stonegod
Spawn of Khyber/LEB Judge
We had our first 5E play test today: A group of 5 (2 remote via G+ Hangout), all w/ D&D experience (Me and 1 other from 1E onward, 1 from 2E onward, rest 3E+ with two of them currently playing Pathfinder).
tl;dr version: We all enjoyed it. Only minor quibbles (none of them hp/rest or Reaper related).
Like [MENTION=11821]Obryn[/MENTION]'s playtest, our motivation was tongue-in-cheek: A group from the nearby village of Townsville was hired by caravaners to drive out the evil humanoids attacking their caravans. The king couldn't be bothered and the caravaners were looking for cheap (i.e., you get to keep what you find level of cheep). The group:
- Bin, the Dwarf Fighter (based upon the dwarf that became Demogorgon in our Savage Tide game)
- Sunny Dayes, Human Priest of Pelor
- S'kwisht Emp (Squish Temp), Elven Wizard
- Breye-an Blessed, Dwarven Cleric of Moradin
- Remy the Mute, Halfling Rogue
The group decided to explore the goblin caves first. The human priest used a torch with the halfling in front. While exploring the dead end, the goblins from the random encounter showed up from the west. The battle became protracted when reinforcements from the east and west appeared, some of them with ogre support. It turned into two battles: The two dwarves to the west, holding off six goblins and the ogre (and in the dark, so no one could see them), the rest in the center chamber post-entrance fighting six more. The goblins got in a few good shots with their short bows (with advantage as they were hidden in the darkness at range); the cleric's shield saved the fighter a few times until the ogre got wise and dropped the cleric with a few hits.
By this time, the fight had focused on the western group (the rest showing up), focusing on the ogre and ignoring the one goblin remaining. The ogre fell, with only the cleric of Moridin down. The group focused on goblin they had ignored, all missing. The goblin then went over to the fallen dwarf and tried to coup de grace him—missing by one. Once the group realized what was going on, they took the goblin more seriously (it died quickly after).
After healing and resting, the group searched the nearby guard room and found attached ogre cave. No one one its secret treasure, but they did find a lot of coin. The rogue and dwarf snuck up on the "sleeping" bear and "ended" it dramatically; the human priest made a very bad Wisdom check to realize that it wasn't dead all along and thought they had slain it valiantly. They then returned to the eastern branch, where goblins hid in waiting behind some furniture. The halfling and three goblins shoved the table granting them cover betwixt them until the halfling was buried under it; but the fight was over before it began. However, they were ambushed by more goblins while arguing over what to do with one that surrendered to them; more damage on advantage dropped the fighter. After killing the 3 reinforcements, the group decided to head back to Townsville to recuperate and interrogate their prisoner (the following day).
The next day (fully healed), the wizard attempted to use Comprehend language to interrogate the goblin. No one spoke Goblin, of course, so communicating to the goblin was difficult (I gave disadvantage on interaction checks). The eventually managed to find out in which direction the non-combatants and chieftain was. Emboldened with this information, the group headed out (donating the goblin as an "orphan" to the temple of the harvest god).
The group went through the ogre cave and the secret door, finding the replenished guard post. The battle was going the group's way until (hidden) reinforcements game. The dwarf fighter attempted to throw a lit object (a goblin's head) down the corridor, but was dropped by the hidden's group's readied volley. The battle then degenerated into a back-in-forth lighting and unlighting of the area (the goblins would throw back the light source, the group would toss in back in). Eventually, the reinforcements were taken care of and the fighter recovered.
Knowing the non-combantants down the other way, the dwarf cleric tried to communicate with them—but again, the language barrier was a problem. Plus, the goblins felt a little threatened with the non-combantants and all. When the dwarf when back to report, during the several minutes of arguing about what to do next, a smaller group snuck in and critted the priest with advantage, dropping him. The group took care of that group, then retreated back into town. The next time they return, the goblins will have fled, only having 7 goblins (other than the chief and his cohort) left.
Pros/Cons/etc.
+ Everyone though the combat went smoother than 3.x/4e; lot more flow
+ Loved the ability to improvise (the rogue did this a lot)
+ Liked that you could not recover hp from rests at 0 hp (important when the dwarves dropped at various times)
+ Spell casters greatly enjoyed their at-wills. Nothing was abusively spammed from my POV.
o Everyone was fine with the level of healing. One healer was irked that the was no healing orison, however.
o Very easy to fudge things, but annoyed I had to sometimes (e.g., the abilities for mini-stack blocks were not present to I couldn't easily adjudicate saves w/o looking at the bestiary; my eye-ball estimates turned out to be pretty close)
o I did a mix of battle mat and theater of the mind (TotM, in this case, no drawing) for combat. Some like the ability to do TotM, others missed ability to pre-plan or felt they could miss something to easy.
- The wizard did not like Vancian magic. She generally played sorcerer type casters in 3E. Partially mitigated by her at-wills.
