D&D 5E Observations of a new player

[Fleetwood C. DeVille]

It seems players with previous edition knowledge are the most vulnerable at lower levels. They "think" they know the power levels of encounters/creatures but then are sent home crying when they meet up with a four-pack of kobolds.

And don't even get me started on hobgoblins.

 

[Valetudo]

Heavy armour mastery goes a long way on 1st level frontliners with 12 or 10 HPs.

Also some racial/skill feats from UA seems to be like designed to be 1st level. Especially the racial ones.

I would maybe ban Great weapon mastery, Polearm mastery, Sharpshooter, Crossbow expert from 1st level picks.

gwm is kinda a trap at first lvl. Your attack bonus is too low and you dont have extra attacks yet. Plus most creatures dont have high enough hps and your buffers dont tend to have enough spells to counter the penalty. I do agree that ham is a really strong feat at 1st for armor classes.

 

[iserith]

Setting expectations are important for both new players and old ones starting a new campaign in my view. The better the DM sets expectations prior to the game, the more smoothly things tend to go.

As for low-level play, I don't mind it at all either as DM or player. My experience has been that, despite their fragility, character death is still pretty rare. What's more, if you're playing at a reasonable clip, you're probably 3rd level by the end of the first or second session, so this window of vulnerability is quite short indeed. The campaign before my current one started at 1st level and my next one will, too.

After seeing a lot of actual play reports, I rewrote the opening scene of LMoP such that the goblins don't attack the PCs. Instead, they try to steal mining equipment (shovels, picks, etc.) from the wagon the PCs are guarding and flee back to the goblin cave with their ill-gotten gains. This changes the stakes from "life or death" to "possibly fail delivery quest and not get paid" but does not in my experience change the level of interest and excitement. As well, it foreshadows the goblins' interest in mining ("Why didn't they take food or other items?") and, if the goblins get away with any goods, makes for a much stronger hook to follow them to the goblin cave.

 

[Rhenny]

Oh...also, the last game I played in we started as 0 level pcs. We had to scrounge and earn 1st level. By the end of the 3 sessions we completed the adventure and leveled up to 2nd. That's old school! Lucky for us nobody died. It was touch and go toward the end though...after our Ranger went down, and our cleric was at 3 hp, a lucky roll kept our barbarian from going down. The sorcerer and the warlock were not injured yet, but they only had about 5 or 6 hp each anyway. With 6 goblins and 4 orcs chasing us, we managed to get to a boat, cast off and sail away as the island behind us was destroyed by Tymora. (It was an old adventure from basic or 1e revised by our DM for 5e) We had a ton of fun.

Alas, none of us were new players so we had not new player experience this time.

 

[schnee]

It seems players with previous edition knowledge are the most vulnerable at lower levels. They "think" they know the power levels of encounters/creatures but then are sent home crying when they meet up with a four-pack of kobolds.

And don't even get me started on hobgoblins.

Speak for yourself. AD&D was the original Fantasy Vietnam, and a 1st level Wizard with 1 spell is the way to learn paranoia.

 

[jasper]

Hi everyone....but my brother had some strong feelings that I thought were interesting.

1. Chief among his complaints was that they got trashed by a group of goblins. I think he came in thinking of goblins as "trash mobs" and was surprised when his fighter got dropped to 0 in the first fight of the adventure. Playing level 1 didn't allow him to feel heroic like he had envisioned his character.
.....
2*I don't want players to be forced into playing. One player at the table didn't really want to play and wasn't invested. They didn't make their character and I had to explain to them what their character could do. I don't think they had fun.
3 *One player was very quick to act, which was bad for their character but great for the game. They wanted to act. They didn't want to sit around and wait. They were playing a rogue and had no concept that their 13 AC was low; they just jumped into the fray.
4 *One player kept forgetting which spells they had prepared. It made me happy for the simplicity of the known spells casters.
5 *Last, low level play is brutal.


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1. remind your brother level 1 is for new characters and each game system uses the same monsters but their power level will differ.
2. Ask the player do they really want to play. if they don't want to, don't force them.
3. This happens after a few close calls or deaths they learn better.
4. This happens. Try to get some computer generated character sheet software to help.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Ask the player do they really want to play. if they don't want to, don't force them.

It was apparent they wanted to play, /before/ experiencing what 1st-level D&D had to offer. ;P

This is just a general observation about out little community, not a dig at you personally, but there is a certain element of elitism in the appeal that our favorite RPG has for us, and 1st level can be seen as playing into that, as a sort of hazing ritual that weeds out new players who aren't up to our standards, or at least, not up to striving towards them...

 

[Croesus]

It seems players with previous edition knowledge are the most vulnerable at lower levels. They "think" they know the power levels of encounters/creatures but then are sent home crying when they meet up with a four-pack of kobolds.

And don't even get me started on hobgoblins.

Yep, I saw the same thing when I first introduced a couple players to 5E. One was playing a wizard and kept trying to divide his magic missiles among multiple enemies, thinking they had just a few hit points. Took him a while to realize that these are not the 1/2 HD creatures from AD&D.

 

[robus]

After seeing a lot of actual play reports, I rewrote the opening scene of LMoP such that the goblins don't attack the PCs. Instead, they try to steal mining equipment (shovels, picks, etc.) from the wagon the PCs are guarding and flee back to the goblin cave with their ill-gotten gains. This changes the stakes from "life or death" to "possibly fail delivery quest and not get paid" but does not in my experience change the level of interest and excitement. As well, it foreshadows the goblins' interest in mining ("Why didn't they take food or other items?") and, if the goblins get away with any goods, makes for a much stronger hook to follow them to the goblin cave.

That's a really nice tweak and greatly adjusts the feel of the first encounter. The goblin ambush is a great way to ambush the DM

After reading early play accounts I made sure that the first volley of shots hit near the PCs so they were alerted to the situation rather than slaughtered outright. The encounter went well after that.

But I still believe LMoP was written as an introduction to 5e. Not an introduction to D&D. There is way too little hand holding for new DMs. For example there should be liberal references to pages in the PHB and DMG so the DM can easily read up on the rules that might apply to a particular encounter.

One I remember really confusing me was how to telegraph the weight-limit at the top of rock fall in the goblin hideout. Only a halfling could make it across unscathed but there was no advice for a new DM on how to handle it other than "gotcha!" I just didn't bother with it in the end because I don't want to be that DM.

 

[Xeviat]

That doesn't exactly seem like a game issue?

Not an issue with THE game, but an issue with this individual game. A table issue.


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