The ramblings of a Boston area gamer
Session 4 - Keep on the Shadowfell
Posted 8th August 2008 at 07:02 PM by Elodan
Updated 24th October 2008 at 03:43 PM by Elodan (clarity)
Updated 24th October 2008 at 03:43 PM by Elodan (clarity)
Possible spoilers to Keep on the Shadowfell herein.
A summary of our fourth session of 4E. In attendance were:
During the week Kevin mentioned that he was originally going to make a paladin, but Bob showed up with his dragonborn one the first session. He asked if he could make one now and let Murph play his wizard. They would split the XP earned previously between the two characters. I had no problems with that. I want people to try the various options and play want they want so we judge the game on its merits, not some hidden bias.
I warn the guys that I'll be checking the rules a little more as we get a feel for things. Bob asks me to check his math as last week he kept combining Power Attack and Sure Strike. I questioned why he kept doing it as my reading was that he would end up with a +0 to attack and a +2 to damage. Considering his character has a 18 strength it didn't seem like a good combo. Once in a while Bob tends to read character options and find only the benefits but not the drawbacks. His numbers are in order except for one at-will power where he put the additional damage equal to his constitution score instead of the modifier. We just laughed and shook our heads.
We resume with the heroes back in Winterhaven. The wizard is off doing research. We do the 'I see you have no mage' scene from The Gamers to introduce the paladin and his dwarven fighter buddy since we wanted to get back to testing the rules as quickly as possible (again, probably a mistake).
The party enters the keep. They manage to surprise the goblin on watch so I give them their one free action. All they do is alert the goblins in the area to their presence. The room is square with a corridor in each wall in addition to the stairs they just came down. I use Passive Perception checks for everyone to see if they notice that there is pit trap in the center of the room. No one does. I like idea of passive checks so you don't alert the players. The only problem I see is that the same PCs have a good chance of noticing something while the others don't. I think there needs to be some randomization added in here, but I'm not sure what.
Both fighters move around the edges of the room toward the goblin warrior. I have them use minor actions to make Perception checks to see if anything is in the side corridor. The cleric stops just before the pit. WTF, is the possibility of a trap that obvious? That question is answered quickly as Kevin's paladin attempts to charge the goblin and falls into the pit. In the adventure there's no mention that the trap needs to attack a player's defense.
At this point there some discussion as to whether or not Kevin should get a save to not fall into the pit. I rule that the passive check was his chance to avoid falling in. Again, I don't check my books and neither does anyone else. I wonder if it's some sort of reaction to the amount of rules arguments and look ups we did in 3E. I remind myself to remind everyone when I post XP that they can make active checks; otherwise, I'll be using their passive ones. I would later see a similar trap in the DMG which required an attack role versus Reflex. It's just annoying that the adventure meant to introduce you to 4E has these types of inconsistencies compared to the actual rules.
In the pit is a rat swarm. Swarms seems to be as nasty in 4E as they were in 3E. Even better, they have an aura that usually damages a player if he's in it. This represents that swarming nature of the swarm. Somehow, the paladin managed to escape the pit with no injuries. I saw a climb speed for the rats and had them climb out of the pit after some tasty flesh (there may be some truth to the rumors that I'm a killer DM, but those rats were hungry). At the same time the other goblin warrior attacked from a side corridor (he was around another corner when the fighters checked those). The battle became really hectic with pockets of fighting happening in different places. I do rely on the players to know who they've marked/challenged/cursed and I felt this combat ran smoothly. There were a couple of times someone claimed to have marked an enemy (conveniently when it was most advantageous for them) when I don't recall them saying anything to that effect. Not a fan of marking (it really feels artificial).
The cleric, paladin and warlock fought the swarm while the fighters took on the warriors.
Bob had a question about Opportunity Attacks and Kevin looked them up and said that leaving a square adjacent to the enemy caused one. This lead to the rat swarm's Swarm Attack (aura 1) being really effective against the cleric as Ed's character was next to the swarm and was now afraid to move. We mentioned shifting but he still wouldn't move. He used most of his healing on himself. He even used the dwarven chain's daily power. Get healing without spending a surge. Nice little power. It was only the fact that the paladin challenged the swarm and it continued to make its Swarm Attack against others that hurt it.
Lance used Reaping Strike a lot. It lets him do strength damage on a miss (he's using a two-handed weapon). I'm not thrilled by the ability to do damage on a miss. Kevin and Lance say it's like he missed with the maul but then hit the guy with an elbow. Thinking of the power this way makes it easier to believe.
The goblin sharpshooters were really effective. One of the them was able to escape because of his Sniper ability (on a miss, their still considered to be hiding (or in sneak mode). The battle was quite chaotic (thanks to the rat swarm) and only two characters were actually hit by crossbows (only two may have been hit but a +9 to attack made sure the goblins hit them often). I had the sharpshooters move around a lot and since they were at the end of a corridor away from the main battle it was difficult for the players to know how many there were.
At this point Bob had to leave for work so I took over his fighter. I noticed it was around 11pm. We took a couple of minutes to grab some drinks and such and then continued.
The party moves down one of the side corridors. There they run into several goblin sharpshooters and their guard drakes who are ready for them (this was the same way the escaped sharpshooter went). The fighters moved up to attack the drakes while the rest of the party and the sharpshooters exchanged ranged attacks. By this point I think the guys had a good idea of how to work together and it showed. I also thought the combat might become static because of the nature of the room they were fighting in (this one has been all dug up with planks between the high ground), but there was a fair amount of movement.
I checked the clock and it was a little after 12am. It took us a little over an hour to run a combat of 5 PCs versus 4 goblin sharpshooters and 2 guard drakes. The rounds went by quickly.
