Our battle at this session is an object lesson in why you always need a tank. Joseph wasn't feeling well, so Thok was absent.
After we re-grouped following the battle in the cultist barracks, Snapjaw and thirty or so of his lizardfolk emerged from the bullywug barracks victorious. Despite a few being badly injured, they volunteered to assault the cultists' tower while we went into the keep to attack the head of the cult.
It turns out, they came to us. As we approached the door to the central keep, a pair of invisible attackers ambushed us. Fortunately, thanks to his feats Corrin couldn't be surprised, and managed to beat the attackers on initiative. He managed to stun one of the attackers: the red wizard Azbara Jos. Corrin managed to both stun him, and disrupt his concentration. We actually missed the concentration check right after the attack, so Dralmorar, the other attacker, got in a shot he should not have. He ended up attacking me, but I survived the initial assault. Finally, two gargoyles swooped down off the roof and landed behind cover.
We managed to make some progress in the first normal round, doing some more damage to Azbara, maintaining the stun lock on him, and getting an attack in on Dralmorar. Then two more gargoyles flew in Rezmir, who proceeded to use her breath weapon, dropping Sandi and doing quite a bit of damage to Corrin. By this time, I had been knocked out as well.
D.J. Did offer one option for me to take: having Jamna Gleamsilver show up and have me control her. Ultimately, the turn I took with her ended in a futile charm person spell.
Corrin and Censura did manage one thing: they dropped Azbara Jos and injured most of the gargoyles with a fireball and lured Rezmir away. Although this left poor Sandi a charred corpse, I managed to get a Hail Mary 20 on a death saving throw, which meant I was conscious with 1 hp. I stood up and dropped another gargoyle.
Despite having the upper hand, Rezmir grabbed the unconscious Azbara and flew away with her gargoyles. At this point, Dralmorar offered a cease fire and a truce. Apparently, our ability to win over the lizardfolk had impressed him, and he's not a fan of Tiamat.
Sanpjaw and his lizardfolk emerged victorious from the cultists' tower along with Thok. They saw Rezmir flying into the caves below the castle. If we followed her and took out the bullywug leader, Pharblex Spattergoo, Dralmorrar even offered to bring Sandi back to life.
I'm guessing that Paul may end up playing Jamna next session until we can complete Dralmorar's quest.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Castle Assault, Part III
We started off the session by resolving the initial round of the off-screen lizardfolk and bullywug battle. A few Charisma rolls and Perception rolls determined that the lizardfolk out-numbered the bullywugs by a tremendous amount and quickly defeated them without the cult leaders in the main keep realizing what had happened.
The first event that happened to us directly to us was Daisy, the young kitchen maid, arriving to retrieve the slightly lost and scatter-brained Mrs. Pattinow, reminding her that they needed to finish getting food ready down in the kitchen. So a pack of blood-stained and muddy adventurers got to witness the kitchen staff discussing their duties. Sort of a Game of Thrones meets Downton Abbey.
Moving on from there, we climbed to the third floor. We found it to be lavishly decorated with wood paneling, plush carpets, and a pair of onyx dragon statues flanking the stairs. They were valuable, but also 400 pounds each. We moved further into the room and found another pair of statues flanking a passage further into the suit of rooms. These "statues" sprang to life and attacked. These were ambush drakes, critters we had battled back at the dragon hatchery. It was short battle, and in retrospect I probably used more spells than were necessary. Only Censura took any damage.
Beyond the drakes, we found a sitting room and an unused storage room. Despite the morphing he's gone through, Corrin still had a larcenous streak and took a comfy pillow from the sitting room. We also found a lusciously appointed bedroom complete with two wardrobes, one with a painting of Tiamat on the doors. Thok opened the wardrobe, unleashing a spray of acid that filled the room. Our hit points were a bit low, so the acid spray had a good chance of leading to a TPK. Ultimately, we found some now acid damaged treasure in the wardrobe along with a suit of resalable scale armor on a stand in the bedroom. We came to the conclusion we had ruined Rezmir's bedroom. We barricaded ourselves in a passed a short rest. Censura finally identified his dagger of venom and also bonded to it as his pact weapon.
