Ashrum the Black
Explorer
I'll be following along with interest in how you've adapted an implemented the 4e rules. Thanks for sharing them with us.
-Ashrum.
-Ashrum.
D&D 4E Running Commentary on Rel's 4e Campaign (Complete 8/2/10)
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Thanks for all the comments and readers thus far. The gang just left after our second session and I wanted to post an update while things are still fresh in my mind.
Storywise, the PC's entered the desecrated temple of Pelor and confronted the Wraith that lurked within. It was a back and forth battle for several rounds with the group dishing out damage and the Wraith regaining it (thanks to the corpse of its body lying across the altar and breathing out a smoky cloud of darkness each round to let it regenerate). The PC's finally managed to remove the sacrificial dagger from the corpse and this stopped the regeneration and they quickly dispatched the undead horror (the cleansing of the altar was also a milestone).
During the battle Mialain the Cleric did a Power Stunt where she "pulled all the light from within the room and channeled it into a single bolt which she hurled at the ghostly enemy". She missed. BUT, the bad guy was standing right in front of the doors to the inner sanctum and a concentrated burst of light unlocked them (temple of Pelor after all).
After the fight they located three doors out of the main temple area. One led to the apartments once used by the clerics, a second down into the catacombs and the third into the inner sanctum of the temple. There was a door behind these doors and it turned out to be guarded by a pair of statues. These ended up being nearly as difficult a battle as the Wraith as the pair of Clay Scout Homunculi kept more than half the party Dazed and unable to see them each round. Fortunately they stayed fairly stationary which made them relatively easier to hit.
Once finally inside they discovered a glowing book made of glass that they deciphered thanks to the Cleric's Comprehend Languages ritual. The book magically produced the names of evildoers and their crimes. The writings suggested that this magic was at one time used by the Knights of Pelor to hunt down those who committed evil acts and return them to the temple. Those who repented were merely sentenced to work in the mines (an entrance to these mines was located at the back of this chamber) while the unrepentant were smitten with the holy fires of Pelor. The final entries in the book told of the High Priest's dilemma with the coming of the Mists over whether to release the prisoners in the mines (whereupon they might do evil again) or keep them locked inside to face near certain death.
Mialain had foreseen something about a "book that isn't there" in a vision from Melora and so she decided that a book made of glass was close enough and kept it. The PC's then proceeded to explore the catacombs where they encountered a pair of bug like creatures, which got in some nasty bites but were otherwise dispatched fairly quickly. They discovered that these bugs were getting in through a narrow crack from somewhere up above when a swarm of smaller ones threatened to overwhelm them. Quick reactions by Zanne the Warlock and her Flames of Phlethegos, Power Stunted to engulf a larger part of the swarm, destroyed it in a single spell.
Searching further through the catacombs they found one of the vaults had been broken into and had a small tunnel leading out the back. Eshik the Ranger climbed quietly up the tunnel to investigate where it led. Upon reaching the top he found himself in another chamber and signaled the others to join him. But before they arrived he was struck by a dart (seemingly fashioned from some body parts of the insects they had just fought) by an unseen attacker who quickly retreated. The rest of the party made it into the room and they determined that they were in the Prison Mines of Pelor.
There we called it a night.
My observations are these:
They pretty well rock against Undead. Lots of powers that do Radiant damage.
Everybody performs pretty well in their "role" but there is a lot of straddling the lines and in ways I wouldn't expect. Zanne the Warlock does more damage than anybody in the group but surprisingly also takes the role of Defender a bit too by putting herself in danger in order to take advantage of all the Temporary Hit Points granted by her Infernal Pact. By the same token the Cleric with Divine Glow and Divine Guardian is doing a reasonable job as a substitute Controller. Their lack of Controller is also offset by the two melee types, the Paladin and Ranger, being Dragonborn and getting their breath weapon.
We got to see several house rules in play and all worked pretty well. Both the Paladin and Ranger recovered from being Wounded last session and that was handled fairly quickly and easily but it also made a big difference. This rule makes Endurance and Heal much more important than normal (which seems to me to be "not very important" as a baseline).
The Power Stunts worked seamlessly and were interesting. They are similar to Dailies however in it being kind of a bummer when they miss.
The mid-combat milestone felt like worked the way I wanted and gave a sense that the momentum of the fight really shifted heavily in the PC's favor. I liked that a lot.
A few "background skills" got worked into this session including Astavian's history as a Caravan Guard and Eshik's knowledge of stonecutting. These really supported the good roleplaying by the group as a whole.
There has been no sense of grind at all during any of the combats. Most don't seem to last more than about 5 rounds anyway and there has been little or no repitition of At Will powers, with the exception of the Ranger's Twin Strike. And that seems to be what he prefers to do most of the time anyway.
