JamesonCourage
Adventurer
So, tonight I ran my first 4e session, and it went really well. Long play report to follow, which took place over about six hours of play time.
The party consisted of four PCs (more information at: [URL="http://[URL="[url]http://this[/url] thread""]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?340430-JamesonCourage-Is-Starting-A-4e-Game-Looking-For-Pointers[/url]): a Warpriest (Cleric), a Knight (Fighter), a Sha'ir (Wizard), and a Monk. But, since a lot of people might already know some basics about the party makeup / backstory from the other thread, I'll dive into how the session went.
The party started out being brought together by a dwarven cleric of Kord, and a revenant seer of The Raven Queen. They jointly asked the party (who had never met one another, save the Warpriest and the Knight) to deal with an issue, offering to pay them once the task was finished. The revenant spoke up first, speaking mainly to the Warpriest, saying that there were necromancers on a nearby mountain, and that they were raising undead, and that The Raven Queen wanted it stopped. The Warpriest had already come to the same conclusion as of the moment he heard "undead", and was on board with helping.
The cleric of Kord said he was sponsoring pretty much everything, and offered an Everlasting Provisions basket for free if they took the mission (though he said he'd hunt them down personally if they ran off with it). He also said that he had communed with Kord, and that Kord promised to bless one of his followers at the end of this, based on whoever did best. The blessing immediately got the buy-in of the Monk and the Knight.
The Wizard agreed to go, since she was looking to learn about this world that she had been summoned to (she's a follower of Ioun). She liked the idea of getting some money (maybe to sink into her Ritual Caster feat), too.
So, the party set out nearly immediately. I introduced a (slightly simplified, based on pemerton's document) complexity 4 skill challenge (10/3) to find the mountain / climb to the highest peak right off the bat. The players had never been involved in one (included the two who had played 4e prior to this), but I had a single sheet printed up with some basic rules on it, as well as a space for dice that I used to mark successes / failures and keep track of their advantages. While they bumped into problems early on (attracting the attention of wild animals), they did a pretty good job (and even negated a failure later on, rather than adding to a success), and ended up taking it with only 1 failure (two PCs of their choice lost 1 healing surge). This ended them at the higher end of the peak they needed to head towards. The players were definitely looking to engage the fiction after each check, too, which was very nice; for example, the Wizard used Arcana to look for any magical traces of the necromancers, and since she rolled so high, she noticed that there was traces of necromancy, necrotic forces, and cold magic. This allowed her to give the party 4 cold resistance at times later on (through her class ability), which ended up being very helpful. They also noticed markings outside caves that the necromancers were using, they found various religions markings (Tiamat, Vecna, and Orcus... the last one really motivating the Warpriest), etc. The players really took to engaging with the game, but also enjoyed the mechanics and the resource management (advantages, using new skills, assisting someone else, etc.).
While near the high end, they heard something (through the actions of the stealthy gnome Monk), and the Monk discovered it was undead coming along near a cliff-side. They immediately started planning to fight at the thinnest point (since there was seven enemies and only 4 of them). The Wizard used Arcana to attempt to magically prepare a bottle of wine into a bomb, but failed the check. They were preparing a second bottle when the enemies got too close, and then battle commenced.
The battle involved 4 undead orcs (minions), 2 necromancers (standard artillery), and an undead ogre (elite brute). They dealt with the minions quickly enough (though the ogre killed one himself by throwing it at them), and the artillery started to become a nuisance with their magic (if they hit their target, they could make that target see one undead as non-threatening for 1 turn or until that undead attacked them). The main focus quickly became the undead ogre, though, and after a couple of hits and him not even being bloodied, they started to use their encounter powers on him (though the Knight rolled a 3 or less for his attack on four different occasions in this first combat; still, his defender aura was good). The ogre eventually went down, and they quickly finished off the necromancers.
After looting the corpses (some money and a couple of healing potions), they continued on, and found markings for a cave (they noticed these markings outside of caves the necromancers were using during the skill challenge, so they knew they were on the right track). They encountered an ice wall, and an Arcana check revealed it could easily be melted. They did so (via the fire Wizard), and the creatures on the other side immediately jumped to fight them.
