Scholar & Brutalman
First Post
Michele Carter has a big blogpost up on Gleemax which summarizes multiple playtests she's in. A whole lot of stuff here! Again, I'll put it up since some people can't read Gleemax, and again, I'll edit this post to remove it if Michele asks:
WotC_Miko, 11/6/2007 4:03:05 PM
Sorry about the posting delay. I was waiting for a playtest report that I submitted to Chris Thomasson to go up, but it hasn't yet. Thomasson, that slacker. (Joke. JOKE. He's working insanely hard, like all of us.)
A roundup of the last week or so: Days are for editing. Nights are for GAMING.
Monday night: Iomandra, Game 1 (10/29)
We had our first game in Chris Perkins's new campaign on Monday night. I played alongside Chris in Monte Cook's Ptolus campaign(s), and I've been looking forward to having him as a DM for a long time; his campaigns are legendary around here.
me: Andraste, eladrin warlord
Bruce Cordell: Melech, tiefling warlock (not infernal, naturally *snicker*)
Jeremy Crawford: Alex, human wizard
Matt Sernett: Bartho, human fighter
Shawn Blakeney: Balasar, --hey! look over there! shiny thing!-- ...where was I? oh, right-- cleric
The geography of Chris's campaign world is broken into hundreds of small islands, with a slightly despotic (to some of the characters' minds, anyway) empire holding sway over them all. Our characters all meet up on the small isle of Kheth; Melech, Alex, and Bartho are natives, while Andraste and Balasar arrived just at the start of the campaign.
Most of the first session was spent with the characters pursuing their own concerns and interacting with each other and the other town inhabitants as necessitated by their own storylines. I found it a lot more organic than "hi! let's form a party and go adventuring!", anyway. The three natives already have ties of friendship, and Andraste and Alex were becoming acquainted over some shared commonalities, when Balasar arrived on a warship with his people. That's the empire's people, by the way.
But it quickly became clear that Balasar had an agenda that might be more in line with the other PCs', and we won't necessarily need to hold his race against him. (Heh.) (Do I need to add here that it's entirely the nature of Chris's campaign setup suggesting our attitudes, and not official material? I suppose so.) The session ended on an alarming note after Alex, Bartho, and Andraste were drawn into a battle with the ship's first mate and his sailors--well, they were attempting to kidnap and imprison an NPC without proof of wrongdoing and we couldn't let THAT happen, could we? (We were in the right...technically . Barely. It a thin line and I'm clinging to it.) Andraste hadn't particularly intended to kill the first mate, but she did manage some impressive damage with a daily power and was about to try to get him to stand down when Bartho came up behind and skewered him. Oops.
So we ended our first session in a *bit* more trouble than we'd expected. Maybe the fast-talking warlock can get us out of this....
Technical details? Hm. Andraste hit hard and fast with a powerful daily ability that gave allies a bonus to hit the target. She also used a very, very effective positioning strike to move an ally into flanking position for better attack odds. Ordinarily she wouldn't have used the wizard to do so, but he was standing right there....
Tuesday night: Tergania, Game 3 (10/30)
Tuesday night is for Greg Bilsland's game and my elf paladin, Valanae. We fought off some bandits and as before, I'm finding her to be a very effective defender. Creatures want to attack her in preference to the squishy wizard, and there's just been a slight revision to the paladin's healing ability that plays well with the nature of the class.
Wednesday night: Intended to collapse on the couch and stare blindly at the teevee, ended up playing WoW for a couple of hours instead. Quit early enough to catch up on Heroes, though. Priorities!
Thursday night (11/1)
Bill Slavicsek's game and my half-elf rogue, Zanne. (I haven't played this many elf-types in years--mostly stuck to humans for the extra feat. Now the race choices are all so tempting I'm making the rounds.) Last night our group hit 8th level, and Bill put us to the test with a couple of tough encounters. We proved tougher.First up was a werewolf lord and a bunch of normal werewolves; we all look one look at the towering hairy beast and piled big attacks on it to take it down first, then mopped up the rest relatively straightforwardly. Key fun moment for Zanne: using a warlock power as a completely untraditional (for a rogue) attack option.
The second encounter, against a couple of eladrin and a bulette and an owlbear, lasted a lot longer. Eladrin have a movement ability that's hella fun to use when you're a PC and annoying/amusing to deal with as an opponent. I know how to short-cut it next time, though. *cue evil laughter* That actually points to one of the most interesting things about this edition: discovering all the new ways that powers work with and against each other, creating different synergies in every battle. I got to show off nearly all my capabilities during this fight, from tumbling past enemies without provoking opportunity attacks, to the extremely useful enhanced ability to escape a grab (so sorry, giant owlbear, you don't get to chew on my head like a tootsie pop), to the power that lets me switch places with the target. Good times.
Editors' Playtest, lunchtime 11/5
We jumped up to 14th level to give paragon play a workout. Peter talked about it here and I can confirm that Roger was very effective. My halfling warlock went in intending to save most of her big attacks for the eventual dragon, but I got in a few good hits and splurged on a daily power to make one of the giants play whack-a-mole with an ally. That's wicked fun. Emphasis on both wicked and fun.
Monday night: Iomandra, Game 2 (11/5)
It turned out that the local magistrate also believed in upholding the letter of the law, so the ship captain stormed off, promising later vengeance. Goodie, our first campaign villain! We'll be seeing him again, for sure.
Most of the session was taken with further roleplaying and character bonding, as our different concerns started aligning. Balasar's quest led him to Andraste, and he had something she was looking for, so she put aside (most of) her natural suspicion to work with him. Just in time, because two of Alex's friends from the town went missing. Like good adventurers, the five of us put aside personal concerns to go after them.
Well, we found one of them mauled and dead a couple miles down the coast, but no sign of the other. I got to throw around a little of my warlord's imperious nature (not a power, just personality) by getting the others to stop their wailing and get moving on the search. (Andraste favors practicality over compassion and her character sheet reads "neither fuzzy nor cute" on the Personality line.) We spent the rest of the day traipsing through the rain forest, finding and losing and finding a dubious trail again. We stumbled into a grotto of Chris-homebrew monsters: if I say "bat-winged apes" you'll laugh, but trust me, these guys were scary...especially since with their wings folded around them, they were invisible until they swooped in for the attack. Seriously effective lurkers. We triumphed, though not without injury. I felt particularly warlord-y in that fight, using the eladrin movement ability to position myself for a flank and a nifty strike that allowed the cleric to get in a solid hit on an opponent when I missed. I set 'em up, my allies take 'em down. I like it.
By the time we left the grotto and made our way to the top of a hill it was approaching nightfall. We were all pretty worn down by that point, certain that we'd lost the trail...and then a scream rang out.
To be continued! Next week.
Tonight: more paladin goodness with Valenae! But work first.
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