Rhenny
Adventurer
August 10, 2013 Session of D&D Next Playtest
Conclusion to our 12th level playtest (The Love Story of Valkar and Sarahara)
This was the last session of an ongoing adventure. We updated the PCs from the last package and unfortunately, Rynlore, who was a nature paladin, had to become a new type of paladin completely. Levos the Elven rogue/assassin, didn’t change too much, and Mythra the Elven mage (evoker) didn’t change that much.
PC Conversion Notes:
All players thought that some of the features of their new builds were more interesting and easier to use.
For example, the mage liked gaining +5 to damage of all evocation damage spells rather than turning 1’s to 2 like last version.
The rogue player liked sneak attack much better in this version.
The paladin liked the way Lay on Hands created a HP pool that he could use as needed rather than just 1 shot.
They weren’t too sure about losing skills, but as we played, they felt that Lore worked well and classes that had expertise dice had a true advantage in non-combat actions. It was great for the rogue basically.
Overall, the rogue and the paladin player in particular were not too keen on the rigidness of the feats. The Elven Rogue took Alertness because he wanted to get the +5 to initiative, but because the other two parts of the feat were already granted to him as an Elf, he felt as if he got short changed. The paladin player just didn’t feel like he could make enough choices. We all questioned the idea that rogues and fighters would gain more feats than the other classes (and could load up on ability point increases). We are unsure how it will play out. Overall, we are not sure how ability point gain and feat gain will feel in the long haul.
Game summary:
In past games, the group had previously found 3 magical keys that they needed to unlock a central mausoleum. Their goal was to find the burial chambers of Valkar and Sarahara (two dead lovers cursed to wander the spirit world eternally seeking each other in vain), and break Tegross the Mad’s curse so that they could be together as they leave the spirit world and travel to the great beyond together.
In the western most mausoleum, as soon as Rynlore gathered the three keys together, all three adventurers felt a strange magic wash over them. They had been subtly transformed by a mystical force. (This was the conversion to the August playtest package). Preparing for the last part of their quest, the three adventures opened the door to the west mausoleum, and exited from within. As before, the graveyard itself was cloaked in a heavy sulfurous mist. They realized that at any moment they would be ambushed by one or more extraplanar beings from the Hells or the Abyss. Resolutely, they walked towards the central mausoleum, Rynlore held “Brightbeater” his glowing magical warhammer before him illuminating only 10’ all around him. The group made it to the stone stairs that rose up to the central mausoleum, but when Rynlore stepped upon them, a bone devil appeared before the doors and demanded, “give me the keys or I will tear them from your dead body.” Rynlore stood his ground and as usual Levos was able to fire an arrow at the beast before anyone else could act. Mythra decided to conserve spells (she only had 3 spells left from the rest of the adventure) so she tried to use ray of frost against the devil even knowing that the devil was resistant. Rynlore bashed the devil with his warhammer doing massive amounts of damage, but after a few seconds, the ground behind the party erupted and a large, duel wielding giant skeleton broke from the earth. It moved up to Levos and Mythra and engaged. After a short battle, each of the adventurers taking minor wounds, the group defeated the devil and the skeleton.
The party moved up the stone stairs and Rynlore placed the keys into the appropriately colored key holes to open the massive, magically reinforced doors. The party crept into the mausoleum and saw three 10’ tall black stone statues of small dragons only 15’ before them. There were 5’ gaps between the statues and a small hall on the other side, massive doors on the opposite side to the north. Levos stepped closer to the middle statue and searched the front of it for traps. He could not see any mechanism whatsoever, so he slid beside the statue into the 5’ gap to get a look at the other sides. At that point, he felt a magical power attacking his mind and body. Standing close to Rynlore, the paladin, gave Levos the strength he needed to resist the magic unleashed by the mystical statues. (He succeeded his Wisdom save against polymorph because he received a bonus from the paladin’s aura – that’s a really big bonus!) Without looking back, Levos continued to the northern hallway and out of harm’s way. Then, Rynlore, held up his newly acquired spellguard shield and ran past the statues to the other side, resisting the magic quite handily. Finally, Mythra, not willing to take a chance, drank a potion of flying they had found earlier and rose above the statues. She was able to fly over the top of them since the ceiling of the mausoleum was another 5’ above the top of the dragon statues.
