in both cases (Sentinel & Shield Master)
this is not a PvP game (in most cases^^),
so the most interesting part is how do these Feats interact with monsters - less with player abilities
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Oh you mean the part of adding to the saving throw.
Well in this case it is again a deliberate design choice. They even go out of their way to argue that this ability can only be made when the effect only targets you. This does not specify that it has to be a spell or ability that PC/NPCs have but all perils that require a Dex Save the DM throws at you (avoiding a dart trap or whatever) so I think it does cover more than just 5-6 spells.
If you aren't incapacitated, you can add your shield's AC bonus to any Dexterity saving throw you make against a spell or other harmful effect that targets only you.
If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.
I mean yeah, you could be right. Shield Master could be increased in usefulness. The same way any other ability in the game could be increased in usefulness. But that’s just house balancing then and not clearing up an unclear ruling.
I love the new rules on exhaustion, but I was wondering if it would make sense for us to also specify whether or not it affects spell save DCs, which I think the new rules are unclear on (or agree on a ruling for VALUE). 
Reasoning: It’s specified that it applies to any D20 check and that includes attack rolls, including magical spell attacks. Offering an exhausted wizard (and other casters) an option to completely ignore their exhausted condition by doing AOE/Saving Throw damage seems favoring like favoring spellcasters over martials. My spell save DC is essentially just my spell attack + 8. So why would one change as a result of exhaustion and the other not? When I’m exhausted, I have troubles moving, concentrating, speaking. Makes sense to have spell saves impacted. → totally possible that this is more of a “rules” thing than a “something we need to change for value” - thing but I thought I’D bring it up.
the wording in the rules says
when you make a D20 test… (and it specifies saving throws and attack rolls as D20 tests) but in the case of casters and their spell saves, other people would be rolling.
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Building on the martial v spellcaster reasoning, if Spell Save DC were to be affected, who’s to say it shouldn’t affect AC as well?
You could feasibly argue that spell save is not affected because while casting spells and doing active things is more difficult when exhausted, you can still do passive things to your normal ability, like ‘avoiding’ spells, but not ‘resisting’ spell effects
But I agree it feels janky as hell
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RAI it would make sense
… but this would be an extra rule for all @ VALUE to remember,
and I would strongly argue to keep our VALUE rules simple
just for my homegames however, this might be a good idea
… may giving them -1 DC per exhaustion levels
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I mean, for me AC doesn’t qualify because (usually) no one does a d20 test.
Edit : but if it did include armor, at least it would be armor for everyone (most likely).
Yea it’s a bit hard to separate “i would do this differently “ from “this is what we need to play fun games” xD
In real life if you are exhausted, your dexterity deteriorates. As the dexterity modifier is in the AC, imho it would be affected as well.
Yeah, I probably wouldn’t want to wear armor at all. But I wasn’t making a real-life comparison, I was making an in-game comparison where D20 rolls define exhaustion. (Edit: I think I’m the exhausted. That’s exhaustion is defined through d20 rolls)
Attacking a player with a melee or ranged attack requires a to hit d20 test, but on the attacking side
Same as rolling against spell save DC
I am saying if exhausted doesn’t affect AC then it makes sense that it doesn’t affect spell save DC either
When I have 5 levels of exhaustion as a fighter, my attack roll will be my d20+strength+proficiency-5*2. As a fighter, no matter if I make one or two or three attacks depending on level, all those attacks will have a minus 10 at the end. I have no way of making an attack without exhaustion.
As a caster, my attack roll is my d20+proficiency+spellcasting. So if I cast firebolt at someone in range, I’m going to have a -10 to that, too (because I have to do a spell attack). So I can’t decently hit a single creature. I can, however, cast fireball (no spell attack, just save DC) to attack someone and a bunch of other people around them at my usual spell save DC without any compromises.
So if I were exhausted and the bad guy cast fireball on me, I would have the -10 on my saving throw. But if the bad guy is exhausted and casts a third level aoe spell, there’s no downside.
AC is related to either my stats (Dex) or my Armor, or a combinaton of both. Spell Save DC is related to neither. The new exhaustion rules aren’t either. They just lower your rolls by 2*exhaustion level without changing your stats.