- Didn't like the nature of the adventure that made parley pretty much impossible.
Overall, we had a blast.
tl;dr version: We all enjoyed it. Only minor quibbles (none of them hp/rest or Reaper related).
Like [MENTION=11821]Obryn[/MENTION]'s playtest, our motivation was tongue-in-cheek: A group from the nearby village of Townsville was hired by caravaners to drive out the evil humanoids attacking their caravans. The king couldn't be bothered and the caravaners were looking for cheap (i.e., you get to keep what you find level of cheep). The group:
- Bin, the Dwarf Fighter (based upon the dwarf that became Demogorgon in our Savage Tide game)
- Sunny Dayes, Human Priest of Pelor
- S'kwisht Emp (Squish Temp), Elven Wizard
- Breye-an Blessed, Dwarven Cleric of Moradin
- Remy the Mute, Halfling Rogue
The group decided to explore the goblin caves first. The human priest used a torch with the halfling in front. While exploring the dead end, the goblins from the random encounter showed up from the west. The battle became protracted when reinforcements from the east and west appeared, some of them with ogre support. It turned into two battles: The two dwarves to the west, holding off six goblins and the ogre (and in the dark, so no one could see them), the rest in the center chamber post-entrance fighting six more. The goblins got in a few good shots with their short bows (with advantage as they were hidden in the darkness at range); the cleric's shield saved the fighter a few times until the ogre got wise and dropped the cleric with a few hits.
By this time, the fight had focused on the western group (the rest showing up), focusing on the ogre and ignoring the one goblin remaining. The ogre fell, with only the cleric of Moridin down. The group focused on goblin they had ignored, all missing. The goblin then went over to the fallen dwarf and tried to coup de grace him—missing by one. Once the group realized what was going on, they took the goblin more seriously (it died quickly after).
After healing and resting, the group searched the nearby guard room and found attached ogre cave. No one one its secret treasure, but they did find a lot of coin. The rogue and dwarf snuck up on the "sleeping" bear and "ended" it dramatically; the human priest made a very bad Wisdom check to realize that it wasn't dead all along and thought they had slain it valiantly. They then returned to the eastern branch, where goblins hid in waiting behind some furniture. The halfling and three goblins shoved the table granting them cover betwixt them until the halfling was buried under it; but the fight was over before it began. However, they were ambushed by more goblins while arguing over what to do with one that surrendered to them; more damage on advantage dropped the fighter. After killing the 3 reinforcements, the group decided to head back to Townsville to recuperate and interrogate their prisoner (the following day).
The next day (fully healed), the wizard attempted to use Comprehend language to interrogate the goblin. No one spoke Goblin, of course, so communicating to the goblin was difficult (I gave disadvantage on interaction checks). The eventually managed to find out in which direction the non-combatants and chieftain was. Emboldened with this information, the group headed out (donating the goblin as an "orphan" to the temple of the harvest god).
The group went through the ogre cave and the secret door, finding the replenished guard post. The battle was going the group's way until (hidden) reinforcements game. The dwarf fighter attempted to throw a lit object (a goblin's head) down the corridor, but was dropped by the hidden's group's readied volley. The battle then degenerated into a back-in-forth lighting and unlighting of the area (the goblins would throw back the light source, the group would toss in back in). Eventually, the reinforcements were taken care of and the fighter recovered.
Knowing the non-combantants down the other way, the dwarf cleric tried to communicate with them—but again, the language barrier was a problem. Plus, the goblins felt a little threatened with the non-combantants and all. When the dwarf when back to report, during the several minutes of arguing about what to do next, a smaller group snuck in and critted the priest with advantage, dropping him. The group took care of that group, then retreated back into town. The next time they return, the goblins will have fled, only having 7 goblins (other than the chief and his cohort) left.
Pros/Cons/etc.
+ Everyone though the combat went smoother than 3.x/4e; lot more flow
+ Loved the ability to improvise (the rogue did this a lot)
+ Liked that you could not recover hp from rests at 0 hp (important when the dwarves dropped at various times)
+ Spell casters greatly enjoyed their at-wills. Nothing was abusively spammed from my POV.
o Everyone was fine with the level of healing. One healer was irked that the was no healing orison, however.
o Very easy to fudge things, but annoyed I had to sometimes (e.g., the abilities for mini-stack blocks were not present to I couldn't easily adjudicate saves w/o looking at the bestiary; my eye-ball estimates turned out to be pretty close)
o I did a mix of battle mat and theater of the mind (TotM, in this case, no drawing) for combat. Some like the ability to do TotM, others missed ability to pre-plan or felt they could miss something to easy.
- The wizard did not like Vancian magic. She generally played sorcerer type casters in 3E. Partially mitigated by her at-wills.
- Didn't like the nature of the adventure that made parley pretty much impossible.
Overall, we had a blast.
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