The D&D Take

A bit of 5e news: Feats

Author: Andrew /

So the head of development on 5th Edition, Mike Mearls, has just released in his latest Legends and Lore article (found here) a bit about a topic near and dear to my heart: Feats.

In 3rd Edition they were at times very strong, but, as the article above mentions, you also needed to string them together, or there were some that were so specific or almost useless that they'd never see the table unless in very obscure circumstances. In 4th I felt as if feats in general took a backseat, becoming minor advantages.

5th Edition's take on them is a bit along the lines of what I thought in terms of impact. The only time you can take a feat is as a replacement for an ability score increase when leveling up. As this is generally a very large power increase, that means that feats need to have a large impact as well, and it appears they do.

The view on them leans (as do other mechanics in the system) heavily towards the RP side of things, making feats things primarily designed for fleshing out a character concept better than the normal classes (or multi-classing) might allow.

In the article, Mike lists every single feat that will be in the Player's Handbook, which I thought was amazing. Aside from the fact that we just get a clean sneak peak at the entire list, I think the thing I found most intriguing was that the list was small. Counting the list, it comes in at a tight 42 feats. To put this in perspective, the feat count in the 3rd edition Player's Handbook was a whopping 119! 4th ed's was also large with 81 feats, meaning that this edition is significantly smaller, but potentially much more impactful than previous editions.

You can see Mike's full list of feats in his post, but I'll list a few of my favorites (or ones that look like other's will really gravitate towards them):

Actor
Defensive Duelist
Dual Wielder
Dungeon Delver
Grappler
Healer
Inspiring Leader
Lucky
Mage Slayer
Mounted Combatant
Savage Attacker
Shield Master
Skilled
Spell Sniper
Tavern Brawler
War Caster

One of my personal faves in there was Grappler. I always loved the idea of a fighter who's primary method was getting in there and fighting with a very tactile sensibility about him, perhaps even multi-classing into some kind of magic user class to cast touch-based spells; I think that would be amazing. What it sounds like is the general way feats work now is that they are more a suite of abilities, or a kit in order to make sure your character can embody whatever the feat you choose represents. So you want to be a Grappler? Choose the Grappler feat, it'll have what you need to help your character do just that.

Now, granted, the article does not give what all the feats actually do (we actually have to wait for the darn books *kicks a rock*) but between this list and Mike's example of what the Lucky feat does (spoiler alert: it's awesome) we can get a pretty good idea of what they'll yield. So far, I'm still pumped!

Stay tuned and be sure to post in the comments any thoughts or questions you might have!

19 comments

D&D 5e Basic Rules Review

Author: Andrew /

Hey everyone! I mentioned a little while ago that I would do a review of the Basic Rules released for D&D 5th Edition once I finished reading them, and I finally finished (what a hefty read!) so here we go!

First things first, if you would like to check out the basic rules for yourself (which you absolutely should), you can find them here.

Wizards of the Coast (the developers of D&D in general) had an interesting time with 4th edition, released back in 2008. The issue was mainly due to the significant alterations made to what was the traditionally accepted way of doing things [Please note that the bulk of my experience started with 3rd edition]. To my knowledge, the mechanics of old revolved around a few things:

Leveling up based on a table unique to your class.
Having your attacks represented as simple, generic equations (like 1d20 + Strength Modifier + any additional special things you may have added, like a Feat bonus).
Feet-based movement.
Flavor heavy rules / book text.

4th edition made a departure from this in a number of ways that achieved some pretty cool (but divisive) things.

All classes leveled up based on the same table.
A simple attack statement was replaced by a huge number of different powers (things you could do in combat) that all did different things. Each class had their own, making the class portion of the book rather large.
Square-based movement, meaning the game assumed that you were using a grid with figures on your tabletop (whether digital or actual).
Rules had much less flavor in favor of a robust combat system that allowed for heavy, semi-simulation level combat scenarios.

All that having been said, 4th edition did achieve some very notable things, including a much lower barrier to entry for players new to the hobby as well as an exquisite level of balance between the classes. The balance ended up being a bit of a double-edged sword in that, while very evenly balanced, the classes could tend to feel overly similar in how they play, which, in turn, could make the classes feel as if they lost a sense of identity to some players.

Well, 5th Edition, you'll be happy to know, is a massive return to form, and shakes a lot of the issues that players did have with 4th. When reading through the rules, the largest influence seemed to be 3rd Edition (and 3.5) as well as Paizo's Pathfinder system, which has been D&D's major competitor of late.

