Lord Vangarel
First Post
In a change from our regular game we decided to give 5th Edition Basic a try last night to try out the rules. Generally speaking we had a blast.
The party consisted of four characters, a Mountain Dwarf Fighter, a High Elf Wizard, a Human Cleric, and a Lightfoot Halfling Rogue. Character creation was done from scratch using 4d6 drop the lowest (preferred method of the group) with the only proviso being we'd be creating 3rd level characters. My only insistence as DM was that every character was different. What I would say about the character creation is it took quite a while. Maybe it was because we're unfamiliar with the system or because we generated 3rd level characters but it took just under 2 hours to get everything done. Each character picked a different background and then we had a quick review of the rules, we've all played D&D from many years but I just wanted to review them for differences.
Once the characters were created we didn't have a great deal of time left so I just threw the characters into a fight against some goblins, orcs, and an orog. I used the encounter building guidelines from the latest L&L and allowed the players to select the level of difficulty so they chose moderate with an XP budget of 440XP. I decided to use the monsters from the pdf that was on here a few days ago and quickly determined that the encounter consisted of 11 goblins, 3 orcs, and the orog leader. It seemed a high number, even for 3rd level characters so I had visions of a TPK which wouldn't be a good start.
Anyway the first thing was to determine surprise for the party, as the goblin group was waiting to ambush them. Only the fighter avoided surprise and he won initiative so acted first shooting a goblin with his bow and killing it. Because of my fear of a TPK I decided to introduce the bad guys in waves. The first consisted of 3 goblin archers so with two left they returned fire but missed. One thing I did note was the pc's AC is considerably better than the monsters in the pdf. We discussed it afterwards and all thought as a group it's not such a big problem.
With the combat now joined properly the fight started with the second wave of monsters and 6 more goblins. The party won initiative again (we prefer to roll every round as it adds some unpredictability to fights) and the rogue shot at one of the goblin archers but missed, he then moved behind cover. The dwarf fighter dashed to the goblins and attacked but missed, he then used Action Surge and completed his move to the second attacked and killed it. The goblins went next and they attacked the party some joining melee and others shooting. Because of the difference in AC and I'd allowed the wizard to precast Mage Armour only the cleric took damage. The cleric then cast Sacred Flame killing another goblin. The wizard ended the round by casting Sleep (you roll hit points affected now which was strange) and took down the 6 new goblins.
The third wave joined the fight at the beginning of the next round with the initiative again split between some characters and the monsters. The Halfling rogue used stealth to move forwards through the bushes until close enough to sneak attack the Orog but not killing it. The fighter moved to an orc and attacked doing enough damage to kill it which triggered its relentless ability but it failed its save and died. The cleric used Guiding Bolt on the Orog and this was enough to take it down again triggering relentless but it also failed its save and died. The monsters attacked (not point in them fleeing as this was a test) and an orc injured the fighter and a goblin shot the halfling rogue. Finally the wizard used a 2nd level slot to cast magic missile firing 4 missiles into his enemies killing the one of the two remaining goblins and injuring the two remaining orcs.
With, what turned out to be the final round of combat, the party again won initiative outright and the wizard shot another round of magic missiles killing one of the two remaining orcs, who again failed his relentless saving throw, and killing the goblin. The cleric cast Bless and the fighter killed the final orc. It was left to the Halfling rogue to shoot the remaining goblin and finish the fight.
Overall the fight took around 40 minutes and was fun. The players liked how they got to showcase their characters abilities and the wizard especially liked the magic system and greater flexibility. We were a little unsure at times when Advantage applied or didn't but I'm sure that will come naturally in time.
As character creation took longer than expected we agreed that we'd give the characters another shot next week so we could see them in a greater variety of situations. A quick analysis by the players estimated that given the damage they sustained they could probably do 4 or 5 moderate fights before requiring a short rest.
From the DM perspective I enjoyed the combat and it was all done TotM. I had to handwave a few things, like stealth in combat and advantage situations but it all added to the fun. The encounter building guidelines (whilst not part of the basic rules) were good and helped to choose a variety of monsters for the encounter. What I would ask of Wizards is please please give out some official monsters. After this session I think we'll want to play some more sessions after next week and waiting until October for the MM is too long.
Overall we all thought it felt like D&D and we enjoyed it.
