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<blockquote data-quote="Gargoyle" data-source="post: 5936931" data-attributes="member: 529"><p>Thanks for the comments. I had a good time DM'ing this one. The players chose a very potent combination of fighter and healing cleric, and the fact that the goblins were light sensitive made the cleric of Pelor especially potent.</p><p></p><p>They made some mistakes, IMO, but they also made some clever decisions and got lucky a few times, so it all worked out. I didn't try to balance the encounters at all, I just ran them, and they adapted and overcame. </p><p></p><p>I decided to run it in theater of the mind again this time, because I didn't have a lot of time to dig out mini's or dungeon tiles, but the players did graph out a map of the dungeon as they explored, and with only two player characters, it wasn't hard figuring out where everyone was. There were still questions of "where am I standing" but it was all quickly resolved, and describing the huge and stupid ogre was a lot of fun, and I admit that I put more effort into the description of the confused ogre since I didn't have one of my ogre mini's handy to plop down. </p><p></p><p>All that said, one small concern I have is that the healing cleric seems as necessary as ever. In combat healing seems very important at low levels in any group, but particularly in small groups. I don't necessarily consider this a problem. Healing can be fun, and if it wasn't needed the cleric would have felt useless just casting <em>radiant lance</em> over and over. But it seems to me that their stated goal of designing a game where magical healing isn't needed is not going to be compatible with the other stated goal of supporting small groups of players. I just felt it would be too deadly without it. </p><p></p><p>If they had chosen the fighter and the thief, it could have worked with clever play and luck, but they would have been overwhelmed I think eventually. </p><p></p><p>One alternative I suppose is non-magical in combat healing like a warlord, which I dislike. Narrating that the ogre's critical hit crushes your chest then having a warlord brush it away with a stirring speech doesn't work for me. It will be interesting to see how far they take that.</p><p></p><p>I do like the idea of D&D without the need of someone to play a cleric however, and I can see that with the herbalist theme, it might be possible to get by with potions. I think I would like to see pregenerated characters with some less focused combinations to support smaller parties. A fighter with the herbalist theme to supply some healing potions might be interesting, for instance, and with that in mind, perhaps the system will support play without a healing cleric at low levels just fine, with the right themes, and I'd be ok with that.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, I'm ok with a D&D that implies that magical healing is usually available, as long as the cleric can do more than heal, and this cleric certainly was effective in combat too, and so it worked for me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gargoyle, post: 5936931, member: 529"] Thanks for the comments. I had a good time DM'ing this one. The players chose a very potent combination of fighter and healing cleric, and the fact that the goblins were light sensitive made the cleric of Pelor especially potent. They made some mistakes, IMO, but they also made some clever decisions and got lucky a few times, so it all worked out. I didn't try to balance the encounters at all, I just ran them, and they adapted and overcame. I decided to run it in theater of the mind again this time, because I didn't have a lot of time to dig out mini's or dungeon tiles, but the players did graph out a map of the dungeon as they explored, and with only two player characters, it wasn't hard figuring out where everyone was. There were still questions of "where am I standing" but it was all quickly resolved, and describing the huge and stupid ogre was a lot of fun, and I admit that I put more effort into the description of the confused ogre since I didn't have one of my ogre mini's handy to plop down. All that said, one small concern I have is that the healing cleric seems as necessary as ever. In combat healing seems very important at low levels in any group, but particularly in small groups. I don't necessarily consider this a problem. Healing can be fun, and if it wasn't needed the cleric would have felt useless just casting [I]radiant lance[/I] over and over. But it seems to me that their stated goal of designing a game where magical healing isn't needed is not going to be compatible with the other stated goal of supporting small groups of players. I just felt it would be too deadly without it. If they had chosen the fighter and the thief, it could have worked with clever play and luck, but they would have been overwhelmed I think eventually. One alternative I suppose is non-magical in combat healing like a warlord, which I dislike. Narrating that the ogre's critical hit crushes your chest then having a warlord brush it away with a stirring speech doesn't work for me. It will be interesting to see how far they take that. I do like the idea of D&D without the need of someone to play a cleric however, and I can see that with the herbalist theme, it might be possible to get by with potions. I think I would like to see pregenerated characters with some less focused combinations to support smaller parties. A fighter with the herbalist theme to supply some healing potions might be interesting, for instance, and with that in mind, perhaps the system will support play without a healing cleric at low levels just fine, with the right themes, and I'd be ok with that. On the other hand, I'm ok with a D&D that implies that magical healing is usually available, as long as the cleric can do more than heal, and this cleric certainly was effective in combat too, and so it worked for me. [/QUOTE]
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