D&D 5E Starter Set Character Sheet Revealed!

[Obryn]

All the healing up portion of Second Wind does is throw the middle finger to the cleric's role in D&D.

And you think cleric players just love being healbots?

I'd like to see some kind of limits to daily healing, like 4e's healing surges, but imo it's a good thing if clerics get to branch out to other spells.

 

[Dausuul]

I think they are leaning on DM judgment as well a bit of wording to convey the intent of the rule. No amount of testing and wordsmithing gets around people trying to willfully mis-interpret the intent and argue. I think if they intend to use short rests in the future as a way to convert the game to 4E, they have to leave it sufficiently vague in order to allow that. Can anyone quote me what the public playtest rules were for short rest? (Don't have them on me)

"A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which you catch your breath, eat, drink, and clean and bind wounds."

(There's another paragraph, but it's entirely devoted to describing how you can use Hit Dice to heal during a short rest. No further limitations on short rests are given.)

No no, it is similar to 3E where it is build-as-you-go, I'm just simply meaning that multi-classing is opt-in as stated by Mearls previously.

Okay. That's what I figured, but it seemed like a good idea to clarify this before ENWorld erupted over the Return of AD&D Multiclassing.

Back to the character sheet, most of it looks very good. I do notice one interesting thing and one disappointing one. The interesting thing is that rolling for hit points is back to being the default, at least for pregens; you gain 1d10+2 hit points each time you level up, not the flat 8 I would expect. (This doesn't really bother me since I assume there will be a "flat" option available.) The disappointment is that, if bonus actions are what they appear to be, Wizards couldn't find a way to avoid having a minor action equivalent. Ah well. At least we got rid of move actions.

 

[Agamon]

"A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which you catch your breath, eat, drink, and clean and bind wounds."

I like this. It sort of implies an unsaid, "...and if you sit around any longer, it's not going to help you."

Hopefully it is actually said though.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I like the character sheet -- though I wold have preferred to have a more obvious large spot for max hit points, much like the AC spot. Otherwise, pretty usable. I'm looking forward to seeing how it is adapted for spellcasters, since space for spells is a bit spares.

It's good insight into the rules, too. Not a fan of +1 to all stats for humans (how many times did I submit that on a WotC playtest poll? 3? 4?) but nothing in the rules shown really causes me to raise my hackles. In fact, at the moment the stats are close enough to my own MAGE & MONSTERS system that I bet I could convert on the fly between the two systems.

 

[YRUSirius]

What if the other races get a +2 on one of their abilities again?

(I.E. elves get +2 on dex)

-YRUSirius

 

[hbarsquared]

Another thing that really irks me about the Human +1 everything is that for the history of D&D a 10-11 stat has always represented a true average, a true normal. Expectation Value of 3d6 is 10.5.

If Humans automatically are assumed to get the +1 everything (even if in the advanced rules the bonuses can be traded out for abilities), then the new human "average" is 11-12.

That feels off to me.

 

[Emerikol]

Another thing that really irks me about the Human +1 everything is that for the history of D&D a 10-11 stat has always represented a true average, a true normal. Expectation Value of 3d6 is 10.5.

If Humans automatically are assumed to get the +1 everything (even if in the advanced rules the bonuses can be traded out for abilities), then the new human "average" is 11-12.

That feels off to me.

I agree. If I used such a method, I would just say that the +1 only applies to heroic adventuring humans and that the normal human is just a straight 3d6.


I hope second wind is not the only choice now that they've turned it back into real healing. I've got a gut feeling they turned it back because they now offer more options but that has no basis other than gut.

 

[Cybit]

I like this. It sort of implies an unsaid, "...and if you sit around any longer, it's not going to help you."

Hopefully it is actually said though.

Yeah, it says 1 hour or longer, not just "1 hour". So assuming fighting a squirrel doesn't count as ending your rest (see: Bag O Rats), resting for 1 hour or 3 hours would be the same. So no go on the "I take 4 consecutive short rests, and then use second wind 4 times." shenanigans.

 

[Dausuul]

Here's what bugs me about the current approach to short rests: It's not at all clear to me, in terms of the game world, why you shouldn't be able to take two short rests in a row. Let's imagine two situations, assuming a fighter who has already used her second wind once:

SCENARIO #1: Our fighter gets in a fight and takes seven damage, putting her at 5. She takes a short rest, regains her second wind, and uses it to gain three hit points, putting her at 8.

Then she gets in another fight, but doesn't get hit at all. She takes another short rest, uses second wind again, and regains four, bringing her back up to full.

SCENARIO #2: Exactly the same as above, but there is no second fight. As a result, the fighter is unable to benefit from the second short rest and remains at 8 hit points.

Why does this make sense? Given the exact same amount of resting (two short rests' worth), why is it that you become more rested if there's a fight in the middle?

 

[Cybit]

Here's what bugs me about the current approach to short rests: It's not at all clear to me, in terms of the game world, why you shouldn't be able to take two short rests in a row. Let's imagine two situations, assuming a fighter who has already used her second wind once:

SCENARIO #1: Our fighter gets in a fight and takes seven damage, putting her at 5. She takes a short rest, regains her second wind, and uses it to gain three hit points, putting her at 8.

Then she gets in another fight, but doesn't get hit at all. She takes another short rest, uses second wind again, and regains four, bringing her back up to full.

SCENARIO #2: Exactly the same as above, but there is no second fight. As a result, the fighter is unable to benefit from the second short rest and remains at 8 hit points.

Why does this make sense? Given the exact same amount of resting (two short rests' worth), why is it that you become more rested if there's a fight in the middle?

It's a little wonky in that the intended rest mechanic should be Hit Dice between battles; but I think it will make more sense once we see the "4E conversion" DMG kit, which I suspect makes short rest a 5 minute conversion.

Alternatively, if you rule that bonus actions can only happen during a fight, or that second wind may only be used in combat, that also fixes the issue.