Joshua Randall
Legend
... that also occupies a square, can take OAs, may have a damaging or hindering Aura, etc. etc. etc.
*evil grin*
D&D 4E Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)
*evil grin*
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
My favourite thing with minions is to use higher level minions. Still suffers the minion failure clause whenever an auto-damaging power comes out, but until that point the level 8 minion troglodyte soldiers were nasty - the PCs had to work hard to hit them, and they hit the party easily, so although they went down on a hit, it gave the PCs some nerves in the mean time!
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
I thought it was a well-balanced, exciting battle, and didn't feel any grind at all, personally. Some tactical notes:
- It took us a little while to really figure out how the damage-reassignment was working among the myconids. (Was it distance based? Could all of them do it, or only some? Did each myconid have a hit-point-battery buddy? Were they also regenerating?) As a result, we spent about half the battle failing to pick up on the most important tactic: kill the minions first! Once we (especially Strontium) started wiping out the minions, things turned around pretty fast.
- We started out the battle surrounded, and it stayed that way. Had we been on the ball, we could have all endured some OA's but dashed to a more defensible position. As it was the bad guys had us effectively ringed after the first round.
- The dice contributed to the down-then-up nature of the combat, as early on our rolls were terrible, while Piratecat rolled something like 3 crits out of 5 attacks. In the second half of the combat, Doc and Bramble went nuts with the 20's. It was a thing of beauty.
- Have I mentioned how much we love Temporary Hit Point? Both Toiva and Bramble were handing them out left and right, and it saved a lot of collective bacon. And they don't use up healing surges!
- The addition of Bramble (a shaman) as a 6th PC, along with her Spirit Companion, gave us many more things to keep track of than we had been used to. (A 5-person team with 3 strikers and no leader did the have the advantage of simplicity!) Starting next game we're going to try using a whiteboard to help reduce confusion.
- I appreciated that Piratecat didn't give the monsters too many state-inducing powers, given that there were 27 of them! Early on, one of them used a hypnotizing power on Logan that took away his standard action for the turn. At the time, I thought: this is going to one tedious battle if they can all do that, but fortunately that wasn't the case.
- Piratecat has instructed us all to have a power card that specifically says “Do something cool!” I'm living proof that that was a good call. One of the little minions had been spitting spores at my shins for a round or two, and I noticed the “cool action” card while flipping through the stack. With my daily and encounter powers all burned up, I decided I would pick up the minion and use it as a club against one of the non-minion myconids. Piratecat ruled (quickly) that it was Dex vs. Reflex to pick up the minion, and (I think) a basic melee attack with a medium-level damage rating when swinging it. The dice were with me and it worked like a charm. Very satisfying!
- Doc Caldwell, for the first time in the campaign, hit with his Level 1 Daily. Yeah, we're 4th level. Finally getting a good chance to wade into melee with two weapons, he was a damage-dealing machine – reminding us that the rogues aren't the only strikers in the group.
- It took us a little while to really figure out how the damage-reassignment was working among the myconids. (Was it distance based? Could all of them do it, or only some? Did each myconid have a hit-point-battery buddy? Were they also regenerating?) As a result, we spent about half the battle failing to pick up on the most important tactic: kill the minions first! Once we (especially Strontium) started wiping out the minions, things turned around pretty fast.
- We started out the battle surrounded, and it stayed that way. Had we been on the ball, we could have all endured some OA's but dashed to a more defensible position. As it was the bad guys had us effectively ringed after the first round.
- The dice contributed to the down-then-up nature of the combat, as early on our rolls were terrible, while Piratecat rolled something like 3 crits out of 5 attacks. In the second half of the combat, Doc and Bramble went nuts with the 20's. It was a thing of beauty.
- Have I mentioned how much we love Temporary Hit Point? Both Toiva and Bramble were handing them out left and right, and it saved a lot of collective bacon. And they don't use up healing surges!
- The addition of Bramble (a shaman) as a 6th PC, along with her Spirit Companion, gave us many more things to keep track of than we had been used to. (A 5-person team with 3 strikers and no leader did the have the advantage of simplicity!) Starting next game we're going to try using a whiteboard to help reduce confusion.
- I appreciated that Piratecat didn't give the monsters too many state-inducing powers, given that there were 27 of them! Early on, one of them used a hypnotizing power on Logan that took away his standard action for the turn. At the time, I thought: this is going to one tedious battle if they can all do that, but fortunately that wasn't the case.