Things To Work On:
I've not done as much mixing of enemy roles in the encounter design as I probably need to but next session should remedy that to some extent.
I also have had the terrain be a factor to a minor extent in a couple fights but I feel like I need to have a more interactive combat environment so they can try a few more creative stunts. I'd like to see a bit more skill use in combat.
Final Note:
At the pace things are going I'm probably going to have them hit 2nd level after next session. I also told them that, unlike campaigns I've run in the past, I'm not going to purposefully make each successive level take longer to reach. I'm thinking that 1 level every three sessions might be a pretty good pace. We'll see how it goes.
Alright, off to bed with me and I'll answer any questions in the morning.
Storywise, the PC's entered the desecrated temple of Pelor and confronted the Wraith that lurked within. It was a back and forth battle for several rounds with the group dishing out damage and the Wraith regaining it (thanks to the corpse of its body lying across the altar and breathing out a smoky cloud of darkness each round to let it regenerate). The PC's finally managed to remove the sacrificial dagger from the corpse and this stopped the regeneration and they quickly dispatched the undead horror (the cleansing of the altar was also a milestone).
During the battle Mialain the Cleric did a Power Stunt where she "pulled all the light from within the room and channeled it into a single bolt which she hurled at the ghostly enemy". She missed. BUT, the bad guy was standing right in front of the doors to the inner sanctum and a concentrated burst of light unlocked them (temple of Pelor after all).
After the fight they located three doors out of the main temple area. One led to the apartments once used by the clerics, a second down into the catacombs and the third into the inner sanctum of the temple. There was a door behind these doors and it turned out to be guarded by a pair of statues. These ended up being nearly as difficult a battle as the Wraith as the pair of Clay Scout Homunculi kept more than half the party Dazed and unable to see them each round. Fortunately they stayed fairly stationary which made them relatively easier to hit.
Once finally inside they discovered a glowing book made of glass that they deciphered thanks to the Cleric's Comprehend Languages ritual. The book magically produced the names of evildoers and their crimes. The writings suggested that this magic was at one time used by the Knights of Pelor to hunt down those who committed evil acts and return them to the temple. Those who repented were merely sentenced to work in the mines (an entrance to these mines was located at the back of this chamber) while the unrepentant were smitten with the holy fires of Pelor. The final entries in the book told of the High Priest's dilemma with the coming of the Mists over whether to release the prisoners in the mines (whereupon they might do evil again) or keep them locked inside to face near certain death.
Mialain had foreseen something about a "book that isn't there" in a vision from Melora and so she decided that a book made of glass was close enough and kept it. The PC's then proceeded to explore the catacombs where they encountered a pair of bug like creatures, which got in some nasty bites but were otherwise dispatched fairly quickly. They discovered that these bugs were getting in through a narrow crack from somewhere up above when a swarm of smaller ones threatened to overwhelm them. Quick reactions by Zanne the Warlock and her Flames of Phlethegos, Power Stunted to engulf a larger part of the swarm, destroyed it in a single spell.
Searching further through the catacombs they found one of the vaults had been broken into and had a small tunnel leading out the back. Eshik the Ranger climbed quietly up the tunnel to investigate where it led. Upon reaching the top he found himself in another chamber and signaled the others to join him. But before they arrived he was struck by a dart (seemingly fashioned from some body parts of the insects they had just fought) by an unseen attacker who quickly retreated. The rest of the party made it into the room and they determined that they were in the Prison Mines of Pelor.
There we called it a night.
My observations are these:
They pretty well rock against Undead. Lots of powers that do Radiant damage.
Everybody performs pretty well in their "role" but there is a lot of straddling the lines and in ways I wouldn't expect. Zanne the Warlock does more damage than anybody in the group but surprisingly also takes the role of Defender a bit too by putting herself in danger in order to take advantage of all the Temporary Hit Points granted by her Infernal Pact. By the same token the Cleric with Divine Glow and Divine Guardian is doing a reasonable job as a substitute Controller. Their lack of Controller is also offset by the two melee types, the Paladin and Ranger, being Dragonborn and getting their breath weapon.
We got to see several house rules in play and all worked pretty well. Both the Paladin and Ranger recovered from being Wounded last session and that was handled fairly quickly and easily but it also made a big difference. This rule makes Endurance and Heal much more important than normal (which seems to me to be "not very important" as a baseline).
The Power Stunts worked seamlessly and were interesting. They are similar to Dailies however in it being kind of a bummer when they miss.
The mid-combat milestone felt like worked the way I wanted and gave a sense that the momentum of the fight really shifted heavily in the PC's favor. I liked that a lot.