As the party got closer to the next set of doors, Levos heard the sound of chanting within. Before entering, Rynlore used his last spell, a prayer. Then, Rynlore boldly pushed open the doors and at that point Levos could hear the chanting much more clearly. The party saw two undead priests in two different rune circles chanting a summoning. Between the adventurers and the priests, 3 chainmail wearing ogre skeletons prepared for battle. After a few seconds, the group was able to drop one of the chanting priests and one of the ogre skeletons, but then they heard the other priest finish its incantation. In another rune circle only 10’ in front of the paladin and his comrades, a Marilith appeared wielding 6 sharp longswords, her snakelike body curling behind her. With his quick reflexes, Levos fired an arrow deeply into the Marilith’s snakelike body, but she shrugged it off and closed on the paladin. With all her fury, she wielded blades expertly, connecting with Rynlore a number of times, drawing blood with each deadly strike. Mythra had saved her most powerful spell for a moment such as this. She chanted and a sickly green ray fired from her staff. The Marilith dodged and was unscathed. (That was a disintegrate spell that did nothing!). The battle raged for a few more rounds. Rynlore was nearly killed, but Levos managed to get to him and give him an extra potent healing potion that they had found (4d8+4). Mythra recovered from the disappointment and bolstered Rynlore with Stoneskin. When the Marilith attacked, Rynlore suffered a number of wounds, and if it weren’t for the stoneskin, he would have fallen. Rynlore howled with fury and slammed his warhammer into the demon, hitting a number of times. Levos administered one more healing potion to Rynlore, and hoped for the best. All the while, the ogre skeletons hit Levos, knocking him prone. Another hit Mythra injuring her, but miraculously she kept on her feet. The remaining priest tried to inflict wounds upon Rynlore twice in succession, failing both times. When Mythra was able, she used her last spell, a fireball that she overchanneled, that exploded around her friends, damaging all of their foes. The skeletons fell in a burning pile, and the undead priest nearly went down, but the Marilith suffered minimally. The Marilith again attacked, but since Levos and Rynlore were engaged with her, she split her attacks and injured both. Levos fired another arrow into the beast, but the Marilith and her fury continued to punish the adventurers. Out of spells, the undead priest fired a sling bullet at Rynore and misssed. Then, Mythra skirted around the Marilith and was able to pour another healing potion into Rynlore’s bloody mouth. His wounds knited up enough to withstand one more assault from the Marilith. The demon screamed and brought multiple swords to bear on the rogue and the paladin, cutting through flesh with each successful attack. (The party was actually very lucky. There were a couple of rounds where only 2 of the 6 attacks landed…and the rogue could use evasion to avoid some of the damage, and the paladin had the stoneskin to protect him). Levos lined up to fire an arrow at the Marilith, hoping to strike the killing blow, but his shot did not penetrate her hide. Exhausted and bloody, Rynlore swung his magic warhammer and dropped the demon to send it back to the Abyss. Turning quickly, Mythra fired a ray of frost at the badly injured undead priest and she ended the threat.
As the party searched the room, they found two scrolls. Levos tried to read them, but the language was unfamiliar…although he could see the name Valkar on one scroll and Sarahara on the other. Mythra stepped forward, opened her own spell book and cast a read magic spell (I let her use that as a ritual even though it was a cantrip that she really didn’t have because she only had 4 cantrips with this playtest package…that is a problem.). When Mythra read the scrolls out loud, secret doors in the north part of the room opened revealing a sarcophagus in an western alcove and a sarcophagus in an eastern alcove. The party decided to try to move the eastern sarcophagus into the western alcove placing them together. With great effort they were able to do it, but nothing happened. Then, Rynlore took his crowbar and pried open each of the sarcophagi, and when he did, the spirit form of Valkar and Sarahara emerged; they were able to recognize each other so at long last, they embraced. After a long, passionate moment, the two ghosts turned to the party, smiled, and their spirit forms dissipated as they traveled to the great beyond together.
