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[Playtest 2] Playtest Report of a Necromancer
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<blockquote data-quote="Ellington" data-source="post: 6001268" data-attributes="member: 6692166"><p>Well, we had another run tonight. Our elf rogue didn't show up, but thankfully another player did. He decided it would be fun to try out the warlock, and after a quick read over the playtest documents he decided to go for a high elf warlock with the spy background and the lurker speciality. </p><p></p><p>For those of you not interested in reading through the whole playthrough, I'll do a brief overview of some of our comments:</p><p></p><p>- Monsters feel wrong. Their attack bonus is too low and their damage is too high. They rarely hit us at all, but a single hit of 6 damage from a zombie brought our sorcerer of 14 HP (a melee character) down to 4 HP. Thankfully, there was just the one zombie, but we're not really digging the level 1 fragility. We'd prefer monsters that hit more often and characters that can take more of a beating. I'm sure this is highly subjective, though.</p><p></p><p>- After the last session and our discovery of how useless the glancing blow fighter maneuver was, we decided that instead of requiring a roll of 10 or higher, a 5 or higher would be enough. We didn't want to change the rules at all since this is a playtest, but this didn't prove to be a major change and actually made it useful. There was only one instance where it was used, but the fighter appreciated being able to deal some damage to a cultist instead of none.</p><p></p><p>- The fighter and the sorcerer had some comments on how little the difference between a two handed weapon and sword and board mattered. For them, it was a difference of +1 AC and +2 damage on hits. Maybe this will change with specialities in place, but it definitely doesn't seem as it makes much of a difference.</p><p></p><p>- The warlock was pretty damn awesome. We came upon some cultists in the tombs that had torches as their light source, so his breath of night invocation was perfect. With the lurker speciality and his temporary darkvision, he had advantage on all his eldritch blasts and made short work of them. Eldritch blast did feel a bit powerful, seeing as how it's usable at will. Maybe starting at 2d6 and scaling faster could help? He only had one lesser invocation so he didn't really outshine the wizard (me) in many instances, and everything felt nice and balanced.</p><p></p><p>- At one point in the adventure, we faced a blind minotaur roaming through a narrow labyrinth. At first we were really scared since we were level 1, but the blindness actually made it a really fun encounter. We had advantage on all of our rolls and the minotaur had disadvantage on his rolls against us, so we played it carefully and managed to take him down without him getting a single hit off against us (the DM told us afterwards that he'd one shot pretty much all of us). What was great about this was how simple it was for the DM to give a high level monster a drawback that made it a manageable threat for a low level party. It was a memorable encounter and we all liked it.</p><p></p><p>- The necromancer's Aura of Souls ability takes some time to actually use. When in combat, you first need to kill the creature (usually an action), then take an action to drain the soul and then another action to cast a spell with the advantage it gives. This is probably easier to attain if we had worked as a team, but it might still be something to think about as many combats don't even last three rounds.</p><p></p><p>- The sorcerer never wanted to use his dragon strength ability as the action to "charge up" felt too much. He preferred to just whack a monster twice instead, dealing more damage. I think there are definitely situations where it might be useful, though, but I thought I'd just throw it out there.</p><p></p><p>- Saving throws as ability checks is really starting to appeal to my groups. It's so simple and quick to use. We were really iffy about it at first, but it's starting to grow on us. However, maybe it would be better if you could choose one of two abilities when making the saving throws, since having to maintain six saves at an acceptable level is pretty impossible. This hasn't been a problem as of yet, though.</p><p></p><p>I'm getting pretty sleepy so I'll post a detailed writeup of the adventure tomorrow, if you guys are interested. If there are any questions or you want me to elaborate on something, don't hesitate to ask <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ellington, post: 6001268, member: 6692166"] Well, we had another run tonight. Our elf rogue didn't show up, but thankfully another player did. He decided it would be fun to try out the warlock, and after a quick read over the playtest documents he decided to go for a high elf warlock with the spy background and the lurker speciality. For those of you not interested in reading through the whole playthrough, I'll do a brief overview of some of our comments: - Monsters feel wrong. Their attack bonus is too low and their damage is too high. They rarely hit us at all, but a single hit of 6 damage from a zombie brought our sorcerer of 14 HP (a melee character) down to 4 HP. Thankfully, there was just the one zombie, but we're not really digging the level 1 fragility. We'd prefer monsters that hit more often and characters that can take more of a beating. I'm sure this is highly subjective, though. - After the last session and our discovery of how useless the glancing blow fighter maneuver was, we decided that instead of requiring a roll of 10 or higher, a 5 or higher would be enough. We didn't want to change the rules at all since this is a playtest, but this didn't prove to be a major change and actually made it useful. There was only one instance where it was used, but the fighter appreciated being able to deal some damage to a cultist instead of none. - The fighter and the sorcerer had some comments on how little the difference between a two handed weapon and sword and board mattered. For them, it was a difference of +1 AC and +2 damage on hits. Maybe this will change with specialities in place, but it definitely doesn't seem as it makes much of a difference. - The warlock was pretty damn awesome. We came upon some cultists in the tombs that had torches as their light source, so his breath of night invocation was perfect. With the lurker speciality and his temporary darkvision, he had advantage on all his eldritch blasts and made short work of them. Eldritch blast did feel a bit powerful, seeing as how it's usable at will. Maybe starting at 2d6 and scaling faster could help? He only had one lesser invocation so he didn't really outshine the wizard (me) in many instances, and everything felt nice and balanced. - At one point in the adventure, we faced a blind minotaur roaming through a narrow labyrinth. At first we were really scared since we were level 1, but the blindness actually made it a really fun encounter. We had advantage on all of our rolls and the minotaur had disadvantage on his rolls against us, so we played it carefully and managed to take him down without him getting a single hit off against us (the DM told us afterwards that he'd one shot pretty much all of us). What was great about this was how simple it was for the DM to give a high level monster a drawback that made it a manageable threat for a low level party. It was a memorable encounter and we all liked it. - The necromancer's Aura of Souls ability takes some time to actually use. When in combat, you first need to kill the creature (usually an action), then take an action to drain the soul and then another action to cast a spell with the advantage it gives. This is probably easier to attain if we had worked as a team, but it might still be something to think about as many combats don't even last three rounds. - The sorcerer never wanted to use his dragon strength ability as the action to "charge up" felt too much. He preferred to just whack a monster twice instead, dealing more damage. I think there are definitely situations where it might be useful, though, but I thought I'd just throw it out there. - Saving throws as ability checks is really starting to appeal to my groups. It's so simple and quick to use. We were really iffy about it at first, but it's starting to grow on us. However, maybe it would be better if you could choose one of two abilities when making the saving throws, since having to maintain six saves at an acceptable level is pretty impossible. This hasn't been a problem as of yet, though. I'm getting pretty sleepy so I'll post a detailed writeup of the adventure tomorrow, if you guys are interested. If there are any questions or you want me to elaborate on something, don't hesitate to ask :) [/QUOTE]
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