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2014/06/08 07:10:22
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): New "Basic D&D" = Free PDF, p. 7
Red Harvest wrote: DM's don't kill characters. Monsters kill characters. No alibi needed.
So do spaceship crashes
Teleport mishaps. Because you could make the players roll those In AD&D 1e, IIRC, There was a 4% chance of coming in 10-40 feet high (ie above the ground) at a well-known location. A player in one campaign of mine built a special chamber, so even if he came in high or low he would be safe. Only, the player made the ceiling 41 feet high. So the top 5' of the mage ended up in stone, and the lower 1' of the mage was dangling from the ceiling. Oops. Also, potion miscibilities. There were so many ways for PCs to do themselves in...
About the child characters: For adults, I can think it would only work well if all the PCs were children, and that was the basis for the campaign. (Orphanage burnt down, or village destroyed and all adults murdered... etc.) It could be an interesting narrative. Otherwise, it seems a bit unsettling.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/31 23:29:30
2014/09/02 21:21:14
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
What is the 'Fey Knight' about? My little gang is looking at the 5e stuff, and someone has expressed an interest in this character class. I don't have the PHB yet, but should soon enough... as soon as Amazon ships it, anyway.
I always had a list of classes and races that existed in a particular campaign from which players could chose. Not all classes and races need be available in a given campaign.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/02 21:22:03
2014/09/02 22:55:09
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Walking speed was 12", same as a human. Flying speed was 24". 2-16 appeared. 4HD, level drainers and needed magical weapons to hit. The only chance for survival was to be the fastest in the party. Gygax was a bit bloodthirsty I think. Clerics did not have turn undead either :(
The power level of low level characters seems to have increased quite a bit over the years.
2014/09/26 23:28:26
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Bummer. But it's always fun to roll up new characters
Manchu wrote: It's like you guys assume the world is nothing but a grid map with minis to move into and out of combat range.
There is more to getting into and getting out of trouble than movement speed. A random encounter table is not necessarily a random "either it dies or we die" table.
We are talking Original -as in from the little brown books- D&D here. The relevant quote from "The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures" booklet. Spoilered because of length
Spoiler:
Avoiding Monsters: Monsters will automatically attack and/or pursue any char-
acters they "see", with the exception of those monsters which are intelligent
enough to avoid an obviously superior force. There is no chance for avoiding if
the monster has surprised the adventurers and is within 20 feet, unless the mon-
ster itself has been surprised. If the adventurers choose to flee, the monster will
continue to pursue in a straight line as long as there is not more than 90 feet be-
tween the two. When a corner is turned or a door passed through or stairs up or
down taken the monster will only continue to follow if a 1 or a 2 is rolled on a
6-sided die. If a secret door is passed through the monster will follow only on a
roll of 1. Distance will open or close dependent upon the relative speeds of the
two parties, men according to their encumberance and monsters according to the
speed given on the Monster Table in Volume II. In order to move faster characters
may elect to discard items such as treasure, weapons, shields, etc. in order to light-
en encumberance.
There is a 25% chance that any character surprised by a monster will drop some
item. If he does, roll for the possibilities remembering that only these items held
could be so dropped.
Burning oil will deter many monsters from continuing pursuit.
Edible items will have a small likelihood (10%) of distracting intelligent monsters
from pursuit. Semi-intelligent monsters will be distracted 50% of the time. Non-
intelligent monsters will be distracted 90% of the time by food.
Treasure will have the opposite reaction as food, being more likely to stop in-
telligent monsters.
Random Actions by Monsters: Other than in pursuit situations, the more intelli-
gent monsters will act randomly according to the results of the score rolled on
two (six-sided) dice:
2 - 5 negative reaction
6 - 8 uncertain reaction
9-12 positive reaction
The dice score is to be modified by additions and subtractions for such things as
bribes offered, fear, alignment of the parties concerned, etc.
You could bargain with certain sorts of monsters, often to good end, to be sure, but low intelligence Wraiths? Nope. All they want is to drain your character's life. Nothing else mattered to them, not food, not treasure. You either got out of sight/got away or you fought them. Some monsters are just binary like that.
This grid thing? That is a 4e feature? We never had that. I and my little group, we are just now returning to D&D after a 20 year hiatus, FYI. This 5e is looking pretty good to us. And I am going to get stuck playing the magic-user :( They seem much improved. So maybe not so bad.
2014/09/27 18:13:15
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Melissia wrote: Hmm, no monstrous walls, ceiling, or floors in that list.
Sadly no. But there is an option to encounter Androids, Cyborgs and Robots. So it has that going for it. Trappers, Mimics and Lurkers Above didn't appear until the AD&D monster manual.
Of course if one wants bloodthirsty then they should read the original Tomb of Horrors, though that was designed with bloodthirstiness in mind.
If you are ever lost in the Tomb, here is a map to help you out I read that module when it first came out. Ugh. Nobody ever wanted to deal with it.
nomotog wrote: Some times it is kill or be killed. You know like a wraith. You can't really reason with a wraith.
Indeed. Or say, a shark. If it perceives you as a meal, it will attack... The problem lies in making a sweeeping, and somewhat insulting, generalization from a reaction to a specific encounter, rather than dealing with the specifics of the encounter. Or Anthropomorphizing monsters. Either way, not worth any more words.
Which is the more interesting Magic-User to play, a conjuror or a Transmuter?
2014/10/03 23:41:02
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Resilience seems quite useful. +1 and a saving throw proficiency to any ability.
These spell cards that GF9 has produced, do they seem bland to anyone else? They remind me of the Adventure Games (Wrath of Ashardalon) style cards. The way the PHB organizes spells is sub-optimal, so cards, in theory, seem useful enough.
2014/10/04 11:30:16
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
I like this sort of aid too. I have grown quite accustomed to cards, first through the D&D Adventure games and most recently with the Pathfinder Adventure Card game. They are a convenient way to keep character information.
The GF9 cards are so dull looking though (yeah, already said that.) Maybe I'll make my own. And a few other card types too. Have a character deck instead of a character sheet.
I have no understanding at all as to why WoTC organized the spells in the PHB as they did. At least sort them by class, if not by class and level. The alphabetized blob they did is a PITA.
2014/10/05 05:13:43
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Spiral notebooks mar the covers of hardback books if they are in the same bookbag. Three ring binders are better. If you use those, you could name your wizard Mitt the Magician(MtM) and say that MtM has binders full of... spells. Hard to read them though. He fired his long time scribe and out-sourced the work overseas.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/10/05 05:17:52
2014/10/05 22:08:24
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
Would Cashier be a regular class, or a prestige class?
So I ended up with a human wizard in my little group. There is a Dragonborn ranger, a 1/2elf paladin (to be a fey knight) and a human paladin. Our DM is 'translating' the Kingmaker campaign from Paizo into 5e for us. Should be interesting.
2014/11/09 17:52:21
Subject: D&D (Fifth Edition): Basic Rules Free PDF (link in OP)
That Challenge Rating system seems a bit awkward. And goblins seem to be under-rated. Bonus disengage +shortbow is a nasty and lethal combo against low level characters.
Does anyone know how the CRs for inidividual monsters are determined?
In 
I read that module when it first came out. Ugh. Nobody ever wanted to deal with it.