My Wotbs So far... possible spoilers

[talarei07]

ok so i have have been running wotbs for a few weeks now and this is what has happen that is interesting:


The group:

Alissa Bowman Female Human Wizard
Mord Male Half-orc Dark pact Warlock
Argith Male Half-Elf Melee Bard
Korinne Female Dragonborn Dragon Magic Sorceror
Durgis Male Human Assault Swordmage.

The game started with everyone as arcane power source and was running smoothly until the white wyrms encounter.


the sorceror fell into the pit trap on right side of the map the wizard moved five squares into the room and stopped electing to blast from a distance and the bard, swordmage and warlock moved into the building going down the choke point where the wizard and the lizard creature (cant remember what is was right now. they get into a fight there killing the mage, the gaurds come around the corner and all hell breaks loose. the warlock and swordmage go down in one round followed by the bard, the sorceror climbs out of the hole and runs over to help and gets slaughtered. the wizard just leaves.


the new group
Alissa Bowman Female Human Wizard
Varis Male Elf Avenger of Avandra
Aramil Male Changling Bard (PCs think hes an elf)
Nalla Female Goliath Warden
Thalon Male Goliath Barbarian (Nalla and Thalon are Twins)

this group has done much better and has just retrieved the case in our last session

[merchantsteve]

Makes you wonder why the rules suggest a balanced party!

Seriously, I try to make the encounters have a mix of roles to keep the combats interesting. The overall effect is to force heroes to have a mixed party. Any one encounter may seem one-sided, but overall, the monster mix is best handled with all the recommended roles present.

[talarei07]

i see kinda what you are saying but both parties had all the roles covered and doubled up on strikers

[merchantsteve]

Ah, I forgot that the swordmage is a defender.

[thc1967]

Curious... are you finding that the Warden is much better at playing the defender than the Swordmage was? You definitely have a stronger Striker in the Avenger than you had in the Warlock...

[talarei07]

yes the warden is a much stronger defender than the swordmage was.

[talarei07]

finally got out of the city, the bard is gone replaced by a dwarf paladin, and the avenger multiclassed into cleric

[John Doom]

I need to re-read the rules and abilities of the multi-class and try to convince my players to take at least a feat into one of the leadership roles since the original cleric dropped out of the game.

I am running with 6 players though which kind of mitigates the damage from the lack of a Leader. We have the following:

Avenger, Fighter, Ranger, Warden, Warlock and Wizard.

Any recommendations to help them out, other than me just killing one and offering magic-item incentive to roll as leader?

[talarei07]

well there is always multiclass into warlord or cleric to get healing/inspiring word once per day. and if you have ddi/character builder there are at least 2 skill utilities that if you are trained in the right skill give you healing abilities. the other option is of course potions which some people think arent that good because they only give 10 hp. but my players failed to see that they can use them anytime as long as they have one, so they are still useful.

our avenger multi classed cleric and then took divine channeler and took healer's mercy so that really helps

our avenger as he would be at 4th level

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Varis, level 4
Elf, Avenger
Avenger's Censure: Censure of Pursuit
Background: Elf - Urban Elf (Thievery class skill)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 14, Dex 18, Int 11, Wis 19, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 13, Dex 16, Int 11, Wis 16, Cha 8.


AC: 20 Fort: 15 Reflex: 17 Will: 17
HP: 46 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 11

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +7, Perception +13, Thievery +11, Stealth +11

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +6, Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +6, Endurance +4, Heal +6, History +2, Insight +6, Intimidate +1, Nature +8, Streetwise +1, Athletics +2

FEATS
Level 1: Quick Draw
Level 2: Imminent Luck (retrained to Initiate of the Faith at Level 2)
Level 4: Divine Channeler (Cleric)

POWERS
Avenger at-will 1: Radiant Vengeance
Avenger at-will 1: Bond of Pursuit
Divine Channeler (Cleric): Healer's Mercy
Avenger encounter 1: Angelic Alacrity
Avenger daily 1: Oath of the Final Duel
Avenger utility 2: Refocus Enmity
Avenger encounter 3: Sequestering Strike

ITEMS
Enduring Spirit Vestments Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +1, Falchion, Adventurer's Kit, Holy Symbol
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

[sfedi]

What about Torrent giving some Healing Words?

[talarei07]

my pcs dont have torrent help them on account of not wanting to split the exp with her. if she helps she gets a cut, so she stays back unless they ask her to help them which has only happened once so far

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by talarei07

my pcs dont have torrent help them on account of not wanting to split the exp with her. if she helps she gets a cut, so she stays back unless they ask her to help them which has only happened once so far

She only gets a cut if she becomes bloodied.

[talarei07]

yeah not something they are willing risk happening.

[sfedi]

Isn't it weird that they are leaving out Torrent for a metagamey reason instead of a roleplayinjg one?

[talarei07]

the characters dislike torrent because when the new group got together they tried to strong arm torrent and the rest of the resistance into paying them for their and torrent told them that shed just find a different group to do the job then.

[talarei07]

just finished Scouring of Gate Pass last night. I enjoyed running it much more than the previous addition actually. i had to make some changes to the final fight. the biggest changed was pumping the inquisitor up a little bit...ok a lot. the avenger is very concerned by the inquisitors because he made the inquisitor his oath and the inquisitor did the same thing to him the following round so they exchanged the my god is better than your god banter and the avenger discovered the inquisitor was gaining power from leska. they called on crystin for help in the fight almost every character was bloodied and down to at wills by the end of the fight, but prevailed. i once again changed the appearance of the inquisitors. i dont really like the flavor of the bear mask and furs so i go for a more armed and armored each one an individual look. so i adde the portrait of Boreas for you to see my look for them

[John Doom]

Very nice on the picture. I like the mask quite a bit.

[sfedi]

Originally Posted by talarei07

the characters dislike torrent because when the new group got together they tried to strong arm torrent and the rest of the resistance into paying them for their and torrent told them that shed just find a different group to do the job then.

LOL
One of my parties didn't get along well with her because she didn't know well how to reach Lyceum. They expected a more clear cut mission.
They later increased their animosity because she didn't get involved in things that concerned her, and left the players to their own devices.

Originally Posted by talarei07

just finished Scouring of Gate Pass last night. I enjoyed running it much more than the previous addition actually. i had to make some changes to the final fight. the biggest changed was pumping the inquisitor up a little bit...ok a lot.

The Warlock in the party that finished the adventure was very afraid of the inquisitor,
I haven't pumped the encounter, although I did corrected several numbers and added more counterspell powers to the Inquisitor so it would feel more anti-arcane.
The encounter was very doable, but with lots of tension.
The goblin snipers didn't come into pairs to the door, I had one in the upper right corner, in the stable, and another covering the opposite side of the farm, in the lower left part of the map, atop one of the little hills.
Only one came to the door to pick it.

It was a fine fight, they didn't let the Inquisitor do much though.
Perhaps an Elite would have been more satisfactory in this particular fight.

[sfedi]

I've found the perfect item for this inquisitor, as well as a nice loot:


Skull Mask

This rough iron visor is shaped in the likeness of a skull whose grim countenance saps your enemies’ courage.

Level: 5
Price: 1,000 gp
Item Slot: Head

Property: Enemies who can see you take a –2 penalty to saving throws against fear effects.
Property: Gain resist 5 necrotic, and a +1 item bonus to Intimidate checks.

First published in Adventurer's Vault.