D&D 5E L&L Basic Dungeons & Dragons

[Nellisir]

If adventures can be played right out of the box, with only the free PDF, how will monsters, spells and items be described there? If an NPC uses a spell, will they copy its description from the PHB in case it's not in Basic pdf? Every time?

I haven't looked at the playtest in some time; do NPCs even use spells, or do they have powers a la 4e?

 

[YRUSirius]

Maybe NPCs mainly use only use basic spells?

 

[Dahak]

Great to hear this!
It's almost like D&D will become itself an old-school rules lite RPG, like the thousands of retro-clones out there.

So what exactly will be in it? I don't suppose we'll see many Feats - IF there are Feats at all!

If adventures can be played right out of the box, with only the free PDF, how will monsters, spells and items be described there? If an NPC uses a spell, will they copy its description from the PHB in case it's not in Basic pdf? Every time?

Probably. This is how they did it in BECMI modules if you needed an NPC spell from a higher level set.

 

[HobbitFan]

The free Basic version has me excited.
I'm impressed that WOTC did this.
Thumbs up WOTC!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Maybe NPCs mainly use only use basic spells?

Sounds likely.

I think it's probable that the most "iconic" D&D spells (charm person, sleep, magic missile, cure X wounds, remove curse, blah blah blah) will be in the Basic set. These spells will be enough to let academic wizards and healing clerics do their jobs. You shouldn't NEED any more than these.

If an NPC has a more exotic spell, they'll likely have it printed, but it'll also be clear that those exotic spells exist for a reason. It's not just going to be random NPC's with random specialist spells. It'll be, "Oh, this necromancer has researched her own dark and spoooooooky spell that she can use to screw folks up, and she's taught it to all of her apprentices."

 

[Ace]

Not bad but its a halfway version of what Paizo has in the Pathfinder SRD (Basically almost everything after a few months) .

That said it still will be most welcome since I cozened my group into trying the new game in August.

 

[marleykat]

Just have to say....Yay WotC!!!

 

[occam]

If WotC is able to publish non linear (or seemingly non linear) adventures where dungeons are not an endless succession of 10 ft wide corridors, traps, doors and monster waiting to be slaughtered while the PC recover from their 15 minutes adventure's day, I would be happy to buy them. Very happy.

Have you seen the adventures they've published recently? I have Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legacy of the Crystal Shard, and those are anything but linear railroad adventures, involve practically no dungeons, and monster-slaughtering is mostly a sideline (and almost nonexistent in MiBG) They're also not tied to any particular edition of D&D.

 

[Cybit]

Not bad but its a halfway version of what Paizo has in the Pathfinder SRD (Basically almost everything after a few months) .

That said it still will be most welcome since I cozened my group into trying the new game in August.

To be fair, under the rules of the OGL, Paizo is required by law / contract IIRC to have their system fully open.

 

[samursus]

This strategy have many resemblances with that of MMOs. Right now the vast majority of the MMOs offer their game for free in order to attract as many people as they can. When they are there they offer em many big and little things that will make the gaming experiance more colorful, more intersting and more detailed. The same logic runs behind wizards move.

And being a PC gamer since the first MMO's, I have seen that this strategy is working like gangbusters. Almost all MMO's have switched to this model now.

Nicely done Wizards, nicely done.