3 Fighters walk into a bar ... A DNDNext Play-test log.
So the new play-test packet dropped a week ago and one of the players of the regular game was going to be out of town this week. It seemed like the perfect time to give the new rules a shake-down. It started with asking people for a raw concept - "what do you want to do?" or "who do you want to be." TesterD wanted to mash things with large weapons. TesterR wanted to try "playing a tank." TesterK wanted to do try his hand at archery. Later TesterC came around and decided nobody had any magic so it would be a good time to try out a sorcerer.
In the end the party composition broke down as follows:
TesterD - Hill Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) w/ Chain Mail + Maul, S16 D14 C14 I8 W12 C10, Soldier, Survivor
TesterR - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Protector) w/ Chain Mail, Battle Axe, + Shield, S16 D10 C14 I12 W14 C8, Custom Skills, Guardian
TesterK - Wood Elf Fighter (Sharpshooter) w/ Studded Leather, Long Bow, S8 D16 C14 I12 W14 C10, Custom Skills, Healer
TesterC - High Elf Sorcerer (Draconic) w/ Studded Leather, Shield, S10 D14 C12 I14 W8 C16, Noble, Magic-User
Minor Wizard Spells: Light, Detect Magic, Mage Hand
Minor Sorcerer Spells: Shocking Grasp, Ray of Frost
Lvl 1 Sorcerer Spells: Burning Hands, Charm Person
The first session involved introductions and party dynamics to start with. There was a very interesting vibe of intra and inter-racial rival going on.
The Hill Dwarf and Mountain Dwarf are night and day in terms of attitudes, weapon choice, and fighting style while still falling firmly into dwarven cultural stereotypes. We're talking a Sox-Yankees rivalry between thing Hammers vs. Axes, Barley vs. Fungus Beers, Avalanche vs. Unmoving Mountain style. The one thing they can agree on? They thank Moradin each day that they were born Dwarves instead of elves. On the other side of the table, you've got a soft-spoken Wood Elf Ranger next to a High-elf noble that sneezes magic and has his own squire, bulter, and halfling chef traveling with him. Each has been sent by their respective peoples to look into the plight of the Blingdenstone expedition after receiving a call for help. Kill-counting, one-upsmanship, and banter ensued.
WARNING - the following contains spoilers for the play-test adventure "Reclaiming Blingdenstone"
Upon their introduction to Blingdenstone a small raid of orcs crashed the nearby barricades when the sentries were momentarily distracted by the strangers. I introduced 2 extra orcs to the raid to keep the sentries busy but the party disposed of their own portion of orcs so quickly their swath of destruction spilled over to those poor fools. The two dwarves ran out to the front of the barricades and readied to receive the orc's charge. The archer made a Deadly Strike from atop the barricades and dropped one orc before it even got into melee. The first orc to get there ran straight into a readied maul and died horribly. +2 to hit vs. 16 and 18 armor left each orc at a 35% or 25% chance to hit anything. The guardian shield-block made one of those 35% chances drop to around 12%. One orc managed to land a single hit on the less-armored dwarf, and it was a telling blow 11 on the die +2 for 13 HP of damage. Fortunately, the player had neglected to use Deadly Strike so he wound up parrying the damage to down to a mere 8 points (leaving him with 10/18 HP). Then the sorcerer pulled up late and managed to miss with Ray of Frost.
In the next round the dwarves manage to hit and kill another orc, causing the remaining 3 to take their last hacks and attempt to flee. One suffers an opportunity attack from the Maul Fighter but survives, while the Axe + Shield Guardian realizes that he can't take an opportunity attack since he blocked the first orc attack of the new round, using his one Reaction for the round. The sorcerer manages to hit the wounded orc with a ray of frost and kill him. On his turn the Maul fighter jogs up and lets fly with a throwing hammer, catching a fleeing orc with a natural 20 for 11 damage. Splat. The last orc manages to avoid a thrown axe and an arrow to dash around a corner and flee into the darkness beyond. They got out some bandages and patched up the Hill Dwarf's axe-wound expertly (restored all 8 HP).
5 Dead Orcs
Party at Max HP
1 Hit Die used (out of 5)
Once availing themselves of the plot hooks the party decides to head into the Wormwrithings to eliminate the kobold infestation and retrieve Singing Stone crystals. Almost the entire party (two dwarves trained to spot, two elves with Keen Senses, you do the math) notices a kobold trap. Being an old hand at clearing tunnels, the Mountain Dwarf puts his Find/Remove Traps skill to use but rolls poorly, triggering the net and the alarm. Kobolds rush in but the party is not surprised at all. The Fighters start killing kobolds on one flank (killing 2) and then sorcerer empties Burning Hands into the left flank, killing 4 kobolds. In between that the kobolds unloaded some sling bullets, but the two hits they managed to land were both on Fighters than obviously didn't need Deadly Strike to squash kobolds, so their 1d4+1 damage got stopped by 1d6 parries both times. Somebody took 1 damage. There were no survivors.
