The Shadow
Hero
It may well be. Combat Superiority may need to be scaled back a notch or two.
But it's encouraging to me to hear some love given to the fighter.
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Three Fighters Walk into a Dungeon ... (a V2 Play-test)
- Thread starter mlund
- Start date
It may well be. Combat Superiority may need to be scaled back a notch or two.
But it's encouraging to me to hear some love given to the fighter.
Since we are still playing the earliest levels it still needs a harder look.
I mean, at 1st level a 3rd edition fighter is an ABSOLUTE badass. You have twice the feats of another nonhuman class, you have 2-3x times the hp, a great AC, you deal tremendous damage, and while the wizard is basically out of spells after one fight you can keep it going all day long.
Fighters have never had a problem at the lowest levels, its beyond that they traditional fall behind.
True - in large part because their combat effectiveness didn't adequately scale with level, while those of the caster classes did. I'm heartened that Combat Superiority dice scale over levels. I'm pretty sure A tenth level wizard is going to do much, much more than 4d10 damage vs. a single target with his good spells, but that's OK if the fighter gets to take 3-4 swings a fight with a reasonable chance of hitting and the game doesn't lend itself to nova-based fighting patterns.
- Marty Lund
Our second session of the D&D Next Playtest took about an hour and a half to play out. Our High Elf player was out that day, but another member of our usual gaming group was back. He wanted to play a Gnome Warlock. To keep things in line with the play-test materials we built him as a Lightfoot Halfling Sorcerer and it worked just fine. The party was just about the venture into the Wormwrithings so word came that one of the High Elf Noble's servants had been injured and he rushed to attend the NPC in the gnome's infirmary. The Three Fighters (Hill Dwarf Slayer, Mountain Dwarf Protector, Wood Elf Sharpshooter) pressed on into the kobold-riddled tunnels with their trust gnomish guide.
For this session I made two adjustments.
1. I brought in the expanded Critical Hit option from the Penny Arcade live game, Max +2d6 damage for a PC critical hit. I did not give this to the monsters.
2. The monsters got +2 to hit across the board and I reduced their damage dice by one size. This kept encounters from degrading into a slew of enemy misses followed by one random lucky hit without overloading the PCs on damage.
The Mountain Dwarf's experience as a cavern defender back home served him well, making short work of Kobold traps while the party made even shorter work of the trappers. They happened across a large singing stone crystal wedged towards the top of a cavern. The resourceful moutain dwarf carved out climbing holds and managed to dig the thing out, loosing something behind it as well. A life-sized gnome statue fill on his companions who were waiting to catch the crystal. Their guide was extremely curious and inspected the statue as well. As soon as he laid a hand on the artwork a spiderweb of cracks spread out all over it. With the latter half of a cry interrupted by the better part of a century, our "gnome" PC sprang forth like a lurking (albeit terrifed) gargoyle.
After calming down the hysterical NPC the party was able to make character introductions. The new (old) gnome's name was Rowan Opalcarver, a survivor who had been fleeing the fall of Blingdenstone. He had beseeched his fey patron, the Whisperer in the Darkness, for protection in such a desperate time. Whether the decades-long imprisonment in stone had been a boon or a price to be paid is anyone's guess, but the fact remained that Rowan had survived.
TesterT - "Gnome" (Lightfoot Halfling) Warlock w/ Leather Armor + Short Sword, S8 D14 C14 I16 W12 C10, Thief, Magic-User
Minor Wizard Spells: Mage Hand, Ghost Sound (gnome-tastic)
Minor Invocations: Eldritch Blast
Lesser Invocations: Ethereal Stride, Fabrication of the Weave
Rituals: Comprehend Languages
The party continued on, excavating some gems, iron, more singing stones, find a journal entry, and fighting two Kobold squads (8 each) as well as the Ogre encounter.
The Warlock character fought very catiously. It was partly due to having 8 HP and partly in-character being a cowardly thief-type. He was almost trying to take advantage of partial cover or concealment behind the nearest dwarf. His Eldritch Blast vaporized things impressively, though, so no-one gave him any grief for it. He took 3 damage from a Kobold rock barrage, as did the Elven Archer in the party (he'd completely Parried the "4" damage hit from the other kobold that same round). The Mountain Dwarf even took 1 damage from the Kobolds when his parry die turned up its first ever "1".
The Ogre was a joke. With Disadvantage on all his attacks he was doomed from the beginning. Giving the party Advantage was just gravy. the level 1 Warlock hit him for 17 on the first round of combat. the fighters managed to finish him off in one round without anyone even tapping into Deadly Strike. As per the adventure text his Kobold handlers immediately panicked and ran off. I reduced his XP value in half for being so horribly pre-wounded. Even 240 XP seems excessive for this guy.
The party collected 6 Singing Stones and returned them for the reward. They also found that Sapphire and Citrine in gem deposits. In retrospect, things would've been more smooth if I'd rolled the wanderings table way ahead of time and prepared things ahead of time. After the Singing Stones performance they checked in with Pingtu who completed his ritual and retrieved the instructions for awakening the Speaking Stones. Next session they'll probably be off to the House Center and the Ruined Temple.
20 Dead Kobolds and 1 Dead Ogre this session - 7 HP of damage sustained.
The Fighters have just made second level and people wanted to rest anyway. They'll check in at the infirmary on the High Elf and retinue and try to sleep the night. If all 5 players are in for the next session I think I'll spring the Drow on them in their remaining encounters.
