D&D 5E What a DM has to do in 5E

[Lokiare]

So I remember when I use to DM 3.5E, I had to counter all kinds of shenanigans. I had to counter players trying to:

• Take advantage of the 5 minute work day (blowing all their limited use features and then resting to restore them about 5 minutes into the work day).
• Use overpowered spells (Scry and Die tactics, etc...etc...)
• Abuse Limited Wish and Wish spells.
• Spells and Magic items that instantly destroyed things.
• Etc...etc...

I know off the top of my head the DM will have to deal with the 5 minute work day, save or die spells, short rests (fighters now get stuff too), several very powerful spells like wish.

So what kinds of things will the DM have to deal with in 5E?

 

[Cybit]

So I remember when I use to DM 3.5E, I had to counter all kinds of shenanigans. I had to counter players trying to:

• Take advantage of the 5 minute work day (blowing all their limited use features and then resting to restore them about 5 minutes into the work day).
• Use overpowered spells (Scry and Die tactics, etc...etc...)
• Abuse Limited Wish and Wish spells.
• Spells and Magic items that instantly destroyed things.
• Etc...etc...

I know off the top of my head the DM will have to deal with the 5 minute work day, save or die spells, short rests (fighters now get stuff too), several very powerful spells like wish.

So what kinds of things will the DM have to deal with in 5E?

1) Haven't had an issue with the first. Cantrips help the issue (casters don't feel as worthless going forward), and the "one rest every 24 hours" rule (IIRC) puts a damper on that. Also, the inability to layer spells successively (concentration) means that it's not nearly worth it to blow one's full complement in a single fight. Cast Web? Sure! Cast Blur? There goes the Web. Want to Fly? There goes Blur. Want Barkskin? Not flying any more. Protection From Energy? Doesn't stack.

2) Per the public playtest files - Scrying gets a save, and even if someone were to fail the save, per the teleport spell (which is now a 7th level spell, btw), has only a 26% chance of arriving in the area successfully.

3) Wish is limited by rule pretty nicely - beyond that it will be up to DM latitude, and they bring back the "Wish sucks away your spellcasting for the rest of the day" and "weakens you heavily" bits too.

4) Magic items being non existent fixes a whooole crapton of issues.

While 4E is still a gold standard for DM'ing D&D IMO - to me, 5E is pretty close to it. I don't have to spend any time prepping for either system, which I am a fan of.

 

[Jester David]

Depends on the level and style of game.
Never had much of a problem with what you posted because my games seldom made it above level 10.
And for high level high magic games, those are just expected tactics.

I imagine 5e will be much the same, but with fewer high level spells. And some added restrictions on what the spells do, limiting (but not eliminating) their use.

 

[Quickleaf]

How would the current version of the playtest rules resolve chasing a goblin down?

I know in 4e there is the skill challenge framework I could use.

And in BD&D there were evasion & pursuit rules.

How about 5e? And what about other "skill challenge" scenarios like this? Are they just up to DM fiat?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

2) Per the public playtest files - Scrying gets a save, and even if someone were to fail the save, per the teleport spell (which is now a 7th level spell, btw), has only a 26% chance of arriving in the area successfully.

The OP didn't consider this a problem with 5e. (It's not a problem in 4e, too, due to gigantic Teleport nerfs.) It's not much of an issue because you cannot layer on buffs in 5e the way you can in 3e due to the concentration rules. (And it's less of an issue in 4e because the nature of buffs have completely changed. Most only last until the end of next turn, while Teleport takes several minutes to cast.)

 

[Plaguescarred]

DM may have to adjucate tricky illusions with some of the spells in D&D Next. Right now only Phantasmal Force seems like it may require adjucation, but i expect more powerful illusion spells to be published by the time it release.

How would the current version of the playtest rules resolve chasing a goblin down?

I know in 4e there is the skill challenge framework I could use.

And in BD&D there were evasion & pursuit rules.

How about 5e?

A (series of) Strenght contest could do it, with each success/failure either increasing or reducing the distance between the two creatures in pursuit.

 

[ccooke]

The OP didn't consider this a problem with 5e. (It's not a problem in 4e, too, due to gigantic Teleport nerfs.) It's not much of an issue because you cannot layer on buffs in 5e the way you can in 3e due to the concentration rules. (And it's less of an issue in 4e because the nature of buffs have completely changed. Most only last until the end of next turn, while Teleport takes several minutes to cast.)

Heh. I think anyone worried about teleport in 5e needs to read the spell again

It *looks* almost exactly like the 3e version.
Just like in 3e, there's a table with percentile results based on how well you know the destination.
Like in 3e, there's the possibility for a mishap if you aren't very familiar with the target.
Like in 3e, if you get a mishap you take 1d10 Force damage and then roll on the percentile table again, except this time you roll 1d20+80 instead of 1d100 (so a mishap may recur)
*un*like 3e, for any location you haven't studied carefully, the mishap percentage is 67% or lower up in every case. Which means that if you try to teleport somewhere that you've don't know extremely well you have a roughly one in three chance of being unavoidably killed by being repeatedly slammed into the barriers between planes until you're a fine paste.

Now that is a disincentive

(In the specific case of attempting to teleport to a location you've cried, that would be the "viewed once" row of the table. For that row, there's a 26% chance you'll hit the target, a 20% chance you're off target (but near enough), a 20% chance that you end up in a similar area... and a 34% chance of experiencing infinite blunt force trauma until you die)

 

[Plaguescarred]

If you mishap during a teleport to any false destination or location you've seen casually, viewed once or got only a description of, you're dead.

 

[Plaguescarred]

If i got my math right, chances to die while teleporting to;

Permanent circle 0%
Very familiar 0%
Studied carefully 0.008%
Seen casually 33%
Viewed once 43%
Description 43%
False destination 39%
Associated object 0%

 

[KidSnide]

The biggest challenge I've noticed is figuring out when to call for a skill/attribute check. Because the math is so flat, pretty much every check has a substantial chance of success or failure. In 3.x, mid-to-high-level skilled PCs will auto-succeed on checks of moderate difficulty. In D&DN, the modifiers never get high enough to make the skill check moot. It keeps things exciting, but it's unrealistic if you just assign fixed DCs to obstacles.

When faced with a stuck door, you should ask yourself whether this door is (A) trivial for the Str 20 barbarian, but requires a roll for the Str 8 wizard, or (B) requires a roll for the Str 20 barbarian, but is impossible for the Str 8 wizard. It's ok if everyone just rolls, but you'll get some silly results. (Ok, 3.x had that problem for attribute checks, but it handled fixed DCs better for skills.)

That being said, most of what I've had to deal with as a 5e DM is related to the playtest, not the rules themselves. There's only a partial rules set (with a lot of out-of-date monster math), so I've spent a bunch of time creating homebrew monsters and character abilities to compensate.

-KS

P.S. The teleport mishap rules are obviously a bug.