D&D 5E Let's Talk About Yawning Portal

[jimmytheccomic]

This might be the only way to get the authentic classic D&D feel.

Also, use classic rest rules:
- Short rests and "spending hie die" don't exist. They're gone.
- Long rests (8 hours of sleep) recover 1 HP.

That way, even those setback traps have real consequences.

I'm considering doing this for Sunless Citadel as well.

I like where your head is at, but my players would straight up riot.

 

[Prakriti]

It would wreck havoc with certain class abilities since many of them recover on short rests.

People say this, but I don't think it's actually true. In any case, if you're really worried about it, you can always keep short rests for resource management purposes. Just remove hit-dice, so short rests are only for regaining ki, superiority dice, etc.

Besides, eliminating hit die healing means the cleric is back to using all of his spells on healing.

It worked for over three editions. And in any case, reserving all of one's spell slots for healing was never optimal. There were and are all kinds of ways to mitigate damage, including buffing, scouting with Scrying or Clairvoyance, avoiding traps with Augury or Divination, interrogating enemies with Zone of Truth, interrogating dead enemies with Speak with the Dead, bypassing obstacles with Stone Shape, and killing one's enemies before they kill you (sometimes the best defense is offense).

AD&D's rest rules meant that one's choices were more consequential. A small trap had a lasting impact. That 2d10 damage stayed with you until you spent resources (usually a spell slot) to take care of it. Tomb of Horrors and other old-school adventures were written with that in mind. It was a game of attrition and resource management. Use your resources wisely and limp to the finish line. There was no reset button, as there is now.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It would wreck havoc with certain class abilities since many of them recover on short rests. Besides, eliminating hit die healing means the cleric is back to using all of his spells on healing. I don't think it is the right solution to the problem at hand.

Sorry, I didn't mean "eliminate short rests" as a thing. Warlocks would still recover spells after an hour of rest, etc.

But death at 0 HP, no HD recovery on short rests, and only 1 HP of healing on a long rest would go a long way towards restoring a classic feel.

The cleric isn't necessarily back to using all of his spells on healing, because (1) you don't have to have a cleric, and (2) other classes like Lore Bards and Paladins are so efficient with healing that they rarely spend a large fraction of their spells on healing anyway. But you do need some kind of specialized healer in the group (or a strong alternative like a summoner), and that's part of the point: emulating classic (A)D&D.

Another way of looking at this is that you're justifying the cleric's existence. Or would be, if lore bards weren't straight-up better at healing.

Wiping out spell points/slots on death, and perhaps even prepared spells too, would also make death more consequential. I probably wouldn't re-introduce permanent Con loss or inability to Raise Dead on elves though.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

In 3.X, our Clerics only used healing in dire situations because the first thing every one of our parties would buy was a wand of cure light wounds. To me, hit dice in 5E just replaces the wands we would use otherwise.

 

[Reynard]

I am not sure emulating AD&D is an especially worthwhile goal here simply because running the original ToH in 1E is trivially easy to accomplish. Rather the goal is to make ToH feel like ToH in the context of 5E. I think the easiest solution is to drop the PCs to the next lower level tier rather than engage in extensive house ruling or modification of the adventure.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using EN World mobile app

 

[Corpsetaker]

From the sounds of things coming out of this thread, you would be better off just using the old rules plus the original adventure.

 

[Corpsetaker]

In 3.X, our Clerics only used healing in dire situations because the first thing every one of our parties would buy was a wand of cure light wounds. To me, hit dice in 5E just replaces the wands we would use otherwise.

I'm glad in our 3rd edition games Cure Light Wounds wasn't a spell that could be made into a wand. Must have had a lot of people with high Charisma and high Use Magic Device skills.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Good option in deed. But antimagic field can be countered. It work for one round, he can't use it two rounds in a roll and there is 50% of he don't get lair action. And effects like divine smite still damage him in antimagic field.
He still will be destroyed in two rounds max.

But if trap of soul was the lair action and he could use and concentrate in antimagic field (and get a decent initiative), than would like more as Acelerak:
Lair action: use trap of soul in the caster with counterspell
Action: antimagic field
Lair action: any, wait the next for another trap of soul
Action: howl or life drain...

I would let some specific effects bypass Acelerak's antimagic field, like in original ToH

Uh no the Paladin's smite is a magical effect it does not work in antimagic.

Also he can use trap the soul each round. And it's a 19 charisma save which is pretty high and most people won't be proficient in it.

While he only has 80 hp is immune to non magical weapons and resistant to magical ones. Added on he near certain to get a surprise round on the party. And kill one of them.

 

[CapnZapp]

I don't think it is the right solution to the problem at hand.

The right solution is for WotC to dare present monsters and traps that deal damage and have effects that actually challenge level-appropriate characters.

The lack of actual challenge is endemic to 5th edition (once off the first few levels where the threat is real and the game works as you want it to)

Just to pick one bugbear: the One and Single Important Die Roll.

And the multitude of rerolls and bonus dice PCs routinely get.

Whether it's about wooing the princess, opening a magical prison or finding the hidden lever that opens the Tomb, the normal procedure is for the DM to ask the chosen character to make a roll.

Except that Bardic Inspiration, Dark One's Own Luck, Lucky, or any other such ability makes this single roll utterly trivial. (Beyond trivial if the Help rules are anything to go by, since you gain advantage on practically everything you do)

Adding a d10 to some roll is balanced on the assumption it's only one roll out of many. You made that save, great, here's another spell cast at'ya. You made that attack, good enough, but you make four a round, so no big deal.

But the excitement and uncertaintly of any social, exploratory or simply story roll is reduces to rubble. Or ashes. No, vaporized into atoms...

It's time WotC is made to answer for their savagely carebearian focus.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I'm glad in our 3rd edition games Cure Light Wounds wasn't a spell that could be made into a wand. Must have had a lot of people with high Charisma and high Use Magic Device skills.

Cure Light Wounds is on the bard's, druid's, and cleric's spell list. We have 6 players. So, generally we gave 1 to the cleric or druid and 1 to the rogue. If the bard was there, he got one as well.