This combat took place inside a cave, with a large fire pit in the middle. It had a very experienced orc warrior (an elite soldier with reach out to 2 squares), 2 necromancers (standard artillery), and 4 orc zombies (minions). Once again, they cleared out most of the minions within a couple rounds (the Wizard is good at that!), but one survived to round 4, maybe. They definitely congregated around the orc warrior, and he kept using forced movement to try to shove them into the fire; I say "trying to" because the damn dwarf Fighter has the ability to lessen the forced movement by 1, and the Warpriest was smart enough to keep shifting away to 2 squares after attacking (though the orc warrior would move him back with his attacks on his round, setting him up again). They were impressed with how tough he was, but the Wizard took down one of the necromancers before they took him down, and the last necromancer stood no chance against them.
They looted (more gold and 2 healing potions) the bodies after checking the room and taking a breather. This fight, like the combat before it, had seen some of them drop fairly low, and the Warpriest definitely stretched his healing powers out as much as possible during the combat. They checked the other side of the room (another ice wall), but concluded via Arcana that it was highly resistant to damage of all types. There was a puzzle written into the wall, with two outs written into the wall via various arcane symbols (which they identified): one option let one of them get possessed for a single hint (which would cost 1 healing surge); the second option let them bypass the wall completely, but take two healing surges each. However, the players didn't know what the costs of the outs were, and took their time looking over the wording of the puzzle.
Amanda (the player of the Monk) wanted to use a skill to solve the puzzle, but I told her that no skill would. She asked if she could use Insight to "read between the lines", which I allowed, and her character worked out that the top option (the puzzle bit) was the only one that wouldn't hurt them. When the players focused on that, the player of the Warpriest figured the puzzle out soon after, and the door opened without any cost to them. They seemed happy that they had solved the puzzle (which probably took 10-15 minutes total), and move down a short corridor to another ice wall. The Wizard checked the wall, and used Arcana to open it (closing the other door behind them, which she knew would happen).
Inside was a powerful necromancer (a controller solo... stats and room layout posted in the other thread). He quickly began to gather power from a portal to the Shadowfell that was in front of him, and so we rolled initiative. The Monk and Fighter wasted no time engaging him on the ice (the Fighter wanted to destroy the ice mirrors in the first turn, too, but didn't), but the Warpriest and the Wizard stayed back to magically study the mirrors and fire pits (though the Wizard attacked him, too).
The fight went on about how I expected; the necromancer teleported once, summoned a few minions, and attacked through one of the ice mirrors. They players collectively showed fear when I used his second action point; they were legitimately scared when I used his third. However, the Wizard and Warpriest PCs picked up on the fact that destroying the mirrors gave him a temporary power boost, but he could only absorb one mirror per turn. So, by the third round, there were no mirrors left, and he had only gained 2 more action points. He unloaded them all pretty quickly, and he focused on damaging the Monk and Fighter (they were the most damaged, and he wanted to keep them down).
Both the Monk and the Fighter dropped at various points (both got one strike against them for death saving throws), three out of four healing potions were used, and the fight had a lot of good tension. In the end, though, the players prevailed, and the necromancer was killed (though the Monk was down).
Instead of having a breather, though, I immediately announced that the portal to the Shadowfell was now out of control, and that we were entering another skill challenge (complexity 4 again). The Warpriest used a healing potion (Potion of Cure Light Wounds) on the fallen Monk, bringing her back up for the new skill challenge.
The players jumped in, and immediately started engaging the fiction. They even started using encounter powers, like the Monk flying (literally) and attacking the portal (which had started to solidify), which I gave bonuses for (I gave a +4 for using an encounter power, I think). They quickly wracked up two failures; the first drained 1 healing surge from two of them, their choice; the second drained the other two. As the Monk had none to spare, she took damage equal to her surge value, and dropped again. Since it was necrotic energy from the portal damaging people, the Fighter announced that he wanted to get between her and the energy and soak up as much as he could; I let him roll Endurance, and he succeeded, and with the use of an advantage, I let him reverse the failure (it didn't add a success, but it brought the Monk back into the skill challenge and out of dying).
They made good progress, and soon ended with the Monk getting the last success (with Thievery to "disarm" the portal like she might do to a magic trap, after it had been weakened by being attacked). The portal closed, the players relaxed, and the party sighed with relief. They had successfully avoided interacting with the Shadowfell to any meaningful degree! (This seemed an appropriate thematic challenge to me for level 1 characters; "avoid interacting with the Shadowfell.")
