We're playing the playtest material tonight, but in looking over the provided PCs I can't figure out what the designers were thinking.
I'm playing the Fighter, and I note that my chainmail gives me an AC of 15. However, I could wear a chain shirt instead, get 14 + Dex Mod, have the same AC at 15, and be wearing light armor rather than taking all the disads of heavy armor. Also carrying a DEX-driven Light Crossbow instead of a STR-driven Heavy Crossbow. Odd.
The Thief pregen is also purposefully underarmored, wearing leather instead of a chain shirt. I presume so that he will not have an AC of 17 and outperform the Fighter
Maybe the fighter got his armor from his father when he left home, and the thief couldn't afford a chain shirt, or didn't want the extra weight, or just thought the armor looked cooler at the store (little did he know it wasn't name brand, Praaada is a cheap goblin knock-off.)
First off, I just want to say I really like the simplicity and feel of the armor and weapons in the D&D Next playtest. That said, there are mechanics to balance... but the thematic "feel" is spot on for me.
So, I'm guessing that "enchanted" weapons and armor won't just get bonuses to AC or to hit & damage. The way they priced the armor seems to suggest PCs eventually buy or find the higher mundane armors, rather than enchanting-up. Also, note that masterworking for weapons is just +1 damage and is not even noted for armors.
Just as with 3.x, the lower light armors don't show much reason for use- go chain shirt or nothing at all if you have a mental stat to AC. Similarly, medium armor has always been a weird category; either you go really light or full heavy armor tank and no one uses medium.
They tried to put four armor per category. What if we only used three per category and left "materials" out of it (or even only two)? On the topic of masterworked, could we just say that "masterworking" armor means making it out of better materials; mithril, adamantine, or whatever? Masterwork could vary depending on material and category.
Actually, as I get into crunching out, I don't like Light, medum, heavy. I seem to want 4 categories: Leather, Chain/Ring, Scale/Splint, and Heavy/Plate. Remember, there is an implicit category of 5; some mages and monks wont even wear armor.
Ver 1.1 LEATHER ARMOR Leather, 15GP, 12 + Dex Reinforced Hide, 125GP, 13 + Dex Leafweave Leather, 1000GP, 14 + Dex, Special: advantage to hide in forests (chosen terrain?)
PLATE ARMOR Banded, 125GP, 17 Plate, 1000 GP, 18 Dwarven Plate, 8000 GP, 19, Special: prevent's up to 3 weapon damage per round from a single attack
Is this any better? So, you basically should only be to afford the "starting" armors of Leather, Chain Shirt, Scale, or Banded. I know there's only a 1pt AC difference between Ringed and Scale armors, but both are so similar with the 1/2 Dex. I always disliked Chain Shirt being a light armor; it's the only metal one. Remember, 4E resolved this with 6 armor types; this is kind of a slimmed down version of that.
We're playing the playtest material tonight, but in looking over the provided PCs I can't figure out what the designers were thinking.
I'm playing the Fighter, and I note that my chainmail gives me an AC of 15. However, I could wear a chain shirt instead, get 14 + Dex Mod, have the same AC at 15, and be wearing light armor rather than taking all the disads of heavy armor. Also carrying a DEX-driven Light Crossbow instead of a STR-driven Heavy Crossbow. Odd.
The Thief pregen is also purposefully underarmored, wearing leather instead of a chain shirt. I presume so that he will not have an AC of 17 and outperform the Fighter
Weird.
I assume this is due to how poor 1st level players are. 75 gp for Chain Shirt is too expensive for most players when you still need gear and a weapon. I'd get multiple spears instead of crossbow personally (since drawing is free action, but loading crossbow isn't)
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Yeah, there's a lot of problems with armor. Adding DR is a popular solution, and the math on it checks out well. I would go higher than one or two though - up to four on non-magical plate. I don't know about adamantine since we don't have much to test against at this point.
From a simplicity and long-term advancement standpoint, I'm not a fan of DR for armor. But, in small doses and without high progression it's okay. I mean, trying to mechanically show how lighter armor characters are hit less but heavier armorer characters prevent more damage seems okay. I mean, which is supposed to be "better"" an elven dex fighter/archer in mithril/elven chain or a dwarven fighter/defender in adamantine plate? I think the answer is neither; they are both good in different ways. Dwarf can soak more damage and better against more foes; Elf can evade htis better and has less disadvantage as per skills or speed penalties. And I think that really fits with the thematic feel of the game.
