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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 11:08AM
#1
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OK, so I was DMing this playtest over the weekend and I realized that there are no rules in the playtest documents for attacks of opportunity if you move away or past an enemy.
So, I read the rules for Contests and decided that this would work.
A player tried to move past an Owlbear. I had the Owlbear and the player roll opposing Dexterity checks and the Owlbear won. I declared that the Owlbear slammed down his club, arm, whatever, in front of the player, stopping his movement. Kind of like in those old cartoons where you see the really little guy trying to walk past the really big guy unnoticed, but the really big guy notices anyway and puts his hand down to stop the little guy.
Anyway, I am wondering how other playtesters are handing this situation or if it's even a factor for others to just let the PC (or monster) walk by.
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 11:16AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2007
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The designers intentionally left them out and most people seem to have played without them.
The general consensus among the people seems to be that they are mostly fine with this but there does need to be something. Right now it is a bit too easy to turn and run from a fight or move past somebody during a fight. The rest of the opportunity attack rules can be dropped in favor of speed, but something is needed to cover those two cases somehow.
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 11:19AM
#3
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Then I propose my method as one possibility. It worked out well and can be handled easily enough.
The only problem you might come up with it if a Wizard or Fighter is trying to get past some Halfling or Kobold and has a problem winning the Dex contest.
Maybe it can be opposed Initiative rolls or something? Or a "highest stat vs. highest stat" type of thing?
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 11:31AM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 28, 2012
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I ran a playtest over the weekend and I loved the lack of AOO. Sped up combat considerably and people were playing fast and loose with their actions without worrying about 5 foot steps and provoking. The when the kobolds started losing, they just ran away. It was glorious. The players loved it.
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 8:24PM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2012
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I'm an old fan of D&D and began long before 2E, but I love the quick, simple, down and dirty style of this playtest. When monsters were routed and intimidated into fleeing from combat, I added flare and entertainment value with each encounter. One encounter I had the kobolds running around panicked, which in turned caused the adventuring party to scamper around looking for these pesky nusances. Another encounter the orcs fled and the fighter got a parting swing as they went.
Yes, it does throw conventional rulings out the window, but isn't that what home-brewed games of D&D all about?
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 8:40PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Dec 21, 2011
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My experience is similar to Shogun42 and BastardDM63. I loved not being hindered by little rules that always made players rethink their actions, hesitate, try to figure out the best way to move, etc. It was pretty easy for me, as Undrhil did, to invent skill checks or contests when it seemed necessary.
In our game, when the Ogre was turned toward the halfling rogue, that player asked if he could try to run around the Ogre and get behind it before he attacked. I thought that would be an abuse of the rules, but instead of saying "no you can't do that," I just told him to make a DEX check DC 15. He failed his roll so I told him that as he moved, the Ogre kept tracking him. The player accepted it and decided to hustle away instead of attack. He didn't want to get a clubbing. I think that little scene is more fluid and even more realistic than some of the combat scenes from my 4e games on the grid.
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13 months ago ::
May 30, 2012 - 8:43PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 19, 2007
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I think I'd say this was my biggest problem with the mechanics. I like the idea of fast and loose, but it bugged me when the fighter just decided to ignore the 4 koblds in front of him and head for the cheiftain. I also saw this problem with the rogue- he can hide behind anything that covers 1/4 of him?! Including creatures larger than him! so he can just move in and out willy-nilly, hiding and stabbing. With Advantage to boot. I tried to counter this with some perception checks but te -1 to kobold wisdom checks vs. the rogues +6 stealth and skill mastery wasn't very effective to say the least.
On the other hand, what keeps intelligent monsters with tactical smarts (like Hobgoblins for instance) from ignoring the other players and swarming the weaker memebers like the healer or the wizard?
I like the idea of the opposed Dex checks, or some other form of "disengagement" check that doesn't require a grid. That way it can be pretty much optional if your group s chooses.
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13 months ago ::
May 31, 2012 - 8:02AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2011
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I think I'd say this was my biggest problem with the mechanics. I like the idea of fast and loose, but it bugged me when the fighter just decided to ignore the 4 koblds in front of him and head for the cheiftain. I also saw this problem with the rogue- he can hide behind anything that covers 1/4 of him?! Including creatures larger than him! so he can just move in and out willy-nilly, hiding and stabbing. With Advantage to boot. I tried to counter this with some perception checks but te -1 to kobold wisdom checks vs. the rogues +6 stealth and skill mastery wasn't very effective to say the least.
On the other hand, what keeps intelligent monsters with tactical smarts (like Hobgoblins for instance) from ignoring the other players and swarming the weaker memebers like the healer or the wizard?
I like the idea of the opposed Dex checks, or some other form of "disengagement" check that doesn't require a grid. That way it can be pretty much optional if your group s chooses.
the rogue needs to use his whole action to hide, and even then you cannot hide in plain sight, meaning he can use one creature to hide himself from others, but THAT creature can see him no matter what, and any creature that LOS isn't blocking can see him no matter what.
also, many people have allready adapted, this isn't supposed to be played like 4th, now to protect squishies you need your fighter and defender to ready intercept reactions to protect your back lines. super funw hen you try it out.
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13 months ago ::
May 31, 2012 - 8:18AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Nov 11, 2007
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I also found no rules for this, so we played without any. It seemed unrealistic to just walk by a character with no penalty. IMO there needs to be some type of opportunity attack for this. As far as leaving a melee combat, you should be able to do it using Dodge, but not be able to attack (which in 4E amounted to the shift then move actions)
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13 months ago ::
May 31, 2012 - 8:23AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2011
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I also found no rules for this, so we played without any. It seemed unrealistic to just walk by a character with no penalty. IMO there needs to be some type of opportunity attack for this. As far as leaving a melee combat, you should be able to do it using Dodge, but not be able to attack (which in 4E amounted to the shift then move actions)
keep in mind, combat round last 6 seconds
6 seconds to move 25 to 30 feet and then make a strike against an opponent AND make an OA against somebody else? to be honest that seems unrealistic to me.
-EDIT- and it's not just 6 seconds per person, the whole ROUND takes 6 seconds and everybody is conceptually moving at once.
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