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

[Fifth Element]

Our wizard never used this spell, and just spammed shocking grasp all the time. Since the hobgoblins had metal on their armor, the DM gave the wizard combat advantage every time (per the spell description). Since movement was free without OAs, he would just run up, shock a monster, and run back behind cover or an ally.

A couple of readied actions by the hobgobs should be enough to discourage that particular course of action.

There are no OAs in 5E?
That edition sounds worse and worse.

Darn right. Sounds like that sucky AD&D I keep hearing about.

Unless I've misread the rules, how did he move/attack/move? I thought you could only move once with an action.

Moving is not an action. It is something you can do each round in addition to taking your one action, and the rules spell out that you can split it as you like.

 

[slobster]

A couple of readied actions by the hobgobs should be enough to discourage that particular course of action.

It depends on how much information the PCs have about their opponents' actions. If I were the wizard and I knew that the hobos were prepping actions, I'd just use magic missile instead.

Before you say "well then the readied actions accomplished their purpose," think about what is happening. I managed to shut down a few enemies' turns completely, and still cast a spell, without spending any resources. And people are worried about ray of frost being too much control!

 

[Fifth Element]

It depends on how much information the PCs have about their opponents' actions. If I were the wizard and I knew that the hobos were prepping actions, I'd just use magic missile instead.

Well, as DM I'd be perfectly comfortable ruling that PCs cannot read the minds of the monsters. Maybe the readied action is "if the wizard starts casting a spell I'll chuck a spear at him?" He'll have to leave his cover if he wants to be able to target an enemy, won't he?

 

[slobster]

Well, as DM I'd be perfectly comfortable ruling that PCs cannot read the minds of the monsters. Maybe the readied action is "if the wizard starts casting a spell I'll chuck a spear at him?" He'll have to leave his cover if he wants to be able to target an enemy, won't he?

That's fine. If you run a game with more opacity between monsters and the player's knowledge, it could work just fine. In my games, for simplicity, the players know what the monsters do (and when they act), so it wouldn't work. I'll need to come up with a different workaround, or change the way I run combats for 5E. Or maybe it won't end up being a problem, that's the sort of thing that I'll find out as I play, I suppose.

 

[Rogue Agent]

There are no OAs in 5E?
That edition sounds worse and worse.

Darn right. Sounds like that sucky AD&D I keep hearing about.

That would be incorrect. Although it didn't use the term "opportunity attacks", AD&D did include opportunity attack mechanics. The term "attack of opportunity" actually comes from the AD&D 2.5 rulebooks, but those rules simply centralized several mechanics that had been present since AD&D1.

(1) Characters could choose to either "fall back" or "flee". And choosing to "flee" meant opening yourself up to a rear attack from your opponent.

(2) Spells were specifically delayed until after other attacks had been resolved so that they could be disrupted in pretty much exactly the way AoOs allow.

(3) The rules for grappling allowed armed targets to make an attack first. If the attack was successful that "indicate that the attacker trying to grapple, pummel or overbear hos been fended or driven off, and the attack is unsuccessful. The weapon-wielder then has the opportunity to strike at the weaponless one "for real", if he or she so chooses." Sound familiar?

And so forth.

Turn-based systems, in general, require some form of interrupt mechanic in order to mitigate some of the bizarre side effects the otherwise beneficial abstraction of turn-taking creates.

With all of that being said: The mere absence of these mechanics from the playtest packet seems almost meaningless. There are lots and lots and lots of things missing from the playtest packet. Those bemoaning the missing elements are fooling themselves just as much as those praising the seeming minimalism of 5E.

 

[Votan]

Remember the Hobbos etc can do that back, if a wizard jumped out and zapped me or a buddy I would most certainly have my enraged humanoids chase him behind the fighter (with impunity) and attack him there!

That would be what I would think was the counter-tactic under these sets of rules. The gap used by the wizard would be just as useful for the Hobgoblins.

 

[Dragonblade]

A couple of readied actions by the hobgobs should be enough to discourage that particular course of action.

We didn't consider it a broken tactic. Just different than what we were used to. And if they hobgoblins had stopped it, the wizard would have felt a lot less useful in combat.

 

[Dragonblade]

That would be what I would think was the counter-tactic under these sets of rules. The gap used by the wizard would be just as useful for the Hobgoblins.

Yes, the hobogoblins were doing the same thing back at us. It made chokepoints very valuably tactically. Our combats tended to cluster around doorways.