We had our first experience with D&D Next this evening. I DM’ed a small group selected from my normal set of 9 players, with a number of whom had experience of more than one iteration of D&D. The five characters were randomly allocated (although two players swapped behind my back!) and names were picked:
Brother Dorkin of Pelor
Gash (Dwarf Fighter)
Sir Binwinn Ironbeard (Dwarf Cleric)
Taylendil (High Elf Wizard)
Ifford (Halfling Rogue)
After a brief look over the rules, and the casters reviewing the contents of their spell-books, we got going.
I started off by giving them a spot of background. They were from a village near the site of the Keep on the Borderlands, which was being raided by orcs busy stealing their livestock. The Keep had fallen 25 years earlier (after it had been betrayed from within) and now the humanoids were coming back.
After staking out the field, they spotted two orcs rustling livestock. The Human Cleric rolled a huge Survival score and tracked them to the Caves. From a distance, they saw the orcs bushwhacked and murdered, the stolen sheep carried off to feed another band of humanoids: they collected the orcs’ heads (worth 5gp bounty each!) and spotted something moving in the dark. Gash and Ifford headed off to the cave entrance: Gash spotted and jumped over a tripwire but Ifford didn’t and ended up entangled and restrained in a bola. As Gash cut him free, kobolds threw spears at Ifford (they had advantage), though Ironbeard’s Defender Feat came to the good here, and cancelled out the advantage on one attack. Anyway, the Kobolds couldn’t hit squat and retreated into the caves.
Ifford got cautious and checked the entrance for traps. There weren’t any, so the party continued into the cavern. Ifford forgot to check in the cave and triggered the Pit Trap at the T-Junction. He rolled a poor Dexterity Save, but used his Luck ability to re-roll and avoid falling. Gash, in the second rank, failed to beat the Dexterity Check (we role-played that he tripped over the Halfling avoiding the pit) and dropped 10 feet, taking a small amount of damage. The trap door snapped shut above his head.
All this noise alerted the rats from the garbage heap and the kobolds from the guard post. The rats squeaked into the pit, forcing Gash to take evasive action: quickly tying rope to the handle of his axe, he threw it into the edge of the trapdoor and was able to shimmy up the rope (all Strength-based activities, and with 16 Strength, I ruled that they should be no problem).
Meanwhile, the kobolds were swarming over the rest of the party, using Advantage where they could (Sir Ironbeard’s shield meant that at least one attack per turn was not at advantage!). Taylendil got double-teamed and daggered by a kobold, but kept going. Sir Ironbeard, however, swung his warhammer and connected, mightily (rolled 20, therefore maximum damage, which was several times more than the kobold had hit points. Result: kobold pizza.
Gash, down in the pit and hanging grimly onto a rope, pulled hard on the trap door and got it open. The dwarf then tried kicking off the wall and swinging out, but blew the Dexterity check and carried on swinging.
Back in the corridor, Ifford hid behind Sir Ironbeard, then used the Ambusher Feat to sidle up behind a Kobold, deliver an attack with Advantage and slit its scrawny throat. Taylendil managed to use Magic Missile to take down one attacker: Brother Dorkin’s Radiant Lance – which needs an attack roll – proved less effective headed off down the corridor. Sir Ironbeard took down another kobold, and just as Gash emerged from the pit, the last one fell.
Pausing only for a “Gazebo moment” with the planks the kobolds use to bridge the pit, they pressed on. They found the locked store-room full of fetid nastiness (Ifford auto-picks the lock, minimum roll of 16 with a DC15) before venturing down the corridor and spotting light coming from the elite kobold room (I ruled that they’d have a candle or two on the table). Ifford started to plan a stealthy take-down, but Gash charged in, waving the battleaxe and screaming Dwarven war-cries to intimidate the kobolds. It worked.
The last kobold fell at the top of initiative in Round 2. This was the round that the Kobold Chieftain and his minions were scheduled to appear. Initiative was rolled for them and sucked. He charged in, spotted an elf mage (no armour) and waded in, critting on one shot and taking her down to single figure hp. She stepped back out of axe-range and cast Sleep on the emerging minions (which, I now realise, she shouldn’t have been able to do – oops) and four of the six decided to have a brief snooze (they would awake to find their throats cut). Sir Ironbeard cast Crusader’s Strike which improved damage.
Taylendil got targeted again, the kobold minion managed to reduce her to 1 hp. Ifford sneak-attacked the Chieftain and got his attention: he was also briefly double-teamed with another kobold, attacking with advantage, but the kobold didn’t last long. Gash waded in with the trusty axe, dealing significant damage, Sir Ironbeard cast Healing Word (and restored 1hp on Taylendil) before bringing the warhammer into play and smiting. Taylendil stepped out of the fight and cast Magic Missile at the Chieftains: reliable damage, round after round, which wore him out.
After he fell, they checked out his quarters, finding treasure and a tapestry with the insignia of the Elder Elemental God on it…
Having run out of time, we left it there.
First Impressions:
The system seems clean and easy to run, player actions can easily be adjudicated by determining which ability check is required rather than trying to work out which skill from a long list applies. One player commented that taking away the skill lists gives more freedom to imagine an action, rather than being constrained by a skill set from which to pick.
Advantage/ Disadvantage seems to work well in play. It’s easy to remember, doesn’t fiddle with numbers or maths and can be worked in as things change (e.g I’d rolled an attack on Taylendil when Sir Ironbeard said he was using Guardian to interpose his shield – I then had to roll disadvantage – and missed – without having to remember what the first roll had been).
Everyone was able to contribute, although Brother Dorkin rolled really poor dice all night and didn’t hit squat. There were significant differences between the two clerics: Sir Ironbeard is a definite heavy hitter, not afraid to wade into battle, with buff spells available to support his strong arm. Brother Dorkin is set up as a spell casting cleric, though there seem to be more “damage enemy” spells in his arsenal than normal for a cleric.
There were a couple of areas of concern – the character sheets showed no consistency in layout and design, the fact that a poor set of stats could create a disparity between characters, the Rogue with Wisdom as a dump stat meaning that Searching (for traps or treasure) has become very tricky (no Skill Mastery and minimum die roll here!). It suddenly makes a Cleric the trap-finder general!
As a first pass it worked well, we’ll play again in a couple of weeks and see how the next set of caves tests them…
