Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Now your playing with Playtests!

[Swooper]

Managed to download it thanks to a googledocs link someone posted in the official thread over on wizards.com. Not sure what to think of this yet, will post again when I've had time to digest it. There's definitely both good and bad stuff in here...

[Anecronwashere]

I got the Sword&Board Blog pirate and am looking through the basics.
Right now a coupe things jump out

1. I freakin Love Advantage/Disadvantage. Maybe if we had an exponential rate of dice gains we could make an Advantage/Disadvantage Stacker?
Each extra dice takes more effort making it a specialized role
2. Improvise needs limits. Give us some examples or DCs to base our Improvs off or we get impossible rolls and too-easy rolls.
3. Hidden seems good.

Anyone wanna pitch in if they have the test yet? (if not google Sword and Board blog)
ideas, demotivators like above, rules recommendations?

[Scowling Dragon]

I found a link on zee twitter.

[Welknair]

Since I signed up early, I was in the first batch of e-mails. Sadly, I'm at a location where the Wizards site is blocked. I trecked out to a nearby unprotected wi-fi and connected up. CAPTCHA. It wouldn't accept any of my captcha codes, and locked my account after around my tenth attempt. Now I won't be able to look at it until this evening.

[Clawhound]

Same here. I won't have a chance until the kid's in bed. She magically knows if daddy is interested in something, which usually results in me watching a marathon of My Little Pony. (Great show, btw. Kids get all the best shows these days.)

[50Copper]

Advantage/Disadvantage is the equivalent, mathematically, of a +5 or a -5 to hit.

That will be the single thing every OP build will include at all times.

Bad idea if it's handed out like candy. Worse idea if it isn't.

[Conundrum]

I found a link on zee twitter.

Any tips on how to find said link?

[noparlpf]

I got the Sword&Board Blog pirate and am looking through the basics.
Right now a coupe things jump out

1. I freakin Love Advantage/Disadvantage. Maybe if we had an exponential rate of dice gains we could make an Advantage/Disadvantage Stacker?
Each extra dice takes more effort making it a specialized role
2. Improvise needs limits. Give us some examples or DCs to base our Improvs off or we get impossible rolls and too-easy rolls.
3. Hidden seems good.

Anyone wanna pitch in if they have the test yet? (if not google Sword and Board blog)
ideas, demotivators like above, rules recommendations?

#1: I think it's a decent idea, but should definitely scale with level/feats/whatever. One of my biggest problems with D&D mechanics is that a beginner and an expert have the same chances of automatically failing/succeeding at something. Even more so when the guys who taught you how to play houseruled natural 1/20 to apply to skills, too.

Same here. I won't have a chance until the kid's in bed. She magically knows if daddy is interested in something, which usually results in me watching a marathon of My Little Pony. (Great show, btw. Kids get all the best shows these days.)

Kids get all the best shows since forever.

[Kurald Galain]

Advantage/Disadvantage is the equivalent, mathematically, of a +5 or a -5 to hit.

Yes. And that's a good thing, because it means that good tactics and ideas will actually make a big difference.

[50Copper]

I like how hit points are gained. It means I can build a wizard that's as bulky as the fighter if I so desire.

Can't wait to have the physical durability of the Hulk AND the arcane might of Dr. Strange.

[noparlpf]

I like how hit points are gained. It means I can build a wizard that's as bulky as the fighter if I so desire.

Can't wait to have the physical durability of the Hulk AND the arcane might of Dr. Strange.

You need to put your highest stat into Con instead of Int, then. And you'll still probably have lower HP than the fighter. Doesn't seem like a great idea to me.

[Knaight]

Yes. And that's a good thing, because it means that good tactics and ideas will actually make a big difference.

A huge difference. I love it already.

[Scowling Dragon]

I like the spell descriptions being more thorough. Like charmed people remember being charmed.

I don't see any spells that are enchanced by increasing level though.

[Welknair]

I don't see any spells that are enchanced by increasing level though.

Check Magic Missile.

[bokodasu]

I won't have a chance until the kid's in bed. She magically knows if daddy is interested in something, which usually results in me watching a marathon of My Little Pony. (Great show, btw. Kids get all the best shows these days.)

I'd be in the same boat, except my kids are at Grammy's for the night. Insert maniacal laughter here! (Except for the fact that I'm behind a firewall for the next half hour, and then off the Internet entirely for the next six so I won't be able to download it until right before bed anyway. Sigh.)

Re: the server issues, yes, it would be very expensive to stand up a bunch of servers for a 1-2 day traffic surge and then have them sit idle for the next six months. That's why there are entire companies devoted to doing that for you, for a relatively reasonable cost. (You only pay for the time you're using the servers; the one we use can have us set up within a couple of hours, and decomission within an hour.) WotC is looking pretty amateur here.

[Scowling Dragon]

Check Magic Missile.

By expending higher levels. Not BY level. Magic missile is the only spell that scales with level.

Also, check out the medusa. Genuis method against save or suck.

Take a large penalty for not looking at the medusa or roll a save to save or stone.

