D&D 5E Just wrapped up four consecutive days of D&D 5th.

[Melkor]

Two of us picked up our Starter Sets at a midnight release from our FLGS on Wednesday night, and we downloaded the basic PDFs the next day. We started playing D&D 5th Thursday afternoon, and continued playing Friday, Saturday, and just wrapped up a session today. About 16 hours of actual game time.

The three of us have all been playing together (usually with a fourth who was away for the 4th of July holiday) for just over 28 years - starting with Basic/AD&D, then a lot of AD&D 2E, 3.0, 3.5, a brief foray into 4E, then Pathfinder. Although we thought 4E combats could be really exciting and fun, we all generally didn't like the reliance on a grid, our perceived focus on tactical combat, and the length of combat.

Going into our game on Thursday, we were pretty skeptical about Second Wind, Hit Dice recovery, full healing upon a Long Rest, Action Surge, at-will Cantrips, and a few other things.

After playing over four days - roughly 12 combat encounters with mixed in roleplaying, we all had a blast, and saw some really interesting (and fun) situations that wouldn't have happened without Second Wind, Action Surge, and at-will Cantrips, I think we are all in agreement that those actually added quite a bit of character to the game.

We ended up with an early total party kill, that, in the interest of the game, we "rewound" and replayed differently to see how it went (the character's all survived). Today, another one of the characters died in a pretty epic battle. All of this eased our concerns about Second Wind, Hit Dice, and full HP recovery during a long rest. The game still has a good level of danger.

We haven't played this many straight days since the 90s, so it was a lot of fun.

TL;DR - A lot of our initial concerns about some of the rules were pretty much wiped away after several solid sessions of play, we really like the way 5th Edition plays, and we all had a blast. We can't wait for the PHB and Tyranny of Dragons.

 

[The Hitcher]

Now this is the kind of rules discussion that I actually enjoy reading - real discussion of rules as seen in actual play. Cheers! Looking forward to playing, myself.

 

[sidonunspa]

So tell us.

what did you learn? did anything not work?

 

[Arctic Wolf]

So tell us.

what did you learn? did anything not work?

Yeah I am with sidnunspa here. I am curious since I have only read bits of the basic rules at the moment.

 

[Dayte]

Now this is the kind of rules discussion that I actually enjoy reading - real discussion of rules as seen in actual play. Cheers! Looking forward to playing, myself.

I agree. Sometimes things do not play out at the table like we think they will in our head. Looks like I'll be playing the starter set adventure this week myself and can't wait.

 

[Chaltab]

Oh wait, so Second Wind doesn't break the game open and need immediate errata? But DDNfan was so certain!

Mod Note: Folks, let's not make this personal, and let us not use it as an opportunity to pursue old arguments. Thanks. ~Umbran

 

[IronWolf]

Good to hear!

With Basic there a couple of things I am not sure I like, but they are things I am willing to see how it behaves during play. Funny - my list is very similar to yours. I think I can get used to most of it, the one of most concern is full recovery of HP with a long rest. I sort of like a grindy game and I like that sense of attrition, but I need to see it in play before I decide.

 

[Melkor]

So tell us.

what did you learn? did anything not work?

Some additional thoughts (apologies in advance for run on sentences):

The Halfling Rogue in the Starter spent a lot of time using his bow with success. The "Lucky" reroll a 1 ability was a godsend no less than six times over the course of several days. When he went to use his Shortsword, the DM asked why he wouldn't simply pick up a light weapon in his off-hand and use it all of the time...I didn't do that, but had to agree. The Sneak Attack with the bow when an enemy of the target is within 5' was used over and over in the game. It was a big boon for the Rogue.

The other character I played was the Human Defense Fighter. I consistently rolled badly with him, but he seemed a little underwhelming. He was able to block a corridor during an epic battle that played out and soak up some damage with Second Wind, his Hit Points, and his decent AC - but fell and failed three Death Saves after a single success. Second Wind and Action Surge felt 'necessary' against some of the bigger foes we encountered and kept the battles exciting.

My friend played the Elven Mage and the Dwarf Cleric. He seemed to own the day when he was fully rested with spells, but if we were pressed into multiple encounters without a Short Rest, he quickly was relegated to Cantrips with these two characters, and both went down fairly regularly. All four characters seemed like they were hard to kill, but went down at times. He was never a big fan of 4E, and loved the versatility of Mages/Wizards in 3E, but had grown tired of playing them. He LOVED playing this 5th edition Wizard.

After our first session, we thought "Wow, it seems really hard to kill characters," and enjoying the grit of AD&D and 2E games, this felt wrong to us - we blamed it on Second Wind, Hit Dice use at Short Rests, and Full HP healing, and were honestly talking about how we hoped "Lingering Wounds" or Slow Healing options in the DMG would fix this at our table. After the second session with the Total Party Kill, our eyes were opened, and we thought "This is pretty well designed." After the third session, where the Cleric went down to zero HP with a blow that took him to -17 without killing him (he was 2nd Level with 19HP), we kind of reevaluated again thinking it would be too hard to kill a character with a death blow (negative max HP) - especially as they leveled and had lots of original max HP. Then, after tonight's session where the Fighter died, we realized that if the characters are pressed, and the situation is tense, its not that much of a stretch for characters to die by failing Death Saves.

Firing into melee wasn't covered in the Basic Rules other than mention of a Cover Bonus to AC. This came up a lot in our games. We hope it is detailed in the PHB. We didn't use minis for positioning, but found that it really was great to have a printed copy of the maps on the table to still kind of guesstimate positioning. The only time our DM gave the Cover bonus to AC was if a creature was in the line of fire from the firer, not simply next to the target in combat.

All in all, we loved that we were able to DO SO MUCH in a single session. With our decade of 3E games, we would try and play every other week, but by the time we had all showed up after work, chit chatted, ate some food, etc., we would be lucky to get to play two-and-a-half to three hours. Most of the time, in 3E, that would be dominated by one of two combats (at most) and some roleplaying. With 14 days between sessions, this pace was just difficult for us to maintain interest. When we tried 4E, we usually could only get in a single combat, or a single large combat and a really minor one (granted, we only played 4E >10 sessions). That said, 5th felt like a pacing similar to our AD&D2E sessions. We were able to get through three or four combats and plenty of roleplaying each session. It was refreshing.

 

[andargor]

Hey Melkor, my first post in a loong time, and you made it happen! Just started looking seriously at 5e and it is getting my interest back (no offense to 4e, but it wasn't my cup of tea). Thanks for sharing!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Sounds like a lot of fun!

Man I wish I could find the time to play that many sessions in a row. And I'm downright "spoiled" (I get to play at work, owning a FLGS). But I've got a wife & kids (oooh when they're old enough!)

I guess I shouldn't complain.