As we left the tower, a lizardfolk reported on their progress, and suggested me move on to taking care of Dralmorrar. We passed the kitchen on our way to the next area, once again meeting Mrs. Pattinow and Daisy along with the dwarf chef as they were bringing food to a meeting of the cult leaders in the observatory.
In our final encounter, we entered the main cultist barracks, finding twelve low-level cultists and four more of those pesky dragonclaws. Thankfully, Thok blocked the door and forced the bulk of the enemies to find an alternate way around through the inner courtyard. Thok also used the Dodge action. In this edition, it inflicts disadvantage on all attack rolls against the character taking it. It would have helped Thok tank against those dragonclaws. Unfortunately, none ever engaged him. When the cultists and dragonclaws clumped at the passage between to outer courtyard and inner courtyard, Censura fireballed them. Of course, they also took the time to grab a guard drake waiting in the inner courtyard, and it entered the fight. It was a longer battle, mostly from the round-about path the cultists took. But we managed to prevent the dragonclaws from doing their gobs of damage. Two cultists survived our counter-assault, and while Thok managed to kill one of them, the other escaped. So it seems we have lost our element of surprise.
The first event that happened to us directly to us was Daisy, the young kitchen maid, arriving to retrieve the slightly lost and scatter-brained Mrs. Pattinow, reminding her that they needed to finish getting food ready down in the kitchen. So a pack of blood-stained and muddy adventurers got to witness the kitchen staff discussing their duties. Sort of a Game of Thrones meets Downton Abbey.
Moving on from there, we climbed to the third floor. We found it to be lavishly decorated with wood paneling, plush carpets, and a pair of onyx dragon statues flanking the stairs. They were valuable, but also 400 pounds each. We moved further into the room and found another pair of statues flanking a passage further into the suit of rooms. These "statues" sprang to life and attacked. These were ambush drakes, critters we had battled back at the dragon hatchery. It was short battle, and in retrospect I probably used more spells than were necessary. Only Censura took any damage.
Beyond the drakes, we found a sitting room and an unused storage room. Despite the morphing he's gone through, Corrin still had a larcenous streak and took a comfy pillow from the sitting room. We also found a lusciously appointed bedroom complete with two wardrobes, one with a painting of Tiamat on the doors. Thok opened the wardrobe, unleashing a spray of acid that filled the room. Our hit points were a bit low, so the acid spray had a good chance of leading to a TPK. Ultimately, we found some now acid damaged treasure in the wardrobe along with a suit of resalable scale armor on a stand in the bedroom. We came to the conclusion we had ruined Rezmir's bedroom. We barricaded ourselves in a passed a short rest. Censura finally identified his dagger of venom and also bonded to it as his pact weapon.
As we left the tower, a lizardfolk reported on their progress, and suggested me move on to taking care of Dralmorrar. We passed the kitchen on our way to the next area, once again meeting Mrs. Pattinow and Daisy along with the dwarf chef as they were bringing food to a meeting of the cult leaders in the observatory.
In our final encounter, we entered the main cultist barracks, finding twelve low-level cultists and four more of those pesky dragonclaws. Thankfully, Thok blocked the door and forced the bulk of the enemies to find an alternate way around through the inner courtyard. Thok also used the Dodge action. In this edition, it inflicts disadvantage on all attack rolls against the character taking it. It would have helped Thok tank against those dragonclaws. Unfortunately, none ever engaged him. When the cultists and dragonclaws clumped at the passage between to outer courtyard and inner courtyard, Censura fireballed them. Of course, they also took the time to grab a guard drake waiting in the inner courtyard, and it entered the fight. It was a longer battle, mostly from the round-about path the cultists took. But we managed to prevent the dragonclaws from doing their gobs of damage. Two cultists survived our counter-assault, and while Thok managed to kill one of them, the other escaped. So it seems we have lost our element of surprise.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Gameplay: Rocket Tag!
