche as maybe the best AoE damage dealers (since their AoE damage spells are persistent and ranged), so even though Wall of Force is good on them, it might be better for another party member to concentrate on it so that they can focus on mowing down the controlled enemies. Druids also have good no-save single-enemy control at spell level 4 (Giant Insect and Grasping Vine). While these aren't as good as Wall of Force, they do provide Druids with a way to fill that hole (and with a lower-level slot). Wall of Stone being on their list allows them to also get most of the wall functionality out of Wall of Force (and it might even be better in some situations since enemies can't see through it).

You can't really argue how useful getting Wall of Force is on a Sorcerer, however, who is probably their party's primary Arcane/Control caster and misses out on it otherwise (unless you're playing Clockwork!). With Metamagic, Sorcerers can make their control spells more reliable, but still not as reliable as Wall of Force, especially once legendary resistances come up.

Similarly, the feat is really good on Warlocks; being able to cast Wall of Force 5-8 times per day on one character is a great way to make your DM quickly design their encounters so Wall of Force won't be useful.

To the credit of the feat, getting the extra spells prepared means you can use your class spell selections on things other than Walls, though on a Druid you probably still want Giant Insect or Grasping Vine for the times when you can't use Wall of Force. Also, since a single caster only gets 2 level 5 slots a day, multiple casters with access to Wall of Force isn't necessarily a bad thing even if you don't want two people concentrating on it at a time. Still, there's the opportunity cost of taking another feat there that may help your party more.

Conclusion

Evocation Adept is undoubtedly a strong feat that can slot into the build of most pure spell casters to offer them increased control and blasting capabilities, as well as expanding their spell list to allow them more versatility. However, if you're a player, absolutely do not feel like you have to take it to be pulling your weight, especially if someone in your party already can access Wall of Force. Even if somebody else doesn't get it, your party all together should be able to replicate most of what Wall of Force can do with access to other spells. If you're a DM, I don't think the feat deserves a nerf. You should be designing encounters around your players' powerful spells anyways, not to invalidate them, but to force them to use them creatively or give certain monsters a way to circumvent them so they are still useful but not encounter-breaking.

I'd also like to say that I wish Wall of Force wasn't included in the feat because I don't agree with giving out class-central spells with feats (like, if Spirit Guardians was on one of these feats it would really suck), and also because I think the feat should've focused entirely on blasting for just for the vibe and flavor of the feat.

I had the idea of a Goldilocks and the three bears party with Goldi as a beastmaster ranger (bear companion, of course), Halsin permanently wildshaped as a cave bear, and another moon Druid permanently wildshaped as an Owlbear.

This doesn’t feel like a particularly strong party, it’s basically a 4-martial comp but quite watered down from the power level of fighters, monks, and paladins that would usually make a martial comp work, even with tavern brawler.

Does anyone have any specific ideas on any tricks, builds, or ways to make this work for honor mode? How should I build the Ranger? I was thinking about going 6 Paladin / 6 moon Druid for the Owlbear at 12 to get a Paladin aura to boost saves (paladin aura works in wild shape according to the wiki). I’d like to avoid barrelmancy and cheese as much as possible. I wouldn’t be 100% opposed to adding a 4th team member. If I do that, what do you guys think would be an optimal add? I guess I could do something like a Swords bard, fire sorc, or other acuity abuser, but I’d like to do something creative and fitting with the theme.

I'm theory crafting a Divination Wizard to play when Arcana Unleashed comes out, and I think the Divination Adept feat is so fun and thematic for the character that I'm considering trying to build around delaying War Caster until level 8.

How would you pick Species, Origin Feats, and Spells to get around this?

I've thought about Stone Goliath; its damage reduction is pretty nice for reducing concentration saves, plus it has the advantage of boosting our defensive capabilities by giving us more effective HP.

Another option would be Lucky Human. With Heroic Inspiration, Luck Points and Divination Adept's advantage mechanic, we could contribute a decent amount of resources towards having a pseudo-War Caster advantage when we needed it. This option would also be very thematic for a Divination Wizard.

Finally, you could just dip Artificer for Con prof. and Armor, but I don't really like delaying spell casting progression.

Anyone have any other ideas about hacking concentration saves until 8?

Goliath gets a lot of love in 5.5e, but the Ancestry choices that I see get recommended the most by far are the Cloud and Hill Giants. Both are very good options but I think that Stone is pretty underrated.

Let's compare Stone's Endurance to Tough, which many consider to be a great origin feat. Tough starts out granting you 2 extra HP and then scaling by 2 additional HP per character level. Let's assume we have, say, a wizard with a 14 in CON. That means Stone's Endurance lets you reduce damage by 1d12+2 Proficiency Bonus times per day. That starts at 8.5x2 = 17 additional hit points at level 1, and 8.5x6=51 additional hit points at level 20. With 16 CON that's 9.5x2 = 19 HP at 1 and 9.5x6=57 HP at 20.

That averages to 1.7 HP per level with 14 CON or 1.9 per level with CON at 20. Scaling slightly slower than Tough, but with a much higher bonus starting at level 1. However, I think Stone's Endurance has an additional benefit in that reducing damage can be very valuable compared to just having those HP, as Abjuration Wizards well know. It lets you keep your Armour of Agathys or Selune's Viper fueled up for longer. More importantly, however, it lets you lower the DC of concentration checks. I think that this, specifically, gives Stone Goliath a niche as a source of Concentration protection for spell casters or a buffer for Temp HP abusers without compromising too much from the HP boost that something like Tough would give you.

