DM'ing 5e, thoughts and suggestions

[HorridElemental]

I will be DM'ing for the first time in a while, I have ran a few one shots for 4e and 5e playtest but I haven't ran a campaign in quite a while.

My last campaign was a 4e politico stop the assasinations type game, somewhat like... Well kinda like splinter cell in the way it was ran.

Before that it was a modified 3.P spell jammer game set in modern world Kentucky (though not with modern tech...but that is probably self explanatory :p (hint: I was raised in Ky btw)). The game focused around "aliens" abducting people and the group had to find out who what when where and whatever else.

So plot wise, I should be good. However... With the changes to 5e I would like to know if anyone has any experience they would like to share on running games in 5e and the different challenges that comes with it.

Also tips and tricks would help.

One thing I'm going to implement is using measuring sticks to determine distances when using minis and such. I love battle maps but I think this will speed up play and make things... More realistic and less screwy when you want to go diagonal :). I will still use battle maps and such but squares won't really matter.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or advice?

[hawklost]

My biggest advice is to make sure you have read through the rules and understand them decently well.

There are quite a few minor modifications to the rules that can throw you off if you have played 3.x previously.

Things like Bonus Action only occurring once during a turn and never any more
Crits auto succeed on a 20 instead of confirming
Crits only getting the Damage Dice doubled and not the other modifiers (any die, even Sneak attack rolls double, + from your ability modifier is same as non-crit)
DR no longer exists and instead its Vulnerable (x2), normal (x1), Resistance(x1/2), Immune(x0)
Characters heal fully during a long rest
Long Rests can be interrupted by a battle and still be considered a long rest without taking an extra hour at the end.
You only ever go to 0 HP, never negatives. You have to go to -Con in a single hit (when at 0) to insta kill you
Roll and get 3 failures (1 counts as 2 failures), die. Roll and get 3 success (20 regains 1 hp). Failures and Successes do not have to be consecutive (Best 3/5 effectively).

Lots of little differences like that.

[Human Paragon 3]

Lots of little differences like that.


The most critical little difference is that of concentration, IMO. Make sure you know how it works, and make sure your players know, too. It's the most important balancing factor on magic, since saving throws are pretty easy to fail.

Once you understand this, it should change how the game is played. Protecting your spellcasters (or targeting enemy spellcasters) becomes pretty crucial to any fight that features them.

[HorridElemental]

So I'm thinking of giving an optional rule.

Roll Nat 1: Target gains 1 temp inspiration.

Roll Nat 20: Attacker gains 1 temp inspiration.

You may have only 1 temp inspiration at a time. This wears off in 5 minutes. With this it is possible to have 2 inspiration at a time but you may still only use one/round. The inspiration is only against the attacker or target.

No automatic misses, no automatic hits, and no fumble table. I can, and will, as the DM add in the flavorfull stuff if a 1 or 20 is rolled to show why inspiration was given to the attacker or target.

The fighter attacks the orc with his greataxe, rolls a 1 and curses under his breath. However the curse sounded like the Orc word for "Your mother is a ham-beast with the jawline of an elf" which enrages the Orc. The orc will get you for uttering those words about his dead mother.

[hawklost]

So I'm thinking of giving an optional rule.

Roll Nat 1: Target gains 1 temp inspiration.

Roll Nat 20: Attacker gains 1 temp inspiration.

You may have only 1 temp inspiration at a time. This wears off in 5 minutes. With this it is possible to have 2 inspiration at a time but you may still only use one/round. The inspiration is only against the attacker or target.

No automatic misses, no automatic hits, and no fumble table. I can, and will, as the DM add in the flavorfull stuff if a 1 or 20 is rolled to show why inspiration was given to the attacker or target.

