Mines of Madness - D&D 5th Edition (Inactive)

Game Master wicked_raygun

The wizard Abracadamus hid the Forever Stone in the darkest depths of a failing mine, coerced monsters into serving as guardians, and rigged the dungeon with traps galore. Then he died, as all good wizards do.

Many heroes have fallen prey to the Forever Stone’s lure of immortality. To date, only one stalwart band has plunged into the Mines of Madness and lived to tell the tale. You think you’re better than them? You think you got what it takes to grab life by the stones and conquer the dungeon that won the 2012 Gygaxian Award* for Bonecrushing Awesomeness?

We seriously doubt it, but go ahead ... prove us wrong!

Mines of Madness is a Very Special D&D® Adventure written for PAX East 2013 and designed for four 3rd-level characters. All characters must be created using the rules in the D&D Next playtest package, with the D&D 5th Edition Basic Rules available for FREE here.

*Not a real award, though seriously, it should be.

***

For those interested, we'll be building 3rd-level characters using the standard array optional rule: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. This is basically for expediency sake.

Bear in mind that the new Monster Manual is not out yet so I'll need to use the ones from the last Play Test, so balance will simply not be a thing I can at all promise. But since the Mines of Madness is meant to be deadly as hell anyway...

OK, so let's talk about tone. DO NOT BOTHER WITH A COMPLICATED BACK STORY.

Seriously, the last thing you want to do is get too attached to anyone here. This sucker is an homage to killer modules like Tomb of Horrors. Use the Background options for ideals, bonds and flaws. Either roll for them or pick them out. If you really want to give it a shot, go ahead and try making your own.

So would anyone be interested?

Potentially interestes. My RL group is going to test this out starting this Friday night. I might give this a shot once I have a basic grasp of the system.

Interested.

Thinking on a dwarf cleric.
I’ll post something a bit later.

I'd love to take the new rules out for a spin! I'd build a rogue/thief.

Just one remark: I'm new to pbp, so please be nice ;-)

I'm intrigued. I'll read the rules over dinner.

Miklos -- I have zero problem taking on newbies. Just start reading the rules. And let me know if you have any questions.

Standard Human board and sword fighter reporting for duty.

Oh, hey, you can either take the quick build equipment packages or go shopping with 125 gp for Clerics and Fighters or 100 gp for Rogues and Wizards. Forgot to mention that.

Thanks! I read all the 5e rules and I'm not new to D&D/Pathfinder, just didn't do any play-by-post games until now.

I'm ready to go. I built an almost stereotypical rogue (without social competence that is)

I heard that 5th was out. I've done 4th and Pathfinder (of course), but haven't looked at 5th. What's the learning curve?

Looks really cool. Love the use of an "old-school" killer dungeon for this game.

@wicked_raygun: The monsters in the play test are actually weaker than those that will be in the Monster Manual and, thus, will be somewhat weaker than the PCs as they (the PCs) are going to be created using the final release rules. You might want to "bump up" the monsters by either increasing HP, AC, damage or sheer numbers to fight.

Definitely interested in playing some form of Wizard, if there's still space. :)

I'm hoping for six players.

I'll get my fighter up today...

Looks really cool. Love the use of an "old-school" killer dungeon for this game.

@wicked_raygun: The monsters in the play test are actually weaker than those that will be in the Monster Manual and, thus, will be somewhat weaker than the PCs as they (the PCs) are going to be created using the final release rules. You might want to "bump up" the monsters by either increasing HP, AC, damage or sheer numbers to fight.

I get my mitts on the Starter Set box next week. So hopefully I can steal some monsters from there when we finally start playing.

As for difficulty, well I'll probably add extra monsters in a few places, but I'll need to see how it goes at first. The system claims to be relatively easy to eyeball when it comes to that. But obviously we won't know until we get going.

If you google 5e pathfinder conversion you'll find a document there with guidelines for converting monsters from 3.5 and/or pathfinder on the fly. Probably not exact, but seems to hold up pretty good.

I'll check it out. Thanks.

Forgot to mention it, but multiclass is okay. It might be better not to do that from a number crunch standpoint. But if it fits your needs to have a Wizard in Heavy Armor, so be it.

I heard that 5th was out. I've done 4th and Pathfinder (of course), but haven't looked at 5th. What's the learning curve?

Since I followed the play test since the beginning, it's a bit hard for me to say. I can tell you that friends of mine were able to pick it up pretty quickly. The advantage and proficiency mechanic simplifies a lot of things.

The rule book is not small, per se. But it's not particularly daunting either. It feels like D&D.

You still have space for one more? I would like to test 5e :)

Go ahead and prepare a character. Folks might drop out last minute, or I or someone else could open a second group. Mines of Madness was distributed for free after all.

Six players, four classes. That could get redundant.
I see the divine domains are not available in this document. Hmm...

Only the Life Domain for now. The idea behind D&D Basic is to offer up part of the rules in order to teach new players and entice them to buy other products like the PHB.

Wizards have the Evocation School Tradition, Rogues have the Thief archetype, and Fighters have the Champion.

