My daughter has introduced my gaming group to 5e and I'm starting to get the hang of it. Naturally, I'm preparing my own campaign for when she gets tired or can't attend.
Can someone give me a quick rundown of which old school monsters have gotten rewritten substantially? Like, are hill giants harder or easier to kill these days? Are demons tougher to kill? Trolls? Dragons? Our group is only 3rd level right now, so I'm good on goblins and bugbears, but higher level stuff is cloudy.
In short, nothing is the same if you’re talking about their abilities. But if what you’re talking about is relative power compared to other monsters, that’s still pretty close to what it was and also using CR is a pretty good metric. It actually not all that great when it comes to deciding if a given monster is an appropriate challenge for your PCs — it’s not terrible, but not great. But I find it works very well for roughly comparing monsters to each other, so a CR 3 will be harder than a 2 and easier than a 4.
Even then, it can fall apart depending on the group. Fighting a fire elemental and someone in the party has banishment, the fight can be over very quickly. But if no one does and no one has any magic weapons yet, and the casters all have fire spells prepared, it’s going to be a hard fight.
The major thing to remember for more powerful creatures is legendary actions, resistances, lair and regional effects. As a DM you should not forget to do these things.
The major thing to remember for more powerful creatures is legendary actions, resistances, lair and regional effects. As a DM you should not forget to do these things.
Resistances are nothing new, but those other things are. At what level do I need to start keeping an eye out for those?
The biggest piece of advice that I have for a 1E veteran is to think of 5E as a new game that shares some names in common with 1E and still uses the basic idea of "roll dice and stuff happens" but is otherwise its own thing. Trying to approach the game as if it were 1E with some extras is just going to lead to frustration and confusion. Try familiarizing yourself with how actions, bonus actions, and reactions work. That's good for getting yourself started.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
There is a free (limited) version of the Monster Manual here on D&D Beyond. I would recommend checking that out since it lists the Challenge Rating of each monster. There's also plenty of 5e random encounter generators online you can use to generate encounters.
The biggest piece of advice that I have for a 1E veteran is to think of 5E as a new game that shares some names in common with 1E and still uses the basic idea of "roll dice and stuff happens" but is otherwise its own thing. Trying to approach the game as if it were 1E with some extras is just going to lead to frustration and confusion. Try familiarizing yourself with how actions, bonus actions, and reactions work. That's good for getting yourself started.
I've played several times now. To be honest, it feels pretty similar. The main difference seems to be that the rolls are much more codified rather than the DM just choosing a number arbitrarily. The game feels pretty balanced so far (we're just 3rd level right now), and the wizards have some pew pew cantrips to give them something to do (let's hear it for acid splash!).
I've been trying to get familiar with the CR numbers, but I'm still trying to figure out how intelligent monsters would use their powers, what kinds of resistances I should keep an eye on, etc.
The big resistance to watch for is to nonmagical pierce/slash/bludgeon. When that starts popping up, martial characters can start to feel weaker, so it’s probably a good time to give them magic weapons. The elemental ones are not as bad, since those usually impact casters, most of whom can just switch to a different spell.
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My daughter has introduced my gaming group to 5e and I'm starting to get the hang of it. Naturally, I'm preparing my own campaign for when she gets tired or can't attend.
Can someone give me a quick rundown of which old school monsters have gotten rewritten substantially? Like, are hill giants harder or easier to kill these days? Are demons tougher to kill? Trolls? Dragons? Our group is only 3rd level right now, so I'm good on goblins and bugbears, but higher level stuff is cloudy.
In short, nothing is the same if you’re talking about their abilities. But if what you’re talking about is relative power compared to other monsters, that’s still pretty close to what it was and also using CR is a pretty good metric. It actually not all that great when it comes to deciding if a given monster is an appropriate challenge for your PCs — it’s not terrible, but not great. But I find it works very well for roughly comparing monsters to each other, so a CR 3 will be harder than a 2 and easier than a 4.
Even then, it can fall apart depending on the group. Fighting a fire elemental and someone in the party has banishment, the fight can be over very quickly. But if no one does and no one has any magic weapons yet, and the casters all have fire spells prepared, it’s going to be a hard fight.
The major thing to remember for more powerful creatures is legendary actions, resistances, lair and regional effects. As a DM you should not forget to do these things.
Resistances are nothing new, but those other things are. At what level do I need to start keeping an eye out for those?
I meant:
Among the Monster Manual Monsters, the legendary stuff starts with the Adult Dragons. But in the newer books, there is one as low as CR4 - Fate Hag.
Look at the Vampire for some legendary actions.
It takes a while for a new DM to fully understand how to use them.
The biggest piece of advice that I have for a 1E veteran is to think of 5E as a new game that shares some names in common with 1E and still uses the basic idea of "roll dice and stuff happens" but is otherwise its own thing. Trying to approach the game as if it were 1E with some extras is just going to lead to frustration and confusion. Try familiarizing yourself with how actions, bonus actions, and reactions work. That's good for getting yourself started.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
There is a free (limited) version of the Monster Manual here on D&D Beyond. I would recommend checking that out since it lists the Challenge Rating of each monster. There's also plenty of 5e random encounter generators online you can use to generate encounters.
I'll keep an eye out, thanks.
I've played several times now. To be honest, it feels pretty similar. The main difference seems to be that the rolls are much more codified rather than the DM just choosing a number arbitrarily. The game feels pretty balanced so far (we're just 3rd level right now), and the wizards have some pew pew cantrips to give them something to do (let's hear it for acid splash!).
I've been trying to get familiar with the CR numbers, but I'm still trying to figure out how intelligent monsters would use their powers, what kinds of resistances I should keep an eye on, etc.
The big resistance to watch for is to nonmagical pierce/slash/bludgeon. When that starts popping up, martial characters can start to feel weaker, so it’s probably a good time to give them magic weapons. The elemental ones are not as bad, since those usually impact casters, most of whom can just switch to a different spell.