Playtest!

(This is a guest post from our very own Dman!)

D&D Next: First impressions of the playtest material

First, I want to say that I have not followed the blogs and posts that are around D&D Next, so I am coming into this without knowledge of discussions and reasoning for the rule set. I have played every edition starting with the Basic set. My favorite edition by far is 3/3.5E and… (Can I say the P word?). My next favorite would be 2E or 4E, but they are far away in second. One of my favorite things to do is build characters and 3/3.5E allows me to do that.

So, now that you know where I stand, let me tell you about my impressions of D&D Next. First, much looks like standard D&D with all checks and rolls based off of the abilities. The one thing that is different is that there does not look to be and additional bonuses given for class, level, or anything. I mostly like this, but do wonder how that works at higher levels. I love the new Advantage/ Disadvantage rules, this is an elegant way to remove many of the modifiers that the other editions, and 3/3.5E in particular, have. Big thumbs up. The ability scores are standard with a few simplifications, but nothing earth shattering. I like that they have kept the to-hit and damage modifiers like 4E, which was one of the few things 4E did right. Time and movement are standard, though I like how characters can now just do some stuff without a roll (though I have to wonder about no swim roll for a character in calm water, but still in plate mail). This is probably something that is in the complete rules, but now here. Stealth and perception are standard, though for stealth they talk more about what is needed to get a stealth roll.

Combat is where there are some large differences. Surprise is interesting since it is not giving you a free round, instead it is almost guarantying the ambushers the first attack. It would be nice if you received the Advantage if you attack those whose initiative is below 0 of the first turn. What the characters can do has been simplified to one action and one reaction allowed a turn and you can move as part of your action. The big thing here is that you can split your movement around attacking, so you can move attack move. This was huge for the rogue, more on that when I talk about the characters. The actions are standard D&D, but two things stood out to me.

First, there are no attacks of opportunity. I realize there are people who disliked these, but I  like them quite a bit because it helped force opponents to not run around the fighters to get to the mages and make it more difficult, rightly so, to cast while being hacked at by a sword.  The only nod towards this was that range attacks were at a Disadvantage if you shot while in melee with an opponent. That is a very nice touch.

Second, I am surprised to see Dodge gives you a modifier, with how much these rules look to move away from modifiers and wonder why they did not give the character the Advantage on Dex saves and anyone attacking the character the Disadvantage. The only thing I can think of is they wanted dodge to stack with magical abilities that give the character the Advantage in these areas anyway.

I like the new dying rules and how healing starts the character at zero and then heals, much better. I also like how you need to be at 1+ hit points to rest and gain benefits from it, very nice. I am still waffling on the whole gaining hit points back based off a character hit die thing. I like that there is some healing available without a cleric, but it feels very contrived. Also, why does the wizard bother at low level with his d4s? Still, this is MUCH better than the healing surge stupidity of 4E, so I think I like it in the end; I just wish it did not seem so forced.

I like how some conditions now add Advantage and Disadvantages, though there are a few where they seem to be missing things like why would an opponent have no kind of advantage (bonus to hit or having the Advantage) attacking  a blinded thing?

Armor is quite standard; I do like how the Dex modifier is handled and how armor affects hiding, very good job here. Weapons are also standard, but I think there are a couple things missing in these base rules. First, the bonus to hit for being proficient in a weapon is not in the rules (I know it is a +2, and maybe +3 for a fighter, because of reviewing the character sheets). It would be nice to know. Second, two handed weapons seem to gain a +2 to damage, but that is nowhere in the rules, just figured out from the fighter and Ogre. I like how shooting beyond short range causes you to shoot at a Disadvantage, great way to use that rule and really makes you think twice about making that shot. It does severely limit the effective range of these weapons though.

I cheered to see no Sunrod in the equipment and so did the other person who DMs. That was a dumb item in 4E and just said, “Let’s not worry about what you can and cannot see.” The healer kit is now very important since you need it for a short rest to gain hit points for people.

Magic is still standard D&D, but I will note the few rules and spells that stood out to me. I like how cantrips and orisons are at-will now. That is great for the casters and much needed at lower levels. I also like how it is a rare spell that increases its damage output as the caster increases in level, that also can help balance casters at higher levels. Now specific spells of interest to me; magic missile stands out because the damage output does increase at higher levels and this can be used at-will. This does seem fine at lower levels since the other characters have a good chance of the same damage output or higher, but at higher levels, I wonder if this becomes too powerful. I have to see how the higher levels work for the other classes to see if I think this will be a problem. I like what they did with shield of faith, putting people on the Disadvantage is a really cool way to handle the spell and it was this spell that made me realize a purpose behind the AC bonus with the dodge action. Sleep is powerful again at low levels, this spell really messed up a large group of goblins in the test run my players ran through in the Caves.

