the Jester
Legend
I got to play, rather than DM, 5e last night! It was just an introductory session, with one (nasty) combat and a bunch of roleplaying, but it was awesome fun. I'm playing a cleric with the intention to multiclass like crazy.
D&D General How Was Your Last Session?
Nebulous
Legend
Our Forge of Fury was cancelled last minute last night, we resume next week, but the other Roll20 campaign, the PCs met Strahd in the Borovian graveyard! He summoned some dire wolves, they beat em pretty easy, he taunted them and called to Ireena, but she's like eff off Strahd. So he effs off. For now. We ended right before Madame Eva reads their fortunes, so next session we start with that.
hawkeyefan
Legend
My last session of D&D was as a player. I had a lot of fun because my friends and I almost always have fun when we play.
But the adventure itself was mediocre, at best. It largely consisted of the PCs acting in support of a DM PC, and we simply went from one encounter to the next with very little actual choice at any point.
It was meant to be a kind of interlude, and to only last a few sessions, so I think that may have been a big part of it? That the DM felt he had an agenda he had to accomplish.
He’s a very good DM overall. I think it was the short term nature of the adventure and the fact that a couple players didn’t make it that kind of threw things off. I don’t think he realized how much he should have adjusted for fewer players, and so he had to have the NPCs contribute much more, so it felt like the PCs were just along for the ride.
We’re playing again tonight, but back to a more traditional campaign, so I’m expecting a better experience.
But the adventure itself was mediocre, at best. It largely consisted of the PCs acting in support of a DM PC, and we simply went from one encounter to the next with very little actual choice at any point.
It was meant to be a kind of interlude, and to only last a few sessions, so I think that may have been a big part of it? That the DM felt he had an agenda he had to accomplish.
He’s a very good DM overall. I think it was the short term nature of the adventure and the fact that a couple players didn’t make it that kind of threw things off. I don’t think he realized how much he should have adjusted for fewer players, and so he had to have the NPCs contribute much more, so it felt like the PCs were just along for the ride.
We’re playing again tonight, but back to a more traditional campaign, so I’m expecting a better experience.
I played my second quarantine session today. It was a short (about 2 hours) session over Skype. We played a one-off of Wuthering Heights.
The details are here, so I won't repeat them. The short version is that one of the PCs - a puritan clergyman called Neville - died early in the session in a confrontation in a socialist bookshop in 19th century Soho. But his ghost lingered to cause trouble for the other PC, socialist bookseller Hamish MacGregor. Hamish was unsuccessful in love (twice) and ended up burning down the bookshop in despair with himself inside it.
The details are here, so I won't repeat them. The short version is that one of the PCs - a puritan clergyman called Neville - died early in the session in a confrontation in a socialist bookshop in 19th century Soho. But his ghost lingered to cause trouble for the other PC, socialist bookseller Hamish MacGregor. Hamish was unsuccessful in love (twice) and ended up burning down the bookshop in despair with himself inside it.
Nebulous
Legend
This is a little how I'm feeling about CoS; it's really good, but awfully scripted. I haven't felt like the PCs had much choice yet in what happens, beyond superficial choices. They did Death House, met the NPCs they're supposed to meet, are asked to take Ireena so they do, it's all expected to happen. I hope they don't feel too railroaded, and soon, after the tarot reading, the kingdom will drastically open up with new choices of where to go. Vallaki itself is a hotbed of trouble that could go many different directions.
hawkeyefan
Legend
That adventure starts off with a little checklist, but then it kind of opens wide after that. It does have a kind of looming end point of the PCs going to the Castle to face off with Strahd, but I think that’s fine.
I think it really depends on the DM and how they play all that middle territory, and how they incorporate Strahd into it along the way.
On another note, the session my group played last night was much batter than the one I last posted about. So I was happy about that. I’m gonna write off the railroady aspect of the last one as a by-product of it being a short term sidetrek style adventure.
cmad1977
Hero
Vallaki was crazy for my players and definitely went ways I didn’t expect
Running a heavily, heavily modified version of Dragon of Icespire Peak for 5 D&D noobs. This was our 11th session. The characters are 4th level.