It's worth noting that the Evocation school has been beefed up, for those who follow the way of Treantmonk. So do not despair.

You can also multiclass. If you want to get experimental.

I, Miklos, have my Rogue, Vasayo, ready on paper and will fill all the stats in tomorrow. Does anyone have a sort of play-by-post character sheet for me? Some kind of template? (sorry, new to this and all)

Wow, that's even more redundant.

Well alright, let's spice it up. Mountain Dwarf Wizard coming in hot.

As I think more on it, I will bow out of the mix here and let someone else play. I have a RL 5e game I will get to play for the next few months, and I want someone else to have a chance.

Have fun!

Any slots open still?

Here's a draft of the dwarf wizard. Tough formatting choices ahead.

Quite interested. I will knock out a character ASAP.
Looking at a wood elf archer (fighter). Thinking about a dip onto cleric for some Strider-like healing.

I have a Halfling Fighter Archer ready to go. Let me know if you have any formatting preferences.

The basic rules do not have all the info needed for multiclassing p56. How do you want to handle multiclassing (base class fighter 2, cleric 1)

Is there a cleric yet? I'll a make a cleric...

I present Randal Evenwood: Character Sheet

I'll make an alias and get all the info posted in it.

Here's Randal's profile.

I noticed I'd messed up my saves on the sheet linked to above. I've fixed that in the profile.

And all done. Character sheet can be found in Vasayo's profile

Vasayo, how come you have two 9s in your stats? Did you get a negative from somewhere? Have I missed something in the rules?

Here is Dervel Diamonddew, Fighter 2 / Cleric 1, though he needs a little work depending on how a multiclassing works.

Oh I can tell you why that is ... it is because I'm ... well ... what's the word ... doesn't matter, I corrected it.

I got mixed up because of the +1 to every Attribute humans get. And somehow I forgot my highest stat and therefore took my lowest stat two times. Clever ey?

The basic rules do not have all the info needed for multiclassing p56. How do you want to handle multiclassing (base class fighter 2, cleric 1)

I'm assuming that multiclass doesn't have requirements, because even if they do, I'll probably house rule that. So treat it like multiclass in 3.5 or Pathfinder. You just take the corresponding level.

The proficiency bonus doesn't stack. It remains equal to your character level. In other words, it's still at +2.

I might seriously make two groups with the way this is picking up interest. So, yeah, anyone who wants to can submit.

Hey wicked_raygun...

How frequent of posts do you expect? And how much rules knowledge is required?

I want to try 5e but I have never played it before, even in the playtest.

Also I have a bunch of other pbp commitments and work has been slammin lately so I would only be good for like 5-7 posts a week.

I would want to play a human fighter/thief or an elf fighter/wizard.

Generally about one post a day seems to be my default speed. The X-Factor being the weekend where my time can fluctuate wildly.

This being a published adventure. It'll probably move a bit quicker then something completely homebrew. But in general, I don't push too hard for posts unless I need to.

Hey, guys, I've decided yo let Tuesday be the cutoff day for submissions. on Wednesday, I'll release my decision. That should give folks time to get their characters together.

I'd love to toss my hat in. I did up the character sheet with the fillable form but couldn't get it to save the content, so I'm going to have to redo it.

I'm going to make a two-weapon fighter, stout halfing using handaxes for melee and range.

Here is Milo Brambleheart - Folk Hero of the Common People! I am a two-weapon fighter and trained in the royal service of a lord. I rose to leadership and was commended for my heroism. Stats in the profile.

Hey wicked_raygun...

How frequent of posts do you expect? And how much rules knowledge is required?

I want to try 5e but I have never played it before, even in the playtest.

Also I have a bunch of other pbp commitments and work has been slammin lately so I would only be good for like 5-7 posts a week.

I would want to play a human fighter/thief or an elf fighter/wizard.

Grimmy!

I wasn't going to submit a PC for this game (not a big fan of PbP gaming, as you know) but if you decide to play in this, I might just have to give it a go.

dotting for interest.

Milo, you should consider lowering your strength. Finesse weapons use Dexterity for attack and damage.

With a 14 in Dexterity and 15 in Constitution, You would have a 16 in both after racial adjustment.

So your attack then with the hand axes would be +5 (1d6+3), whether thrown or for melee.

Ahh, good catch, thank you. I missed the part about dex going to damage too! Been play testing that wrong all this time.

OberonViking here, this is my character Dervel, Fighter 2 / Cleric 1

Milo, you should consider lowering your strength. Finesse weapons use Dexterity for attack and damage.

With a 14 in Dexterity and 15 in Constitution, You would have a 16 in both after racial adjustment.

So your attack then with the hand axes would be +5 (1d6+3), whether thrown or for melee.

Actually, RAW Hand axes are NOT finesse weapons. They are only light weapons. Thus, hand axes used in melee would still be based on Strength not Dexterity. For throwing, ranged attacks you can use either DEX or STR for thrown weapons. Obviously, raygun as DM can house rule that hand axes are finesse weapons if he so chooses.