General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Before heading out into the swamp on our scout-and-harass mission, Logan and Caldwell spent a day using our new alchemy lab to brew up some goodies – which I see Piratecat has already listed above. While the rest of us waited, a couple of boats arrived in Floodford from upriver – empty of crew and stained with blood. It seemed that the lizardmen were sending us a demoralizing message: they controlled the lands north of the town, and had cut off the shipping lanes.
Then next day we were given a good swamp boat, as well as the company of Yiddin Longplank, a Grey Guard combat medic. (Metagame note: Doc’s player (Blackjack) missed the session. Fictionally he was acting as trailing rearguard, and so was not involved in our combats. PCat ran Yiddin as an NPC.)
We decided to start out heading west (toward the Bubbling Fens), with the intention of scouting that area before heading north to the bulk of the re-massing lizard army. After a morning of poling around the swamp getting bitten by a skillion normal-sized mosquitoes, we were beset by a half-dozen of their detestable older brothers – stirges! We heard their telltale flying buzz while they were still a round away, which gave us time to start out with some wizard blasting and dagger-flinging. And while they squicked us out, we made pretty short work of them. The buzzing buggers had trouble hitting us, and our striker-heavy group killed them all with only one able to attach itself (to Toiva).
After the fight, we spotted something odd a couple miles away – birds circling above the swamp in great numbers. Thinking it might be carrion birds massing above a ship in distress, we quickly poled over to investigate. What we saw was – disturbing. There were in fact carrion birds aplenty, along with many bloated stirges. They wheeled above, and dined upon, a huge mass of dead lizardmen (we estimated about 200), floating obscenely in the muck. Had there been infighting? Or was this a burial ground?
We had insufficient time to ponder this new mystery, because our boat was shaken and tipped by lizardmen who had approached unseen beneath the water! There followed a tense and exciting battle between us and a quartet of lizardmen adventurers, kicked off by everyone but Cobalt falling off the boat into the water, and a crocodile dragging Logan several squares away. Three of the lizards engaged us at close range, while a fourth attacked from several squares out. At least two of them used attacks that made barbed foliage grow directly out of our skin – ugh! The ranged attacker (a sorcerer), after first missing Cobalt with a glob of acidic spit, followed up with a brutal area attack that scared the heck out of us; even though it only hit Toiva, the damage was formidable, and caused the aforementioned outbreak of barbed plant-life.
But, despite the gruesome attacks from a couple of the lizardmen, including one that dazed both Logan and Longplank, we slew them all without any of us even going unconscious, and with (I think) only a small number of healing surges spent.
With time to investigate further the pile of bodies, Strontium realized that there were specially marked objects set around the perimeter. (He actually had a flashback to his ancient past that imparted this knowledge.) These 200 bodies had been placed here as part of a ritual meant to animate them into unlife! Needless to say, we smashed up the ritual components as thoroughly as possible.
And that’s where we stopped. Next game: The Bubbling Fens!
Tactical Notes:
- For swamp navigation, Piratecat identified several skills we’d need, and we assigned them to the best characters. For instance, we needed Nature checks to help navigate the swamp, Endurance and Athletics for poling, Stealth for keeping the boat well camouflaged, etc. It was a neat variant on the Skill Challenge, I thought.
- The stirges were, near as I can tell, of the 1st- level variety. That’s probably why were took care of them so easily.
- The fight against the lizardman “party” was, like all of our combats so far, well-paced and non-draggy. It did make me realize that a significant percentage of our combats thus far has taken place in terrain that is difficult for us, but not our enemies. It’s a natural consequence of an extended series of engagements with lizardmen in a swamp, but it’s particularly vexing in a rogue-heavy party where flanking position is so vital. (Vexing to the characters, mind you. As a player, I find it an interesting tactical challenge.)
- As Piratecat said above, the enemies were a druid, ranger, warden and sorcerer (all 3rd level), along with the ranger’s crocodile beast companion. The ranger, fortunately for us, was annihilated almost instantly when Logan landed a gruesome 39-point hit with Blade Vault. That’s our current record for most damage done in one attack by one character.
- The sorcerer was the scariest enemy, due to the fact that he did 28 points of damage to one character in a Blast 3 attack (Lightning Breath, repurposed to do “plant” damage instead of lightning.). We realized that, had he hit all three targets in the blast, he could have done 84 points of damage in a single attack. See above for our relatively paltry record.
- Because Piratecat was playing the monsters as PC’s, they didn’t have as many hit points as MM baddies typically do. As a result, the rogue-cuisinart of Logan and Cobalt make pretty short work of our enemies. As I predicted in my last update, it turns out we love love love Toiva’s choice of Righteous Smite. Temporary hit points are as good as healing for us melee striker types.
- Both Logan’s player and I were very pleased with our selections of 3rd-level Encounter powers from Martial Power. Logan took Blade Vault, which in addition to being extremely stylish, helped immensely in the difficult terrain of the swamp. Cobalt took Low Slash, and as a Minor Action it served the exact purpose I expected: giving him a second attack in a flanking situation when his first attack missed.
- While I’m praising rogue powers, I’ve become a huge fan of the Adaptable Flanker. I don’t think a single fight has gone by since we attained 2nd-level, that Cobalt hasn’t used it to get combat advantage when he otherwise couldn’t have gotten it. In essence, it’s an encounter power that’s: “Do an extra 2d8+3 damage on an attack.”
- Cobalt found himself Marked by the Warden at one point. We collectively decided that it’s more fun if players (and by extension the PC’s) don’t know what the effect of the mark will be until we try attacking elsewhere. Fortunately for Cobalt (in this case), he was more than happy to keep attacking his Marker.
- Skills used this game: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, History, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth
- Stron, the warforged wizard, was disappointed that his sleep daily missed completely.
- Because Stron sat underneath the mud for hundreds of years and doesn't remember his past, providing him brief hints during arcana and history checks seems like a nice technique. In this case, he remembered viewing (performing?) a vast and powerful necromantic ritual to raise dead soldiers.
- The dead lizardmen in the swamp appeared to have been casualties of the Floodford battle two nights before.
- The initial skill checks were part one of an ongoing skill challenge that would determine their speed, secrecy and sense of direction through the swamp. They rolled pretty well, all things considered. Those checks (and the skill challenge) will be continuing.
- After they killed the stirges, I gave out a treasure parcel in the form of 75 gp worth of alchemical ingredients from the destroyed monsters.
- The Character Builder can't create lizardmen PCs. As a result, these were built on dragonborn, with me swapping out the breath weapon and swapping in (and promptly forgetting) the lizardman ability to sidestep and attack.
- In accordance with the vile nature God the lizardmen worshipped (Sklar, He Who Abides Beneath The Weeds), most people's powers had plant-themed special effects. That worked really nicely, and is something I'll continue to do.
- All the PCs now have magical weapons and neck slot items (from their Grey Guard cloakpins.) Only one or two have magical armor. Handily, the lizardmen were wearing some interesting armor themselves...
- Toiva experienced a (prophetic?) dream the night before they headed into the swamp. Possibly related to that, she is having something odd happen: as the lizardmen spoke in draconic, she understood (and can now speak) every word they said. She can't speak anythign else in draconic, and isn't sure why this is happening.
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
Summary of Run #11:
- As Piratecat said above, the enemies were a druid, ranger, warden and sorcerer (all 3rd level), along with the ranger’s crocodile beast companion. The ranger, fortunately for us, was annihilated almost instantly when Logan landed a gruesome 39-point hit with Blade Vault. That’s our current record for most damage done in one attack by one character.
Ah, that's not quite our record for single attack, as that was a Blade Vault + action-point-enabled Riposte Strike. Nearly max-ing my damage rolls on the BV(+SA) didn't hurt either
Am I the only one who feels like we escaped by the skin of our teeth? I'm not quite sure what was different from my end, but I really felt that it was a much closer fight than the above suggests. Yes, the sorcerer did that massive damage from a daily (so he wasn't going to repeat it), but I don't think any of the others managed to get big powers off; I think if we had focused on targets a little differently, things might have gone much more badly for us (read: we got a little lucky). We took a *lot* of damage, overall; besides the sorcerer's big hit, Logan was down 24 points (38->14) before he got an action, and there were several ongoing effects throughout the fight. An yes, we DO love love love Toiva's Righteous Smite - that was essentially 21 points of healing.
