MrFahrenheit
2017-05-30, 07:31 PM
So I just finished a two-year campaign that went from 1 to 20. First time I've ever accomplished it in nearly 15 years of DMing. Wanted to share some reflections here and see what people think.
1. Multiclassing was permitted, but in addition to RAW, players had to have more levels in one class than they did classes total (I.e., having to have 3 levels in X before taking 1 in Y, then 4 in either X or Y before taking a level of Z). Reassessing it, I won't be bringing this particular house rule into my next campaign: 5e is super-balanced IMO and if someone wants to be X1/Y1/Z1 at character level three (or X6/Y6/Z6/warlock 2), more power to them.
2. New hit dice rolled at level up were rolled with "advantage" (e.g., Druid rolls 2d8, taking higher) if they were in a character's primary class (where they have more levels than any other), and rolled regularly for secondary classes. Moving forward, I think I'll keep it. Adds to that intangible fun factor for my party. YMMV.
3. I didn't allow vhumans, but I did allow standard humans, with one caveat: they can swap out any or all (or none) of the individual +1 ability bumps for a skill proficiency. Dark elves became river elves, losing sunlight sensitivity and improved dark vision, but that's only because drown don't fit in my campaign setting. This feels right and will be kept moving forward.
4. All other racial modifications were more of a refluffing nature to fit my setting (high elves became forest elves, rock gnomes were renamed industrious gnomes and a few other changes), though none were mechanical.
5. Summons were chosen by the player. It just doesn't make sense IMO that the DM would choose what's summoned.
6. No UA allowed. All races/classes had to be from officially published material. One exception was the sorlock, but that was only because he got in the UA patron for his three level lock dip long before I realized how unbalanced UA is. Anyhow, going forward it will be published material only.
As a whole, I found 5e the best/most balanced setting of all I've DM'ed (3.5, 4e, GURPS and Earthdawn). A bit of that is my own maturing as DM in over a dozen years, but a lot is due to the sheer balance between classes and races, alongside bounded accuracy. I no longer feel like combat is as necessary as it was in those other editions and settings; though this last campaign was still 75% combat encounters, I'm excited to plan my next campaign to be about 20 (or even 15) percent combat. Of course there's no real way to quantify it, so those numbers are just reflective of a "gut feeling."
The classes are all well balanced, and I know I'm in the minority when I say this, and please don't make the thread about this next point alone, but I don't fee like the phb ranger is all that bad, just as I don't feel like a warlock 2 dip is OP for a sorc or bard.
I think 5e was trying to strike a difficult balance here. It's great at low levels, but the reality is they're so unnecessary that gold is pointless once PCs have the best mundane equipment their proficiency allows. A SnB str-based martial character need not acquire any more items after getting that full plate, which oftentimes is the only piece of gear missing from a starting setup. Magic items are great, but since 5e is so tied to bounded accuracy, and magic items so rare, that +2 sword becomes a treasure find not because a PC needs it to keep up, but because it's boring to have the same equipment for 10+ levels. Phb has cost/quality of living rules, but they have no impact beyond rp. Which brings me to my next reflection...
I feel like experience points are great for new players, or players new to a group. But for my next campaign, I'm moving on in a much more exp-free fashion: the good ol' "you level when I say you level" method. Replacing exp will be a much more liberal use of inspiration...
...but inspiration feels incomplete. Noting my above thoughts on gold and quality of life, I'm introducing a home brewed inspiration system for the coming campaign. The simplest way to calculate is a day-to-day view of a character's life. If you live in piss-poor conditions, you get a point of drudgery every morning. Drudgery = a negative inspiration point, which in turn = disadvantage on a d20 roll. Drudgery points don't have to be spent, though. Think about five drudgery points as having (-5) inspiration. If you do something to get inspiration, it becomes (-4). However, let's say something truly terrible happens (death of a party member, for instance). That (-4) becomes -5. Note no parentheses. Now, the next five times the player in question rolls a d20, it has to be at disadvantage. The player could've chosen to spend his drudgery points earlier, but once they became misery, they *had* to be spent.
This will make standard of living, and by extension gold, far more important. You're no longer spending early levels buying the best mundane gear and then not having much use for gold outside of costly spell components. Here, when gold impacts quality of life, it in turn impacts mechanical aspects of the game; not just rp. Hunting and food will be the same way. Sure, the Druid can cast goodberry, or the cleric create food and water. But consuming those, while they'll help you survive, will also add to your drudgery. (I like to imagine the create food part is like solitary confinement's nutro-loaf, a not-long-lasting version of the civil war's hardtack, slop from "Big Brother" or the like).
This was a weird mix. Early on, things are fairly straightforward. Later on, a helpful dose of minions aids the BBEGs in achieving this balance. The problem with combat, IMHO, is the mid-game: at-CR baddies are nothing going solo against the party, but depleting the latter of resources and/or throwing in minions makes things incredibly dangerous. This contrasts with the late game, where there's enough of a gulf in challenge between team good guy (who are now loaded up on resources) and the minions of team bad guy so that bounded accuracy alone represents a reasonable threat, but not a deadly one. I'd venture to say that BBEG + minions is appropriate for the late game, but the mid-game is better served by a pair or trio of BBEGs without the henchmen when you're having a decisive battle. Same holds true for slowly draining the party of resources before a solo boss battle: mid-level PCs have so few resources to spend when compared with their high-level selves.
