Kerrick
First Post
I hooked up with some local gamers through my FLGS here, and we sat down for our first game today. I had a blast - for playing with a bunch of guys I'd never met, the game ran very well, and everyone got along famously. By the end of 5 hours, we were working together well already. I think a large part of it was because we all had 15+ years of experience, except the DM's son (see below), who's only 15 and fairly new to gaming, but he's sharp - he had really good ideas and is a good player.
We've got the DM, Glen, and four players - myself, playing a wizard; Dan, the cleric of Olidammara; Larry, the half-elf ranger; and Glen's son Merlin (yes, his name is Merlin, or Merlon, I'm not sure), playing the halfling rogue.
I just wanted to post this thread to add my thoughts on issues I noticed during play. Our DM, Glen, is an old-school gamer; he's been playing since 1979. Core rules only, though his world has psionics and he'll introduce them later; if it's not on your sheet, you don't have it; no powergaming. I love it.
My observations:
* Wizards definitely do not get enough spells. I had 13 Int (because I didn't know that if your highest score was 13, you could reroll; someone pointed that out to me halfway through the session, so I decided to wait till next time to fix it), so only three 0-levels and two 1st. I took dancing lights, flare, ray of frost, mage armor, and magic missile.
We had four encounters the first game day - a ghoul in an alley, a large spider, an animated object (sheet animated by evil energy), and a ghost (which was really our fault - we incurred its wrath and really should have run away). I had to be very careful to budget my spell allotment - I tossed off (in order): the flare on the ghoul (failed), the mage armor before we went into an area that literally reeked of evil, the magic missile on the spider, and the ray on the animated object. Unlimited cantrips would have been very useful - ray of frost and acid splash at the least, or disrupt undead (since we were going up against undead. Being able to do 1d6 vs. undead as a ranged touch every round might be a bit much, though...
Rather than buy a crossbow, I went with daggers and a shortspear - I figured it fit my archetype better. The problem was, it didn't really help in combat (I knew it wouldn't, but I wanted the challenge) - I was kind of forced into melee with the animated sheet, so I tried grappling it (yeah... more on that below). It actually worked, though.
* Grappling... if it didn't require an opposed grapple check to do everything, it wouldn't be so bad (but then, we were grappling things the same size). The sheet kept yanking itself out of my grasp (11 Str), but the halfling and cleric helped dogpile it and we literally tore it apart. Everyone looked at me funny and laughed when I said I would drop my spear and try to grapple the sheet, but it worked! Far too many rolls, though.
We actually had TWO instances of grappling; the second game day, we climbed down into the sewers. I slipped coming down the ladder, blew my Ref save, and fell into the sewage channel, where an octopus promptly latched onto me (it was a port town). I managed to break free and the others hauled me out. I was kind of odd - the cleric jumped in after me, then joined the grapple by grabbing ME and attempting to aid me. Unfortunately, the DM had everyone make separate grapple checks instead of one check with aid another bonuses.
* AoOs: They weren't that big an issue, IMO. Once, when I moved into the ghost's threatened area to attack her skeleton, the DM incorrectly called one on me, but it made sense, so I nodded and let it go. I've always thought someone entering the space, not leaving, should incur it.
* Feats: There are not enough of those either, but I already knew that too. Blech. I eventually settled on Spell Focus: Evocation and Toughness (which, for a L1 mage, is actually useful - it could've saved me in the fight with the ghost, had I had the brains to retreat).
* Survivability: Pretty good, actually. I'm not sure if it was because Glen was running a pregen adventure, or because of good luck, but we did well enough - after four encounters, I was reduced to -4 only after tangling with the ghost, and the ranger took some bruises. The second day, we had to call the game midway through the first combat (shop was closing), but the cleric (who tried to tank in a chain shirt) got beat down by three thugs, and the rogue is also near 0 hp (IIRC). I think as long as the DM knows what he's doing, and the players are smart enough to know when to RUN, they can survive. A fifth PC would be useful, though...
