peteyfrogboy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peteyfrogboy) wrote2009-11-29 06:12 am
peteyfrogboy) wrote2009-11-29 06:12 am
After Action Report
A few notes on the recent gaming sessions, for those who might be interested but mostly for my records:
Character creation was a little bumpy, but not too bad considering none of us had looked in the books before. Judging by the role descriptions, I decided that the necessary things to have in a 2-person party were a defender and a striker. D waffled on her choices a bit, and then decided on an Eladrin Fighter. Fighters are generally easy, so I was down with that. We decided to make![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adelavanbrugge a Tiefling Warlock to fill the striker role.
The Fighter (Ella) is a high-Dex flail-wielding type, though weapon choice doesn't make a big difference at this point. Daesa the Warlock has a high Cha and Fey Pact, which seems to be working out as well as advertised.
I decided that the two already knew each other to make things easier, and live in a city on the outskirts of The Great Forest, full of Fey goodness. They have connections to the Eladrin community in the city, and were summoned by one of the elders to find a Ranger who was two days overdue returning from his 3-day patrol. They set off and immediately showed why this was usually a job for a Ranger. They wandered around in the woods (despite having a map of exactly where they should be going) and eventually I decided that if I wanted the story to progress I'd have to have pity on them. I had the Ranger's squirrel animal companion show up at the abandoned camp they'd found and pull a Lassie.
They followed the squirrel to a small stream which led into a valley. There they ran into their first encounter: a pack of 8 giant rats surrounding a gnawed corpse. I figured that it should be an even fight, and they're minions, so how hard can they be? There were accusations of cursed dice, an almost-TPK, and a bit of fudging to keep them alive, but they managed to pull through. Many rules were manhandled during this encounter as we learned how they worked. Still, they managed to survive and retreated back to the camp as they heard a "yip yip" coming from the end of the valley.
After spending a few healing surges getting back on their feet, they returned to the valley. The rat bodies and mysterious corpse were gone, and they saw evidence that it had been dragged further up the valley. They explored further and found a massive stone entryway set into the hillside at the end of the valley. An open doorway lurked in the shadows. They were not as stealthy as they'd hoped, and they heard a "yip yip" that almost sounded like a bird call from the bushes above the entrance. Two kobold skirmishers came out of the doorway and the fight was on.
Ella decided to make for the high ground at the side of the valley, while Daesa went straight in and started cursing the skirmishers. She used her Eyebite on one and it lost track of her, deciding to charge Ella instead. Trying to use standard group tactics, his partner followed, leaving the Warlock in the clear. At this point the hiding kobold slinger appeared on top of the entrance and started chucking rocks at her. The rest of the fight mostly turned into a ranged duel between Daesa and the slinger and a contest to keep the high ground for Ella and her two suitors.
The choice to climb the hill had initially seemed like uncharacteristic cowardice, but in the end it kept the two skirmishers from being able to flank Ella as they kept failing their climb checks to shift uphill into position. Ella took out one of the skirmishers, then fell as Daesa prevailed over the slinger. The Warlock made short work of the remaining slinger and they retreated to the camp once more to rest for the night after looting the bodies of the Ranger's pouch of gold and a shiny amulet.
This was the end of Friday's session, and I now saw a desperate need for healing. There was no time to take a Second Wind, and they just kept getting nibbled down to nothing. When they woke in the morning they found Findal, the Elven Cleric, who had been sent from the city to check on them. They filled him in on their progress, and he was concerned by their report of the mysterious corpse. The three companions returned to the valley to explore further.
After lighting torches , they entered the gloomy stone doorway, went down a short hallway, and came to a foyer with two pairs of columns and carvings on the walls. As they entered the room, Ella (who was in the lead), fell into a pit trap they had been unable to detect. She climbed out and, while they looked for more traps, they didn't see any. Based on the layout of the room, though, they had suspicions that there might be a second pit between the other two columns. With some experimentation, they managed to trigger it as well. Meanwhile someone who was not the highly trained Cleric realized that this was an ancient Elven tomb that had been forgotten for a millennium.
