D&D 5E We Played 5th Edition for the First Time Last Night

[FitzTheRuke]

Ok so it should have been half the number of monsters. We really need some more advice on monsters October is a long time to wait when the rules are there to play.

No, no. What you did was fine. It would have been a more challenging encounter by far if you'd had all the monsters act in the first round. Your "waves" plan balanced the numbers back down to a moderate encounter. It more than made up for the 3-1 horde thing.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

No, no. What you did was fine. It would have been a more challenging encounter by far if you'd had all the monsters act in the first round. Your "waves" plan balanced the numbers back down to a moderate encounter. It more than made up for the 3-1 horde thing.

It did work really well if I say so myself. I'd just like some more variety for next week. Guess they can encounter a few classes as well as maybe an Ogre.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It did work really well if I say so myself. I'd just like some more variety for next week. Guess they can encounter a few classes as well as maybe an Ogre.

When are you getting the Starter? It's got quite a ton of monsters in it.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

When are you getting the Starter? It's got quite a ton of monsters in it.

It's not out in the UK until the 15th so hopefully late next week.

 

[Pickles JG]

It's not out in the UK until the 15th so hopefully late next week.

Yeah it is at WPN stores - not that know any of them that do Mail order

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's not out in the UK until the 15th so hopefully late next week.

What monsters would you like? I can scribble off the basics from a few of them from it.

Here's the Ghoul (Med Undead CE):
AC 12 HP 22 (5d8) Spd 30'
Abilities 13/15/10/7/10/6
Immune Poison & Charm
Darkvision, Passive Perc 10
CR 1 (200xp)
Melee Bite +2; 9 (2d8+3) piercing
OR Claws +4; 7 (2d4+2) slashing & the target (not elf or undead) must make a DC 10 con save or be paralyzed for 1 min. (Can repeat the save each turn to end it early)

And Skeleton (med undead LE)
AC 13 HP 13 (2d8+4) Spd 30'
Abilities 10/14/15/6/8/5
Vulnerable Bludgeoning
Immune Poison
Darkvision, PPerc 9
CR 1/4 (50xp)
Shortsword +4; 5 (1d6+2) pierce
or Shortbow +4; 5 (1d6+2) pierce

And Zombie (M undead NE)
AC 8 HP 22 (3d8+3) Spd 20'
Ab 13/6/16/3/6/5 (Wis Save +0)
Immune Poison
Darkvision, Pperc 8
CR 1/4 (50xp)
Undead Fortitude (If non-radiant, non-crit damage reduces zombie to 0 hp,
roll a con save vs DC of 5 + damage taken. On a success, zombie has 1 hp.)
Slam +3; 4 (1d6+1) bludgeoning

There. Now you can fight some undead.

 

[jbear]

It sounds like you did okay for having to share 1 PDF to create your characters and start PCs at level 3 considering you had to read many of those rules and wrap your head around them for the first time. Not surprising it took you 2 hours.

It also sounds like you were fairly unprepared and making it up as you went along just to give the system a whirl? Would that be a fair comment?

The description of play sounds very mechanical and devoid of story, as though you really just wanted to get a grip of the math and mechanics of game play in isolation from the role playing aspect of D&D because of the time pressure.

My suggestion would be to have a look at some of those free adventures Morris has put up to give 5e a whirl. I am running the Mad Manor of Azkabar (or something like that) for my 9 year old son and wife just to test out the system. It is a pretty nice intro adventure for level 1 PCs as it has lots of spooky and unsettling things going on, curses, poltergeists, wind effects, puzzles etc. so loads of room for RP, for creating a feeling a threat without too much life threatening threat. I think it is designed for the playtest material as it has a few references to spells and things that are not available in the Basic Rules, but they are things I can pretty much make up the effect for from my imagination, so that has not been a barrier. My son has been loving the game, and to be honest the mechanics have rarely intruded other than with checks, saving throws and one very quick but fun fight with a fun (yet potentially deadly) spell effect going on in the room at the same time.

In any case there were a few other adventures on that list that I haven't checked out but putting play into the context of an adventure might add to your experience. But I do agree it will be nice when we have access to the basic list of monsters as well.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

What monsters would you like? I can scribble off the basics from a few of them from it.

There. Now you can fight some undead.

Thank you Fitz, don't suppose you have the basics for the Goblin as well?

 

[Lord Vangarel]

It also sounds like you were fairly unprepared and making it up as you went along just to give the system a whirl? Would that be a fair comment?

The description of play sounds very mechanical and devoid of story, as though you really just wanted to get a grip of the math and mechanics of game play in isolation from the role playing aspect of D&D because of the time pressure.

We were very unprepared and after character creation just had time to run a test combat. I've fleshed out some background story for the next session and will certainly look at the sample adventures as locations in and around the home location I've created thanks.

With a bit more time and preparation we'll test some other rules as well as getting some rp in.

 

[Henry]

Shouldn't that ghoul bite be 12 average damage instead of 9? It seems odd given the other creatures' stats.