{"id":1841,"date":"2019-01-27T13:23:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T21:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/?p=1841"},"modified":"2019-01-27T13:23:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T21:23:06","slug":"dungeons-dragons-does-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/2019\/dungeons-dragons-does-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Dungeons & Dragons Does Good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I started running\nDungeons & Dragons 5e (5e) campaign for my kids and one of their\nfriends.  As part of the preparation I\nread the main three books cover-to-cover. \nAfter reading the books I came away with a realization, “They done\ngood.”  Many of my perceived minor\nfoibles that were present in 3e and earlier additions are smoothed over or\nrewritten.  I know this is 5 years or so\nlate but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6here is a simple review of the changes in 5e that caught my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolling Thunder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dice mechanic\nhas changed subtly for the better.  First\noff all rolls are now high.  Instead of\nrolling low for skills, high for attacks, etc players now always want to roll high.  Skills are rolled using a d20 plus a\ncharacteristic bonus plus a proficiency bonus based on level if you have the\nskill.  This means skills automatically\nimprove as the player levels.  Neat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have also\nintroduced rolling with Advantage or Disadvantage.  If the PC is at an advantage they get to roll\ntwo d20 and take the best.  If the PC is\nat a disadvantage they roll two d20 and take the worst result.  Simple yet really effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasionally a PC\nmight be in a situation where a roll is not done as they are not actively\nperforming a task.  For example, someone\nis trying to sneak up on them as they walk down a trail.  In this case there is passive checks.  Passive checks are a calculated number (10\nplus modifiers) that is compared to a target. \nSo in my example, if the walker has a passive perception of 14 the\nperson sneaking up has to hit that with their roll to stay hidden.  Again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6simple\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We All Go To Town Together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything is\ncondensed to one experience point chart. \nGosh this make so much sense and should have been done ages ago.  This also makes it easier to treat\nadvancement as characters will often level at nearly the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GM is also give\nadvice on how to balance encounters based on level and a simple formula.  This makes it easier to plan encounters and\nadjust them on the fly if say one of your players cannot make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspirational!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One really fantastic\nchange is stolen right from systems with bennies like Savage Worlds.  There is a new mechanic called\nInspiration.  This mechanic gives the\nplayer an Inspiration point when their character follows one of their flaws,\ntraits, or bonds.  This point can be\nspent to give them Advantage on a roll. \nI really appreciate mechanics like this that give the players a bit more\ncontrol of outcomes if it is really important to the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Hit Points (HP)\nat level 1 is also a very nice touch. \nThis makes starting PC able to take at least a couple of good hits\nbefore dying.  This is great at giving PC\na bit more staying paying up front.  Also\nhealing is simpler.  In fact it makes it\nso that every party does not need a cleric. \nAnother wonderful change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magic Mana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magic is changed as\nwell.  Characters using magic have\nprepared spells but these do not restrict how many times they can use each\nspell.  The amount of times a caster can\ndo a spell is driven by spell slots.  So\na wizard might memorize Magic Missile, Unseen Servant, and Identify.  During an adventure they can use their spell\nslots to cast any of those spells until the slots are gone.  Again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6simple but less restricting.  Nice change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amount of magic\nitems each PC can use is controlled. \nCharacters have to bond with magic items.  This takes a brief amount of time.  The key here is that they can bond to 3 items\nonly!  This means characters are less\ndependent on magical crutches and forced to use the talents of their\nclass.  Excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really looking\nforward to see how things turn out as the campaign advances with these\ntweaks.  I guess this goes without\nsaying\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6this might be my favorite Dungeons & Dragons Edition to date.  Critical hit WOTC!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary I started running Dungeons & Dragons 5e (5e) campaign for my kids and one of their friends.  As part of the preparation I read the main three books cover-to-cover.  After reading the books I came away with a realization, “They done good.”  Many of my perceived minor foibles that were present in 3e and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-growlings","category-product-reviews"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}