Also, this is more specific to 4e itself but when we got to the one combat we had it...worked very differently than I was used to.
He started initiative while we were sneaking towards a barn and farm house we kept making stealth checks and going through initiative with no enemies seeing us. Which was weird to me, our normal group doesn't roll until actual combat starts, so we can do surprise rounds and have the Rogue's class feature work.
There are a good 12 minis on the map. He hints that there are more inside both buildings that we can't see. But mentions that it is a stormy night. I blurt out that the storm should cover our approach. He gives me 25 bonus XP for figuring out that storms make noise because he likes when players figure out the implications of his descriptions and pay attention to the details.
I suggest we take out the guards and then run into the barn where we know the slaves are being stored. The other people in the group look at me with incredulous looks...like....why would they attack the guards? Instead it is suggested that we tie a rope to crossbow bolt, use it to climb to the second floor of the barn, sneak in, and let the slaves out without talking anyone.
I argue that if the guards hear us, we'll just get stuck in the barn and surrounded. I'm outvoted.
Then the DM tells me that I stop some intelligent zombies who don't spot us, but obviously smell us. One of them mumbles something about "the living" and they start wandering in our direction. They get to about 3 squares away from us, and we are still 15 or so squares from the barn. I figure we should take them out quickly now, so the people in the barn won't hear it. I figure that's why the DM made such a big deal about the storm being loud...he wanted us to realize we could take out the group of zombies without alerting anyone else.
I figure they must be minions or something, because we already have a good 16 enemies on the board. Turns out they are all soldiers. I eventually figure out that there are NO minions on the board. We are fighting 16 normal creatures. WAY beyond what we should be able to handle.
But, all the enemies on the board hear us the second we start fighting the zombies. I get yelled at by the party for choosing to fight when they wanted to sneak in. They say I've doomed the party.
Then combat starts. Here's where it gets a bit confusing for me. I like the Assassin class. I started with a 20 Dex, because there was no good reason not to. I have a +2 weapon. I'm a pretty good striker. After the first round or two, the DM starts getting really mad at me because I'm "way too cheap". He finds the idea that I can teleport at will as a minor action and use my assassin shroud as a free action plus move AND attack each round horribly broken. It doesn't seem all that powerful to me compared to what I'm used to.
Then I find out what I'm comparing against. The wizard has an 18 Int at level 5. He does not have a magic implement at all. Despite the DM giving us the standard magic items(level, level+1, level-1). He misses everyone in the area of effect when he uses fireball after this conversation:
Wizard: "I fireball and roll a 1...Wow...that sucks. It does nothing."
DM: "See, that's why we have a house rule that you can use an action point to reroll an attack roll, one bad roll in this stupid system ruins the game. It's likely that it'll be a TPK now."
Me: "Except he should attack the other 5 people in the area of effect."
DM: "Right...forgot about that."
Wizard: "I miss them ALL...that sucks...I only have +4 to hit."
Me: "+4? Umm, that sounds wrong. You're level 5. You should have at least +8."
Wizard: "No...18 int, +4."
Me: "Plus, you get 2 for being level 5...and you get your implement bonus"
Wizard: "I don't have a magic implement. So, +6."
DM: "That still misses them all. See, still a bad system."
Me: "Except that fireball does half damage on a miss."
Wizard: "It does? I can't see that....oh...there it is."
DM: "In that case, 3 of them die."
Also, this is the first DM I've played under that tells us no numbers at all. He recorded all of our defenses in advance....but I never saw him look at them once the whole combat. I think he was just estimating.
Still, the enemies rounds went like this: "This round the Assassin takes 9, and the Artificer takes 3." We never took any status effects at all...the entire combat. We weren't knocked prone, pushed or pulled. But the DM didn't consult a MM the whole battle either. Except once. About round 8 or so, he picked up a MM and turned to a page and said "Oh, I was off by 1 on their AC. No big deal." then put the book away again.
Either way, we had 3 people unconscious and dying at the end of the combat. The remaining 8 guys apparently decided to run then instead of finishing us off.
Right near the end of the combat, I decided to use the 5th level Assassin daily that summons a Shadow Duplicate of yourself and it can attack as a minor action every round for 3 or 6 damage if the creature has a shroud. The DM thought this was the cheapest, most broken power ever because it could move 5 squares whenever I took a move action. Apparently, the other players did too, since after the game the Wizard's player posted a message saying that he thought my character was kind of cheap and he felt pity on the DM because he had to deal with me.
It still completely baffles me. I specifically didn't take Weapon Focus or Expertise because I decided if they were a group of roleplayers, I would avoid any feats that helped me in combat. They thought I was way too powerful.
) but didn't understand the concept of actually using the results of resolution mechanics. After some heavy handed sessions we peeked at his adventure notes. It was a script! We read language such as:
