D&D Lair Assault: Spiderkiller

[Morrus]

[news]A press release from WotC just dropped into my inbox. Wizards of the Coast has announced the latest D&D Lair Assault challenge, Spiderkiller, which has begun at participating hobby game stores across the country. A Wizards Play Network in-store program running through August 31, D&D Lair Assault: "Spiderkiller pits tactically-minded players against an ultimate, skill-testing challenge to defeat the fiercest enemies in a thrilling convention-style play setting." [/news]



D&D Lair Assault: Spiderkiller highlights include:

• Careening down the River Sargauth on a raft
• Descending down a whirlpool into the “Lost Level” of Undermountain
• Battling drow and spiders
• Facing an array of random effects in a chamber of mirrors and pillars

It’s time to gather your master tacticians and rules experts together to kick down the dungeon doors and begin the assault!

About D&D Lair Assault: Spiderkiller

Somewhere in the Lost Level of Undermountain, the fallen drow matron Shi’nayne is trying to open a way to the Demonweb. In this challenge, adventurers must brave the depths of Undermountain, onetime playground of the mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak, in order to stop her. If she succeeds, nothing will stop the Spider Queen and her armies from overwhelming Skullport, Waterdeep and the whole of Faerûn.

For this challenge, players create characters of 9th level, using any official 4th Edition D&D® products and materials. Additionally, D&D Fortune Cards™ can also be used during the challenge to give players an added edge. As with previous challenges, players gain awards and earn glory for their characters, up to a total of 200.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

It sounds like a cool combat event with a lot of exciting components.

However, this:

Spiderkiller pits tactically-minded players against an ultimate, skill-testing challenge to defeat the fiercest enemies in a thrilling convention-style play setting

and this:

It’s time to gather your master tacticians and rules experts together to kick down the dungeon doors and begin the assault!

Seem at odds with this:

Additionally, D&D Fortune Cards™ can also be used during the challenge to give players an added edge.

Master tacticians will have an edge...and/or people who spend a crapload of money on fortune cards.


Eh. Forgive me. It is this sort of situation that gives me distaste for the element of fortune cards and at the same time makes me feel that an otherwise cool event is ruined by fortune cards...unless there are regulations on them that I'm unaware of...e.g. you can buy 1 pack and must use that pack for the game...an element of randomness.

Otherwise, the element of skill seems to bow to the element of "I bought a whole bunch of really good cards and so will pwn this dungeon!"

 

[Alphastream]

A press release from WotC just dropped into my inbox.

Gaming stores received a little booklet (Rise of the Underdark Survival Guide)that covers the releases for Encounters and Lair Assault related to the Spider Queen arc. I incorporated the new information in the thread on D&D Organized Play options.

Eh. Forgive me. It is this sort of situation that gives me distaste for the element of fortune cards and at the same time makes me feel that an otherwise cool event is ruined by fortune cards...unless there are regulations on them that I'm unaware of...e.g. you can buy 1 pack and must use that pack for the game...an element of randomness.

I completely understand where you are coming from, but in practice it really isn't a big deal. The cards don't end up being a big deal. And, honestly, this season's are fairly decent on flavor, reflecting "drow treachery". I don't really care for them, though I use them from time to time to get a feel for how these things work - it helps me come up with ideas for organized play and also my home campaign, where I sometimes make my own (more flavorful, more personal) versions. (I'm the kind of DM that picks up anything and tries to find a use for it.)

Whether you use the cards in Lair Assault is totally optional and you won't feel a difference if you don't. Typically maybe half of the players might be using them. They often will share cards if you want to try them. Lair Assault has fun prestige rewards regardless of whether you truly finish and finishing is very unlikely to have anything to do with whether you bring the cards.

 

[hoshisabi]

Master tacticians will have an edge...and/or people who spend a crapload of money on fortune cards.

The best Fortune card is about on par with the power of a feat, usually even less powerful than that.

The deck construction rules are that you have to have an equal number of each of the three categories of card, and the rules for how you use them guarantees that you're rarely going to have the right card at the right time.