The PDF released (linked above) is 112 pages of awesome RPG awesomeness that is jam-packed with flavor and information in equal measure. It also showed that WotC was very serious in their massive playtest efforts and their decision to include the community in the process of developing this latest iteration of the system.

I think the first thing most people notice is the new way difficulty is managed in D&D. In the past, difficulty or ease in a given situation was accounted for by the DM giving you a bonus or a penalty number to whatever check you were aiming for. 5e brings in a new mechanic called Advantage / Disadvantage and it's beautifully simple. Any time you would have advantage or disadvantage, you roll two d20's instead of just one. If you have advantage, you take the higher result, if you have disadvantage, you take the lower. This means more dice rolling (which is more fun) and less math (which is less fun). I'm very excited about this one.

One of the other things I saw (as did many other reviewers, I found) is the wealth of flavor to be found in 5th Ed. Everything you read is suffused with a sense of lore (if not displaying it outright) and it all has a place in the world. Whether you're reading about character classes, magic, items, combat rules, or anything else, it all has a wonderful story to it.

It's plain to see that this system cares about Role Playing. One of the best inclusions in the system that displays the importance placed upon RP is the aspect of character creation dealing with Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws. In 5e, when you create your character, choosing these things is a hard-and-fast part of character creation instead of something you did just if you felt like it in previous. You choose two traits, one ideal, bond and flaw for your character background. When you choose those things, they give you your characters feelings about certain things, things they care about, weaknesses that could be played against, etc. This allows the DM to give rewards to players who role-play well according to these things. Inspiration generally gives Advantage (which allows a player, when they need to make a check, to roll twice and take the better of the two results).

This brings us to Character Creation itself. From looking through the PDF, though only 4 classes were featured in full class write-ups, I found mention of others leading me to believe there may be potentially over 10 classes! I believe they are at least the following:

Fighter
Rogue
Cleric
Paladin
Druid
Wizard
Sorcerer
Warlock
Ranger
Bard

I may have missed a few but at this point, things are looking very robust. In keeping with the similarities to 3rd Edition, each class has it's own leveling table that goes from level 1-20. The level-up bonuses range from ability score increases to combat techniques to special abilities like the Rogue's famous (or infamous) Sneak Attack. One interesting change I found was that Feats are no longer a mandatory aspect of character creation, which as far as I understand, is a large departure from tradition in general. Now, at any point, when you level up and would receive an ability score increase, you can instead elect to choose a Feat instead. This makes things interesting in that a Feat is now equated with an Ability Score point, which is generally a substantial power increase. If this proves to hold accurate, Feats should be excellent additions to your character, should you choose to take them.

The second change I noticed was that in past editions of D&D, any given ability score's maximum at character creation was 18 (unless modified by a Race Bonus which could potentially add as much as 2, making 20 the absolute highest without house rules). In 5e, the max ability score at character creation (before racial bonuses) is 15, which is substantially lower. This, to me, is a sign of numbers getting reigned in, making small numbers in the early stages of the game more impactful. If using the point-buy system alternative to rolling your stats, the maximum you could have is 15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8.

A third change is how robust the races are. When you select a race, you get a bevy of different bonuses, some being RP related such as familiarity with certain legends and lore; others can be combat related, like things such as Darkvision, which lets a character see in low-light conditions, not discerning color, but instead seeing things in shades of grey. Another thing I noticed were sub-races. For instance, you may select Dwarf as your race, which comes with a +2 bonus to Constitution. Once you select Dwarf, you also select a sub-race which in this case is either a Hill Dwarf or Mountain Dwarf, which receive an additional +1 to Wisdom or +2 to Strength respectively. I found that the races have a huge amount of flavor and really give you some meaty stuff to make you feel like you're that race.

Combat seems to have been simplified a great deal in the removal of powers. You have your normal attacks with specific features available that can alter those actions. Also, with movement brought back to Feet instead of Squares, the game lends itself better to the Theater-Of-The-Mind play style much better than 4e, with its insistence on using a grid.

There are other smaller things too that are really looking cool including how armor now works, removal of Healing Surges in favor of Hit Dice, slight changes to how rests work, a return to 3e style spellcasting, etc. The document is very much worth reading so definitely go check it out.