The issue with high level play is that it either goes on forever as the party builds up xp, or goes by faster than you'd expect as DMs dole out quest completion xp in ludicrous quantities to make the game move along at anything close to a reasonably appreciable pace. Clearly a YMMV situation, but my group fell into the latter category, as leveling over two years had actually been pretty fast. The problem with it taking forever is the party starts wondering "just how many (balors/pit fiends/ancient red dragons/insert really high CR monster here) are hanging out nearby, and why didn't they just move forward when we were level 5?" The problem with moving it along quickly is the party realizes "wow. That was over a lot quicker than I expected." Again, YMMV, but I found that balance difficult. It was my first time DMing at such high levels, so I'll see what things look like a couple years from now once I find myself in the same situation again.
5e is almost cheese free. Almost. But where it does have cheese, holy Gouda is it exploitable. A couple examples:
1. High level Druid? Summon woodland beings at an incredibly high slot, then pull up the fife and drums to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" through the YouTube app on your phone, and enjoy making those non-sleep-immune ancient dragons waste their legendary saves. Only four of those thirty-two arrows must needs penetrate the AC and have a low saving roll. What's that? Dragons have great con saves? Not when you have a bard in the party forcing -1d12 on each roll.
2. Banishment. Dear heavens, banishment. Cheesiest spell I've ever seen. BBEG come at you with minions? Banish the big bad, mop up his mooks, then gank Mr boss upon his return. Solo BBEG from another plane? Banish him and stop combat before it starts.
And yet...I wouldn't change the above. These sorts of capabilities add to the variety of the game, and certainly mix things up. Plus, concentration mechanics certainly help the party avoid becoming an all-out dairy farm.
And speaking of variety, there is certainly some with the capstones. I feel like those character guides are black or white on capstones, depending on the class, with zero gray. And that's fine, but I think they fail to look at the following question: how often do games in 5e truly keep going on well beyond level 20? 4 sorcery points at a short rest seems crappy compared to unlimited wildshape, but how many encounters are you going to have between 20 and game over? My guess is it would be a few at most.
So that's about it. If there's anything I've forgotten, I'll post it in the replies. I welcome feedback and questions/comments/advice on how to tackle some of the challenges I mentioned in the future.
1. Multiclassing was permitted, but in addition to RAW, players had to have more levels in one class than they did classes total (I.e., having to have 3 levels in X before taking 1 in Y, then 4 in either X or Y before taking a level of Z). Reassessing it, I won't be bringing this particular house rule into my next campaign: 5e is super-balanced IMO and if someone wants to be X1/Y1/Z1 at character level three (or X6/Y6/Z6/warlock 2), more power to them.
2. New hit dice rolled at level up were rolled with "advantage" (e.g., Druid rolls 2d8, taking higher) if they were in a character's primary class (where they have more levels than any other), and rolled regularly for secondary classes. Moving forward, I think I'll keep it. Adds to that intangible fun factor for my party. YMMV.
3. I didn't allow vhumans, but I did allow standard humans, with one caveat: they can swap out any or all (or none) of the individual +1 ability bumps for a skill proficiency. Dark elves became river elves, losing sunlight sensitivity and improved dark vision, but that's only because drown don't fit in my campaign setting. This feels right and will be kept moving forward.
4. All other racial modifications were more of a refluffing nature to fit my setting (high elves became forest elves, rock gnomes were renamed industrious gnomes and a few other changes), though none were mechanical.
5. Summons were chosen by the player. It just doesn't make sense IMO that the DM would choose what's summoned.
6. No UA allowed. All races/classes had to be from officially published material. One exception was the sorlock, but that was only because he got in the UA patron for his three level lock dip long before I realized how unbalanced UA is. Anyhow, going forward it will be published material only.
As a whole, I found 5e the best/most balanced setting of all I've DM'ed (3.5, 4e, GURPS and Earthdawn). A bit of that is my own maturing as DM in over a dozen years, but a lot is due to the sheer balance between classes and races, alongside bounded accuracy. I no longer feel like combat is as necessary as it was in those other editions and settings; though this last campaign was still 75% combat encounters, I'm excited to plan my next campaign to be about 20 (or even 15) percent combat. Of course there's no real way to quantify it, so those numbers are just reflective of a "gut feeling."
The classes are all well balanced, and I know I'm in the minority when I say this, and please don't make the thread about this next point alone, but I don't fee like the phb ranger is all that bad, just as I don't feel like a warlock 2 dip is OP for a sorc or bard.
