6 PC playtest - who to clone and how to adjust

[variant]

6 Clerics of Moradin with a couple of healer themes & the rest slayers.
Is noone trying to break the system? (everyone shielded by faith every fight at level 3 looks "interesting")

I don't think we are really in the balance phase of playtesting. There's no reason to break the system.

 

[Pickles JG]

I don't think we are really in the balance phase of playtesting. There's no reason to break the system.

There is fine tuning balance & creating structures that can never balance balance (Like Ranger damage scaling twice as fast as everyone else's in 4e). The sooner you can identify & alter the latter the better.

My pre play worries about this system are:-

1) Spamming 1st level spells that are very good becomes much too good
at a very low level (though its a bad thing whenever it happens)

2) Money -> massive healing via healing potions cf 3.x & wands of CLW. Noone really likes surges but this was the egregious abuse they stopped. Limiting funds might do the same thing but uusually there is a tipping point at which the cost becomes trivial.

It seems unlikely that thes will be addressed for a while but they are structural issues to my mind.

 

[variant]

1) Spamming 1st level spells that are very good becomes much too good
at a very low level (though its a bad thing whenever it happens)

Isn't that the point of cantrips and orisons? To give low level casters the ability to consistently have some spells available.

2) Money -> massive healing via healing potions cf 3.x & wands of CLW. Noone really likes surges but this was the egregious abuse they stopped. Limiting funds might do the same thing but uusually there is a tipping point at which the cost becomes trivial.

There are no wands for sale and I don't really think a 1d8 healing potion that takes an action to use is exactly game breaking. I've never had an issue with too much healing in any D&D edition and I don't expect it to change with 5e.

 

[Walking Dad]

1) The mentioned spells are not that bad if spammed. Spamming "resistance" all day, in- and outside of combat like some do in Pathfinder is bad.

2) I really like healing surges. Limiting funds will not work, if they have a gold be level suggestion table. If you spent more, you will just find more later.

 

[Connorsrpg]

I have mashed together 3 extra PCs for our playtest.

Mind you, I did so rather randomly -we are not power gamers obviously.

I have created:

1. Lightfoot Halfling Wizard (BG: Priest; Theme: Healer)
2. Human Fighter (BG: Knight; Theme: Slayer)
3. High Elf Fighter (BG: Soldier; Theme: Magic-User)

All three have been claimed by players (leaving a couple of the originals out in the cold at this stage).

 

[CleverNickName]

6 Clerics of Moradin with a couple of healer themes & the rest slayers.
Is noone trying to break the system? (everyone shielded by faith every fight at level 3 looks "interesting")

It's a playtest; the rules are too easy to exploit at this point. Just give every kobold the Slayer theme and see what happens.

 

[jadrax]

It's a playtest; the rules are too easy to exploit at this point. Just give every kobold the Slayer theme and see what happens.

Erm, they would do -2 Damage on a miss... is that helpful? ;o)

Mind, if you take away there weird racial flaw of not understanding the finesse rules, they might become very dangerous.

 

[CleverNickName]

Erm, they would do -2 Damage on a miss... is that helpful? ;o)

Mind, if you take away there weird racial flaw of not understanding the finesse rules, they might become very dangerous.

Actually, if they use ranged attacks, they deal 2 damage no matter what. That basically means every dagger they throw automatically hits, and automatically does max damage. Free critical hits for everyone!

It's not quite as bad if you give orcs the Slayer theme, since they would only do 1 damage, and only on melee attacks. Hobgoblins get 1 damage every round no matter what attack mode they are using.

And that is just the Slayer theme. Imagine giving those kobolds the Magic-User theme. Now they can now throw magic missiles and rays of frost at will, infinitely. This will be a very short battle.

 

[Kraydak]

It's a playtest; the rules are too easy to exploit at this point. Just give every kobold the Slayer theme and see what happens.

Giving themes to monsters just raises their xp value. Simple.

Not checking whether there is any reason at all to take a Fighter along for the ride rather than stacking Clerics is what led to CoDzilla. Making sure that every class has a reason to exist is one of the most important bits of playtesting, and for that, you need to try extreme party makeups.

 

[CleverNickName]

Giving themes to monsters just raises their xp value. Simple.

I agree, and I hope the final rendition of the rules allows us to adjust monsters this easily. The problem is that these themes are overbalanced at the moment. I'm sure they will fix them later, but right now, 10 kobolds with magic missile means that one party member dies every round, no save. 10 kobolds with the Reaper feat means that one party member dies every round, no save.