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

[Psikerlord#]

Very glad to hear combats were fast, that is a major issue for me.

 

[MortalPlague]

The game still has a good level of danger.

That's been my experience as well. We've had three PCs die in one of my games, and the other game has seen a TPK, a PC die outright, and we may be about to TPK a second time. Each of these was over ten or twelve sessions or so, mind you.

 

[Nemio]

So what do you do after a death and/or TPK?

I worry about this because I'll be DM'ing for all new players that I will hopefully convince to continue playing with me after the first session.

At low levels getting you character killed pretty much means that you're done for right?
Even if you find someone that can raise character from the dead the gold cost will probably be too high and you don't even have this option in case of a TPK.

Does the Starter Set have a backup plan for this because I want to have one prepared?

For example when a TPK is going to happen time might slow down and there might be a Divine Intervention to save the characters (for a certain price/favour/mission) but I imagine you can only pull that stunt a few times before they start to feel they can't die anyway.

 

[Emka]

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 don't understand that. How would the Rogue fire his bow with a light weapon (short sword?) in his offhand?
Not having played 5E yet there's some questions, one of which regarding the sneak attack. If a rogue can ranged SA whenever an ally is adjecent to the target why would he ever go to close range to literal backstab (other than flavor)?

Also re: HD on short rests. What resets the short rest timer? You can use one or more of your allowed HD a day on a short rest to heal but what's stopping you from doing 2 consecutive short rests (2 hrs worth) and pretty much full heal? The limit seems ambigous to me.

 

[Hussar]

Fun read. Keep it up. It's great to see so much enthusiasm.

 

[Sadras]

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.

Agreed. Write-ups such as these are inspirational.

 

[Melkor]

I don't understand that. How would the Rogue fire his bow with a light weapon (short sword?) in his offhand?

I mentioned "when he went to use his shortsword" in my post - My Rogue actually ran out of arrows for the shortbow while exploring one area of the module with nowhere to replenish them. The text states that you can recover half of the arrows you shoot during a combat. That said, if you carry a light weapon in your main hand and one in your off hand, you can take a bonus action each turn to attack with the weapon in your offhand (without the benefit of ability bonus). There is no reason not to do so if your primary weapon is light, and you aren't proficient in Shield. The rogue gets Cunning Action, which also can be used as a bonus action, and you only get one a turn, but carrying a light weapon in the off hand would give you the choice of attacking as a bonus action or using Cunning Action.

Not having played 5E yet there's some questions, one of which regarding the sneak attack. If a rogue can ranged SA whenever an ally is adjecent to the target why would he ever go to close range to literal backstab (other than flavor)?

The running out of arrows situation above is one reason. Another is positioning. We were in a corridor fighting a high AC monster. A couple of allies between the monster and my character. I was able to use the Cunning Action to Disengage (so I couldn't be hit by a Reaction/Attack of Opportunity the rest of the turn), then Move through the space of my allies and the monster (with another Halfling ability - can't recall the name), and end up where firing next to an opponent would have caused Disadvantage, but I could melee freely.

Also re: HD on short rests. What resets the short rest timer? You can use one or more of your allowed HD a day on a short rest to heal but what's stopping you from doing 2 consecutive short rests (2 hrs worth) and pretty much full heal? The limit seems ambigous to me.

A short rest is "one or more hours." Technically, nothing is stopping the characters from doing that except the DM. Mike Mearls even mentioned that in a video before the Starter Set was released. A couple of points though: Our DM simply stated you are taking a short - there was no discussion of hours, or stacking short rests. It was either one short rest or a long one - problem solved at our table. The second point, there was a lot of Hit Dice recovery at second level (where we all had two hit dice), where a 1 was rolled on one dice, and a 2 or 3 on the second. That meant that a character with 20 total hit points who was down 10 or more was only recovering 3 or 4 (+ Con Modifiers) by burning all his hit dice on a Short Rest.

Hope that helps/provides some insight.

 

[Melkor]

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!

Glad to hear it! 4E wasn't our cup of tea, either, but we are really enjoying some of the "4E-like" elements of 5E that we never thought we would before actually sitting down and playing the game. I was pretty excited after playing the last for days, and my enthusiasm for the system led me to post. Glad people are getting something out of it.

 

[Ceylin]

Not having played 5E yet there's some questions, one of which regarding the sneak attack. If a rogue can ranged SA whenever an ally is adjecent to the target why would he ever go to close range to literal backstab (other than flavor)?

This one seems weird to me too. I guess maybe the case of the Rogue using two weapons would give them the incentive to get in melee range. Another possibility -- can a halfling rogue successfully hide behind a fighter, move out with stealth and get advantage on their next attack? Obviously they get the sneak attack damage regardless, but advantage on the roll is also nice.

 

[Melkor]

So what do you do after a death and/or TPK?

I worry about this because I'll be DM'ing for all new players that I will hopefully convince to continue playing with me after the first session.

At low levels getting you character killed pretty much means that you're done for right?
Even if you find someone that can raise character from the dead the gold cost will probably be too high and you don't even have this option in case of a TPK.

Does the Starter Set have a backup plan for this because I want to have one prepared?

For example when a TPK is going to happen time might slow down and there might be a Divine Intervention to save the characters (for a certain price/favour/mission) but I imagine you can only pull that stunt a few times before they start to feel they can't die anyway.

For the Starter Set, we all went into it knowing that it was going to be a chance to learn the rules, and maybe play a character class or two we normally don't play to try them out. Our goal of a long-term campaign with Tyranny of Dragons with be a bit more serious. That being the case, we 'cheated' by rewinding after a TPK and starting the battle over. That's definitely not practical or not something that you can do in a serious campaign.

But, one thing we learned is that while character's do drop, and the game felt dangerous, it took a lot to actually kill a character. If the whole party was in danger and being pressed (especially after moving from encounter to encounter with no time for short rests), the game really got dangerous as major resources were expended. If the combat had fewer opponents, it was usually easy for at least one person to get to another and stabilize.

I think the key is going to be learning the system and knowing the limits of your parties abilities. We all agreed that the mechanics for Second Wind, Hit Dice, and full HP recovery overnight really benefited 'Story' type games where the characters were meant to be heroes. Our DM mentioned how many times he fudged rolls in our old AD&D 2E games for the benefit of the epic campaigns we played where we really got into our characters over the course of playing them for years and were involved in "War of the Lance" style campaigns with lots of roleplaying. He said the mechanics of this edition meant he wouldn't have to do that nearly as often.*

The DM mentioned that in the Starter Set module, they do mention that even character death is not necessarily permanent, so just play it out, see what happens, and maybe (for new players) even mention that the first couple of sessions are to learn the rules, so if the party gets wiped, you might want to do what we did: Rewind, and try it again.

*He is a DM that has no problems killing off characters (especially ones that do something stupid), and all of the rolls while playing 5th were out in the open and straight up, but he does play with a DM screen at times, and will fudge rolls for the benefit of the story.