D&D 5E Ran Defiance in Phlan Tonight

[DMZ2112]

the short answer is that yeah, 500 GP is a lot of money (to anyone but an adventurer or someone paying an adventurer).

Okay, this wasn't terribly helpful.

Going by the costs of a daily inn stay in the Basic Rules, and assuming that they've got about a 50% profit margin, a craftsman living modestly in town in your baseline D&D setting lives on about four silvers a day. If you assume his income includes another silver for taxes and savings, 500 gold represents 1,000 days of steady earnings. If you tipped this guy a single gold piece he wouldn't freak out, but he'd be impressed by the generosity.

 

[Andor]

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.

That feat actually provides a lot of cheap healing. I don't know that it would be considered a poor feat choice.

Personally I stripped the medicine skill out of my game. It's completely overshadowed by a 5gp item, or a cantrip. Useless, especially compared to the herbalism kit proficiency. At low levels at best its plus 2 to a dc 10 check. At high levels its going to be completely eclipsed by 5 gp healers kits and 50gp potions.

I also drop nature as being merely survival light.

 

[SigmaOne]

That feat actually provides a lot of cheap healing. I don't know that it would be considered a poor feat choice.

Personally I stripped the medicine skill out of my game. It's completely overshadowed by a 5gp item, or a cantrip. Useless, especially compared to the herbalism kit proficiency. At low levels at best its plus 2 to a dc 10 check. At high levels its going to be completely eclipsed by 5 gp healers kits and 50gp potions.

I also drop nature as being merely survival light.

Yeah, I think the Healer feat is a great one. It especially goes a decent way toward helping parties get by without clerics. Specifically, you (a) can bring a party member to 1hp instead of 0hp when you stabilize, which is huge in battle; since it saves an action (especially if the fallen/healed PC has their own healing potion or spell), and (b) can provide a small amount of healing once per target per short rest (not necessarily during short rest), using the Healing kit. So, this is totally handy. Especially in parties where auxiliary healers like paladins, rangers, etc fill in for not having a cleric.

I love the idea of a Surgeon's Kit, which provides a little bit more healing. I'd say you have to have the Healer feat to use it (otherwise you'll drop the appeal of the Healer feat somewhat), and it can be used only during a short or long rest, and only once per target per long rest. If I recall correctly and the healer's kit gives 1d6 with the Healer feat, I'd say this gives something like 1d8 + PROF. If healer's kit gives more, then I'd bump this up a bit.

 

[Nemio]

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

I was wondering about that myself.
Do you presume the PC's know everything about a monster and explain it to your players?
(Sneaky Goblins = Disengage, Bugbear = extra damage, etc.)

How do you handle this?

 

[Archade]

Well, I figure for the most part players will learn through playing -- after a few encounters with goblins, they will know what to expect.

That being said, if they run into an odd squiggly-faced monster, I might have a DC10 or DC15 check to identify it ('it's a yugoloth! A foul beast of the abyss known for it's mind controlling powers'), but not much beyond that.

I'm thinking this is an opportunity to return to the idea of AD&D player mastery of the game. After all, if the player knows that the creature has resistance to all but silver weapons, that means they have invested time and energy to the game -- in my old age, I don't see the big deal over this ...

I was wondering about that myself.
Do you presume the PC's know everything about a monster and explain it to your players?
(Sneaky Goblins = Disengage, Bugbear = extra damage, etc.)

How do you handle this?

 

[Archade]

Thinking about this more, I'm all for the idea of a surgeon's kit for 100 gp, which grants 10 uses to heal 1d4 during a short or long rest. I'd then go further and allow a surgery which would be basically a lab/room/building that would cost 1,000gp to outfit and allow unlimited uses of the surgeon's kit, and the ability to remove maximum hit point reductions, impairments, etc with a successful Medicine check.

I'm also thinking of allowing things like smithys that would allow a crafter to make 10gp or 15gp a day, or libraries that would allow advantage on arcana or history checks when used over an hour or more. Nothing too crunchy, just thinking of ways to tie the characters to the world, and give them reasons to build alliances with established lords, churches, guilds, etc.

I love the idea of a Surgeon's Kit, which provides a little bit more healing. I'd say you have to have the Healer feat to use it (otherwise you'll drop the appeal of the Healer feat somewhat), and it can be used only during a short or long rest, and only once per target per long rest. If I recall correctly and the healer's kit gives 1d6 with the Healer feat, I'd say this gives something like 1d8 + PROF. If healer's kit gives more, then I'd bump this up a bit.

 

[zoroaster100]

How did you like the adventure, Defiance in Phlan? Was it fun? Is it going to be available for purchase eventually like Murder in Baldur's Gate and others?

 

[JoeCrow]

Yeah, I think the Healer feat is a great one. It especially goes a decent way toward helping parties get by without clerics. Specifically, you (a) can bring a party member to 1hp instead of 0hp when you stabilize, which is huge in battle; since it saves an action (especially if the fallen/healed PC has their own healing potion or spell), and (b) can provide a small amount of healing once per target per short rest (not necessarily during short rest), using the Healing kit. So, this is totally handy. Especially in parties where auxiliary healers like paladins, rangers, etc fill in for not having a cleric.

I love the idea of a Surgeon's Kit, which provides a little bit more healing. I'd say you have to have the Healer feat to use it (otherwise you'll drop the appeal of the Healer feat somewhat), and it can be used only during a short or long rest, and only once per target per long rest. If I recall correctly and the healer's kit gives 1d6 with the Healer feat, I'd say this gives something like 1d8 + PROF. If healer's kit gives more, then I'd bump this up a bit.

Healer's Kit with the Healer feat gives 1d6+4, plus additional hp equal to target's max hit dice. I dunno about having the Surgeon's Kit be feat-dependent (not everybody's gonna be using feats, after all), but I'm also not sure how to balance it.

 

[Mandragola]

Something odd I found with the lost mines was having one of the pre-generated characters be a former member of the redbrands. It seemed reasonable that he'd have been to their hideout in the town at least a few times since that's where they all hang out, and that he'd therefore know his way around the place - or at least the way to the barracks without triggering traps and things like that. It specifically mentions that they use the second entrance a lot for sneaky stuff so all the redbrands should know about that too.

Did anyone else find that a tricky thing to DM? It was kind of interesting for me and I definitely don't think it spoiled it, but it was interesting to have a PC who was a former "monster".