D&D 5E My New Players Have Quit 5th Edition

[wwanno]

The bugbear is smart enough to sneak behind the party, but he ambushes the weak looking guy (the mage) instead of taking advantage of the situation to try and kill the big guy with armor and sword (that looks like the real treat to the bugbear).
Of course this is strange unless the bugbear knows for sure that the weak looking guy (the wizard) actually is a magic user.

 

[jadrax]

Should the CR system also assume that a dragon will stand on the ground and let people hit it?

The rules pretty much have always assumed this in the past, as it is assumed you will fight a Dragon underground. It is one of the reasons that Dragons are pretty much always a hard fight for their CR category.

To put it another way: If the bugbear was exactly the same, but didn't have the Stealth skill and the ambush damage, do you think it would still have the same CR and XP value? Of course not.

Looking at the stats of other Challenge 1/2 it would clearly be harder than them, and looking at the Challenge 2 creatures it would clearly be weaker than them, so I can't see where else you put it.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Two players? Did they have 2 PCs each? Was the encounter balanced for two PCs if not? Even that is a struggle, as less PCs means more swinginess. (snip)

[MENTION=85179]ren1999[/MENTION] you forgot to answer this question apparently.

 

[ren1999]

My coworker played three pre-gens. The two newbies played one character each.

Didn't any of your characters loose the surprise round?

The Goblins won the surprise round.

Two Goblins attacked the Cleric in the same round because the Cleric was nearest to them. I did not pair 1 Goblin to 1 character.

I rolled the damage on the characters, I never applied average damage before. But I might next game.

The next round began and I let all characters and monsters go according to their initiative roll. Was this a mistake? Should the party attack first because they didn't during the surprise round?

The Cleric did not have a chance. With 2 Goblins hitting both rounds and me rolling damage, that brought the Cleric to 0 hit points.

I house ruled out all surprise rounds as a result. I will use average damage next game to see if that will work instead of me adding hit points at first level. But applying average damage is pulling back the punches. And it also makes my encounters too easy. A party has destroyed all my monsters during surprise rounds in the past so I house ruled out surprise rounds in previous editions.

Edit: I did not read Knocking a Creature Out in the rules carefully.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I did read where the Goblins will leave the characters unconscious. But what does bringing a character to 0 hit points actually mean? When rolling damage, characters rarely go to 0 hit points, they almost always drop below 0 hit points. When the Cleric dies, other allies must spend their actions stabilizing allies and getting attacked at the same time. I don't think any of us are using the same stabilizing, death and dying rules.

Should I assume that if a Goblin brings a character to below 0 hit points that the hit points become 0 and the character is stabilized and unconscious?

No assumption based on what the rules should or should not do is needed as the Development after Lost Mine of Phanladin's Goblin Ambush (Pg. 7) encounter specifically says:

''In the unlikely event that the goblins defeat the adventurers, they leave them unconscious, loot them and the wagon, and head back to Cragmaw Hideout. The characters can continue on to Phandalin, buy new gear at Barthen's provision, return to the ambush site and find the goblin trail.''

Its a Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect 200$ sorta thing, No death saving throw needed, the scenario propose having the adventurers not die if they took a rough beat, just knocked unconscious so they can continue after....

 

[Agamon]

My coworker played three pre-gens. The two newbies played one character each.

Didn't any of your characters loose the surprise round?

The Goblins won the surprise round.

Two Goblins attacked the Cleric in the same round because the Cleric was nearest to them. I did not pair 1 Goblin to 1 character.

I rolled the damage on the characters, I never applied average damage before. But I might next game.

The next round began and I let all characters and monsters go according to their initiative roll. Was this a mistake? Should the party attack first because they didn't during the surprise round?

The Cleric did not have a chance. With 2 Goblins hitting both rounds and me rolling damage, that brought the Cleric to 0 hit points.

I house ruled out all surprise rounds as a result. I will use average damage next game to see if that will work instead of me adding hit points at first level. But applying average damage is pulling back the punches. And it also makes my encounters too easy. A party has destroyed all my monsters during surprise rounds in the past so I house ruled out surprise rounds in previous editions.

Edit: I did not read Knocking a Creature Out in the rules carefully.

I don't know that I'd make changes to the game because of what happened in one combat. This sounds circumstantial (unfortunate rolls and positioning).

If you really don't like surprise, there's a few alternatives I like that are less harsh. The first is the surprisers can only have an action or a move on the surprise round, not both (and no bonus actions). Another is, only one person on each that that attains surprise can act in the surprise round. And the third is, anyone with surprise get +20 to their initiative roll, allowing them to act first in the round.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Wait that means only the cleric was knocked out. He could have been stabilized and lived. Honestly all it looks like is that the Gobs got some lucky hits on him and fell down.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

The bugbear is smart enough to sneak behind the party, but he ambushes the weak looking guy (the mage) instead of taking advantage of the situation to try and kill the big guy with armor and sword (that looks like the real treat to the bugbear).
Of course this is strange unless the bugbear knows for sure that the weak looking guy (the wizard) actually is a magic user.

Predators tend to attack weak targets, not strong ones. Doesn't matter if he knew the pc was a mage or not - no armor, no large weapons, makes for an easier target.

 

[wwanno]

Predators tend to attack weak targets, not strong ones. Doesn't matter if he knew the pc was a mage or not - no armor, no large weapons, makes for an easier target.

Bugbears are not beasts they have brain enough to fight in ranks (as I remember from the 3.5 MM description). I think they would try to bring down yhe obvious treat. But this fall under "DM discretion", and maybe we are out of topic.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Besides if a Player that is not the Wizard spots him before he can do his surprise attack and they beat him on initiative they can go before he does and interfere on his attempt on the Wizard.