Moving on from the pit room, they came to a large square chamber with a mosaic floor and dry holy water basins in the corners. One corner of the room had collapsed into a large pile of dirt and rubble. Alerted by the noise of the traps, four giant rats and a dire rat were ready for the adventurers. With three people and one of them a healer, they made fairly short work of these rats. Ella got bitten by the dire rat, but assistance from Findal helped her fight off the disease it carried.
Continuing on from the collapsed room, they came to a final large room with six massive columns and a sealed door at the end. Ella managed to notice a kobold hiding behind one of the pillars and whispered a warning back to her friends before making her way into the room. Heading to her left, she ran into another kobold and scared him so much he fell down (botched on his readied attack).
The room was defended by four kobold minions, a skirmisher, and a blue dragon wrympriest with a wand +2 (I like to have my baddies use their treasure when I can). This was a nice tough fight, and we learned a lot about cover and flanking. The party wisely stayed near the door at the beginning, and it was the first time that I was forced to remember that ranged attacks provoke attacks of opportunity. This changed the dynamics a lot. Eventualy I had the minions pull back and try to draw the PCs out to where they could be flanked, but only the Fighter (as she should) took the bait. The others made use of their mobility and healing to whittle away at the larger foes.
After Findal ran out of healing and only the skirmisher had been taken down, the big guns came out. Findal and Daesa came around behind the wyrmpriest and hit him with a double team of Avenging Flames and Curse of the Dark Dream, which reduced him to a mindless, flaming husk. They managed to clean up the minions and emerged victorious. This was the first fight that I really felt was balanced well. They claimed some treasure and Daesa appropriated the wyrmpriest's wand. They also identified the slinger's amulet as an Amulet of Health +1, which went to Ella.
The sealed door at the far side of the room was heavily carved with scenes of battle, and was surrounded by a crude shrine built by the kobolds. Findal studied it for a while and determined that there was some dark energy on the other side that the wyrmpriest was trying to access. He discovered a way that he could use his divine power to open the door when the others were ready (they were each only down 2 healing surges and al their daily powers). This was the end of the Saturday session.
As much as they smack of WoW, I really like the combat roles, both on the PC and monster side. It makes it easier to work as an effective team, at the expense of the flexibility and creativity I'm used to from previous editions. It also makes it easy to cook up an interesting group of bad guys, even at 1st level. D stayed focused much better this time than last time, and never missed a beat with all the math.
Character creation was a little bumpy, but not too bad considering none of us had looked in the books before. Judging by the role descriptions, I decided that the necessary things to have in a 2-person party were a defender and a striker. D waffled on her choices a bit, and then decided on an Eladrin Fighter. Fighters are generally easy, so I was down with that. We decided to make
adelavanbrugge a Tiefling Warlock to fill the striker role. The Fighter (Ella) is a high-Dex flail-wielding type, though weapon choice doesn't make a big difference at this point. Daesa the Warlock has a high Cha and Fey Pact, which seems to be working out as well as advertised.
I decided that the two already knew each other to make things easier, and live in a city on the outskirts of The Great Forest, full of Fey goodness. They have connections to the Eladrin community in the city, and were summoned by one of the elders to find a Ranger who was two days overdue returning from his 3-day patrol. They set off and immediately showed why this was usually a job for a Ranger. They wandered around in the woods (despite having a map of exactly where they should be going) and eventually I decided that if I wanted the story to progress I'd have to have pity on them. I had the Ranger's squirrel animal companion show up at the abandoned camp they'd found and pull a Lassie.
They followed the squirrel to a small stream which led into a valley. There they ran into their first encounter: a pack of 8 giant rats surrounding a gnawed corpse. I figured that it should be an even fight, and they're minions, so how hard can they be? There were accusations of cursed dice, an almost-TPK, and a bit of fudging to keep them alive, but they managed to pull through. Many rules were manhandled during this encounter as we learned how they worked. Still, they managed to survive and retreated back to the camp as they heard a "yip yip" coming from the end of the valley.
After spending a few healing surges getting back on their feet, they returned to the valley. The rat bodies and mysterious corpse were gone, and they saw evidence that it had been dragged further up the valley. They explored further and found a massive stone entryway set into the hillside at the end of the valley. An open doorway lurked in the shadows. They were not as stealthy as they'd hoped, and they heard a "yip yip" that almost sounded like a bird call from the bushes above the entrance. Two kobold skirmishers came out of the doorway and the fight was on.