__________________ "I suddenly find myself... needing to know the plural of 'apocalypse'" - Riley, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
or our older WizarDru's Story Hour? You Should.
I ain't linking to Piratecat's story hour...no sir, I just won't do it. He can just get the next half-million reads on his own.
Did I mention that I have a Livejournal? It's possible that I have.
Ah, neat! I miss a session and apparently acquire a magical weapon. I should miss sessions more often.
Almost all the players. Your rapier might be magical - but it got stolen by lizardmen, so it's hard to tell.
Stupid lizardmen.
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
Almost all the players. Your rapier might be magical - but it got stolen by lizardmen, so it's hard to tell.
Actually, it's easy to tell, since magic items were immune to the teleport. So by definition, anything they stole was nonmagical. Meaning that I never had a magical weapon, and still don't.
Great. So first he steals all of my personal possessions, then he gives magical weapons to all the other players. And here's the worst part: I'm not even playing a paladin.
This is an awesome thread. I should start posting some of the write-ups from my Wildlands game on ENWorld.
A quick question about the length of combat: How many rounds are your combats, on average? I'm finding that combats in 4e take just about as long as they did in 3e (real time) but last for say 8-10 rounds, instead of 3-5. Of course, that may be a side effect of the fact that the three strikers in my group haven't figured out that they can concentrate their damage on a single target. It will easily take us two hours to get through a combat of the party's level, but I feel like a lot happens in that time.
...How many rounds are your combats, on average? I'm finding that combats in 4e take just about as long as they did in 3e (real time) but last for say 8-10 rounds, instead of 3-5...
It seems like they have been running 4-6 rounds on average. They take us 40 minutes to an hour. This is with 5 players.
Aravis
__________________ -- In every adversity lies the seed of equivalent benefit.
It seems like they have been running 4-6 rounds on average. They take us 40 minutes to an hour. This is with 5 players.
Ah, OK. Our combats seem to take more rounds and we have 6 players. Several of those players are new to the game and tend to agonize over decisions, so we're not doing as bad time-wise as I thought.
Of course, that may be a side effect of the fact that the three strikers in my group haven't figured out that they can concentrate their damage on a single target.
This is by far the most efficient way to fight. Because there's no so-called death spiral and a monster about to die does just as much damage as one that's fully healthy (heck, bloodied monsters often do MORE damage) the "best" tactic is to all focus on one foe, take it down, and then move to the next. This becomes really effective if your group has a lot of strikers.
Tonight! We have a guest star (Spyscribe, visiting Boston before returning to the sunny climes of California) who gets to play the halfling healer Yiddin Longflank. Yiddin is suddenly going to get vastly more effective in combat. I was using Asmor's "medic" npc statblock. I'm switching him to a more martial bard for the session. Can you have a shy, stuttering, unoptimized bard? We'll find out.
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
I'll be writing this up, because apparently Sagiro is too obsessed with some bizarre fantasy hobby to do so; he's organizing imaginary "heroes" into some sort of "team" that uses numbers and statistics to fight imaginary, structured combats. Pretty weird if you ask me. Yep, it's Fantasy Baseball Draft season.
Our guest this session was the inimitable Spyscribe, who was visiting before flying back to LA in a few weeks.