This session had a lot of big reveals for the overall plot.
It took place in the abandoned dwarven stronghold of Axeholm, which is now occupied by orcs. The characters ended up there after spotting an orc ambush and quickly coming up with a harebrained scheme to fool the orcs. The half-orc paladin pretended that all the other characters were his prisoners. Except for the druid -- who, wildshaped into a bear, pretended to be his animal companion. The orcs fell for the bluff and suggested the half-orc follow them back to Axeholm. The half-orc agreed to it. So the players went from facing 6 orcs to facing 60 orcs.
At Axeholm, it was revealed that the half-orc's father is the ruthless orc chieftan of the tribe, and the tribe's two champions are his half-brothers. The characters also learned that the orcs want a magical artifact from dragon's hoard in Icespire Peak -- the Bloodspear. With it, the chieftan can rally all the orc tribes in the region and raze Phandalin. The half-orc claimed he had received a vision from Gruumsh to recover the Bloodspear and return it to Axeholm.
Additionally, the orcs are allied with a secret cult in Phandalin -- Abbathor, the dwarven god of greed. Revik Ironfist -- head of the Miner's Exchange and the most powerful dwarf in Phandalin -- is the cult's leader. He arrived at Axeholm with several dwarven warriors, expecting that tonight he would march with the orcs to Icespire Peak, slay the dragon, and claim the hoard. However, the orc chieftan pitted the dwarven cultists against the player characters. Whoever survived would be his ally.
The characters were fighting with literally one hand tied behind their backs because two of them were posing as prisoners and could not fight without breaking the deception. The half-orc paladin defeated Revik Ironfist but was knocked out by the dwarven warriors. Fortunately the druid, wildshaped into a brown bear, was able to kill all four warriors.
Next session they'll wrap up in Axeholm and return to Phandalin for a final confrontation against the cult of Abbathor.
This session had a lot of big reveals for the overall plot.
It took place in the abandoned dwarven stronghold of Axeholm, which is now occupied by orcs. The characters ended up there after spotting an orc ambush and quickly coming up with a harebrained scheme to fool the orcs. The half-orc paladin pretended that all the other characters were his prisoners. Except for the druid -- who, wildshaped into a bear, pretended to be his animal companion. The orcs fell for the bluff and suggested the half-orc follow them back to Axeholm. The half-orc agreed to it. So the players went from facing 6 orcs to facing 60 orcs.
At Axeholm, it was revealed that the half-orc's father is the ruthless orc chieftan of the tribe, and the tribe's two champions are his half-brothers. The characters also learned that the orcs want a magical artifact from dragon's hoard in Icespire Peak -- the Bloodspear. With it, the chieftan can rally all the orc tribes in the region and raze Phandalin. The half-orc claimed he had received a vision from Gruumsh to recover the Bloodspear and return it to Axeholm.
Additionally, the orcs are allied with a secret cult in Phandalin -- Abbathor, the dwarven god of greed. Revik Ironfist -- head of the Miner's Exchange and the most powerful dwarf in Phandalin -- is the cult's leader. He arrived at Axeholm with several dwarven warriors, expecting that tonight he would march with the orcs to Icespire Peak, slay the dragon, and claim the hoard. However, the orc chieftan pitted the dwarven cultists against the player characters. Whoever survived would be his ally.
The characters were fighting with literally one hand tied behind their backs because two of them were posing as prisoners and could not fight without breaking the deception. The half-orc paladin defeated Revik Ironfist but was knocked out by the dwarven warriors. Fortunately the druid, wildshaped into a brown bear, was able to kill all four warriors.
Next session they'll wrap up in Axeholm and return to Phandalin for a final confrontation against the cult of Abbathor.
Asisreo
Patron Badass
It went pretty rough for the PC's. We lost two characters. The party was all level 4.
I had made a random encounter table and made a list of combat encounters. Most of them were relevant but I added a Shambling Mound just to spice the table up. I wasn't particularly fond of the encounter as I was scared it would just be a solo brute beatdown on the Mound's side but I gave it a 5% proc rate on a 15% chance to proc a random encounter every hour. I basically wasn't expecting it to show up for the adventure, and especially not as the first random encounter.
