D&D (2024) 2024 Impressions and Surprises from real play Experiences

[Baumi]

I have now played 5.24 E twice (third level) and a few things surprised me:

- Weapon Specialisations, except for Vex and Nick, didn't have an impact. Slow was mostly ignored, Sapped Enemies died to quickly to had a big effect and topple didn't get used.

- Ranger was fun! Two different Players created a Ranger and embraced Hunters Mark and the new Features without complaint. One fealt quite close to a Druid (from GM Perspective) because he had Druid Spells/Cantrips thanks to his Background and of course the Ranger Spells. So he healed with Goodberies, used Thorn Whip,..

- Land Druid hat TONS of Spells prepared at third Level, especially the Elf one. I thought there was an error in the Programm, but he nearly doubled his know Spells through the subclass and Species.

- Dwarf Tremorsense was cool. He used it to find Water Creatures deep down and spot Enemies behind a door.

- Druids limited Amount of Animal-Forms was more impactful than I thought. It was quicker in play and the Druids thought about what fits to his style.

Things will of course be different after more plays (and higher level), but I had fun so far and wanted to share my observations. Have you played it already and what are your impressions, suprises,..?

 

[A2Z]

What's this? A positive thread about the new PHB? Unpossible!

Seriously though, we're playing for the first time with the new book tonight. I've rebuilt my ranger/rogue and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.

 

[abirdcall]

We just played session 1 @ 3rd level (had session 0 previously).

• Nick was very good on the Rogue.
• There were a lot of effects that imposed disadvantage to attacks or advantage for your attacks (I'm counting prone here). Abilities that did those things in 2014 are worse now because they can be made redundant. Vicious Mockery had its damage increased to 1d6 but I think it is actually worse.
• There are a lot of temporary hit points now.

While this was true before, if the goal is optimization then the most impactful way of doing that is to coordinate with the party so that abilities don't overlap.

There was some learning I needed to do but it was mostly remembering small changes to spells and such.
I imagine it's going to be a pain to remember all the little status effects that are imposed on enemy creatures. I'm going to need the player's help.

- Dwarf tremorsense is really cool. We have 2 dwarfs in the party.

2 Humans, 2 Dwarfs, and 1 Elf (Drow)

While I think the species are better designed overall I think some are going to display more flavour and fun things than others.

Overall it's 5e and we had a great time.

 

[abirdcall]

- Dwarf Tremorsense was cool. He used it to find Water Creatures deep down and spot Enemies behind a door.

I don't think it could be used for the first case.

It specifies that the user must be on the same surface as the moving object or creature and lists ground, wall, and ceiling as different surfaces.

So something on another floor would be a different surface (though I would allow the ceiling directly below to count as being the same surface as the ground on the other side).

 

[Baumi]

Liquids are explicitly mentioned in the Tremoresense Glossary Entry. So that really works.

 

[Baumi]

Funny thing .. I read the wrong section at first (True Sense) and we laughed about how he can feel the color and markings of the Clothes of the enemies

 

[mellored]

Liquids are explicitly mentioned in the Tremoresense Glossary Entry. So that really works.

"You must be on a stone surface or touching a stone surface to use this Tremorsense".

Though I don't see much issues ignoring that restriction.

 

[Baumi]

From the Glossary:

A creature with Tremorsense can pinpoint the location of creatures and moving objects within a specific range, provided that the creature with Tremorsense and anything it is detecting are both in contact with the same surface (such as the ground, a wall, or a ceiling) or the same liquid.

 

[mellored]

From the Glossary:

Check under Dwarf.

It's more restricted than normal temorsense.

But again, if you had fun you did it correctly.

 

[Baumi]

Oh, good to know! 8D