Hi all,
I, my wife, and brother-in-law decided to crack open the beginner box last night. Always been interested in pen and paper RPGs but never got around to actually playing one. We wanted to try it with more people, but ultimately decided it would be a bit less chaotic for just us 3 to trudge through it first. Originally was planning on being DM, but my wife spoke up that she was interested so I let her have it - she's a writer.
Overall we had a blast. My wife followed most of the script but also added in her own things to change it up. She made the first two goblins a "couple" and when one was dead the other went into a frenzy. When we gave the toy to the Goblin king dude, the others started some crazy dance and were cheering our names. It was cute little touches. She also missed a few key things, but it was her first time and we didn't know any better (until I looked it up today). So, with that, I have approximately 30 million questions:
1) We played pre-made characters (Wizard and Rogue). We want to make our own. The beginner box comes with some blank character sheets, but are these good enough for the full-blown game or are they missing things? For clarity, is there a better template for character sheets or is the one that comes with the beginner box good enough?
2) Perception. It was a bit unclear how this works in the beginner box. If we step into a room and the rogue says he wants to search the room, would he just roll for his perception and as high as he got would reveal what was there? Or should this be targeted? For instance, would he go "I'm searching for a hidden door" and roll, or would he just roll and based on his roll everything hidden would just show up?
3) Timing. We figured out through google that each player's turn lasts roughly 6 seconds, is this correct? How does this play into the overall game? Should someone be writing down how long everything takes? I assume you should keep track of your own buffs/debuffs or is that the GM's job?
4) Movement. This goes along with timing I guess. When we weren't in combat and we weren't examining rooms, how should we handle movement and turns? It was my thought that since we weren't doing precise things, we were essentially free to move unlimited until we found something. Is this the proper idea or should we be more strict with movement (30 feet then the other person moves, etc)?
5) Advanced classes. The beginner box includes fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue and also you can add in the berserker. When we make our new classes, should we open up all classes and races or should we still stick with those? I don't want someone to roll something completely overpowered in the beginning, but at the same time I think it would be interesting.
6) Another combat question. When we fought the dragon, my partner was invisible and moving behind the dragon. I got hit pretty hard and fell unconscious. My partner then attacked and the dragon moved his focus to him as he was the one that was still up. If the DM wanted to, could they still attack my character to kill it or in general to monsters avoid attacking downed players?
7) Trading items. I had a potion the rogue needed and I wanted to give it to him. Does that take one of my actions to do? Do I need to be right next to him? Should I drop it and let him pick it up?
8) Levelling up. We messed this up and essentially got double XP and such hit level 2 in the dungeon. Do you level up right on the spot or do you need to rest to level up?
9) Spells. As a wizard I had two that could be used once per day. I understood I needed to rest 24 hours (I think?) to regain their uses. Upon levelling up I learned two more spells. I believe it said I could add one of those to my list per day.. so would I need to rest two days to add those spells to be usable? Or how does this work? If someone could explain the spell portion that would be helpful.
10) Resting. There were some cots in the dungeon we could rest at, so we did for 8 hours (to regain 1 HP I believe). Do you need a cot/bedroll to rest on or can you just sleep on a dungeon floor? This also goes back to the timing question, should we be keeping track of this?
11) Rations. We were given rations (5 day supply) but no real reason to ever use them. My friend said after we slept that we should have "used" a ration of food as we hadn't eaten. Is that the desired way?
12) Weapon damage question. My friend got the dragon-bane sword which he used against the dragon. From what we could tell it was 1d8+1 damage, but 1d8+3 against dragons. Additionally you add 2d6. He was also flanking so that was an additional 1d6. Did we have it correct that it was 1d8+3 + 2d6 + 1d6?
13) Rings. I picked up a ring of protection or something but my character slot didn't really have a place for equipping a ring. Do I just put it on and add the bonus? Is there a limit to rings?
14) The future. We will probably end up replaying this campaign to let some friends experience it (with them leading). After that there are a few recommendations in the books, but not a whole lot. We're planning on buying a game mat/board that we can draw our own campaigns on. Is that the right way to go? Should we target any specific boxes/adventures or just go with our own?
15) Is reading the core rulebook the best way to truly make the leap into the full game? I am looking at the PRD site and it has a ton of the rules just laid out, but is it worth it to buy the core book? Is there more info in it?
Guys that was way less questions than my estimated 30 million but way more than I thought I'd realistically ask. Any help is greatly appreciated!
