Starting - Rise of Tiamat 5e

[Asterisk619]

Hey everybody! SO recently I talked my family into all making some characters in 5e, most are brand new players except my dad whose got a Tiefling rogue. There is also a Halfling Bard, Mountain Dwarf Fighter, Elven Druid, and an Aasimar Sorcereress.

All of their backgrounds have made them in some way tied to dragons so I said "Why not 'Rise of Tiamat'?!" So here I am, a new 5e GM, but I've been Gming 3.5 and Pathfinder a few years now. Anyone have any tips or tricks they have used with 5e? I've read everything and had a couple playtests, but what have some of you all found to make some exciting and surprising D&D experiences using 5e?

I've only really liked minor parts of 5e and that fact that it seems simpler for new players to pick up. I however am much more of a fan of the 3.5/Pathfinder style of RPGs. I also tend to run my games fairler "digital," like maps up on tv screens, my working off my laptop, etc.

Thanks everyone!

[Zippdementia]

As someone who came originally from 2nd Edition and later from 3.5 and Pathfinder, DnD 5 is everything I want out of dungeons and dragons. It is, to me, literally the perfect itteration of years of rules tweaking and cutting out fluff.

I have two major pieces of advice. First, don’t play Rise of Tiamet! It’s widely considered the worst official adventure so far to come out of DnD5. If you want a good starter, play Lost Mines of Phendalver which is an EXCELLENT adventure. From there try Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King’s Fury. Or run through some of the adventurer’s leagues or anything by MT Black on Dm’s Guild. Trust me. Rise of Tiamet can be made good, but it’s a lot of work for someone just trying out fifth edition for the first time and it doesn’t highlight what’s good about the system.

Which brings me to my second piece of advice: don’t play this like Pathfinder. Don’t look to stats to define your monsters and NPCs. Pathfinder uses its myriad classes and feats and special abilities to define how an individual creature and player differs from the one standing next to it. DnD 5 does NOT do this and if you rely on stats to define your encounters, you will be disappointed.

DnD 5 wants the GM and players to do more roleplaying. So for instance while most of the Dragons really feel similar except for which kind of damage they deal, you are supposed to differentiate them by their personalities and tactics in combat. That said, it’s also REALLY easy to add more spells to a creature in DnD 5, or give them some character classes, or even come up with new abilities on the fly. The rules are designed simple so that you can do more with them, and if you keep this in mind, you’ll find it to be an amazing tool kit for creation. Don’t get too hung up on minutiae in the rules. It doesn’t exist the way it did in Pathfinder.

Similarly, be aware of some changes to the rules that will feel funky at first. Like you can move, attack, and keep moving if you have movement left. There is no five foot step to avoid opportunity attacks. A mage can weild a great axe without much penalty (they just don’t gain proficiency to their to-hit roll). Little things like that deserve a full read of the player’s handbook just so you aren’t caught off guard.

Have fun! I love DnD 5 and have been running multiple continuous campaigns for over two years now.

[Peelee]

My groups been running that campaign for two years now (you hush). It's fun, but a bit dry for my tastes. The politics aren't that gripping, and a lot of the fights are very difficult. Seconding Lost Mines, but if you wanna kill a lot of dragons, Tiamat certainly delivers.

[Asterisk619]

Well I'm mainly using Rise of Tiamat because yes, I wanted tons of dragons in the game. Specifically because all the PCs have some tie to it already. And I'm not saying I don't like 5e, but yeah it just feels quite different. To the point that some of my older players have refused to even try 5e from what has been told to them. Like why is there no animal companion for a DRUID?! Of all things I would figure that would be there. Either way I tend to use my modules very loosely to begin with, like the skeleton of the body. Then I go and add all the other bits and pieces to make it a more personal and enjoyable game. Hence how one my guards who was trained with his three dogs was given the title of Knight for stopping the PCs one day and forever became the reacurring villian, The Three Dog Knight XD (one is the loneliest number...)
So back on track, my plan is to start the PCs coming to waterdeep for the whole counsil sesh, but have plenty of other things thrown around to introduce them to the game slightly sandbox style. Like "We've arrived a couple days ahead of schedule, what in town sounds good to do, then just make some drama from there: maybe a cultist caught wind of their plans; or maybe the uber strong dwarf gets too drunk in a tavern; maybe someone realizes that the Aasimar isn't just angelic but is also dragon blooded (She's trying to keep her sorcerery on the DL playing some of it off as angelic magic.
As for rules go, I really don't wanna run it into Pathfinder territory lol however I do want to make this a more powerful PC game, to give them a little more of the "Huzzah! We won!" And not a great ton of "Bum Bum Bummmmm!" But still intriguing enough and dare I say intellectually challenging enough for new players to survive. Because before this I was a DM and player in a group of 30-50 year olds who have been gaming since I was young XD

[mephnick]

Wait, I'm a little unclear. So are you starting brand new players in the second book of the campaign? That starts at like level 12. That's a pretty tough learning curve for people new to the system regardless of experience.

[Asterisk619]

Wait, I'm a little unclear. So are you starting brand new players in the second book of the campaign? That starts at like level 12. That's a pretty tough learning curve for people new to the system regardless of experience.

Hahaha I see the confusion! I didn't want to run the hoard of the dragon queen, I wanted to start with RoT and I am basically going to turn that into a much longer campaign. Through a couple play tests (and me hinting at dark cults and dragon hunting) they are currently at level 2. So I am scaling the module down significantly, little dragons plus minions at first, then work them up to bigger and more intelligent dragons. So as I said before, this module is nothing but the bones, and more often than not, those bones will be broken to make the adventure work well lol

[Zippdementia]

0One more thing that REALLY took me a long time to get used to, in spite of my love for DnD 5, was the change in how magic items are doled out. It really took me a while to get used to the idea that rewards in DnD 5 are more based on gaining NPC allies and access to side quests and more story than they are on getting magic items. You can only attune to three, for one thing, but more importantly even a +1 item can quickly unbalance the game. Adding to attack and other bonuses doesn't seem to break things as quickly as adding to AC. Until level 9 or 10, Monsters just don't get a big enough attack bonus to realistically strike an AC of anything above 18.

One of my players, who came from Pathfinder and is good with numbers, quickly realized how to get his Paladin up to AC 24 and I was doing a lot of readjustment to my monsters to let them have a fighting chance. For the next campaign, I was very hesitant to give out magic armor and things went a lot smoother.

[Asterisk619]

0One more thing that REALLY took me a long time to get used to, in spite of my love for DnD 5, was the change in how magic items are doled out. It really took me a while to get used to the idea that rewards in DnD 5 are more based on gaining NPC allies and access to side quests and more story than they are on getting magic items. You can only attune to three, for one thing, but more importantly even a +1 item can quickly unbalance the game. Adding to attack and other bonuses doesn't seem to break things as quickly as adding to AC. Until level 9 or 10, Monsters just don't get a big enough attack bonus to realistically strike an AC of anything above 18.

One of my players, who came from Pathfinder and is good with numbers, quickly realized how to get his Paladin up to AC 24 and I was doing a lot of readjustment to my monsters to let them have a fighting chance. For the next campaign, I was very hesitant to give out magic armor and things went a lot smoother.

Thanks man! You've given me quite an insight into 5e from your couple posts. I'm just going to have to keep running a few games for them, test out some new things, change some rules if I really don't like them lol and just see where I can take it from there and hopefully not OP my players but still make it slightly easy (I have my mom who's fairly smart but clueless to anything nerdy, my uncle who's a little slow, but then I also have my 2 little sisters) So this party has been something interesting for sure lol