This being the first post on this blog, I would normally tell you all about myself and what you would expect to find here, but for the time being, I'll just post whatever I want to post. I'll be adding some of my art and videos at some point in the near future, so people can take a gander. In the meantime, I'll dump this massive wall of text that I spent an entire morning on last week.
I also posted this massive wall of text on the Wizards of the Coast board for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition playtest experiences. This reflects my own thoughts as DM for the first session of playtesting, as well as the impressions that I received from the Players.
Pre-play impressions
Starting off, we noticed a few things that this game seemed to mix and match a number of elements of what previous editions of D&D were trying to do. The magic system for wizards and clerics were reverted back to the Vancian system, similarly to how they had been in pre-forth edition. An interesting development with this, however, was that most spells that would be considered 1st level spells (magic missile, etc.) were melded in with the level 0 or "at will" cantrips. This meant that the wizard could pretty much always have at least a basic magical attack, such as magic missile to resort to. There was initially some worry, as this sparked fears of a retern to "linear fighters, quadratic wizards" balance issue, and whether or not that will become an issue in the full game or with power creep from future game expansion remains to be seen. It did however, increase the approachability for beginners toward certain classes, such as the fighter and rogue were largely self contained on their character sheets as to what they were capable of, and were more
Additionally, a number of the stats that we were familiar with seemed to be character sheets of previous editions seemed to be absent. Reflexes, Fortitude, and Willpower seemed to be missing, along with specific places to put your skills, as they had become bonuses to certain attribute checks as defined by your background and occasionally your class. Overall, however, this surprisingly made the game easier to read and understand, as you weren't quite as swamped with numbers as with previous editions. It did make performing checks a little more work for the DM, as I had to declare both what attribute and skills were required for a particular check. However, my experience with a variety of previous iterations of D&D as well as other RPG systems meant that I could easily declare what should be added to a check off the top of my head. The character backgrounds were an interesting new addition to the core game, as it provided some extra personality and realism to the characters as their skillset was now a direct reflection of who they were before they joined the adventuring party. The fact that they turned some of the more mundane skills, such as trades, connections, and endurance into a simple feat that you get with your background was a good idea in my opinion, as those skills (with the possible exeption of endurance) are not going to come into play all that frequently in the middle of a dungeon crawl.
In play experience. (if you don't want a gaming story, skip to the next section)
We decided to try playing without a battle map, just to see if it could be done with the new system. I did, however, draw a simple dungeon map as they explored the caves, just to give them a rough idea of location and positioning, and that seemed to suit the party just fine.
When the party fist arrived in the canyon, they took a quick looked around at the large grassy area at the base of the canyon, searching for signs of monsters. With a high tracking roll, they discovered a wide variety of different humanoid monster tracks all over the place, going every which way between most of the caves. There was evidence of battles and bodies being dragged off the field of battle. Eventually, they decided to pick a cave and begin exploring it. Conveniently enough, they randomly picked the one with all the kobolds in it.
The party rogue managed to notice the kobolds lurking near the entrance, preventing a surprise ambush, and the party made short work of them. The fighter really exelled here in melee combat, as regardless of whether he hit or missed with his axe, he was guaranteed to kill a kobold. The rogue managed to remain hidden behind a bush and picked off one or two with some thrown daggers (sneak attack wasn't much of a bonus, as she could kill a kobold with a single hit regardless. The wizard picked off one of them with a magic missile, and the cleric, while not getting as much raw killing power as the fighter, managed to fare decently, and disadvantage that he gave to enemies attacking the adjacent fighter proved to enable rather than make the fighter redundant. The kobolds, as expected were a cake walk, as this encounter was likely put in just to familiarize the players with basic principles of combat in D&D.
The adventurers then proceeded into the kobold cave, the dwarven cleric taking point. He managed to notice the pit trap and stop before he could fall in, and the group all attempted to jump the pit. Everyone in the party, exept for the Elf Wizard had enough strength to jump the pit without a running start, however, the Wizard needed a running start, as well as a quick change of direction without losing momentum. I decided that that would be a dextarity check to change direction at the last second. He failed, and ended up slipping and falling into the pit trap, alerting the kobolds and rats. The three party members at the top of the pit were able to fight off the rest of the kobolds With the cleric providing defense for the fighter and rogue, and the rogue was able to hide behind the cleric for the majority of the fight, while being able to quickly reach around him to stab the odd kobold in the face. The fighter was still the major damage dealer, but ended up taking a hit despite the extra defense provided by the cleric's shield. Meanwhile, the Wizard disbled the closing mechanism for the trapdoor, thus discouraging the rats from trying to cross, and trigger the pit trap with their combined weight. He also attempted to carve out some handholds to climb out using his magic missile, but the .
