D&D 5E Post PHB thoughts after a play-through...

[Eirikrautha]

Got my PHB Friday and rolled up a pair of characters for a game Saturday. It was my first time playing with a group that has been playing since the basic rules were published on the web. I rolled up a Warlock and Fighter (so that I could make sure to fit in wherever needed).

The first thing I noticed was how much faster rolling up a character is in 5e compared with 3e/PF (which is what I've most recently played), even using all of the options in the PHB. In fact, most of my time was spent reading the rules and options. Once a player is familiar with all of the options (hard to do in less than 24 hours), I would guess he/she could go from concept to playing in 15 minutes. This is especially true if you are starting at 1st level. I caught myself spending time deciding between options that I would then realize didn't matter until 3rd level. So if you are starting at 3rd, you might have to put in another 10-15 minutes, but, otherwise, character creation was fast.

Unfortunately, the game I joined was geared a little more for complete beginners that I had anticipated, and the table was full (8 PCs). For this reason, I decided to play my Fighter (future eldritch knight), as my Warlock was designed to be more of a role-playing character. It's a lot easier to roleplay when you have 3-5 PCs, because turns can still be quick. With 8 PCs plus mobs, turns can drag a little.

Our campaign was a homebrew dungeon crawl on a grid, with two intro encounters, a BBEG, then another large intro fight, to be followed with a second BBEG (that we didn't get to). Some random observations to follow:

• Rogues (especially TWF) a pretty good at low level! My duelist fighter consistently dropped one mook per hit (and I hit about 50-60% of the time). The rogues were hitting about as often, but usually taking ~1.5 hits to kill a mook without sneak attack. With it, they were just as good as my fighter. Good rolls and/or sneak attack did lead to several cases where they would drop a mook, move to a second, take their bonus action to hit, and drop that one. Until some fighters get their second attack and surpass them, TWF rogues appear to be quite effective in dealing damage.
• Most characters contributed every round. Gone are the days where a wizard would sit back and fire a crossbow bolt with no chance to hit in order to save their spells for a later encounter. With a bonus to hit from their prime attribute pretty much equal to my fighter, wizards with firebolt were contributing just as much every round as any other character. Once melee combatants get multiple attacks the utility might drop a little, but at low levels no one was being "carried." I like it!
• Advantage is a nice thing to have, but also can be swingy. Our GM was very liberal with advantage (giving it in circumstances where a figure had an an enemy on opposite sides... the old-school "flanking"). Considering that most of us were hitting 50+% of the time (the average mook we faced had an AC of 14-16), the advantage was nice, but not overpowering. It did create the funniest moment of the night: The rogue had advantage on an enemy and swung with both weapons. The first two d20 for his main attack came up 5 & 5. He rerolled for the bonus attack and got another 5 & 5. We lost it at that point!
• At low level it's better to roll to hit than have the enemy roll a save. Our firebolts hit way more often than the clerics' sacred flame. Maybe that was just a feature of our rolls, but it did seem pretty consistent. This will probably change at higher levels as well.
• Healing in combat is back! I went down due to a tactical mistake on my part, and healing word saved my bacon. Especially for the first couple of levels, no party with a cleric should have a death (unless the CR is way higher than it should be). HP are low enough at low levels that healing really matters during combat. Once we get higher, all bets are off.

I'm looking forward to a non-crawl in the near future, but so far I'm really enjoying the speed of play and old-school feel I'm getting from 5e. I like the fact that all character classes seem to have a role in combat from the very beginning. I'm curious to see if other folks have had the same experiences, especially now that the PHB has expanded the options for players...

 

[Eirikrautha]

One thing I forgot...

I forgot to add that... and I'm incredulous that I would ever say this... Halflings might be overpowered. Their "Lucky" feature is pretty awesome. Our halfling rogue rolled four natural ones during the course of play (and with TWF, he's rolling more dice than others). In every case, his reroll was a success/hit. I know that one playthrough certainly doesn't give any statistically significant results, but the Lucky feature was pretty useful in our game.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Thanks for your report. I like ready 'actual play observations'

Any observations on your particular PC?

Given we ALWAYS have some form of Crit and Fumble tables, I too am skeptical about the halflings' Lucky feature. Might have to just go with something similar to what we do in our own game (combo mostly of Savage Worlds). They can spend a Benny to reroll (and even use it to make enemies reroll). Can have this reset after short rest in D&D too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

All interesting observations!

With the Rogues dropping a second person with their bonus action, how are they doing that? I mean, TWF gives them another attack, but it's for [W] only, no stat bonus, no SA (unless they dropped the first guy without SA, because it's 1/turn).

 

[Eirikrautha]

Thanks for your report. I like ready 'actual play observations'

Any observations on your particular PC?

Given we ALWAYS have some form of Crit and Fumble tables, I too am skeptical about the halflings' Lucky feature. Might have to just go with something similar to what we do in our own game (combo mostly of Savage Worlds). They can spend a Benny to reroll (and even use it to make enemies reroll). Can have this reset after short rest in D&D too.

So far, my fighter feels "fighty".

Truthfully, I'm one of those folks in Pathfinder that has big issues with the caster/martial disparity, so fighters are kind of important to me. I think I like how casters have been dialed back as far as power goes, while still keeping them engaged in the action (with at-will cantrips). I actually haven't played enough to see if this also "fixes" fighters. One reason I'm going eldritch knight is to see if it adds some of the missing flexibility. So far, the fighter has been good in combat. We'll see if the new format focusing on roleplaying hooks works in his favor in the future.

 

[Eirikrautha]

All interesting observations!

With the Rogues dropping a second person with their bonus action, how are they doing that? I mean, TWF gives them another attack, but it's for [W] only, no stat bonus, no SA (unless they dropped the first guy without SA, because it's 1/turn).

Mostly they did it the way you suggest. One thing about the rules, it says you can take your bonus action any time you want. So they would take their off-hand swing with SA (2d6) to drop the first mob with 7hp, then move and take their main hand (1d6+3) on the next. I was iffy about this, but page 69 of the basic rules seems to say that it's legit.