After twenty or so sessions of play, I can definitely say that 5e features a lot of rocket tag combat. The term describes combats where the first team to hit generally wins. Of course, as with any format that uses randomization, sometimes a few lucky rolls can turn the tables. But in that absence of that, a DM wishing to avoid a TPK will have to constuct a convincing out to save an unlucky party, particularly at lower levels.
Generally speaking, this makes 5e more like 3e. In 3e, damage values climbed rapidly compared to hit points. In 4e, damage and hit point values scaled closer together. Part of how the damage out-stripped hit points in 3e was the bonus scale, where the attack bonus curve eclipsed the AC curve. However, for saving throws and their DCs, the bonus of saving throws eventually eclipsed the DCs, particularly for spell casters. Also, the way save DCs were calculated meant that most casters wouldn't cast their lower level spells. 4e flattened the bonus curves and normalized them. 5e flattened the curves even further. Barring magical intervention, your attack will cap +11. A character proficient in heavy armor using a shield will cap at AC 20. A spell caster's saving throw DC will cap at 19. The saving throw bonus will cap at +11, like attacks. The highest level monsters released so far are Tiamat and the Tarrasque, both with AC 25.
There a benefits and drawbacks to rocket tagging. Generally, it keeps combat shorter and encourages pro-active tactics, but it heightens the importance of a good initiative score and, failing that, being able to overwhelm your opponents. Non-rocket tag combats, however, allow for longer and more tactical encounters. They also emphasize more defensive strategies.
Ultimately, its more of a subjective preference that an objective statement of value. A more simulationist stance would prefer rocket tag, since most fights really are decided by who hits first. From a gamist perspective, something that allows a more tactical approach offers the players more options. From a narrativist perspective, it really matters how much the combat and narrative are tied together, and whether a shorter or longer fight makes a more interesting narrative.
A good system to illustrate a narrativist take is FATE. FATE's conflict resolution is technically rocket-tag, but you can opt to remain in a conflict by taking consequences that are as much mechanical effects as they are character traits and story hooks.
I've come to find I'm not much a simulationist and more of a gamist, but as time has gone on my preference is increasingly for narrativist. So I find the rocket tag by turns irksome (for example, when I get rocket tagged out of the battle before getting to take a turn) and a boon (for example, when we manage to quickly and efficiently end a combat and get to move onto the next part of the story).
Generally speaking, this makes 5e more like 3e. In 3e, damage values climbed rapidly compared to hit points. In 4e, damage and hit point values scaled closer together. Part of how the damage out-stripped hit points in 3e was the bonus scale, where the attack bonus curve eclipsed the AC curve. However, for saving throws and their DCs, the bonus of saving throws eventually eclipsed the DCs, particularly for spell casters. Also, the way save DCs were calculated meant that most casters wouldn't cast their lower level spells. 4e flattened the bonus curves and normalized them. 5e flattened the curves even further. Barring magical intervention, your attack will cap +11. A character proficient in heavy armor using a shield will cap at AC 20. A spell caster's saving throw DC will cap at 19. The saving throw bonus will cap at +11, like attacks. The highest level monsters released so far are Tiamat and the Tarrasque, both with AC 25.
There a benefits and drawbacks to rocket tagging. Generally, it keeps combat shorter and encourages pro-active tactics, but it heightens the importance of a good initiative score and, failing that, being able to overwhelm your opponents. Non-rocket tag combats, however, allow for longer and more tactical encounters. They also emphasize more defensive strategies.
Ultimately, its more of a subjective preference that an objective statement of value. A more simulationist stance would prefer rocket tag, since most fights really are decided by who hits first. From a gamist perspective, something that allows a more tactical approach offers the players more options. From a narrativist perspective, it really matters how much the combat and narrative are tied together, and whether a shorter or longer fight makes a more interesting narrative.
A good system to illustrate a narrativist take is FATE. FATE's conflict resolution is technically rocket-tag, but you can opt to remain in a conflict by taking consequences that are as much mechanical effects as they are character traits and story hooks.
