D&D 5E Back to DnD after 12 years break. DM-ing questions thread.

[Dan Chernozub]

That's a transition. Some of the storyteller set were really down on D&D, sounds like haven't drawn any of those, luckily.

"Set?" Is there a mechanic to that, or is it just that they have a common origin?

Mostly just a common origin. They were found together, they have a similar illusion-school silence-related effect, so I think they will figure out at some point that scratching the dagger on a shield causes it to activate when you need it activate, and only not when you get hit on a shield in combat. Seems to me that a portable zone of silence can be put to good use. Might be even too good, but they haven't found the trick yet.

Depends on how you implement the latter, I guess (a low save DC could render it fairly minor). The former, though, could be surprisingly high-impact once Extra Attack kicks in - any damage bonus can be. But, yeah, safer than the official 5e version, IIRC.

Well, I think it still won't get entirely out of hand, but those are going to be nice boosts, for sure, so that is why I want the party to have a really hard and rememberable fight to get those.

Lol. There's that roll-in-order for you. Could've gone EK, but, still, amusing.

Yeah, but who am I to tell the player what to do? He wanted a Barbarian and he came up with a cool concept. He also has WIS 7 that fits into a bookworm background quite nicely. Berzerker.

Diviner gets better as you go, apparently. Haven't had anyone play one, though.

His ability is really strong but is also really easily overlooked. I think it has stopped nearly as much damage to the Barbarian as Bard and Cleric have healed him for, but what it did - it stopped it at just the right time when he was Recklessly attacking and one hit from dropping down and losing Rage. Not to mention guaranteed fails at save-or-suck spells or hits with the Clerics Guiding Bolt. He doesn't get enough credit for it, though.


How do you like the party composition overall? Maybe something obvious that I'm missing that is their glaring weakness? (Apart from 4/5 of the party being darkblind).

 

[Tony Vargas]

How do you like the party composition overall? Maybe something obvious that I'm missing that is their glaring weakness?

Not at all, no. It's a reasonably standard party, really, just subbing a Barbarian for Fighter (no loss, there), and with the Rogue bringing a little extra casting (like an old-school thief using scrolls, or 3e w/UMD). Bard as '5th wheel.' Could be a 3e party.

 

[Dan Chernozub]

Assuming they don't have any weird multi class builds, they will be noticeably stronger at level 5. You can get away with one tough monster and some minions at level 3-4; you'll want at least two major targets for a good fight at level 5. 5e fights are more fun, in general, with several moderately challenging targets, rather than one overwhelming one.

Agreed, I'm looking forward to making more of the "you have to choose your priorities right" combats. The fight with Azers was really interesting because they had to choose between killing Azers, stopping Azers from freeing the Giant, deactivating the summoning circle and getting party members out from a trap, all the while avoiding the semi-predictably moving fires in the throne room.

 

[machineelf]

Having some trouble with CR Balance - I often can't fit the DMG suggested 6-8 encounters in an adventuring day (the campaign is more of an open-world exploration, rather than a dungeon crawl). This results with party defeating fewer, harder encounters by burning through their resources aggressively. ... So, with a BBEG-junior in mind, I start looking for references and I see the Half-Red Dragon Veteran, CR5. But looking at his stats I don't get how is he CR5

You're right, one of the things you'll notice with 5e is that the actual CR of a monster varies widely. Most creatures are a bit weaker than you might think, going solely by CR rating. Of course, the way you as the DM run the monster, the number of monsters in the encounter, and other factors, will influence this. Every now and then you'll find a monster that seems much stronger than its listed CR, but usually it's the other way around. In general, you'll probably want to give your characters a higher challenge than you initially think, or increase the number of monsters. The more familiar you get with certain monsters and encounters, the better you will be able to estimate it. I like to fault on the side of being too tough on my players past 4th level, because they seem to have ways to survive, and the more danger an encounter presents the more fun it is.

