D&D 5E A Mess of OP Characters (magic items, rest mechanics, etc.)

[iserith]

Here are two examples from last night's session. (Keep in mind that 2 players were absent, so we had a more manageable 5 players instead of 7.)

Encounter Example 1: Bandit Attack

Party comes upon a group of 13 CR 1/2 bandits, 1 CR 8 Fighter/Rogue, 1 CR 8 Cleric, and 1 CR 8 Wizard. (According to the Encounter Calculator, that's a Deadly encounter at 23 Challenge Rating.)

This encounter is really just a bit above Deadly for a party of seven 6th-level characters. It's just 3 CR 8's. You can ignore the XP of the bandits per DMG, page 82: "When making this calculation, don't count any monsters whose challenge rating is significantly below the average challenge rating of the other monsters in the group unless you think the weak monsters significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter."

 

[Retreater]

How many charges are in that wand, sounds like they should have used them all up by now

Wands recharge daily.
I'll have to be more clever to snatch away the overpowered items.

he should not even take out 6 bandits, unless you clump them together

20 ft. radius is pretty big. That's a 40 ft. diameter. I don't know how big most gaming tables and playmats are - but I have a pretty big Chessex mat. And they were spread out pretty well, especially when you want them close enough together to give flanking to each other and sneak attacks.

That's not correct.

Twin spell can be used for any level spell, as long as there are enough sorcery points. The limitation is that the spell must be single target only - and you can't target the same target with the twinned spell.

DnDbeyond even provides an example of proper usage - chromatic orb (a 1st level spell).

Sorry. I meant "Quickened Spell." That's the metamagic ability that let the Sorcerer cast Fireball again (as a bonus action). And apparently, that's wrong (even though the text in the PHB doesn't forbid it.) It's a common exploit in the rules, apparently, if you Google "quickened Fireball."

 

[Retreater]

This encounter is really just a bit above Deadly for a party of seven 6th-level characters. It's just 3 CR 8's. You can ignore the XP of the bandits per DMG, page 82: "When making this calculation, don't count any monsters whose challenge rating is significantly below the average challenge rating of the other monsters in the group unless you think the weak monsters significantly contribute to the difficulty of the encounter."

In that particular case, we were down two players - so just 5 characters.

 

[iserith]

In that particular case, we were down two players - so just 5 characters.

By the numbers, Deadly, but still very doable even without all the crazy loot you've given them.

 

[Mort]

Sorry. I meant "Quickened Spell." That's the metamagic ability that let the Sorcerer cast Fireball again (as a bonus action). And apparently, that's wrong (even though the text in the PHB doesn't forbid it.) It's a common exploit in the rules, apparently, if you Google "quickened Fireball."

Right, ANYTIME you cast a spell as a bonus action you can only cast cantrips as your standard action. Players often forget that with stuff like healing word, as well!

There are very few ways to cast 2 levelled spells on your turn. Action surge would let you do it, not aware of much else.

 

[Retreater]

It's frustrating when you buy an adventure that's supposed to be "mega challenging" for 6-8 "seasoned" players and it's a cakewalk for 7 teenagers new to the game.

Admittedly, they have a little bit of magic items over what they should - but believe it or not, it's actually in keeping with the rest of what Necropolis is handing out to the characters: +1 swords, +2 armor, rings of protection, wands of lightning bolt, etc., some of these early encounters. And yeah, I didn't know a subtle rules thing that impacted a metamagic casting of Fireball that changed one combat.

But my lord, is it difficult to challenge a group in 5e! Especially when the adventure isn't written to take advantage of multiple encounters in a day. And there's no setup to encounters or advantageous terrain for fights.

Honestly, what am I paying for?

 

[iserith]

It's frustrating when you buy an adventure that's supposed to be "mega challenging" for 6-8 "seasoned" players and it's a cakewalk for 7 teenagers new to the game.

Admittedly, they have a little bit of magic items over what they should - but believe it or not, it's actually in keeping with the rest of what Necropolis is handing out to the characters: +1 swords, +2 armor, rings of protection, wands of lightning bolt, etc., some of these early encounters. And yeah, I didn't know a subtle rules thing that impacted a metamagic casting of Fireball that changed one combat.

But my lord, is it difficult to challenge a group in 5e! Especially when the adventure isn't written to take advantage of multiple encounters in a day. And there's no setup to encounters or advantageous terrain for fights.

Honestly, what am I paying for?

I don't find it difficult to challenge players. I'm up to 8 dead in a current dungeon delve I'm running, mostly 3rd-level PCs dying to kobolds. What those and characters from others games I play in or DM don't have are a gang of magic items, unlimited resting, and a 10 minute workday.

 

[Retreater]

Right, ANYTIME you cast a spell as a bonus action you can only cast cantrips as your standard action. Players often forget that with stuff like healing word, as well!

There are very few ways to cast 2 levelled spells in 1 round. Action surge would let you do it, not aware of much else.

I remember that every time under the normal circumstances. Just thought that the metamagic feat for 2 sorcery points would be an exception - because it's a normal spell, just being cast quicker. And under this ruling it's EXTREMELY limited. It's like "Yay. You get to cast Ray of Frost three times a day."
I mean, I'm going to have a riot at my table over how nerfing this is.

 

[Retreater]

I don't find it difficult to challenge players. I'm up to 8 dead in a current dungeon delve I'm running, mostly 3rd-level PCs dying to kobolds. What those and characters from others games I play in or DM don't have are a gang of magic items, unlimited resting, and a 10 minute workday.

I've killed 3rd level characters before. The game stops being challenging around 5th level, IMO.

The thing is, I can't run a string of 8 encounters in a day. It's impossible to have any sort of verisimilitude in the game world (and gets exhausting spending all of our gametime on pointless fights). If we were in a dungeon, sure, that's possible. But in an open wilderness or in a small town, you just can't do it. You can't be walking around a town, trying to find the evil wizard, and get attacked by 7 encounters of wyverns in a row, then find the guy at the end of the day, and have a fight.

That's not how D&D works. And frankly I'm amazed that the design team thought that was acceptable game design.

 

[Mort]

I remember that every time under the normal circumstances. Just thought that the metamagic feat for 2 sorcery points would be an exception - because it's a normal spell, just being cast quicker. And under this ruling it's EXTREMELY limited. It's like "Yay. You get to cast Ray of Frost three times a day."
I mean, I'm going to have a riot at my table over how nerfing this is.

Considering how easy they've been having it? Not much to complain about!

And it's still, very, very nasty. Firball, folllowed by a twinned Ray of Frost to kill the stragglers? Pretty good use of action economy!