It does compete with other reaction defenses, however. But Shield won't help you in every circumstance (saving throw damage). If Absorb Elements gets reprinted in the Arcana Unleashed book, that would be another hit to Stone's viability. I think it could still have a place, though, to help conserve spell slots, and on classes that don't have the ability to rely on those two reaction spells. Warlock seems like it could be a pretty great choice for a Stone Goliath between the lack of level 1 slots for Shield and the Agathys synergy.

One more small synergy I had in mind was that if an ally casts Warding Bond on you, it basically doubles the effectiveness of Stone's Endurance, as you're preventing the damage from hurting you or your friendly neighborhood Cleric.

The rules say this about Hiding and Stealth:

>With the Hide action, you try to conceal yourself. To do so, you must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check while you’re Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters Cover or Total Cover, and you must be out of any enemy’s line of sight; if you can see a creature, you can discern whether it can see you.
On a successful check, you have the Invisible condition. Make note of your check’s total, which is the DC for a creature to find you with a Wisdom (Perception) check.
The condition ends on you immediately after any of the following occurs: you make a sound louder than a whisper, an enemy finds you, you make an attack roll, or you cast a spell with a Verbal component.

This makes it seem like, as long as you don't attack, speak, or cast a spell with a Verbal component, the only way your stealth is broken is if the enemy finds you, i.e. takes a perception check against your stealth roll. It makes it sound like stealth is not broken from coming into an enemy's line of sight, only that this is a necessary condition for taking your hide action to start stealth. So, when you're in an enemy's line of sight, you're actively staying in blind spots, camouflaging, moving slowly, or somehow otherwise maintaining stealth.

I'm thinking specifically about the Halfling's Naturally Stealthy ability here. If this isn't the way that it works, then this ability is pretty inconsequential. As soon as you step out from behind your ally or an enemy steps to a place where they can view you, you lose any benefit you were gaining.

So, does the Halfling's "Naturally Stealthy" ability mean that you have to stay behind your ally to stay in stealth? What if you move backwards, away from your ally, but your ally is still between you and the enemy? If you're still invisible, does this only work in a straight line, or is there a slight "cone" of obscurement your ally offers based on how much of the enemy's view they may or may not make up?

If this is the case, say that I have a Halfling Dance Bard. If I use my action to hide behind, say, my fighter. Then, I give out a Bardic Inspiration and make a BA attack to grapple my fighter. When I move with the fighter grappled, would I be able to stay invisible? I don't think there's anything there that technically should break invisibility. (This seems like a fun interaction, but trying to think of some creative uses for it).

If it works the other way (being in an enemy's field of view doesn't break stealth), say I hide behind my fighter. Can I pop out from behind them and give out my BI/make my BA attack against an enemy with advantage from being invisible, even if stealth would end after the attack? I've seen posts about rogues using Naturally Stealthy to get advantage for sneak attacks.

EDIT: lots of great ideas for 2014 here but I was going to write the guide for 2024 rules only since there’s not as much out on it. Keep it coming though!!

I love making support characters. I’ve been doing deep dives into mechanics in 2024 edition that let you support and protect the team the best, from initiative to saving throws to control to healing.

I’m going to write a guide on the support mechanics the game has to offer, with some builds that lean into the mechanics.

Does anyone have any favorite under-the-radar interactions, spells, or abilities that they think should be highlighted or explored in a build? What’s your favorite way to build characters that excel at healing? Controlling? Buffing? Positioning? Tell me how you like to keep your party safe!

Some examples:

Spellfire Spark Origin Feat with Warding Bond for constant damage reduction

Lords Alliance Agent and Slasher on a TWF Champion to generate Heroic Inspiration and boost party defense

Human Warlock with Zhent Ruffian, Musician, Purple Dragon Rook, Tireless Reveler to pass around Heroic Inspiration and boost Initiative

Thief Rogue’s Fast Hands with Healer and Nets/Chains

Rolling up a 2024 World Tree Barbarian character. The plan is for the character to take full advantage of cleave mastery and constantly be surrounded by at least 2 enemies.

I think eventually grabbing Zhentarim Tactics would be super nice as a way to squeeze more value from being able to cleave on more Opportunity Attacks, even though you can’t boost STR with it and it costs an Origin Feat.

With this in mind, I’m thinking a lot about the strongest Species for this character for the purposes of staying alive.

1. Human - the extra origin feat would either go to Tough or the new Infernal Pact origin feat. Resistance to the two most common (other than Necrotic) damage types in addition to BPS means we can shrug off more attacks and keep our temp HP up more from raging. The dark vision is also a nice perk. Is it enough to be better than Tough? I’m not so sure.

2. Aasimar- resistance to two slightly less common damage types but flight once per day

3. Dwarf - I see this as a compromise between the origin feats offered by the Human. 1 HP instead of 2 per level, but poison resistance and Tremor Sense which is sort of a dark vision substitute.

4. Gnome - this doesn’t help our ability to take damage, but a Gnome Barb has resistance to all saves except Con, which they get proficiency in. This may be the best option for staying in the fight.

What do you all think the best species is defensively for a non-caster? Have I missed anything? Are any of these options mathematically superior?