I've come to find I'm not much a simulationist and more of a gamist, but as time has gone on my preference is increasingly for narrativist. So I find the rocket tag by turns irksome (for example, when I get rocket tagged out of the battle before getting to take a turn) and a boon (for example, when we manage to quickly and efficiently end a combat and get to move onto the next part of the story).
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Castle Assault Part II
Corrin returned to the party, guided through the mere by friendly lizardfolk. We filled him in on what had transpired since he fled the rats in the tunnel and continued with our adventure.
Before we split off from our lizardfolk allies, Snapjaw pulled me aside and told me, in broken common to look under the black dragon head in the chapel for a treasure. He mentioned that he had crafted it himself. After the hint, Censura used darkness to cover our entry into the castle.
We found ourselves in the chapel Snapjaw mentioned. Not unsurprisingly, it was dedicated to Tiamat. Also, as it was made by proud lizardfolk, all five dragon heads resembled lizardfolk. Following Snapjaws advice, I searched the black dragon head, finding a hidden compartment in the mouth. I found an object wrapped in black cloth. After carefully unrolling it from the cloth, I found a curved dagger with scale and serpent designs and a green glisten on the blade. Without an identify spell, we had to base our knowledge of it off the description: a dagger of venom. Ultimately, we decided that only Censura had a use for the weapon, so it was given to him.
Flush with loot, we continued on, encountering four dragonclaws: two were hiding in a rubbish heap and the other two were hidden behind a door. They managed to beat our initiative and flank us. Dragonclaws, as I've mentioned before, are nasty little glass cannons, with pack tactics to get advantage on attack rolls, multiattack to get two attacks in a turn, and a feature called fanatic advantage, which gives them bonus damage to one attack in the turn. They dropped me in one turn and managed to bring Thok pretty close. Of course, there's the glass part of that cannon equation. We dropped three of those dragonclaws in the next turn, and Censura used one of his newer spells: crown of madness. It did help that Sandi managed to roll two critical hits in a row.
This is a complicated variant of charm person. For the duration, the victim has an iron crown on their head. They're charmed by the caster, and on their turn must attack a target of the caster's choice before moving. Its a nice, flavorful variant of the classic charm person. Spells like this fill the Warlock list, just as spells like Sandi's hail of thorns fill the Ranger and Paladin lists.
Ultimately, the remaining dragonclaw surrendered to us before the charm effect wore off. We managed to learn that the next floor contained a library and to disarm and put the cultist in manacles before the charm wore off. He also mentioned the names of the kitchen staff: the cook, a dwarf named Tharm Tharmzid, Daisy, and Mrs. Pattinow. We ended up leaving the cultist bound and buried under the corpses of his allies in the rubbish room. Not too bad for a party with two lawful good characters, I say.
We went to the second floor and found a library. We emerged into a storage room filled with books of folktales and other minor works. In the main library we encountered a dragonwing, the bigger badder cousin of dragonclaws, and some cultist minions. Corrin and Thok managed to drop three of those four cultists in one round. The dragonwing attacked me, but thanks to cover from a bookcase, even with advantage, the dragonwing's attacks still failed to hit me.
The last encounter of the evening was with Mrs. Pattinow. We found a kicthen storage room off the library (actually, DJ misread the map, but the encounter was fun anyway). She lamented the ingredients for the food: bloodberries, crickets, and centipedes. She also mentioned Daisy, who apparently was hoping to get an education. Censura actually donated some gold to the kitchen staff before we prepared to move onto the third floor of the castle wing.
Before we split off from our lizardfolk allies, Snapjaw pulled me aside and told me, in broken common to look under the black dragon head in the chapel for a treasure. He mentioned that he had crafted it himself. After the hint, Censura used darkness to cover our entry into the castle.
We found ourselves in the chapel Snapjaw mentioned. Not unsurprisingly, it was dedicated to Tiamat. Also, as it was made by proud lizardfolk, all five dragon heads resembled lizardfolk. Following Snapjaws advice, I searched the black dragon head, finding a hidden compartment in the mouth. I found an object wrapped in black cloth. After carefully unrolling it from the cloth, I found a curved dagger with scale and serpent designs and a green glisten on the blade. Without an identify spell, we had to base our knowledge of it off the description: a dagger of venom. Ultimately, we decided that only Censura had a use for the weapon, so it was given to him.