At this point, I'm enjoying running 4E. There a some minor annoyances but the system as a whole seems fine.
A summary of our fourth session of 4E. In attendance were:
- me - DM
- Kevin - half-elf paladin (new)
- Dave - tiefling warlock
- Ed - human cleric
- Bob - human fighter
- Lance - dwarven fighter (new)
During the week Kevin mentioned that he was originally going to make a paladin, but Bob showed up with his dragonborn one the first session. He asked if he could make one now and let Murph play his wizard. They would split the XP earned previously between the two characters. I had no problems with that. I want people to try the various options and play want they want so we judge the game on its merits, not some hidden bias.
I warn the guys that I'll be checking the rules a little more as we get a feel for things. Bob asks me to check his math as last week he kept combining Power Attack and Sure Strike. I questioned why he kept doing it as my reading was that he would end up with a +0 to attack and a +2 to damage. Considering his character has a 18 strength it didn't seem like a good combo. Once in a while Bob tends to read character options and find only the benefits but not the drawbacks. His numbers are in order except for one at-will power where he put the additional damage equal to his constitution score instead of the modifier. We just laughed and shook our heads.
We resume with the heroes back in Winterhaven. The wizard is off doing research. We do the 'I see you have no mage' scene from The Gamers to introduce the paladin and his dwarven fighter buddy since we wanted to get back to testing the rules as quickly as possible (again, probably a mistake).
The party enters the keep. They manage to surprise the goblin on watch so I give them their one free action. All they do is alert the goblins in the area to their presence. The room is square with a corridor in each wall in addition to the stairs they just came down. I use Passive Perception checks for everyone to see if they notice that there is pit trap in the center of the room. No one does. I like idea of passive checks so you don't alert the players. The only problem I see is that the same PCs have a good chance of noticing something while the others don't. I think there needs to be some randomization added in here, but I'm not sure what.
Both fighters move around the edges of the room toward the goblin warrior. I have them use minor actions to make Perception checks to see if anything is in the side corridor. The cleric stops just before the pit. WTF, is the possibility of a trap that obvious? That question is answered quickly as Kevin's paladin attempts to charge the goblin and falls into the pit. In the adventure there's no mention that the trap needs to attack a player's defense.
At this point there some discussion as to whether or not Kevin should get a save to not fall into the pit. I rule that the passive check was his chance to avoid falling in. Again, I don't check my books and neither does anyone else. I wonder if it's some sort of reaction to the amount of rules arguments and look ups we did in 3E. I remind myself to remind everyone when I post XP that they can make active checks; otherwise, I'll be using their passive ones. I would later see a similar trap in the DMG which required an attack role versus Reflex. It's just annoying that the adventure meant to introduce you to 4E has these types of inconsistencies compared to the actual rules.
In the pit is a rat swarm. Swarms seems to be as nasty in 4E as they were in 3E. Even better, they have an aura that usually damages a player if he's in it. This represents that swarming nature of the swarm. Somehow, the paladin managed to escape the pit with no injuries. I saw a climb speed for the rats and had them climb out of the pit after some tasty flesh (there may be some truth to the rumors that I'm a killer DM, but those rats were hungry). At the same time the other goblin warrior attacked from a side corridor (he was around another corner when the fighters checked those). The battle became really hectic with pockets of fighting happening in different places. I do rely on the players to know who they've marked/challenged/cursed and I felt this combat ran smoothly. There were a couple of times someone claimed to have marked an enemy (conveniently when it was most advantageous for them) when I don't recall them saying anything to that effect. Not a fan of marking (it really feels artificial).
The cleric, paladin and warlock fought the swarm while the fighters took on the warriors.
Bob had a question about Opportunity Attacks and Kevin looked them up and said that leaving a square adjacent to the enemy caused one. This lead to the rat swarm's Swarm Attack (aura 1) being really effective against the cleric as Ed's character was next to the swarm and was now afraid to move. We mentioned shifting but he still wouldn't move. He used most of his healing on himself. He even used the dwarven chain's daily power. Get healing without spending a surge. Nice little power. It was only the fact that the paladin challenged the swarm and it continued to make its Swarm Attack against others that hurt it.
Lance used Reaping Strike a lot. It lets him do strength damage on a miss (he's using a two-handed weapon). I'm not thrilled by the ability to do damage on a miss. Kevin and Lance say it's like he missed with the maul but then hit the guy with an elbow. Thinking of the power this way makes it easier to believe.
The goblin sharpshooters were really effective. One of the them was able to escape because of his Sniper ability (on a miss, their still considered to be hiding (or in sneak mode). The battle was quite chaotic (thanks to the rat swarm) and only two characters were actually hit by crossbows (only two may have been hit but a +9 to attack made sure the goblins hit them often). I had the sharpshooters move around a lot and since they were at the end of a corridor away from the main battle it was difficult for the players to know how many there were.
At this point Bob had to leave for work so I took over his fighter. I noticed it was around 11pm. We took a couple of minutes to grab some drinks and such and then continued.
The party moves down one of the side corridors. There they run into several goblin sharpshooters and their guard drakes who are ready for them (this was the same way the escaped sharpshooter went). The fighters moved up to attack the drakes while the rest of the party and the sharpshooters exchanged ranged attacks. By this point I think the guys had a good idea of how to work together and it showed. I also thought the combat might become static because of the nature of the room they were fighting in (this one has been all dug up with planks between the high ground), but there was a fair amount of movement.
I checked the clock and it was a little after 12am. It took us a little over an hour to run a combat of 5 PCs versus 4 goblin sharpshooters and 2 guard drakes. The rounds went by quickly.
At this point, I'm enjoying running 4E. There a some minor annoyances but the system as a whole seems fine.
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