Comments
This was the culmination of a 4 session adventure (about 11-12 hours of playing – 11 combat encounters, 4 trap/puzzles and 2 interaction encounters). The party was unable to take a long rest at all because they were afraid that time was of the essence. After they cleared each of the 3 outer mausoleums, they could take short rests, and then they had to explore the central mausoleum. By the end of the adventure the PC were exhausted and had nothing left (no spells, no limited abilities…only 2 more normal healing potions left I think). We originally had 4 players, but since 3 out of the 4 sessions we only had 3, I made sure to give the party extra strength healing potions in case of emergency. The end fight with the Marilith was an emergency, especially after the mage’s disintegrate did nothing.
Since this was the end of a longer adventure, and the group was low on resources, I think we all felt the lack of options in combat.
As DM, I was able to challenge the players, and if I had rolled a little better with the Marilith, both Rynlore and Levos could have gone down, and that would have been a disaster. (Without the potions Rynlore would most likely have gone down).
The players felt as if their PCs felt distinctly different and quite archetypal. They liked that. They were, however, a little disappointed at the lack of options to make their PCs more unique. We all hope that in the future feats and class features will provide more variety and the ability to mix and match to build more unique PCs. The paladin missed not being able to use interposing shield to protect others and felt like he wanted that for his character concept, and he would have loved to have the Knight’s ability to use his shield to disadvantage a foe attacking him or an ally. If some of these abilities were available as feats, he may have chosen them instead of boosting an ability score.
Also, the paladin aura granting + charisma bonus to self and anyone within 10’ of the paladin seems a bit too powerful. We discussed that a bit.
Overall, we had fun but we hope for more customization in future packages. Next week we are going to begin a new set of games from level 1 – Rebooting using this new playtest package.
Conclusion to our 12th level playtest (The Love Story of Valkar and Sarahara)
This was the last session of an ongoing adventure. We updated the PCs from the last package and unfortunately, Rynlore, who was a nature paladin, had to become a new type of paladin completely. Levos the Elven rogue/assassin, didn’t change too much, and Mythra the Elven mage (evoker) didn’t change that much.
PC Conversion Notes:
All players thought that some of the features of their new builds were more interesting and easier to use.
For example, the mage liked gaining +5 to damage of all evocation damage spells rather than turning 1’s to 2 like last version.
The rogue player liked sneak attack much better in this version.
The paladin liked the way Lay on Hands created a HP pool that he could use as needed rather than just 1 shot.
They weren’t too sure about losing skills, but as we played, they felt that Lore worked well and classes that had expertise dice had a true advantage in non-combat actions. It was great for the rogue basically.
Overall, the rogue and the paladin player in particular were not too keen on the rigidness of the feats. The Elven Rogue took Alertness because he wanted to get the +5 to initiative, but because the other two parts of the feat were already granted to him as an Elf, he felt as if he got short changed. The paladin player just didn’t feel like he could make enough choices. We all questioned the idea that rogues and fighters would gain more feats than the other classes (and could load up on ability point increases). We are unsure how it will play out. Overall, we are not sure how ability point gain and feat gain will feel in the long haul.
Game summary:
In past games, the group had previously found 3 magical keys that they needed to unlock a central mausoleum. Their goal was to find the burial chambers of Valkar and Sarahara (two dead lovers cursed to wander the spirit world eternally seeking each other in vain), and break Tegross the Mad’s curse so that they could be together as they leave the spirit world and travel to the great beyond together.