We've decided on playing every two weeks, which kind of sucks, but I'm really looking forward to it for the first time in a long time. I got burned out with my old group, and I'd hoped it wasn't just the game, but it wasn't - I just hated playing with my old DM's wife.
We've got the DM, Glen, and four players - myself, playing a wizard; Dan, the cleric of Olidammara; Larry, the half-elf ranger; and Glen's son Merlin (yes, his name is Merlin, or Merlon, I'm not sure), playing the halfling rogue.
I just wanted to post this thread to add my thoughts on issues I noticed during play. Our DM, Glen, is an old-school gamer; he's been playing since 1979. Core rules only, though his world has psionics and he'll introduce them later; if it's not on your sheet, you don't have it; no powergaming. I love it.
My observations:
* Wizards definitely do not get enough spells. I had 13 Int (because I didn't know that if your highest score was 13, you could reroll; someone pointed that out to me halfway through the session, so I decided to wait till next time to fix it), so only three 0-levels and two 1st. I took dancing lights, flare, ray of frost, mage armor, and magic missile.
We had four encounters the first game day - a ghoul in an alley, a large spider, an animated object (sheet animated by evil energy), and a ghost (which was really our fault - we incurred its wrath and really should have run away). I had to be very careful to budget my spell allotment - I tossed off (in order): the flare on the ghoul (failed), the mage armor before we went into an area that literally reeked of evil, the magic missile on the spider, and the ray on the animated object. Unlimited cantrips would have been very useful - ray of frost and acid splash at the least, or disrupt undead (since we were going up against undead. Being able to do 1d6 vs. undead as a ranged touch every round might be a bit much, though...
Rather than buy a crossbow, I went with daggers and a shortspear - I figured it fit my archetype better. The problem was, it didn't really help in combat (I knew it wouldn't, but I wanted the challenge) - I was kind of forced into melee with the animated sheet, so I tried grappling it (yeah... more on that below). It actually worked, though.
* Grappling... if it didn't require an opposed grapple check to do everything, it wouldn't be so bad (but then, we were grappling things the same size). The sheet kept yanking itself out of my grasp (11 Str), but the halfling and cleric helped dogpile it and we literally tore it apart. Everyone looked at me funny and laughed when I said I would drop my spear and try to grapple the sheet, but it worked! Far too many rolls, though.
We actually had TWO instances of grappling; the second game day, we climbed down into the sewers. I slipped coming down the ladder, blew my Ref save, and fell into the sewage channel, where an octopus promptly latched onto me (it was a port town). I managed to break free and the others hauled me out. I was kind of odd - the cleric jumped in after me, then joined the grapple by grabbing ME and attempting to aid me. Unfortunately, the DM had everyone make separate grapple checks instead of one check with aid another bonuses.
* AoOs: They weren't that big an issue, IMO. Once, when I moved into the ghost's threatened area to attack her skeleton, the DM incorrectly called one on me, but it made sense, so I nodded and let it go. I've always thought someone entering the space, not leaving, should incur it.
* Feats: There are not enough of those either, but I already knew that too. Blech. I eventually settled on Spell Focus: Evocation and Toughness (which, for a L1 mage, is actually useful - it could've saved me in the fight with the ghost, had I had the brains to retreat).
* Survivability: Pretty good, actually. I'm not sure if it was because Glen was running a pregen adventure, or because of good luck, but we did well enough - after four encounters, I was reduced to -4 only after tangling with the ghost, and the ranger took some bruises. The second day, we had to call the game midway through the first combat (shop was closing), but the cleric (who tried to tank in a chain shirt) got beat down by three thugs, and the rogue is also near 0 hp (IIRC). I think as long as the DM knows what he's doing, and the players are smart enough to know when to RUN, they can survive. A fifth PC would be useful, though...
We've decided on playing every two weeks, which kind of sucks, but I'm really looking forward to it for the first time in a long time. I got burned out with my old group, and I'd hoped it wasn't just the game, but it wasn't - I just hated playing with my old DM's wife.