Ella decided to make for the high ground at the side of the valley, while Daesa went straight in and started cursing the skirmishers. She used her Eyebite on one and it lost track of her, deciding to charge Ella instead. Trying to use standard group tactics, his partner followed, leaving the Warlock in the clear. At this point the hiding kobold slinger appeared on top of the entrance and started chucking rocks at her. The rest of the fight mostly turned into a ranged duel between Daesa and the slinger and a contest to keep the high ground for Ella and her two suitors.
The choice to climb the hill had initially seemed like uncharacteristic cowardice, but in the end it kept the two skirmishers from being able to flank Ella as they kept failing their climb checks to shift uphill into position. Ella took out one of the skirmishers, then fell as Daesa prevailed over the slinger. The Warlock made short work of the remaining slinger and they retreated to the camp once more to rest for the night after looting the bodies of the Ranger's pouch of gold and a shiny amulet.
This was the end of Friday's session, and I now saw a desperate need for healing. There was no time to take a Second Wind, and they just kept getting nibbled down to nothing. When they woke in the morning they found Findal, the Elven Cleric, who had been sent from the city to check on them. They filled him in on their progress, and he was concerned by their report of the mysterious corpse. The three companions returned to the valley to explore further.
After lighting torches , they entered the gloomy stone doorway, went down a short hallway, and came to a foyer with two pairs of columns and carvings on the walls. As they entered the room, Ella (who was in the lead), fell into a pit trap they had been unable to detect. She climbed out and, while they looked for more traps, they didn't see any. Based on the layout of the room, though, they had suspicions that there might be a second pit between the other two columns. With some experimentation, they managed to trigger it as well. Meanwhile someone who was not the highly trained Cleric realized that this was an ancient Elven tomb that had been forgotten for a millennium.
Moving on from the pit room, they came to a large square chamber with a mosaic floor and dry holy water basins in the corners. One corner of the room had collapsed into a large pile of dirt and rubble. Alerted by the noise of the traps, four giant rats and a dire rat were ready for the adventurers. With three people and one of them a healer, they made fairly short work of these rats. Ella got bitten by the dire rat, but assistance from Findal helped her fight off the disease it carried.
Continuing on from the collapsed room, they came to a final large room with six massive columns and a sealed door at the end. Ella managed to notice a kobold hiding behind one of the pillars and whispered a warning back to her friends before making her way into the room. Heading to her left, she ran into another kobold and scared him so much he fell down (botched on his readied attack).
The room was defended by four kobold minions, a skirmisher, and a blue dragon wrympriest with a wand +2 (I like to have my baddies use their treasure when I can). This was a nice tough fight, and we learned a lot about cover and flanking. The party wisely stayed near the door at the beginning, and it was the first time that I was forced to remember that ranged attacks provoke attacks of opportunity. This changed the dynamics a lot. Eventualy I had the minions pull back and try to draw the PCs out to where they could be flanked, but only the Fighter (as she should) took the bait. The others made use of their mobility and healing to whittle away at the larger foes.
After Findal ran out of healing and only the skirmisher had been taken down, the big guns came out. Findal and Daesa came around behind the wyrmpriest and hit him with a double team of Avenging Flames and Curse of the Dark Dream, which reduced him to a mindless, flaming husk. They managed to clean up the minions and emerged victorious. This was the first fight that I really felt was balanced well. They claimed some treasure and Daesa appropriated the wyrmpriest's wand. They also identified the slinger's amulet as an Amulet of Health +1, which went to Ella.
The sealed door at the far side of the room was heavily carved with scenes of battle, and was surrounded by a crude shrine built by the kobolds. Findal studied it for a while and determined that there was some dark energy on the other side that the wyrmpriest was trying to access. He discovered a way that he could use his divine power to open the door when the others were ready (they were each only down 2 healing surges and al their daily powers). This was the end of the Saturday session.
As much as they smack of WoW, I really like the combat roles, both on the PC and monster side. It makes it easier to work as an effective team, at the expense of the flexibility and creativity I'm used to from previous editions. It also makes it easy to cook up an interesting group of bad guys, even at 1st level. D stayed focused much better this time than last time, and never missed a beat with all the math.