We sat down to make 5th edition D&D characters a few weeks ago. We knew nothing of the adventure we would be running, only that we could only select choices from the Player's Handbook. This was fine, since the goal of this mission is to see how the base rules function without any bells or whistles. I actually jumped the gun (since I own the books) and made my character ahead of time. The others took to the internet for the rules and worked out their characters during the first session (as we have come to do through this process). In the end, the party was a mixed bag:
- Grumbold, male dwarf fighter 1
- Evek, male half-elf sorcerer 1
- Elander, female dwarf cleric 1
- Torinn, male dragonborn (bronze) fighter 1
- Varnash, male dragonborn (copper) paladin 1
No rogue in this mix (not a great idea, but not planned). I went with Protection for my Martial type, the other fighter went for Great Weapon type, and the paladin went with protection also. The cleric took the doman of Life and the sorcerer went with Dragon sorcery. It took a long while to explain the concept of "proficiency" to people who come from a Weapon/Non-weapon Proficiency system. We had to tell them that Proficiency replaces the numbers on the charts for the stuff we used to be good at. The different saving throws also threw them for a loop. However, being back to the basic classes was heartening!
The next week we began the scenario, as we were pulled into....oh no! RAVENLOFT! Eeek!
Yes, Count Strahd von Zarovich had struck again, although this time I think it wasn't his fault. No, this time we found ourselves on the foggy streets of Barovia, deserted except for a pair of children in the middle of the street. We approached and learned that they were terrified of something in the basement. They were dodgy on where their parents were, and since there was no one else in this ghost town, we figured that we would enter the house and find out what was going on.
The lower levels of the place were immaculate but creepy. The place obviously belonged to some wealthy people. It was also completely empty - like totally devoid of anything alive. We spent the entire session exploring one empty room after another, even those in the upstairs. We ended just before going up to the 3rd floor.
The next session we encountered a suit of armor that tried to kill my dwarf fighter! We managed to defeat it but still could not find anything alive in the place. I was again attacked by a spectre defending a stillborn baby in a crib and nearly slain were it not for the quick actions of the party cleric. Another level up we found some bedrooms where the children were found again after they disappeared on us. We were starting to piece together the mystery of the place. By the end of this session we magically made 2nd level!
The next session had us finally locate a means of getting to the basement - from the attic no less! A secret spiral stair led down through the house to a deep cellar crypt. Here were crypts for the family; the mother and father were tucked away in their crypts (we did not disturb these), but the children (who we previously learned died in their rooms upstairs and were now ghosts inhabiting the house) were never buried. Also, the stillborn baby brother was never interred here although there was a crypt. We decided then and there to bury the bones of the children in their crypts (after we learned that the girl had possessed our cleric!). Once that was done we explored some more, until my dwarf fighter walked into a ghoul ambush! I got clobbered but not paralyzed, and retreated to let the others handle the undead. Saving throws in the game seem overused, but I suppose they had to change some of the mechanics. We walked around a bit and explored the basement, looking for the chanting that we could not find. I did manage to locate a spiked pit... did I mention we had no rogue in the group?
On the final session we located a stairway leading down to a chamber housing 13 strange relics with side passages leading to a bunch of holding cells for prisoners and a submerged chamber blocked by a heavy portcullis. We managed to lift the portcullis and enter the submerged chamber, only to be confronted with floating apparitions in the chamber (which appeared after I jumped onto the central dais). This set in motion the shambling mound in the cave-like alcove across the way! While it was forming up out of the mass of rotting vegetation on the floor, everyone took up defensive positions while Torinn went to confront it! Elander and Evek threw several spells at it but most were ineffective or of reduced effectiveness. Weapons seems to work well enough, although we suspect that they weren't doing full damage. Torinn was hitting it for all he was worth, as was Varnash and later myself (hey, it takes a long time to enter melee as a dwarf when you're across a chamber). Then Varnash took a critical hit after being wounded....and died instantly! He was brought down to his negative hp value by the crit and died there on the spot, no save possible! Ouch! We managed to finish off the shambling mound after a few more rounds, but it was a tough battle. After that we tried to leave the house, but the house wouldn't let us leave! It bricked up its windows and tried to kill us with poisonous smoke from the chimneys and pendulum blades at the doors. It took some doing, but we located a shortcut to the main floor lounge and then Torinn smashed through one wall with his maul (releasing a horde of rats which were easily overcome). Evek was poisoned by the smoke but he managed to fight through the pain and leapt through the blades guarding the exit. The rest of us followed, making saves to avoid being poisoned, Torinn hauling Varnash's body. I was the last out of the house, leaping mightily through the blades. Once outside, the fog lifted and the children could be seen waving from the upstairs windows. We had managed to survive a stint in Ravenloft!