A few "background skills" got worked into this session including Astavian's history as a Caravan Guard and Eshik's knowledge of stonecutting. These really supported the good roleplaying by the group as a whole.
There has been no sense of grind at all during any of the combats. Most don't seem to last more than about 5 rounds anyway and there has been little or no repitition of At Will powers, with the exception of the Ranger's Twin Strike. And that seems to be what he prefers to do most of the time anyway.
Things To Work On:
I've not done as much mixing of enemy roles in the encounter design as I probably need to but next session should remedy that to some extent.
I also have had the terrain be a factor to a minor extent in a couple fights but I feel like I need to have a more interactive combat environment so they can try a few more creative stunts. I'd like to see a bit more skill use in combat.
Final Note:
At the pace things are going I'm probably going to have them hit 2nd level after next session. I also told them that, unlike campaigns I've run in the past, I'm not going to purposefully make each successive level take longer to reach. I'm thinking that 1 level every three sessions might be a pretty good pace. We'll see how it goes.
Alright, off to bed with me and I'll answer any questions in the morning.
Breezly
First Post
Good stuff
Rel, I have enjoyed what I have read so far. With yours, and PirateCat's, running commentary I am inspired to improve my DMing a bit. What I enjoy about 4e that I did not get in <=3.5e is the time it takes to prepare a session. With 4e, most of the work is done and I can spend more time on the details and story, where in the past, creating the encounters was so daunting that I never really had time to add the flavor. I can see with both of these sessions that there is more possibilities to expand and add layers of interest, and I have already started to do so in my campaign.
Next week, I am DMing a 4e session my long standing 3.5 group, that I am a player, so I hope to bring the same excitement to a group of admittedly 4e sceptical players. I may even try to sprinkle in some of your 'fixes'.
Breezly - lurkus maximus
Rel, I have enjoyed what I have read so far. With yours, and PirateCat's, running commentary I am inspired to improve my DMing a bit. What I enjoy about 4e that I did not get in <=3.5e is the time it takes to prepare a session. With 4e, most of the work is done and I can spend more time on the details and story, where in the past, creating the encounters was so daunting that I never really had time to add the flavor. I can see with both of these sessions that there is more possibilities to expand and add layers of interest, and I have already started to do so in my campaign.
Next week, I am DMing a 4e session my long standing 3.5 group, that I am a player, so I hope to bring the same excitement to a group of admittedly 4e sceptical players. I may even try to sprinkle in some of your 'fixes'.
Breezly - lurkus maximus
Joshua Randall
Legend
All (? - I'm pretty sure) Daily powers have at least some effect on a miss; e.g., half damage plus some lesser version of whatever buff or debuff the power would impose on a hit.Rel said:
You might consider doing something analogous with your "power stunts".
Rel
Liquid Awesome
That is an interesting point. Actually my stated goal is to have Power Stunts approximate a power level equal to an encounter power of the PC's level. As such I guess it's not the end of the world if they miss.
However I did something similar to what you propose last night anyway when Mialain's "Light Blast Attack" missed the Wraith but still managed to open the doors to the Sanctum of Pelor. I'll try and look for ways to similarly apply effects on a miss in the future.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
A discussion I was having at CM inspired me to talk for a minute about how I design stuff for 4e. Essentially it is much more loose and easy on monster selection than in a lot of other games I've run. I'm spending a very small portion of my prep time with mechanics and that usually the day we play. I can spend the balance of my time on story, scenario design and the little details that help bring it to life.
In this last session I'd established that there was a "ghost" in the temple. That was all that I'd committed myself to the previous session. So I went ahead and figured out the layout of the temple, what they would find in the different parts (the "Chamber of Judgement" with the book in it upstairs, the living apartments on the main floor and the catacombs beneath). Then I decided on the characteristics and details of each area. Finally, on Monday, I came back around to needing to nail down some specifics about the monsters.
For the "ghost" I knew I wanted some kind of insubstantial undead. I first looked at the Ghost. The whole "phantom warrior with a sword" wasn't the vibe I was after. Then I flipped to Specter. This was more along the lines of what I wanted but I'd want to ditch the Invisibility thing because I already knew I was going to use the Clay Scouts as guardians and I didn't want to overdo the Invis thing.
Then I took a look at the Wraith. He's got Regeneration, which, combined with being insubstantial, would make him tougher to kill. I needed that because this was the only monster in the room. I decided that I was going to get rid of the thing where he doesn't regenerate if he takes Radiant damage because it makes the fight tougher but also lets me add a milestone-worthy secondary goal of the encounter. So long as the sacrificial dagger remained in the corpse on the altar, the Wraith would continue to Regenerate. Also I realized that he'd never get to use his Combat Advantage thing so I replaced that with an Encounter Power that he could use to protect the corpse on the altar. I made it a Close Burst 3 that did 1d6 Necrotic Damage and pushed all targets two spaces. That way he could clear them off the altar if they tried to remove the dagger the first time.
