Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Level 5 No-Cleric Combat Playtest, Take 4

Yet another playtest with revised numbers and strategies. Here we ran a more normal goblin encounter, with the party being ambushed by twelve of them as opposed to just running into them in a bog-standard dungeon hall.

As a refresher, the 5th-level party consisted of:

• Human fighter using a spear and shield, with Dexterity +2.
• Dwarven fighter using a longsword. Dex is only +1, but has Strength +2.
• Human wizard focused on pyroturgy spells.
• Human rogue with assorted Talents, not all of which are specifically suited for combat.

The goblins got a free round of bow attacks, which inflicted quite a few damage to both fighters (obviously the dwarven fighter was the worst for wear due to a lack of shield). They then surged forth to charge and/or grab onto the fighters, something that surprised Melissa.

The rule was: goblin makes an attack against Defense only, and on a "hit" grabs onto the fighter. Each goblin is a -1 penalty to everything. This counts as an attack so ups the Ganging Up bonus. The goblins were using short swords, which have AP 1 and Close Quarters 1, meaning that they get another +1 bonus to hit (daggers are Close Quarters 2).

The gobins on the ground obviously had a hard time getting around the fighter's shield, even though Defender no longer grants a passive +1 to Defense with shields (felt like a "Talent-tax", anyway). The goblins on top had a much easier time. Well, the ones that survived, anyway, as the wizard and rogue went to work clubbing and stabbing them off respectively.

In the end the only issues were that Melissa kept forgetting to use Defender to Hinder an attack, which would also trigger Shield Bash if the attack missed. The upside is that both fighters were hurting: shield fighter was down a total of 13 hp, while the dwarf lost over 20. They both have around 35, but this was just one encounter against low-level monsters so I think that's a pretty good deal: I don't want this to be a game where the party fights once and then has to rest for a few days, especially considering that clerics are no longer an adventuring class.

I think at this point we're settling on the following armor stats:

• Light: DR 3, AC +3
• Light reinforced: DR 4, AC +4
• Medium: DR 6, AC +5
• Medium reinforced: DR 7, AC +6
• Heavy: DR 9, AC +7
• Heavy reinforced: DR 10, AC +8

Most armors got a boost so that there's a greater distinction between categories. Ideally wanted to just have the AC mod match DR, but plate with +10 AC is probably too extreme, especially if we want to include masterwork armors. Not sure. Masterwork weapons, definitely.

The only consideration is if armor should have two DR values: one if you don't beat the AC, and another if you do. So, say, plate could have DR 10/3, so if you beat the AC it still shaves off 3 points (which could still be offset by Armor Penetration).

Shields are +1 Defense for small (ie, heater-types), +2 for large (kite or whatever those viking shields were called). Most editions of D&D give you +1 or +2, but here weight actually matters so Small characters might want to cut back on shield size.

Wer're also adding the following additional rules:

• Critical hits inflict max damage and bypass armor DR automatically (but not steadfast DR). This way characters never feel totally safe.
• The Ganging Up bonus will be more beneficial for goblins and other monsters that might prefer swarming characters (such as dire rats).
• When grabbing a creature or climbing on it, the target doesn't get its shield bonus to Defense.
• Adding grabbing rules, as well as the rules for climbing on large monsters that I wanted to add before but never did. So have fun climbing on giants and dragons Dragon's Dogma and Monster Hunter: World style.