Scouting the area, the characters found the second ambush point and this time they spotted the lurking kobolds as well as the trigger wire. They just hopped over the wire and charged the little blighters. 6 Kobolds survived long enough to use their slings. Two actually managed to hit the Elven Archer, who had used his Expertise to reduce their cover on his turn. He suffered 7 damage. Then Draconic Sorcerer once again killed 4 kobolds in a single pass by applying his burning hands spell into their hidey-hole. No further damage was inflicted and even withdrawing the kobolds couldn't escape fast enough. Again, no survivors. They took a short rest to treat the Archer's sling-stone bruises and he's ready to walk it off (total of 8HP restored, cut off at max value).
5 Dead Orcs, 16 Dead Kobolds
Party at Max HP
2 Hit Dice used (out of 5)
2 Willpower Points used (out of 3)
That had taken us about 1 hour and 45 minutes, so we decided to leave off until next session with the party following their gnomish guide down into the depth of the Wormwrithings.
Observations:
- XP for Orcs is totally messed up. As Level 3 standard monsters they give more XP than other Level 3 Elites. I cut it in half.
- All the monsters have been playing like 4E brutes so far - poor accuracy but their rare hits do a lot of damage. It feels more like rocket-tag where one team is populated entirely by clueless noobs than D&D right now.
- Trying to be a Guardian Fighter shows some real cracks in the "One Reaction Per Turn" limit - especially frustrating when you lose out on your chance to take an opportunity attack on a fleeing foe because you intercepted their attack with your weapon or shield before they turned and ran
- The three Fighters played like three completely different classes. The current core functionality of the play-test Fighter is excellent. I think we're down to the tweaking stages now over Combat Superiority abilities. For example: Glancing Blow on the slayer is a complete dead-end. There's nothing level-appropriate he can miss in melee while rolling a 10.
- Even with a sub-optimal, fluffy elf-build (10 STR, melee-weapon never used in favor of Shocking Grasp) the Sorcerer is a total house. If I were a War-Wizard I'd be a very bitter one right now.
- Fighters don't desperately need Clerics around to keep them up in battle anymore. Things like Toughness and Parry really make them much more survivable.
Questions:
- Did they intend for casters to add their ability modifiers to spell damage in this iteration? The damage rolls section of the "How to play" document makes it explicit, but it seems wierd how Strength and Dexterity both used the "to attack rolls and damage rolls" wording under Attacks but under Magic Ability for Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma the wording only specifies attack rolls. Considering how damage up-scaled on many spells it feels like people might have been writing them assuming you wouldn't always be piggy-backing +3 or +4 modifiers to them.
I look forward to seeing where this is going to take us next week. We've had overtures to expand to a proper 5-man table, bringing in a Human Sorcerer.
- Marty Lund
So the new play-test packet dropped a week ago and one of the players of the regular game was going to be out of town this week. It seemed like the perfect time to give the new rules a shake-down. It started with asking people for a raw concept - "what do you want to do?" or "who do you want to be." TesterD wanted to mash things with large weapons. TesterR wanted to try "playing a tank." TesterK wanted to do try his hand at archery. Later TesterC came around and decided nobody had any magic so it would be a good time to try out a sorcerer.
In the end the party composition broke down as follows:
TesterD - Hill Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) w/ Chain Mail + Maul, S16 D14 C14 I8 W12 C10, Soldier, Survivor
TesterR - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Protector) w/ Chain Mail, Battle Axe, + Shield, S16 D10 C14 I12 W14 C8, Custom Skills, Guardian
TesterK - Wood Elf Fighter (Sharpshooter) w/ Studded Leather, Long Bow, S8 D16 C14 I12 W14 C10, Custom Skills, Healer
TesterC - High Elf Sorcerer (Draconic) w/ Studded Leather, Shield, S10 D14 C12 I14 W8 C16, Noble, Magic-User
Minor Wizard Spells: Light, Detect Magic, Mage Hand
Minor Sorcerer Spells: Shocking Grasp, Ray of Frost
Lvl 1 Sorcerer Spells: Burning Hands, Charm Person
The first session involved introductions and party dynamics to start with. There was a very interesting vibe of intra and inter-racial rival going on.
The Hill Dwarf and Mountain Dwarf are night and day in terms of attitudes, weapon choice, and fighting style while still falling firmly into dwarven cultural stereotypes. We're talking a Sox-Yankees rivalry between thing Hammers vs. Axes, Barley vs. Fungus Beers, Avalanche vs. Unmoving Mountain style. The one thing they can agree on? They thank Moradin each day that they were born Dwarves instead of elves. On the other side of the table, you've got a soft-spoken Wood Elf Ranger next to a High-elf noble that sneezes magic and has his own squire, bulter, and halfling chef traveling with him. Each has been sent by their respective peoples to look into the plight of the Blingdenstone expedition after receiving a call for help. Kill-counting, one-upsmanship, and banter ensued.
