4E - A Grognard Gives it a Try

AnthonyRoberson

First Post
Ok, I have been playing D&D since 1982. My experience has been mostly with 1st Edition AD&D (I still play it with a group) with a smidgen of 2nd and a little 3.5. I picked up the 4E books and after reading them, decided to give the game a run through. Here is how the session went:

The party consisted of a Tiefling Warlock, a Half-Elf Ranger and a Human Cleric of Bahamut. They had a chance meeting outside the Wizard's Gate of Fallcrest (something about an overturned apple cart blocking the road) and decided to band together to fight evil and seek adventure.

At the gate they heard rumors about one of Ressilmae's orphans getting lost in the Tombwood. They set out to find him and (after the Ranger blew a couple of Nature checks trying to track) managed to stumble on an ancient graveyard. The graveyard held a half dozen decrepit skeletons and couple of undead wolves. The players rolled amazingly badly, but finally triumphed with no deaths. They explored the crypts and after dispatching another skeleton, rescued Werner the orphan.

The PCs delivered Werner to Ressilmae, who rewarded them with a couple of healing potions. After some debate (the Ranger wanted beer more than adventure) they visited the Lord Warden and decided to return to the graveyard to explored a locked crypt.

The crypt revealed stairs that lead down into an ancient burial chamber. One coffin held an angry ghoul that gave the party a particularly bad time. Again, they managed to slay the creature with no deaths, but a lot of healing surges were burned. They picked up a couple of magic items and then found a secret door.

There was more adventure that involved near falls into deep pits and the discovery of an an ancient portal, but I want to keep this pretty brief...

Here are my thoughts about the experience:

4E seems pretty easy to run - at least compared to 3.5. Not a lot of conditions to keep track of (at least at low level) and marks were easy enough to track with colored glass beads. The players did an ok job of using their various abilities, but got better as they went along (they combined several powers to hit the high AC ghoul). I was pleased that all the fights were pretty close because this made the encounters more exciting. The players really seemed to enjoy themselves too. I want to see how the game holds up under an extended campaign, but so far, so good.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Cool. I am really enjoying DM'ing it. It is simple on the DM's side, easy to wing (just keep notes when winging it!).

On the players side, so far they like it. So far the players think it is more challenging than 3.x, as far as combat.

I run a larger group of 8-10 players on game night. It use to be a nightmare in 3.x to try to challenge them all and give them all something to do. For a larger group 4e works out great. I can plan the challenges better, and everyone gets engaged in it.
 

4E seems pretty easy to run - at least compared to 3.5. Not a lot of conditions to keep track of (at least at low level) and marks were easy enough to track with colored glass beads. The players did an ok job of using their various abilities, but got better as they went along (they combined several powers to hit the high AC ghoul). I was pleased that all the fights were pretty close because this made the encounters more exciting. The players really seemed to enjoy themselves too. I want to see how the game holds up under an extended campaign, but so far, so good.

This grognard agrees with your assessment. Still wary about the epic tier, but I think a campaign extending into paragon levels will work well.
 


I dunno. I think the only really broken stuff is right at 30th level, and that is where they are meant to have the end-all METAL fight and then retire, right?
 

I don't have a problem with epic, but I have to go into it expecting wackiness. Some campaigns I run, it would fit. Some, it would not.

It'll fit more often than it used to, though :)
 
Last edited:



I don't have a problem with epic, but I have to go into it expecting wackiness. Some campaigns I run, it would fit. Some, it would not.

It'll fit more often than it used to, though :)

Yeah, it's not that it's borked so much as zany. Yeah, it would work for some campaigns, but not really anything I'm running or considering running.
 


Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top