They took a short rest, healed up as much as they could (looting the necromancer revealed another healing potion that was given to the Monk immediately), and decided to give the magic item to the Wizard (a Robe of Useful Items). When they were just about ready to head out, a kobold entered with two large dogs, asking where "the rest of them were." The Monk almost attacked but decided not to (possibly since she was at 10 HP and had no surges left). The kobold was ready to fight, but they talked him down. (I had planned on this being a combat, but it was getting late, and they rolled well, so I let them talk him down, but gave the XP out anyways).
The kobold was looking to kill the necromancers, and especially any other kobolds he found. They didn't really ask him why, but they liked that he told them to come to him if they found kobolds so he could kill them. He made his way out, and they followed him for a bit. The Warpriest noticed that the kobold had been marked by The Raven Queen to live (he could see some "marked to live / marked to die" bits on people ever since The Raven Queen had brought him back), and made a note of the kobold.
The players made their way down part of the mountain, found a nice cave (a Dungeoneering check from the first skill challenge provided a good place on their way back), and they finally took an extended rest. As of that point, the Monk had 10 HP and 0 surges, the Fighter had 31 HP and 0 surges, the Warpriest had 27 HP and 4 surges, and the Wizard had 28 HP and 4 surges. They felt really beat up, but seemed proud to have done as much as they did. They continued on, and returned to the city without incident.
They spoke once again with the cleric of Kord as well as the seer of The Raven Queen. The cleric gave them the promised gold, and said that after he communed with Kord, he knew that one of them would be blessed when he touched them, but he didn't know who it would be. He touched both, and the Fighter was blessed (Kord's Relentlessness, alternate reward).
Amanda (the player of the Monk) was pretty disappointed, but I assured her that this doesn't mean she can't be blessed, too (and I have tentative plans to give her the Kord's Mighty Strength alternative reward, which I think she'll be quite pleased with for her small-sized Monk). Out of game, I chose to bless the Fighter with the reward because he can benefit more from the second wind power (since he can use it as a minor action as a dwarf), and the other powers will likely help him as the defender. I also couldn't give both rewards out, since I had to skip the level 3 reward (as there are only 4 PCs), and I'm following the treasure guidelines pretty carefully right now.
The revenant seer apologized for having nothing worthy to give, but said that he was well-respected in certain circles, and told them to come to him if he needed anything, and he would put in a good word for them. He then parted ways with the party (and the dwarven cleric). The cleric stayed behind to drink with the party (which the dwarven fighter quite enjoyed), and we basically ended the session there.
Since we were just starting out, I had given each player a personal minor quest that fit their character at the start of the session. Each PC finished their quest, and I counted them as finishing a major quest for killing the powerful necromancer. By the end of our session, they had completed two complexity 4 skill challenges, completed one puzzle, completed three combats (and talked their way out of one), finished four minor quests, and finished a major quest. All told, I'm pretty sure that was 1,000 XP, but if not, it's close enough, and I told them they leveled up (which they were very happy about, and excited for level 2 abilities).
In the end, the players happily surprised me. They were quick to engage the fiction during skill challenges (I skipped giving information with Arcana at one point during the Shadowfell portal skill challenge, and I had three players barking at me for info!), they seemed to engage the NPCs (though we'll delve more into that next session, I'm sure), and they worked together pretty well in combat (especially the second and third combat). The Warpriest thinks the Monk is too squishy and is trying to get her to back off somewhat, but I think he'll manage to take care of her, as they got through a pretty full "adventuring day", rough though it may have been (milestones seem like they're strong motivation for the players, too).
So, all I can say (haha, yeah right) is that I had a lot of fun, they did, too, and we're planning on playing again when we've got free time. I know I'll be looking into some more stuff for them, but now that our little introductory adventure is out of the way (while we all adapt to the rules and/or roleplaying after 10+ years [for two of them]), I'm not sure where they'll go or what they'll do. I guess I'll be winging it a lot more than this first session, but that's fine; that's my natural element. I guess I'll just be learning how to do that in 4e D&D now, and be having fun with it, right alongside my other group and my own RPG.