In play this worked like a charm.
I did something similar with the "bug" part of the temple encounters. My story suggested that a long time ago somebody baracaded themselves inside the Prison Mines. But I still wanted the PC's to get inside somehow. So I wanted a nest of bugs that had dug their way into the old Mines. They had also broken into a few of the crypts and that let me put out the possibility that the PC's might try and help themselves to what was inside (thus causing the dead to rise and giving them some skeletons to fight). But they didn't do this so that encounter was never triggered.
Anyway I browsed through my bug options. My first instinct was the classic Fire Beetle. Not a bad way to go but I wanted to consider other options. Then I found the Kruthik. They were perfect. They already had the Burrowing ability, which was kind of the reason I included them. Plus they were also more "swarmy" with that whole Gnashing Horde ability. So I described them as a couple larger individuals with many smaller ones scurrying underneath. This let me also provide an explanation for how they were getting into the catacombs through a narrow crack in the ceiling above as well as have a swarm of them hiding inside one of the crypts.
My underlying point here is that my method of preparation is a bit different than in past editions (namely 3.x). The Monster Manual had much larger, better descriptions of the creatures in 3e. But that also meant that frequently important information about the mechanics of running that creature in combat was contained outside the stat-block. So I needed to transcribe that stat block and relevant abilities onto a note card before I ran the fight. I generally did that early on in my preparation process and this sort of mentally "locked me in" to that design decision.
With 4e, everything I need to know to run the monster is in the stat-block and the descriptions are fairly short and not very useful. But that's ok because I'm doing my inspiration beforehand so that the flavor is already decided and I'm just looking for mechanics that suit that decision. And once I find those mechanics then I simply cut and paste the stat-block from the compendium, make any changes I require and I'm ready to play.
So all the creativity is frontloaded in my design process and I can change those decisions right up until the day we play without having "wasted" any effort copying down mechanics I end up not using because of a last minute change.
In this last session I'd established that there was a "ghost" in the temple. That was all that I'd committed myself to the previous session. So I went ahead and figured out the layout of the temple, what they would find in the different parts (the "Chamber of Judgement" with the book in it upstairs, the living apartments on the main floor and the catacombs beneath). Then I decided on the characteristics and details of each area. Finally, on Monday, I came back around to needing to nail down some specifics about the monsters.
For the "ghost" I knew I wanted some kind of insubstantial undead. I first looked at the Ghost. The whole "phantom warrior with a sword" wasn't the vibe I was after. Then I flipped to Specter. This was more along the lines of what I wanted but I'd want to ditch the Invisibility thing because I already knew I was going to use the Clay Scouts as guardians and I didn't want to overdo the Invis thing.
Then I took a look at the Wraith. He's got Regeneration, which, combined with being insubstantial, would make him tougher to kill. I needed that because this was the only monster in the room. I decided that I was going to get rid of the thing where he doesn't regenerate if he takes Radiant damage because it makes the fight tougher but also lets me add a milestone-worthy secondary goal of the encounter. So long as the sacrificial dagger remained in the corpse on the altar, the Wraith would continue to Regenerate. Also I realized that he'd never get to use his Combat Advantage thing so I replaced that with an Encounter Power that he could use to protect the corpse on the altar. I made it a Close Burst 3 that did 1d6 Necrotic Damage and pushed all targets two spaces. That way he could clear them off the altar if they tried to remove the dagger the first time.
In play this worked like a charm.
I did something similar with the "bug" part of the temple encounters. My story suggested that a long time ago somebody baracaded themselves inside the Prison Mines. But I still wanted the PC's to get inside somehow. So I wanted a nest of bugs that had dug their way into the old Mines. They had also broken into a few of the crypts and that let me put out the possibility that the PC's might try and help themselves to what was inside (thus causing the dead to rise and giving them some skeletons to fight). But they didn't do this so that encounter was never triggered.
Anyway I browsed through my bug options. My first instinct was the classic Fire Beetle. Not a bad way to go but I wanted to consider other options. Then I found the Kruthik. They were perfect. They already had the Burrowing ability, which was kind of the reason I included them. Plus they were also more "swarmy" with that whole Gnashing Horde ability. So I described them as a couple larger individuals with many smaller ones scurrying underneath. This let me also provide an explanation for how they were getting into the catacombs through a narrow crack in the ceiling above as well as have a swarm of them hiding inside one of the crypts.
