I still kinda laugh at how the box set impies that our players will take on at least an adult blue dragon, but no, just bait and switch with a wyrmling, and nostalgia bait with the character art. Ridiculous.
Possibly. But some of these things we experienced DMs have either gotten lazy about, experience them from a different point of view, become all too complacent. I for one enjoy watching these new DM guide videos periodically because there are things that either I will learn that I just have never done, or I'll find a different approach to something that I already do.
I love how this video goes to the trouble of blurring out the spoiler surrounding Renala... only to reveal it by specifically pointing out her stat block!
First time gm here looking to set up a game. What if i only have two players. The game seems set for five so I take it I'll need to remove a few enemies or would it be better if I run one of the preset characters to pad out the party? Maybe a stupid one so I don't have to give too much info through them.
I'm in the same position, with only 2 players and being a first time DM myself that's also new over all. What I can say is this set is meant for at least 4 players plus the DM, though having 5 can make it easier. The guide suggests if you can't do that, have a player take on a second character and treat them like a sidekick. In my case, both are taking on what we refer to as a primary and secondary character. Most things are done as if it's just the two of them, but the secondaries are brought in during combat or if they have a unique ability for a task. When rolling for initiative, I made a rule where they only roll once and then alternate. I.e. High roll primary first, then the other player's primary, then the high roller's secondary, then the other's secondary. We only barely started and was rough around the edges, but I think it'll work out. I may actually look into reducing enemy counts, and I've heard some DM's will fudge the numbers in favor of the players (remember, they aren't supposed to see what you can see in the books and such) to keep things from becoming overwhelming.
With the pregens in Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and the new premade characters on DnDBeyond, you need to check them for errors before play. Despite these errors being reported many times over the past 7 months, WotC apparently doesn't feel your time is valuable enough to correct these mistakes themselves. If it was a monster statblock here or there, no big deal, it's just a variant that's around for a few minutes. An error in a PC sheet can make a new player's first experience with the game less enjoyable as they fail at times when they should have succeeded. Just from memory: The halfling rogue's Investigation is wrong. The elf wizard is missing some weapon proficiencies, and their DEX save is wrong.
@@vamps_vids - • The halfling rogue's sheet says investigation +0, when it should be +3. • The high elf wizard's Dexterity saving throw says +3 when it should be +2. • Elves are also missing weapon proficiencies: - - - Elf Weapon Training You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. - - - That's not a huge deal to the wood elf fighter who has proficiency in all weapons anyway, but it could make a difference to the high elf wizard who could really benefit from having a bow. Access to the D&D Beyond character creator is free, so I recommend using it to rebuild the characters.
@@SeanChriscole - Maybe they don’t want to do that because it would mean admitting to the mistakes. That might prompt people to want replacement sheets. I think I’m stepping away from D&D when my current campaigns wrap up. Pathfinder 2 is a more complete game, and while nothing is perfect, it’s more consistently good and Paizo communicates more than WotC. PF2 just needs tools like D&D Beyond so people with busy lives can play without necessarily understanding all the mechanics.
I haven't been able to get DoSI yet (not available in Australia), but I'm worried that the statblocks are going to continue the trend begun in MMM where spellcasters no longer actually have a list of spells and their casting level, but rather just a bunch of actions and a couple of innate spell-like abilities. Terrible, terrible idea that makes it so much more clunky to run the characters. No quick swapping spells around. No up-level casting. As a DM, I can no longer grab a spellcating NPC statblock and use it on the fly - I have to rework it from the ground up.
