D&D: Next

[mathus]

Here is a duplication of some Facebook posts I put on Neimz page there.


I will start this off with the first link.

www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDNext.aspx

You can sign up for the play test here.

[mathus]

From the letter that is included in the playtest.

This is the first of many playtests packets. The final game will likely look different from what you see here, as we work to fine-­‐tune it.
• These rules will likely look more compact than the most recent editions of D&D. In many cases, we decided to excise a rule or element of the game to see if it really is a key component of
playing D&D.
• This iteration of the playtest includes the four classic classes represented by a set of pre-­generated characters. We’ve included two clerics to show you how we intend the domain system to
work.
• Our goal at this stage is to fine-­‐tune the core rules. We’ll ask for your feedback on character creation, advancement, and adventure design rules in the coming months.

Interesting. The new rule mechanic is Advantage/Disadvantage. If you have advantage against a creature you roll two D20s and take the better. Disadvantage you roll two and take the worst. These apply to former situations where you would instead get a bonus to hit.

e.g. Wearing armor you cant use, disadvantage. Attacking someone prone, advantage. Creature is blinded, disadvantage. The range of your bow is set at 20, from 20-40, disadvantage. Firing a range weapon while adjacent to an enemy, disadvantage.

[mathus]

Played the first play test of D&D Next last night. It feels very 2nd Edition. They have gone back to Vancian magic, skills are very open ended and not well defined, and classes feel much more linear compared to the merging of roles you saw in 3.5 and 4th edition.

Do I like it? Well we haven't gotten into combat yet. The first night the party was negotiating all night with various monster tribes. Next week if we continue to play, they will go into an evil cultist's temple to rescue a medusa to once again bring all the monster tribes under one leader and stop the tribes from raiding the local villages. (Instead they will pay a tribute to the leader so the tribes don't torch their fields and homes on raids.)

P.S. The introduction adventure is a recreation of B2 - Keep on the Borderlands.

[mathus]

From my second survey I filled out for WotC on this new version.

Question was: How did you like the included adventure?

I am a 36-year-old and sometimes don't have time to "create" an adventure. But I did like how they basically gave me a big sandbox and then had 5-7 adventure storylines to run in the beginning. Because I knew my players would want to explore and not die I used the adventure suggestion of the tribute negotiations followed up by a rescuing of the medusa. It put my players into a "talk first, attack second" and allowed them to visit some dangerous tribes without committing suicide by trying to kill everything.

But I usually prefer my adventures written out more and my players know that if the adventure feels like a railroad sometimes, it is because we all have jobs and I don't have 4-6 hours a week to dedicate to creating an adventure for them. I much prefer to just add in some custom storytelling elements to an existing adventure.

Comments on overall experience:

The only complaint I have is I don't like Vancian magic. But this is alleviated by giving magic-users an attack cantrip. My biggest complaint about 2nd Edition was that your low level wizard would cast 1-2 spells and then be useless. Vancian magic means that higher levels that issue may return. They expend their 4-5 big spells and then all they can do is stay in the middle of the group and throw rocks like a monkey.

[Niemz]

Thanks for the updats, keep them coming

[mathus]

We have played two more times since the above posts. This time we have gone through combat. The playtest characters are 1st level with some additions talking about how level the characters to 2nd and 3rd level. The players are currently about 200 XP from second level.

My first impression on combat? It is sped up which is nice. They did away with facing, attacks of opportunity, reduced combat to two actions instead of the 3 actions per round of 4th Ediiton, changed movement in combat, and try to make the combat compatible with those who like figurines and those who don't graph out their combat.

Some major changes. A combat raound is two actions. Your move action and your Action action. Your movement can be split up. That means you can move up to your enemy, hit, and then move away without penalty up to the limit of your movement allows. You can also give up your Action to Hustle which means a move/move action. I have not seen any rules for running.

A spellcaster with an enemy in his face must make a Con check to fire off a spell successfully. But even a failed check means just loss of action, not loss of spell. You can "run" away from an enemy without penalty due to no attacks of opportunity. Which means you can usually just step away from your enemy to cast a spell without penalty. Also they do a combination of 4th Edition magic with Vancian magic which I can get behind. (A couple of at-will castable spells along with some higher level game changing spells.)

Attack abilities at first level are simplified. Fighters have a sword and can swing it. Wizards have a few spells they can cast whenever they feel like it plus a couple of big spells. (The test wizard can cast magic missile, ray of frost, and shocking grasp at will. They have burning hands and sleep as their once-a-day spells). The cleric either uses their quarterstaff or they have a spell called radiant lance they can cast at will. The rogue has a dagger or a sling. The rogue can attack with advantage (roll twice take the best) if they are hidden before they attack.

I am about to read an article about turning undead next. So far that is my one complaint. The one encounter the party had with undead was five 1st level characters and 8 zombies. The cleric turned all but two of the zombies. Those turned zombies stay turned as long as the cleric concentrates on them. (Using his Action.) It made the encounter overly easy as the party just picked them off one-by-one and they never felt threatened at any time. I reduced the listed XP because the encounter would have been challenging without the turn-undead but with it, it was shooting fish in a barrel.

In summary combat seems fast paced and loose. Which is a nice change of pace. We will see how it may or may not change as things are refined and we continue play testing. It is nice to see the "5-minute" fight not take 2 hours and we can get back to the story faster.

[Kitty]

sounds like an interesting beta. I hope you post more about how its going ^..^