Playtest Report

[Xeterog]

3 players, 1 dm (me)

Rolled stats--mostly.
1) Each player starts with a 16 and an 8
2) roll 4 more stats (4d6 drop lowest)
3) If the highest of the 4 rolls was less than 16, replace it with the 16 (from 1) and re-roll
4) If the lowest of the 4 rolls was less than 8, replace it with the 8 (from 1) and re-roll

(after thinking more about it, perhaps I should replace the 'Less than 16' with 'more than 16'..as often the re-roll on a 15 came out lower)

Player 1 played a Hill Dwarf Figher(sharpshooter) Spy/Archer. Was good in HTH with a great axe or ranged with a longbow. Wore medium armor due to having a dex bonus as a figher.

Player 2 played a Human Rogue(thug) Thug/Thief/Magic-user. Could get sneak attack and used shocking grasp alot--basically an arcane trickster. Glass Cannon.

Player 3 played a Human Cleric(Sun) Priest/Healer. basically the medic and ranged damage.

I ran the Reclaiming Blingdenstone adventure slightly modified. I had the party be hired by someone who was hired by the gnomes to do the trading mission (#6), but not tell the party that they were really working for the deep gnomes (thus avoiding a complication if the trading city found out they were working for the deep gnomes). On the way to the trade city, a random encounter almost derailed the adventure at the start--they ran into a TROLL!! It was not an easy fight (I had previously given some monsters an attack roll boost--in the Trolls case this was a +1 to his Attack bonus (not damage). No surprise and the Troll went 1st. He walked up and tried to intimidate the cleric--made a contested roll, str (troll) vs Wis (cleric) and failed. There is not a charge option in the play test rules, so the troll could not get into melee range on the 1st turn. After this, it was a slug fest, but the party came out on top, barely--the dwarf was down and almost dead, while the rogue had spent a turn unconcious himself. No fire attacks, but after they finally got the troll down, they stuffed torches in it's face until it died.

The rest of the trip was uneventfull. Spent time exploring the Trading post and finding out what was needed and who wanted what, spent the night and left the next day. Only to be ambushed by 6 Hobgoblins and 2 Bugbears (the Noble drow's body guard). Tho all the bugbears did was sit at the back and throw large javelins for 3 rounds. Overall, this was not a hard fight for the PC's, tho they did sweat a little (but after the troll, everything else seemed easier . On the way, the party leveled up to level 2 (troll and 6 Hobgoblins...not to mention the trading session).

Got to Blingdenstone without further incident. They learned a little about what was going on, and decided to go clear out the House center. On they way, they helped out some at the infirmary, then proceeded to the house center.

2 Zombies amble out the house, and were cut down at range. The party went in the east entrance. Following the left hand rule, they ran into some centipedes that were no threat at all (one point of damage to the dwarf). They then found the old statue, and eventually ran right into the BBEG throne room (wight, 2 zombies and 2 Skeletons). This was a decent fight, as the cleric's turn undead only affected one zombine and one skeleton. The Wight was 'bloodied' on the 1st hit, but somehow still managed to get his swings in. 1st draining the cleric of some HP (got 1 back as he rolled min damage). while the skeltons and Zombies advanced and engaged the party as well. The Wight decided to try and take the cleric with him next round, as he was at 4 hp and even if he drained some, he knew the next hit would take him out, so he multi-attacked the cleric, almost killing her. Sure enough, the next hit took out the wight. All enemies were dispatched in 2 more rounds, but the cleric failed her 2nd death save, and rolled a 6--which would have killed her, but I ruled that if the other party members could get a potion of healing to her by the end of their next turn, she would be restored to 0hp (but alive, not dead)..which was no problem as the combat was over and the rogue was already standing over her.

They continue exploring, soon finding a room with a pit trap in it. The rogue triggers it and there is a grey ooze down there! The dwarf figher reasons (without making a roll), that the ooze will be resistant to piercing (arrows) and Slashing (great axe) damage, so takes out a tourch and lights it (I ruled this took an action--either one by itself would not, but both surely rates an action). Rogue uses shocking grasp (surely this counts as a magic weapon), while the cleric radiant lances. The Ooze misses, and it only takes a few rounds to dispatch it. (the torch was at 1d6-2 damage by the end). Before they got far searching the empty room, the 3 skeletons attack from the guard room and are easily dispatched.

More exploring, and the party eventually find the secret store room and fight some stirges, not taking any damage from them....Oh, before that the main entrance where they quickly killed 4 fire beetles.

return to the leader of Blingdensone and call it a night.

So, starting about 5pm, we began character creation. This took about 2.5 hours (some delays happened, but still not too bad with 3 players that had not read any of the playtest info before). Then 4 hours (~8pm to midnight) to get thru 2 of the 'missions' in the adventure.

