They have a cave troll (ogre)... [Playtest Report]

[CM]

Thanks for the kind words, all.

Try adding opportunity attacks for the fighter at least. (Could be a class feature!) Look how it plays out.

Also it seems, as if your players would be happier at level 2:

- rogue gets nightvision
- a second channel divinity for your clerics

Main features are spread over 2 levels. The first big theme thing comes at level 3. I remember, that core abilitites are spread out over the first few levels. So another idea, would just be letting everyone level up to 2nd level. Now you have better healing available and one more hd. 1st level has always been very grindy. And your players were doing way more than expected for 1st level. So the adventuring day was 15 minutes for that reason.

For the playtest I think we're going to play it straight, IE no houserules. We did realize what everybody got at higher levels so the complaints weren't too loud. I wonder what is going to stop many 5e characters from dipping into one level of rogue to get skill mastery--that is a pretty powerful ability.

Did you remember Skill Mastery? If a Rogue rolls less than 10 on the die for a skill they're trained in, it counts as a 10. That's what makes Rogues the great skill-monkeys, is that they can't ever really botch a skill check for a skill they're trained in.

Yeah we caught that immediately after combat started, and it was used for later rounds.

in the find and remove traps, -finding- the traps is listed as wisdom (i.e. like perception) but -removing- the traps doesn't explicitly call it out, so (like any other skill) the DM can decide what skill is appropriate for the type of trap it is, and i'm inclined to believe that it would usually be a dex check (plus the rogue's bonus)

(that of course, goes with the caveat that i may have missed something in the rules, so don't hold me to that as law )

Right, it doesn't suggest what stat to use, unlike most other common tasks. Since open locks is dexterity I would assume disabling traps would be the same, but I'd like it called out.

It is also strange why the ranged laser cleric has touch healing and the melee dwarf cleric got ranged healing. I would have expected the other way around, with the later usually being in the thick of melee.

Probably because cure light takes an action and healing word does not (so the melee priest can still get his attack in). I can almost see this guy picking up the familiar feat so he has a familiar to deliver his touch spells...

 

[jadrax]

Right, it doesn't suggest what stat to use, unlike most other common tasks. Since open locks is dexterity I would assume disabling traps would be the same, but I'd like it called out.

I believe, some (if not all) of the trap write ups tell you it is Dex to disarm them.

 

[CM]

I believe, some (if not all) of the trap write ups tell you it is Dex to disarm them.

Which document are these in? I know the adventure has two traps written up but didn't see any others (other than disarm DCs in the DM document) in the playtest materials so far.

 

[CM]

Oh, one more comment:

I realize that the spell AOE descriptions are written as they are for the purpose of gridless combat, but I believe most of us (in my group) would like the 4e templates of bursts and blasts to be an option at least. If they don't show up, we will write them back in as houserules (should we ever switch to 5e). I do miss the line however, and would like to have that back.

 

[jadrax]

Which document are these in? I know the adventure has two traps written up but didn't see any others (other than disarm DCs in the DM document) in the playtest materials so far.

Mmm, I could have sworn I saw one. I must have dreamt it apparently.

 

[DogBackward]

Oh, one more comment:

I realize that the spell AOE descriptions are written as they are for the purpose of gridless combat, but I believe most of us (in my group) would like the 4e templates of bursts and blasts to be an option at least. If they don't show up, we will write them back in as houserules (should we ever switch to 5e). I do miss the line however, and would like to have that back.

They're not specifically designed for gridless. Before 4e, these were the same types of measurements used for the battlemaps. We didn't have any problems then.

 

[MortalPlague]

Did you use the freedom to move around the armored fighters to attack the wizard? If not, you just didn't do what OAs are for to avoid.
Which players (by class) found the lack of OAs refreshing?

My players were quite good at setting up a two-man block to prevent that, so there were only one or two cases where something moved past to attack the squishies.

The players who liked it were playing the wizard, the fighter, and the rogue, and it was purely because of the speed of play and the streamlined nature of things. OAs tend to shut down movement, because most people would just stand still rather than risk the OA.

 

[Iron Sky]

Could be a cool fighter feature that instead of getting an OA, maybe and creature that started its turn adjacent to them was disadvantaged attacking anything else. Uses the nifty new disadvantage rules without requiring any extra rolls that interrupt what's going on...

Edit: Actually, you could give fighter's OAs as a feature/feat/whatever and just have a rule something like:

If a creature moves while within the reach of an enemy and attacks a different enemy, they suffer disadvantage on their attack.

 

[Walking Dad]

They're not specifically designed for gridless. Before 4e, these were the same types of measurements used for the battlemaps. We didn't have any problems then.

You are right, but for grid play, cubic forms are much easier to use than circles. I would like the cubes as an optional rule at least.