MASTERWORKED & ENHANCEMENTS Before seeing the playtest, I had conceived a system where weapon/armor/item enhancements only went up every 10 levels and further masterworking beyond +1 was possible. Weapon enhancements only enhanced damage and broke magical DR better; further masterworking si what upgraded the bonuses to hit. But, if we're trying to avoid masterwork weapons adding to hit, maybe we could have masterwork for damage and enhancement for breaking magical DR and enchantments like holy, flaming, speed, etc. This way, PCs can somewhat control (by smithing/reforging/further masterworking) their own gear to higher bonuses to damage, but they'll still also want to enchant it to fight better monsters. Something like: +1 Masterworked Weapon, +500GP, 1st level + +2 Masterworked Weapon, +2500GP, 11th level + +3 Masterworked Weapon, +125000GP, 21th level + +4 Masterworked Weapon, +625000GP, 31th level +
For enchanting, maybe: "Magical" Weapon, +1000GP, 1st level, breaks magical DR & needed for other enchantments "Flaming" Weapon, +5000GP, 6th level, add d4 fire damage & on/off entire weapon strikes as fire "Keen" Weapon, +5000GP, 6th level, critical on 19 or 20 "Holy" Weapon, +25000GP, 11th level, add d6 holy damage & entire weapon strikes as holy "[Creature] Bane" Weapon, +25000 11th level, penetrates any DR & +d12 damage
... So, a 13th level Paladin might have +2 masterworked Magical Holy Flaming Longsword. With a +3 strength mod, he'd strike for d8 + d6 holy + d4 fire + 5
ARMOR WITH DR Ver 1.2 LEATHER ARMOR Leather, 15GP, 12 + Dex Reinforced Hide, 125GP, 13 + Dex Leafweave Leather, 1000GP, 14 + Dex, Special: advantage to hide in forests (chosen terrain?)
RINGED ARMOR Chain Shirt, 50GP, 14 + 1/2 Dex, DR 1/- Ringmail, 400GP, 15 + 1/2 Dex, DR 1/- Elven Chain, 3200GP, 16 + 1/2 Dex, DR 1/-, half weight & no stealth disadvantage
SCALE ARMOR Scale, 75GP, 15 + 1/2 Dex, DR 2/- Splint, 600 GP, 16 + 1/2 Dex, DR 2/- Dragon Scale, 4800 GP, 17 + 1/2 Dex, DR 2/-, Special: elemental resistance 5 of dragon type
PLATE ARMOR Banded, 125GP, 17, DR 3/-, -5ft speed Plate, 1000 GP, 18, DR 3/-, -5ft speed Dwarven Plate, 8000 GP, 19, DR 4/-, -5ft speed, Special: 1 extra point of DR
I assume this is due to how poor 1st level players are. 75 gp for Chain Shirt is too expensive for most players when you still need gear and a weapon.
Chainmail (the inferior armor choice for my pregen PC) is 100gp, while the chain shirt is 75gp, so the better choice was actually cheaper, believe it or not.
Not really a serious design complaint, but just a funny nitpick: Another interesting cost-difference thing was the mace, club and torch, all of which are identical in combat (1d6 bludgeon). The mace costs 6gp, the club 5sp, and the torch 5cp. Strangely, the very best weapon of the lot is the torch, because it is identical in combat ("treat as a club") but it does fire or bludgeoning damage.
And here are the results of our foray into the Caves of Chaos. We reset all hp and abilities between each of these encounters, to try each one as if it were our first encounter of the day. These are the encounters provided with the playtest. We used the Cleric (of Moradin), Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue.
Opponent: 6 kobolds. Then joined by 3 more kobolds on round 2, and an ogre on round 3. Results: Cleric dead at the start of round 2, we ran on round 3, the fighter died trying to escape.
Opponent: 6 orcs. Result: We won, but the Fighter died.
Opponent: 13 stirges. Result: We won, but the Wizard died.
Opponent: 1 Medusa Result: We won, but 2 party members were petrified. To be fair, we only won because the medusa was chained to a wall.
Was there any errata to fix the dwarf fighter weapon damage? The pregen sheet shows 2d6 for the great axe, but the how to play lists it as 1d12...not a good impression on their proofreading skills.
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Was there any errata to fix the dwarf fighter weapon damage? The pregen sheet shows 2d6 for the great axe, but the how to play lists it as 1d12...not a good impression on their proofreading skills.
You're assuming they made a mistake. You shouldn't expect them to itemize everything in a playtest document, especially the first one.
