D&D 5E Ran Defiance in Phlan Tonight

[Archade]

So, I've run the first bit of Lost Mines of Phandelver for two different groups, and now the first two chapters of Defiance in Phlan for a third group ... I'm getting more comfortable DM'ing this edition ...

Here's what I've noticed:

* I'm calling for on the fly ability checks that aren't hard-wired into the adventure (dancing over a tripwire in th heat of combat? Make a Dex-Acrobatics check)

* Not knowing whether rerolls on skills are allowed is nagging at the back of my brain, but I'm allowing it with a secret cumulative +2 to the DC ...

* Bugbears are bad news!

* Next time I'm out dice shopping, I'm buying spell dice and inspiration dice to hand out ...

* No, we aren't doing knowledge checks for monsters any more ...

* Healing kits and the medicine skill should really do more ... house ruling something ...

* I've no sense of economic scale ... is 500 gp a lot? What can they buy with it? Without magic items, I may put some high end mundane gear into my world. Maybe some power components for spells. Thinking about it.

* 1st level characters are squishy.

* That being said, leveling up is too quick for my taste ... I will be slowing it down to 1/3 progression. 1st level adventures in my game will need to give xp for traps or social challenges so someone makes it to 2nd level ...

That's it so far.

Cheers!

 

[TheGorramBatman]

* Next time I'm out dice shopping, I'm buying spell dice and inspiration dice to hand out ...

I recommend not for the Inspiration Dice. Handing out something is good (people forget otherwise), I used poker chips at first.

However it inevitably came back to "...wait, can I use this for that? Huh? What can I..." over and over. I swear bard dice have been the most consistent interruptions to my game flow in 5th.

So instead, 3x5 cards.

Hello! I am a 3x5 card!
I represent [Bard's Name]'s Bardic Inspiration.
I only last 10 minutes.
I can be used on the following rolls:
**Ability Check
**Hit Rolls
**Saving Throws
[More if Valor Bard]

When you want to use me, please hand me back to [Bard's Name], say thank you,
and then roll a [appropriate dice] along with the d20 for the check!

I love you


Cheap, easy to hand out, and has all of the relevant information. No more game speed bumps every time someone asks "Wait, Bard dice? Can I use this to..." and then grabs a book. Make sure to dot all the i's with little hearts.

 

[fjw70]

In my first session of the adventure two of the three PCs were killed by the bugbear, including awizard with 3 hp being critted for 27 points.

 

[mips42]

I've not had the opportunity to Live GM 5e yet, hoping to get the chance soon.
In that spirit, Medicine checks are for stabilization of the dying and if, by 'Healing Kit' you mean the Healers' kit:
Healer’s Kit. This kit is a leather pouch containing
bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As
an action, you can expend one use of the kit to stabilize
a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make
a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Then, in my opinion, an auto-succeed on a Medicine check seems about right for a non-magical item. About the only way I might tweak it is that, instead of a auto-succeed, it grants Advantage on a Medicine check which, in pure game terms, makes it weaker.
Maybe you could rename it to Medicine Kit so that it feels more like what it really is?

Play on and have fun!

 

[fba827]

So, I've run the first bit of Lost Mines of Phandelver for two different groups, and now the first two chapters of Defiance in Phlan for a third group ... I'm getting more comfortable DM'ing this edition ...

Hope you're having fun!

* Healing kits and the medicine skill should really do more ... house ruling something ...

I am speaking from memory so I void be wrong but I think there is a feat that improves those

* That being said, leveling up is too quick for my taste ... I will be slowing it down to 1/3 progression. 1st level adventures in my game will need to give xp for traps or social challenges so someone makes it to 2nd level ...

I believe leveling after the apprentice tier slow down greater so after you pass these initial few levels it will slow down on it's own

Anyway I love seeing reports on peoples play and dm experiences so far. Thanks for sharing

 

[Archade]

After sleeping on it, I'm thinking of adding a more expensive 'surgeon's kit' that has 10 uses but restores 1d4 hit points with a short rest. If I make it 100 gp it's just a poor man's bag of inferior cure wound potions ...

 

[DMZ2112]

So, I've run the first bit of Lost Mines of Phandelver for two different groups, and now the first two chapters of Defiance in Phlan for a third group ... I'm getting more comfortable DM'ing this edition ...

Awesome!

* Not knowing whether rerolls on skills are allowed is nagging at the back of my brain, but I'm allowing it with a secret cumulative +2 to the DC ...

I don't see why not, so long as you note that time has passed between and during the checks. Sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't.

* Bugbears are bad news!

My party has actually debated whether it was /safe/ to tie up a bugbear rather than just have someone guard him at swordpoint, because were he to break or slip his bonds he might get a surprise attack and one-shot somebody.

* I've no sense of economic scale ... is 500 gp a lot? What can they buy with it? Without magic items, I may put some high end mundane gear into my world. Maybe some power components for spells. Thinking about it.

The word from the Adventurers League organizers is that gold rewards are large and unregulated right now because, and I quote, "Gold is worthless in 5th Edition." I don't really agree -- I think that's a reaction to how important gold was in D&D4, when you could easily buy powerful magic items, and it's kind of a dangerous attitude in a campaign where the PCs might actually try to do something like /buy a town/ -- but the short answer is that yeah, 500 GP is a lot of money (to anyone but an adventurer or someone paying an adventurer).

* 1st level characters are squishy.

Yeh-heh-heh-hesss.

 

[Syntallah]

< snip >

* Healing kits and the medicine skill should really do more ... house ruling something ...

< snip >

I allow a Medicine check of [DC 20] to mirror the effect of the downed player rolling a natural 20 (i.e. they are revived at 1hp).

a) it rewards the character who is skilled in medicine, and the player who takes time out during battle to help a downed ally
b) it gets the player of that downed character back in the game instead of just watching

 

[TheGorramBatman]

After sleeping on it, I'm thinking of adding a more expensive 'surgeon's kit' that has 10 uses but restores 1d4 hit points with a short rest. If I make it 100 gp it's just a poor man's bag of inferior cure wound potions ...

I don't have my book handy at the moment, but isn't there a feat which revolves around making the medicine kit more effective? Have you considered making that baseline with a couple modifications? Maybe that feat's healing can only be used once after each encounter. It isn't like anyone is ever going to take that feat otherwise.

Healing like this is really an issue for low level parties. A 100gp solution isn't a low level solution.

 

[doctorhook]

* 1st level characters are squishy.

* That being said, leveling up is too quick for my taste ... I will be slowing it down to 1/3 progression. 1st level adventures in my game will need to give xp for traps or social challenges so someone makes it to 2nd level ...

I think your post is mostly spot-on with my own experience, but I just wanted to reply to these two points.

With regards to 1st-level HP, I'm thinking of allowing characters to just start with their 2nd- or 3rd-level max HP total (depending on what the average level of the party is). They'll still only have 1 hit die per level (i.e.: 1 hit dice at 1st level), but they'll start with higher HP. When they level-up, they'll get another hit die, but not any more HP for the time being. This way the characters aren't really getting any extra HP in the long run, they just have them a bit earlier.

As for leveling-speed, be careful! Levels 1 and 2 are designed to progress quickly, but 3rd and beyond aren't! Be mindful of this if you triple the XP for levels 1 and 2.