- Piratecat has instructed us all to have a power card that specifically says “Do something cool!” I'm living proof that that was a good call. One of the little minions had been spitting spores at my shins for a round or two, and I noticed the “cool action” card while flipping through the stack. With my daily and encounter powers all burned up, I decided I would pick up the minion and use it as a club against one of the non-minion myconids. Piratecat ruled (quickly) that it was Dex vs. Reflex to pick up the minion, and (I think) a basic melee attack with a medium-level damage rating when swinging it. The dice were with me and it worked like a charm. Very satisfying!
- Doc Caldwell, for the first time in the campaign, hit with his Level 1 Daily. Yeah, we're 4th level. Finally getting a good chance to wade into melee with two weapons, he was a damage-dealing machine – reminding us that the rogues aren't the only strikers in the group.
Storminator
First Post
I made a series of tokens for my cleric. When I use Righteous Brand, I hand the ally the Righteous Brand +4 token, which tells them when to hand it back. I have a couple of tent cards I can stand up for things that affect all allies. I find it helpful.
PS
Blackjack
First Post
Thanks for the tip -- we'd been discussing the idea of making a bunch of tents, in hopes that'd help.
A thought occurred to me. PCat, you mentioned that your shaman player wanted to play a halfling swashbuckler, but there were all ready two rogues.
She could have done this with a Valorous bard. Halflings have high charisma, she's in melee swinging her rapier about, and she's a leader.
I know it's a bit late, but it's a thought just in case the player wants to switch characters at some point.
She could have done this with a Valorous bard. Halflings have high charisma, she's in melee swinging her rapier about, and she's a leader.
I know it's a bit late, but it's a thought just in case the player wants to switch characters at some point.
Iceman
First Post
I've had that go both ways.
"Save the temple - no stealing from it"
"Drive the cultists from the Lord's family tomb - no one's using This anymore."
btw - HI!
-VIC
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Does your group have a good tent-maker between them?
chintznibbles
Explorer
Very neat thread. I almost can't believe I read all of it, but I also didn't want it to end... you guys should play more often!
Going back a page or so, I like the idea of giving out the Expertise type feats to players, but I generally make them earn it. I'm fond of giving people special feat-like training as a quest reward. In my last campaign (which was 3.5e, but I imagine I can continue the trend), several players wound up getting combat style training from an aging monk they rescued. It wound up meaning different things to different characters, but +1 to hit was one of the options.
Of course, the training doesn't automatically update itself when they hit the next tier, but that just means they get to find another trainer to school them in the advanced secrets of the Way of the Tiger.
Going back a page or so, I like the idea of giving out the Expertise type feats to players, but I generally make them earn it. I'm fond of giving people special feat-like training as a quest reward. In my last campaign (which was 3.5e, but I imagine I can continue the trend), several players wound up getting combat style training from an aging monk they rescued. It wound up meaning different things to different characters, but +1 to hit was one of the options.
Of course, the training doesn't automatically update itself when they hit the next tier, but that just means they get to find another trainer to school them in the advanced secrets of the Way of the Tiger.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Hey, Vic! So good to see you. It's been forever; give me a holler if you're headed to GenCon this year.
Blargney, as tempted as I am to answer with "no, and it's making them anxious. They're two tents," I'll refrain so as to not make anawful awesome pun. We'd probably just hand-write them, unless anyone has a better suggestion.
Chintznibble, I'm really flattered you made this your first post! Welcome, and thanks. I like the idea of tying expertise to events in the game world. It's a good idea that works well. I regret not doing that, I think, but it's lost flavor that I can bring in a different way. Knowing me, I'd worry about getting sidetracked.
See, I have.. err.. a sort of iffy ability to predict how long a plot thread will run. That's partially why my "I think we'll wrap up in about six years" Defenders of Daybreak campaign finished in sixteen instead. Since I'm planning on an actual six year campaign (five levels a year, one level every five game sessions or so), I'm restricting slightly my normally far-flung plot hooks. It's harder than I'd thought.
Blargney, as tempted as I am to answer with "no, and it's making them anxious. They're two tents," I'll refrain so as to not make an
Chintznibble, I'm really flattered you made this your first post! Welcome, and thanks. I like the idea of tying expertise to events in the game world. It's a good idea that works well. I regret not doing that, I think, but it's lost flavor that I can bring in a different way. Knowing me, I'd worry about getting sidetracked.
See, I have.. err.. a sort of iffy ability to predict how long a plot thread will run. That's partially why my "I think we'll wrap up in about six years" Defenders of Daybreak campaign finished in sixteen instead. Since I'm planning on an actual six year campaign (five levels a year, one level every five game sessions or so), I'm restricting slightly my normally far-flung plot hooks. It's harder than I'd thought.
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