With the kobolds defeated, the fighter and rogue tried dousing one of the kobolds in oil, lighting it on fire, and then throwing it at the rats on the other side of the pit. The fighter failed his throw check, throwing the flaming kobold into the pit, much to the irritation of the Elven wizard. There was some minor rp regarding the Wizard trying to shortchange the dwarves on the looted silver to reaffirm his elven superiority complex, only the cleric was entirely oblivious to this, but the fighter wasn't bothered enough to care, and the rogue was willing to let it slide for now, content in the knowledge that she could pretty much pick the wizard's pockets at any time.
Content to leave the rats hissing and squeaking on the other side of the pit, the party journeyed on until they approached the kobold living quarters. The rogue snuck in, to take a better look, doing a quick headcount of all 48 of the kobolds in room, and reported back. Their solution was to set up a trail of crumbs from the rats to the kobold quarters, hoping that the rats would attack the kobolds, and hopefully give them enough of a distracion to even the odds a bit. The rogue set up the trail, and set up one of the planks in the guard nook to fall over the pit when hit with a rock, and everything seemed to go well, as the party managed to stay hidden around a corner while the rats followed the trail of crumbs to the kobold communal room. Unfortunately, the kobolds were not particularly bothered with a surprise visit from their pets, and a pair of them just shooed the rats back down the hallway. The party did sucessfuly ambush the two returning kobolds, reducing the amount in the big room by a small amount.
It was then that the Wizard pulled out his level 1 sleep spell, and knocked all but 6 of the 48 kobolds that were in the room unconscious. The kobolds were too stupid to try shaking the others awake, and were once again, made short work of. The wizard did, however, take enough damage to knock him down to 3hp. The party then proceeded to coup-de-gras the remaining sleeping kobolds in the room, including the whelps. And decided to cook up some rations and call it a day. There was some irritation, when they found out that they were unable to use their hit dice for recovery, as the dwarven cleric was lacking a healing kit. They didn't set up a proper watch either, and were consequently ambushed by the kobold chieftan who returned to find the party resting among the slaughtered remains of his tribe. He nearly killed the Wizard, and the Cleric and Fighter took some damage from him and his armed guards as well, but they all managed to survive. The rogue was, once again, able to remain hidden behind a heap of junk and only lost her sneak attack bonus once during the fight. They did, however succeed in killing the chieftain, and went back to sleep without setting up a watch again. This wasn't a major problem, as the kobolds that showed up during their long rest fled the caves at the sight of the mass slaughter. Waking up, the party looted the rest of the now abandoned cave, and people got money.
Hooray!
Observations from play.
The game doesn't really need as many denominations of currency at the base level, as it just makes counting up and dividing the money a tedious process and runs counter to spirit of simplification as shown by the majority of the alterations made to the new edition.
While the game seems to be going back to traditional vancian magic, it seemed to be balanced for the most part, as the non-magic classes got really useful things that he can do even at first level, and with each level up, both the rogue and fighter get special abilities that only serve to make them more awesome.
The only major balance issue that slightly bothered me was that the Wizard's sleep spell turned the encounter with the room of kobolds into a cakewalk, rather than a legitimately threatening encounter, and burning hands not only finished off the Kobold chieftain (didn't bother me that much, as he only had 4/44 hp left), but also all of his remaining guards. This wasn't a huge problem for me, as the encounter in the kobold common area was intended to be handled using clever thinking, and kobolds are already incredibly weak to begin with. I'm hoping that this won't become a major issue, as the Wizard will probably end up not being able to insta-kill enemies with his magic missile in the other caves, and will probably need to start using his more powerfull spells more judiciously.
The fact that skills, attack power and defenses didn't automatically become more powerful with each level gained seemed like an interesting development, as it means that certain tasks and certain enemies can remain a potential challenge for the players for a greater amount of time.
I am curious regarding whether most class abilities gained will increase in overall damage potential, as the HP was still increasing by 1dx/level.
I also found it interesting that certain elements of d&d combat, such as opportunity attacks were left out of the core rules, but that makes sense, as it streamlines gameplay, and keeps the game rolling at a steady pace. We're probably still going to see opportunity attacks in some form, as they will probably be incorporated as an ability for at least one of the classes, so if you really love opportunity attacks, you probably won't be too disappointed. Additionally, if you really liked having 4e style powers as a martial class, I'm pretty sure there will be a way to swap out a class ability for powers. I also noticed that the 2/day bonus attack ability that the dwarf fighter got at level 2 looks suspiciously similar to an encounter power in terms of effect.
Overall, the party seems to be fairly balanced at low level, with each class being able to both feel unique as well as have their own time to shine, but I'm a little cautious about whether this will remain true in the full game when players will have access to higher levels and the ability to customize their characters
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