D&D 5E Played our first D&D Next Session - Questions and Impression

[Melkor]

Hi folks,

Just wrapped up our first session of the D&DNext Playtest, and thought I would post a few observations and then ask a few questions that came up during play. Overall, we had a great time, and the game felt "classic," but a little different than old school D&D (in a quote "weird" way) yet "modernized."

The group is 2 female players (normally 3, but one couldn't make it tonight), and 4 male players. I was playing the Dwarf Fighter.

Some questions/thoughts after the session:

• Skill Mastery for the Rogue (not being able to roll under a 10 on her trained skills) seemed a little too good. No chance of ever failing, even on a roll of 1?

• The Wizard's Ray of Frost cantrip seemed kind of powerful - reducing an enemy (in this case an Ogre's) move to zero on a hit made the Wizard player say he just wanted to sit back and spam that every round while the rest of the group attacked at range and kept the Ogre away from us.

• The Spiritual Hammer spell says it may be used each round "as part of your action." Does that mean in addition to the Cleric's normal action for the turn?

• With the option to cast Radiant Light as an Orison, the player playing the Cleric of Pelor wondered why she should ever use her quarterstaff. Radiant Light was ranged, offered a better chance to hit, and did more damage. Unless she was forced to use the Quarterstaff, the Orison was always just the smart choice every round.

• My Dwarf Fighter kept missing with horrible rolls, so he was pretty inneffective and unable to contribute, but the ability to cause his STR bonus in damage even on a miss was put to good use (18 points of damage over 6 misses I believe).

• The Wizard took a full club attack from the Ogre (who rolled fairly average for damage) and just shrugged it off, while the Fighter took a critical and was was out and dying (due to falling in a pit prior). This caused some concern from the DM about the number of hit points the Wizard started with, and how the above situation certainly didn't "feel like classic D&D."

Any thoughts/comments welcome. Thanks!

 

[Starbuck_II]

• The Wizard's Ray of Frost cantrip seemed kind of powerful - reducing an enemy (in this case an Ogre's) move to zero on a hit made the Wizard player say he just wanted to sit back and spam that every round while the rest of the group attacked at range and kept the Ogre away from us.

Well, he can miss since it is a ranged attack (and they might have good AC, the Fighter alone has 17). Don't remember Ogre's AC.

• The Spiritual Hammer spell says it may be used each round "as part of your action." Does that mean in addition to the Cleric's normal action for the turn?

Nope, there goes your action.
You only get an action and movement (plus free stuff like drawing things like potion or weapon).

• With the option to cast Radiant Light as an Orison, the player playing the Cleric of Pelor wondered why she should ever use her quarterstaff. Radiant Light was ranged, offered a better chance to hit, and did more damage. Unless she was forced to use the Quarterstaff, the Orison was always just the smart choice every round.

Pretty much, unless enemy was resistant to the damage.

• My Dwarf Fighter kept missing with horrible rolls, so he was pretty inneffective and unable to contribute, but the ability to cause his STR bonus in damage even on a miss was put to good use (18 points of damage over 6 misses I believe).

Slayer is useful if bad luck.

• The Wizard took a full club attack from the Ogre (who rolled fairly average for damage) and just shrugged it off, while the Fighter took a critical and was was out and dying (due to falling in a pit prior). This caused some concern from the DM about the number of hit points the Wizard started with, and how the above situation certainly didn't "feel like classic D&D."

Any thoughts/comments welcome. Thanks!

Still, the fact that a crit was roll made the difference. Wizards dying to low damage rolls isn't classic, Fighters dying to Crits is (every edition).

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Nope, there goes your action.
You only get an action and movement (plus free stuff like drawing things like potion or weapon).

I disagree. "as part of your action" isn't "as an action". "as part of your move" and "as part of your action" are used throughout the playtest to mean "when you take an action(or move) you can also do this".

 

[Campbell]

I disagree. "as part of your action" isn't "as an action". "as part of your move" and "as part of your action" are used throughout the playtest to mean "when you take an action(or move) you can also do this".

Agreed. Otherwise it isn't much of a spell - the cleric's minor spell radiant lance is better with that interpretation.

 

[mach1.9pants]

How is minimum ten on a roll for stealth, open lock and device "never fails"? If the dc is 17 or higher 10+3+3 is a fail.

 

[jbear]

Alright, I've just downloaded playtest material and have begun reading through. At pg 13 I feel the need to stop reading and go back and re-read and share my opinions on certain things, all largely positive so far. So for ye who asked about 4e fans lack of response, here comes one:

How to Play section:

I like opposed checks being called a contest. Simple, logical and conveys meaning.