At this point, I'm very hopeful and optimistic for 5e and think it should be a brilliant return to form for the granddaddy of RPG's. If you're really chomping at the bit, you can check out the 5th Edition Starter Set, it also is excellent and extremely well put together. You also can't beat Amazon's price at the moment!

2 comments

Roleplaying and Kids!

Author: Andrew /

So it's been a darn long while since I've posted but I've recently been really pushing myself to do some Dungeon Mastering and, in turn, it's got me thinking about these kinds of things again. So with that, I'm back! :D

What I'd like to tackle in the article (I'll keep it brief, to the best of my ability) is RPG's and kids, and how darn awesome it can be!

First, for those who don't know, a Role Playing Game is a game where the players take on a specific role, usually of a character they create themselves, but sometimes games will use pre-made character for ease-of-play. It's the same thing an actor does in a play! Every person at the table is a player, and has a Player Character (referred to as a PC), all except for one person. This person is referred to as the Game Master (GM) or, when playing Dungeons & Dragons, the "DM" (but they're the same thing).

The DM is what you would consider the narrator in the story. They control the world and all the things the players interact with. Any Non-Player Characters (NPC's), monsters, etc are all played by the DM. This gives the DM tremendous creative power. The DM is also the person who governs the rules of the game. If they feel that a change to the rules would be more fun for all at the table, it's absolutely within their power to change it. Their role is that of the Storyteller.

So, a Role Playing Game is, at its core, interactive storytelling. This can be AMAZING for kids, as it allows their imaginations to run wild and it fosters a huge deal of creativity! They get to imagine themselves as an awesome hero defeating a dragon or hunting for hidden treasure (or doing whatever other kind of story things the DM might come up with). It's also very social. It involves playing with your friends (and hopefully a parent or two!) around a table, having a great time (and generally sharing a bunch of awesome snacks lol). One other thing it does is help with math skills, as the game involves simple addition of dice rolls (which are super fun).

Most RPG's have rule-books that can be quite large, with very detailed rules that the DM can choose whether or not to use (things like rules for if a character ducks behind cover in a fight, or rules about how far a character can go before eating or something like that). Most of these rules are optional. If the DM thinks they're too complicated or unnecessary, they can choose to just not use them. One thing I found, that's great for kids, can be found here:

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/MS_HeroesHesiod.pdf

That is a link to a specially made, self contained, RPG for kids based on Dungeons and Dragons called "The Heroes of Hesiod" and it's for kids 6+!

The rules in it are dead simple and very friendly. It has fun character cards the players can cut out, and a few little monsters. They get to go into Adventurer Training against some young monsters (like a little dragon). They get to move their characters around the room and try to defeat the monsters, so they can be strong enough to defend the village when they grow up!

It's a well put together little game for kids and I highly encourage anyone interested who has kids to give this a shot. There's a ton of fun to be had and there's no other game like it. Happy adventuring!

2 comments

The Town of Silverton

Author: Andrew /

Greetings all!

Here's the info for next session:

This session will be entirely player driven. You have reached the town of Silverton, entered the tavern, listened to a young man named Gregory lament his current predicament. In order to prove his prowess as a young man to the father of the woman he loves, he must win the King's Purse at the tournament to be held at the capital of Jorath's March, Jorath's Hold. The young man is adventurous and excited to take on the challenge but needs training. He also needs supplies and provisions, as does anyone else who will be participating in the tournament.

The town is open to you and you may explore at your leisure. I will facilitate as needed. This session will be free form and player driven, meaning that any movement in the session will be determined by ideas you all come up with. How he trains will be up to you, how you get supplies will be up to you, as will everything else.

I hope this will be interesting and fun and I'm excited to see where things go. =] Glad to be back.

9 comments

Campaign 2010: RP notes =]

Author: Andrew /

Hey hey!

Everyone, first, I just want to say, the game has gone really well so far. I'm very much enjoying the game so far. The party has shown itself to be resilient, strong and courageous. It's been a blast for me, as I hope it's been for you.