Flush with loot, we continued on, encountering four dragonclaws: two were hiding in a rubbish heap and the other two were hidden behind a door. They managed to beat our initiative and flank us. Dragonclaws, as I've mentioned before, are nasty little glass cannons, with pack tactics to get advantage on attack rolls, multiattack to get two attacks in a turn, and a feature called fanatic advantage, which gives them bonus damage to one attack in the turn. They dropped me in one turn and managed to bring Thok pretty close. Of course, there's the glass part of that cannon equation. We dropped three of those dragonclaws in the next turn, and Censura used one of his newer spells: crown of madness. It did help that Sandi managed to roll two critical hits in a row.
This is a complicated variant of charm person. For the duration, the victim has an iron crown on their head. They're charmed by the caster, and on their turn must attack a target of the caster's choice before moving. Its a nice, flavorful variant of the classic charm person. Spells like this fill the Warlock list, just as spells like Sandi's hail of thorns fill the Ranger and Paladin lists.
Ultimately, the remaining dragonclaw surrendered to us before the charm effect wore off. We managed to learn that the next floor contained a library and to disarm and put the cultist in manacles before the charm wore off. He also mentioned the names of the kitchen staff: the cook, a dwarf named Tharm Tharmzid, Daisy, and Mrs. Pattinow. We ended up leaving the cultist bound and buried under the corpses of his allies in the rubbish room. Not too bad for a party with two lawful good characters, I say.
We went to the second floor and found a library. We emerged into a storage room filled with books of folktales and other minor works. In the main library we encountered a dragonwing, the bigger badder cousin of dragonclaws, and some cultist minions. Corrin and Thok managed to drop three of those four cultists in one round. The dragonwing attacked me, but thanks to cover from a bookcase, even with advantage, the dragonwing's attacks still failed to hit me.
The last encounter of the evening was with Mrs. Pattinow. We found a kicthen storage room off the library (actually, DJ misread the map, but the encounter was fun anyway). She lamented the ingredients for the food: bloodberries, crickets, and centipedes. She also mentioned Daisy, who apparently was hoping to get an education. Censura actually donated some gold to the kitchen staff before we prepared to move onto the third floor of the castle wing.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Castle Attack, Part I
When we last left our heroes, we had convinced Snapjaw that we were willing help him and his tribe throw off the oppression of the cultists. However, Snapjaw was only able to convince half of his compatriots that we were capable of the feat. They proposed a test of strength: there was a "plant that shambles" plaguing them, so we had to go and kill it.
After short rest, the lizardfolk led us to the lair of the shambling mound in an old ruin. Thok decided to light a fire in front of its lair, mostly for the sake of showmanship. The creature emerged from its lair, only to promptly find itself the target of offensive spells, arrows, and hammer smashes. In our first turn we managed to deliver 58 points of damage! It's good to be fifth level. Ultimately, we were victorious without taking a single point of damage.
Snapjaw and his tribe spread the word about our heroics while we settled in for a long rest. After we woke up, we point on tiger-striped headbands and had tiger-stripe face paint put on to mark us as allies of the lizardfolk tribes, then made our way to lizardfolk camp deeper in the Mere to discuss the plan.
The lizardfolk let us know about the grounds around castle Naerytar, including the location of bullywug huts, the location of lizardfolk huts, and a pen for "trained" giant lizards we were told to avoid. They explained that the barbican was guarded by bullywugs and giant frogs, and that they kept a drum on the second floor to sound the alarm. We also learned that about half of the lizardfolk at the castle would actively help us, while the rest would stay out of our way and keep silent if questioned. Once we worked out a plan to attack the barbican, we canoed through the swamp to the castle.
D.J. tried another interesting option, splitting up 15 lizardfolk NPCs up between us (only Alek, Censura, Sandi and Thok were present) and controlled directly in battle. Time will tell how this works out. In the initial attack, it added lots of extra participants, but they ended up serving mostly as a distraction.
