First 5e campaign. Advice requested

[ddude987]

Hey giant!!!

I am starting my first 5e campaign. I am used to 3.5 e6 and perfer the low magic always lethal feel of it. I also like it because I like the iconic way players must seek out help and make allies because they can't defeat mordor on their own.

That said, I've never played 5e and neither has anyone in this group. Should we be capping the level or is 5e balanced? Is anything terrible and should be stayed away from? Should feats be given out more frequently? 5e seems to have very few.

Also first time using roll 20. If anyone has any tips or thoughts on that I'd love to hear them before I begin using it.

[MrFahrenheit]

5e is wonderfully balanced. I wouldn't put a cap on anything, tbh.

Overall classes are more important than their given subclasses. An assassin without a surprise round is just a rogue. A diviner who has used both his portent dice is just a wizard. A champion who doesn't roll a 19, and hasn't reached the second martial proficiency is just a fighter. Etc. etc... Multiclassing can radically change this, but that comes at he expense of losing out on features had one remained single classed. So it's a balance decision.

I'm getting toward the end of my first 5e campaign (DMed 3.5 and 4e before that), and implemented a few house rules for it, but moving into my next, I'd only suggest, and will likely only keep the following:

Humans: Don't allow the variant. Rather, allow any of the six individual +1 abilities granted to the standard human to be swapped out with a skill proficiency, per the player's desire.

[Alejandro]

5e is wonderfully balanced. I wouldn't put a cap on anything, tbh.

Overall classes are more important than their given subclasses. An assassin without a surprise round is just a rogue. A diviner who has used both his portent dice is just a wizard. A champion who doesn't roll a 19, and hasn't reached the second martial proficiency is just a fighter. Etc. etc... Multiclassing can radically change this, but that comes at he expense of losing out on features had one remained single classed. So it's a balance decision.

I'm getting toward the end of my first 5e campaign (DMed 3.5 and 4e before that), and implemented a few house rules for it, but moving into my next, I'd only suggest, and will likely only keep the following:

Humans: Don't allow the variant. Rather, allow any of the six individual +1 abilities granted to the standard human to be swapped out with a skill proficiency, per the player's desire.

Wouldn't that sort of crap on the bard and the rogue? I mean, you could make a human PC with +1 to whichever two attributes you need, and pick up four trained skills of your choice to boot? That's potentially much stronger than one feat, IMO.

[ad_hoc]

I used to play 3.5 e6 as well. I love 5e and don't play with a cap.

I do have a few house rules here and there. The variant human was mentioned. All I do is swap the skill from the variant to the regular human. I also have changed the half-elf to +2CHA/+1Any, rather than +2/+1+1.

We use feats but don't use all of them and don't use multiclassing. You get plenty of feats as they are much more powerful than the 3.x ones.

One big pitfall is to be sure to use the standard array or point buy. Rolling usually breaks the game. It ruins advancement as characters already have high stats to start and overpowers feats as there is little competition for them.

If you are going to play a published adventure I recommend Curse of Strahd. It is all about seeking out allies, exploration, and deciphering cryptic clues.

[Gastronomie]

Humans: Don't allow the variant. Rather, allow any of the six individual +1 abilities granted to the standard human to be swapped out with a skill proficiency, per the player's desire.My idea is "ban Variant Human and give 1 free feat to everybody at level 1".

This works better IMO. Like Alejandro mentioned, that idea makes certain classes frown, and it also weakens builds that require a lot of feats.

Not to mention, feats are fun.

[Zman]

5e is an absolute delight. I wouldn't worry about capping anything, it suffers very few failings of previous editions.

Not saying it is perfect, it has a couple problems Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master and some spells, but overall the game is amazing.

If you are looking to capture a particular grittier feel you can do so with a couple of house rules. A couple that I suggest from my 5e Tweaks are gaining a level of exhaustion when dropped to 0 HP, flanking of +1/ally, allowing a one hit dice breather in between short rests, and not healing to full HP on a Long rest.

Here is a link to my Tweaks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?482259-Zman-s-5e-Tweaks&p=20568926#post20568926)if you are interested.

[MrFahrenheit]

One big pitfall is to be sure to use the standard array or point buy. Rolling usually breaks the game. It ruins advancement as characters already have high stats to start and overpowers feats as there is little competition for them.