By the end of the session we all made 3rd level, except Varnish who was deader than a door nail. The experience seemed...unfulfilling. Our DM was great, the players seemed to have a good time, but the game lacked a certain quality that I've come to expect in my D&D games. Maybe I've just been a DM too long. I try to solve problems from the DM perspective. I tried to role-play as much as possible, but since the scenario was atypical of normal D&D dungeons, I felt like my character's backstory and all those other role-playing elements that seemed so important during character creation were just glossed over. Now, I know that this was a one-shot, but it just seemed like all that time was wasted during character creation.
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OK. So, we have now concluded the run of all the versions of D&D (plus Pathfinder), and it seems that, like the Star Trek films, there is a pattern of like and dislike. I found 5th edition to be better than 4th edition. But it seems that the characters are still way overpowered compared to the monsters. What I did not like about the scenario (which is a D&D module) is the monster selection for a 1st-3rd level group. I mean, come on....a SPECTRE?? a SHAMBLING MOUND?? These were high-level creatures only meant to oppose those characters of upper levels (8th+) in earlier editions. I was a bit shocked to encounter them at 2nd level. I believe that the experience point advancement is too fast as well. After about 2 encounters we all leveled up. If that occurred in original D&D, Gygax would never have laughed at the 40th level characters taking on gods! I dislike the firm Forgotten Realms direction they took the game (again, make it generic for core rules). I like the variations permitted to the characters, but I also found that most players would necessarily gravitate towards an "optimal build" (like they do in all those MMORPGs). I would give 5th edition a solid 3 out of 5 stars. It seems to be very coherent in theory and after first looks, but implementation seemed a bit off to me. There were so many things in the game that seemed like a gloss-over (mainly because players would either ignore the rules anyway, or they didn't fit the play style).
I wanted to play a standard race (dwarf) and a standard class (fighter) because a good game allows those to shine, without being overshadowed by the sub-classes or add-ons. It seemed that our fighters did just as well if not better than the paladin. The paladin could not match the cleric's healing either. but what he did do well no one else in the party could do. The sorcerer seemed to have too many spells, but again this is coming from my previous expectations. I'm sure that if I was playing a spellcaster over 5 sessions in the same adventure, I would not want to run out of spells! We only rested once during those 5 sessions, but it seemed like we were able to complete the adventure rather fast. Granted, 5 sessions to go from 1st to 3rd may seem slow to some people, but we like to take our time, we were learning a new system, and we tend to think before acting. The system seemed to reward some of what we did, but penalized us for taking our time. Either that or our DM was trying to shuffle us along to complete the adventure due to some unknown time-frame restriction. Perhaps if I played a rogue or wizard I would have had a different opinion of the system. It is definitely something that I would try again, perhaps even run.
It dismays me that the only adventures I have access to buy are for levels 1-20. Are the lower levels so fast that it isn't worth writing a full adventure for them? It also seems strange (still) to not stop and train. But this version, like 2nd edition and on, seems more story driven and glosses over some details (like training) that were inherent in the earlier game.
Next time, I'll try and go through all our experiences and see where my players stand and where we're going with my original campaign. The reason we did this experiment for the past year or more is to see which version of the game best matches our concept of fun and excitement. Granted, this is tainted somewhat by the learning curve inherent in trying a new game, but the basic premise of the game changed little (except during 4th). Ideally, I wanted to see what parts we could use to cobble together our own form of D&D. So far, though, 1st edition still seems to be the popular choice.
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