My First 5E Campaign Session 6

This session was pretty much just combats.

I’m pretty much using this campaign to figure out things about 5E. Once I get a good baseline understanding of how the game works, I can then allow for other options and what not from non-core sources.

So far I’m finding that the classes are decently balanced, but no so much as to be boringly similar, like how 4E got with its bloat of classes.

I’ve yet to see if I’m giving out too much in the way of magic items.
75% of them at this level are temporary ones, such as potions and scrolls, and healing potions are about half of the items overall. (And trust me, they get used.)
The remaining 25% are simple +1 weapons, a +1 shield, and a Wand of Magic Missiles (and yes, I don’t count that as temporary given how it works).

This session was basically a transition night to go from the “Newton zone” to the “Franklin zone”. I’m using a spreadsheet to deal with choosing monsters and giving the right amount of treasure. These transition sessions are what I’ll be doing to balance the treasure the party has earned versus what it’s been given.

I could be more complicated, but it’s not worth it.

Justin was not at this session. Between work, college classes, and camping weekends he shows up about half the time. This will allow for me to see if people lagging behind in levels are as much of a drain as they were in 3E.

In 3E, if you were 2 levels behind, you were often a liability. Hopefully with 5E’s less steep power vs. level incline, it won’t be an issue.

Aaron played Rhoanel, half-elf bard
Dale played Rumi, wood elf monk
Everett played Markus, halfling rogue
Craig played Knox, half-elf sorcerer

Justin’s Cedraic, half-elf ranger, was off scouting while the party risked their lives.

We started in Newton where the party had just seen the meteor fly overhead.

It was obviously the talk of town and everyone had their own interpretation of what that meant. It was a messenger of doom, a sign of good times, and so on.

They stopped at Tonus’s house for a chat, but he was mostly playing the senile old man bit where he’d say one thing, then forget the whole conversation a minute later.

When asked about the meteor he said “It’s about time that thing showed up.” When they pressed further he said “What? Huh? What meteor? There was a meteor?”

So the party left town and walked along the road to Castle Franklin, reportedly a five day journey.

This party found a way to make that 7.

Their first night they were attacked by shadows, and that scared them quite a bit. Luckily the strength drain goes away after an hour.

They had to rest extra long to make up for the lost rest.

A day later they saw a sign for chicken crossing, except the chicken’s shown to have a lizard tail in the picture. They decided to travel faster on the road, but they didn’t know that this road was a railroad and they were promptly attacked by a flock of 10 angry cockatrices.

In a fit of horrible rolling by both Dale and Aaron, Everett and Craig, the two newest members of our group, had to fight 6 (maybe it was 8) of the remaining cockatrices alone.

And they did it.

Knox spent his time avoiding getting hit, while Markus did the damage to finish them off one at a time.

And the DM anticipated this fight may have had a bad ending, so he had a force of knights and their retainers show up 5 minutes after the last cockatrice was killed.

The knights informed them that their now-solid companions would be back to normal in a day.

The knights then road off towards Castle Franklin on their own quest to join some warlord.

Once the fully flesh and bone group got moving again they came to a pile of villager and orc bodies blocking the road. When Rhoanel went up to investigate, an ogre burst out of the pile while hidden orcs appeared on the sides of the road.

The party killed the ogre in 1 round. The orcs fled.

And finally they started seeing some farmlands instead of open grasslands.

And they found a quick dispute between a farmer’s daughter and her parents. She was running away to be with her boyfriend because she loved him and stormed off.

They pleaded with the party to help their daughter. She wasn’t acting normal as the man she was supposedly in love with was a known thug “Slick”, who had been causing problems with his gang of bandits recently.

The party was given directions to where the girl went and found the cave hideout.

Long story short, the bandits did a lot to stop the party and harass them when they could, but it wasn’t enough.

And they found the love potion that Slick had given the girl. Once he was dead, the potion’s effect ended.