Kobolds and Pulled Punches
Last week UGT had our first 4e game. We had a slow start because I got called into work as we were about to start. Luckily it was a quick fix and we got rolling after a 3 hour delay or so.
Set up: KotS, with Eberron changes as noted in Dungeon #155.
We have a large group. 8 players at the table. Ages from mid 20's to early 40's. Party make up is... something like this:
Human Paladin
Eladrin Rogue
Tiefling Warlock
Tiefling Warlock
Human Wizard
Elf Ranger
Warforged Fighter
Human(?) Warlord
After a rushed set up, due to the late start. I git them on the road and into the first encounter. Things went fairly well, I had scaled the encounter up as noted in the DMG. Basically doubling the number of kobolds attacking. I will say this for 4e. The math for encounter building is very well done.
In an amusing bit of RP, one of the warlocks was basically saying, 'I am sent by your god, bow before your master'. Which, considering the backstory was very nice. He became the primary target, but the warforged and paladin managed to stay in the way and ensure that the kobolds were attacking them most of the time.
The second encounter was nasty. Nobody was able to spot the ambush. The kobold casters did some major damage with their orbs and the party basically let them continue unchallanged. The party was also expecting minions, so when none of the enemy was going down after the first hit they should have regrouped and talked stratagy, they did not. By the end of the encounter, I had started pulling punches. I could have taken out half of the party easily, but didn't want to do that in my first DMing session at the table.
No more.
Tomorrow we go at it again and with luck we will be in the 'Irontooth' encounter. I'm not pulling punches. At least not as many. I have a better understanding of the Shifty trait of kobolds and will be using it to effect.
Set up: KotS, with Eberron changes as noted in Dungeon #155.
We have a large group. 8 players at the table. Ages from mid 20's to early 40's. Party make up is... something like this:
Human Paladin
Eladrin Rogue
Tiefling Warlock
Tiefling Warlock
Human Wizard
Elf Ranger
Warforged Fighter
Human(?) Warlord
After a rushed set up, due to the late start. I git them on the road and into the first encounter. Things went fairly well, I had scaled the encounter up as noted in the DMG. Basically doubling the number of kobolds attacking. I will say this for 4e. The math for encounter building is very well done.
In an amusing bit of RP, one of the warlocks was basically saying, 'I am sent by your god, bow before your master'. Which, considering the backstory was very nice. He became the primary target, but the warforged and paladin managed to stay in the way and ensure that the kobolds were attacking them most of the time.
The second encounter was nasty. Nobody was able to spot the ambush. The kobold casters did some major damage with their orbs and the party basically let them continue unchallanged. The party was also expecting minions, so when none of the enemy was going down after the first hit they should have regrouped and talked stratagy, they did not. By the end of the encounter, I had started pulling punches. I could have taken out half of the party easily, but didn't want to do that in my first DMing session at the table.
No more.
Tomorrow we go at it again and with luck we will be in the 'Irontooth' encounter. I'm not pulling punches. At least not as many. I have a better understanding of the Shifty trait of kobolds and will be using it to effect.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Eek. Don't get too vicious.
You might want to tone the encounters down just a little bit. Remember that they're suggested for five players, so actually doubling the forces is a bit over the top. And besides, with only one leader, your party is going to be hurting pretty bad.
I'm also a bit curious about the Tiefling Warlocks. Are these mechanical clones of eachother? Or are they pretty distinct in terms of powers, feats and skills?Posted 28th June 2008 at 11:10 AM by arscott
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Oh, the encounters are scaled for the party size. When I say doubled, I meant for most things except the heavy hitters. My concern with easing up on them is that they not get enough xp and end up even worse off as things get tougher.
Today is a rare occasion where we will be missing a few players. There will only be 5 maybe 6 at the table, so I may run things as written. Which will help with the difficulty of the Irontooth encounter.
Of course, then I have to decide about using the 'get xp whether you are present or not' rule, which I dislike immensely, but to run otherwise will seriously jack with the encounter balance.
The warlocks were created independently with no knowledge of the other players decisions, yet they are identical except for one or two minor points. I had intended to roll chars together to avoid that kind of thing, but with the leak of the PDFs... Oh well, 'First one to die plays the cleric'.
Posted 28th June 2008 at 02:23 PM by Darkwolf71
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