D&D 5E Design Debate: 13th-level PCs vs. 6- to 8-Encounter Adventuring Day

[Ancalagon]

... maybe you need a break from D&D. Try warhammer frpg (2nd ed). It's ver possible to run a non-warhammer setting game with it. Powergaming in that system is almost impossible, and it works quite well. I've ran a 3 year campaign doing so

 

[Azurewraith]

OK the final encounter play test is here.

The encounter against the shadows was an utter wash the cleric cast light on his shield sanctuary and bless everyone grouped up on him nothing the shadows could do with disadvantage on every attack even with them scattering and trying to hide it just did not work as the party slowly advanced and backed them into the corner and slaughtered them(quick disclaimer i rolled like 10 1s in this encounter so there is that)

Now we get to kereptis him self this fight was interesting he had 2turns of time stop allowing him to grab his stuff get a globe of invulnerability up hit the wizard with Power word stun? shadow word stun? what ever its called stunning the wizard. part wins initiative with kerptis 2nd to last followed by shieldy mc shield last Cleric attempts to use hold person on keraptis which fizzled due to the globe the rest of the party attacked the shield guardian with the fighter focusing keraptis with SS(dispatching the bath in the process) here we go chain lightning for a grand total of 23dmg a pc every one made the saves the paladin taking only 11 due to resistance aura. keraptis was dead before his next action and then mop up mode commenced the combat ended in 3 and a 1/2 rounds.

Ok here we go big bad demon of death and destruction destroying the multiverse or not.... i gave atropal automatic suprise no chance of any pc to spot he dropped his lair action to try and ensare the pcs(failed miserably due to paladin aura) at the same time dropping his breath weapon for 80damge which was 1/2ed due to saves being made by everyone but the wizard and then 1/2 again due to paladins resistance arua then popped legendary action for a wing attack aimed at the wizard who died! the cleric then casts conjure celestial to summon a coutal the fighter goes ham with action surge dealing 100 damage in a single round the monk teleports on top of atropal latching on. atropal smashes the monk into the side of the pyramid, monk makes save to jump of before impact then proceeds to attack the monk with multi attack for 30 unleashes his frightful presence(all saved) next round the fighter drops 80damage with another action surge cleric picks up the wizard with spare dying coutal heals the wizard for 8ish monk telports back up this time chooses not to grapple and just attack dealing 20damage making a total of 180 for anyone counting and i ruled he then falls of the back of atropal being he didn't hold on the wizard moves up to the paladin and dodges the paladin drops Lay on hands for 45. atropal fails at his next round of attacks and is killed by i think the fighter i cant remeber it was late and my notes got slack.

 

[Radaceus]

I really want to give Keraptis Gaurds and Wards, and Glyphs of Warding, in his lair. No offense to Flamestrike, but upon reading it I felt that encounter 6 was lacking, and that an Archmage would have such protections in place...especially a neurotic one. I will gauge it by how the PCs have fared up until that point.

I still plan to run this, just haven't had the time. hopefully soon!

 

[Lord Twig]

OK the final encounter play test is here.

The encounter against the shadows was an utter wash the cleric cast light on his shield sanctuary and bless everyone grouped up on him nothing the shadows could do with disadvantage on every attack even with them scattering and trying to hide it just did not work as the party slowly advanced and backed them into the corner and slaughtered them(quick disclaimer i rolled like 10 1s in this encounter so there is that)

Now we get to kereptis him self this fight was interesting he had 2turns of time stop allowing him to grab his stuff get a globe of invulnerability up hit the wizard with Power word stun? shadow word stun? what ever its called stunning the wizard. part wins initiative with kerptis 2nd to last followed by shieldy mc shield last Cleric attempts to use hold person on keraptis which fizzled due to the globe the rest of the party attacked the shield guardian with the fighter focusing keraptis with SS(dispatching the bath in the process) here we go chain lightning for a grand total of 23dmg a pc every one made the saves the paladin taking only 11 due to resistance aura. keraptis was dead before his next action and then mop up mode commenced the combat ended in 3 and a 1/2 rounds.

Minimum rounds for Time Stop and the mage goes last in initiative. Way to minimize this advantage.

Ok here we go big bad demon of death and destruction destroying the multiverse or not.... i gave atropal automatic suprise no chance of any pc to spot he dropped his lair action to try and ensare the pcs(failed miserably due to paladin aura) at the same time dropping his breath weapon for 80damge which was 1/2ed due to saves being made by everyone but the wizard and then 1/2 again due to paladins resistance arua then popped legendary action for a wing attack aimed at the wizard who died! the cleric then casts conjure celestial to summon a coutal the fighter goes ham with action surge dealing 100 damage in a single round the monk teleports on top of atropal latching on. atropal smashes the monk into the side of the pyramid, monk makes save to jump of before impact then proceeds to attack the monk with multi attack for 30 unleashes his frightful presence(all saved) next round the fighter drops 80damage with another action surge cleric picks up the wizard with spare dying coutal heals the wizard for 8ish monk telports back up this time chooses not to grapple and just attack dealing 20damage making a total of 180 for anyone counting and i ruled he then falls of the back of atropal being he didn't hold on the wizard moves up to the paladin and dodges the paladin drops Lay on hands for 45. atropal fails at his next round of attacks and is killed by i think the fighter i cant remeber it was late and my notes got slack.

Everyone is within 10' of the Paladin at all times? Also, it takes a minute to cast Conjure Celestial.

