D&D 5E Do Newer Players Nova More?

[Zardnaar]

The other day I joined a new group and had been watching newer players last week as well. Our group tends to pace ourselves these guys were rather aggressive in terms of going nova (level 3). We did fight a Dragon (green one in LMoP), but even after that they were dropping their level 2 spells on Zombies. Barbarian used rage every fight, I think he is out of rages in the 2nd or 3rd fight.

I'm a warlock so I tend to nova a bit as well but I get my stuff back on a short rest and Eldritch Blast is decent in any event. Just wondering, I can kind of also understand being low level as well.

 

[iserith]

It makes sense that newer players don't have as good a sense of whether a threat calls for giving it all they got or holding back a bit. Plus, a lot of DMs don't use time pressure, so resting rarely costs anything.

 

[Zardnaar]

It makes sense that newer players don't have as good a sense of whether a threat calls for giving it all they got or holding back a bit. Plus, a lot of DMs don't use time pressure, so resting rarely costs anything.

This is basically what I figured. Its lost mines, seems you can nova a lot in that adventure.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I've noticed that players who started in 3E or later tend to spend resources at every opportunity, while those who started in older editions are more inclined to conserve resources whenever possible. I'm sure that DM style is a major factor, but later editions also give you more resources to spend.

 

[Kurotowa]

Newness can be a factor, where people see these cool abilities on their sheet and want to try them out. But player habits will also build over time in reaction to their play environment. I've had DMs whose designs leaned towards fewer harder encounters in the adventuring day, and that's practically begging your players to nova at every good opportunity. And once that becomes your habit as a player it takes effort to unlearn it.

 

[Immortal Sun]

IMO it's heavily based on DM style. If novaing is a successful strategy against enemies, players will do it. If they find it to be ineffective, they will stop.

I typically find there are few instances where noving is NOT an effective strategy.

 

[Blue]

I've noticed that most players need to be trained into conserving resources. So both new players and players exposed to short adventuring days go all out. Better to use it to kill opponents quick - which saves other resources - then to chance dying with resources still unspent.

Now, old school gamers (of which I'm one) sometimes need to be taught to spend resources. When you have two 1st level spells for the entire day (and no cantrip in those days), you horded them. In some ways a worse problem because there is no benefit at all from having resources unspent at the time they refresh, while spending them early at least ended those combats faster which may reserve resources of the rest of your party.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Now, old school gamers (of which I'm one) sometimes need to be taught to spend resources. When you have two 1st level spells for the entire day (and no cantrip in those days), you horded them. In some ways a worse problem because there is no benefit at all from having resources unspent at the time they refresh, while spending them early at least ended those combats faster which may reserve resources of the rest of your party.

The worst of it came (IMO) with the transition to 4E, and healing surges. Prior to that, healing was a party-wide resource, so it was always better for the tank to take all attacks, since higher AC meant the party had less average damage coming in (which helped you make the most of your finite healing).

With 4E, every character gained a significant amount of free, self-only healing. If the tank was the only one taking attacks, then they would run out of surges and you'd have to stop for the day. In order to keep the entire party going further, sometimes you needed the wizard to charge into melee, to make sure they were able to spend their own healing surges (which would otherwise go to waste).

Given how easily characters can recover resources in 5E, it's hard to find the appropriate rate at which to spend them, so as to not have them go to waste. Especially as you get to higher levels, you have to really try in order to reach your limit, before you have to consider holding back.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I tend to find myself going nova more as I get older and play more. I think there are a few reasons for this.

1) You have cool abilities. Why wait to use them for threats that may never come? If you die in the fight/challenge you're in, then you don't need to worry for the fight/challenge ahead.

2) I find myself feeling more challenged and more creative when my resources are low. Which for me is more fun and the risk of loss becomes bigger, making those wins all the more epic.

I mean, what would have happened to humanity if Dinobot had decided against going nova on all those Predacons?

 

[Immortal Sun]

An important thing to note: you can't throw 6-8 perfectly equal encounters at players, even if they nova through the first couple of them, the remaining fights will not present enough of a real challenge to make this a problem. The non-nova classes (fighters, rogues, etc) will still have enough oomph to carry the party though, maybe with some bumps and bruises, but they'll do it.

The problem is amplified by the fact that early-adventuring-day novaing reduces the need for healing, which allows a dedicated healer to "reverse-nova" towards the end of the day, making up for much of the damage a party may receive struggling to get through the later fights.

You can teach people to save resources by varying up the "size" of later fights, but you risk throwing off the encounter math.