Tonight we played the Carvern of Chaos and this is how myself and my players experienced 5e gaming.
All characters were represented and played by experienced D&D players. (Started 2nd edition and all the way to now 5th.)
We used a battlegrid and mini's for combat and good adventuring music
Here are the things we either found odd or not good enough described in the core rules:
1: Fighter's theme reaper, states in the fluff that is a melee attack, but the text reads as follows:
BENEFIT: when you miss with an attack, you deal ability score modifier equal to the ability used for the attack.
Does this mean REAPER applies to Ranged attacks also? Given that the text doenst state wether or not it is either melee or ranged.. I decided after reading the fluff that REPEAR was only used on melee.
2: INTOXICATED condition were to overpowered combined with drunken spellcasting.
Our party wizard decided to spam magic missile while being insanely drunk, getting the 1d6 damage reduction which is kinda a lot in the lower levels. My solution to the INTOXICATED condition was that if you are drunk enough to get DMG reduction, then it must be hard as hell to concentrate spellcasting.
I gave my wizard player a concentration spell cast DC 10 con, for him to pass in order to throw his spells. Giving the condition this skill check were ofcourse on Disadvantage, leaving him to botch almost all the time.
This might seem a hard "punishment" for drunken spell casting, but none the less we all ruled it to be the most "realistic" way on handling it, and making sure that intoxicated wasnt exploited.
3: Moving through enemy squares needs RULING!!!
We had a situation were our hafling rogue had his way cut off from the rest of the party by two burly orcs. Given that there are no rules as it stands at present time, we improvised a tumble past skill contest through one of the orcs squares.
The hafling roled DEX+modifier VS the orcs STR+modifier to symbolise that the hafling tried to tumble between the orcs legs going prone and get up infront of him, the orc wanted to counter this move and kick the hafling back using brute strength. Dices were thrown and the hafling won, and ended his turn in the square in front of the orc.
This shows that we improvised with a skill contest to slip past an enemy space, but it would be better that there were a fixed set of rules for this kind of movement.
4: FLANKING and Opportunity Attacks needs to comeback!
I know these subject are some of the most discussed topics on the forum, so i will only briefly tell what we did to come by this.
FLANKING: I ruled that as long as the miniatures where flanking as they could do in 4th edition, enemies and players allike would gain Advantage. I think it is reasonable to give advantage on flanking and keeping the rule like it was in the former edition.
Opportunity attacks: I didnt use them in this game, but i think it would be reasonable to have them back when enemies are moving out of combat or passes through your adjacent squares. That would give the game more tactics and more Crowd Control. We didnt play with it though, just our thoughts.
5: Medium armor and heavy is to underpowered.
Also as stated in the former forum topics, the armor rules are not very good nor are there any reason to use anything else than light armor or some of the most powerful heavy. Its mostly medium that suffers.
We didnt house rule anything this time, but im considering giving medium and heavy either DR reduction or making them either STR/CON stat dependent rather than DEX.
6: Rules for Weapon Profiencies need to be specified.
On the characters sheet it says that the different characters has profiency with certain weapons, but what exactly does it do? We have made some guesses and come to the conclusion that it gives:
+2 attack, and 1 weapon die upgrade. Example: the thiefs dagger gives 1d6 dmg, but is 1d4 in the "core" how to play rules. Same as the fighters greatsword 1d12 => 2d6.
7: Monster stats are lacking a lot in printed adventure.
To often did i have to find in the compendium what the monster had in initiave, ability score etc.
Why arent they included in the printed adventure?? Sure one could go with the basic AC, HP, Attacks.. but why not also include initiative? Also the monsters lack skills like they had in former edition.
What does an orc have in intimidate? what does a goblin have in stealth? etc. Monsters needs skills aswell.
8: Moradin Cleric a bit weak and strange setup.
So the problem for him was, that firstly, his main stat is WISDOM and he doesnt gain any significant bonus for it. Next thing is, that compared to the Pelor cleric he is underpowered and not nearly as strong.
Lasty, his 3rd level feat is a bit sketchy written:
(Must have shield to use)
When a creature of your size or smaller, enters your reach..bla bla bla..
The important thing here is "enters your reach" and "must have shield"... Does this mean that if you have a 2 squares reaching shield you can stop enemies that far ahead? or does it mean that as long as you have a shield on you, you would be able to stop enemies with a reach weapon?
Like having a shield strapped on the back and fighting with a long spear.
CLOSING WORDS:
We really enyoyed the fast smooth combat system, which also is incredible deadly.
The thrill of implementing skill contests in the middle of combat in order to, pull, slide, push, trip , etc opened up for much fun and thrilling gameplay.
The way that ability score skill checks works, is the best edition mechanism we have all tried.
We really enyoyed our selves, and looking foreward seeing new materials for 5e ruling.