My underlying point here is that my method of preparation is a bit different than in past editions (namely 3.x). The Monster Manual had much larger, better descriptions of the creatures in 3e. But that also meant that frequently important information about the mechanics of running that creature in combat was contained outside the stat-block. So I needed to transcribe that stat block and relevant abilities onto a note card before I ran the fight. I generally did that early on in my preparation process and this sort of mentally "locked me in" to that design decision.
With 4e, everything I need to know to run the monster is in the stat-block and the descriptions are fairly short and not very useful. But that's ok because I'm doing my inspiration beforehand so that the flavor is already decided and I'm just looking for mechanics that suit that decision. And once I find those mechanics then I simply cut and paste the stat-block from the compendium, make any changes I require and I'm ready to play.
So all the creativity is frontloaded in my design process and I can change those decisions right up until the day we play without having "wasted" any effort copying down mechanics I end up not using because of a last minute change.
Desdichado
Hero
Our group really isn't into respecting those kinds of guys. We'd probably call him Goatse or something.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Aaaaand here we are after session 3. As usual I'm fairly amped up by GMing and unable to go to sleep which means that I may as well post about it while the memories are still fresh.
So I decided that I'd frame this whole session as part of one big skill challenge that would encompass the exploration of the Prison Mines of Pelor. (By the way, if you think that being sentenced to work in mines underground in the service of the god of sunshine seems overly harsh then perhaps you'd do well to remember that the clergy of Pelor think that only those of pure heart are deserving of basking in the glory of His radiance.)
So right out of the gate, Astavian makes a Dungeoneering check to try to see if they can find a likey way that will lead them out of the mines (remember that they need to be going UP out of the mists, hopefully to the top of this plateau where it isn't poisonous). He rolls pretty crappy (see if you spot a trend there) and instead finds a dead end that vaguely resembles a natural cavern. There is a fluttering of wings above and some Stirges attack.
Now my players have hated Stirges for years. It's really not all that hard to hate a creature that combines all the worst features of a vampire bat and a mosquito. In a past campaign, the party Wizard Lightning Bolted the entire party in order to kill the Stirges that were attacking them. So they get right down to business slaughtering the four that are attacking them. And they were doing a pretty good job.
That's when the pair of Adult Kruthiks burst out of some stone rubble around the edges of the room. Those things were nasty. They dished out some major damage with those quills they fire and their claws are nothing to sneeze at either. The Paladin went down and then so did the Warlock but the Cleric got them back up into the fight, whereupon the Paladin went down again. It didn't help that Astavian (the Paladin) continued to offer up some of the worst rolls ever seen AND the PC's managed to spread the damage perfectly evenly between the two monsters rather than focus attacks on one of them. Mialain the Cleric was all over the place healing folks. And the Ranger was having to play Defender for a good chunk of this fight while the Paladin was unconscious. Anyway, they finally prevailed and took a much needed Extended Rest.
They resumed their exploration with Zanne the Warlock's player asking me if I'd let him roll a Religion Check in the Skill Challenge due to the place being part of a Temple of Pelor. Shockingly I said Yes and for good reason. She uncovered some very old runes in a wall written in Draconic. These claimed that Ryukaar would take vengeance on those who had wronged the Dragonborn or something like that. They also founds some bones that appeared to be from a Dragonborn's hand.
Pressing on looking for an exit they found themselves suddenly ambushed in a long, narrow corridor by these short, ill tempered, shadow lurking Mist Demons. Stat-wise these were...wait for it...
[sblock]Gnomes!
I'm a monster! Rawr![/sblock]
I took some minor liberties with their abilities to make things interesting. I got rid of their ability to turn invisible and replaced that with a kind of reactive fey-step encounter power that allowed them to Teleport 5 when hit. For their leader I gave him a really nifty power to replace the Arcanist's Dazzling Bolt. I called it Displacing Bolt and on hit it did a d6+4 Necrotic damage plus it did a secondary attack +4 vs. Will. If the Will attack hit then the target was Teleported 5 to wherever the caster wanted. If the Will attack missed then the target was still teleported but the target got to decide where. This made this combat pretty interesting from my perspective.
Most of the Mist Demons charged forward, right past the Paladin and got some shots in on the Warlock. When they got hit in turn by the PC's (for a considerable amount of damage I might add) they simply vanished. They had telepoted out of sight around a corner behind the party. The "Shadowcaster" and another lurker drew the PC's further up the long hallway before the initial group attacked from behind. They encountered Lord Harrix who got in some pretty good shots for a relative non-combatant, downing two of the foes before the rest of the PC's could come to his rescue. During the course of the battle the Warlock went unconscious as did the Paladin (but not before the Paladin rolled a bunch of really bad rolls). Once again the Cleric was instrumental in keeping them alive (it helps tremendously to have somebody that can do a successful Heal Check almost every time before you have to make those Death Saves).
