Yet another report
Thanks for the nice adventure! I ran it for some of my regular group last night, and we had a blast. Here's the play-by-play:
There were three players, so I gave each one two characters.
They made no attempt at stealth, just marching down the entrance tunnel with the paladin in the lead. As soon as they saw the room, a gong rang and they heard the clatter of caltrops hitting the floor. No one bothered to light a lantern, so the room was dim for most characters. The caltrops came into play a couple of times, but were only a minor annoyance.
The paladin moved aside to let other PCs come up, ending up right in front of Ichi-Ichi's alcove. A very poor perception check on his part let Ichi hit him with a nasty backstab on round 2. The Minions were dropping like flies, and did a good job of keeping the PCs busy while the rest of the complex reacted. Finding himself all alone with no adjacent opponents, one minion gibbered with fear and ran to warn Meepo.
The dwarf chased after, running into Pik and Otto on their way to join the fight. She took some damage, but resolved that fight quickly enough--the fighter easily thwarted their attempts to flank her, and cleaved through the pair a couple of times. When Pik fell, Otto ran to the throne room.
Meanwhile, Ichi-Ichi had survived by hiding in the back ranks and now fled upriver. The ranger, warlock, and wizard shot after him, rolling terribly. Before they could cross the pool, Varsuke showed up to see who had invaded his domain. V. started by zapping the wizard with his Force Lance and sliding him into the deep water of the pool. The ranger used his Fey Step to get across the water and attacked with his sword, cutting him slightly. V. dodged a couple of ranged attacks, then used his Force Pulse to damage 4 characters and knock two of them prone (not the ranger, unfortunately). Having taken their measure, he then ran upriver to rejoin his allies.
By this time the dwarf had chased Otto and the minion into the throne room. As she advanced, Ix jumped her from behind and got off a nasty bite. Suddenly surrounded and flanked, the player used Tide of Iron very effectively to swap places with Otto and put all three enemies in front of her (no more flanking)! The paladin, coming to the rescue, zapped Ix with his "On Pain of Death" power for a brutal 28 damage; with an extra 1d8 from his challenge, and one Holy Strike later, the spider collapsed in a shriveled heap. Otto surrendered and told the party about the hobgoblins, then picked up Pik's body and escaped into the woods.
The ranger and warlock chased Varsuke a bit, but retreated when they caught a glimpse of the room ahead and a couple of arrows flew towards them down the corridor.
The whole party regrouped in the first chamber and took their 5-minute rest. The cleric had used Healing Word twice in that encounter--once on the Paladin and once on the Wizard (who had been badly hurt by Varsuke's spells). Most of the PCs were only down one or two healing surges after the rest, and only one Daily power had been used.
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The party moved upriver until they could see the hobgoblins' room; in the dim lighting, they could tell that a barricade had been erected in the middle. They advanced cautiously, trading missile fire with the archers and generally getting the worst of it. (I gave the hobgoblin archers a +2 cover bonus to AC and Reflex.) The ones who spoke Goblin heard Varsuke muttering "Let them approach, so my magic can destroy them once and for all!"
(V. doesn't have any long-range powers.)
Eventually they got close enough for the wizard to drop a Force Orb behind the table, which severely injures one of the archers and prompts Varsuke to take his place. The dwarf and paladin move across the river and the party spreads out a bit, while a hobgoblin soldier comes forward to engage the dwarf. After trading blows, the hobgoblin is bloodied and calls for backup. Varsuke uses his Force Lance again, this time sliding the dwarf 2 squares away from the party towards a second solder and Ichi hiding in the shadows.
"Shoot this warlock down for me!" Varsuke cries. With the dwarf out of the way, both archers stand up and shoot the warlock, who does indeed drop. In the same round, the dwarf is surrounded by three opponents and badly wounded; on his last turn he uses an action point to gain Second Wind, takes down the first soldier, and bloodies Ichi... but it's not enough. The second soldier's counterattack drops him, and Ichi stabs the prone dwarf for good measure. "We got one, we got one!" the kobold shrills, bouncing in excitement.
Things were starting to look bad--the party had been concentrating fire on Varsuke for several rounds but rolling poorly. The ranger tried using Split the Tree, but rolled a 5 and a 4. At this point, however, the cleric uses her Cascade of Light (daily) to burn Varsuke and both archers--hitting only the severely wounded one (taking it down) but damaging all three. In anger, Varsuke finally leaves his cover to get in range for a Force Pulse--but rolls badly, knocking only one PC prone (but also the remaining soldier and Ichi-Ichi). The soldier curses at the wizard, but moves over to protect him. The combined efforts of the cleric and paladin manage to get the Warlock back in the action, and she douses Varsuke with Witchfire. The hobgoblin leader has no time to recover or flee... the cleric finishes him with a Sacred Flame attack, and he suddenly collapses in a pile of ash.
Seeing this, Ichi flees upriver again. The remaining soldier dukes it out with the paladin and dies, and the archer drops his bow and surrenders. Except for losing the dwarf, everyone is in good health and still has several healing surges. In this battle, however, they used up most of their dailies; I think only the Warlock had his left.
That's where we had to call in a night. I chatted with group for a while afterwards, and got the following comments:
Everyone agreed that combat felt more fluid. Even with all the questions and new rules, it went about as fast as 3E combat. When we get used to things, it should go about twice as fast. Everyone liked having more options in combat, but expressed some concern that there would be too many powers to keep track of at higher levels.
The fighter and ranger were a big hit. The Warlock would have been really effective, but rolled poorly for the whole game. Still, her player found it to be a nice class. The cleric and paladin got good reviews too. The wizard's player wasn't crazy about the newfangled magic missile, or having to roll hits for all his spells in general--it was definitely the least effective character in the adventure.
The biggest complaint they had was over the Bloodied condition; everyone felt it should have more of an impact on the game than it does. We talked over imposing a penalty (say, -2 to hit) on Bloodied characters and monsters. There was also some concern over missing the "fragile" stage of beginning characters, but the dwarf's death hushed them up.
As a DM, I found this really enjoyable to run. In particular:
* The monsters hit more often than not, and survived long enough to show off their stuff. That's really a refreshing change--I always found them lagging too far behind the PC power curve in 3rd edition, at least at low levels. Surprisingly, Ichi survived the whole adventure--I can easily see a sequel where Meep, Ichi, and Otto return to plague the party.
* I also really like the fact that each monster has some interesting and flavorful tricks. Even something as simple as the kobolds' "Shifty" power does wonders to making the opponent memorable.
* Varsuke's Force Lance power is really good--damage a PC and move them into the most hazardous spot you can find? What's not to like? This power is directly responsible for the dwarf's death, as it slid him away from his party into a vulnerable position. I hope PCs get access to that one!
* The recharge mechanic for monster powers is easy to use, but I find it irksome that monsters don't follow the same rules as PCs. I would prefer to see an upper limit on uses per encounter and per day--otherwise, a lucky DM can keep hitting the PCs over and over with "Daily"-strength powers.
* The standard/move/minor system is easy to remember and use for everyone. The simplified rules for movement attacks of opportunity also speed things up a great deal. A couple of minions met their doom trying to shift past the fighter!
All in all, a very enjoyable session and the rules seem quite solid.