Censura successfully bluffed his way past the initial bullywug guards, so we had a surprise round to take out the 10 bullywugs and 2 giant frogs on the ground floor and 9 bullywugs on the second floor and silence the signal drum. It turns out fireball is useful for dropping masses of enemies. Censura dropped most of the ground floor guards in one turn. In the meantime, Alek managed to silence the drum, and then Thok was able to destroy it outright. Once the remaining enemies on the ground floor were taken care of by the lizardfolk and Sandi, Censura came upstairs and used another fireball to clear them.
Ultimately, only Thok took damage in that second battle, and that was mostly due to incredibly lucky rolls on the DM's part.
We regrouped in the barbican and planned our next course of action: allowing the lizardfolk to subdue the bullywugs while we tried to gain the help of a member of the Cult more friendly to the lizardfolk. We opted to allow the bullywug and lizardfolk conflict to occur "of screen" to save time.
We'll delve further into the castle, which is truly the largest and most complex dungeon this adventure has offered so far.
After short rest, the lizardfolk led us to the lair of the shambling mound in an old ruin. Thok decided to light a fire in front of its lair, mostly for the sake of showmanship. The creature emerged from its lair, only to promptly find itself the target of offensive spells, arrows, and hammer smashes. In our first turn we managed to deliver 58 points of damage! It's good to be fifth level. Ultimately, we were victorious without taking a single point of damage.
Snapjaw and his tribe spread the word about our heroics while we settled in for a long rest. After we woke up, we point on tiger-striped headbands and had tiger-stripe face paint put on to mark us as allies of the lizardfolk tribes, then made our way to lizardfolk camp deeper in the Mere to discuss the plan.
The lizardfolk let us know about the grounds around castle Naerytar, including the location of bullywug huts, the location of lizardfolk huts, and a pen for "trained" giant lizards we were told to avoid. They explained that the barbican was guarded by bullywugs and giant frogs, and that they kept a drum on the second floor to sound the alarm. We also learned that about half of the lizardfolk at the castle would actively help us, while the rest would stay out of our way and keep silent if questioned. Once we worked out a plan to attack the barbican, we canoed through the swamp to the castle.
D.J. tried another interesting option, splitting up 15 lizardfolk NPCs up between us (only Alek, Censura, Sandi and Thok were present) and controlled directly in battle. Time will tell how this works out. In the initial attack, it added lots of extra participants, but they ended up serving mostly as a distraction.
Censura successfully bluffed his way past the initial bullywug guards, so we had a surprise round to take out the 10 bullywugs and 2 giant frogs on the ground floor and 9 bullywugs on the second floor and silence the signal drum. It turns out fireball is useful for dropping masses of enemies. Censura dropped most of the ground floor guards in one turn. In the meantime, Alek managed to silence the drum, and then Thok was able to destroy it outright. Once the remaining enemies on the ground floor were taken care of by the lizardfolk and Sandi, Censura came upstairs and used another fireball to clear them.
Ultimately, only Thok took damage in that second battle, and that was mostly due to incredibly lucky rolls on the DM's part.
We regrouped in the barbican and planned our next course of action: allowing the lizardfolk to subdue the bullywugs while we tried to gain the help of a member of the Cult more friendly to the lizardfolk. We opted to allow the bullywug and lizardfolk conflict to occur "of screen" to save time.
We'll delve further into the castle, which is truly the largest and most complex dungeon this adventure has offered so far.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Some Mechanics Revisited
There were a couple of rules discussions we had that I think bear some comment.
Following the battle with the ettercaps and their spiders, D.J. noted that the ettercaps seemed a bit weak, particularly for CR 2 monsters. We did manage to handle them with little damage. But I did a little breakdown myself.
In this edition, custom-built monsters and NPCs are compared to a table to determine their CR. The table, found on page 274 of the DMG, ranks a monster's total to-hit bonus, AC, HP, average damage per turn, and save DCs to determine CR, and the CR then determines the NPC/monster's proficiency bonus. Taking a look at the ettercap's stats, their attack bonus is a bit high for a CR 2 monster, but their save DCs and HP are low. However, their over-all damage per round and AC are spot on. So are they over-powered, under-powered, or spot-on?
