NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 6564151" data-attributes="member: 6792361">Thanks again for all replies.Lest I be misinterpreted, let me be clear: This is not meant to be a complaint thread about 5e. Overall, I give it a thumbs up. This is just meant to be a place3 to note first impressions and observations about the system, and a means to better wrap my head around the rules. Of course there are things about it that I might change if it were up to me, but I'm perfectly happy to give it a fair chance. Shoot, I've had beefs with every new iteration of D&D, but the bottom line is that any system is only as good as the judge and players. And no, I'm not going to go looking for a new DM. For a guy with very little experience running the game, he's doing a pretty good job. And I like my character quite a bit, so that's all good. As a matter of fact, I was thinking today about another thing I like that they did for wizards, which is the d6 hd. It's nice not to be so squishy. In fact, i realized a session or tewo ago that, with my arcane ward active (I chose to spec in abjuration) I actually have the most hit points in the group! Granted, I got a nice con roll, but good grief, the wizard is rocking the most hp?! And speaking of the school specializations, I quite like that too. I look forward to being able to take some of the heat off the meat shields when we reach 6th level by taking some of their hits. And besides all that, one of the reasons i started this thread was to eventually provide some real play examples of what a wizard is still capable of. I'd read through another thread where the poster was asking for just such a thing, as he was wondering if the wizard was still a viable choice. I believe that it absolutely is. So, in that spirit, here is an example of play from our last session, for anyone interested. Note: I don't think this encounter was part of the HotDQ modual, but rather a side encounter formulated by our DM, so i don't think there are any spoilers here. Heading for Balder's Gate, we decided to take a rather large boat down river. We boarded our horses and set sail under the guide of our captain and his crew. On the second noght out we spotted a bonfire on either bank, several hundred yards ahead of us. Fearing trouble, we anchored where we were and decided to head ashore in rowboats and then make our way toward the fires to investigate. Our captain told us that a ferry operated right about where the fires were, and he feared some shenanigans. We boarded two rowboats and oared away from the ship, but didn't get far before we were beset by amphibious lizard men, three of them grabbing onto the side of Ulktar, Dakahin and Zukamesh's boat in an attempt to capsize them. Our friends fought them off as our own boat was attacked, and in due course I was grabbed and pulled overboard! Adrift in the river I quickly cast levitate on myself and zipped twenty feet into the air, avoiding the clutches of the lizard things as I did. I was just in time to see Zukamesh (our sorcerer) pulled from his boat, trapped by a mancatcher. I quickly threw him the end of my rope, which he caught as he was pulled under. I wrapped my end around my waist and shot further into the air. It became a tug of war, with me trying to lift Zukamesh out of harms way while the lizard man kept his grip on the man catcher, dangling from Zuk. Fortunately one of our archers put an arrow in the creature and he finally fell, freeing Zuk to cast his own levitate. Having fought the lizard men off, our party was rowing toward shore. i tossed down my line to them and they towed Zukamesh and I after them. Once on dry land, we looked back at our boat and realized that it was now unmanned, presumably due to it having been boarded by lizard men. We also saw that, further downstream, the ferry had been turned into a boat catching trap. Our enemies had set the ferry ablaze and were using it's pullies to crank it into the path of our vessel. knowing we had little time, we raced toward the crank on our side of the river. Still levitating, I tossed the end of my rope to Gunner (our halfling ranger) who hopped up onto his pet panther and headed down the river bank at top speed, towing Zukamesh (still levitating himself) and I behind him. Several of the lizard men were helping to turn the crank on our side in their attempt to move the burning ferry into position. We quickly began to pelt them with everything we had, although in my case I was down to Firebolts, having already used most of my spells to dispatch lizard men with scorching rays and sleep spells. Still, it was enough to disrupt them and before they could gather themselves for a decent defense, the rest of our party arrived and wiped them out. Our fighters threw themselves at the wheel, playing a sort of reverse tug of war with the lizard men on the far side, attempting to reverse the course of the ferry. Seeing our boat getting closer and closer, I grabbed the ferry rope and began to pull myself out over the river (still levitating; 10 minute duration! Woot!) with Zukamesh following closely behind. We reached the middle of the river just as our boat caught itself up on the ferry line and Zuk and I were able to levitate upwards and climb aboard. Once there we ascertained that our captain and his crew had been dispatched by the lizard men. I yelled for our fellows on shore to cut the ferry line, and once they did we were once again adrift. We managed to wrestle the rudder in the direction we wanted to go and soon ran our craft aground on the safe side of the river, effectively saving our mounts. So the take away from this encounter was not how much damage I was able to do (although i was able to take out at least two or three bad guys with sleep, and do some decent damage with scorching rays), but rather how the effective use of Levitate saved myself, and our other caster, and then our ship and horses. I was even able to find the captain's spyglass, which made being able to board the ship quite profitable. Any damage I dealt was just icing on the cake. And therein, I think, lies the true value of the wizard class. Not in raw damage, but rather the ways in which they can turn the tides of a battle in the parties favor. I don't expect to ever match our fighter's kill count. But I will control the battlefield and enable our melee guys to be that much more dangerous. Even with the mechanics I'm not so crazy about, 5e has not nerfed the amazing tactical applications that (IMO) only a wizard can achieve. So there you go. And if any other interesting circumstances come up I'll post them too.</blockquote>

Verification