To everyone who gave advice in the other thread, another thank you to you all. I appreciate it
The party consisted of four PCs (more information at: [URL="http://[URL="[url]http://this[/url] thread""]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?340430-JamesonCourage-Is-Starting-A-4e-Game-Looking-For-Pointers[/url]): a Warpriest (Cleric), a Knight (Fighter), a Sha'ir (Wizard), and a Monk. But, since a lot of people might already know some basics about the party makeup / backstory from the other thread, I'll dive into how the session went.
The party started out being brought together by a dwarven cleric of Kord, and a revenant seer of The Raven Queen. They jointly asked the party (who had never met one another, save the Warpriest and the Knight) to deal with an issue, offering to pay them once the task was finished. The revenant spoke up first, speaking mainly to the Warpriest, saying that there were necromancers on a nearby mountain, and that they were raising undead, and that The Raven Queen wanted it stopped. The Warpriest had already come to the same conclusion as of the moment he heard "undead", and was on board with helping.
The cleric of Kord said he was sponsoring pretty much everything, and offered an Everlasting Provisions basket for free if they took the mission (though he said he'd hunt them down personally if they ran off with it). He also said that he had communed with Kord, and that Kord promised to bless one of his followers at the end of this, based on whoever did best. The blessing immediately got the buy-in of the Monk and the Knight.
The Wizard agreed to go, since she was looking to learn about this world that she had been summoned to (she's a follower of Ioun). She liked the idea of getting some money (maybe to sink into her Ritual Caster feat), too.
So, the party set out nearly immediately. I introduced a (slightly simplified, based on pemerton's document) complexity 4 skill challenge (10/3) to find the mountain / climb to the highest peak right off the bat. The players had never been involved in one (included the two who had played 4e prior to this), but I had a single sheet printed up with some basic rules on it, as well as a space for dice that I used to mark successes / failures and keep track of their advantages. While they bumped into problems early on (attracting the attention of wild animals), they did a pretty good job (and even negated a failure later on, rather than adding to a success), and ended up taking it with only 1 failure (two PCs of their choice lost 1 healing surge). This ended them at the higher end of the peak they needed to head towards. The players were definitely looking to engage the fiction after each check, too, which was very nice; for example, the Wizard used Arcana to look for any magical traces of the necromancers, and since she rolled so high, she noticed that there was traces of necromancy, necrotic forces, and cold magic. This allowed her to give the party 4 cold resistance at times later on (through her class ability), which ended up being very helpful. They also noticed markings outside caves that the necromancers were using, they found various religions markings (Tiamat, Vecna, and Orcus... the last one really motivating the Warpriest), etc. The players really took to engaging with the game, but also enjoyed the mechanics and the resource management (advantages, using new skills, assisting someone else, etc.).
While near the high end, they heard something (through the actions of the stealthy gnome Monk), and the Monk discovered it was undead coming along near a cliff-side. They immediately started planning to fight at the thinnest point (since there was seven enemies and only 4 of them). The Wizard used Arcana to attempt to magically prepare a bottle of wine into a bomb, but failed the check. They were preparing a second bottle when the enemies got too close, and then battle commenced.
The battle involved 4 undead orcs (minions), 2 necromancers (standard artillery), and an undead ogre (elite brute). They dealt with the minions quickly enough (though the ogre killed one himself by throwing it at them), and the artillery started to become a nuisance with their magic (if they hit their target, they could make that target see one undead as non-threatening for 1 turn or until that undead attacked them). The main focus quickly became the undead ogre, though, and after a couple of hits and him not even being bloodied, they started to use their encounter powers on him (though the Knight rolled a 3 or less for his attack on four different occasions in this first combat; still, his defender aura was good). The ogre eventually went down, and they quickly finished off the necromancers.
After looting the corpses (some money and a couple of healing potions), they continued on, and found markings for a cave (they noticed these markings outside of caves the necromancers were using during the skill challenge, so they knew they were on the right track). They encountered an ice wall, and an Arcana check revealed it could easily be melted. They did so (via the fire Wizard), and the creatures on the other side immediately jumped to fight them.