They got themselves patched back together and located some wheel ruts for mine carts in the corridor ahead. They followed these uphill to a big vertical shaft with a spiral stair running around the inside and in the center was a sort of elevator with a big pulley. Astavian the Paladin pulled on the rope and brought down the elevator. They heard voices approaching from they way they'd come just before they began to haul themselves up in the elevator.
No sooner had they gotten away from the baddies below than they ran into some more above. Another "Shadowcaster" as well as a tougher warrior type Mist Demon were waiting for them at the top. The Shadowcaster nearly frightened the Warlock to death by using a power that shifted her out of the elevator basket and over the side. She caught herself and Mialain and Lord Herrix hauled her back in. But on the following round a Displacement Bolt yanked the Warlock out of the basket and onto the catwalk above a LONG drop. Just one round later the Shadowcaster rolled a recharge on the bolt and shot the Cleric with it this time. The Shadowcaster failed to hit the Will attack and thus Mialain got to pick where she wanted to end up...and she picked almost exactly where the Shadowcaster wanted her: Up on the catwalk with him and his sidekick.
A pitched battle ensued on the catwalk while Eshik the Ranger and Astavian got Lord Herrix up the elevator. Then Astavian ran to engage the Shadowcaster side of the fight while Eshik stayed behind to babysit Herrix and keep an eye out for the trio of pursuing lurker type Mist Demons who had been hurrying up the stairs. This was pretty classic case of "divide and conquer" with the PC's first finishing off the Shadowcaster, then the warrior type (whose attacks were shifting the Warlock dangerously close to the edge of the catwalk) and finally they made short work of the trio of Mist Demons who had chased them up the stairs.
A chamber they entered from a door off the catwalk took them into some kind of temple where there was a statue of a dragon made from the bones of some Dragonborn. It seemed to indicate that these Mist Demons worshipped some kind of dragon-thing that had to do with darkness. Around the neck of the statue hung a stylized dragon pendant that appeared to be very old and had traces of Pre-Cataclysm Wizardry upon it (which supposedly works somewhat differently than modern Wizardry). They also found a walled off exit with a small but very sturdy looking door with an iron bar across it. That appeared to be their only way out but they opted to take another Extended Rest before pressing on and we wrapped the session there.
***
I had a few goals for this session:
Work in another Skill Challenge
Make terrain a bigger factor in the battles
Use more varied types of combatants
I also decided I wanted to step up the difficulty and see how they managed since the last four fights were all ones that the Encounter Builder said were "Easy" (and they sure as hell didn't seem all that easy when I ran them).
This Skill Challenge was rather different in feel from my earlier effort. Because it was so spread out it felt like just a few individual skill checks. But on the other hand I LOVED the way this abstracted navigating the mines without me having to explain in detail which way they turned at every intersection. On the whole I think this was a success.
Terrain was a minor factor in the first fight and it was a major, major factor in the final fight. In the first battle there were some stone pillars that blocked lines of sight and had to be worked around. I'd also considered letting the Kruthiks burrow through one of them to collapse some rocks on a few of the PC's but I kind of forgot about that in the even and regardless they were doing just fine. The spiral staircase, elevator and the LONG drop in the final encounter added some tension that I really liked. The PC's had a fairly easy time of it compared to the first two since the bad guys were split up but the ever-present fear of falling was especially felt whenver the warrior Mist Demon would shift the Warlock over near the edge of the drop.
I liked the variety of the bad guys in each encounter. The Stirges and Kruthiks complimented each other but mostly dealt a lot of damage. The fight with the Mist Demons in the hallway was totally defined by the teleportation of the Mist Demons. That came off very cool to me because they would vanish and return after a few rounds. I LOVED how the Displacement Bolt worked in play. And that was especially cool in the final encounter the way the elevator and staircase interacted with the teleportation powers of the bad guys.
All told another fun session. The PC's made Level 2 and next time we find out what's behind door number 3.
So I decided that I'd frame this whole session as part of one big skill challenge that would encompass the exploration of the Prison Mines of Pelor. (By the way, if you think that being sentenced to work in mines underground in the service of the god of sunshine seems overly harsh then perhaps you'd do well to remember that the clergy of Pelor think that only those of pure heart are deserving of basking in the glory of His radiance.)
So right out of the gate, Astavian makes a Dungeoneering check to try to see if they can find a likey way that will lead them out of the mines (remember that they need to be going UP out of the mists, hopefully to the top of this plateau where it isn't poisonous). He rolls pretty crappy (see if you spot a trend there) and instead finds a dead end that vaguely resembles a natural cavern. There is a fluttering of wings above and some Stirges attack.
