haven’t looked at any reactions, but I did skim the package instead. I like the tweaks to the minor foes like goblins, ghouls, etc., I did hope for dragons to get more skills though, after going through those minor foes and working my way up, I hoped for / expected more.
agreed, more convenient and more flexible (does not need to be an actual spell)
Speaking of spells. I was re-reading Shadowdark this morning and I remembered to add something to my post above:
With all of these projects (and I include 1D&D in here), people wanting a completely different game seem to be missing the point.
repeating for emphasis
| Damage | Tiny or Small | Medium or Large | Huge or Gargantuan |
| 3 | 1d3 + 1 | 1d4 + 1 | 1d6 |
| 4 | 1d4 +1 | 1d6 + 2 | 1d8 |
| 5 | 1d6 + 1 | 1d8 | 1d10 |
| 6 | 1d6 + 2 | 1d10 | 1d12 |
I was just about to post this. I understand the value of having fixed damage for increased ease, but both values (dice and fixed damage) need to be in the stat block to provide an easy way for the DM to choose. I'm not a fan of unnecessary die rolling, but the swinginess (swingyness? does spelling matter for a made-up-word?) of monster damage is the kind of thing that often causes the whole table to wince in pain or sigh in relief ("I can't belief the badass boss only did 7 points of damage to the cleric with 9 hp!").
PS: and why different die choices based on the size of the creature?? It almost seems to be saying "if you don't like our simplified damage we will punish you with this ridiculously complicated table!"
Sorry for the brief tangent, but I think WotC hit on the best compromise in Candlekeep: the casters had a comprehensive list of spells, then the ones most likely to be used in combat got a brief write-up under Actions. So if your Master Sage was going to cast Drawmij's Instant Summons, you probably had to grab a PHB (or you have an encyclopedic D&D memory). But shield, fireball, shocking grasp, etc., were right there in the statblock. Best of both worlds.