The party consisted of four characters, a Mountain Dwarf Fighter, a High Elf Wizard, a Human Cleric, and a Lightfoot Halfling Rogue. Character creation was done from scratch using 4d6 drop the lowest (preferred method of the group) with the only proviso being we'd be creating 3rd level characters. My only insistence as DM was that every character was different. What I would say about the character creation is it took quite a while. Maybe it was because we're unfamiliar with the system or because we generated 3rd level characters but it took just under 2 hours to get everything done. Each character picked a different background and then we had a quick review of the rules, we've all played D&D from many years but I just wanted to review them for differences.
Once the characters were created we didn't have a great deal of time left so I just threw the characters into a fight against some goblins, orcs, and an orog. I used the encounter building guidelines from the latest L&L and allowed the players to select the level of difficulty so they chose moderate with an XP budget of 440XP. I decided to use the monsters from the pdf that was on here a few days ago and quickly determined that the encounter consisted of 11 goblins, 3 orcs, and the orog leader. It seemed a high number, even for 3rd level characters so I had visions of a TPK which wouldn't be a good start.
Anyway the first thing was to determine surprise for the party, as the goblin group was waiting to ambush them. Only the fighter avoided surprise and he won initiative so acted first shooting a goblin with his bow and killing it. Because of my fear of a TPK I decided to introduce the bad guys in waves. The first consisted of 3 goblin archers so with two left they returned fire but missed. One thing I did note was the pc's AC is considerably better than the monsters in the pdf. We discussed it afterwards and all thought as a group it's not such a big problem.
With the combat now joined properly the fight started with the second wave of monsters and 6 more goblins. The party won initiative again (we prefer to roll every round as it adds some unpredictability to fights) and the rogue shot at one of the goblin archers but missed, he then moved behind cover. The dwarf fighter dashed to the goblins and attacked but missed, he then used Action Surge and completed his move to the second attacked and killed it. The goblins went next and they attacked the party some joining melee and others shooting. Because of the difference in AC and I'd allowed the wizard to precast Mage Armour only the cleric took damage. The cleric then cast Sacred Flame killing another goblin. The wizard ended the round by casting Sleep (you roll hit points affected now which was strange) and took down the 6 new goblins.
The third wave joined the fight at the beginning of the next round with the initiative again split between some characters and the monsters. The Halfling rogue used stealth to move forwards through the bushes until close enough to sneak attack the Orog but not killing it. The fighter moved to an orc and attacked doing enough damage to kill it which triggered its relentless ability but it failed its save and died. The cleric used Guiding Bolt on the Orog and this was enough to take it down again triggering relentless but it also failed its save and died. The monsters attacked (not point in them fleeing as this was a test) and an orc injured the fighter and a goblin shot the halfling rogue. Finally the wizard used a 2nd level slot to cast magic missile firing 4 missiles into his enemies killing the one of the two remaining goblins and injuring the two remaining orcs.
With, what turned out to be the final round of combat, the party again won initiative outright and the wizard shot another round of magic missiles killing one of the two remaining orcs, who again failed his relentless saving throw, and killing the goblin. The cleric cast Bless and the fighter killed the final orc. It was left to the Halfling rogue to shoot the remaining goblin and finish the fight.
Overall the fight took around 40 minutes and was fun. The players liked how they got to showcase their characters abilities and the wizard especially liked the magic system and greater flexibility. We were a little unsure at times when Advantage applied or didn't but I'm sure that will come naturally in time.
As character creation took longer than expected we agreed that we'd give the characters another shot next week so we could see them in a greater variety of situations. A quick analysis by the players estimated that given the damage they sustained they could probably do 4 or 5 moderate fights before requiring a short rest.
From the DM perspective I enjoyed the combat and it was all done TotM. I had to handwave a few things, like stealth in combat and advantage situations but it all added to the fun. The encounter building guidelines (whilst not part of the basic rules) were good and helped to choose a variety of monsters for the encounter. What I would ask of Wizards is please please give out some official monsters. After this session I think we'll want to play some more sessions after next week and waiting until October for the MM is too long.
Overall we all thought it felt like D&D and we enjoyed it.
I have this thing about buying starter boxes when every new edition comes out. I find that they help me ease into a new edition and usually the maps etc are a good value even if I don't run the adventures.