This combat took place inside a cave, with a large fire pit in the middle. It had a very experienced orc warrior (an elite soldier with reach out to 2 squares), 2 necromancers (standard artillery), and 4 orc zombies (minions). Once again, they cleared out most of the minions within a couple rounds (the Wizard is good at that!), but one survived to round 4, maybe. They definitely congregated around the orc warrior, and he kept using forced movement to try to shove them into the fire; I say "trying to" because the damn dwarf Fighter has the ability to lessen the forced movement by 1, and the Warpriest was smart enough to keep shifting away to 2 squares after attacking (though the orc warrior would move him back with his attacks on his round, setting him up again). They were impressed with how tough he was, but the Wizard took down one of the necromancers before they took him down, and the last necromancer stood no chance against them.
They looted (more gold and 2 healing potions) the bodies after checking the room and taking a breather. This fight, like the combat before it, had seen some of them drop fairly low, and the Warpriest definitely stretched his healing powers out as much as possible during the combat. They checked the other side of the room (another ice wall), but concluded via Arcana that it was highly resistant to damage of all types. There was a puzzle written into the wall, with two outs written into the wall via various arcane symbols (which they identified): one option let one of them get possessed for a single hint (which would cost 1 healing surge); the second option let them bypass the wall completely, but take two healing surges each. However, the players didn't know what the costs of the outs were, and took their time looking over the wording of the puzzle.
Amanda (the player of the Monk) wanted to use a skill to solve the puzzle, but I told her that no skill would. She asked if she could use Insight to "read between the lines", which I allowed, and her character worked out that the top option (the puzzle bit) was the only one that wouldn't hurt them. When the players focused on that, the player of the Warpriest figured the puzzle out soon after, and the door opened without any cost to them. They seemed happy that they had solved the puzzle (which probably took 10-15 minutes total), and move down a short corridor to another ice wall. The Wizard checked the wall, and used Arcana to open it (closing the other door behind them, which she knew would happen).
Inside was a powerful necromancer (a controller solo... stats and room layout posted in the other thread). He quickly began to gather power from a portal to the Shadowfell that was in front of him, and so we rolled initiative. The Monk and Fighter wasted no time engaging him on the ice (the Fighter wanted to destroy the ice mirrors in the first turn, too, but didn't), but the Warpriest and the Wizard stayed back to magically study the mirrors and fire pits (though the Wizard attacked him, too).
The fight went on about how I expected; the necromancer teleported once, summoned a few minions, and attacked through one of the ice mirrors. They players collectively showed fear when I used his second action point; they were legitimately scared when I used his third. However, the Wizard and Warpriest PCs picked up on the fact that destroying the mirrors gave him a temporary power boost, but he could only absorb one mirror per turn. So, by the third round, there were no mirrors left, and he had only gained 2 more action points. He unloaded them all pretty quickly, and he focused on damaging the Monk and Fighter (they were the most damaged, and he wanted to keep them down).
Both the Monk and the Fighter dropped at various points (both got one strike against them for death saving throws), three out of four healing potions were used, and the fight had a lot of good tension. In the end, though, the players prevailed, and the necromancer was killed (though the Monk was down).
Instead of having a breather, though, I immediately announced that the portal to the Shadowfell was now out of control, and that we were entering another skill challenge (complexity 4 again). The Warpriest used a healing potion (Potion of Cure Light Wounds) on the fallen Monk, bringing her back up for the new skill challenge.
The players jumped in, and immediately started engaging the fiction. They even started using encounter powers, like the Monk flying (literally) and attacking the portal (which had started to solidify), which I gave bonuses for (I gave a +4 for using an encounter power, I think). They quickly wracked up two failures; the first drained 1 healing surge from two of them, their choice; the second drained the other two. As the Monk had none to spare, she took damage equal to her surge value, and dropped again. Since it was necrotic energy from the portal damaging people, the Fighter announced that he wanted to get between her and the energy and soak up as much as he could; I let him roll Endurance, and he succeeded, and with the use of an advantage, I let him reverse the failure (it didn't add a success, but it brought the Monk back into the skill challenge and out of dying).
They made good progress, and soon ended with the Monk getting the last success (with Thievery to "disarm" the portal like she might do to a magic trap, after it had been weakened by being attacked). The portal closed, the players relaxed, and the party sighed with relief. They had successfully avoided interacting with the Shadowfell to any meaningful degree! (This seemed an appropriate thematic challenge to me for level 1 characters; "avoid interacting with the Shadowfell.")
