D&D 4E My final 4E session
Pickles JG
First Post
I worry it will feel like fast food after 4e's steak.
I am starting a new 4e campaign next week with a new playgroup (I vetoed Pathfinder/3.0 & no-one but me was interested in 5e pointing out it was not even released, they were also keen to play conventional fantasy).
I ran a 4e campaign HP(not e) to level 17 in just over 3 years playing about 8 times a year for 6 hours a go - we must have been close to the par rate as we were playing the par adventures mostly. Three of them played the pregens throughout
The same group has been playing since then (2 and a bit years now) and we are level 10 but play a bit less frequently as the new DM is busier than me.
I am starting a new 4e campaign next week with a new playgroup (I vetoed Pathfinder/3.0 & no-one but me was interested in 5e pointing out it was not even released, they were also keen to play conventional fantasy).
I ran a 4e campaign HP(not e) to level 17 in just over 3 years playing about 8 times a year for 6 hours a go - we must have been close to the par rate as we were playing the par adventures mostly. Three of them played the pregens throughout
The same group has been playing since then (2 and a bit years now) and we are level 10 but play a bit less frequently as the new DM is busier than me.
Feeroper
Explorer
I have run 2 4e campaigns since 4e launched. 1st one ended in early to mid Paragon tier after about 1 to 1 1/2 years. It was mostly completed but a couple from the group moved away. I ran another 4e campaign after that with the same group minus the 2 who were now gone. That game ran for the next few years as every other week or sometimes once a month from level 1 to 25 I believe. However, the PCs basically made it to the final showdown of the campaign, but then real life got in the way and we were not able to play the last couple sessions to resolve it. Last session was early Fall last year. I would have liked to finish it off but I get the sense that a couple of the players aren't as interested anymore as it has been a while now.
These campaigns take place in a homebrew setting of my creation and my 5e games will continue into that world as well. However I am going to advance the timeline enough that it is unclear what exactly happened to those heroes of old all those years ago, and make that a hook for a new group of adventurers to explore. So it will be kinda like these characters are investigating a legend in their time to see if there is any truth to it and find out what fate ultimately befell those old characters.
These campaigns take place in a homebrew setting of my creation and my 5e games will continue into that world as well. However I am going to advance the timeline enough that it is unclear what exactly happened to those heroes of old all those years ago, and make that a hook for a new group of adventurers to explore. So it will be kinda like these characters are investigating a legend in their time to see if there is any truth to it and find out what fate ultimately befell those old characters.
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wedgeski
Adventurer
I've run two 4E campaigns that both fizzled out in the mid-Paragon's due to a combination of availability and, to be brutally honest, DM exhaustion. By the time we got to those kinds of levels, combats were taking an age to resolve and, while the players loved this aspect of the system, after a few years I found it very wearing. To be fair, that is all told about the only thing significantly wrong with 4E in my eyes. I made overtures to remedy the problem but always hit a brick wall of players having too much fun to want to change.
I regret not forcing the issue, though, because it slowed the pace of my homebrew to the point where the PC's impact on the campaign world was only just starting to be felt at the time the game went cold. This was a sharp lesson that I internalised at the time, but honestly, 5E plays so fast that it probably won't be an issue. We've played several sessions of AD&D in the meantime and after 4E, the pace of those sessions was almost dizzying!
So congratulations on bringing yet another long-running campaign to its finale, [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], you're an inspiration!
I regret not forcing the issue, though, because it slowed the pace of my homebrew to the point where the PC's impact on the campaign world was only just starting to be felt at the time the game went cold. This was a sharp lesson that I internalised at the time, but honestly, 5E plays so fast that it probably won't be an issue. We've played several sessions of AD&D in the meantime and after 4E, the pace of those sessions was almost dizzying!
So congratulations on bringing yet another long-running campaign to its finale, [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], you're an inspiration!
Awesomeness
Epic end of campaign uber-battles are amazingly fun and what a great opportunity for your players to enjoy their final battles!
I just completed a multi-year campaign playing through GDQ1-7 using a 4e baseline, and enjoyed it tremendously. For the final battle, the epic fight with Llolth went through multiple versions (see the MM listing) and multiple "upon reaching bloodied" and "upon reaching 0 hp" effects. The party was 26th level, and I used Llolth from the books, but just dropped her defenses to 30th level effect - the extra bump from a level gap made it even more threatening.
For the minions, I had two waves.
In the first wave, it was a total setup/ambush which unleashed two dragons, giants, and elite drow on the party simultaneously upon Llolth's disappearance.
In the second wave, it was yochlol's and web golems. The yochlols formed a ring around the outside (ranged) and all used a "shield other" effect which triggered their abilities to protect Llolth. The web golems were deadly brutes that hit like a Mac Truck, and were up tight causing havoc with anyone in melee.
Also, tactically I was BRUTAL to the healers.
It was outstanding. No doubt, 4e created a core-playset, that with limited prep, offered a high-level, and beautifully balanced (challenging) encounter as good or better than any epic tabletop RPG experience I've had.
Epic end of campaign uber-battles are amazingly fun and what a great opportunity for your players to enjoy their final battles!