They ran into it at the worst possible location, too. They were near a mist-covered lake and I gave them the option to quickly hop across the stones or go around. Going around would takes 2 hours (very large lake, ooblong though) but they chose to do that. They proc'd the Shambling Mound on the last hour. I introduced it as just a plain mound of plant mass and the monk went to inspect it.
Now, I play monsters with their goal in mind. And the mound's only goal is nourishment. It can only ever eat one enemy at a time and if it consumes one, it's good for a while. Basically, it needn't continue the fight once it engulfs one member. It happened to be near a lake and it has a swim speed. It now had an escape route that I didn't anticipate when making the encounter. That's unfortunate for them, because now it has a really good strategy.
First round, it attempts to slam the monk twice. Both miss, luckily, but the players severely underestimated it. The monk spends his turn "watering the plant" thinking that it isn't a big deal. The Ranger then lights a torch because she thought the plant would be hurt by fire...it is resistant. The wizard casts Dragon's Breath on his familiar and uses Fire as the damage because he also thought the plant would be hurt by fire...it is resistant. The moon druid casts"Ice Knife" because he thought since fire wasn't working, the plant would be hurt by cold...it is resistant. Well, great, not alot of damage and the monk is playing around with it.
The Mound recognizes the ranger as a bigger threat as it was close and the monk had yet to do damage. It makes two slam attacks, both hit and one crit. The Ranger is now unconscious and engulfed. They make the first save, fail the con save meaning a death fail and the monster slams them (with advantage) while she's inside the Mound's body. That outright kills her. He shambles to the lake and begin to swim. The Monk and Druid (now in wildshape which is important) are chasing after. The monk uses his spear to attack and the druid is a direwolf biting. The Mound realizes the monk is chasing it in an area where the mound has the advantage and changes targets. He lets go of the Ranger's corpse and slam attacks the monk twice. Both hit and one crit...again. The monk is now unconscious and engulfed.
Here's the tradgedy: the druid attempts to healing word the monk to give him a fighting chance. I remind him he must revert back to his original form. Then, this is really depressing, I remind him that reverting takes his BA and he can't cast healing word. He never took cure wounds because he never expected to need it more than healing word. The druid instead grabs the Ranger's lifeless corpse and swims back to the surface, leaving the monk to be the Mound's dinner.
The fight was a "Hard" encounter and they only fought 2 medium encounters before with a short rest in-between. I wasn't expecting anyone to die, much less 2 party members. They did roll poorly during the fight and I rolled a crit at least once every round. They also underestimated it. It was some sad deaths but now they're bringing more characters to join whenever they have the opportunity.
This sucks for the survivors too because they are obviously down for manpower and now the ranger, the ticket for them to not get lost and not be in difficult terrain, has now died. They're close to the settlement they're trying to reach but they now run the risk of getting lost and taking longer.
I had made a random encounter table and made a list of combat encounters. Most of them were relevant but I added a Shambling Mound just to spice the table up. I wasn't particularly fond of the encounter as I was scared it would just be a solo brute beatdown on the Mound's side but I gave it a 5% proc rate on a 15% chance to proc a random encounter every hour. I basically wasn't expecting it to show up for the adventure, and especially not as the first random encounter.
They ran into it at the worst possible location, too. They were near a mist-covered lake and I gave them the option to quickly hop across the stones or go around. Going around would takes 2 hours (very large lake, ooblong though) but they chose to do that. They proc'd the Shambling Mound on the last hour. I introduced it as just a plain mound of plant mass and the monk went to inspect it.
Now, I play monsters with their goal in mind. And the mound's only goal is nourishment. It can only ever eat one enemy at a time and if it consumes one, it's good for a while. Basically, it needn't continue the fight once it engulfs one member. It happened to be near a lake and it has a swim speed. It now had an escape route that I didn't anticipate when making the encounter. That's unfortunate for them, because now it has a really good strategy.
