Wednesday, August 13, 2014

D&D 5e Basic Rules Updated!

The Basic Rules have been updated to include two new spells and added some appendices More important there is now a Dungeon Master PDF with encounter building guildlines, monsters, and magic items!  Not a complete list by any means but enough to get started.

One thing I noticed right off the bat in the DM guidelines is that there a section of what are in essence NPC templates. You combine those with the race or humanoid monster of choice and you have a fleshed out basic NPC.

3 comments:

Michael Bugg said...

Thanks for the heads-up. I notice that pretty much every monster has double the hit points as pre-4e D&D. Given how much 4e drags out combat with extraneous HP, that's a bit of a concern of mine. How much did you find it slowing down combat?

Robert Conley said...

No, damage is upped to compensate.

D&D 5e has something new called Bounded Accuracy. AC, to hit bonuses are on a absolute scale. If something has an AC of 18 that because their skin/hide is considered like plate armor. If it like leather then it would be lower.

Higher level characters and tougher monsters are that way because they can do more damage, more often, in more ways than lower level character.

A side of effect of this is that lower level creatures (or characters) can be threat for a lot longer provided they have the numbers to wear down their opponent through attrition.

Michael Bugg said...

I get the bounded accuracy, and it's one of the features I really like. I'm thinking more along the lines of lower level characters, like say, a cleric with average strength. It used to be that he could reliably kill a kobold (avg. 2.5 hp) a round, but now using a mace (1d6) with no bonuses, he'll need to whack that kobold (7 hp) twice.