D&D General Session Zero and Nobody Chose a Spellcaster

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I've found that magical healing isn't all that critical in 5e. Short rests can take care of most HP loss, and with so many martials the enemies should go down before they have time to do too much damage.

The biggest issue is going to be lack of utility spells like Detect Magic, Fly, Mage Hand, various teleportation effects and the like. Magic items can pick up much of the slack if you find the right ones.

 

[CleverNickName]

Out of curiosity, which published AP is your DM modifying? I might have more specific suggestions if it's one that I've run or played.

She wouldn't say. It's probably not Storm King's Thunder, since a couple of us have already played that one in other gaming groups, but it could be any of them.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've had groups with no casters, it worked fine. You may be spending more on potions but it's not a big deal, especially since they're now a bonus action to drink.

We're playing 5E 2014 rules, so drinking a potion is still an action.

But yeah, I think we're going to be just fine. We will just need to carry extra potions.

 

[Richards]

The 3.5 campaign I'm currently running is a party of five casters: human bard/rogue, elf sorcerer, half-orc cleric/paladin, dwarf cleric, and human fighter/wizard/spellsword/eldritch knight. It's been pretty different than the other campaigns I've run - to the best of my memory, this is the first time everyone at the table's been able to have their PC cast spells.

Johnathan

 

[ezo]

But yeah, I think we're going to be just fine. We will just need to carry extra potions.

If anyone takes the Healer feat that will help a lot as well. I remember my first 5E game and we had no healer, but one PC had the Healer feat so that was super useful!

 

[TwoSix]

Yea, the only real pain point is the lack of healing word to do bonus action stand up. If the DM doesn’t tweak the adventurer, you’ll probably start to notice the lack of area control/area damage deeper into Tier 2.

 

[CleverNickName]

We've been exchanging email ever since last night's session zero.

We got some clarification on what she meant by "adventure path with modifications." She's going to be running Princes of the Apocalypse, with parts of Rime of the Frost Maiden and other side-quests added in as well. (That bit about how we all met and learned to work together, the tavern being destroyed by a storm? Yeah, that was foreshadowing.) She wanted to pad the material out a bit so that it would take us to almost 20th level. So when she said "with modifications," she meant that certain pieces of the story would be expanded and others might be shuffled around...not that she would be tailoring the AP to our characters or party composition. "I plan to run things as-written, just in a different order."

Folks here might get a chuckle out of this, too. One of the players asked, "are you going to put extra magic items in the game for us, since we don't have any spellcasters?" Her reply: "We've been playing together for years, you don't need me to hold your hand."

She kind of has a point. She did her part at Session Zero: she told us the rules we would be playing, the resources that would be available to us, and the campaign setting we would be adventuring in. We took that information, understood it, and then (perhaps unwisely) decided to roll up a party of characters that doesn't cast spells. We chose a difficult path, but that was our choice to make and she's here for it.

 

[Scribe]

Folks here might get a chuckle out of this, too. One of the players asked, "are you going to put extra magic items in the game for us, since we don't have any spellcasters?" Her reply: "We've been playing together for years, you don't need me to hold your hand."

Choices.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Has this ever happened to you?

Certainly had parties with no full casters (if you don't include warlocks). Current one in fact. I think some players are daunted by learning what the spells do.

Any advice for a group of martials?

As DM, I've found I need to lower the difficulty level a bit, and be generous with magic items. Not having Detect Magic can be a major issue.

 

[CleverNickName]

(Also just got told "no" on the Giant subclass for my barbarian. But that's alright; ever since I learned we're running PotA, I've been leaning more toward Storm Herald anyway.)