D&D 5E Second Basic Game: Guiding Bolt 2, Crossbow Bolt 0

[FireLance]

My gaming group got together again last weekend to play a second Basic game (my write-up of our first game is here).

Due to the fact that my DM increased the apparent challenge (and most likely, the actual challenge) of each fight, my character, The Sage (see linked thread for explanation), was more prepared to spend limited resources and felt more cleric-y as a result. This happened about once every fight, which was quite a nice outcome.

The first fight, which took place after we arrived at the town where our client's uncle's house was located, was against nine thugs, including one leader-type. The Sage spent a healing word on The Soldier as he was injured quite badly by the leader. After the fight, we learned from a surviving thug that the attacks had been organized by an apprentice of the client's uncle. We then decided to take an extended rest (while waiting for nightfall) and look up the apprentice before taking the client to his uncle's house.

We then went to the inn where the apprentice was staying and the second fight began after The Folk Hero unlocked the room door. The Sage cast a guiding bolt which killed the apprentice's quasit familiar, and the apprentice himself fell to The Criminal's magic missile, The Soldier's Action Surge, and The Folk Hero's Sneak Attack before he could even act.

The uncle's house was apparently abandoned, but when the party walked through the gate, we got attacked by two animated statues. Guessing (correctly, as it turned out) that the statues had high ACs, The Sage cast bless on The Soldier, The Folk Hero, and The Criminal, and spent the rest of the fight casting sacred flame.

The fourth fight was literally over in one action. Walking through the door, the party encountered a skeletal dragon. The Sage rolled really well for initiative, used Turn Undead, and the skeletal dragon failed the saving throw. The party pressed on before the turning wore off.

The final fight was also over fast. In the next room, we discovered the client's uncle, who had turned into an undead spellcaster. He managed to cast one hold person (which The Soldier successfully saved against) before the party's attacks brought him down. The Sage landed the final shot with a second guiding bolt.

Unfortunately, all this accomplished was to enable the uncle to possess the client, hop onto the skeletal dragon and fly away.

What struck me about this game was how short some of the fights were. The fights against the apprentice, the skeletal dragon and the undead spellcaster uncle were effectively over in one round of game time. I know some would consider this an unmitigated positive, but I have mixed feelings about it as I did enjoy the ebb and flow of combat in 4e.

Anyhow, we will be levelling up the PCs to 3rd level, and playing again this weekend.

(To be continued ...)

 

[Thaumaturge]

Looks like you had fun.

And you felt you were actually playing a spellcaster this time, which is nice.

We have definitely noticed Turn Undead is powerful in the right situations. If your group had wanted to fight the dragon, it wouldn't have been a big deal. When you want to avoid fighting a big, solo, undead, the ability if amazing.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Tormyr]

I found that if you wanted epic fights in the playtest, you had to throw more monsters at the party, not stronger monsters. I have been running Age of Worms, a 3.0/3.5 campaign, in the playtest and now a 5e playtest mix until the PHB comes out. Solo enemies go down in a round or two. A group of 6 level 3 PCs took down a giant carniverous ape in a couple rounds while their resources were depleted and they were trying to do a short rest and the cleric was in the corner trying to do a prayer of healing (a 10 minute spell). I imagine as we continue that the balance will shift with the adjusted 5e monsters.

The next encounter included them fighting 2 clerics at their level plus a level 5 or 6 cleric. Plus a bunch of level 2 Tiefling guards. This fight went the distance, and the PCs were close to falling while killing off some of the enemies. They still had not gotten a short rest. What saved them in the end was that the Tiefling Wizard had earlier charmed one of the Tiefling guards and flirted with her before she was hauled off by her allies. She broke free and attacked from behind. This evened things up just enough that another of the clerics fell. The final cleric of Hextor was about to heal himself up when the Paladin of Heironeous blurted out, "I peed on your god," which he had this threw him into a rage, and he attacked instead of healing. He fell shortly thereafter. The guards were convinced by the Tiefling wizard to surrender.

The point of that blurb is to say that the party was stretched an additional encounter beyond what they felt comfortable doing. They couldn't really expect to rest in the Temple of Hextor while they were clearing it out anyway. If the players know that they will be stretched, they will be less likely to do the 5e equivalent of "blowing their daily" at the first sign of trouble. PCs that are not fully rested will take much longer to finish off an enemy.

Also, take a look at encounter building Legends and Lore from last week. That should help make sure that you have enough on the table to challenge your players. I have had several encounters where I blinked and went, "That's it?", but I have also had plenty that took the party to the brink where they rallied and came back. You will find the balance you like.

EDIT: Sorry, I lost track that you were a player and not the DM. As an aside, I took a look at the level 1 Guiding bolt doing 4d6 plus granting advantage and went, "Holy crap."