In the western most mausoleum, as soon as Rynlore gathered the three keys together, all three adventurers felt a strange magic wash over them. They had been subtly transformed by a mystical force. (This was the conversion to the August playtest package). Preparing for the last part of their quest, the three adventures opened the door to the west mausoleum, and exited from within. As before, the graveyard itself was cloaked in a heavy sulfurous mist. They realized that at any moment they would be ambushed by one or more extraplanar beings from the Hells or the Abyss. Resolutely, they walked towards the central mausoleum, Rynlore held “Brightbeater” his glowing magical warhammer before him illuminating only 10’ all around him. The group made it to the stone stairs that rose up to the central mausoleum, but when Rynlore stepped upon them, a bone devil appeared before the doors and demanded, “give me the keys or I will tear them from your dead body.” Rynlore stood his ground and as usual Levos was able to fire an arrow at the beast before anyone else could act. Mythra decided to conserve spells (she only had 3 spells left from the rest of the adventure) so she tried to use ray of frost against the devil even knowing that the devil was resistant. Rynlore bashed the devil with his warhammer doing massive amounts of damage, but after a few seconds, the ground behind the party erupted and a large, duel wielding giant skeleton broke from the earth. It moved up to Levos and Mythra and engaged. After a short battle, each of the adventurers taking minor wounds, the group defeated the devil and the skeleton.
The party moved up the stone stairs and Rynlore placed the keys into the appropriately colored key holes to open the massive, magically reinforced doors. The party crept into the mausoleum and saw three 10’ tall black stone statues of small dragons only 15’ before them. There were 5’ gaps between the statues and a small hall on the other side, massive doors on the opposite side to the north. Levos stepped closer to the middle statue and searched the front of it for traps. He could not see any mechanism whatsoever, so he slid beside the statue into the 5’ gap to get a look at the other sides. At that point, he felt a magical power attacking his mind and body. Standing close to Rynlore, the paladin, gave Levos the strength he needed to resist the magic unleashed by the mystical statues. (He succeeded his Wisdom save against polymorph because he received a bonus from the paladin’s aura – that’s a really big bonus!) Without looking back, Levos continued to the northern hallway and out of harm’s way. Then, Rynlore, held up his newly acquired spellguard shield and ran past the statues to the other side, resisting the magic quite handily. Finally, Mythra, not willing to take a chance, drank a potion of flying they had found earlier and rose above the statues. She was able to fly over the top of them since the ceiling of the mausoleum was another 5’ above the top of the dragon statues.
As the party got closer to the next set of doors, Levos heard the sound of chanting within. Before entering, Rynlore used his last spell, a prayer. Then, Rynlore boldly pushed open the doors and at that point Levos could hear the chanting much more clearly. The party saw two undead priests in two different rune circles chanting a summoning. Between the adventurers and the priests, 3 chainmail wearing ogre skeletons prepared for battle. After a few seconds, the group was able to drop one of the chanting priests and one of the ogre skeletons, but then they heard the other priest finish its incantation. In another rune circle only 10’ in front of the paladin and his comrades, a Marilith appeared wielding 6 sharp longswords, her snakelike body curling behind her. With his quick reflexes, Levos fired an arrow deeply into the Marilith’s snakelike body, but she shrugged it off and closed on the paladin. With all her fury, she wielded blades expertly, connecting with Rynlore a number of times, drawing blood with each deadly strike. Mythra had saved her most powerful spell for a moment such as this. She chanted and a sickly green ray fired from her staff. The Marilith dodged and was unscathed. (That was a disintegrate spell that did nothing!). The battle raged for a few more rounds. Rynlore was nearly killed, but Levos managed to get to him and give him an extra potent healing potion that they had found (4d8+4). Mythra recovered from the disappointment and bolstered Rynlore with Stoneskin. When the Marilith attacked, Rynlore suffered a number of wounds, and if it weren’t for the stoneskin, he would have fallen. Rynlore howled with fury and slammed his warhammer into the demon, hitting a number of times. Levos administered one more healing potion to Rynlore, and hoped for the best. All the while, the ogre skeletons hit Levos, knocking him prone. Another hit Mythra injuring her, but miraculously