D&D 5E Ghost of Dragonspear - Updated to Final Playtest Packet?

[Majoru Oakheart]

New monsters? If I understand this correctly, people are thinking the monster math will be redone in the final release? If so, what problem is the change supposed to address?

The monster math in the playtest was a placeholder. They said a couple of times that they didn't actually DO the math required to balance monsters vs the PCs. That math was going to happen later. The playtest was designed to assess whether the class abilities appealed to people.

They said a couple of times that their goal would be to eventually find the sweet spot of hitpoints, bonuses to hit and damage for monsters that created the right battle length, difficulty, survivability, and so on. However, the monsters in the playtest were designed mostly by...guessing. After all, if they hadn't decided yet what bonuses players had to hit, how could they set the ACs of the enemies appropriately. They even changed the PCs bonus to hit after the last playtest.

I also know that Mike Meals posted that hitpoints for monsters were generally going up in the final game as well.

 

[MortalPlague]

New monsters? If I understand this correctly, people are thinking the monster math will be redone in the final release? If so, what problem is the change supposed to address?

Majoru covered it quite well. The monsters in the final release will be much more polished and generally more dangerous.

I'm involved with the alpha playtest, and the monsters I've been using are much more fun than the public playtest ones.

 

[caudor]

Thanks to both of you

 

[Cybit]

Hrm, seems like Basic might not have much in the way of Monsters immediately upon release; so I'll modify my statement to say that I'll update the adventures as soon as I get finalized monster stats.

 

[MerricB]

The Ogre in Dragonspear compared to Ogre in the final packet is quite similar... but hit points are up, as are Strength and Constitution. The rest is basically the same.

The stats in Dead in Thay are much, much closer to the final result.

Cheers!

 

[caudor]

Hrm, seems like Basic might not have much in the way of Monsters immediately upon release; so I'll modify my statement to say that I'll update the adventures as soon as I get finalized monster stats.

I look forward to your conversions.

 

[caudor]

Should we play it now or wait?

Can anyone that has played through Ghosts of Dragonspear offer advice on how to handle this adventure? Does it run smoothly with stats as written, or would it be better to wait until the revised monster stats are released? This adventure is how I was planning to introduce 5e, so I really want it to go smoothly. Thanks in advance for your advice.