I think 5e was trying to strike a difficult balance here. It's great at low levels, but the reality is they're so unnecessary that gold is pointless once PCs have the best mundane equipment their proficiency allows. A SnB str-based martial character need not acquire any more items after getting that full plate, which oftentimes is the only piece of gear missing from a starting setup. Magic items are great, but since 5e is so tied to bounded accuracy, and magic items so rare, that +2 sword becomes a treasure find not because a PC needs it to keep up, but because it's boring to have the same equipment for 10+ levels. Phb has cost/quality of living rules, but they have no impact beyond rp. Which brings me to my next reflection...
I feel like experience points are great for new players, or players new to a group. But for my next campaign, I'm moving on in a much more exp-free fashion: the good ol' "you level when I say you level" method. Replacing exp will be a much more liberal use of inspiration...
...but inspiration feels incomplete. Noting my above thoughts on gold and quality of life, I'm introducing a home brewed inspiration system for the coming campaign. The simplest way to calculate is a day-to-day view of a character's life. If you live in piss-poor conditions, you get a point of drudgery every morning. Drudgery = a negative inspiration point, which in turn = disadvantage on a d20 roll. Drudgery points don't have to be spent, though. Think about five drudgery points as having (-5) inspiration. If you do something to get inspiration, it becomes (-4). However, let's say something truly terrible happens (death of a party member, for instance). That (-4) becomes -5. Note no parentheses. Now, the next five times the player in question rolls a d20, it has to be at disadvantage. The player could've chosen to spend his drudgery points earlier, but once they became misery, they *had* to be spent.
This will make standard of living, and by extension gold, far more important. You're no longer spending early levels buying the best mundane gear and then not having much use for gold outside of costly spell components. Here, when gold impacts quality of life, it in turn impacts mechanical aspects of the game; not just rp. Hunting and food will be the same way. Sure, the Druid can cast goodberry, or the cleric create food and water. But consuming those, while they'll help you survive, will also add to your drudgery. (I like to imagine the create food part is like solitary confinement's nutro-loaf, a not-long-lasting version of the civil war's hardtack, slop from "Big Brother" or the like).
This was a weird mix. Early on, things are fairly straightforward. Later on, a helpful dose of minions aids the BBEGs in achieving this balance. The problem with combat, IMHO, is the mid-game: at-CR baddies are nothing going solo against the party, but depleting the latter of resources and/or throwing in minions makes things incredibly dangerous. This contrasts with the late game, where there's enough of a gulf in challenge between team good guy (who are now loaded up on resources) and the minions of team bad guy so that bounded accuracy alone represents a reasonable threat, but not a deadly one. I'd venture to say that BBEG + minions is appropriate for the late game, but the mid-game is better served by a pair or trio of BBEGs without the henchmen when you're having a decisive battle. Same holds true for slowly draining the party of resources before a solo boss battle: mid-level PCs have so few resources to spend when compared with their high-level selves.
The issue with high level play is that it either goes on forever as the party builds up xp, or goes by faster than you'd expect as DMs dole out quest completion xp in ludicrous quantities to make the game move along at anything close to a reasonably appreciable pace. Clearly a YMMV situation, but my group fell into the latter category, as leveling over two years had actually been pretty fast. The problem with it taking forever is the party starts wondering "just how many (balors/pit fiends/ancient red dragons/insert really high CR monster here) are hanging out nearby, and why didn't they just move forward when we were level 5?" The problem with moving it along quickly is the party realizes "wow. That was over a lot quicker than I expected." Again, YMMV, but I found that balance difficult. It was my first time DMing at such high levels, so I'll see what things look like a couple years from now once I find myself in the same situation again.
5e is almost cheese free. Almost. But where it does have cheese, holy Gouda is it exploitable. A couple examples:
1. High level Druid? Summon woodland beings at an incredibly high slot, then pull up the fife and drums to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" through the YouTube app on your phone, and enjoy making those non-sleep-immune ancient dragons waste their legendary saves. Only four of those thirty-two arrows must needs penetrate the AC and have a low saving roll. What's that? Dragons have great con saves? Not when you have a bard in the party forcing -1d12 on each roll.
2. Banishment. Dear heavens, banishment. Cheesiest spell I've ever seen. BBEG come at you with minions? Banish the big bad, mop up his mooks, then gank Mr boss upon his return. Solo BBEG from another plane? Banish him and stop combat before it starts.
And yet...I wouldn't change the above. These sorts of capabilities add to the variety of the game, and certainly mix things up. Plus, concentration mechanics certainly help the party avoid becoming an all-out dairy farm.
And speaking of variety, there is certainly some with the capstones. I feel like those character guides are black or white on capstones, depending on the class, with zero gray. And that's fine, but I think they fail to look at the following question: how often do games in 5e truly keep going on well beyond level 20? 4 sorcery points at a short rest seems crappy compared to unlimited wildshape, but how many encounters are you going to have between 20 and game over? My guess is it would be a few at most.
So that's about it. If there's anything I've forgotten, I'll post it in the replies. I welcome feedback and questions/comments/advice on how to tackle some of the challenges I mentioned in the future.