Seems like a solid thing.

[Maxios]

I just got the email! Will post first impressions!

Bad email-link. Damn

[noparlpf]

By expending higher levels. Not BY level. Magic missile is the only spell that scales with level.

Are we reading the same Magic Missile description? It looks to me like it scales by level the same as in 3e. Two 1d4+1 missiles at 3rd level, three at 5th, &c.

Also, check out the medusa. Genuis method against save or suck.

Take a large penalty for not looking at the medusa or roll a save to save or stone.

Seems like a solid thing.

It may not be solid, but your character will be when you fail your save. :b

[The Dark Fiddler]

I'm not sure about how I feel about the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. It seems like it could be good, but if they throw it on everything it could easily go wrong, too.

I'm also wishing some of the spells let you choose what save to make. Hold Person feels like something you should be able to make a Strength save against, for example, but also something you can make a Wisdom save against.

And talking about saves, I'm kind of wishing that things like Charm Person and Command (where you're getting a will imposed on your own) allowed a Charisma save. If Charisma represents your force of personality, that seems like just to thing to resist having yours replaced by somebody else's, no?

And I guess I'm not to fond of the fact that the weapons are all very same-y. Though I do like the finesse weapons don't need a feat anymore, it appears, and that they also get Dexterity to damage.

[noparlpf]

And talking about saves, I'm kind of wishing that things like Charm Person and Command (where you're getting a will imposed on your own) allowed a Charisma save. If Charisma represents your force of personality, that seems like just to thing to resist having yours replaced by somebody else's, no?

The one thing from 4e I liked was that Will saves get either your Wis or your Cha modifier.


So I'm checking out the Gelatinous Cube, because it's kind of integral to D&D, and they put a Con modifier of +5 for a score of 22.

[Dienekes]

So far I like what I see, except the armor rules, they look kinda crap to be honest.

But besides that, looks fun and can't wait to try these out.

[Orsen]

Well I got my e-mail and (surprise surprise), bad link. I tried the Sword and Board blog but that link was broken as well. Now I'm trying to find the googledoc. Fingers crossed...

[Shades of Gray]

And talking about saves, I'm kind of wishing that things like Charm Person and Command (where you're getting a will imposed on your own) allowed a Charisma save. If Charisma represents your force of personality, that seems like just to thing to resist having yours replaced by somebody else's, no?

It's odd, especially since they mention charisma allowing you to resist dominations and compulsions in the ability score description section.

[Maxios]

Well I got my e-mail and (surprise surprise), bad link. I tried the Sword and Board blog but that link was broken as well. Now I'm trying to find the googledoc. Fingers crossed...

If you find it, can you PM it to me?

[Timeless Error]

Waiting for the second e-mail with the download link right now. Oh, the suspense!

[hamlet]

Second email in. Link to download not working. Stupid stupid WOTC.

[The Dark Fiddler]

So I'm checking out the Gelatinous Cube, because it's kind of integral to D&D, and they put a Con modifier of +5 for a score of 22.

See, a typo isn't THAT bad, but now that it's been brought back to mind...

So far I like what I see, except the armor rules, they look kinda crap to be honest.

Heavy armor does seem rather pointless, compared to either medium or light armor, as long as you have a decent (meaning non-negative) Dexterity.

Also, I can see Ray of Frost being ridiculous against solo-Melee types. Hit it, everybody attacks from range, hit it, everybody attacks from range, rinse, repeat.

Searing Light deals a whole lotta damage to undead... unless they really buffed enemies (can you tell I'm only on the spells right now?) it seems like any undead at low levels will get insta-killed.

Silence should allow a check of your casting stat rather than only ever an Intelligence check to keep casting.

I'm just using this thread as a deposit for what I find, now. Sorry, everybody.

Turn Undead says it can destroy undead, but I see nothing in the mechanics that would allow it.

[noparlpf]

So far I like what I see, except the armor rules, they look kinda crap to be honest.

But besides that, looks fun and can't wait to try these out.

I rewrote armor rules a while ago, and my version turned out similar to the "Armor as DR" rules in 3e's Unearthed Arcana. Except I researched armor a bit, and gave them different DRs for bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. Not particularly complicated. It took me maybe an hour to do this and come up with a working mechanic that more accurately reflected real-world armor.

Well I got my e-mail and (surprise surprise), bad link. I tried the Sword and Board blog but that link was broken as well. Now I'm trying to find the googledoc. Fingers crossed...

Really? I just tried and the Sword and Board link is working fine.
The email from WotC, on the other hand...

[Orsen]

I came across this while trying to find out how to get my copy (still working on that) but it should help with anyone confused about what they can legally do or not do with the play test.

If you find it, can you PM it to me?

Sure thing!

[ZeltArruin]

The first email link I got worked just fine, though I had to wait around 10-15 minutes just to get the page to load, then the dl took about a second.

All in all, it looks like a fun system. Anyone else worried about the rogue's sneak attack progression? It goes up 1d6 every level...that could get out of hand if it doesn't scale back at some point. 20d6 at level 20 per attack before regular damage?