The fighter attacks the orc with his greataxe, rolls a 1 and curses under his breath. However the curse sounded like the Orc word for "Your mother is a ham-beast with the jawline of an elf" which enrages the Orc. The orc will get you for uttering those words about his dead mother.

does this mean no Crits? since almost all crits are on 20

[Human Paragon 3]

I don't think that rule is needed. Rolling a 20 is already great, and rolling a 1 is already bad. This would just make combats even more swingier.

[HorridElemental]

does this mean no Crits? since almost all crits are on 20

I thought about crits.

I'm leaning toward no crits and allowing critical range to show when you get inspiration. The fighter should stay happy with that.

Or maybe make critical hits a fighter class feature? The fighter may choose to gain inspiration or auto hit+extra damage?

Not sure yet.

This would bring the lethality of the game down a bit but that just means I could add an extra monster or two if needed.

[Envyus]

You only ever go to 0 HP, never negatives. You have to go to -Con in a single hit (when at 0) to insta kill you.


Correction you have to go to -Max Hp in a single hit to insta kill.

[akaddk]

Kill the PC's. Indiscriminately and often.

[pwykersotz]

Kill the PC's. Indiscriminately and often.

Trap them. Provoke them. Burn their hometowns. Create over-leveled anti-parties whose sole goal is to destroy everything they love. Make their hard earned treasure naught but ash and dust. Then, when they gaze upon you and ask why, drink their tears.

[akaddk]

Trap them. Provoke them. Burn their hometowns. Create over-leveled anti-parties whose sole goal is to destroy everything they love. Make their hard earned treasure naught but ash and dust. Then, when they gaze upon you and ask why, drink their tears.

Would you be my DM? Please?

[da_chicken]

Trap them. Provoke them. Burn their hometowns. Create over-leveled anti-parties whose sole goal is to destroy everything they love. Make their hard earned treasure naught but ash and dust. Then, when they gaze upon you and ask why, drink their tears.

Crush them, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their players.

[PracticalM]

Long Rests can be interrupted by a battle and still be considered a long rest without taking an extra hour at the end.

On page 67 of the basic rules the description of long rest seems to disagree with this.
"If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity--at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells or similar adventuring activity--the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefits.

Did this get updated some place? I don't read this as at least 1 hour walking, 1 hour fighting, 1 hour casting spells but instead: 1 hour of walking, any fighting, any spell casting

[Tholomyes]

On page 67 of the basic rules the description of long rest seems to disagree with this.
"If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity--at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells or similar adventuring activity--the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefits.

Did this get updated some place? I don't read this as at least 1 hour walking, 1 hour fighting, 1 hour casting spells but instead: 1 hour of walking, any fighting, any spell casting But I fail to see how this disagrees with hawklost's interpretation. Rounds are 6 seconds, so you'd need about 600 rounds of combat (or other spellcasting or walking or what have you) to interrupt a rest. Most combats won't last for even a minute, and even assuming the party spends a couple minutes patching up, and half an hour relocating to some place safer, that hasn't interrupted their rest significantly.

[Laserlight]

But I fail to see how this disagrees with hawklost's interpretation. Rounds are 6 seconds, so you'd need about 600 rounds of combat (or other spellcasting or walking or what have you) to interrupt a rest. Most combats won't last for even a minute, and even assuming the party spends a couple minutes patching up, and half an hour relocating to some place safer, that hasn't interrupted their rest significantly.

The question is, is it "one hour of walking", "any fighting", "any casting", or is it "one hour of [walking + fighting + casting + etc]" ?

I'd be inclined to the former, because full on combat is more strenuous than walking.

[Tholomyes]

The question is, is it "one hour of walking", "any fighting", "any casting", or is it "one hour of [walking + fighting + casting + etc]" ?

I'd be inclined to the former, because full on combat is more strenuous than walking.Yes, but as I was saying, it really doesn't matter. Even assuming that the party did stuff like relocating or bandaging up after fighting (which didn't count towards resting), that's still under 1 hour of the total. So it will rarely, if ever, matter.

