Overall, I’m sufficiently interested. I mean, it doesn’t overthrow Pathfinder exactly, but the basic rules are generally tidier. You’re going to want to download the online Basic Rules even if you actually bought the boxed set:
I myself wouldn’t have minded if they’d just published a paper copy as well.
Now, a bunch of comments on the Starter Set, and note that I’m mostly comparing it to 3rd edition, and assuming the reader is familiar with that:
No Percentile - The dice that come with the set lacks a ‘tens’ die for percentile rolls, which is understandable I suppose. I mean, 3rd edition mostly used percentile for treasure generation, unless I’m mistaken. There were other things expressed in percentage chances, like the chance to miss when blind, but these were percentages that could easily be rolled with other types of dice, such as 50%. Am I forgetting something? In any case, trying to hit someone while blind is now just a ‘disadvantage’.
The advantage/disadvantage mechanic - If you have advantage in a d20 roll, you roll twice and take the highest. If you have a disadvantage you roll twice and take the worst result. Since my math fu was too weak to simply visualize this, I got out my spreadsheet and generated line graphs. Basically, what you get is that toward the middle of the range of target numbers from 1 to 20 you get a gap of 50% between advantage and disadvantage (each 25% shifted from the odds of a straight d20 roll of 10). But as you move from the middle in either direction the difference in odds collapses. Not sure how I feel about this, but there has been a standing complaint about the linearity of the standard d20 roll. I wonder what those who were bothered by this would feel about the new probability curves that actually curve. It certainly has the advantage of being easy to use.
Character Sheet - The character sheet provided has a simplicity in its look that is invocative of Old Basic D&D. About which:
- Looking at the pre-gens you see that they mean for you to write the mods big square space and the actual stat in the small oval space beneath it. I’ve seen light versions of the d20 rules that dispensed with scores altogether, because nothing was done with them except to convert them to mods.
- Each stat has a saving throw associated with it. Based on the pre-gens, it looks like you pick two of these to add 2 to, otherwise they’re identical to the actual stat mod.
- Looks like you get four skills at your stat mod +2, unless you’re a rogue and get 6. The list of skills is short, like in 4e.
- Armor class is inside a little picture of a shield, of course. You also have boxes for initiative and speed.
- Hit points are given scratch space. There is an equally large space for temporary hit points.
- You get space for Hit Dice. Hit Dice, as it turns out, is a healing mechanic now.
- You get bubbles to track your death saves.
- The designated shaded lines for weapons does not include space for all the info on the weapons charts. The pregens have footnotes given for range.
- Spaces for various roleplaying notes in four specified categories - Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, Flaws.
- Boxes for other, usual specifications that we all know from experience will soon prove inadequate space even if we do write as small as they expect us to.
Skills - No craft or professional skills. The full basic rules say you can craft if you have proficiency with the tools required, but no rules for how one becomes proficient in any tools that aren’t thieves’ tools. Yet, the pregens have other tool proficiencies listed. Otherwise, skills are treated as they are really just categories of stat checks, which is really just a change of perspective rather than a change in mechanic. There may still be potential for some rules to overlap or seem redundant, but overall I think they’re sufficiently streamlined.
Actions - You don’t have move actions, you just have a move speed, and your action. You can now interrupt your movement with an action and then keep going with no need for a feat and no modifiers. You also get something called a Bonus Action in some circumstances, mostly if a class feature allows it. For example, the sample rogue can take the actions Disengage, Dash or Hide as bonus actions in addition to their Action. Some spells are bonus actions. Also, Two-weapon Fighting uses a bonus action.
Movement - Only one degree of difficult terrain, and it’s double movement cost as usual. But crawling through difficult terrain is triple cost.
Help - Apparently, helping people no longer requires you to make a DC 10 or DC 15 check to give a +2 to someone’s roll. Instead, you just spend the action and the other person has Advantage.
Crits- Rolling 20 is always a hit, and always a crit. A crit is just twice the number of damage dice. Rolling a 1 is always a miss, but never a critical fumble.
Ranged Attacks - Two ranges - one within which you have no mods, and one for the absolute range of the weapon. Outside the first range, you have disadvantage to your roll. Ranged attacks do not provoke attacks of opportunity, but they are made at a Disadvantage in close quarters. Ranged attacks get your ability modifier to damage as well as attack.
Two-weapon Fighting - Apparently anybody with a light weapon in each hand can now make a second attack with the off hand. You just don’t get your stat mod to damage unless its negative. Also, no special feat or class ability is needed to do this with thrown weapons, though it doesn’t say whether this similarly applies to the hand crossbows listed among the weapons, presumably only because the need to load them with the other hand complicates this. But I would assume if you have them loaded already, it works just like with thrown weapons.
Death - No negative hit points. If damage exceeds your current hit points, you have zero hit points. If the number of points left after you hit zero equal or exceed your maximum hit points, you’re dead. If you don’t die, but have 0 hp, you need make a Death Saving Throw DC 10 each round you are at 0 hp. After three successes, you’re stable and on your own recover a hp in 1d4 hours. After three failures you are dead. A 1 on the roll is two failures. A 20 restores you to 1 hp, and I guess that means you’re stable. If you’re the attacker, when you make the blow that knocks a creature down to zero you can decide then or there whether the creature is actually going to be making death saves (or, as the GM will probably determine it, simply dead) or just unconscious and stable.
Healing - The name Hit Dice now refers to a healing mechanic. If you have 3d6 HD, you can roll one of them to heal for every hour you spend resting. If you rest 8 hours, you are completely healed. You can only do this once per 24 hours, and you only recover a number of spent Hit Dice up to half your maximum.
Weapon Proficiency - Looks like you can use any weapon. If you’re proficient you get a bonus to use the weapon based on your class and level. Spellcasters get this same bonus for spell checks.
Encumbrance - There are two levels of encumbrance - Unencumbered and Can’t-Fucking-Move. Can’t-Fucking-Move begins at your Strength score x15 pounds + a flea lands on you. Dumbed-down or streamlined? Well, how strictly did you ever enforce the old rules? Maybe people will actually not ignore this one.
Armor - The max dex mod to AC is by the broad armor type (light, medium, heavy), not by the specific armor type. No plate mail listed in the Starter Set.
Equipment - Generally, a very familiar equipment list. Things like Tindertwigs and Tanglefoot bags that I always thought were kind of goofy are not listed. Potion of Healing is on the normal gear list – 50 gp and it heals 2d4+2 damage.
Spells - Back to the Vancian system. Spell schools are merely descriptive. Cantrips enjoy what used to be called Spontaneous Casting. Proficiency with armor allows you to cast in it just fine. Areas of effect are defined in ways that will require further specification to use on a grid map. You can cast more than 1 spell per round if one takes a bonus action and the other is a 1-action cantrip.
Adventure - The big advantage of 4th edition, that encounters could be run with no prep time on the GM’s part, is gone. The adventure is written so as to teach you to GM, instead of being a GM guide with an adventure included. Nice readable monster listings. XP for each encounter is a straight number to be divided among characters, not figured by comparing party and encounter level. Tactical maps in 5-foot grids. 13 magic items that appear in the adventure listed in the appendix, and generally function how you’d expect them to from previous editions.