Now for the characters, first I will talk about the general aspects all the characters have. All characters have fourteen points of stats above ten (sixteen above and one stats with two points below). The human was the only exception, he had twenty one points above and one point below. I guess this is the human advantage since the character seems to receive nothing else for being human. This does disappoint me. I hate the points buy systems and prefer the random rolling. I realize this can lead to stat imbalances between party members, but that has never been a problem for me. Some people are better physically and/or mentally than others. It sucks, but is true. I understood in 4E why you did not have a random role since stats were used for so many things and all you needed where three stats to be high and you could be good at just about everything. This edition moves away from that and I hope it brings back an option for random rolling that works well.

Other general aspects of the characters are they all have a race, class, background, and theme. Race and class are fairly standard D&D, though I wish I saw a difference between the mountain dwarf and the hill dwarf. There could be something there that I cannot see, but I will talk about that as I get to the specifics with the characters. Also, there could be different starting options for classes. I hope so since I like having choices.  Background is new and I like how that determines your trained skills and not as much your class. Theme is good too as I can see this help make each character of the same class different. I do wonder if the theme gives you additional things as you go up in levels.

The biggest thing about the characters is that they do not get bonuses to hit at higher levels or bonuses to saves or skills. I can understand the reasoning behind this since it is difficult to scale a system for low level characters as well as high level characters, but I am not sure that dropping the scaling all together is the right move.  I can see how you keep things solid for combat since you just make high level creature have fairly low armor classes and not big to-hit bonuses and increase their hit points, but it seems to fail on skills like stealth. I would expect a 10^th level rogue to be better at hiding than a 1^st level rogue, but with the information I have right now, that does not look to be the case. The last thing and a big concern for me is it does not feel that cool to go up a level. Yes, you gain a few hit points and a minor ability or two, but that does not feel as cool as all the things you gained for a level in 3/3.5E. And yes, I know that many of those changes where just cosmetic like gaining +1 to-hit and +1 to skills, but it felt cooler than the level increases in D&D Next. I want going up levels to feel cool and exciting and this does not do that for me with most of the characters.

Now for each specific character, and I will start with the characters that seem to have some rules I cannot see.

The fighter looks like a standard fighter and the slayer themes is scary. Being able to do some damage no matter what is great at low levels. This does help balance him out against the wizard that also can do a low amount of damage every round. The big discrepancy I see on this character is the to-hit bonuses on the character’s weapons. The greataxe has a +6 when it should have a +5 and the crossbow has a +4 when it should have a +3. It makes me wonder if fighters gain: a +3 to-hit with proficient weapons, if that bonus is for hill dwarves, or is it just an error on the sheet. I am hoping it is the racial bonus. The level progression and abilities gained are decent, but not very memorable to me. The Fighter’s surge is powerful, but having only two is not that impressive. Cleave is very nice and gaining +1 to damage is good to see.

The Cleric of Moradin will be next. Pretty standard stuff on the first page, the theme ability, Defender, seems good and is a big deal since there are no attacks of opportunity. This makes you want to keep the cleric next to your wizard so that he can put an attacker at Disadvantage, but this can only be done once as a reaction.  The thing that does not add up on this character, like the hill dwarf, is the characters armor class. Chainmail grants a 15 AC and no Dex is allowed, plus a heavty shield makes the character’s armor class a 17, but the sheet has an AC of 18.  So, like the fighter, this comes either from class, race, or a mistake. For class it could be part of the Moradin domain. For race it could be a mountain dwarf AC bonus. Again I hope for the second reason, though the first reason would be fine too. The level increases on this character are not that interesting. Divine Smite is okay, but uninspired compared to some other things and only being able to do it three times makes it quite weak. Hold the line looks good on paper, but is really bad since the character only has one reaction a turn, they need to decide to do this or Defender each turn. All in all this is the weakest character out of the bunch, his only claim to fame is the high armor class and that is cool in D&D Next since attacks have a low to-hit modifier. It is not enough to overcome the rest of this character’s weaknesses.