Fights:
Troll
6 hobgoblins / 2 bugbears (bugbears ran away after round 3)
2 zombies
5 Giant Centipedes
1 wight, 2 skeletons, 2 Zombies
1 grey Ooze
3 Skeletons
4 Fire Beetles
12 Stirges

Interactions
about an hour or so in the trade city
30 min of finding out what could be done at Blingdenstone

Dwarf fell once (vs troll)
Rogue was down twice I think (vs troll and hobgoblins)
cleric down once (vs wight)

9 combat encounters and effectively one skill challenge (the trade city)..in 4 hours. Not bad

Combat was very swingy..either it was tough (Troll vs 3 1st level PC's) or a extreme cake walk (centipedes/stirges). A couple of fights had some true treat level (Troll, Hobgoblins, Wight), but not many.

Made it to level 3 at the end of the night, but I don't know if we will be able to play test again with these PC's any time in the near future.

 

[slobster]

How was the thief in practice? Did skill mastery come up enough that the player noticed/appreciated it? How often did sneak attack get off, and so on?

 

[Xeterog]

I think mastery helped a bit, and was noticed. I did rule that since it was a 3 person party, with 2 players focused on ranged, that the 'thug' ability would let him get advantage (and thus SA) if he could get into a flanking position. I would guess that he got sneak attack on about half of his attacks--tho often it really didn't matter as the HP's of most creatures they met were so low.

the Rogue did feel very much like a glass cannon--with low HP (7 to start, and rolled a 1 at level 2, for 9 hp at level 2), no armor (can't cast spells in armor, and he used shocking grasp and mage hand all the time), meant his AC was not spectacular (13). I think he went down at least 3 times (in the troll fight, the hobgoblins and one other--probably the wight fight), and many times a higher damage roll would have knocked him down as well.

 

[Kobold Stew]

2), no armor (can't cast spells in armor, and he used shocking grasp and mage hand all the time), meant his AC was not spectacular (13).

I don't want to derail the thread, but where does it say in the playtest packet that you cant cast spells in armor?


p.s. great playtest report!

 

[Xeterog]

classes, wizard class. Level 1: Arcane magic, Casting a Spell. last sentence.

"You cannot cast wizard spells while wearing armor."

 

[Kobold Stew]

classes, wizard class. Level 1: Arcane magic, Casting a Spell. last sentence.

"You cannot cast wizard spells while wearing armor."

Thanks. I had read that as excluding cantrips -- that "minor spells" were a different thing (separate heading on p. 18 of how to play; on par with rituals), and a separate class feature for wizards.

The absence of the qualifier in the discussion of spells in How to Play made me think that it was a factor of being a Wizard (note that some Sorcerers do cast with armor, depending on heritage).

Hmm.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

How did the new mechanic for moving in combat actually work out (attack of opportunities AND granting advantage)?

 

[Xeterog]

not bad. Monsters didn't live long enough (usually) for it to make a difference really, but the PC's moved a few times drawing Opportunity attacks.

Tho, in reading it, I think I might have run it wrong--as the rules say when you are leaving the reach of a creature...so technically moving within a creatures reach shouldn't trigger it..nor should it get triggered when approaching someone with greater than 5' reach (both of which we did in the playtest).

I really like the advantage mechanic over all and it seems perfect for OA's as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

Tho, in reading it, I think I might have run it wrong--as the rules say when you are leaving the reach of a creature...so technically moving within a creatures reach shouldn't trigger it..nor should it get triggered when approaching someone with greater than 5' reach (both of which we did in the playtest).

Very good point! I think you should definitely report this to WotC when you send your feedback, because IMHO this is a typical thing that has the risk of not getting proper clean explanation in the printed books if everybody at WotC don't notice that some groups may assume how it works from previous editions of the game.

I have understood that OA were now only for exiting someone's threatened areas / moving out of reach, because the purpose of OA is currently to give a penalty for disengaging from combat.

But is it really? I think the scenario complaint for in the first playtesting round (i.e. without OA) was not running away but rather "running past the enemy front line to attack those in the back". This tactic is not completely punished by the current OA rules, unless the front line is far away enough from the back line.

Think for instance a large creature (e.g. ogre or giant) that has 10ft reach. In order to protect an ally on the back (e.g. evil wizard) the two must be separated at least 15ft, otherwise you can get close and attack the wizard without exiting the ogre's reach. Oddly enough, the larger someone's reach, the easier to get some distance past them (OTOH with the Disengage movement option these problems become generally less relevant). Weird...

I'm raising this up against myself, because I am going to absolutely hate any further complication to the OA rules. I just wanted to point out that people used to how things worked in previous editions may have assumptions on what the current rules say when they not, and WotC needs to keep an eye on this... open playtesting is a great chance to lessen the usual avalanche of FAQ and errata later on.