Doctor Caldwell rejoined the group, and they split up treasure. The lizardmen had 120 gp on them and two magic items: a bitterly sharp dagger with a stone hilt and a metal blade, and a suit of leather armor made out of lizardskin. A small gecko tail grew off the side of the armor and dangled suggestively. Cobalt picked up the dagger and found it wanting to please him in combat. He couldn't get it to do anything ("be stabby!"), but Logan took it and it immediately shifted into a long sword. He tried to change it again, and could feel it trying to but not sure how yet. (This is a +2 dynamic dagger from AV, which can change into a different weapon once per encounter.) Cobalt also tried on the armor, then gave it to Eli Caldwell to try. He plucked off the hanging gecko tail... and instantly compacted down into the form of a small, rat-sized lizard. He could feel his body trying to return to human shape. After scuttling around for a bit, he allowed it to, and returned to normal size. (This was +1 leather armor of rat-form from AV, changed to lizard form for flavor. Normally it can only be +2 or higher, but I changed that.) Both items were given to Dr. Caldwell. This didn't seem to buoy his mood much, though. He seemed depressed about having lost his personal possessions to the teleporting rope. Something about running around in a dead man's boots can do that to you.
The group continued on. I asked for a single skill check in each of several categories, with assistance allowed: perception (would they be able to spot any threats or allies?), stealth (would they be noticed?), athletics (could they get in and out of the boat without tipping it to drag it over shallow areas?), endurance (could they continue to pole it?), and nature (how likely were they to get lost?). This was part of an ongoing skill challenge that would determine how quickly and effectively the group found the lizardman base in the Bubbling Fens. Sadly, only the perception check was successful. By the time night fell, with buzzing mosquitos and night frogs singing in their ears, they were lost in trackless swamp and had no idea how to proceed.
They spotted a campfire, though, and the rogues snuck out to find a lone elderly halfling sitting on a hillock and grilling a fish. The group's medic Yiddin Longplank (played by Spyscribe) remembered - after a streetwise roll - that this was probably the eccentric local trapper Hobble Tuckfish Weedlark Dimfire III. Apparently, he lives in the swamp and traps valuable animals named dracoons. The group approached him in the darkness. A DC 34 diplomacy check from Yiddin immediately reminded crazy old Hobble that they knew one another, and Hobble welcomed them into his camp for the night. He also ripped up their map, declaring it grievously inadequate if it got them this lost.
The ritual protection from vermin kept away mosquitos and leeches for the night.
After a breakfast of alligator steaks ("First, go kill me an alligator!") they set off to the Bubbling Fens, Hobble navigating. He found evidence of incoming and outgoing lizardmen. Hobb left them once they got close, saying he'd wait to see if they came out alive from that cursed place. They noted and passed an alarm warding, with no visible effect. Closing in, Toiva felt as if she was entering a profane area.
The Bubbling Fens were a clearing in the weedy swamp made from mats of weeds that had been trampled down. Huge belches of sulfurous gas puffed the weeds up at irregular intervals. Chunks of stone, carved to have ledges, emerged from the swamp like broken teeth. An old, sturdy hut on stilts stood across the open knee-deep water (difficult terrain). A gargoyle, or something that looked like one, sat motionless on the roof. The rogues sneaked closer. That's when the weeds rose up around them into a 15' long screaming face made out of swamp grass, which attacked by shooting sharpened vines into Cobalt. It followed up by using vines to restrain and try to strangle both rogues.
Luckily, you can still sneak attack while restrained. The fight was touch and go for Cobalt and Logan until the rest of the group closed. Strontium's fire was particularly effective against the monster, who at various points also looked like a viney crocodile and an immense weedy hand. Big, powerful and dangerous. Once destroyed, it sank down into the swamp and was reabsorbed.
The "gargoyle" didn't attack during this time. It did, however, start a slow dramatic clapping once the PCs won. They spoke to it, and it turned out to be a summoned devil that was serving against its will. It explained that they had just fought a guardian Weed of Sklar, He Who Waits Beneath the Weeds (possibly an offshoot cult of the nature goddess), also bound there by Aline. It tried to tempt them into selling their souls, and it tried to convince them that it now served them, since they beat the other guardian. They tried to convince it that they would free it from bondage if it let them pass. Apparently finding a loophole in its instructions ("I must attack anyone I see entering this building"), we ended with them entering the hut.
Tactical notes:
- Total playing time: 3 hours. Two major roleplaying encounters, a skill challenge, and a fight against a solo monster.
- The group got three treasure parcels from the previous game: one in the form of alchemical supplies, two magic items, and a handful of gold since one of the items was lvl 3 instead of the normal lvl 4.
