I think there was something in the "pick your spell list" - but to me it took away the bardery part.
That "something" was fun. I hope most classes gain their spell lists back and bards still pick a list, tbh. I liked it. Do the same for sorcerers. That was a meaningful choice that established a lot of flavor in the the style. Adding those options adds more bard tropes. It's only an issue if a person wants to deny others those tropes in favor of their own perception of the class.
No, Flex is both. Without Flex, a Longsword has two use cases that a character needs to choose one or the other:
One handed with a shield: 1d8 + 2 AC
Two handed withoutna shield: 1d10 + 0 AC
With Flex, they get to have their cake and eat it, too:
Single handed with a shield: 1d10 + 2 AC
Flex allows both the higher damage die and the higher AC. Mix with a sword and board fighting style...
Characters using a two-handed weapon are typically already gaining a larger damage die and players using a shield are already gaining that AC bonus. Characters who cannot use a shield or the standard two-handed weapons don't need flex because they can use the versatile trait instead. I wouldn't count it as both bonuses either. I do think it's useful, however, for a shield style build for the extra damage.
Or maybe instead of their own spell list, they can pick from the cleric, druid, and Sorcerer Spell lists.
Or warlock. Or psionic if it gets added.
I don't get the Wizard hate. I am starting to believe it is a holdover grudge from back in the day because they used to be broken. They aren't today. Not compared to the other full caster classes like the Sorcerer who not only get full spellcasting, but relevant class abilities that are impactful in combat.
The thing is that Wizards don't really get Class abilities. If they are boring it is because they really only get spells. Compared to a Sorcerer's Metamagic, what do they get? The Savant ability? There aren't enough spells in each school to matter, and some schools don't even exist at certain spell levels. Arcane Recovery? That compares to Font of Magic. Other than those, Wizard abilities are all delegated to the Subclass and so many of those Subclass abililites are little more than ribbons/flavor. The vast majority of level 2 Wizard subclass abilities are BORING. People choose Evocation and Divination because they actually have abilities that work decently in combat for levels 2 through 5. And the Sorcerer gets the Evocation school's primary ability as a metamagic option. Most other Wizard subclasses bring nothing to the table. Illusion, Transmutation, and Conjuration? Worthless in a fight. Abjuration, Enchantment, and Necromancy? Barely better. Compare any of those to the Sorcerer's Draconic Resilience? Not a contest.
Wizards' power is about their broad customizability with arcane magic. They are the only ones that really care about Spell Schools, and they need diverse options in those spell schools. Because that is almost ALL they have.
Wizards deserve to have the largest spell list because it is inherently necessary for their School focus to matter, and they get little else. They deserve to be the Arcane Toolbox class because they are the scientists and scholars of magic.
Wizards have the largest spell list in the UA because sorcerers, bards, and warlocks cannot swap spells on a rest and end up with access to only selected spells on level up. Plus the ritual caster traits that favor wizards. Plus the ability to modify and create spells that would be exclusive to the wizard. It's the subclasses that needed a bit more. The class had plenty going for it.
I don't think it's because the wizard only got a passing score so much as they realized they gave too much of the wizard to sorcerer warlock & bard but don't want to admit it or give something else to fill the wizard's dead levels formerly covered by a larger spell list.
Access to the spell list isn't a dead level. Sorcerers, warlocks, and bards cannot access the full wizard list. Only the spells known, which is less than the spellbook menchanics.
Now if they give away a little more, we won't need the wizard at all anymore!
Why does the wizard need to be needed if no other class does? The wizard isn't needed. The wizard has some clear advantages in the existing spellcasting mechanic and still had those in the UA with better spell access via rest mechanic, better ritual mechanics, and the exclusive spell creation.
There is never a reason to drop your shield and 2-hand your versatile weapon. If you're not in danger, you will just attack as normal. If you are in danger, you're not going to drop your shield to get 1 die step up.
Versatile helps characters who don't use a shield and cannot use more damaging weapons. Like a monk or possibly a bard.
Versatile weapons desperately need to provide options worth giving up AC for a turn for.
A character isn't give up AC if they don't have or cannot use a shield.
No I don't think it's that simple. How often have we seen wotc folks describe sorcerer as "wizard but hot"? You never see wizard described as "sorcerer but X". Look at
the previous packet5 video & discount the bit about epic boons/feats. In it Crawford spends almost the entire thing talking about the warlock & sorcerer going at length how important it was that they hit the mark on the themes & feel during play on those two. Wizard is almost an afterthought. It's not until the after survey feedback video that they acknowledge the spell list is a huge chunk of the wizard's themes & feel but it's expressed in a way that is somewhat disparaging with an implied sense of entitlement. Even a cursory glance at packet5 wizard with that kind of concern for themes & feel would be immediately apparent that the wizard's themes & feel were given to classes with their own stuff on top of that injection.
The spell modification and spell creation abilities are very thematic to a wizard.
Yes, but all full casters get the new spell levels, which is his point. Compared to, say, a sorcerer, the wizard needs to get something else, or why not just play a sorcerer? Right now, the wizard's access to more spells is arguably overtuned, making them a bit stronger than sorcerers, but if you take that away completely, why would anyone play a wizard? So there has to be something to make them roughly on par.
What's taking that away in the UA? Spells known is alwasy a subset of wizard spells instead of the wizard list.
Not just Wizard toes, as I felt that Bard + Primal made for a far better Ranger...
Bard being a full caster is the problem, if they also get their choice of everything else.
Different argument, but primal bards don't make better rangers. They make something between a ranger and a druid. That's a spellcaster vs martial attacker argument and the bard being the spell caster isn't significant.
But every other full caster class gets the exact same thing, plus more and better class features.
Except they don't. Clerics and druids have a different spell from wizards completely, and spells known restricts bards, sorcerers, and warlocks to the subset of wizard spells that they learned.
In general.......
I think flex is more situational than bad.
I prefer class lists to shared lists but I was seeing the opportunity with the bard selecting a list and choosing spells from within that list. I would push for sorcerers to have the same choice. That ends up with a class focused on metamagic vs a class focused on inspiration and skills. Seems good to me.
There are still a lot of options moving ahead. A good bard spell list works. A basic bard list with a choice of an additional class list works. No bard class list and tagging spells as arcane, divine, or primal can work. Selecting a class list form which to initially choose spells works. One of the key points to the bard is the diverse spell selection and there should be several ways to accomplish that.