she kept on her feet. The remaining priest tried to inflict wounds upon Rynlore twice in succession, failing both times. When Mythra was able, she used her last spell, a fireball that she overchanneled, that exploded around her friends, damaging all of their foes. The skeletons fell in a burning pile, and the undead priest nearly went down, but the Marilith suffered minimally. The Marilith again attacked, but since Levos and Rynlore were engaged with her, she split her attacks and injured both. Levos fired another arrow into the beast, but the Marilith and her fury continued to punish the adventurers. Out of spells, the undead priest fired a sling bullet at Rynore and misssed. Then, Mythra skirted around the Marilith and was able to pour another healing potion into Rynlore’s bloody mouth. His wounds knited up enough to withstand one more assault from the Marilith. The demon screamed and brought multiple swords to bear on the rogue and the paladin, cutting through flesh with each successful attack. (The party was actually very lucky. There were a couple of rounds where only 2 of the 6 attacks landed…and the rogue could use evasion to avoid some of the damage, and the paladin had the stoneskin to protect him). Levos lined up to fire an arrow at the Marilith, hoping to strike the killing blow, but his shot did not penetrate her hide. Exhausted and bloody, Rynlore swung his magic warhammer and dropped the demon to send it back to the Abyss. Turning quickly, Mythra fired a ray of frost at the badly injured undead priest and she ended the threat.
As the party searched the room, they found two scrolls. Levos tried to read them, but the language was unfamiliar…although he could see the name Valkar on one scroll and Sarahara on the other. Mythra stepped forward, opened her own spell book and cast a read magic spell (I let her use that as a ritual even though it was a cantrip that she really didn’t have because she only had 4 cantrips with this playtest package…that is a problem.). When Mythra read the scrolls out loud, secret doors in the north part of the room opened revealing a sarcophagus in an western alcove and a sarcophagus in an eastern alcove. The party decided to try to move the eastern sarcophagus into the western alcove placing them together. With great effort they were able to do it, but nothing happened. Then, Rynlore took his crowbar and pried open each of the sarcophagi, and when he did, the spirit form of Valkar and Sarahara emerged; they were able to recognize each other so at long last, they embraced. After a long, passionate moment, the two ghosts turned to the party, smiled, and their spirit forms dissipated as they traveled to the great beyond together.
Comments
This was the culmination of a 4 session adventure (about 11-12 hours of playing – 11 combat encounters, 4 trap/puzzles and 2 interaction encounters). The party was unable to take a long rest at all because they were afraid that time was of the essence. After they cleared each of the 3 outer mausoleums, they could take short rests, and then they had to explore the central mausoleum. By the end of the adventure the PC were exhausted and had nothing left (no spells, no limited abilities…only 2 more normal healing potions left I think). We originally had 4 players, but since 3 out of the 4 sessions we only had 3, I made sure to give the party extra strength healing potions in case of emergency. The end fight with the Marilith was an emergency, especially after the mage’s disintegrate did nothing.
Since this was the end of a longer adventure, and the group was low on resources, I think we all felt the lack of options in combat.
As DM, I was able to challenge the players, and if I had rolled a little better with the Marilith, both Rynlore and Levos could have gone down, and that would have been a disaster. (Without the potions Rynlore would most likely have gone down).
The players felt as if their PCs felt distinctly different and quite archetypal. They liked that. They were, however, a little disappointed at the lack of options to make their PCs more unique. We all hope that in the future feats and class features will provide more variety and the ability to mix and match to build more unique PCs. The paladin missed not being able to use interposing shield to protect others and felt like he wanted that for his character concept, and he would have loved to have the Knight’s ability to use his shield to disadvantage a foe attacking him or an ally. If some of these abilities were available as feats, he may have chosen them instead of boosting an ability score.
Also, the paladin aura granting + charisma bonus to self and anyone within 10’ of the paladin seems a bit too powerful. We discussed that a bit.
Overall, we had fun but we hope for more customization in future packages. Next week we are going to begin a new set of games from level 1 – Rebooting using this new playtest package.
