well to me it is a question of how you think about it.
From a 'role' playing standpoint, Bern is the last person you would want trying to 'help' you stay alive ... in the same way you wouldn't want to have the frail wizard as your 'front line'. If things had gotten 'dire', (i.e. no one had been able to help him in a round or two) he would have been willing to give it a try.
From a 'roll' playing standpoint, I had thought that a failed 'medicine' check caused a death save fail. But when I looked in the PHB I couldn't find anything specific either way <shrug>
Yes, I found no penalty to failed Medicine Skill checks. In which case there's no downside to having the player with the worst number try it if you need to.
No. Other than a specific power based on a PC class, background, or race there is no way to Increase skills. Your Proficiency bonus goes up every few levels, which will increase skills you are proficient in, and there is an optional feat you can take that lets you become proficient in more skills but that is it.
Goblin Ambush: DEADLY (Adjusted XP = 400) Goblin Blind: EASY (Adjusted XP = 150) Kennel: HARD (Adjusted XP = 300) Overpass: EASY (Adjusted XP = 50) Goblin Den: DEADLY (Adjusted XP = 600) Twin Pools Cave: HARD (Adjusted XP = 300) Klarg's Cave: DEADLY (Adjusted XP = 700)
I find it interesting that the areas where people report a lot of character deaths all have a difficulty level of DEADLY. This would suggest that the system for computing encounter difficulty is in the right ballpark at least. I also find it interesting that there are no encounters with a MEDIUM difficulty. In fact, the last encounter may actually be understated. If (as the text states) the goblin on the Overpass joins the goblins in the Twin Pools Cave, and if one of those goblins, in turn, runs to warn Klarg, then the last encounter becomes even more overwhelming.
By the way, that last sentence is similar to what did happen. In Zeim's game the PC's fought the Goblin Den battle. In my game they did not, choosing to parlay (a smart move considering how depleted the group was).
Just mentioning for both parties that as Neptune alluded to earlier, this section of the Module has a lot of role-playing in it.
Whereas the earlier section was a straightforward dungeon crawl. Fight and kill enemies. This section, in the town of Phandalin, has a lot of potential side-quests.
Many people you talk to have potential quests for the group and/or clues to the larger puzzle, so it might pay to take a breath and talk to a number of people and gather your options before deciding on anything specific to do next.
While I don't want to spend years of real-time in this one place, I'd recommend not rushing through it as you will miss the opportunity not only to learn stuff but also for Exps.
I've been away on business this past week, and am away again from tomorrow. Back on Friday! So in the meantime, here are some d20 rolls, courtesy of the official D&D Dice Roller!
Cones and spheres don't work well on grids. None of you probably care, but me? I'm too obsessive compulsive to not care. And I know that that my FTF group all cares (when was the last time one of you saw a protractor used in a game?)
I need an example and I'm going to use Kriv's 15' Dragonborn cone breath weapon, because AJ used it in the game
The Player Handbook and DM Guide do not describe how to deal with this in a manner I'm comfortable with. In the DMG they have a chapter entitled "Adjudicating Areas of Effect" in which they say to "go with your gut". There you go. That really satisfies Mr. OCD! Fortunately, they do try and an extra step for whack-jobs like me. They say to take the size (15' cone) and divide by 10, rounding up. So, according to them, it would strike 2 creatures. I think that's unfair and arbitrary.
Even before the DMG was published, at GenCon this past August, Zeim and I asked the question and we spoke to one of the lead designers of the game (I think it was Jeremy Crawford) and we discussed a way to play with miniatures. The suggestion was to deal with some targets as getting the full direct attack and some, on the edges, getting advantage to avoid. I liked that idea and graphed it out Here's what I came up with. The greenish shaded squares get advantage. I tried to depict it work for 8 compass points:
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