Sorry, I don’t want to drag this on, I just really want to understand the combination between AC and Spell Saves. I’m not getting it 
Edit: nonsense
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Ah see, now I understand what you mean Thanks for your patience! I never thought about the “magic ac” thing.
but yea, I guess exhaustion doesn’T really come up much at VALUE anyway. At most it’s one or two levels and we can probably deal with that. …
I ran a “drinking” VALUE game where two players had 5 levels of exhaustion once
I think they even got a story award 
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No actually I just typed a bunch of nonsense with my Magic AC Point because spell save DCs don’t actually work like that, I’m terribly sorry
Yeah the way spellcasting works with exhaustion now
Affects spells where you roll for
Spell Attack, usually targeted projectiles
Doesn’t affect spells where affected creatures roll
Against Spell Save DC, usually AoE-ish spells
Soooooo diagetically you could make the case that Exhausted makes you worse at hitting moving targets with spells , but doesn’t make your area spells any weaker or less powerful
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I mean, many cases can be made. But most spells have hand gestures and words required. It can just as well be argued that those gestures and words will be less precise when exhausted, therefore more easily anticipated and easier to move away from.
But I think we are in agreement that it’s not all that relevant for VALUE, and I do think thinking about it in terms of “AC” helps - especially when going by the assumption that muscle memory will just blast that fireball out.
I mean, sometimes you don’t even want to cast it, but your wizard brain just goes… FIREBALL before realizing you’re killing your team…
And also, it will make it harder for spellcasters to keep up concentration when exhausted.
@katnyx I understand what you are coming from. The issue of saving throw spells not being affected by debuffs always has been an issue, an issue OneDnD does not properly adress.
Conditions like Poisoned, Restrained or Frightened also screw over martials by imposing disadvantage on attack rolls while not bothering spellcasters.
On the other hand I also agree with Darthbinks that we should avoid a general house-rule like this for simplicity and ease of understanding - but the case of exhaustion not lowering spell DCs seems to be such a glaring flaw in the rules (similar to Emanation rules and Hunter’s Mark requiring concentration) that a VALUE houserule can be justified.
At the end, it is of course the individual DM’s responsibility that players have fun at the table, and individual DMs can always use houserules.
Some more observations from playing with the new rules, my most recent 2024 game was yesterday, at level 12:
- Tasha optional features: Most of them are obsolete now as they got incorporated into the base class in one way or another (like the expanded spell lists); or simply do not work with the new classes anymore. But what about features like Magical Inspiration? That’s not included in the new Bard class, and the new Bard class has nothing that would make this feature incompatible. Since 5e 2024 is supposed to be backwards compatible, this feature should still work?
- Custom Lineage: Variant Human is obsolete now as the new PHB has a new human. But what about Custom Lineage? As of now it is the only way to start with a General feat that lacks a level prerequisite (whereas the new human only gets an Origin feat).
- Cleave: The Cleave mastery’s wording is unclear: As written, you can trigger it on Reaction attacks if the other conditions are met. Is that RAI? Also, if you Cleave with an attack from your Attack action, is the Cleave attack also considered an Attack as part of your Attack action? (it sounds dumb, but unfortunately we need a clarification because they decided to restrict GWM’s damage bonus to “attacks as part of the Attack action” for whatever reason… I’d prefer to just get rid of that restriction as it makes things so much simpler, but whatever…).
- Nick: Also has a lot of wording issues, especially in combination with the Dual Wielder feat. Can you use Nick if you have the Dual Wielder feat and the other weapon was not light? (because the Dual Wielder feat allows the regular off-hand attack if the other weapon was not light) or do you need to juggle three weapons to use both Nick and the Dual Wielder feat?
- Magic Items: because weapon-swapping is now a thing and is necessary to make the most out of masteries, martial characters (and gishes like Bladesingers or Valor bards with a multiclass for masteries) are now in need of more magic weapons than before. When your main weapon is magical, but the other weapons are not, the loss in damage and accuracy often outweighs the benefit of being able to use a different weapon mastery - which was what happened to my Valor bard yesterday.
For VALUE that means increasing the magic item limit per tier is necessary (something I already suggested in this thread before the weapon swapping issue became evident; because in my opinion it already was an issue before that, with martials suffering from not being able to use enough magic items).
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what Hasbro meant by being ‘backwards compatible’ was, that
- you should buy the old adventures too and play them with 5.24 pcs
- DNDBeyond will update to show you the new rules
ALL General feats have a level prerequisite now
it’s level 4+
you can change your weapon mastery after a long rest
so no problem 
You missed the problem Characters get two (or more as fighters, with feats and multiclassing) masteries they can use at the same time - but they need to switch weapons for that mid-turn, not over a long rest (hence they changed the weapon drawing rules, allowing drawing a weapon for each attack you make; and that might also be the reason for why they changed Vicious weapons to effectively be Flame Tongues without attunement). I am talking about e.g. making the first attack with a pike to Push an enemy into position and then switching to a glaive to Cleave. Or using a shortbow for Vex or a longbow for Slow and then a heavy crossbow to Push.