D&D 5E Mike Mearls live streaming of DnDNext with R&D superstars

[Blackwarder]

Yup, it was very nice. I'll have to watch it again when I'm awake.

Warder

 

[Neonchameleon]

They just finished a fight in 10 minutes.

If you can call it a fight when despite a lack of surprise, and due to something the DM admits in to doing arbitrarily the orcs don't get to make a single attack roll.

 

[Blackwarder]

If you can call it a fight when despite a lack of surprise, and due to something the DM admits in to doing arbitrarily the orcs don't get to make a single attack roll.

I'll have to watch that again, as of this minute I've been awake for 25 hours!
Night all!

Warder

 

[GX.Sigma]

If you can call it a fight when despite a lack of surprise, and due to something the DM admits in to doing arbitrarily the orcs don't get to make a single attack roll.

In other words, a normal D&DN combat.

 

[Warbringer]

hopefully they post this soon, would love see some more of the rules in action

 

[Neonchameleon]

hopefully they post this soon, would love see some more of the rules in action

http://www.twitch.tv/wotc_dnd/b/423148626

 

[Plaguescarred]

It was fun to get to see new rules in action and the R&D team goof around ahd show the new release. I hope they do this again!

 

[Warbringer]

Thanks mate

 

[DogBackward]

If you can call it a fight when despite a lack of surprise, and due to something the DM admits in to doing arbitrarily the orcs don't get to make a single attack roll.

It was arbitrary, in that morale checks are not officially in the rules... but it also made perfect sense given the context. Think of it this way:

You're an orc, orcing it up in the city. You know that orcs have been turning up mysteriously dead for a while now. Throats slit, gear taken, all sorts of bad stuff. Everybody's on edge, nobody knows what's going on, and everybody's traveling in groups. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, you stumble across some humans just hanging about, looking suspicious. All of a sudden, in less than a few seconds, three of your fellow guards are dead, just like that. Literally before you've even had a chance to move. It's now four-to-one, and you have no idea what these people can do, other than brutally murder your buddies with incredible speed.

Are you telling me you wouldn't run away?

Personally, I love when a DM plays the "monsters" as if they're actually living, thinking beings who may even have real emotions... like fear, for example. Or even, heaven forbid, the ability to do some basic tactical thinking. Thinking like "Three of them beat three of us, and now there are four of them and only two of us. We should probably try to not die."

 

[Neonchameleon]

It was arbitrary, in that morale checks are not officially in the rules... but it also made perfect sense given the context. Think of it this way:

You're an orc, orcing it up in the city. You know that orcs have been turning up mysteriously dead for a while now. Throats slit, gear taken, all sorts of bad stuff. Everybody's on edge, nobody knows what's going on, and everybody's traveling in groups. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, you stumble across some humans just hanging about, looking suspicious. All of a sudden, in less than a few seconds, three of your fellow guards are dead, just like that. Literally before you've even had a chance to move. It's now four-to-one, and you have no idea what these people can do, other than brutally murder your buddies with incredible speed.

Are you telling me you wouldn't run away?

Personally, I love when a DM plays the "monsters" as if they're actually living, thinking beings who may even have real emotions... like fear, for example. Or even, heaven forbid, the ability to do some basic tactical thinking. Thinking like "Three of them beat three of us, and now there are four of them and only two of us. We should probably try to not die."

What I'd do depends on the situation. And common one cmes under the heading of In Death Ground, Fight. If I was an orc archer presented with the above situation, sure I would run. If I thought I could disengage safely the way the gnoll used a disengage move to prevent the opportunity attack at the cost of a little speed later on I'd do so. If I thought there was a chance of it working I'd call for Parlay. But taking opportunity attacks is the single most stupid and least self-preserving thing the orcs could possibly do. And gave the PCs three opportunity attacks. Withdraw and scatter (one in each direction) would have been a sensible approach. And would have had the benefit of making the PCs decide whether to split the party.

Mearls was not playing the monsters as if they were living, thinking beings suffering from fear. If you are scared of someone you do not drop your guard against them. He was playing them as if they were game pieces in a scenario that wasn't fun any more so they took the single action that would get them killed the fastest so they could move on to the next scenario.