First round, it attempts to slam the monk twice. Both miss, luckily, but the players severely underestimated it. The monk spends his turn "watering the plant" thinking that it isn't a big deal. The Ranger then lights a torch because she thought the plant would be hurt by fire...it is resistant. The wizard casts Dragon's Breath on his familiar and uses Fire as the damage because he also thought the plant would be hurt by fire...it is resistant. The moon druid casts"Ice Knife" because he thought since fire wasn't working, the plant would be hurt by cold...it is resistant. Well, great, not alot of damage and the monk is playing around with it.
The Mound recognizes the ranger as a bigger threat as it was close and the monk had yet to do damage. It makes two slam attacks, both hit and one crit. The Ranger is now unconscious and engulfed. They make the first save, fail the con save meaning a death fail and the monster slams them (with advantage) while she's inside the Mound's body. That outright kills her. He shambles to the lake and begin to swim. The Monk and Druid (now in wildshape which is important) are chasing after. The monk uses his spear to attack and the druid is a direwolf biting. The Mound realizes the monk is chasing it in an area where the mound has the advantage and changes targets. He lets go of the Ranger's corpse and slam attacks the monk twice. Both hit and one crit...again. The monk is now unconscious and engulfed.
Here's the tradgedy: the druid attempts to healing word the monk to give him a fighting chance. I remind him he must revert back to his original form. Then, this is really depressing, I remind him that reverting takes his BA and he can't cast healing word. He never took cure wounds because he never expected to need it more than healing word. The druid instead grabs the Ranger's lifeless corpse and swims back to the surface, leaving the monk to be the Mound's dinner.
The fight was a "Hard" encounter and they only fought 2 medium encounters before with a short rest in-between. I wasn't expecting anyone to die, much less 2 party members. They did roll poorly during the fight and I rolled a crit at least once every round. They also underestimated it. It was some sad deaths but now they're bringing more characters to join whenever they have the opportunity.
This sucks for the survivors too because they are obviously down for manpower and now the ranger, the ticket for them to not get lost and not be in difficult terrain, has now died. They're close to the settlement they're trying to reach but they now run the risk of getting lost and taking longer.
humble minion
Legend
It was ... close. We're 3rd level, playing Storm King's Thunder, and we left off last session mid-combat, in a brawl with a bunch of giant-vulture-mounted cultists on a cloud giant's flying tower. We'd knocked most of them down previously and were looking forward to a quick clean-up. but noooo. A couple of bad saving throws on our part against hold person, and a cult leader who rolled natural 20s twice consecutively on his death saves, and things got very dicey indeed. My paladin was down to 3hp and had a couple of giant vultures coming at him, and the cleric rolled snake eyes on his cure wounds spell to heal me, the archer ranger was held, the spellthief was getting beaten down by an invisible stalker and nobody had any magic weapons to hit it back.
We got lucky. One vulture got wrathful smited and fled, the cloud giants' griffin pets rolled well and cleaned up the others. and the druid wildshaped to a giant spider, webbed the invisible stalker and kept it pinned down for an improbable amount of time thanks to some terrible saving throws on its part (pity it was immune to her poison).
The 'quick clean-up' of our in-progress combat took most of the session and left us almost flattened. And we captured the cult leader alive and our cloud giant host washed his hands of the guy, so now he's our responsibility. And for a paladin, briskly chucking him off the flying tower isn't really an option. I hope we find ourselves somewhere with some semblance of lawful authority i can hand him over to some time soon.
A couple of bad rolls and it could easily have been a party wipe. We badly need some more area effect damage in the party.
We got lucky. One vulture got wrathful smited and fled, the cloud giants' griffin pets rolled well and cleaned up the others. and the druid wildshaped to a giant spider, webbed the invisible stalker and kept it pinned down for an improbable amount of time thanks to some terrible saving throws on its part (pity it was immune to her poison).
The 'quick clean-up' of our in-progress combat took most of the session and left us almost flattened. And we captured the cult leader alive and our cloud giant host washed his hands of the guy, so now he's our responsibility. And for a paladin, briskly chucking him off the flying tower isn't really an option. I hope we find ourselves somewhere with some semblance of lawful authority i can hand him over to some time soon.
A couple of bad rolls and it could easily have been a party wipe. We badly need some more area effect damage in the party.
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