Honestly, it is a tough call. Challenge, particularly when trying to compare it to character levels. Even with the structure and restrictions on character options provided by Adventurer's League, a well-built and well-played group of characters can over-come even tremendous challenges, and that capability only grows as the characters level. I think some features are low-balled (such as pack tactics), but I think the over-all effect of some features (again, pack tactics) become easier to minimize as characters grow in level.
Then, Joseph had done some math. The next upgrade in armor for Thok is full plate. Based on the crafting rules, Thok would need to accumulate 300 downtime days in order to craft that. Based on Adventurer's League rules, Thok would need to complete 30 "episodes" of adventuring to accumulate that. Again, D.J. commented on this as possible design problem.
My take is actually more of a design flaw in the structured nature of Adventurer's League rather than game mechanics. In a home game, a DM can grant the party however many downtime days he wants. Adventurer's League provides a more strict approach. This is exacerbated by the "Season" structure of Encounters play. Further, even assuming we decided to play the full Tyranny of Dragons, Thok will have enough money to buy a suit of armor out-right rather than craft it for a discount before we finished Rise of Tiamat. This one is a little easier to fix: provide more opportunities to earn downtime days in structured play. Ultimately, though, it may not matter, at least for our game.
My game design experience is "arm chair," but I have made attempts to organize structured play. I can attest that few things will survive contact with players, ultimately. Good game design and good structured play events work to minimize imbalances rather than prevent them. And to be honest, my experience with previous editions of D&D show that this edition is by far and away is the best at minimizing it.
I'll return with our further adventurers. I have another announcement: started a new blog for my fictions: Tales of Trismegistus. Check it out!
Following the battle with the ettercaps and their spiders, D.J. noted that the ettercaps seemed a bit weak, particularly for CR 2 monsters. We did manage to handle them with little damage. But I did a little breakdown myself.
In this edition, custom-built monsters and NPCs are compared to a table to determine their CR. The table, found on page 274 of the DMG, ranks a monster's total to-hit bonus, AC, HP, average damage per turn, and save DCs to determine CR, and the CR then determines the NPC/monster's proficiency bonus. Taking a look at the ettercap's stats, their attack bonus is a bit high for a CR 2 monster, but their save DCs and HP are low. However, their over-all damage per round and AC are spot on. So are they over-powered, under-powered, or spot-on?
Honestly, it is a tough call. Challenge, particularly when trying to compare it to character levels. Even with the structure and restrictions on character options provided by Adventurer's League, a well-built and well-played group of characters can over-come even tremendous challenges, and that capability only grows as the characters level. I think some features are low-balled (such as pack tactics), but I think the over-all effect of some features (again, pack tactics) become easier to minimize as characters grow in level.
Then, Joseph had done some math. The next upgrade in armor for Thok is full plate. Based on the crafting rules, Thok would need to accumulate 300 downtime days in order to craft that. Based on Adventurer's League rules, Thok would need to complete 30 "episodes" of adventuring to accumulate that. Again, D.J. commented on this as possible design problem.
My take is actually more of a design flaw in the structured nature of Adventurer's League rather than game mechanics. In a home game, a DM can grant the party however many downtime days he wants. Adventurer's League provides a more strict approach. This is exacerbated by the "Season" structure of Encounters play. Further, even assuming we decided to play the full Tyranny of Dragons, Thok will have enough money to buy a suit of armor out-right rather than craft it for a discount before we finished Rise of Tiamat. This one is a little easier to fix: provide more opportunities to earn downtime days in structured play. Ultimately, though, it may not matter, at least for our game.
My game design experience is "arm chair," but I have made attempts to organize structured play. I can attest that few things will survive contact with players, ultimately. Good game design and good structured play events work to minimize imbalances rather than prevent them. And to be honest, my experience with previous editions of D&D show that this edition is by far and away is the best at minimizing it.
I'll return with our further adventurers. I have another announcement: started a new blog for my fictions: Tales of Trismegistus. Check it out!
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