D&D 5E Ack! Starting Next tonight - anything I should know last minute? (Edit: first impressions)

[Mercurius]

My Next campaign is starting tonight. It will mainly be talking about the world, rules, and making characters--and shooting the , as we haven't played in a year--but I'm also hoping to fit in a very short scenario to get a sense of the rules. Its very simple: they're starting as hired caravan guards and their caravan is attacked by a bunch or orcs, who steal a child(ren) from the caravan. Hoping they feel bad and want to rescue the child(ren), they'll track the orcs back to their cave, where after killing a bunch of orcs (again, hopefully), they find what the children were for: feeding their obese ogre boss, who hangs out all Jabba the Hutt like, eating children that the orcs bring him (I was wanting to use an otyugh, but thought that would be too nasty for 1st level characters...maybe a toned down otyugh due to obesity).

No one knows the rules, including myself (although I have a general idea - bounded accuracy, advantages and disadvantages, ability score checks, etc), but am wondering if there is anything I should watch out for from the last (October) playtest? Any problems? Things that need to change (and can be easily changed)? Basically I'm looking for suggestions like the 4E +25% monster damage, -33% monster HP (or whatever it was).

Thanks!

 

[Wulfgar76]

- Monsters in the Bestiary die very quickly.
- 'Boss' monsters without help die even faster.
- A DC10 saving throw is not easy to make.
- Don't forget about hit dice/short rests (which require an hour)

 

[GX.Sigma]

@Wulfgar76 hits it on the nose, except that DC10 seems pretty easy to me (but then, I'm an evil DM and a pessimist )

You also might want to think in advance about how you want to handle 10-minute rituals like detect magic. If there's no time pressure, those spells are effectively at-will.

Also note that orcs might be too dangerous for your 1st level party. They are level 3 monsters.

Edit: And Mistwell's post below is the best advice.

 

[Mistwell]

Just dive right on in and don't sweat the small stuff. The game is easy, it's pretty intuitive, and if you need to make a ruling on the fly things won't break.

 

[Rhenny]

Wulfgar mentioned something very important about DC 10 checks. I've found that the check descriptions should really be more like:

Don't roll a "1" for Trivial
DC 5-8 for easy
DC 10-12 for moderate
DC 15 for hard
DC 20 for very hard
DC 25 for heroic
DC 30 for Super heroic

Setting most checks at DC 10 is a great idea. Throw in a few DC 15 and 20 for the tougher ones.

Also, one of the best things about Next is just telling the players to make an attribute check whenever they decide they want to try something. After the fact, they can add their proficiency if it makes sense (and any expertise). Usually, you can tell if they should succeed just by the d20 roll so resolution is really fast so you can keep the action moving without getting bogged down.

For your first go, I'd keep monsters in reserve. In some encounters, let reinforcements show up to beef up the encounter if you feel that the situation calls for it (and you want to add to the challenge).

Personally, I like that the monsters go down quickly, but in a number of encounters, I add 1 or 2 special monsters that act as leaders. They usually have 50% more hit points and may even be +1 more skilled at attacks (or even get multi-attack). At lower levels that's enough to differentiate mini-boss types.

Be careful with spellcasting foes. They are deadly. Even a goblin shaman (not in the bestiary, but adding 1 level of mage to a goblin) that can cast burning hands has the potential to TPK the entire party if he can get them in the burning hands cone. Also be careful with outnumbering the party too. The warnings they give in the test material about 2:1 and 3:1 numbers are really true. This is especially true for any creature that has "pack tactics" like the Kobolds. They get really dangerous in bulk.

And, like Mistwell said, jump in, have fun. It is really a breeze to DM compared to other versions.

 

[Plaguescarred]

This sounds like a fun entreprise! Good luck and i hope the boys like their experience with D&D Next. Personally, i think it runs like a breeze and is really fun to DM!

