So today I ran the 26th level Dungeon Delve for a group of friends who used to play together often but haven't so much recently. Three of us have a lot of 4e experience. One other has a good bit of RPG experience but not much 4e and one is a casual player who knows enough to have fun.
The party consisted of a Diva Bard, a Diva Avenger, a Dragonborn Sorcerer, and a Dwarf Battleraging fighter. They were tweaked pre-gens.
We ran the 26th level delve with the black dragon at the end. I had some roleplay chances in the beginning and three quick skill challenges to get across the Shadowfell to the caverns underneath where the three battles take place.
I cut one of the five bad guys in the first room. The party had little trouble cutting them down, killing one of them in the second round and mopping up the others quickly. They lost few resources at this point.
In the second battle, the party had little problem dispatching the ghouls which never got much of a chance to do anything. They won initiative first and never had much of a chance to use the Deathknight's power. That cleared the room quickly. The specters did little damage, much of which was resisted by the battlerager who seems to have a constant resist 17 damage including temp hitpoints gained. After about an hour, the death giant was the only one standing. I was shocked by his low to-hit score and his small amount of damage given his size. I ended up halving his hitpoints and doubling his damage which at least got an eyebrow raise from the dwarf fighter who was shocked to actually become bloodied.
The final battle was the big one. I removed the rakshasa since I changed the plot to be a battle between Orcus and the Raven Queen. The three swams of shadowravens sought to get combat advantage while the dragon flew above and stood on the rocky walls to beat up on folks.
That's when the bucket was put over his head (stun, daze, slow, stun again, knock prone). This went on for about five or six rounds. Still, the party hadn't done much damage to him. I had him finally up but he seemed trapped by difficult terrain (stupid me, he's on the rocks and isn't effected by difficult terrain). He breathed once with little effect, stunned them once, and tried biting folks but got little distance. Being marked by the fighter prevented him from doing much.
At about 500 points down, I was tired, my group was tired, and I gave them a skill challenge to convince the dragon that leaving the Raven Queen was a mistake and this Orcus was full of hot air. It worked (Eventually) and we called it a day.
Looking back, I didn't play the dragon well at all, but there's little one can do against all of those status effects that eat up the first ten rounds of combat. They don't do much since he has the hitpoints to take it, only seeming to steal about an hour of the battle until the party as down to at-wills and the dragon can finally stand and breathe. By that time my players were ready to be done, though.
It would have been nice to house rule the dragon a bit with the following:
- Stun = daze
- Daze = losing a standard action(he can still tail sweep for example)
- Immune to being knocked prone (he's a dragon)
- 1/2 to 2/3 hps
- Max damage on breath weapon, double damage on crits (fear the breath)
One other factor I didn't use was the cloud of darkness. What prevents a black dragon from using this and beating the hell out of people while sustaining it forever? Permanent +5 to defenses seems pretty powerful to me.
Overall, it would have been better if I cut this down to two battles instead of three. I would have had more time to play the dragon correctly and would have been less tired.
Still, what I really want is a faster 30 minute combat at any level in the game. How can I do that?
The party consisted of a Diva Bard, a Diva Avenger, a Dragonborn Sorcerer, and a Dwarf Battleraging fighter. They were tweaked pre-gens.
We ran the 26th level delve with the black dragon at the end. I had some roleplay chances in the beginning and three quick skill challenges to get across the Shadowfell to the caverns underneath where the three battles take place.
I cut one of the five bad guys in the first room. The party had little trouble cutting them down, killing one of them in the second round and mopping up the others quickly. They lost few resources at this point.
In the second battle, the party had little problem dispatching the ghouls which never got much of a chance to do anything. They won initiative first and never had much of a chance to use the Deathknight's power. That cleared the room quickly. The specters did little damage, much of which was resisted by the battlerager who seems to have a constant resist 17 damage including temp hitpoints gained. After about an hour, the death giant was the only one standing. I was shocked by his low to-hit score and his small amount of damage given his size. I ended up halving his hitpoints and doubling his damage which at least got an eyebrow raise from the dwarf fighter who was shocked to actually become bloodied.
The final battle was the big one. I removed the rakshasa since I changed the plot to be a battle between Orcus and the Raven Queen. The three swams of shadowravens sought to get combat advantage while the dragon flew above and stood on the rocky walls to beat up on folks.
That's when the bucket was put over his head (stun, daze, slow, stun again, knock prone). This went on for about five or six rounds. Still, the party hadn't done much damage to him. I had him finally up but he seemed trapped by difficult terrain (stupid me, he's on the rocks and isn't effected by difficult terrain). He breathed once with little effect, stunned them once, and tried biting folks but got little distance. Being marked by the fighter prevented him from doing much.
At about 500 points down, I was tired, my group was tired, and I gave them a skill challenge to convince the dragon that leaving the Raven Queen was a mistake and this Orcus was full of hot air. It worked (Eventually) and we called it a day.
Looking back, I didn't play the dragon well at all, but there's little one can do against all of those status effects that eat up the first ten rounds of combat. They don't do much since he has the hitpoints to take it, only seeming to steal about an hour of the battle until the party as down to at-wills and the dragon can finally stand and breathe. By that time my players were ready to be done, though.
It would have been nice to house rule the dragon a bit with the following:
- Stun = daze
- Daze = losing a standard action(he can still tail sweep for example)
- Immune to being knocked prone (he's a dragon)
- 1/2 to 2/3 hps
- Max damage on breath weapon, double damage on crits (fear the breath)
One other factor I didn't use was the cloud of darkness. What prevents a black dragon from using this and beating the hell out of people while sustaining it forever? Permanent +5 to defenses seems pretty powerful to me.
Overall, it would have been better if I cut this down to two battles instead of three. I would have had more time to play the dragon correctly and would have been less tired.
Still, what I really want is a faster 30 minute combat at any level in the game. How can I do that?
