D&D 5E Starting a 5E campaign - any tips from 5E "veterans?"

[Mercurius]

My group has been on hiatus for most of the last couple years, with the exception of one lone foray into trying out the playtest rules a little less than a year ago. My schedule is opening up a bit to allow me to run a game so we're starting up again in a week and a half. I'm starting this thread to see if folks who have been playing 5E have any tips. Specifically, any kinks in the system? Anything to look for? Online resources? Etc.

I'm using a homebrew world with a sandboxy vibe that may build to a larger storyline (or three) depending upon what the PCs do with the hooks I drop. To start, though, I'm having them meet as patrons in a tavern (what else?) when someone runs in screaming about "the walking dead" (yes, that's right). The intro adventure will be just that: the dead are rising and the PCs will (hopefully) want to figure out from where and why.

Anyhow, I'm totally excited! One thing I'm looking forward to is that 5E seems easier than ever to run companion NPCs, something I've always enjoyed but hated doing with 4E because of the complexity of combat. It was just too much of a hassle to have an NPC to run along with the monsters. But most of all I'm just excited to get back into the game and world of D&D...

 

[Gecko85]

Have a "session zero" if you haven't already, to create characters, set the ground rules, and go over any rule clarifications someone might have before you start. (There will be plenty more as you start playing, but good to get as many out of the way as possible.) It's easy to slip into rules from earlier editions, so be wary of that. (The one we kept almost messing up the first session was opportunity attacks - they work a bit different now - and had to keep reminding ourselves of the changes.) Most of all, though, have fun.

 

[Paraxis]

Don't let your DM ran NPC outshine the characters in anyway. If I feel the need to run one to fill an empty role or to compensate for small party size, it is never the focus in any pillar of the game. Don't make it the social person of the party, the knowledgeable one, the exploration/detective, or the most damaging. Nothing kills player fun faster than feeling like they are second string to some DM's pet character.

If you start at first level, be very careful of what enemies you use some like the hobgoblins can get a good hit in and drop a PC to negative total HP and instantly kill them.

There are some good resources here in the download section on ENworld, good stuff over at the D&D reddit, there is an active Google+ community.

Here are a few of my favorite 5th edition resources.

http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
An encounter builder, lets you sort monsters by type and CR for seeing what you can summon with certain spells and wildshape forms.

http://salty-ridge-7989.herokuapp.com/
A spell index, again you can sort and filter by things like school, level, and if it requires concentration.

http://www.sageadvice.eu/
A collection of rules questions and answers to the game designers via twitter, with a nice search by tag feature.

Hope this stuff helps, and good gaming.

Oh, last piece of advice take all advice with a grain of salt especially online there are plenty of people trying to get you to play the way they do and anything else is bad/wrong/fun. The only thing that matters at the end of the session is if you and your players had fun, not that you played the way someone said you should or not.

 

[DaveDash]

Have a look at the thread here too which is "Common Rules Mistakes".

Combat can be pretty brutal at first level, but after your group gets to level 3 they'll be a lot more survivable.

There are a couple of things to look out for (read the overpowered thread) but make your own judgement on those. At early levels as well Rogues moving back and forward behind the same corner and gaining advantage due to hiding can be a bit problematic, most DM's house rule that. The biggest arguments I've seen in 5e at lower levels have basically been over that.

I run a DM PC in one of my games (Cleric), we use a party resources sheet however so everyone can see what resources and spells she has. I generally ask them "What should she do?" so they still have control over their own destiny.

 

[Celtavian]

Monsters can be tough. They have a lot of abilities that give them advantage to hit or extra damage in groups. Groups of creatures can be tough. Way more dangerous than any previous edition I can recall.

Healing is very light in this game. It's hard to get someone back up in hit points during combat. Be prepared to buy lots of heal potions to get people back into fighting condition.

Mobility is at a premium. Everyone can move and a make full attack at some point during the move. AoOs do not provoke a lot of fear from someone moving. You only get one per round.

Be prepared to deal with magic that doesn't work if it allows a save in big fights. Effect or save spells against creatures with Legendary Resistance and/or Magic Resistance (almost every end game creature) are basically immune to magic that allows a save. The concentration mechanic limits magic heavily. You can only have one concentration spell active at a time. Choose carefully or you'll waste spell slots or inadvertently end concentration on a spell you didn't mean to. Don't ever plan on taking True Strike. It's a concentration cantrip. You'll never use it at higher level because it risks breaking concentration on more important spells.

