D&D 5E Playtested dat 5e at Gencon.

It was the Murder at Baldur's Gate playtest, and our GM was really great. Rather than giving a comprehensive rundown of everything that happened (I'm lazy), let me address a few things.

• It felt like D&D. This was the big one for me. The game played a lot like the D&D I know and am used to. It was fast, it was simple, it was fun.

• Most enemies died in 1-2 hits. You have no idea what a refreshing change of pace this is from 4e. A single good dropping a monster is definitely a positive. Players didn't need to worry about critical hits for this to happen, either. A good roll on your damage die was usually enough to bring a monster down or at least weaken him enough that a follow-up attack would.

• The fighter was good, but not different enough from other classes. I played the dwarf fighter, which I regretted a little. Not because he was bad, but because he didn't have anything to really differentiate him from other classes. Even a slight boost to damage rolls would have been nice. Other than that, though, I felt competent in and out of combat, even though my character didn't have expertise dice and his stats were focused on combat (Str/Con/Dex priorities). I do wish the fighter had expertise dice on at least one type of check.

• Advantage mechanic is great.

• Magic missile starting out with three missiles is a good idea. At-will spells are not so great. My friend (who played a wizard) really disliked having an at-will spell (I believe it was ray of frost). He said that it resulted in him defaulting to the at-will spells rather than using his crossbow or another weapon.

• The fighter's second wind ability I did not like. It takes an action (not so great in the middle of a fight), and the amount it healed was trivial at first level. It's also kind of stupid for the fighter to have self-healing in addition to HD.

• I dislike that the playtest occurred at first level because first level is easy to get right. It's every other level that's the problem.

I'm still on the fence about DDN. If the playtest is anything to go by, I'm going to be interested in it, but I don't know if it's going to be worth the money--especially if we're coming up on the last playtest packet in September. The move to internal development without external feedback is worrisome to me.

Glad you had fun!

• Most enemies died in 1-2 hits. You have no idea what a refreshing change of pace this is from 4e.

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This is weird, because 4e was the first edition to have a mechanic for monsters that go down in a single hit (minions).

He said that it resulted in him defaulting to the at-will spells rather than using his crossbow or another weapon.

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So your friend thought it was weird that the wizard could default to magic instead of defaulting to a subpar weapon attack? Also, these were pregens, but when you make a character you can certainly opt to have only non-combat cantrips (say, Prestidigitation, Light and Mage Hand).

I'll add that if you'd played the Knight subclass instead of the warrior, you'd not only have gained an expertise to charisma checks, but it would play more differently. And if you missed maneuvuers from previous packets, the Gladiator still has them.

gyor said:

I'll add that if you'd played the Knight subclass instead of the warrior, you'd not only have gained an expertise to charisma checks, but it would play more differently. And if you missed maneuvuers from previous packets, the Gladiator still has them.

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Do you choose a subclass at first level? There wasn't any note on the pregen that indicated it had such.

Klaus said:

This is weird, because 4e was the first edition to have a mechanic for monsters that go down in a single hit (minions).

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Yes, but standard monsters certainly take a lot of hits (compared to other editions) to go down.

Klaus said:

Glad you had fun!
This is weird, because 4e was the first edition to have a mechanic for monsters that go down in a single hit (minions).
.

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4e is the first edition that added minions, mostly because the regular monsters are created to endure 3-5 hits (depending on the role of the character hitting it). In other words, minions are the exception in 4e, while quasi-minions (1-2 hits) is the norm for 5e. I think the difference is pretty big and noteworthy.

Minions were a cheater way of doing one-hit kills. They were very unsatisfying to fight.

Subclass for Fighter starts at level 3.

Enchanter Tom said:

Minions were a cheater way of doing one-hit kills. They were very unsatisfying to fight.

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Not true. Minions usually had a better AC than, say, Brutes, and dealt a decent ammount of damage. Pile on enough minions, and the party gets the feeling of being slowly overwhelmed, with the added benefit of knowing they're fighting a true horde.

And they were not a "cheater", they (like elites and solos) were one of 4e's story-driven tools, which allowed the DM to ponder what role that creature played in the overall story (is it meant to be a stormtrooper extra or an important adversary). Minions, standards, elites and solos were the embodiment of the Inverse Ninja Law.

Klaus said:

This is weird, because 4e was the first edition to have a mechanic for monsters that go down in a single hit ...

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All editions have had this, its called 1 hp, and it was a pretty common in 1e with <1hd creatures like goblins.