D&D 5E New D&D Next Playtest Packet Is Here!

[r0gershrubber]

Don't be so sure, from today's L&L ...

"Rogue: To be honest, I’ve never been crazy about sneak attack as the rogue’s defining combat ability. I can see how it is a logical outgrowth of AD&D’s backstab ability, but in my mind it casts rogues as being too tightly linked to an assassin or similar archetype. I can think of plenty of rogues I’ve played over the years for whom sneak attack would be a poor match for their combat abilities or personality. I’d like to explore ways of making sneak attack an option, with things that push a rogue to be more cunning and tricky in combat standing alongside it."

I agree. I would prefer that the Rogue excel at something closer to Pathfinder's combat maneuvers, especially the Dirty Trick introduced in the Advanced Player Guide. Sneak attack should be an option but not a defining feature of all Rogues.

 

[renau1g]

I see that opportunity attacks are in, which means I am out, unfortunately.

Wow, really? Seems a bit extreme. You could always just, you know, houserule that out rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[Dark Mistress]

I posted this in another thread talking about 5E but this one seems to be getting a lot more discussion so I will just repost it here.

After reading the playtest doc and now some threads here. This is kinda my take(granted my memory is fuzzy on early editions of DnD i was young)

5E to me feels like they took the skeleton of OD&D, put the nerves, muscles, tendons etc of 2E, put in several 3E organs, with a couple of 4E organs.

Or is not so metaphoric speak. It seems like the simple framework of OD&D, with a lot of the fiddly bits, skills, kits etc of 2E, with some 3E aspects added a few 4E aspects thrown in.

Just like last time there is a couple of things I like, a couple of things I really don't like and most of the rest I am indifferent to. As it stands now 5E is shaping up to be my second favorite version of DnD.

 

[Consonant Dude]

Wow, really? Seems a bit extreme. You could always just, you know, houserule that out rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The condescending tone is not helpful.

Of course, it might be extreme depending on the context. If there wasn't an abundance of fantasy roleplaying games out there, I might readily customize. But I think extreme in this case would be for me to customize yet another version of the game to my liking when I have already done that in the past and when there are so many fantasy RPGs to choose from. The game has to be a better fit for me than the ones I play or others I can buy for me to be interested. That seems reasonable to me and not extreme at all.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I really dislike the fact that they married skills back to abilities, I would like e skills descriptions to have some example of hoe you can use some skills with different abilities, for example strength or dexterity for intimidate or inteligent and wisdom for animal handling.

Warder

I am absolutely not a fan of this, except in a few circumstances like Intimidate working with Charisma and Strength.

Otherwise, you will get people dogpiling one ability score too much, and that is not good for the game.

 

[Dice4Hire]

The condescending tone is not helpful.

Of course, it might be extreme depending on the context. If there wasn't an abundance of fantasy roleplaying games out there, I might readily customize. But I think extreme in this case would be for me to customize yet another version of the game to my liking when I have already done that in the past and when there are so many fantasy RPGs to choose from. The game has to be a better fit for me than the ones I play or others I can buy for me to be interested. That seems reasonable to me and not extreme at all.

You are talking about one tiny bit of the rules, so quitting 5E over that seems a bit extreme.

And it is a part of the rules that many people have houseruled in one way or the other since 3E came out.

 

[Ichneumon]

Note to Wizards: An opportunity-attack-free module is required.

 

[The Shadow]

Look at it as a flavor thing - scholars in that fantasy world got it wrong.

I fail to see why the game system needs to force this sort of thing as fluff on my game world.

Does it have any measurable in-game effect?

Some, yes. The Necromancer specialty gives goodies to necromantic spells. It's not hard to imagine a Conjurer specialty doing likewise, and inadvertantly giving benefits to Cure spells.

Of course, the inexplicably good Healer specialty is already benefiting those spells more than enough...

------------

Another mystifying thing to me: Would it have killed them to round XP values for gaining levels to the nearest 100? Do we *really* need that level (pardon the pun) of granularity, such that an experience table of:

0
600
1800
3500
8000

would have been utterly broken?

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Note to Wizards: An opportunity-attack-free module is required.

Agreed, Thirded, Fourthed, and so on.

In a way I am seeing skills as fairly optional in this version...they are more or less tied to Backgrounds, which IS Optional. Same for Specialties. I can see Feats being Optional as well...

So if you just want to play it with Race, Class and Gear and Spells this game will work just fine.

If you want that extra stuff, you can have it too. To really test this, some players should go with everything, others should leave out Backgrounds and Specialties, and see how it interacts. If both players are happy, then I'd say Wizards is doing something right with Next.

And if I recall they have Abilities next to skills but it doesn't say they are directly linked, but it is also confusing. One example clearly says use Skill modifier OR Ability score... then Training says add +3 to that roll and you can train to as high as +7. This is confusing. But, I see it as Optional... I don't need skills, but if a person takes a Background then the skills listed show a overall Training and when the player does something related to it, he will get a Basic +3 bonus to his roll.
So far Next is looking pretty good.

 

[Dordledum]

I'm actually happy to hear that they put some form of AoO back in.

Now I'm off to read the actual playtest package instead of this forum.