Ricochet
Explorer
We played Raiders of Oakhurst Reloaded, and it was very fun for all. However, questions arose, simple ones at that:
1) Firing/casting spells into melee. We collectively agreed on the usual -4 to hit if the ranger shot into melee or casters wanted to strike targets in melee. Is there any official rules on this?
2) How to escape combat without opportunity attacks? Basically, is "shifting" a minor action or something else? Can a combatant attack (standard action), shift and then move away, fearing no repercussions?
3) Our ranger player quickly figured out that the cleric's healing spell was an encounter power at will. He argued that out of combat, there would be no need to spend healing surges, as the cleric could just keep tossing spells at will. We decided that he could only use it in combat (calling the powers of the gods to aid them etc.), which led to some very bad borderline cringe-worthy situations of "uhm, there's one enemy left, better heal us up now with that spell of yours.". I'm sure we somehow misunderstood all this? Right?
4) We played the entire "reloaded" adventure going on curse/quarry/marks overriding each other, so we obviously got that wrong. That said, the party only had trouble at the dragon, where they were really challenged, as even without his quarry the ranger was untouchable in being the max damage dealer, and the warlock seemed to hit pretty nicely too. The proverbial "stacking dots" works in 4e I can see now from reading other threads, or did we play it right?
5) Will shifting an enemy around like some powers can, provoke opportunity attacks from whatever that enemy is fighting? By the very definition of the shift, I would say no, but from a "what the hell is shifting this guy one square good for?" line of thinking, I'd say yes. Barring lava pools or cliffs, whats the point of shifting anyone 1 square elsewise?
6) What old skills falls under "Athletics" and what falls under "Acrobatics" in the new skill system?
Other comments:
We played without minis/battlemap, because we hate it (except 1 of the 6 players), and it went fine. Only thing we drew and rearranged on a whiteboard, was the dragon fight.
Everyone liked 4e, and we all agreed that marks, surges and ongoing damage is something we will get the hang of eventually, but right now, it seems strange still.
There is a LOT of tiny +1/+2 modifiers stacking onto each other as buffs very often, and it does get confusing for the players.
I didn't let the dragon use darkness, as that would have been... the end. Also, we missed the wording on the paladin mark, so she took 8 damage several times in a round. Without though, I think the party would have bitten the dust, so it was all good, and the fight was very epic still.
Adventure was fun, and material in the pdf top notch! Nice work everyone, and thanks a lot!
1) Firing/casting spells into melee. We collectively agreed on the usual -4 to hit if the ranger shot into melee or casters wanted to strike targets in melee. Is there any official rules on this?
2) How to escape combat without opportunity attacks? Basically, is "shifting" a minor action or something else? Can a combatant attack (standard action), shift and then move away, fearing no repercussions?
3) Our ranger player quickly figured out that the cleric's healing spell was an encounter power at will. He argued that out of combat, there would be no need to spend healing surges, as the cleric could just keep tossing spells at will. We decided that he could only use it in combat (calling the powers of the gods to aid them etc.), which led to some very bad borderline cringe-worthy situations of "uhm, there's one enemy left, better heal us up now with that spell of yours.". I'm sure we somehow misunderstood all this? Right?
4) We played the entire "reloaded" adventure going on curse/quarry/marks overriding each other, so we obviously got that wrong. That said, the party only had trouble at the dragon, where they were really challenged, as even without his quarry the ranger was untouchable in being the max damage dealer, and the warlock seemed to hit pretty nicely too. The proverbial "stacking dots" works in 4e I can see now from reading other threads, or did we play it right?
5) Will shifting an enemy around like some powers can, provoke opportunity attacks from whatever that enemy is fighting? By the very definition of the shift, I would say no, but from a "what the hell is shifting this guy one square good for?" line of thinking, I'd say yes. Barring lava pools or cliffs, whats the point of shifting anyone 1 square elsewise?
6) What old skills falls under "Athletics" and what falls under "Acrobatics" in the new skill system?
Other comments:
We played without minis/battlemap, because we hate it (except 1 of the 6 players), and it went fine. Only thing we drew and rearranged on a whiteboard, was the dragon fight.
Everyone liked 4e, and we all agreed that marks, surges and ongoing damage is something we will get the hang of eventually, but right now, it seems strange still.
There is a LOT of tiny +1/+2 modifiers stacking onto each other as buffs very often, and it does get confusing for the players.
I didn't let the dragon use darkness, as that would have been... the end. Also, we missed the wording on the paladin mark, so she took 8 damage several times in a round. Without though, I think the party would have bitten the dust, so it was all good, and the fight was very epic still.
Adventure was fun, and material in the pdf top notch! Nice work everyone, and thanks a lot!
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