D&D 5E Another Critical Hits 5E Report

[exile]

I playtested 5E at DDXP and really enjoyed it. I didn't read my NDA terribly closely, so hopefully I won't get in trouble for sharing this.

We successfully explored one cavern complex, dealing with a variety of kobolds. We were chased out of a second cavern complex by orcs. After regrouping, we approached a third cavern. Sitting outside in a hollowed out rock, with back turned to us, was an ogre. The fight wents something like this...

*We approach as a group.
*The ogre notices us, stands, and limbers up his club arm.
*Somewhat injured paladin charges the ogre and gets flattened (i.e. dead).
*Halfling rogue slips around behind the ogre.
*Wizard casts sleep on the ogre.
*Halfling rogue slits the ogre's throat.

 

[Argyle King]

5E has gotten a success in the skill challenge of making me interested with these reports.

 

[TwinBahamut]

*We approach as a group.
*The ogre notices us, stands, and limbers up his club arm.
*Somewhat injured paladin charges the ogre and gets flattened (i.e. dead).
*Halfling rogue slips around behind the ogre.
*Wizard casts sleep on the ogre.
*Halfling rogue slits the ogre's throat.

If a Paladin can't even hold off an Ogre's strike, then that is a pretty poor Paladin. A heavily armored, physically tough class like the Paladin shouldn't be the weak link in a battle against an enemy who uses straightforward physical attacks. That simply is not living up to the class's name.

I don't want to see any more editions where the sleep spell makes entire classes obsolete...

 

[Remathilis]

If a Paladin can't even hold off an Ogre's strike, then that is a pretty poor Paladin. A heavily armored, physically tough class like the Paladin shouldn't be the weak link in a battle against an enemy who uses straightforward physical attacks. That simply is not living up to the class's name.

I don't want to see any more editions where the sleep spell makes entire classes obsolete...

To be fair, the ogre could crit, the paladin could be down some hp, or some combination of the two.

Not every edition allows PCs max healing between fights and 30+ hp at first level...

 

[TwinBahamut]

To be fair, the ogre could crit, the paladin could be down some hp, or some combination of the two.

Not every edition allows PCs max healing between fights and 30+ hp at first level...

In 3E my brother's Paladin held off the attacks of demons ten levels higher than him. This isn't an edition thing. This is a Paladin thing.

 

[Jack99]

If a Paladin can't even hold off an Ogre's strike, then that is a pretty poor Paladin. A heavily armored, physically tough class like the Paladin shouldn't be the weak link in a battle against an enemy who uses straightforward physical attacks. That simply is not living up to the class's name.

I don't want to see any more editions where the sleep spell makes entire classes obsolete...

A 3.5 ogre does 2d8+7 damage. Average damage alone should be enough to kill most 1st level paladins. Let alone one who is already injured.

4e Ogre does 2d10+5 damage. Average damage might kill a wounded 1st level paladin, although it would probably have to roll somewhat over average. Still very possible.

I don't have my older books at hand, but I can't see why what happened at the playtest is not living up to it's name, since it could have happened in the last two editions as well. Unless you feel the paladin didn't live up to his name in those either?

 

[IanB]

The outlier here is the paladin who survived against multiple +10 level demons, not the ogre-bait paladin.

The first death in the first 3.0 game I ever ran was a paladin killed in one hit by an ogre.

 

[Essenti]

If a Paladin can't even hold off an Ogre's strike, then that is a pretty poor Paladin. A heavily armored, physically tough class like the Paladin shouldn't be the weak link in a battle against an enemy who uses straightforward physical attacks. That simply is not living up to the class's name.

I don't want to see any more editions where the sleep spell makes entire classes obsolete...

For some, the idea that an Ogre is no longer a pushover for low-level play is a very good thing, and I see nothing wrong with a core mechanic that supports that style of play at its most basic level.

WoTC already has an example of being able to support high powered play on display and in stores right now--4th Edition! The fact that they are concentrating on showing off a design that supports grittier low power mechanics doesn't worry me at all, because this was an extremely early play test. We haven't a clue what additional modules are in the works--a high power curve module for more heroic low-level play might already be waiting for the next WoTC NDA playtest.

 

[Hassassin]

If a Paladin can't even hold off an Ogre's strike, then that is a pretty poor Paladin. A heavily armored, physically tough class like the Paladin shouldn't be the weak link in a battle against an enemy who uses straightforward physical attacks. That simply is not living up to the class's name.

What level was the paladin? If a 1st level paladin charges an ogre in most editions, he's going to have a real chance of dying.

Edit: Sorry about being the fourth person with essentially the same reply. Didn't see the others.

 

[kitsune9]

The alternative was our final battle in 3.5: seven 20th level PCs (rogue, fighter, ranger, wizard, wizard, cleric, eldrich knight) vs. an uber-lich wizard and his death knight companion.

Game time: 10 rounds (1 minute).
Real Time: 6 hours!!

Ouch, that must have been terrible.

I remember another story that I get a good laugh about. I remember that I was prepping an encounter with a BBEG for a high level game. Everyone was around 22nd level or so. I had to customize the BBEG so the encounter could be a challenge and it took me four hours to stat the guy and get everything done.

Round 1: players go first, he blew his save and died. Game over.

F o u r h o u r s g o n e.

I laugh about it every time I think about it.