[akaddk]

The question is, is it "one hour of walking", "any fighting", "any casting", or is it "one hour of [walking + fighting + casting + etc]" ?

I'd be inclined to the former, because full on combat is more strenuous than walking.

Mearls has tweeted that it's one full hour of any of those activities. So an hour of fighting.

Personally, I think that's retarded and that any combat will interrupt a long or short rest. Mearls isn't the rules god though and he said it was just his interpretation. I know what I'll be doing at my table though.

[pwykersotz]

Mearls has tweeted that it's one full hour of any of those activities. So an hour of fighting.

Personally, I think that's retarded and that any combat will interrupt a long or short rest. Mearls isn't the rules god though and he said it was just his interpretation. I know what I'll be doing at my table though.

Yeah, an hour of combat is a full on beachhead into a dungeon. Most combat lasts less than a minute. I'd rule any combat or casting interrupts it. Maybe barring cantrips or a single hit point of damage.

[hawklost]

Yeah, an hour of combat is a full on beachhead into a dungeon. Most combat lasts less than a minute. I'd rule any combat or casting interrupts it. Maybe barring cantrips or a single hit point of damage.

I would personally keep it somewhat around that but probably this, as long as they take no damage or use no spell higher than a Cantrip, they can fight for up to 12 rounds (2 minutes). Otherwise they have to add an hour to their rest.

[da_chicken]

I'd probably make an combat interruption cost 2 hours. So if you have a long rest that's interrupted by combat, you have to rest 10 hours start to finish to get any benefit of a long rest.

At least that's probably what I'd let the players get away with.

[rlc]

Yes, but as I was saying, it really doesn't matter. Even assuming that the party did stuff like relocating or bandaging up after fighting (which didn't count towards resting), that's still under 1 hour of the total. So it will rarely, if ever, matter.

those are two completely different things, though. if it's "any fighting," then seeing something coming at you and hitting it, even once, stops the rest and starts it all over again. it doesn't have to take an hour to do anything. it doesn't have to take a minute to do anything.
i'm not saying that's necessarily the best answer, but that's what "any fighting" means. i'm not really into attacking a resting party, except for under a, b or c conditions.

[Graustein]

One thing I find you have to keep in mind is how skills work. It's an assumption that you only roll skill/ability checks for things that have a chance of failure. If you are a rogue, chances are you can successfully climb any given tree, for example. If you are in combat, you may need to roll to scramble up it in time to avoid the wolves biting your ankles, and if they hit you maybe you'll fall down, but in normal circumstances it's kinda assumed that you don't roll for tasks that should be trivial for someone of your training.

Same would go for trivial knowledge tasks (if you're a ranger, you know what a bear is and how to deal with them. You just do. A bear is a known animal that lives in your range? You know most relevant information about bears in general.) and also for things relating to background: a Noble shouldn't need to roll to Just Know the appropriate forms of address and points of etiquette, but on the other hand a roll to know exactly who this minor baronet is and how he factors into the political climate and what stake he would have in helping you or your patron would be definitely an appropriate one to make. And, conversely, the rustic farmer from a neighbouring country probably wouldn't have a clue about that, so it doesn't make sense to give her a Knowledge check on that. If you have a background as a sailor, you know how to sail a boat of the appropriate type; rolls would be in a storm, or to get to a certain place fast enough, or to outpace an enemy vessel, not to know how to drive it at all.

Actually, I'm not sure exactly where it says this kind of thing, and it certainly doesn't elaborate on it, but from discussions it's the most appropriate interpretation of the skill rules I've seen. A lot of folks probably hate it like that, though.

[Person_Man]

RE: Long Rests

There was a thread on the WotC forum that I started regarding Rests a while back. As written, a Short Rest must be 1 uninterrupted hour, and Long Rests must be 8 hours (or 4 if you're an elf) which can be interrupted by up to 1 hour combat or other strenous activities, even if that 1 hour is non-contiguous. For example, you could be attacked 60 times (or more) during your Long Rest and still gain the full benefits from it, as long as the total length of the combats is 1 hour or less.