Observations: The Warlock feels a little dull in combat. He's got Eldritch Blast. That's what he does. That's what he is. Maybe taking the AoE invocation would've given him at least one other consideration, but still 3d6+3 damage at level 1 is kind of a no-brainer. Perhaps in the city environment his pact boon (charm) will prove itself useful, while the House Center should provide a more detailed dungeon crawl environment to interact with using Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Etheral Stride, and Fabrication. The fact that this guy can pull a 10' pole out of his hat has to count for something. Heck, I'm the DM, I'll just make it happen. As long as it doesn't shift away play-balance it won't compromise the play-test data.
TesterT likes the "a gnome out of time" angle and I like playing around with the idea of a whispering fey voice in the Underdark prodding him from time to time. His knowledge from before the fall of Blingdenstone will also make it easier to impart some lore the non-gnome players might otherwise never come across (like the bard's relation to the royal line, etc.). I'm looking forward to the next session. I'm interested to see what Eldritch blast (massive Force Damage) is going to do to the Bane encounter when they run into it.
- Marty Lund
For this session I made two adjustments.
1. I brought in the expanded Critical Hit option from the Penny Arcade live game, Max +2d6 damage for a PC critical hit. I did not give this to the monsters.
2. The monsters got +2 to hit across the board and I reduced their damage dice by one size. This kept encounters from degrading into a slew of enemy misses followed by one random lucky hit without overloading the PCs on damage.
The Mountain Dwarf's experience as a cavern defender back home served him well, making short work of Kobold traps while the party made even shorter work of the trappers. They happened across a large singing stone crystal wedged towards the top of a cavern. The resourceful moutain dwarf carved out climbing holds and managed to dig the thing out, loosing something behind it as well. A life-sized gnome statue fill on his companions who were waiting to catch the crystal. Their guide was extremely curious and inspected the statue as well. As soon as he laid a hand on the artwork a spiderweb of cracks spread out all over it. With the latter half of a cry interrupted by the better part of a century, our "gnome" PC sprang forth like a lurking (albeit terrifed) gargoyle.
After calming down the hysterical NPC the party was able to make character introductions. The new (old) gnome's name was Rowan Opalcarver, a survivor who had been fleeing the fall of Blingdenstone. He had beseeched his fey patron, the Whisperer in the Darkness, for protection in such a desperate time. Whether the decades-long imprisonment in stone had been a boon or a price to be paid is anyone's guess, but the fact remained that Rowan had survived.
TesterT - "Gnome" (Lightfoot Halfling) Warlock w/ Leather Armor + Short Sword, S8 D14 C14 I16 W12 C10, Thief, Magic-User
Minor Wizard Spells: Mage Hand, Ghost Sound (gnome-tastic)
Minor Invocations: Eldritch Blast
Lesser Invocations: Ethereal Stride, Fabrication of the Weave
Rituals: Comprehend Languages
The party continued on, excavating some gems, iron, more singing stones, find a journal entry, and fighting two Kobold squads (8 each) as well as the Ogre encounter.
The Warlock character fought very catiously. It was partly due to having 8 HP and partly in-character being a cowardly thief-type. He was almost trying to take advantage of partial cover or concealment behind the nearest dwarf. His Eldritch Blast vaporized things impressively, though, so no-one gave him any grief for it. He took 3 damage from a Kobold rock barrage, as did the Elven Archer in the party (he'd completely Parried the "4" damage hit from the other kobold that same round). The Mountain Dwarf even took 1 damage from the Kobolds when his parry die turned up its first ever "1".
The Ogre was a joke. With Disadvantage on all his attacks he was doomed from the beginning. Giving the party Advantage was just gravy. the level 1 Warlock hit him for 17 on the first round of combat. the fighters managed to finish him off in one round without anyone even tapping into Deadly Strike. As per the adventure text his Kobold handlers immediately panicked and ran off. I reduced his XP value in half for being so horribly pre-wounded. Even 240 XP seems excessive for this guy.
The party collected 6 Singing Stones and returned them for the reward. They also found that Sapphire and Citrine in gem deposits. In retrospect, things would've been more smooth if I'd rolled the wanderings table way ahead of time and prepared things ahead of time. After the Singing Stones performance they checked in with Pingtu who completed his ritual and retrieved the instructions for awakening the Speaking Stones. Next session they'll probably be off to the House Center and the Ruined Temple.
20 Dead Kobolds and 1 Dead Ogre this session - 7 HP of damage sustained.
The Fighters have just made second level and people wanted to rest anyway. They'll check in at the infirmary on the High Elf and retinue and try to sleep the night. If all 5 players are in for the next session I think I'll spring the Drow on them in their remaining encounters.
Observations: The Warlock feels a little dull in combat. He's got Eldritch Blast. That's what he does. That's what he is. Maybe taking the AoE invocation would've given him at least one other consideration, but still 3d6+3 damage at level 1 is kind of a no-brainer. Perhaps in the city environment his pact boon (charm) will prove itself useful, while the House Center should provide a more detailed dungeon crawl environment to interact with using Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Etheral Stride, and Fabrication. The fact that this guy can pull a 10' pole out of his hat has to count for something. Heck, I'm the DM, I'll just make it happen. As long as it doesn't shift away play-balance it won't compromise the play-test data.
TesterT likes the "a gnome out of time" angle and I like playing around with the idea of a whispering fey voice in the Underdark prodding him from time to time. His knowledge from before the fall of Blingdenstone will also make it easier to impart some lore the non-gnome players might otherwise never come across (like the bard's relation to the royal line, etc.). I'm looking forward to the next session. I'm interested to see what Eldritch blast (massive Force Damage) is going to do to the Bane encounter when they run into it.
- Marty Lund
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