As for the Otyugh, i think it'd make for a formidable solo, it has a low AC and can multiattack and grab multiple foes, which is good against a party. You could always use a young otyugh that is so fat that it is still large in size. Just don't overuse Tentacule Slam and it should be okay. Here's what it could look like if you want a quick statblock for it;

Young Otyugh
Large Aberration
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 65 (8d10 + 21)
Speed 20 ft.
Senses darkvision 100 ft.
Str 17 (+3) Dex 11 (+0) Con 17 (+3)
Int 6 (–2) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 6 (–2)
Alignment neutral
Languages —
TRAITS
Grappler: The otyugh has advantage on attack rolls against a creature grappled by it.
Limited Telepathy: The otyugh can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet of it that can understand a language. The extent of this communication is limited to simple ideas only.
ACTIONS
Multiattack: The otyugh makes one bite attack and two tentacle attacks.
Melee Attack—Bite: +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 8 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage and 4 (1d6) poison damage.
Melee Attack—Tentacle: +5 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one creature).
Hit: 8 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled. The otyugh can have up to two creatures grappled at a time. While using a tentacle to grapple a creature, the otyugh can make that tentacle’s attack only against the grappled creature.
Tentacle Slam: Each creature grappled by the otyugh must make a DC 10 Strength saving throw.
Failed Save: 8 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the target is stunned until the end of its next turn.
Successful Save: Half damage, and the target is not stunned.
ENCOUNTER BUILDING
Level 7 XP 1,030

 

[Mercurius]

Thanks for the replies, all - very useful advice from everyone.

Some impressions from last night:
- I probably had one too many beers. Someone should cut the DM off
- The game runs like a dream. Wow - just so quick, yet with a nice flexibility with the ability check and proficiency system
- Bounded accuracy took some convincing. I too was a bit leery of it at first, but now love it. The players are open but were unsure - it seems to take a lot of juice out of leveling up.
- We didn't actually get to the obese ogre/otyugh, because even though I kept throwing orcs at them, they heroically managed to prevent them from taking the children. We ended atter the battle with the orcs, but if they decide to track them to their lair I might use [MENTION=6701422]Plaguescarred[/MENTION]'s Otyugh (thanks!).
- I liked the fact that we could pretty much up and play without reading much of the rules. We skimmed over a couple things, and I have to check some details, but the game was very easy to play (for instance, we were all unsure about if ability modifiers and proficiency were added to both attacks and damage.
- Three words: theater of mind. I forgot what I was missing. That said, most felt that a battlemap in some cases could be very useful, or maybe a whiteboard for positioning.
- One final comment. It seems that even with bounded accuracy, the AC of many monsters in the DMG is way too low. It seems odd that a 1st level cleric with chainmail and shield can have an 18 AC (which a PC did), while a huge black dragon has a 16 AC.

 

[Rhenny]

- One final comment. It seems that even with bounded accuracy, the AC of many monsters in the DMG is way too low. It seems odd that a 1st level cleric with chainmail and shield can have an 18 AC (which a PC did), while a huge black dragon has a 16 AC.

This is really true. I'm hoping that they are going to work the numbers to make the more fearsome monsters a little more difficult to hit. Dragon scales should be more like plate armor (AC 18), and I could even see the more experienced dragons gaining +1, +2, +3 to keep them closer to Fighter in Plate armor and shield.

After playtesting with Bounded Accuracy, WotC should be able to stretch the AC for the most fearsome monsters without breaking the system.

Have you checked out the L&L article from a while ago (can't remember date) where Mearls revealed a concept for the Legendary Black Dragon? It was pretty cool. The Dragon could take extra actions at any time during the initiative order and it gained even more choices if it was encountered in lair. I ran an encounter using the Legendary Dragon in one session and it really made the encounter dynamic and frightening. The Legendary options didn't change the AC of the creature though, but it did give it chances to recharge its breath weapon, make a tail sweep, take extra movement (and the lair feature gave it the ability to regenerate up to 4x during an encounter). This, in some form, seems to be the way Next will create "solo" monsters.

I'm glad you enjoyed DMing Next. It is a breeze that has freed me up to worry more about the story/campaign building than trying to figure out what rules I need to know well to make sure that I run encounters "properly." For the first time in D&D's life, I feel that the mechanics of the game truly fit with their statement that a DM should use rules as a tool and ignore them if it helps the session run more smoothly.

 

[Mercurius]

I'm glad you enjoyed DMing Next. It is a breeze that has freed me up to worry more about the story/campaign building than trying to figure out what rules I need to know well to make sure that I run encounters "properly." For the first time in D&D's life, I feel that the mechanics of the game truly fit with their statement that a DM should use rules as a tool and ignore them if it helps the session run more smoothly.

Yes, exactly. If I felt that way after one session, I imagine it will become even more so after getting the hang of the rules.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Looks like you had a fun session glad to hear buddy! Feel free to use or modify the young otyugh to your heart's content if you want! Yeah AC, attacks and saves are areas that monsters and PCs aren't balanced enought yet. Hopefully, it will be fixed by release. That you guys had fun is the most important bit though, Huzza!