To Everyone Concerned About The Mechanical Balance Of The Playtest Materials

[FireLance]

I think it would be good for everyone to bear in mind this snippet of boxed text on page 2 of the Caves of Chaos adventure:

What Is This Adventure Testing?

The Caves of Chaos isn't meant to be a hard test of the play balance between player characters (PCs) and monsters. That process is a continuing one as we refine the rules for monsters, characters and encounter building. Although you should keep an eye on how elements of the rules interact, this adventure is intended to explore how well the rules support different styles of play.

...

Do the rules allow you the freedom to play the Dungeons and Dragons (r) game way you like? How about the adventure? What elements of it didn't work out? What things did you change to suit your taste?

So the focus of this playtest isn't really on whether the fighter is boring, or whether an ogre has too many hit points, or what the effects of the medusa's petrifying gaze should be.

A better question, for the purpose of this playtest, could be: the medusa's treasure contains an elixir that can restore up to six petrified creatures to normal. Should the PCs be able to revive their petrified comrades so easily after defeating the medusa?

 

[slobster]

I think the best questions to answer are even more abstract.

Did you have fun? Were you able to do the kinds of things you want to do in an RPG? If contributing in combat is important in your group, did everyone feel that they did so? If the ability to improvise and come up with out-of-the-box solutions is an important part of what you want from D&D, did the playtest packet give your players and your GM the tools they need to do this?

If the playtest fell short in any of these areas, what kinds of changes would you like to see to make it better?