D&D (2024) Wrapping up first 2-20 2024 campaign this week, some of my thoughts

[Hussar]

Where do you get that? That is absolutlely NOT the case.

We have had PCs actually die in more than half of the campaigns we played. We lost 3 PCs permanently in 3 different campaights (no revify or resurection, roll a new character) and had one TPK in Baldur's Gate, Descent Into Avernus.

I am comparing this to 5E, where I have played a lot and did not "run roughshod" to 2024 with the same players and the same DM where we are "running roughshod".

The only thing that is changed is the game system!

You have this completely backwards.

You said that you blasted through six or seven 1-20 level campaigns. I understood that to mean that your high level experiences were pretty similar.

 

[FrogReaver]

@ECMO3

You gave a breakdown of most encounters ending in 1 turn. Can you elaborate on how this is achieved?

Also, how many rounds were your 2014 combats going?

 

[Stalker0]

However, there are a handful that I actively avoid ever having in my games (without explicitly banning them). The weapon of warning is one. Others include adamantine armor, the decanter of endless water, the periapt of wound closure, any +X shield

Admantine armor is honestly pretty tame. I have a player that has it, and yes immunity to crits is wonderful....but crits just aren't that common. A +1 armor you are likely to get more use out of it in general.

 

[pukunui]

Admantine armor is honestly pretty tame. I have a player that has it, and yes immunity to crits is wonderful....but crits just aren't that common. A +1 armor you are likely to get more use out of it in general.

I just don't like the idea.

 

[Maxperson]

This is a great note, and probably my first house rule for 2024 will fix it (attunement is back)

Yeah. That seems like a removal that shouldn't have happened. The DM controls magic items, though, so a player can't get that many rings of resistance without the DM being on board in some manner.

 

[Maxperson]

I'll have to take a look at the monsters you guys were fighting. But it does seem you guys were LOADED with magic items (10 magic rings each?!?, that means you each probably had amazing other gear too).

Yeah. That makes the combat assessments unreliable. I'd like to see an assessment of combat, especially high level combat, with a group that has an appropriate number of items that they didn't get to select themselves.

 

[Maxperson]

Aware but it's not saying hand out 0. Official adventures are full of them LMoP has around 13 iirc. Legendary ones turning up around level 7.

Said DMG also includes guidelines about how many to add.

I think open market buy whatever you like in whatever quantities you like is a mistake though which was what was going on there.

I've had 1 OP item that wasn't meant to hang around long term and the other one didn't hang around long term.

Groups love magic items, so WotC has to build adventures that have a lot of magic items in them for the groups that like tons of them. That means that DMs who like a more normal amount of magic items, or even less than average, need to prune items out of the adventure themselves.

 

[Zardnaar]

Groups love magic items, so WotC has to build adventures that have a lot of magic items in them for the groups that like tons of them. That means that DMs who like a more normal amount of magic items, or even less than average, need to prune items out of the adventure themselves.

I'm saying that those adventures are provably more normal. Without a big survey you lack the data over what's actually normal.

BG3 effect as well. Or LMoP we coukd probably go through them more.

Lots of magic items aren't really a problem. Easy access to specific ones are.

 

[ECMO3]

Yeah vicious weapons and the rings aren't the problem.

Easy access to specific items are. Same problem in 4E and 3.X.

I think Vicious Weapons are the biggest problem actually among our magic items. We have Legendary weapons (a rod of Lordly Might and a Hammer of thunderbolts and they don't seem appreciably better than the Vicous Weapons, arguably worse in teir 4 because the DC on their save or suck is not that high and their damage is lower.

 

[ECMO3]

They're using old modules that presumably used the old XP budgets while using old monsters. They aren't using the new rules.

I beleive the module we are using is one of the newest campaigns available on DD&D Beyond. I am not positive about that, but I think it was published around the same time as Vecna Eve of Ruin.

I'm not saying the DM should not have made adjustments, but this was the first adventure using the new rules and I don't think he expected the level of power creep we got.