Now, I've done some thinking in the shower (the place where most great ideas come) and I am introducing what I'm calling, from this point forward, "RP notes". I want to inject some role playing and interesting inter-party points. These will be reflected as fleeting thoughts that cross your character's mind. As in life, sometimes thoughts come unbidden to us, and these points will reflect this. These notes represent thoughts that cross your character's mind but in no way force your character to act upon them. They merely serve as something that could be played off of and give an opportunity for RP even when in the midst of a dungeon crawl. I encourage all players to RP and will [perhaps] give some exp based upon RP! =]

The notes are as follows:

Throughout the time you've spent together, you've experienced a few things. You've been brought back from a fall that almost killed you by a kindly druid. Upon your walk towards town, you came upon what turned out to be a forward party of goblins with a huge ogre in toe. In the midst of this grueling fight, you were all badly beaten, some worse than others, but you rose to the occasion all the same and emerged victorious. You followed the trail of broken foliage left in the ogre's wake, searching for the goblin den, in an effort to stop the impending attack on the town. On the way, you encountered a small goblin, cowering and begging for help, in exchange for taking your group to the den, as the path the ogre left had fallen away. The goblin was asking to be taken to town in hopes of finding some way to join the town and be like them. Upon reaching the den, Tataki killed the poor goblin outright, its cowardice abhorrent to the warrior. Houseki, the crystal monk and Tamago, Tataki's sister, quickly dispatched the weakling goblins at the entrance. Tamago kicked down the door, showing no fear whatsoever.

They marched into the den, kicking in the door to the first room of the den. Fighting bravely, tooth and nail, they brought down the hearty goblin occupants they encountered, but not without party members suffering grievous injuries, some even nearing death. After resting, they continued on, finding a slime trap, but quickly ridding themselves of the hindrance; Leota, being ever the clever ranger, utilizing the poison goo to tip some of her arrows.

Next, the encountered a goblin sorcerer and his bodyguard. The old goblin also raised up three goblin skeletons to aid them. Again, after much struggle, the group prevailed, looking forward to delving deeper into the winding, twisting tunnels housing the threat to the good people of the nearby town...

Notes:

Arein: You were elected leader of this small band. Your spirit is uplifted by this but you also, being a very single-minded individual, feel challenged in the aspect of group leadership. Having multiple individuals depending on you is a relatively new situation for you. You look to your group and think about possibly looking further into their strengths.

Houseki: You were always the silent type and content to be in the background, serving your purpose and contributing as needed. In the recent altercation between you and Tataki, involving the goblin, it occurs to you that being more forward with your companions could prove beneficial. The sisters, while very much not like you, intrigue you all the same, Tamago especially, with her overt, almost reckless bravery. You've seen her brought down a few times (as you have yourself) but you both come back to serve the group. A thought of fleeting admiration for their skill flits through the back of your mind. What to think about these two?

Tataki: You've been thick as thieves with your sister for as long as you can remember. You've been her right hand and she yours since you were young. Looking on, as the recent fights have passed, however, you've seen her fall? Why is this? Is it because she is lacking in strength? Was it blind chance? Was it recklessness on her part? Do you have more to learn from each other?

Tamago: You've been at the head of any fight you've gone into. Your bravery and zeal have been unmatched. You've also taken beatings unlike anyone else in your group. You try not to show it, but being brought low by your adversaries stings, just a bit. Does this incite you to charging in all the harder? Does this perhaps spark a desire to utilize the resources that are your other party members and find what their strengths are as well as your own? After all, you know, a fighter, no matter how good, is no good when they're dead; and when it comes down to it, had it not been for them, you'd be as dead as the goblins that fell to you. How do these victories and, at the same, losses, make you feel?

Leota: Being a ranger, you're a bit unlike the others. You're quiet, reserved and deliberate. You know your job and you do it well. At the same time, you notice you're always far from your companions. You stand back as they wade into the fray. As blows are taken and dealt, you notice your companions scrambling to stay on their feet, sometimes doing better, sometimes doing worse; but, all the same, ultimately succeeding. Does this reaffirm where you stand, or perhaps, does this make you want to identify with them more? Is the distance you have purely when in conflict, or is it a reflection of something deeper inside you?

-----

I hope you guys like those. Again, please don't take them as me pushing you in any directions; as I said, they're meant to be thoughts that occur to you but are not massive weights on your heart (unless you think they should be). They can be disregarded but they can also be used to create interesting dialog. Thanks again for playing!

~Andrew

21 comments

Campaign Fall 2010

Author: Andrew /

Hey all!

This is the new post for the campaign that's coming up. This post is for character concepts and discussion. Allow me to put a few guidelines down:

-Characters will be level 1

-Standard point builds. If you use the character creator, it should never say "houseruled". If you're using "point buy" out of the book, the point pool is 22 with all stats at 10 except for one, which starts at 8 (this is off the top of my head, but it should be right). You may also just use a standard array for ease.

