Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition Combat Playtest

Rolled up a trio of generic characters for a combat playtest (and I mean really rolled them, using 4d6, dropping the lowest, down the line, random WP/VP, everything), as I wanted to see if Melissa could handle all the new fiddlier game bits, which are (for now):

• Every class gains a level-based Attack Bonus.
• Every class gains a level-based Defense Bonus.
• Armor is now Damage Reduction only (shields still grant a bonus to Defense and certain saves, where the shield could feasibly protect you).
• Every 5 points you exceed a target's Defense by adds 1 damage.
• All weapons have a Range (ie, dagger 1, shortsword 2, arming sword 3, etc); when you move to attack a creature, if their Range exceeds yours, they can make an attack as a Reaction. This is an opportunity attack, and targets cannot do this if they are already Engaged (ie, distracted by another creature in melee combat with them).

I think that's everything. Some things were omitted, like Phased Combat, and even the idea of a spellcasting check, which I'm not sold on, especially for Miracles. I could still see spells doing more when the target fails really badly. But that's for another playtest.

Room one had three orcs, which are now the pig-faced variety, vat-grown as stupid, savage slaves, room two had four goblins, room three had six skeletons, and then an ogre showed up at the last minute. There was no real "balance" to any of this, I just picked random monsters that I felt a 1st-level party would face off against. Except for the ogre at the end. That was just for the heck of it.

The wizard went down in the first room, in one hit, but only because Melissa had her run into melee with an orc and she got stabbed by an opportunity attack (Range 5 spear beats Range 0 Shocking Grasp). So, yay, that worked out as expected, though it gives me an idea for a Range increasing Spell Advancement. Also, might want to bump up light armor to DR 2 and go from there, as right now any Armor Penetration makes it worthless.

The cleric propped the wizard back up when the fight was over (Healing Domain), but she got dropped again in the second room after blowing up a goblin with Discharge: I figured the one goblin not engaged by the cleric and fighter would throw her spear, and it hit pretty hard despite a -1 Strength. Oh yeah, just remembered I was thinking of having Dexterity modify all attacks, including melee. Makes sense, right?

Now, this fight took longer purely due to bad rolls on Melissa's part: really it was the DR 3 medium armor that kept her characters alive (we're handling it where DR can zero out damage). Goblins only had light (DR 1), but their Dexterity and Small size made them slightly harder to hit than the orcs.

The cleric again propped the wizard back up, and this time they rested before going into the skeleton room. This way the wizard got an extra Willpower point back. Good thing, because Melissa rolled 2 on a Lightning Bolt, which wiped out all of her Willpower but took out three skeletons at once. The wizard managed to stay alive the entire time, but once the skeletons went down the ogre burst into the room and rushed the fighter.

The fighter got to make an opportunity attack because her spear's Range beat the ogre's. She got in a pretty decent hit, too, but then the ogre clobbered her with a couple of attacks. Not enough to kill her, mind you, but very close. The cleric used up the last of her Favor on a Divine Wrath that the ogre saved against (still took some damage though), and the wizard was able to get in and slap him with a Shocking Grasp.

Melissa actually reminded me that the ogre didn't get to make an opportunity attack since he was already Engaged by the fighter, but the wizard still got splattered when the ogre retaliated during his own turn (easily inflicted enough damage to knock the wizard past -10). The fighter and cleric were able to finish him off on their next turn, so her sacrifice wasn't completely in vain.

The whole thing was theatre of the mind, just square rooms with random monsters. No concern for light sources or other gear, terrain features, obstacles, none of that. Just kick in the door and throw down, which obviously affects how things went, as there was no attempt at luring monsters, trying to sneak past or bargain with them, or even trying to pick some off with ranged attacks.

Even so Melissa said that she enjoyed it, feeling that combat was faster, and more unpredictable in a good way. She liked the additional strategic elements (ie, Engaging a monster so that you could rush in with a lower Range weapon without worry), and didn't feel that the fighter or wizard were invincible by any means (the cleric got hit pretty hard by a pair of skeletons, shaving off all her VP as well as some WP in the process).

The attack-roll-based-bonus damage came up quite a bit, with Melissa often eking out at least +1 damage, but several times managed to blow past the +2 damage mark (the ogre was especially vulnerable to this, having a Defense of only 11).

All in all, good reaction for a first time, pure-combat playtest. I'm optimistic about these changes, but we'll obviously need to try it out multiple times, at different levels, to see how it holds up. Very curious how high-level play will work out, because with masterwork heavy armor you could get a base DR of 7, or higher if we bump up light to 2. Then there's adamantine armor and magic bonuses, which would just keep upping DR instead of Defense.

So, that could mean a DR of, what...10? 11? Would definitely need a way for enemies to overcome it, at least temporarily, especially because of the sheer amount of WP and VP a fighter could have at that point. I don't want a repeat of early Dungeons & Delvers playtesting, where plate armor made you essentially invulnerable. Though, to be fair, attack bonuses were very low and there wasn't any sort of scaling damage bonus.

Can we make it work? Lot of people seem really opposed to the whole armor-as-DR thing, at least when it comes to d20 systems. So, we'll see.