After another 5E adventure night.

The adventure continues.  I am not going to recount everything that occurs, just highlight what I think are interesting learnings or experiences.

Nobody went to zero hit points this session, breaking our trend.  We all made successful saves against Mr. Nothic, which was just luck.  Beyond fighting Nothic and removing the skeletons, most of the session was role playing, sorting out treasure, hiring a pack bearer, and being a general nuisance. I have not hired a pack bearer in years! It was oddly satisfying.  I wonder how long he will last?

Do combats go faster?  A long time player said the following when it came around to his turn again, "Is it my turn already?"

Some confusion about the jumping rule which was quickly answered.  I like knowing how far I can jump without rolling.  Since no one has tried to jump farther than they can without rolling yet, I do not know the mechanism for resolving it.  I expect a simple DC vs. Athletic check.

Question came up about our wizard knowing another cantrip from the captured spell book.  I think this was a DM error, including the dead wizards cantrips in the spell book.  I wonder if a wizard can unlearn a cantrip and replace it with a new one if decides one of his original ones is not as useful as he thought it would be.  The basic rules seem silent on the matter, and unless it is covered by the PHB or DMG this seems like a DM call/house rule.

I am still wondering about the fighter's second wind ability.  The flavor of being able to have second winds all day by just sitting around having short rests seems off to me.  My gut reaction is to say they can only use the ability to shrug off damage taken in the most recent encounter during or at the end of the encounter.  Otherwise it seems to circumvent the spending hit dice mechanic.  Not a deal breaker for me, but I will continue to ponder it as we play.  Since I am not the DM, in this game it is not my call anyway.

The only other rule which continues to trouble me so far is shooting through apparently unlimited creatures to hit an enemy with only the cost of half cover.  I know this falls under the category of DM ruling, but I would lean towards a table standard of some amount of creatures (say two) gives half cover, additional creatures (say three more) give 3/4 cover, and after that it is full cover.  Perhaps even this is too lenient.  Another one to ponder.

We are reaching the point where we have more treasure than we can spend on small items, but not enough to buy more expensive items.  I am hoping the surfeit of gold will lead to role playing opportunities not simple hunts for magic items.

So far the general consensus is people are liking this edition.