So, at BEST, you're looking at a once-maybe-twice-a-dungeon HALF a feat worth of power.

I admit, one time the fortune card was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered... but to tell the you truth, that one time that I had that card, I got it too early for it to be useful, so I stopped drawing new cards because, "Hey at least I know I'll use this one."

Having both run and played past Lair Assaults, the team working as a group and characters that dovetailed into each other were the key to victory. Lair Assault is one of those things where those people who scour through the optimization board and then SHARE the information have an advantage.

Despite saying all of that, we've had well optimized groups with good sets of cards fail quickly -- it has a good amount of random chance mixed with at-the-table-strategy that rules everything.

The first one, I think we could have beaten everything just by playing once or twice with the expectation of failure, and then optimize expressly for the last encounter and a method to bypass all of the encounters leading up to that. I suspect that a group could have beaten it in two or three turns with a well tuned group. Not enough time for you to fish for the right card.

I haven't read the newest one, but, trust me... you'll not gain much, if any, advantage by getting fortune cards. (And most of the fortune cards I've seen people play with were from buying a couple of packs, at most. The rest of them came from the free promos given out for playing D&D Encounters. I try my hardest to give those promos away, since they do no good sitting in a box, and they get people excited about playing. Something about cards with pictures makes people happy.)

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Well then, that's good news! I'm glad to hear the fortune cards are "fun addons" rather than "instawin buttons"!


Also, I was being sincere with the first part of my prior post. It does sound like a pretty exciting scenario.

 

[Taed]

Lair Assault: Spider Killer

There doesn't seem to be a Lair Assault: Spider Killer thread yet, so here we go...

This post is spoiler-free, but I imagine that the rest of the thread will not be.

Our group has played it twice so far, and failed both times, though we have gotten two characters into the third encounter each time. It's an excellent challenge and the second-best Lair Assault yet.

We've decided after the first attempt that we really need to avoid any combat, but we got "tied up" pretty quickly due to the black critters on the second encounter. The second time round, I played an Eladrin Rogue, which was useful, but there's still some tweaks that I need for the third attempt.

 

[Alphastream]

Well then, that's good news! I'm glad to hear the fortune cards are "fun addons" rather than "instawin buttons"!


Also, I was being sincere with the first part of my prior post. It does sound like a pretty exciting scenario.

I've been pretty impressed with the scenarios. I wasn't sure about the concept... I honestly didn't think it had legs. As with so many things, I was dead wrong.

I'm fortunate to playtest a bit. The Wizards team is active in making excellent changes to the good foundation provided by authors. They seem to have in-house playtesting as well, so it makes for a pretty smart process. Each Lair Assault has been different, making for very cool experiences. I think people will really dig the next Lair Assault as well, in part due to the cool story! And for judges, the maps are a really cool reward.

 

[Zuche]

Yeah, this one has a bit of a learning curve for people who played the previous seasons. I sat in as the healer on last night's session and was taken down by a few nifty tricks in the 8th round. The others came within a hair's breadth of a TPK, but they eventually rallied and turned it around. They didn't come close to winning, but all were still alive when we had to call it a night.

I know there are reservations about Fortune cards, but the player that got the most out of hers last night (surviving three rounds on her last hit point before she could finally trigger another healing surge) needed that break: she only rolled higher than a 4 on attacks or saving throws twice from rounds 6 to 20. Luck cuts both ways, and there just isn't any way to bribe dice. Even that wouldn't have been enough without some of the defensive resources she picked.

Great fun. I look forward to running it tomorrow.

 

[Taed]

We finally completed this Lair Assault on the third attempt.

The second encounter is where we get bogged down, largely due to the dazing from the Dark Mantles. On the first two attempts, only two PCs made it out of that encounter. On our third attempt, we did teleport into the better location, but still only three PCs made it out.

We ended up going into the final battle with 2.5 PCs, as one was blinded and slowed due to mirror effects. However, the Vampire mist thing did the bulk of the damage (dominating the main baddie every round).

So, we don't think that we're going to play it again, but it was certainly a good Lair Assault -- I'd say the second-best after the first one.