The wizard also does not follow all the rules. The ray of frost attack bonus for the wizard is +6, but it should be +5, Dex +3 and +2 for the magical attack bonus. By this point I think it has to be a racial bonus, but you never know. The theme is decent by allowing more at will spells, but after the Pelor cleric, everything else is in a shade of grey. Level two gives next to nothing and level three gives a familiar, nothing special here. At least the character gains spells and number of spells cast. It is enough to be on par with the fighter.

The cleric of Pelor shows just how weak the cleric of Moradin really is. This character is human and has an 18 in Wis. This lets his spells be very strong and the Radiant Lance is a dangerous weapon for the cleric where the hammer attack of the dwarf is much weaker. The healer theme is also much better than the Defender ability since this gives you a free healer’s kit AND potions. I would take this every time since you need this kit just to do a short rest and it allows you to make healing potions for 25gp. Don’t leave home without it! The level increases also show just how much better the Pelor cleric is, do you notice a theme yet? Channel radiance is crazy good compared to divine smite. You do have to be a little carefully of the use, since you will blast your friends if you are too close to them, but the character does 1d8+4 to everything in a 20 foot radius compared to an additional 1d10 if a successful hit, the Moradin cleris has the weakest to-hit bonus in the group too. Again, don’t leave home without it! Finally, the crazy goodness of Healer’s touch. Max hit point on all healing… the mind boggles at how awesome this is, there are no words other than, DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!!! I would be pissed off at Moradin for giving me such crappy abilities compared to Pelor, time for a conversion of faith dwarf.

Finally the rogue, the light foot halfling abilities are great, especially being able to hide behind creatures larger than you. Combine that with the lurker theme and the ability to split your move before and after attacks, and you have a rogue that almost always gains the sneak attack bonus AND Advantage on his attacks. Borrowed from the cleric of Pelor, don’t leave home without it! Next page, skill mastery is a great idea. Now there is a sneaking minimum that is reasonable for a rogue and makes it much better. Only one thing at level two is good, 2d6 sneak attack. Again combined with how easy this character can get sneak attack, this is incredible. Then you gain 3d6 at third level! The rogue HAS converted to Pelor, don’t leave home without it! On a side note, there were a couple times that the rogue had rolled a twenty on his 2d20 and gained max damage on all dice. The chances are double he will get that twenty and maxing the 3d6 will be awesome.

So, to wrap up the Character winners and losers. The cleric of Pelor takes top spot, while I have not seen character creation, I do have a hard time not seeing me pick the same stuff.  Channel Radiance and Healer’s Touch are just too incredible to pass up and on top of that this character has a decent AC, decent hit points, and a good ranged attack. Also, he is the one character that I would be excited about when I go up in a level. Again he is like American Express, don’t leave home without it!

On the next level is the rogue, the ability to get easy sneak attacks and Advantage makes this guy scary. Add the quick increase to his sneak attack damage and you have a hitting monster on your hands. He is almost American Express.

Next lower level has both the wizard and the fighter. Both are decent and do pretty well, but nothing stands out about either of them. Good hitting by the fighter and he does get better in the leveling. The wizard has the at-will spells that make him feel decent thought out and the additional spells at higher levels keep him on this level. The fighter might have a slight lead, but that is mostly because of no opportunity attacks and the ability of monster to just flow around the other characters to mob the wizard, poor guy.

And then last and least is the Cleric of Moradin. His only claim to fame is his AC, but that is almost meaningless without any good way to make your opponents attack him. Hold the Line does not cut it. He does not attack well, he does not damage well, and he does not even heal well. This character does nothing well or even decent. He is the Oliver Twist of a character holding out his character sheet asking the developers, “Can I please have some more.” He needs a way to have more reactions in a round and/or opportunity attacks on things that try to get around him. This would move him to the next level with the wizard and fighter.

I am not sure if I like or dislike the power disparity between the characters. I partially like it because it hopefully shows that there is some good character building in the game and you can make crap as well as very good characters depending on your group and your own tastes. I worry that there may not be much character building and the characters are just not balanced. I could have a cleric of Pelor and three rogues as a group. Though that could be too many rogues to constantly be able to hide behind stuff and lord help that group if they were caught out in the open.

Finally there is the adventure Caves of Madness, my group when through some of it last night. They almost cleared all the goblins out of cave D, and killed the ogre. What was really impressive is this was done without resting.  It felt like they were in peril the whole time but constantly pulled it out. This was a dungeon crawl, so it was all hack and slash. The system held up nicely and the confined areas made the lack of opportunity attacks not as noticeable. We all had a good time and I look forward to more play testing and more from D&D Next.

All in all, good job developers.