Our updated party after we dropped and added people (I'm remembering the characters names based on my character's recollection as well as mine)
(We are also level 3, the dm levels us automatically every few sessions)
Amira Azuran: The High Elven Conjurer (my character, more details will be posted some other time)
Tali The Black Dragonborn Bard (her high charisma allowed abuse of DnD social skills, but I like her more than the rouge who did the same thing, who left.)
Alexander played by Wes: The Gripli (little frog person, using pathfinder rules) Ranger, who rides atop of Tali's shoulders.
Thunderstone played by Karl H.: The Cleric of Moradin who admitted to being raciest this session.
I was absent last session, but the rest of the party went inside of a cultist's cave and came out telling my character about the goblins, ogres, and trolls inside. We later found out that the human cultists we were searching for had escaped somehow (a secret passage was mentioned, but both me and my character had no clue). Inside the caves we found a Tiefling sorcerer played by newcomer Max. He named the person with a temporary alias (something along the lines of Releth or Ry'leth, It was hard to pronounce). It should also be known that the caves were claimed by Tali and renamed Fort Kickass, though my character debated that she had no legal power over the land...the king unofficially granted it to her after she creeped the hell out of him with her screaming (I'm starting to hate people who play dnd and just spam intimidate like that, just so they can get anything...as a DM I wouldn't really allow that...she just spammed social skills, but she did back it up with solid RP so it's not as bad.)
Returning to town we encountered the strange leader who lived in a mixed up, partly renovated castle that he had stolen from the other local peoples. The DM described it as having mixes of all different kinds of brickwork and random botched statues, it was somewhat interesting. He paid us 200 gold for our efforts in the cave (after I insisted on behalf of the rouge, who had left, who got us the deal in the first place).
Suddenly, a battle horn blows outside and an army formed by the human cultists had returned to attack the city. My lawful good elf offered to fight to defend her new hometown, but the rest of the party wanted to leave. Since the DM had a strict no "splitting the party" rule (which is a fair rule, I just feel it is unreasonable in some situations) we were forced to come to a decision.
The Lawful Good cleric, who already hated my character, decided to try to convince me to stay. I actually have Amira noted in-character and on her sheet as a stubborn woman. This came up both times in the sessions I was in, and it's sorta strange that I have not earned inspiration.
Though this is up to DM's ideals, it is annoying that he only rewards it for doing strange or awkward things that are awesome instead of character moments. For example: he gives inspiration to the bard for saying a short prayer to Bahamut or playing a shredding power chord, but not for me when I risk my life to defend a city, in fitting with my character and exposing a flaw)
Anyway, after I fought against the party, the cleric smashed his warhammer into my knees and dragged me unto his mount as I kicked and screamed. He only brought me down to 3 HP, and I demanded a fair chance to escape (I had teleporting spells), but the DM just forced me along while I was complaining about how the cleric just broke my knees (the DM tried to say it was "just a bruise" but it was serious BS).
The casters torched the city using Fireball spells, and I cried out as I had to watch the city burn from a distance, horrified by the lives lost that I might have been able to save. It reminded her how her own home could have been burned to the ground or the elves around her slaughtered, but she remained mostly quiet until they reached the forest.
We traveled down a Savannah to the south towards the Swamps where Alexander and Tali hail from.
The DM did a very straightforward mode of travel, not even tracking rations or anything even though we traveled for at least two weeks on foot (from what I remember). He also rolled random encounters very openly.
It would be wrong for me to complain about this method, as a DM I use the same exact formula. However, as a player, I felt like several days of time passing in the instant of a second and the clatter of dice was very boring with very sparse location descriptions. Again though, this is what I do, so I won't complain.
The last part of the session took place in a forest at night, a few days out from the swamp. I think we traveled around 4-5 days in here before stopping due to some strange magical energy. Amira could sense teleporting energies (this was her major focus as a conjurer) and eventually the cleric found a Phase Spider in his face. We fought them off easily without much effort and I cast Sleep on one of them so I could examine and study it. My DM said that at 5th level I could have an ability to disrupt transportation (like the 3e spell dimensional anchor) since I understood now how the spiders untethered themselves from the ethereal plane.
The last thing that happened in the session was my character collecting some Phase Spider Silk which I might be able to craft into some fancy gloves (magical or not, unsure) or even a Portable Hole at higher levels (it would require a lot of work, but it is possible).
So overall, my major problem with the session was that I clearly remember our characters traveling at least 2 weeks total between the savanna and the forest, but it all felt so bland and uneventful until the final encounter.
The first part of the session was basically Tali screaming at the leader of the town, which was fun to watch for the most part, and the middle was just boring travel leading into a actually rather uninteresting battle with Phase Spiders for the most part. (they actually posed no threat and fled after only 2-3 rounds). Overall, I like the game, but I feel like the party and the DM could improve in some serious ways. In the end, I'm happy I get to play a game at all. For the record, this is the first time I played 5e outside of the playtest...so my 2nd game overall.
Edit:
The dwarven cleric justified fleeing the city by saying that since Moradin only protects dwarves and that there are no dwarves in the city...he shouldn't care. However, based on what I read, it said that Moradin does not like it when clerics flee from their foes.
The DM's party dynamic of forcing us to stay together is really dumb in this instance because in-character the dwarf was fine (and he said this) with letting me stay and fight even though he knew it was a losing battle (how? we had not seen any of the forces on the other side or how many warriors we had.)
Since the DM had that rule, Thunderstone had no choice but to club me in the leg and force me along.
WHY?! That makes no sense. If anything, like he said, he'd leave me to die...and not take someone he does not like with him.
This also goes back to another problem I had with my last game in college, where in-character the "party" is not tied together. My character Amira just met these people, and would have no reason to stay with this dwarf who has abused her just to stay with a cool bard and ranger (who she has hardly talked to).
The party needs to be established in story and in gameplay.
Edit 2: I wanted to add a few things after talking with the party again.
A, Hopefully I can get to some kind of town, cause the DM said I could make non-magical silk gloves within a few hours.
B. The bard was actually doing a great job roleplaying her intimidate skill. The problem I have is with social skills as a concept or a concept of the d20 system. The fact that she can intimidate someone is fine...but I have a problem with the DICE more than her. The dice shouldn't be able to give you a 24 or some large number, allowing you to bend someone over mentally. What I'm saying is, if I was the DM...and someone asked me if they should roll intimidate and roleplay it out, I say they already intimidated them without any kind of roll. So my problem is more with rolling the skill than anything. Plus, when the bard gets +10 to intimidate to begin with, and (going by the pathfinder rules that I know best) even rolling a 1 would mean that any average person would not rebel against your statement and treat you with neutral agreement. Even a five or six would allow her to theoretically allow her to coerce or befriend any average person easily. So my main point is that the rolls were unnecessary and to clarify the character/player was doing nothing wrong and in fact that she did a great job.
I've read a few articles on social skills in dnd, and I feel like most people agree with this. Now for something like non major NPCs or the like, I think it's decent enough.
C.While this is a bit of a touchy subject I did want to cover it in brief. The DM said that he would show Tali no special treatment due to who was playing her (his girlfriend) the only reason I said that was because I did not understand the nature of their relationship, and I apologize for making such a rude statement.
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