 

[Lord Twig]

Here's the text of Heat Metal:



As a matter of strict game rules, it's not at all clear to me that two casters, both maintaining Heat Metal on the same target, cannot both use their bonus actions to inflict 2d8 damage on their turn on the creature holding/wearing the item. From an in-game perspective, it's not really clear what the bonus action is doing (pumping in a fresh burst of heat?) or why the red-hot metal doesn't damage the wearer if the caster doesn't spend his bonus action, which means it's not clear whether they should stack from an in-game perspective. Clearly the disadvantage from multiple Heat Metals does not stack, but does one of the casters get denied the chance to use his bonus action as matskralc is suggesting? It's not at all clear to me.

But at the table as DM I think I'd try to find a ruling that explains what the bonus action is doing ("you're refreshing the heat on the metal back up to red-hot") and use that to guide the ruling ("there's no point in two casters both reheating the same metal to red-hot--it's already hot").

I firmly believe that WotC went a little crazy once Bonus Actions were added to the game. All of a sudden they were like, "Hey! We can make this a Bonus Action! And we can make this a Bonus Action! And this too! Wow! We can make all of these Bonus Actions!" Now we have things that are bonus actions that make no sense at all.

Heat Metal is now house ruled for me that it does not take a bonus action and you can only effect a set of armor or weapon once. The spell doesn't stack.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Ok here we go big bad demon of death and destruction destroying the multiverse or not.... i gave atropal automatic suprise no chance of any pc to spot he dropped his lair action to try and ensare the pcs(failed miserably due to paladin aura) at the same time dropping his breath weapon for 80damge which was 1/2ed due to saves being made by everyone but the wizard and then 1/2 again due to paladins resistance arua then popped legendary action for a wing attack aimed at the wizard who died!

I see a lot of DMs on these forums who appear to let the Paladin of Ancients halve damage from any magical source with their aura. By RAW, it only halves damage from spells.

 

[Azurewraith]

Minimum rounds for Time Stop and the mage goes last in initiative. Way to minimize this advantage.



Everyone is within 10' of the Paladin at all times? Also, it takes a minute to cast Conjure Celestial.

They learnd to bunch up. My bad on conjure celestial minimum impact on fight anywho as for poor ol kerptis dice is dice

 

[Azurewraith]

I see a lot of DMs on these forums who appear to let the Paladin of Ancients halve damage from any magical source with their aura. By RAW, it only halves damage from spells.

Well that's my bad I thought it was magic not spells teach me to go off memory I guess

 

[Flamestrike]

OK the final encounter play test is here.

The encounter against the shadows was an utter wash the cleric cast light on his shield sanctuary and bless everyone grouped up on him nothing the shadows could do with disadvantage on every attack even with them scattering and trying to hide it just did not work as the party slowly advanced and backed them into the corner and slaughtered them(quick disclaimer i rolled like 10 1s in this encounter so there is that)

Now we get to kereptis him self this fight was interesting he had 2turns of time stop allowing him to grab his stuff get a globe of invulnerability up hit the wizard with Power word stun? shadow word stun? what ever its called stunning the wizard. part wins initiative with kerptis 2nd to last followed by shieldy mc shield last Cleric attempts to use hold person on keraptis which fizzled due to the globe the rest of the party attacked the shield guardian with the fighter focusing keraptis with SS(dispatching the bath in the process) here we go chain lightning for a grand total of 23dmg a pc every one made the saves the paladin taking only 11 due to resistance aura. keraptis was dead before his next action and then mop up mode commenced the combat ended in 3 and a 1/2 rounds.

Ok here we go big bad demon of death and destruction destroying the multiverse or not.... i gave atropal automatic suprise no chance of any pc to spot he dropped his lair action to try and ensare the pcs(failed miserably due to paladin aura) at the same time dropping his breath weapon for 80damge which was 1/2ed due to saves being made by everyone but the wizard and then 1/2 again due to paladins resistance arua then popped legendary action for a wing attack aimed at the wizard who died! the cleric then casts conjure celestial to summon a coutal the fighter goes ham with action surge dealing 100 damage in a single round the monk teleports on top of atropal latching on. atropal smashes the monk into the side of the pyramid, monk makes save to jump of before impact then proceeds to attack the monk with multi attack for 30 unleashes his frightful presence(all saved) next round the fighter drops 80damage with another action surge cleric picks up the wizard with spare dying coutal heals the wizard for 8ish monk telports back up this time chooses not to grapple and just attack dealing 20damage making a total of 180 for anyone counting and i ruled he then falls of the back of atropal being he didn't hold on the wizard moves up to the paladin and dodges the paladin drops Lay on hands for 45. atropal fails at his next round of attacks and is killed by i think the fighter i cant remeber it was late and my notes got slack.

How is the Paladin halving damage vs Necrotic? How is the fighter getting two action surges? Conjure celestial takes 1 minute to cast.

 

[Celtavian]

Minimum rounds for Time Stop and the mage goes last in initiative. Way to minimize this advantage.

He doesn't have any control over this. It's based on a roll.

Everyone is within 10' of the Paladin at all times? Also, it takes a minute to cast Conjure Celestial.

Not super hard to do if mostly ranged. Often times our paladin is in the group solely to provide that Aura of Protection sometimes combined with Circle of Power or something similar. If the monster closes to melee, then he attacks. If not, the group will just hit the target with ranged attacks. 10 feet around the paladin is quite large.