Solo playthrough 48 encounters. Some numbers on encounters and other things.
Alright! This was the 3rd playthrough so far and I do have to say it was both interesting and challenging as I happened to come across content i did not encounter in my two previous playthroughs.
I wanted to see a few things:
Which fights i would cheese to avoid fighting at all, which fights to barrelmancy, kiting, high ground, cheese stealth, item spam/puddles (constant use of items to force puddle damage. Uses > 2, if it hits a barrel i call it is barrelmancy), normal (melee and ranged used, but usually more melee), and push fest.
Note: I counted pushing 1 enemy patrol, 4 arcane turrets, stabbing mindflayer as separate encounters.
I also skipped a few encounters i felt would be too easy or had no value for experience, gold, items, or out of the way. (Goblin ambush @ villiage, afternoon delight barn edition, , gob village welcoming committee, Karliah, Mushroom king of the hill,
Encounters style:
Cheese little/no PC combat: 4 (Mindflayer, Crusher for his ring, Goblin healer for shield and to not aggro the trader, Shadowdruid+kagha fight)
Barrelmancy: 1 (Minthara attacks the grove, couldn't resist)
Cheese Stealth: 4 (Ruins fight inside main room, Ancient Mud slingy things +2 woad @ swamp, Spider Matriarch, 1 phase spider below matriarch)
Item spam/puddles: 7 (Kua-toa, 4 arcane turrets w/sussar flower, Bernard+4 sussar flower, 2xphasespiders)
Kiting: 6 (Redcaps, Gnoll pack, "tyrs chosen", Gith, Goblin gate, Hooked horrors)
Push fest: 3 (duregar beach, Boat ride ending, goblin patrol)
Normal Melee and Ranged: 11 (Zae's tieflings, ruins outside, ruins guard, Ruins skeletons, druid gate, Oh god harpies, Dror throne, @halsin, Bulette, Spectator+drow, 1 of 2 minotaurs)
High ground Can't reach me: 3 (Owlbear, Lump, Sleeping hobs/gobs)
High ground Can reach me: 7 (Inteldevourers, Fishers, Gnome on windmill, 7 skeletons below blight town, Gnoll boss group, Selune temple main hallway,1 of 2 minotaurs,)
Bugged no contest no aggro from PC:2 (hag , hyenas)
Some of the kiting encounters and high ground can reach encounters involved melee as well, but was not considered a majority of fighting.
Encounters whee no healing items used: 18 encounters
Approx Healing item count: 17 potions of healing, 4 greater, 2 superiors, 6 carrots, 1 ham, 2 apple, 6 potato, 5 sausage, 1 pig head, 1 rib, 2 garlic, 2 carn squash,3 roast, 1 whole chicken (when i say approx, i mean i lost track of 3 roast 1 whole chicken and a few other small foods, im pretty sure i ate them, i might be off on potions of healing by about 2, the harpy fight was tough, i lost track.)
Basically, For a majority of fights my bonus action was not hunters mark, but rather eating food or potions.
Thoughts:
Some of these fights were difficult for solo play. Take the hapries for example (dont nerf). Being able to throw sharp rocks with decent modifiers to rolls to attack, plus height, really does make surviving difficult. Not to mention protecting the child at the same time. While cheesing did happen during this playthrough, there were many other fights that required a strategic approach, like breaking ladders, finding high ground, keeping high ground, and kiting. While i do agree that some of these things do not represent 5e, I do feel that the encounters, at least from a solo standpoint are fun and challenging. The variety of fights and approaches were, at the very least thought out, and your typical Leeroy approach would fail spectacularly. The AI felt smarter when up against 1 person as most enemies seemed to track you well enough when they cannot range attack you. I do recall them being able to track you better when you were closer to the other path they can take.
Regardless of the changes made to 5e sets of rules, MM and all of that, I do find the 5e lore and alternative base gameplay to still be enjoyable. But please, please by Gale's Magical blue balls, fix opportunity strike distances that trigger at a shorter than melee range distance.
Observations:
-Spamming healing was necessary when not cheesing.
-Non healing and damaging items were used during harder fights. 3 haste potions were used, 3 hill giants were used, poison resist was used once, (all in the underdark)
-The Shattered Flail is OP. It heals for ANY damage you do so long as it is equipped as your melee weapon. Using magic missile for a free heal and finisher was great.
-Some scrolls were used: firebolt, magic missile, burning hands, silence x2
-Most used spells were hunters mark and shield of faith from the Absolute's warboard.
-Spider Pet was pretty good, many encounters were won because of the pressure put onto the pet.
-Stealth cheese felt necessary for certain solo fights, feels a little dirty.
-If your pet kills the shadow druids minus orlalan or w/e her name is then the quest still works as intended.
-Damage due to ground effects was not too much a concern. (i did have resistance to fire.) I will admit that without resistance i would have been using a few more heals, i also wasn't hit by fire items in the majority of the fights +6 to dex save or 7 if you wear leather helm and ac19 helps.
-Wyvern poison hits REALLY HARD. You can almost 2 shot a bulette if you pop your haste + wyvern in the prep and first rounds, and if you roll really high. I feel that needs to be said, rolls count haha.
-Sussur Flowers will break certain encounters.
-Bane from the gloves of power is fantastic
-Shield of faith from the Tyrs sword is OP, cast then remove it.
-Melee position was incredibly important, 20% increases to attack are significant and worth using.
Few Suggestions based off of solo and designed to keep solo viable:
-Do not take away foods. Foods procced the Broodmother as well as kept the PC topped off on health. Few foods have been lifesaving. While solo i had a plentiful amount of food, i also feel i used more for my full party playthroughs. What i want to know is if fully parties tend to use more healing items. It also meant that i could keep my short rest available to recharge certain skills.
-Keep bonus actions the way they are. Multiple encounters would not have been an improbable task without jump/disengage.
-Consider reducing spell scroll quantities: There were quite a few spell scrolls to be found around EA, most of them were not used and sold (which isnt a bad thing) I suggest taking a hard look at which spells are actually being used. But hey if you want extra scrolls to sell, keep it.
-Illithid skill knockbacks (repulsor) needs a minor reduction in push distance. It feels greater than or equal to the pushback arrow and should be reduced BECAUSE of its AOE capabilities. One skill being used to knock off 3 enemies on the final boat ride is hilarious but could use a minor nerf.
-Stop giving me shadowheart's relic. IT MUST BE CURSED. I'll place it into the storage and sometime later it will reappear in my inventory. STOOOOP! hahaha, no, seriously it does that.
-Opportunity attacks should not take away your actions or bonus actions.
-Pathing around enemies to their sides or backs should not take you out of melee range if they are alone.
Character stats:
PC: Drow Beastmaster Ranger (spider pet)
Equipment:
Chest: Oakfathers for undead encounter, Githyanki Half plate main
Head: Leather helm until, Menzoberranzan
Necklace: switched between Mistystep and broodmother. Broodmother was main.
Rings: Crushers ring and mages friend
Gloves: gloves of power (Branded with Mark)
Feet: Boots of speed (only used it 3 times)
Melee: shattered flail (Its OP, you heal on ranged attacks, items, and spells)
Shield: Absolute's Warboard
Ranged: Heavy crossbow +1
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 8, wisdom 15, charisma 10.
Last edited by Okidoki; 22/10/20 07:00 AM.