They took a short rest, healed up as much as they could (looting the necromancer revealed another healing potion that was given to the Monk immediately), and decided to give the magic item to the Wizard (a Robe of Useful Items). When they were just about ready to head out, a kobold entered with two large dogs, asking where "the rest of them were." The Monk almost attacked but decided not to (possibly since she was at 10 HP and had no surges left). The kobold was ready to fight, but they talked him down. (I had planned on this being a combat, but it was getting late, and they rolled well, so I let them talk him down, but gave the XP out anyways).
The kobold was looking to kill the necromancers, and especially any other kobolds he found. They didn't really ask him why, but they liked that he told them to come to him if they found kobolds so he could kill them. He made his way out, and they followed him for a bit. The Warpriest noticed that the kobold had been marked by The Raven Queen to live (he could see some "marked to live / marked to die" bits on people ever since The Raven Queen had brought him back), and made a note of the kobold.
The players made their way down part of the mountain, found a nice cave (a Dungeoneering check from the first skill challenge provided a good place on their way back), and they finally took an extended rest. As of that point, the Monk had 10 HP and 0 surges, the Fighter had 31 HP and 0 surges, the Warpriest had 27 HP and 4 surges, and the Wizard had 28 HP and 4 surges. They felt really beat up, but seemed proud to have done as much as they did. They continued on, and returned to the city without incident.
They spoke once again with the cleric of Kord as well as the seer of The Raven Queen. The cleric gave them the promised gold, and said that after he communed with Kord, he knew that one of them would be blessed when he touched them, but he didn't know who it would be. He touched both, and the Fighter was blessed (Kord's Relentlessness, alternate reward).
Amanda (the player of the Monk) was pretty disappointed, but I assured her that this doesn't mean she can't be blessed, too (and I have tentative plans to give her the Kord's Mighty Strength alternative reward, which I think she'll be quite pleased with for her small-sized Monk). Out of game, I chose to bless the Fighter with the reward because he can benefit more from the second wind power (since he can use it as a minor action as a dwarf), and the other powers will likely help him as the defender. I also couldn't give both rewards out, since I had to skip the level 3 reward (as there are only 4 PCs), and I'm following the treasure guidelines pretty carefully right now.
The revenant seer apologized for having nothing worthy to give, but said that he was well-respected in certain circles, and told them to come to him if he needed anything, and he would put in a good word for them. He then parted ways with the party (and the dwarven cleric). The cleric stayed behind to drink with the party (which the dwarven fighter quite enjoyed), and we basically ended the session there.
Since we were just starting out, I had given each player a personal minor quest that fit their character at the start of the session. Each PC finished their quest, and I counted them as finishing a major quest for killing the powerful necromancer. By the end of our session, they had completed two complexity 4 skill challenges, completed one puzzle, completed three combats (and talked their way out of one), finished four minor quests, and finished a major quest. All told, I'm pretty sure that was 1,000 XP, but if not, it's close enough, and I told them they leveled up (which they were very happy about, and excited for level 2 abilities).
In the end, the players happily surprised me. They were quick to engage the fiction during skill challenges (I skipped giving information with Arcana at one point during the Shadowfell portal skill challenge, and I had three players barking at me for info!), they seemed to engage the NPCs (though we'll delve more into that next session, I'm sure), and they worked together pretty well in combat (especially the second and third combat). The Warpriest thinks the Monk is too squishy and is trying to get her to back off somewhat, but I think he'll manage to take care of her, as they got through a pretty full "adventuring day", rough though it may have been (milestones seem like they're strong motivation for the players, too).
So, all I can say (haha, yeah right) is that I had a lot of fun, they did, too, and we're planning on playing again when we've got free time. I know I'll be looking into some more stuff for them, but now that our little introductory adventure is out of the way (while we all adapt to the rules and/or roleplaying after 10+ years [for two of them]), I'm not sure where they'll go or what they'll do. I guess I'll be winging it a lot more than this first session, but that's fine; that's my natural element. I guess I'll just be learning how to do that in 4e D&D now, and be having fun with it, right alongside my other group and my own RPG.
To everyone who gave advice in the other thread, another thank you to you all. I appreciate it