In the case of the half-dragon, if your whole party faces him they should be able to nuke him in one or two rounds. Throw in a few other monsters and you might split their focus of damage.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm looking forward to making more of the "you have to choose your priorities right" combats. The fight with Azers was really interesting because they had to choose between killing Azers, stopping Azers from freeing the Giant, deactivating the summoning circle and getting party members out from a trap, all the while avoiding the semi-predictably moving fires in the throne room.

Glad you've returned. It's experienced DMs like you bringing new-to-5e players experiences like that which helps the game continue to grow.

 

[Dan Chernozub]

Glad you've returned. It's experienced DMs like you bringing new-to-5e players experiences like that which helps the game continue to grow.

Thank you for the compliment.

I'm a bit confused how to take into consideration the casters/buffers/healers.

For example, the party might encounter and eventually fight a shipwrecked High Elf Pirate Crew.

Obviously, a lot will depend on terrain and the which side will have tactical initiative, but what do you think of the total danger those would present to an average (figuring in relative inexperience as balancing out relatively good stats) party of 5 level-4 adventurers. It can be found above and I can answer extra questions if you need them.

Captain - based on the Bandit Captain (MM) but with access to spells like Mirror Image, Shield and Blur to gain extra resilience and Misty Step for additional mobility and using a Familiar to scout for him.
First Mate - a level 5 arcane spellcaster, specialising in Illusions and with a task of keeping his Captain Hasted.
Ship Priest - a level 3 divine spellcaster, with a task of Blessing, Aiding and Healing the crew.
Sahogre - basically an amphibious Ogre with Blood Frenzy, used as a meatshield.
Pirates - mooks, decent DEX, dual-wield short swords, a couple of them are 1st level wizards with Sleep/Color Spray/Grease.

There are different ways this encounter can end - from PCs recruiting the Pirates to their case for a solid price to a peaceful parting of ways to open confrontation. I'm just a bit worried about the combat part - won't that many spellcasters be too much? Maybe I should drop one of the First Mate/Ship Priest pair?

 

[Saeviomagy]

a 48 hitpoint breath weapon is capable of instantly killing some 3rd level characters, and instantly KOing many 5th level characters. That's probably enough to make the guy CR 5 on it's own.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

There is one more thing I would like to have feedback on - my character creation rules. I was bored at the idea of the optimized stat distribution, so I went for an "in a row" rolling method. But I also wanted my players to have some flexibility in picking what they play, so I've allowed them to roll three times and pick any stat line they liked most. How do you think this effected the overall strength of the starting party? What will be the long-term results? So far, as I see it it means that they have high overall stats, but often don't have their secondary stats in optimal state (Con and Dex mostly).

Method in one line: 4d6dl, in a row, three times. Pick your prefered statline.

Personally, I much prefer this option to others. I like that it forces the players to work with "what they are born with." For my campaigns, the players have multiple characters, and can switch them out frequently, and it works very, very well.

 

[Dan Chernozub]

a 48 hitpoint breath weapon is capable of instantly killing some 3rd level characters, and instantly KOing many 5th level characters. That's probably enough to make the guy CR 5 on it's own.

DPR calculations expect AOE to hit two enemies and all saves to fail.

48 DPR breath weapon means it is an average roll 24 (7d6) damage breath weapon, DEX half.

Most of the time (~80%) it will be within 20-30 damage scope. And it is just a 15 ft. cone.

 

[Saeviomagy]

DPR calculations expect AOE to hit two enemies and all saves to fail.

48 DPR breath weapon means it is an average roll 24 (7d6) damage breath weapon, DEX half.

Most of the time (~80%) it will be within 20-30 damage scope. And it is just a 15 ft. cone.

Right... But you can see why I might be confused when you said "He also has a breath attack for 48 damage", when what he actually has is a breath attack for 24 damage that might hit 2 people, and half the time it will do 12 damage to 2 people.

I think that sort of thing is why the CR system fails so hard - DPR is all-but worthless for calculating the threat to a party from a single fight. It can be used to plan out a taxing adventuring day, but over a single fight, it's individual big hits on a single character that make for danger.