Yesterday, was our first playtest of the Caves of Chaos adventure included with the D&D Next playtest materials. It is an 11-cave complex that is home to bugbears, owlbears and more. We followed the smallest set of tracks to the entrance of a cave. Before long, we spotted a small band of 8 kobolds leaving the cave, so we decided to raid the cave and the kobolds remaining inside.
In true kobold fashion, the cave entrance was rigged with a pit trap. Our rogue spotted it but then activated it while trying to disarm it. Using the simplified long jump rules, we were able to jump over the side of the pit and engage the two kobold guards on the other side. Before long, the two kobold guards were joined by about 6 more kobolds and it was time to paint the mother red... red with kobold blood and intestines. However, the true test of D&D Next combat came later on, when we faced about 10 kobolds in a more open space and the 8 kobold patrol that returned to the cave just as we were finishing this second encounter. These are my observations.
THE GOOD
First, combat is really fast. As melee, you only have your 2-handed battleaxe (dwarf warrior) or your battlehammer (guardian cleric) to swing. No plethora of powers like in 4E. This didn't make the combat feel boring. Maybe because time wasn't spent pouring over powers, combat felt quicker. You definitely had to wait less between turns.
Second, fighters are deadly. At 1st level, the provided pregen fighter was swinging a 2-handed battleaxe with a +6 to hit and doing 2d6+7 damage. Every time it crit, it made spaghetti out of the kobold.
Third, a wizard in time saves 5. Our wizard filled all three of his spell slots with burning hands, forsaking shield and sleep. There's no doubt that the wizard was the MVP of the raid. Also, the return of actual cones for spell coverage provided not only a dose of realism but actually made you think carefully of character placement and facing to ensure adequate spell coverage.
Fourth, did you say cleric tank? Yes, I did... and what helluva a job! While D&D Next does not provide for roles like defender, leader, striker or controller, it appears you may actually choose to go any of those routes through themes and specialization. Our cleric of Moradin's chainmail and shield gave him the best AC so he stepped into the role of the defender. He also had the Guardian theme, which gave him the Defender feat. This feat allows the cleric, as a reaction, to interpose his shield when a creature within 5 feet of him is attacked. This gives the attacker disadvantage, which means the attacker has to roll another d20 and take the lowest roll as his attack roll. Of the several times he used the Defender feat, only once did the disadvantage result in a missed attack. This certainly makes the D&D Next defender much weaker than the 4E one, since depending on the 4E defender all attacks that don't target the defender made by a creature in the defender's aura have a -2 penalty to the attack roll, where the defender may get a free AoO against creatures in their aura in certain situations, or where they can absorb the damage inflicted by a creature on a nearby ally.
Fifth, no AoO can equal ouchie for the ranged/casters. You don't need minis for D&D Next. It can be a true throwback to OD&D and that can be huge fun! However, we decided to use minis to truly gauge the difference between D&D Next and 4E combat. No Attacks of Opportunity means you have to be more conscious of character placement to protect your squishy wizard and healer. It can be quite disconcerting when you see a stream of four kobolds rushing past you on their way to your healer and wizard, and you are unable to smack them as they run past you, or do anything at that precise moment to stop the flow. I imagine that WotC will provide a feat you can train that would grant you an AoO in certain situations. Anyway, at third level the guardian cleric gains
Hold The Line and the
hold person spell, which should help a bit with this. Notwithstanding, no AoO is not necessarily bad. It made combat more fluid, forced our front line to re-evaluate its priorities and forced the rear line to react and improvise in order to hold off the rushing attackers while the fighter and guardian cleric disengaged and rushed back. I only have one word to describe this new element of hecticness: MUCHO FUN! (Ok, that's two words.)
Sixth, healing in combat was fluid. I don't think the mechanics of that one have changed much. It certainly didn't seem alien to me, unlike the breaching kobolds. Also the combination of a guardian cleric with a healer cleric worked much better than I expected. The guardian cleric's
healing word is a very small heal when compared with the healer cleric's
cure light wounds (1d6 versus 1d8 + your magic ability modifier). However,
healing word allows the guardian cleric to make a ranged attack, melee attack or cast a minor spell
after casting the
healing word. Fighting 8 and 10 kobolds at a time, it wasn't long before our healer cleric ran out of
cure light wounds spells.The guardian cleric's clutch heal allowed him to keep our wizard alive and also inflict damage on the surrounding kobolds,
all in the same round! This truly felt heroic when I did it.
Seventh, the healing kit brings heroes back to the mortal world. I described this healing mechanic in our
blog entry three days ago, so I won't do it again here, but I will tell you how it worked out last night. Our dwarf fighter, named Dwarfo (hey, give me a break, we were testing WotC's originality in their new rules, not my originality naming characters!), fell below 0 hit point in our last encounter. He was brought to about 8 hit points in mid fight thanks to a
cure light wounds spell. After the fight, we barred the doorway to the encounter room and took a 10 minute rest. Using a healing kit, Dwarfo was able to heal himself for 1d12 + his constitution modifier. However, being a level 1 character, this means that Dwarfo would not be able to benefit again from a healing kit until after a long rest. This is very different from 4E, where you can have 6 healing surges and use them in different short rests. Now, Dwarfo must rely on magical heals until tomorrow, when he regains the hit dice used and can benefit from the healing kit again.
THE BAD
I can't say there's anything really bad, right now. The lack of AoO or other manner for guardian clerics to control enemies before level 3 is new and may be something you just have to get used to. It can be countered with forethought and proper character positioning and, in any event, it added a helluva lot of fun to the fight when those kobolds ran through a hole in our front line. At level 3, the guardian cleric can use
Hold The Line as a reaction when a creature his size or smaller enters his reach. This causes the creature to lose the rest of its movement on that turn. He also gains the
hold person spell. If successful, the target of the spell can be paralyzed or held in place, depending on its hit points, for up to 10 rounds. However, the creature gets a saving throw on each round so this spell may not be the most reliable form of crowd control.
THE GAMER
As a player, last night's game was a lot of fun. Combat was quick and fast, which is a nice change from 4E. However, this may change at higher levels. Next Sunday, we'll try for creatures a bit more challenging. We'll see how we like D&D Next then.
Because not all heroes are created equal...