-Equipment will be very limited, run all needs and ideas past me first and we will discuss what will be done.

-Race restrictions: Drow, Warforged, as well as monster races (these can be discussed and if the point is really compelling, I may allow it; but I'm leaning towards no).

-Class restrictions: None, although proprietary classes may be denied (although I think all should be alright).

-Ideally I'd like characters to be the same gender as the player. While this is of course not a demand or restriction and gender is a relatively small thing, I have yet to see a male player really get me to buy their female character (kinda the way that when I see George Clooney playing Batman, I never once go "That's Batman", I always remember it's George Clooney). It helps me stay immersed if the players can play convincing characters and most guys know how to be guys better than girls, from what I've seen. Not looking to start a debate, just stating how I feel.

I strongly advise subscribing to D&D Insider, as their Character Creator is just awesome. It's a tool I love to use and it makes character creation extremely easy and friendly and fast. If you can't afford it, it's no problem, but it's a handy tool if you can manage it.

Also, for those of you who don't know (or do but want a handy little list in front of you) here are certain party roles that you may want filled:

-Tank

-Primary Damage

-Crowd Management and Control

-Healing

-Buffs

-Party Speaker (primary social skills like Diplomacy)

-Skill Focussed

-Off-damage / other focus

None of these are mandatory of course; you could all theoretically play Tanks if you wanted, I'm just listing these as a reference. I look forward to seeing what you've all got.

65 comments

The new direction of D&D 4th Ed

Author: Andrew /

Hey all!

I know I haven't posted in a while but I wanted to throw this out there. I know in the past, we've had discussions about 4th ed; lots of them good, some of them bad (as in what's wrong with the system). There were things like the lack of important, powerful feeling feats, classes that felt too similar, languages were a bit funky, ect.

Well, I just recently picked up the new Red Box which is heralding the release of the D&D Essentials line. This is a the beginning of a new direction in 4th edition's design. Now, that's not to say that the old 4th ed books are worthless, they're not. They'll be fully compatible, and usable in any 4th ed game you play, so all that hard-earned cash you (and I) spent on building up a big fat 4th ed library was not in vain.

That being said, 4th ed is now being taken over by Mike Mearls, who is overseeing the bulk of design on D&D and I, for one, am glad he is. He holds a reverence for 1st edition D&D and what D&D actually "IS". What it "is" is a bit of an odd concept, at times, but bear with me.

To me, I think D&D is an experience that evokes a certain feeling. Sometimes when you play an MMO, your character feels like a stack of numbers meant to do a job and there's nothing organic or lifelike about it. It doesn't pull you in, it doesn't engage you and it doesn't make you sit up and pay attention, hanging on the edge of your seat. I know there's been the talk that D&D 4th ed is trying to be an MMO (on paper) and I still disagree, but I do see the things that are similar and why people gripe about it. Some of the things in there, while balanced FANTASTICALLY, do seem to play very closely to one another and you don't feel like your character is really their own person. It more tends to feel like "Uh... I'm a fighter and I do a d8 worth of damage with my sword... My buddy is a wizard and does a d8 with one of his 'spells'." It felt ridiculous in that regard.

Essentials is bring about new things and I will put links so you can all go check out the neat things involved. One example is the fighter in "Heroes of the Fallen Lands." HotFL is the first class book to be published in the Essentials line. It will cover the fighter, the cleric, the rogue, and the wizard (all the iconic classes). They offer new builds with new options.

The fighter, for example, gets stances. These can be used instead of dailies. This is a quoted part off the website explaining stances:

"Level 1: Fighter Stances

Fighters learn a number of stances, special powers that combine positioning, footwork, and combat tactics to maximum effect. A stance allows you to customize your approach for fighting different enemies. Against a massive ogre, battle wrath allows a knight to overcome that creature’s impressive hit points more quickly. Against monsters that gain advantage from flanking you, measured cut lets you stay in motion to keep them out of position."

There are more things too but that's one of them.

I, for one, am very excited and can't wait to see the rest. I have the Red Box and for $20, it's a dang good deal and the perfect thing for introducing someone new to the wonderful game we all know and love. Here are some links (Check out the one at The Escapist for sure, it's an interview with Mike Mearls and answers a lot of questions about the design choices in the past and the direction going forward).

Hope this was interesting for you guys!

~Andrew

2 comments