I played 4E today. I died.

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Oh my god, you died!

How did your character do?

(Thanks, I'll get my coat)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

What level? I've read these kinds of complaints about D&D3 character generation, but I still don't understand what takes so long.

Well, actually, I do know what takes so long: tweaking. I've seen people create, ready for play, a mid-level D&D3 character in 10 minutes, and then spend hours over the following week tweaking it to perfectly fit their concept.

The tweaking is a crucial part of character generation. I could probably create a random Fighter in 10 minutes or something. But he would neither be "optimized" enough for your average Age of Worms campaign, nor interesting enough. Once I'd consider PrCs, things get worse.

The longest would probably be a wizard, since you have to calculate his spell acquisition cost (after selecting your spells in the first place).

Today was the first session of our new 4E campaign (after a summer of playtest sessions, a couple of which I played in and one of which I ran). While I've had enough experience with the system now, I think, to know I don't have any desire to run it, I will play it, mostly to be able to game with my friends.

What do you run usually?

That said, I had fun today. Fights seemed to take too long, still, but maybe that's because we are still getting used to the rules. in particular, we seemed to look up a lot of rules because we thought we knew what they did, but it was 3.x talking. there's a lot of things with the same or similar names, but very different.

Indeed. We're stumbling on saves and defenses from time to time... For example, yesterday the Halfling Rogue player assumed that his Halflings +5 vs Fear would apply to his defense...

 

[Obryn]

Glad you had a good time!

I've been pretty surprised at how often characters in my game have died or come close to dying. Two have actually bit it, but we've had a few situations where someone was only 1 or 2 hps away from dying from straight-up damage, and another few where someone failed 2 death saves but succeeded on the third...

-O

 

[Reynard]

There were no minions in the fight - just a couple of zombies, a couple grave hounds and some sort of infested-organ tossing boss monster. What killed me, above all, was the poorly played 2nd warlord in the party. That, and the explode-on-death damage from the spleen-tosser.

Again. Fun, not a ig deal. Sometimes "heroes" end up at the bottom of a shallow pit.

MR: I usually run the current edition of D&D. That, however, will no longer be the case and I'll be gearing up to run 2E soon.

 

[Henry]

You sound cool. I like any player that can lose a character and take it in his stride.

That's his AD&D roots showing.

 

[GlaziusF]

There were no minions in the fight - just a couple of zombies, a couple grave hounds and some sort of infested-organ tossing boss monster. What killed me, above all, was the poorly played 2nd warlord in the party. That, and the explode-on-death damage from the spleen-tosser.

Oh, that sounds like a corruption corpse. Did he screw up your melee attacks when you got close to him?

He's not boss-class unless he got some kind of extra build like a warlock class add-on or something, but he does have about 2 levels on the other monsters in that encounter.

 

[EATherrian]

That's his AD&D roots showing.

I learned that skill in Traveller myself, where you might not even make it out of character creation alive.

 

[Obryn]

I learned that skill in Traveller myself, where you might not even make it out of character creation alive.

Well, if you got greedy, yeah.

-O

 

[Lackhand]

My condolences to your clan.

Which of the party took your stuff? What was the rest of the party playing? What's your new character's motivation? How do you do reintroducing yourself to the party?

Man, this thread's just gonna moulder if all it consists of is a dead dwarf. Where's the rest of the party!

 

[Reynard]

My condolences to your clan.

Which of the party took your stuff? What was the rest of the party playing? What's your new character's motivation? How do you do reintroducing yourself to the party?

Man, this thread's just gonna moulder if all it consists of is a dead dwarf. Where's the rest of the party!

From the DM's recap email:

**********************
Party finally dropped the brainless zombies and closed with the corruption corpse. Having expended so much of itself in attacking the party, the corpse could not hope to stand long against the combined might of the Heroes of Kyrbishire. As it hurled more maggot-infested innards at Dorn, the mighty dwarf fell. Achilles charged into the fray, Medrash yelled at him to aid Dorn, instead Achilles threw his halberd into the undead, causing it explode in a burst of necrotic ooze. The maggots and infected blood seeped into Dorn's wounds, and his spirit joined his kin...

After ensuring that he was not infected, the Heroes wrapped Dorn's body as best they could, Jeffs and Hazim returned Dorn to town, Jeffs promised to return, the Heroes continued on.

Following the trail, the party saw at once where the undead came from... the cemetary...

Earth was freshly dug up, or rather pushed up from beneath, by many of the graves, and as the Heroes approached, their life force was sensed by these animatyed corpses. Zombies and skel;etons made theior way across the soft ground, Achilles quickly grew overwhelmed and fell to his his knees several times. But it was not just the zombies and skeletons overwhelming the party, from the rear of the cemetary a Deathlock Wight attacked the Heroes with grave bolts and when they made their way across this grave battlefield, his claw attracks not only did damage but sucked the life from his targets...

But all would not be lost this day. The roar of a dragon, a cry to Bahamut came from behind the party. Evil was sensed by the local church to the Platinum Dragon, but only one was brave enough to investigate. Clad in gleaming armor, this cleric, this healer, this bane of undead charged into the fray, destroying several zombies and skeletons with the shear force of his will and his faith.

The wight had nowhere to go, immabolized by the party, he had to stay and fgight, but his power from beyond the grave was not enough...

The heroes searched the stone cairns and the tomb. Within the tomb they found a stairway leading down.....

Requiem for a Hero-

As the Heroes looked through Dorn's belongings, they found on item of note, a simple feather quill, carefully kept in a carved wooden scroll case. The parchment in the case had on it one poem...

Lucilla, My Love

I shall go fore
Into the world
Armored and armed
Life at risk
One day
Not just a rose
Pretty as your face
Or diamond
sparkles not
Much as your eyes
A fortress
A keep
To hold my
Posession most prized
You
who hold my heart.

Hazim delivered this to fair Ducilla.
She knew not the name of Dorn, knew him only from afar, though stories told by others revealed him to have been a happy soul, quick with a drinking song, quicker with a drink for a thirsty friend, and anyone thirsty was a friend.

The farmer Jonas came to look at Dorn's body. His middle son, stood behind him, and as he approached Jonas stopped him "There is nothing there you should see."
"Who is it father."
"A Hero, one who saved us."

And Jonas offered to bury Dorn on his family plot, to show him respect, so that his family would know why that winter there was food on their table.

100 XP Quest completed.
*********************