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D&D Next is released today!

Started by Skynet, July 03, 2014, 07:01:26 PM

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Avis habilis

Got my PHB this weekend. Some of the illos are great, some are feh. A couple are recycled from 4e books, but they're appropriate for their location in the text.

Chris Brady

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on August 18, 2014, 09:31:35 AM
Then artwork is..... Nothing really stellar, but not bad either. Like the whole thing, it just seems kinda meh.
Other than the Halflings, whom are both among the ugliest and having the worst anatomical structure in any creature I've ever seen in a professional product (They give me nightmares), the rest of the art isn't that bad.   In fact, I rather like it because it's consistent and gives a single tone, as opposed to several differing art styles that clash.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

AllieCat

I love 5th edition and so want to get a game going :P

ShadowFox89

Got hoard of the dragon queen and.... Jesus, whoever wrote this subscribed to the Gygaxian "don't rush into things" train of thought. Chances are you'll have a tpk by the end of the first chapter.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Chris Brady

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on August 22, 2014, 01:33:07 AM
Got hoard of the dragon queen and.... Jesus, whoever wrote this subscribed to the Gygaxian "don't rush into things" train of thought. Chances are you'll have a tpk by the end of the first chapter.
Dead in Thay was worse.  MUCH worse.  This is so much better.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Dhi

I remember organized play reports of the first 4E adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell, had the Irontooth encounter resulting in TPK 50% of the time. After a bit of power creep it was no longer so killer. The same thing happened in 3E with that first adventure, Sunless Citadel, and during Paizo's first adventure paths, especially the temples in Age of Worms. Necromancer Games became infamous for associating "first edition feel" for "gobbling characters like candy" with their very first adventure, Crucible of Freya.

I have no idea what the first few 2E adventures were. But the earliest 1E adventures were tournament modules, and it was a badge of honor to reach the end.

Sucker punching players with first adventures is, like, a tradition!

Zekromnomnom

Quote from: Chris Brady on August 22, 2014, 02:13:55 AM
Dead in Thay was worse.  MUCH worse.  This is so much better.

Dead in Thay just sounds cool, though :P

Chris Brady

Quote from: Zekromnomnom on August 22, 2014, 06:44:48 AM
Dead in Thay just sounds cool, though :P
Yeah, sounds great.  But you need four GMs for the entire adventure, and one organizer.  It challenges the player, not the characters, just like the original Tomb of Horrors.  Expect TPKs every session, even if don't happen, expect it, because there's no scaling.  Every session is a combat that could kill the entire party.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Zekromnomnom

I mostly just meant the name sounds sweet. Apparently it is also pretty appropriate.

Dhi

I got my copy from Amazon today, reading through it now. I've always been a cleric player, so I'm going to be reading about domains and gods and divine spells for a while. What classes are the rest of you looking at first?

Chris Brady

Fighter.  I'm wondering what they did to the class to distract us from the fact that Caster Supremacy is back.  Is it fun enough to make us forget that we're really nothing more than children under the care of the Magic Using Gods?  That's what I want to know.

Although, I also have a Barbarian for the local 'Encounters' events.

Gurdek Skullbreaker, a Forgotten Realms Mountain Dwarf Barbarian.  And because I AM 'that player' who never shuts up about my characters:

Gurdek, originally of the Stonehammer clan, was the son of a prominent smithing family.  However, he was always an angry child, undisciplined and wild.  And yet, he hated it.  His family, unable to really control him, and frankly, smithing is delicate work, they sent him to a Mining clan.  Because miners tend to be more rough and tumble, they thought he'd do better there.  Maybe learn a little control.  It wasn't to be.

So on his 18th birthday, after nearly hurting his friends for the umpteenth time, he decided to leave the Mountain.  He hated hurting people he didn't have to.  And for the most part, no one actually stopped him.  And so for the first in his life, he got to see the wild outdoors.  And it sang to him, sang in a way that nothing ever did.  There was freedom here, a chance to live as he wanted to...

And promptly got captured by Orcs.  This tribe from the Many-Arrows 'kingdom', thinking themselves as 'civilized' had something that they thought was 'civilized':  A gladiatorial pit.  And they shoved Gurdek into it.  Now, Orcs are different from Humans when it comes to bloodsports, to them, a show is death, as much death as they can see in a single go.  Whereas human like a bit of flash.  So these Orcs challenged their fighters to kill as much as possible every 'match'.

Gurdek's challenge was to kill 50, and then he'd be free.  Gurdek may not be the best crafted hammer in the toolset, but he was cunning he knew that he would never be free should he live.  But fight he did, and within it, he found a way to control and direct his rage.  Just before he could find a way to break out of his captor's grip, nearing his 50th kill, a bunch of adventurers came and freed him, the Half-Orc friend he'd made and the remaining fighters.  This company told him that they were going to Greenest to answer a rumour about the Cult of The Dragon infighting, but that it was spilling out.  And so he followed, learning of the Emerald Enclave faction from the Party's druid.

So now, he's a Level 1 Dwarven Barbarian with an Orcish Greataxe and scars to match on his massive (for a dwarf) 5' 2" frame.
  :-)

If you want a visual, page 191 is the inspiration.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Zekromnomnom

I just ordered it on Amazon cause it's under 30 right now.

Dhi

Magic doesn't scale automatically the way it did in previous editions, but casters get a whole slew of other class features to compensate so it's hard to tell at a glance how large the gap is between warriors and casters. It may be the closest it's been outside of 4E, but then, this is vanilla, and casters have a sky full of splatbook spells ahead of them.

Chris Brady

Magic scales even better now, all you need do is select the spell and put at a higher level slot, and voila, you now do more damage than the previous versions of D&D.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Dhi

They will scale well if you use your very finite highest-level slots for them. Nothing scales unless you surrender higher-level slots, so no more doing 20d6 damage with all of your 3rd level slots, and all of your 4th, and 5th, and 6th...

ShadowFox89

Quote from: Dhi on August 23, 2014, 10:52:21 PM
Magic doesn't scale automatically the way it did in previous editions, but casters get a whole slew of other class features to compensate so it's hard to tell at a glance how large the gap is between warriors and casters. It may be the closest it's been outside of 4E, but then, this is vanilla, and casters have a sky full of splatbook spells ahead of them.

Martial classes have no scaling damage at all outside of multiple attacks and have few to zero outside of combat abilities. They get the poorest selection of skills and no reason outside of RP to put scores into intelligence or charisma.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Chris Brady

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on August 24, 2014, 07:23:47 AM
Martial classes have no scaling damage at all outside of multiple attacks and have few to zero outside of combat abilities. They get the poorest selection of skills and no reason outside of RP to put scores into intelligence or charisma.
And let's not forget, the right magic ALWAYS hits, even if you make a saving throw and resist some or all of it.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Zekromnomnom

*is maybe feeling buyer's remorse before even seeing the product*

Dhi

I don't think it's as bad as they're making it out to be. It hits closer to the mark on balance than 3.5 but with better capacity for customization than 4E. The two things are probably always going to be at odds. It's a compromise I'm interested to give a shot with my own group, and if we eventually decide it isn't for us, I'm sure we will have had at least $30 worth of fun.

Zekromnomnom

Got the book. Along with my Savage Worlds Explorer's...Guide or whatever? I forget what it's called. Leafed through them drunk last night. Gotta see if I still like what I saw when sober.

Slywyn

I've been playing with a group and I'm enjoying myself so far.

I have a Rogue, and we have two sorcerors(sorceresses?) and a Barbarian.

My rogue is actually doing most of the damage of the group so far. The two magic-users reliably ping away, but it's never for very much. The Barbarian is unequivocally the tank though, he has something like 40 HP when my rogue has 16 and the two mages have I think 20 combined.

But I am playing an assassin archetype and I'm able to get lots of sneak attacks since the barb's always close in, and the rogue's bonus action thingie allows me to get in and out without ever getting hit. It's really nice.
What Makes A Shark Tick ( o/o's )

"True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi automatically connects." - The Internet, Probably

I'm just the silliest, friendliest little shark that ever did. Sure, I have all these teeth but I don't bite... much.

Zekromnomnom

I was texting my friend about the new book and he was like "How are the monks?" and I told him straight up "I haven't looked at them yet because I haven't given a shit about monks in like four years."

But as an actual answer to his question, I love how your choices are: 3.5 monk, ninja, or Avatar TLA.

Inkidu

#72
So I'm kind of necroing this. As someone who liked 3.5, but found it a bit of a hassle, and found 4th ed a little too... streamlined, I have to say I'm liking this. I can't wait for the DM guide to be released. I might even restructure my setting to work with it. I find it better (I don't want to say streamlines) organizes the stuff in my headspace. I have to think less about what I have to do and more on what I want to do. If that makes any sense.

EDIT: Well got the Player handbook read. The only problem I see is that they've still got the whole magic-user power issues. Clerics seem especially bad. :(

That's really nothing new though.
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Chris Brady

Quote from: Inkidu on September 11, 2014, 05:09:37 PM
So I'm kind of necroing this. As someone who liked 3.5, but found it a bit of a hassle, and found 4th ed a little too... streamlined, I have to say I'm liking this. I can't wait for the DM guide to be released. I might even restructure my setting to work with it. I find it better (I don't want to say streamlines) organizes the stuff in my headspace. I have to think less about what I have to do and more on what I want to do. If that makes any sense.

EDIT: Well got the Player handbook read. The only problem I see is that they've still got the whole magic-user power issues. Clerics seem especially bad. :(

That's really nothing new though.
You can thank the Pathfinder and older style fans for that.  They wanted the old edition, where the magic system is literally perfect.  As in it always works.  And so we got it.  I'm holding out for the DMG see what sort of options we got to play with.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Inkidu

Yeah I think they did a lot though by defining rests better. I used to pull my hair out when people would abuse the rest system to get their slots back. :P
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.