WARNING - the following contains spoilers for the play-test adventure "Reclaiming Blingdenstone"
Upon their introduction to Blingdenstone a small raid of orcs crashed the nearby barricades when the sentries were momentarily distracted by the strangers. I introduced 2 extra orcs to the raid to keep the sentries busy but the party disposed of their own portion of orcs so quickly their swath of destruction spilled over to those poor fools. The two dwarves ran out to the front of the barricades and readied to receive the orc's charge. The archer made a Deadly Strike from atop the barricades and dropped one orc before it even got into melee. The first orc to get there ran straight into a readied maul and died horribly. +2 to hit vs. 16 and 18 armor left each orc at a 35% or 25% chance to hit anything. The guardian shield-block made one of those 35% chances drop to around 12%. One orc managed to land a single hit on the less-armored dwarf, and it was a telling blow 11 on the die +2 for 13 HP of damage. Fortunately, the player had neglected to use Deadly Strike so he wound up parrying the damage to down to a mere 8 points (leaving him with 10/18 HP). Then the sorcerer pulled up late and managed to miss with Ray of Frost.
In the next round the dwarves manage to hit and kill another orc, causing the remaining 3 to take their last hacks and attempt to flee. One suffers an opportunity attack from the Maul Fighter but survives, while the Axe + Shield Guardian realizes that he can't take an opportunity attack since he blocked the first orc attack of the new round, using his one Reaction for the round. The sorcerer manages to hit the wounded orc with a ray of frost and kill him. On his turn the Maul fighter jogs up and lets fly with a throwing hammer, catching a fleeing orc with a natural 20 for 11 damage. Splat. The last orc manages to avoid a thrown axe and an arrow to dash around a corner and flee into the darkness beyond. They got out some bandages and patched up the Hill Dwarf's axe-wound expertly (restored all 8 HP).
5 Dead Orcs
Party at Max HP
1 Hit Die used (out of 5)
Once availing themselves of the plot hooks the party decides to head into the Wormwrithings to eliminate the kobold infestation and retrieve Singing Stone crystals. Almost the entire party (two dwarves trained to spot, two elves with Keen Senses, you do the math) notices a kobold trap. Being an old hand at clearing tunnels, the Mountain Dwarf puts his Find/Remove Traps skill to use but rolls poorly, triggering the net and the alarm. Kobolds rush in but the party is not surprised at all. The Fighters start killing kobolds on one flank (killing 2) and then sorcerer empties Burning Hands into the left flank, killing 4 kobolds. In between that the kobolds unloaded some sling bullets, but the two hits they managed to land were both on Fighters than obviously didn't need Deadly Strike to squash kobolds, so their 1d4+1 damage got stopped by 1d6 parries both times. Somebody took 1 damage. There were no survivors.
Scouting the area, the characters found the second ambush point and this time they spotted the lurking kobolds as well as the trigger wire. They just hopped over the wire and charged the little blighters. 6 Kobolds survived long enough to use their slings. Two actually managed to hit the Elven Archer, who had used his Expertise to reduce their cover on his turn. He suffered 7 damage. Then Draconic Sorcerer once again killed 4 kobolds in a single pass by applying his burning hands spell into their hidey-hole. No further damage was inflicted and even withdrawing the kobolds couldn't escape fast enough. Again, no survivors. They took a short rest to treat the Archer's sling-stone bruises and he's ready to walk it off (total of 8HP restored, cut off at max value).
5 Dead Orcs, 16 Dead Kobolds
Party at Max HP
2 Hit Dice used (out of 5)
2 Willpower Points used (out of 3)
That had taken us about 1 hour and 45 minutes, so we decided to leave off until next session with the party following their gnomish guide down into the depth of the Wormwrithings.
Observations:
- XP for Orcs is totally messed up. As Level 3 standard monsters they give more XP than other Level 3 Elites. I cut it in half.
- All the monsters have been playing like 4E brutes so far - poor accuracy but their rare hits do a lot of damage. It feels more like rocket-tag where one team is populated entirely by clueless noobs than D&D right now.
- Trying to be a Guardian Fighter shows some real cracks in the "One Reaction Per Turn" limit - especially frustrating when you lose out on your chance to take an opportunity attack on a fleeing foe because you intercepted their attack with your weapon or shield before they turned and ran
- The three Fighters played like three completely different classes. The current core functionality of the play-test Fighter is excellent. I think we're down to the tweaking stages now over Combat Superiority abilities. For example: Glancing Blow on the slayer is a complete dead-end. There's nothing level-appropriate he can miss in melee while rolling a 10.
- Even with a sub-optimal, fluffy elf-build (10 STR, melee-weapon never used in favor of Shocking Grasp) the Sorcerer is a total house. If I were a War-Wizard I'd be a very bitter one right now.
- Fighters don't desperately need Clerics around to keep them up in battle anymore. Things like Toughness and Parry really make them much more survivable.
Questions:
- Did they intend for casters to add their ability modifiers to spell damage in this iteration? The damage rolls section of the "How to play" document makes it explicit, but it seems wierd how Strength and Dexterity both used the "to attack rolls and damage rolls" wording under Attacks but under Magic Ability for Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma the wording only specifies attack rolls. Considering how damage up-scaled on many spells it feels like people might have been writing them assuming you wouldn't always be piggy-backing +3 or +4 modifiers to them.
I look forward to seeing where this is going to take us next week. We've had overtures to expand to a proper 5-man table, bringing in a Human Sorcerer.
- Marty Lund