Paladins, barbarians, fighters, and rogues are super fun. Paladin is probably all around the best. Barbarians and fighters are about the same in fun. Rogues are extremely versatile. If you like options, the rogue is probably the most fun of the martials. It is the most mobile class.

Moon druid is very powerful. As is the bard.

The wizard has some power, but is pretty boring to play due to concentration limitations and Legendary Resistance. Wizard is the most versatile arcane caster. Choose your specialization wisely. Some are far more impactful than others at different levels.

It's a lot easier to run than older editions. Everything is simplified. It doesn't always make sense such as Rogues being able to evade acid and fire, yet being unable to avoid cold and poison gas.

Remember to look closely at spell saves. There are powerful spells that attack each statistic. For example, banishment is a charisma save. It is very powerful removing an opponent from combat. It's very good for taking out party members with weak charisma saves like fighters, barbs, and just about any class but the paladin, bard, warlock, and sorcerer.

 

[redrick]

Character creation is much faster than 4e (though not quite as fast as the Labyrinth Lord character I just created.) Personally, I find rolling on the random tables to choose background and the various traits, ideals, flaws, etc to be fun, and I spent an evening creating NPCs that way for my first session. (Don't do that, though. It's still a waste of time for 10 NPCs...) Since so many of the build options (feats, subclasses, etc) happen at higher levels, even your mildly optimizing players might be able to fly through character generation. Not sure how fast it goes with point buy, as we have just been rolling for abilities.

Because of this faster character generation, this means that re-rolling first level characters after a death isn't that hard. If you aren't planning on keeping all your PCs alive from start to finish of your campaign, I would recommend not pulling any punches if there is a character death early in play. The dead player can roll up a new character, and you'll put the fear of God into your players. It was the best part of my first D&D 5e session. My players learned to fear small groups of goblins.

Also, if you're doing an undead campaign, watch out for the zombie fortitude feature. Not so much for any balance/dead character issues, but more just because you can easily drag a simple combat on forever when those last couple of zombies just keep making their con saves. Over and over and over again. It's the only time I've ever fudged die rolls in this campaign. "Wow! He rolls a 4 on his con save! And the other zombie does too! Yeah, I know, he actually rolled a negative number!"

 

[Voort]

Also, if you're doing an undead campaign, watch out for the zombie fortitude feature. Not so much for any balance/dead character issues, but more just because you can easily drag a simple combat on forever when those last couple of zombies just keep making their con saves. Over and over and over again.

This. So very much.

Also, look over the Death domain and Oathbreaker archetypes in the DMG. Both are excellent villain options for your undead-centric missions.

 

[Evenglare]

Most of what I would offer has already been said. There are just 2 main things I notice.
At lower levels, 1-3 especially, it's a VERY gritty game. I'd argue even moreso than 3.5. Early on monsters and spells do a LOT of damage compared to HP. So when you get hit it's going to hurt, a lot. Keep that in mind. Hell, just throwing ideas out now, but I'd go so far as to even half the damage at level 1. It might smooth some stuff out for you and your party.

Next, is the most important. Do NOT fall back on previous knowledge you have about any other system. If you need to make a ruling to keep the flow going at the table make sure you let your party know it's simply a ruling from a previous edition and is liable to change when you research the actual rules. Other than that... I have nothing else to offer. This edition is by far my favorite and hope you have fun!

 

[Paraxis]

For a horror campaign the best advice I have ever read was The Trajectory of Fear by Ash Law. It was written for some failed kickstarter project I think a Ravenloft style 13th Age setting, anyway hands down the best non system specific advice for running a game filled with terror, IMO.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzBGv7T2YMphdjlZNFVKa1pQZjg/edit

At only 9 pages it is well worth the read, it helped me run a great Halloween one shot.

 

[Celtavian]

Also, if you're doing an undead campaign, watch out for the zombie fortitude feature. Not so much for any balance/dead character issues, but more just because you can easily drag a simple combat on forever when those last couple of zombies just keep making their con saves. Over and over and over again. It's the only time I've ever fudged die rolls in this campaign. "Wow! He rolls a 4 on his con save! And the other zombie does too! Yeah, I know, he actually rolled a negative number!"

I heard about the zombie ability. My friends made it sound very dangerous. Then saw it in action, it's only scary at low level. At higher level you hit hard enough they don't make their save with Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter. Though maybe players that don't use Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter have trouble. Rogues make great zombie killers. One big hit isn't that great at higher level, but it works great against zombies.