- The knee-deep water was difficult terrain.
- In the Bubbling Fens, I simulated the effect of swamp gas billowing up through the mat of reeds: 3 square blast in a different location each round, DC 15 acrobatics check to not fall prone, 2d8 dmg on a failed check, half on a successful one. Caused anyone in area to gain vulnerability: fire 5.
- The Weed of Sklar was a lvl 5 vine horror beefed up into a lvl 7 solo (against six lvl 3 PCs.) It could dominate a PC for one round (which was never successful, sadly), attack up to five people in a 2 square reach, do the normal vine horror's vicious vines attack, and calve off viney minions. It had 268 hit points.
- Combat took 4.5 rounds, and in real time lasted just over an hour. The PCs inflicted 270 hp of damage in this time.
- This was the fight for missing or hitting by just one point. The PCs missed the monster 3 times by one point; the monster missed PCs three times by one point as well.
- Dr. Caldwell rolled two criticals, one with the new magic dagger.
- Bards rock (even if they give Dr. Caldwell an inferiority complex now that he's superseded as best healer.) Cobalt dropped to 5 hit points from full after just one round of combat; Yiddin managed to patch him up nicely using improved majestic word and a bard daily that grants hit points every time you hit the target.
- Stron the wizard missed with sleep. Again. That's 0 for 3. Stupid dice.
- The difficult terrain really made closing with the monster tough. The ranger in particular had a hard time getting close enough to really be effective.
- Cobalt drank two healing potions. I'm not sure if anyone else did.
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
This is by far the most efficient way to fight. Because there's no so-called death spiral and a monster about to die does just as much damage as one that's fully healthy (heck, bloodied monsters often do MORE damage) the "best" tactic is to all focus on one foe, take it down, and then move to the next. This becomes really effective if your group has a lot of strikers.
No kidding. I saw a 15th level Dracolich get annihilated by 4 lvl 13 characters in 25 minutes (4 rounds). It never knew what hit it..
__________________
360 hours played
Gnoguh, human fighter/cleric (kensei->adamantine soldier)
Carric, elf cleric/ranger (radiant servant->saint)
Torn, tiefling wizard/cleric (divine oracle->sages of ages)
Truxas, human feylock/bard (feytouched->feyliege)
Tagron, human rogue (daggermaster->deadly trickster) 22nd level Musings of an Epic Virgin
After several days of reflection, a few additional thoughts:
- Difficult terrain had a brutal effect in this fight. The monster attacked the rogues when they were ahead of the group, and the other PCs had a really difficult, slow time even getting to the fight. The inability to shift was also tactically important.
In retrospect, this would have been a good opportunity for something like waterwalk on the paladin Toiva, who has no ranged capability.
- Aravis asks me to point out that Toiva FINALLY hit with her daily, radiant delirium. Since she missed the last three times, this was a big deal.
- Dr. Caldwell wasn't the only person who felt outclassed by the addition of Yiddin, bard/medic. Toiva felt the same way. By the time she could lay on hands, neither of the rogues (who had just taken massive damage) actually needed healing.
- I'm falling into a rut in how I plan my battles. I tend to use either a few relevant enemies and a lot of minions, or one big baddie. I haven't had too many really diversified fights since the battles with the dog-gobblers. With no one charging the back lines, it's giving the defender less to do and lulling my spellcaster into a false sense of security. I'll need to make sure that I vary the action.
- I love the monster adjustment rules. Creating the Weed of Sklar took less than 5 minutes as I glanced at the rules for making a monster into a solo. I also make liberal use of the rules that allow me to raise or lower a beastie's level. I'm enjoying both the speed and the flexibility.
EDIT: (I knew I forgot something.)
- I should have taken a healing surge from everyone when they failed the skill challenge to avoid getting lost in the swamp. That would have represented fatigue and minor injuries. I'll remember next time.
__________________ - Piratecat, EN World Admin
Currently editing the 4e War of the Burning Sky adventure path. Support EN Publishing, get excellent modules!
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