Now my players have hated Stirges for years. It's really not all that hard to hate a creature that combines all the worst features of a vampire bat and a mosquito. In a past campaign, the party Wizard Lightning Bolted the entire party in order to kill the Stirges that were attacking them. So they get right down to business slaughtering the four that are attacking them. And they were doing a pretty good job.
That's when the pair of Adult Kruthiks burst out of some stone rubble around the edges of the room. Those things were nasty. They dished out some major damage with those quills they fire and their claws are nothing to sneeze at either. The Paladin went down and then so did the Warlock but the Cleric got them back up into the fight, whereupon the Paladin went down again. It didn't help that Astavian (the Paladin) continued to offer up some of the worst rolls ever seen AND the PC's managed to spread the damage perfectly evenly between the two monsters rather than focus attacks on one of them. Mialain the Cleric was all over the place healing folks. And the Ranger was having to play Defender for a good chunk of this fight while the Paladin was unconscious. Anyway, they finally prevailed and took a much needed Extended Rest.
They resumed their exploration with Zanne the Warlock's player asking me if I'd let him roll a Religion Check in the Skill Challenge due to the place being part of a Temple of Pelor. Shockingly I said Yes and for good reason. She uncovered some very old runes in a wall written in Draconic. These claimed that Ryukaar would take vengeance on those who had wronged the Dragonborn or something like that. They also founds some bones that appeared to be from a Dragonborn's hand.
Pressing on looking for an exit they found themselves suddenly ambushed in a long, narrow corridor by these short, ill tempered, shadow lurking Mist Demons. Stat-wise these were...wait for it...
[sblock]Gnomes!
I'm a monster! Rawr![/sblock]
I took some minor liberties with their abilities to make things interesting. I got rid of their ability to turn invisible and replaced that with a kind of reactive fey-step encounter power that allowed them to Teleport 5 when hit. For their leader I gave him a really nifty power to replace the Arcanist's Dazzling Bolt. I called it Displacing Bolt and on hit it did a d6+4 Necrotic damage plus it did a secondary attack +4 vs. Will. If the Will attack hit then the target was Teleported 5 to wherever the caster wanted. If the Will attack missed then the target was still teleported but the target got to decide where. This made this combat pretty interesting from my perspective.
Most of the Mist Demons charged forward, right past the Paladin and got some shots in on the Warlock. When they got hit in turn by the PC's (for a considerable amount of damage I might add) they simply vanished. They had telepoted out of sight around a corner behind the party. The "Shadowcaster" and another lurker drew the PC's further up the long hallway before the initial group attacked from behind. They encountered Lord Harrix who got in some pretty good shots for a relative non-combatant, downing two of the foes before the rest of the PC's could come to his rescue. During the course of the battle the Warlock went unconscious as did the Paladin (but not before the Paladin rolled a bunch of really bad rolls). Once again the Cleric was instrumental in keeping them alive (it helps tremendously to have somebody that can do a successful Heal Check almost every time before you have to make those Death Saves).
They got themselves patched back together and located some wheel ruts for mine carts in the corridor ahead. They followed these uphill to a big vertical shaft with a spiral stair running around the inside and in the center was a sort of elevator with a big pulley. Astavian the Paladin pulled on the rope and brought down the elevator. They heard voices approaching from they way they'd come just before they began to haul themselves up in the elevator.
No sooner had they gotten away from the baddies below than they ran into some more above. Another "Shadowcaster" as well as a tougher warrior type Mist Demon were waiting for them at the top. The Shadowcaster nearly frightened the Warlock to death by using a power that shifted her out of the elevator basket and over the side. She caught herself and Mialain and Lord Herrix hauled her back in. But on the following round a Displacement Bolt yanked the Warlock out of the basket and onto the catwalk above a LONG drop. Just one round later the Shadowcaster rolled a recharge on the bolt and shot the Cleric with it this time. The Shadowcaster failed to hit the Will attack and thus Mialain got to pick where she wanted to end up...and she picked almost exactly where the Shadowcaster wanted her: Up on the catwalk with him and his sidekick.
A pitched battle ensued on the catwalk while Eshik the Ranger and Astavian got Lord Herrix up the elevator. Then Astavian ran to engage the Shadowcaster side of the fight while Eshik stayed behind to babysit Herrix and keep an eye out for the trio of pursuing lurker type Mist Demons who had been hurrying up the stairs. This was pretty classic case of "divide and conquer" with the PC's first finishing off the Shadowcaster, then the warrior type (whose attacks were shifting the Warlock dangerously close to the edge of the catwalk) and finally they made short work of the trio of Mist Demons who had chased them up the stairs.