I like that saving throws are just based off the relevant ability. Simple and clean.

I like the idea of advantage and disadvantage. It is a far more meaningful advantage or penalty rolling 2d20s than the DM's +2/-2 friend or Combat Advantage. The rogue just became an avenger. This will be interesting to see how it plays out in actual gameplay.

Stats: I like that these are the new skills. Dex is very stacked though isn't it? I like that CON determines starting HP. So HPs are lower than 4e but not as low as earlier editions, which I'm fine with.

Interesting that the height you can jump is a fixed distance determined by strength. That will get rid of wasting some time calculating. I wonder how that interacts with trying to make a heroic jump higher than that? I guess that enters DM judgement zone and setting a DC for a strength roll. Maybe that height is if you roll a 10.

I like the simplicity of the swimming, crawling and climbing movement. Real easy to remember. Standing up is no big deal any more.

I like the differentiation between searching for something and searching for someone, in so far as how specific you have to be as to where you are looking. This will lead back to players engaging with an area in more detail rather than just 'searching the room'.

Surprise is only a small advantage in that you get to act first. Fair enough. Why even bother with a roll? Just ... go first.

I think being able to move, do stuff and move again is cool. I haven't seen any mention of 1-2-1 movement. I'm in the camp which is in favour of not seeing it, so that is good. It would only slow things down.

I love that improvise is there is a combat action! Nice one!!!

I also like the fact that drawing a weapon or whatever is so inconsequential that you just do it. Fully approve. I'm starting to be able to imagine battle being quick and flowing where you come up with stuff that you just do because you aren't trying to work out if you have enough actions available to do that, eg. pull out both swords and then move and attack or whatever.

I like that shooting long range is calculated with 'disadvantage'.

Critical Hits = max damage ... a bit bland as it stands. I like that it doesn't have to be confirmed. I hope good optional rules are added. e.g max dmg and then roll to confirm an additional effect.

I like the dying rules. 3 saving throws but to stabilise instead of 3 failed saves and you're dead. This is one I'll look forward to seeing how it actually plays out.

HP recovery. You need a healing kit to be able to self heal after a fight, even a short rest. So, your healing kit runs out ... trouble. Fair enough. I like how they have linked this to Healing Surges (renamed hit dice). The long rest information seems slightly different from what M. Mearls was discussing recently, with a flat out full recovery. I think I prefer the way that he was discussing though I can't recall specifics. Or perhaps I misinterpreted his words. To be honest I'd prefer a system that was easy and elegant but still wasn't full auto recovery.

So ... 13 pages in and lots of little things that I'm liking. It seems like it will be easy to learn the rules and remember them off the top of my head. Real easy. It seems like it's geared towards both player and DM creativity. These are 2 hugely important factors for me.

I liked one of the comments that I read in this thread. The simplicity is the kind of simplicity that can lead to all sorts of really cool complexity

 

[Walking Dad]

...

• The Wizard took a full club attack from the Ogre (who rolled fairly average for damage) and just shrugged it off, while the Fighter took a critical and was was out and dying (due to falling in a pit prior). This caused some concern from the DM about the number of hit points the Wizard started with, and how the above situation certainly didn't "feel like classic D&D."

Any thoughts/comments welcome. Thanks!

I'm not sure if they chose/build this wizards Constitution score to be typical, or if they made it higher to avoid player frustration in one-hit-out situations. (Like the elf wizard pregen in the 3e starter box had the toughness feat).

 

[Melkor]

How is minimum ten on a roll for stealth, open lock and device "never fails"? If the dc is 17 or higher 10+3+3 is a fail.

I should have said "never fails" at certain actions on a bad roll. They could still fail badly if the DC was 20, and they rolled less than 10, and the 10 stood as the minimum.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I'm not sure if they chose/build this wizards Constitution score to be typical, or if they made it higher to avoid player frustration in one-hit-out situations. (Like the elf wizard pregen in the 3e starter box had the toughness feat).

The Team has said they purposefully inflated the PC's and some monsters HP to err on the side of caution and initial playability whilst they formalize the math. I would not expect 1st level characters at release to have this many HP.

 

[Melkor]

I'm not sure if they chose/build this wizards Constitution score to be typical, or if they made it higher to avoid player frustration in one-hit-out situations. (Like the elf wizard pregen in the 3e starter box had the toughness feat).

Good point. That was probably the reason behind it. And yes, the average damage roll the DM made for the Ogre had something to do with it, and the crit against the Fighter.

With different rolls, the situation would have probably been quite a bit different, so the "feel" would have changed.