The only good alternative I've ever seen to standard array or point buy was a house rule posted on this board a while back. As long as you have no more than six PCs (and throw your own rolls in as DM if there are fewer), you can do 4d6, remove lowest, putting all the numbers into a matrix... Ex:

PC #1: 18/12/15/16/4/7
PC #2: 3 /11/18/17/5/11
PC #3: 14/14/12/14/9/9
PC #4: 15/8 /9 /17/5/11
PC #5: 7 /12/13/15/12/15
PC #6: 13/8/13/12/6 /10

...you'd line the above numbers up in a 6x6 grid (I tried to do it here :P ) and then new characters can pick ANY row or column of their choosing.

Sure there's a risk of an objectively most powerful selection (note the third column from right comes to 16/17/14/17/15/12), but if so, it's the same amount of power for everyone. And more fun IMO since everyone contributed to the stats.

[Beleriphon]

PC #1: 18/12/15/16/4/7
PC #2: 3 /11/18/17/5/11
PC #3: 14/14/12/14/9/9
PC #4: 15/8 /9 /17/5/11
PC #5: 7 /12/13/15/12/15
PC #6: 13/8/13/12/6 /10


Kinda like this:


1812151647
3111817511
1414121499
158917511
71213151215
1381312610


On actual advice, 5E works well as a game when the players make characters together, at least in general. It helps with cohesion and understand how the other characters work and build bonds even before rolling dice starts.

[ad_hoc]

The only good alternative I've ever seen to standard array or point buy was a house rule posted on this board a while back. As long as you have no more than six PCs (and throw your own rolls in as DM if there are fewer), you can do 4d6, remove lowest, putting all the numbers into a matrix... Ex:

PC #1: 18/12/15/16/4/7
PC #2: 3 /11/18/17/5/11
PC #3: 14/14/12/14/9/9
PC #4: 15/8 /9 /17/5/11
PC #5: 7 /12/13/15/12/15
PC #6: 13/8/13/12/6 /10

...you'd line the above numbers up in a 6x6 grid (I tried to do it here :P ) and then new characters can pick ANY row or column of their choosing.

Sure there's a risk of an objectively most powerful selection (note the third column from right comes to 16/17/14/17/15/12), but if so, it's the same amount of power for everyone. And more fun IMO since everyone contributed to the stats.

This is exactly the sort of thing that breaks the game.

Characters are too front loaded because they hit the 20 cap too soon (sometimes straight from level 1) so there is less of a feeling of advancement. More importantly, feats become too powerful. Instead of the hard choice between a feat and raising your ability to 18, you just take the feat.

The random method I prefer is to use a deck of playing cards. Shuffle the 2-6 cards into 6 piles of 3 in order for stats. Average is 12 and it is weighted towards 12 as well.

[Shining Wrath]

I don't allow the variant human. Just about every min-max article on this board for 5e makes VHuman sky-blue. I bumped standard human up with one more skill.
I did give a free feat to everyone at first level, but with restrictions to a short non-combat-oriented list and no bumping one of your prime stats. The feats were to add more flavor to the characters.
For stat generation, we each rolled one set of (4d3 drop lowest), and then anyone could choose any one of the arrays. No one took the only set with an 18 because it also had a 3; she rolled 4 1's. Most people took 17 17 14 12 10 8.
You should look at this forum and notice the arguments that keep coming up, and decide where you stand on them. Is GWM overpowered? Will dark glasses help a Drow with sunlight sensitivity? Can you make a million copies of yourself with Simulacrum?

[DracoKnight]

Wouldn't that sort of crap on the bard and the rogue? I mean, you could make a human PC with +1 to whichever two attributes you need, and pick up four trained skills of your choice to boot? That's potentially much stronger than one feat, IMO.

It's flat out stronger than a feat. Skilled gives 3 trained skills. And on top of this house rule, a human could take Skilled as a feat at higher levels, giving them 7 out of 16 skills via race/feat. Most classes give 2 and all backgrounds give 2. Rogues get 13 proficient skills this way with 4 of those expertised, more if you multiclass Bard.

[Safety Sword]

My advice to a starting DM in D&D 5E is to not worry about everything so much.

Coming from a D&D 3.5 background you're probably used to planning out classes and prerequisites in infinite detail to hit things at certain levels so you can make the character you want. Whilst you can do that with 5E, it's not required.

Also, something I've found useful is not overloading the game with stat bonus items. The system will not work well if everyone has them. You can make magic items without attack bonuses!

As with all systems, there are good options and better options, but there's no real way to break a character by choosing the "wrong" feat or ability.

Something very important: Before Level 3 the game can be incredibly deadly for PCs.

Some classes are very much favoured if you run a small number of encounters per day. 6 -8 encounters per day is where the system finds its feet. It makes PCs use their expendable resources wisely.