A chamber they entered from a door off the catwalk took them into some kind of temple where there was a statue of a dragon made from the bones of some Dragonborn. It seemed to indicate that these Mist Demons worshipped some kind of dragon-thing that had to do with darkness. Around the neck of the statue hung a stylized dragon pendant that appeared to be very old and had traces of Pre-Cataclysm Wizardry upon it (which supposedly works somewhat differently than modern Wizardry). They also found a walled off exit with a small but very sturdy looking door with an iron bar across it. That appeared to be their only way out but they opted to take another Extended Rest before pressing on and we wrapped the session there.
***
I had a few goals for this session:
Work in another Skill Challenge
Make terrain a bigger factor in the battles
Use more varied types of combatants
I also decided I wanted to step up the difficulty and see how they managed since the last four fights were all ones that the Encounter Builder said were "Easy" (and they sure as hell didn't seem all that easy when I ran them).
This Skill Challenge was rather different in feel from my earlier effort. Because it was so spread out it felt like just a few individual skill checks. But on the other hand I LOVED the way this abstracted navigating the mines without me having to explain in detail which way they turned at every intersection. On the whole I think this was a success.
Terrain was a minor factor in the first fight and it was a major, major factor in the final fight. In the first battle there were some stone pillars that blocked lines of sight and had to be worked around. I'd also considered letting the Kruthiks burrow through one of them to collapse some rocks on a few of the PC's but I kind of forgot about that in the even and regardless they were doing just fine. The spiral staircase, elevator and the LONG drop in the final encounter added some tension that I really liked. The PC's had a fairly easy time of it compared to the first two since the bad guys were split up but the ever-present fear of falling was especially felt whenver the warrior Mist Demon would shift the Warlock over near the edge of the drop.
I liked the variety of the bad guys in each encounter. The Stirges and Kruthiks complimented each other but mostly dealt a lot of damage. The fight with the Mist Demons in the hallway was totally defined by the teleportation of the Mist Demons. That came off very cool to me because they would vanish and return after a few rounds. I LOVED how the Displacement Bolt worked in play. And that was especially cool in the final encounter the way the elevator and staircase interacted with the teleportation powers of the bad guys.
All told another fun session. The PC's made Level 2 and next time we find out what's behind door number 3.
vagabundo
Adventurer
Nice session, congrats!!
I was wondering if you had any more info about the skill challenge, from the summary it sounds like it is ongoing.
Were there more checks than was mentioned in the summary (I counted two)?
Did you tell your players it was a skill challenge (and did they care; I mean did it make a difference in how the acted)?
I'm haven't had many opportunities to run skill challenges as my players have been stuck down in the dungeons of KotS for the past 6-8 months <sigh>!!
Rel
Liquid Awesome
The Skill Challenge is over at this point. The party wanted to find a way through the mines and "up". Even though they are not all the way at the surface they have certainly gone up and there looks to be only one direction to proceed at this point. So mission accomplished.
Yes. There were several other Dungeoneering rolls and also an Athletics roll by Eshik the Ranger who was climbing up to the top of the passageway to look for vents or fissures that might lead to the surface. He didn't find any but he did detect a very faint breeze heading in one direction which they interpreted to mean that there must be an exit that way.
Yes I did. I don't perceive any real difference in how they act when I tell them there is a skill challenge. But I have helped them understand that it's just a slightly more formalized method of task resolution than we're used to.
My view of what skill challenges are really good at is the players identifying a desired outcome and, by virtue of their successes or failures, allowing me to provide some exposition between each roll that gets them closer to or further from the desired outcome. This is instead of narrating each and every step of the process.
These mines are a good example. This is a fairly huge complex of mines that were dug over the course of hundreds of years. One way of resolving how they might get "up and out" would be to describe (or, God forbid, draw) the pathway the PC's are taking. Each time they got to an intersection I could have them make a skill check of some sort to try and determine the best way to go to get out. The problem of course is that this isn't very interesting all by itself and it would take a lot of time. So by using the abstraction of the skill challenge I'm able to break this off into specific chunks. In this case the chunks went (more or less) like this:
Dungeoneering Check - Failed - Dead End + Combat Encounter (with no treasure!)
Religion Check - Success - Found ancient carvings containing a religious reference
Dungeoneering Check - Success - Proceed further along the right track
Athletics Check - Success - Pointed in the right direction again + Combat Encounter
Dungeoneering Check - Success - Proceed further along the right track and arrive in elevator room
Hopefully that makes sense.
I would encourage you to look for ways to incorporate skill checks (if not skill challenges) into your combats because I think it breaks up some of the "business as usual" tactics. I've had two fights now where some sort of skill roll or attribute check was necessary in the course of the fight and it made those fights much more interesting.