I just completed a multi-year campaign playing through GDQ1-7 using a 4e baseline, and enjoyed it tremendously. For the final battle, the epic fight with Llolth went through multiple versions (see the MM listing) and multiple "upon reaching bloodied" and "upon reaching 0 hp" effects. The party was 26th level, and I used Llolth from the books, but just dropped her defenses to 30th level effect - the extra bump from a level gap made it even more threatening.
For the minions, I had two waves.
In the first wave, it was a total setup/ambush which unleashed two dragons, giants, and elite drow on the party simultaneously upon Llolth's disappearance.
In the second wave, it was yochlol's and web golems. The yochlols formed a ring around the outside (ranged) and all used a "shield other" effect which triggered their abilities to protect Llolth. The web golems were deadly brutes that hit like a Mac Truck, and were up tight causing havoc with anyone in melee.
Also, tactically I was BRUTAL to the healers.
It was outstanding. No doubt, 4e created a core-playset, that with limited prep, offered a high-level, and beautifully balanced (challenging) encounter as good or better than any epic tabletop RPG experience I've had.
All the best with it Merric, hope you all enjoy it.
I'm not sure to what extent you are literally building him like a PC, so here are some quick words of warning. I have run an NPC built as a PC before, interestingly, an ex-ally trying to release the chained god (how about that)
They have very few HP and will die in a heartbeat compared to a monster. When I ran it the NPC was infused with a the chained gods power, so every time they his healing surge worth of damage an effect would go off and he would heal up again. They had to work through every healing surge to take him down.
Spell effects are balanced around a PC only having X amount of HP and the fight only lasting for X amount of time, so some things that give a bonus for a whole encounter are pretty nasty. Mine cast Adamantium Scales, resulting in +5 AC for the entire fight and some nasty auras.
Saving throws are horrible without fudging stuff. He really needs the +5 from being a solo monster. He also needs ways to get out of stun and daze etc. As a standard PC against a group of PCs, he will just be locked down the whole time, stunned and dominated until he begs for death, RAW.
<edit - Oh, one more thing. The action economy is really not in his favour, that sounds fine given the amount of allies he has though. You might want to consider giving him lots of action points. What I did was give him an AP every time a PC spent and AP. It led to some interesting tactical decisions on their part>
I'm not sure to what extent you are literally building him like a PC, so here are some quick words of warning. I have run an NPC built as a PC before, interestingly, an ex-ally trying to release the chained god (how about that)
They have very few HP and will die in a heartbeat compared to a monster. When I ran it the NPC was infused with a the chained gods power, so every time they his healing surge worth of damage an effect would go off and he would heal up again. They had to work through every healing surge to take him down.
Spell effects are balanced around a PC only having X amount of HP and the fight only lasting for X amount of time, so some things that give a bonus for a whole encounter are pretty nasty. Mine cast Adamantium Scales, resulting in +5 AC for the entire fight and some nasty auras.
Saving throws are horrible without fudging stuff. He really needs the +5 from being a solo monster. He also needs ways to get out of stun and daze etc. As a standard PC against a group of PCs, he will just be locked down the whole time, stunned and dominated until he begs for death, RAW.
<edit - Oh, one more thing. The action economy is really not in his favour, that sounds fine given the amount of allies he has though. You might want to consider giving him lots of action points. What I did was give him an AP every time a PC spent and AP. It led to some interesting tactical decisions on their part>
It's over!
I ran it as two linked encounters; the first a fight against Ogremoch (who went down in 6 rounds) and the second against Archibald the Traitor and his minions. Early on, Archibald hit Greg's Slayer with Curse of the Twin Princes - Greg's Will defense was low enough that from then on, half the damage Archibald took was taken by Greg!
Archibald's allies proved quite troublesome for the players, and Archibald himself had four effects that brought him back to life if he died. Fittingly, he was the very last foe to die.
Along the way, we discovered that Adam's bard could turn into a dragon!
Cheers!
I ran it as two linked encounters; the first a fight against Ogremoch (who went down in 6 rounds) and the second against Archibald the Traitor and his minions. Early on, Archibald hit Greg's Slayer with Curse of the Twin Princes - Greg's Will defense was low enough that from then on, half the damage Archibald took was taken by Greg!
Archibald's allies proved quite troublesome for the players, and Archibald himself had four effects that brought him back to life if he died. Fittingly, he was the very last foe to die.
Along the way, we discovered that Adam's bard could turn into a dragon!
Cheers!
the Jester
Legend
Sounds truly excellent! And I love the setup there.
Did any of the pcs get taken down, killed, or killed without coming back?
Did any of the pcs get taken down, killed, or killed without coming back?
Chaltab
Explorer
I don't expect my 'final' 4E session to come for a long time yet, but keeping a campaign going for six years, you deserve mad props. I'm running a campaign with L. 16s at the moment, so we're basically halfway through the game. We started Feb. 2012 (We have a 'level up on completion of a major quest' scheme because nobody can keep track of XP in my game.) so we probably have another year and change to get to the end, but I hope it measures up to a traitor PC.
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