D&D 5E Character creation night

[GMforPowergamers]

So as many of you know I am a huge D&D fan that has been running/playing for just under 20 years... So far my fav edition was 4th, but I have been building up to run my first 5e campaign (we did do the play test thing and we played 3-4 little short things but this is the first full try.).

My 2e retro clone game is winding down and I except it will be done by valentines day, so this week we made characters for me to work on the game... here is what I found:

1) Character gen isn't as quick as I hoped the 5 players around my table with 3 player hand books and 2 DMGs (Also the first time we had so few books) took almost 3 full hours not counting breaks for food.

2) We used pre set stats, and no one was happy in the end with them... I don't know if it is just being used to 3e big numbers, but it seemed weird

3) Casters everywhere. Well 5 players and 5 people with spells, feels like 3e again in that way (my groups steared away from non casters due to preference of complexitiy and capability).

4) Small skill list, It felt like a short list of skills (one of my complaints about 4e) and I hope it works better in play.

5) Combat capability, It seems odd that everyone has so much in the way of HD and bonus to hit, one character was trying to do a support character and ended up with 2nd highest hp, 2nd highest AC, and not the lowest + to hit...and a lot of combat damage potential.



so what do we have...

5 PCs are being put together as a specialist team answering to the king to solve some, issues...

1) Noble Human Infernal Warlock Pact of the blade
2) Bounty Hunter Dwarf Fighter Eldritch Knight
3) Sage Human Rogue Arcane Trickster
4) Acolyte Half elf Bard/Thief (assassin)
5) Soldier Teifling Druid/Wizard (abjur)

 

[Rune]

What level are you starting from?

A lot of the simplicity of 5e character generation comes from the way they spread out decision points over higher levels. If you start at higher levels, that simplicity vanishes.

 

[Thyrwyn]

What level are you starting from?

A lot of the simplicity of 5e character generation comes from the way they spread out decision points over higher levels. If you start at higher levels, that simplicity vanishes.

That was going to be my question, as well.

I get the numbers disappointment with the Standard Array, but that should disappear once play begins and they realize that they are only +1 behind and that really doesn't mean that much in this edition. There isn't the +5 difference in attack values at low levels that 3rd ed did.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

oops, yea I should have said we started at 5th level...the 2 muliti classes are both 3/2 so everyone has a subclass, and 3/5 of them have a feat

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The teifling Druid/Wizard really scares me... she has Druid craft, Prestidigitation, and Thaumaturgy pulse minor illusion and those seem to me to be pretty scary of a combo

 

[Astrosicebear]

Party should do alright... might be back heavy tho. If the druid/wiz is more caster, then definitly back heavy... one big AOE early on and it could be all over.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Party should do alright... might be back heavy tho. If the druid/wiz is more caster, then definitly back heavy... one big AOE early on and it could be all over.

yea, here are there HP

1) Noble Human Infernal Warlock Pact of the blade 27hp
2) Bounty Hunter Dwarf Fighter Eldritch Knight 35hp
3) Sage Human Rogue Arcane Trickster 29hp
4) Acolyte Half elf Bard/Thief (assassin) 22hp
5) Soldier Teifling Druid/Wizard (abjur)22hp

 

[Rune]

Those are 5th level hp? Did everyone tank con? They seem collectively low. For instance, if you didn't roll hp, that dwarf fighter should have 34 even with no con bonus--39 if it's a hill dwarf.

If you did roll, the average drops those numbers by 2.

 

[Diamabel]

yea, here are there HP

1) Noble Human Infernal Warlock Pact of the blade 27hp
2) Bounty Hunter Dwarf Fighter Eldritch Knight 35hp
3) Sage Human Rogue Arcane Trickster 29hp
4) Acolyte Half elf Bard/Thief (assassin) 22hp
5) Soldier Teifling Druid/Wizard (abjur)22hp

Those are some seriously low hitpoints, quite a few monsters will be able to 1 shot people... my wizard at level 5 had more HP than the dwarf fighter there..

 

[Shiroiken]

My 2e retro clone game is winding down and I except it will be done by valentines day, so this week we made characters for me to work on the game... here is what I found:

1) Character gen isn't as quick as I hoped the 5 players around my table with 3 player hand books and 2 DMGs (Also the first time we had so few books) took almost 3 full hours not counting breaks for food.

A lack of PHB is an issue, as is the fact that you started at Lv 5, probably with many options (such as Feats and Multi-classing), and a serious amount of casters (who need to look up spells). You might have wanted to have everyone discuss their character ideas, and then bring their own characters to the game. I spend a lot of time working on my characters, but it's mostly non-book related decisions (backstory, personality, etc.).

2) We used pre set stats, and no one was happy in the end with them... I don't know if it is just being used to 3e big numbers, but it seemed weird

Just tell your players that 16 is the new 18. The difference in power is minimal (I had a 14 Str Cleric in melee with 18 Str characters, and no one noticed), and it will help them get into the mindset of Bounded Accuracy.

3) Casters everywhere. Well 5 players and 5 people with spells, feels like 3e again in that way (my groups steared away from non casters due to preference of complexitiy and capability).

Casters make up about 2/3 of the classes, and 3 of the 4 non-caster classes have at least 1 sub-class that casts spells of a limited sort. Unlike 3E, however, Fighter is one of the most powerful classes IME, so heavy spellcasting isn't super huge. Some people (like myself) just prefer to play spellcasters.

4) Small skill list, It felt like a short list of skills (one of my complaints about 4e) and I hope it works better in play.

A small skill list is actually preferred IMO. Too many people look at their skills and say "this is what I can do," instead of looking at skills and say "I can do anything, but this is what I do well."

5) Combat capability, It seems odd that everyone has so much in the way of HD and bonus to hit, one character was trying to do a support character and ended up with 2nd highest hp, 2nd highest AC, and not the lowest + to hit...and a lot of combat damage potential.

Support no longer means that you do nothing else. In the Core 4, the Cleric is often considered the support role, but has the 2nd best AC and HP. Attack modifiers, due to universal proficiency, are seldom going to be more than a point or two away from each other.