Someone tweeted asking a question about the issue to Mearls, and he responded that it was written that way on purpose, because playtesters didn't like having to reset their Long Rest time if a Kobold knocked on the door an interrupted it.

Thus, unless there is a plot reason preventing them from doing so (you must save the princess by midnight or she dies!), players should always take a Long Rest, because it is more likely to succeed (because a Short Rest can't be interrupted at all) and grants more benefits.

Personally, I prefer and will be using the concept behind the proposed Rest rules from the early play tests. Short Rests are very short (5 minutes) and so abilities that require a Short Rest to reset basically become Encounter Powers. Long Rests require 8 uninterrupted hours in a place that is completely safe and free of all environmental hazards. (ie, you have to return to town or some other safe place, and can't take a Long Rest while in a dungeon or while traveling through any kind of hostile environment or bad weather). And Rope Trick/Secure Shelter/etc does not exist. This places a real and meaningful restriction on casters - your spells only last until the next time you can safely return to town or some other sanctum. And if you leave a dungeon or other adventure area in order to go somewhere safe to take a long rest, you can expect that the natural consequences of the passage of time will occur. For example, if you only defeat the orcs on the first level of an orcish controlled dungeon, the orcs and other baddies on the other levels will notice that their friends have been killed and set up renewed defenses, or whatever else is appropriate for that specific adventure location.

[Human Paragon 3]

Person Man:

This is a valid style of play, but be sure to measure the benefits of this against the strain it puts on casters. In 5e, casters get a very limited number of slots. You might find that through play, casters are too restricted using this scheme, and players have less fun.

I'd be interested in your reports on using the variant in play.

[hawklost]

RE: Long Rests

.........................

Personally, I prefer and will be using the concept behind the proposed Rest rules from the early play tests. Short Rests are very short (5 minutes) and so abilities that require a Short Rest to reset basically become Encounter Powers. Long Rests require 8 uninterrupted hours in a place that is completely safe and free of all environmental hazards. (ie, you have to return to town or some other safe place, and can't take a Long Rest while in a dungeon or while traveling through any kind of hostile environment or bad weather). And Rope Trick/Secure Shelter/etc does not exist. This places a real and meaningful restriction on casters - your spells only last until the next time you can safely return to town or some other sanctum. And if you leave a dungeon or other adventure area in order to go somewhere safe to take a long rest, you can expect that the natural consequences of the passage of time will occur. For example, if you only defeat the orcs on the first level of an orcish controlled dungeon, the orcs and other baddies on the other levels will notice that their friends have been killed and set up renewed defenses, or whatever else is appropriate for that specific adventure location.

Technically, there would be be no reason the Orcs wouldn't notice their friends dead and set up something even if the Party was Long Resting right next door. Heck, even an hour long rest the Orcs might notice if there was a change in the guards or dinner or whatever. Implying that would only happen if the Party went back to town makes no sense. It might actually make the encounters more interesting if the party barricades themselves in a room to rest and suddenly Orcs are trying to break in. Or outside in a camp somewhere and they hear sounds of Orcs hunting for them.

[HorridElemental]

So I'm going with short rests being 30 mins.

I've found that 1 hour short rests essentially scare the party into never taking them due to time constraints, even when there are no time constraints.

I may need to work on a way that I can have...

Long Rest: 8 hours

Moderate Rest: 1 hour

Short Rest: 15 minutes

Perhaps

Short: May use Hit Dice as normally could during a rest.

Moderate: Short + Gain Class Abilities + if you don't use a hit die and you aren't at max you gain 1 hit die at the end of the moderate rest.

Long: As PHB

Edit:

Houserule: War caster feat works on non-damaging spells only. ,

Not sure how many damaging concentration spells there will be but this will nip some problems while allowing the feat to still be awesome.