Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zardnaar Sep 08, 2014 17:20:00	I have run 2 groups through low level 5E and I have played Lost Mines of Phandelver as a player as well and we rolled Klarg hard without taking a single point of damage. Put simply to many people on these forums and elsewhere have theory crafted there way into mistaken assumptions that are not reflected in real games played at the table. Massive damage spikes via the Babarian and two handed weapons are cute I suppose but we have not actually used this at all in any of our games. A few things that we have tried or how I have seen my PCs play it. Note we had to figure some of this out the hard way.   1. Damage mitgation matters a lot. This translates into using a shield and control spells and ability. People tend to think a shield adds +2 AC or a 10% chance to get hit less. I suggest looking at it this way with 18 AC at level 1 a lot of low level critters have +3 to hit. They need to roll a 15+ to hit you. Without that shield they now need 13+ thohit you. 15,16,17,18,19, and 20 is a hit but 13+ adds  13 and 14 to the dice rolls. On paper it looks like 10% in practice you are taking more like 33% more damage.  Scale it up to AC 20 and they can only hit you with a 4 on the dice roll, without the shield they can now hit you by rolling 6 numbers on the dice roll which is more like 50% more damage as you are getting hit a lot more relative to having that shield.  You will notiice this with lots of mooks.    Vs tougher monster like Bugbears and Ogres spells like Vicious Mockery are better than firebolt. A high dex elf wizard is also better off using a longbow over most of their cantrips. The Diviner can also debuff opponents along with the Bards cutting words ability.   2. Healing spells are for emergencies only. And by that I mean 0HP. Guiding Bolt is better than cure wounds and it grants advantage to follow on attacks which is cute for follow on rogue attacks or spell effects requiring an attack roll.   3. Do not under esitmate Bards. Sleep, Faerie FIre, Vicious Mockery, Inspiration dice etc. A bard is probably a better 5th man in the party than any other class. In my group the party alcks a Rogue and the bard is the skill monkey.  Sleep is better than sneak attack and the Bard is about the only class that can cast both sleep and Faerie Fire. Some builds of the Warlock can as well to be fair. Bard+Wizard and getting to level 3 is not hard. Control spells plus the ability to manipulate saving throws are a very powerful ability.    4. Dexterity vs Strength. This is part of my beleif why dexterity is OP. You give up +1 AC on average and maybe some damage if you want to cheese out the best Barbarian you can be.  You get a lot more out of combat mileage in dexterity though with better ranged weapons.  DPR for a two handed weapon user drops drastically if they can't atack in melee and I would guesstimate that around 1 in 3 to 1 in 2 encounters on the 1st round you may not be able to attack in melee due to range. With the back grounds it is also not hard to get the stealth skill and in LMoP where I was the player I was the only one who knew how surprise rounds worked so my archer scouted ahead, came back and warned the party about Klarg and the high dex wizard and myself surprised them and a sleep spell and bow shot hit the NPCs before they even got to act. The high dex chgaracters tended to win intiative and most of the rest of the party got there in time to gax Klarg before he even got to act. High dexterity characters also have better ranged options and that tends to matter and damage is close enough if you use a bow or shield+rapier. Surprise rounds are better than bonus damage.   5. Boosting Accruacy. For the most part this means advantage or the archer combat style. This matters because you can do some very cheesy things with the sharp shooter feat, great weapoon master feat, multiple attacks and surprise rounds. Bards can buff to hit and the Diviner Wizard can substitute dice rolls. Just for the record I will mention the faerie fire spell again along with surprise rounds and the benefits of a high dexterity Bard/Wizard/Fighter/anyone. Faerie FIre is probably the spell that will cause the most damage out of the level 1 spells. And only 2 classes get that spell and one subclass of the Cleric and Warlock.   6. Do not over specialise in ranged or melee PCs. 2 of each with maybe 1 hybrid PC in the middle is the way to do it or maybe 2 melee/3 ranged PCs can work or a 2/2 split with a 4 man party. Always have back up weapons such as daggers, spears etc that can be used in melee or ranged as even at level 1 you should be able to get spare wepaons.   7. Party composition. Hard to say here but you generally want 1 cleric and 1 arcane caster, probably does't matter to much which one. You can live without a Rogue if you have high dex PCs with the right backgrounds such as criminal. The Cleric doesn't have to be a heal bot but you want them there for spells like Guiding Bolt and domain spells and abilites like the Tempest and Light clerics AoE abilities, healing spells are just a bonus. If you really want to take one for the team have a close look at the healing feat and short rest mechanics on the other classes. My PCs have not carried this to a conclusion where they could build an entire party around the short rest mechanics namely the level 5 bard ability, second wind, the healers kit, second wind and channel divinity. I am almost sure a light or tempest cleric could sub for a wizard well the other PC cleric is a light or tempest cleric as well. 2 fighters, 2 clerics and a bard would more or less cover this concept. A party full of clerics could also be funny to see in action with a wood elf cleric doubling as the party skill monkey.    8. DPR calcualtions are a waste of time in theory crafting. To many variables in game (range, vision etc) and stuff like surprise rounds, faerie fire, sleep are even better. You do not want to tank DPR but you do not need to maximise it either.
#2 Noon Sep 08, 2014 18:08:39	A high dex character really only tends to act first about 15% of the time (with a mod of +3, if were talking low levels). Hardly most of the time.
#3 Zardnaar Sep 08, 2014 18:14:05	Noon wrote:
#4 Mistwell Sep 08, 2014 18:39:00	Zard I think your Original Post for this thread is my favorite post of yours, ever.  Awesome information, thank you.
#5 Zardnaar Sep 08, 2014 18:55:53	Mistwell wrote: