That One Guy
First Post
This is multiple reviews in one!
So, about two weeks ago I went and played a 4e demo. It was fun, but the dm didn't really know the rules and only two other people showed up to play. It's somewhere back-logged in the threads.
So, last night I convinced two friends to go and check out D&D 4e [sblock](I tried to get more, but a bunch of people had work). It was probably good, because about fourteen people showed up to play the demo this time around. Being late and already having played I watched the first encounter. Sometimes when there was a rules question or a 'where is this on my sheet?' the dm would call me to the table to answer the question. An odd experience. I also pointed out that dazed doesn't cause a loss of round. I talked to a guy playing the warlock every once in a while. He had played 2e, but not a lot of 3e. He liked the game for the most part (I should've asked him what parts he disliked, but I only asked him if he was having fun and he said yes). We briefly talked about what his prone warlock should do to get away/deal the most damage. As this encounter was nearing an end the dm skipped them to the skill challenge with a quick explanation for time's sake (which made sense). The skill challenge went down and the party quickly failed with low rolls (one player hadn't really followed what had happened and didn't even realize why the party was running away).[/sblock]
They rotated and the table was filled for the undead encounter. [sblock]A friend of mine took the paladin, and some of the players from last time jumped in (the guy who wanted to play the warlock did this time, and the ranger player replayed the ranger). I opted to watch, plotting with my other friend to maybe sneak off to run our own pre-4e game (I've been trying to put one together and already had two players with characters ready to go). They went through the skill challenge, and also were quickly captured - but then the dm ruled that they were able to break loose and the guards knew what they looked like. I dislike that there wasn't more of an in-game mechanical repercussion, but I guess it makes sense for the module and spirit of running people through things. The undead fight began soon, and I left to spend time with my girlfriend before the potential game.
A few hours later both friends came over. The one who had played the paladin was very confused and upset with the encounters and asked to look at the undead monster sheets. I printed them out a few weeks ago to create encounters with so we went over them together. The two biggest flaws were that 'vulnerable radiant:5' was not taken into account (the paladin had made at least four successful attacks involving radiant damage) and that the daily attacks that have Miss:Lesser Effect were completely skipped over. He said he had fun, but he would rather play with the rules fully in effect some time. He headed out. (Info about him... he's an ex-power-gamer-uber-munchkin. He found many many ways for 3e to be broken, but then decided that he preferred to use mechanics to fully create ideal story-oriented characters who were interesting to role-play, but fully viable. He has experience as a 3.x dm, and was my first 3.0 dm)[/sblock]
A little bit later another friend came over to make a character. [sblock]These two I'll call by character names, Jonas (the newly arrived) and Amir (the one who was all for sneaking off to run our own pre-4e game). Amir has experience with nWoD Mage, V:tM, and munchkin card game. Jonas digs video games and M:tG, but never had a group to play D&D more than once or twice in 3.x. So, off we go making characters using known information etc. They used 32 point buy and generated stats. I helped Amir more with this, because Jonas seemed more interested in doing it on his own to learn it - both approaches are totally cool with me. Amir is a halfling rogue along the trickster path. (I had to fudge some things such that I made up Trick Strike and Sly Flourish, informing the table that these were temp powers) Amir's background included a connection with nature and living on the rivers once, so he picked up the ranger multiclass feat.
(Btw, I plan on running my first 4e game w/ little to no homebrewing to see what it's like. For now I'm down with fuzzy alterations as long as they don't break the game)
I gave Jonas, the Paladin, the wizard training feat, but had it powered by Wis instead of Int. His wis is not that high, and his character's background has to do with being exposed to dark magics(tm) and having an uncanny loathing of them. Thus, in his studies, he has developed his own magical path. It's pre-4e, it doesn't have to be that great, right? Gave him Scorching Blast because the group has no controller.
During this time the elven cleric, Bael, showed up (He was my V:tM storyteller for about a year and a half, and I've played D&D games w/ him and have dmed games he has played. He likes cinematic moments in-game, whether they be dramatic plot reveals or awesome combat). I started the adventure, not knowing where Kylin was(She's a Half-elf Fighter/paladin. Yes, most of the group is multi-classing, mostly for character reasons, though. She's played in about three of my D&D games in college, and generally enjoys the defender position. As soon as I described fighters' sticky abilities and Tide of Iron she immediately was happy with the tactical possibilities).
They had a little bit of in-game conversation and set off on their quest. I'm heavily banking on the implied setting for this world, with prominent npcs being based on posters from EnWorld (I'm lazy). The world is falling into a bleak dark ages and the church of Bahamut is desperately trying to protect the good and just in the world. Thus, resources are thin. Rumours of attacks at Southbrooke (most original name for a town to the south, ever) prompted the church to send one of its knights (Kylin) to investigate/kill kobolds and goblins. Soon, reports have been arriving that the attacks may be organized by greater evil powers (a warlock and a dragon if one believes the reports). The church performed a ritual (Ha, I know, right?) to tell Kylin to turn around and meet up with support. This support consists of the other three PCs, who are driving their church-loaned mounts south. They were making good time when Bael and Amir spotted at least eight Kobolds tailing them in the nearby trees. Te trees in this region are called sharpwood. To deter animals from getting their fruit, they have large spear-like protrusions. Amir notices a recently crafted trap of quicksand and pulls his riding dog short. Jonas recognizes the wisdom in this and also stops his horse's gallop. Bael (gets a nat 1 to try and actively examine his surroundings) - he barely stops short of the quicksand trap. Amir examines it and realizes that there will be no way to go over, so they have to go off the beaten path (exactly like the kobolds want). Jonas, and Amir have little trouble leading their animals into the thick woods, but Bael has some seriously low rolls. Amir goes back to help, and successfully dismounts his dog and takes the reins of the horse. They all enter the sharpwood forest when the kobolds attack (but the party realized that they were there).
(Jonas had to go home at this point so I NPCed his character for the fight. Kylin's player showed up a few minutes before)
Summary... Kylin imapled a kobold on a tree with her Tide of Iron. Her stickiness worked wonders. Bael consistently rolled poorly, but enjoyed being able to heal and still attack (albeit missing often). I constantly rolled low for Jonas (but did describe him holding a kobolds spear in his side while Holy Striking it). Amir hit pretty often early on, but then had a missing streak. The kobolds used a strategy of stab, dodge away (out of melee range), and let another kobold move forward, stab, and shift away. This tactic was incredibly useful. Kylin killed the most kobolds (who in game had to learn the hard way about her sticky-fighter powers). Then Bael at the end targeted one of the stronger kobolds (I had intermixed minions with two skirmishers. After a few rounds of fighting, Bael's passive insight informed him which were toughest) and unleashed Bahamut's divine fury by way of Cascade of Light. A beam of white hot light seared down from the sky and eradicated the opponent (I fudged its hp down by one to die instantly. I also fudged the other skirmisher's hp down by 3 to die against a holy strike critical from Kylin). The last minion ran away, but Amir nailed it with a throwing knife (shuriken) to the base of its skull.
It was getting late, but we had to call it a night. All-in-all, I think we started rolling the two characters around 11, had them playing by just after 11:40 or so, and had the combat done about 12:40 am. I hoped it would be a faster process, but at the same time, 3.x games usually take a lot more time for us to prep and play. That many monsters in 3.x would have made it a non-tactical slugfest at level one. There was a sense of positioning and in combat flow that is pretty unique and fun. I actually had fun using the kobolds' tactics and I seldom have fun actually running the fight outside of describing hits and fluff. The next session should be better prepared. All of the players are looking forward to it from this... teaser... session of sorts.[/sblock]If you read all of that... ::Thumbs up::
So, about two weeks ago I went and played a 4e demo. It was fun, but the dm didn't really know the rules and only two other people showed up to play. It's somewhere back-logged in the threads.
So, last night I convinced two friends to go and check out D&D 4e [sblock](I tried to get more, but a bunch of people had work). It was probably good, because about fourteen people showed up to play the demo this time around. Being late and already having played I watched the first encounter. Sometimes when there was a rules question or a 'where is this on my sheet?' the dm would call me to the table to answer the question. An odd experience. I also pointed out that dazed doesn't cause a loss of round. I talked to a guy playing the warlock every once in a while. He had played 2e, but not a lot of 3e. He liked the game for the most part (I should've asked him what parts he disliked, but I only asked him if he was having fun and he said yes). We briefly talked about what his prone warlock should do to get away/deal the most damage. As this encounter was nearing an end the dm skipped them to the skill challenge with a quick explanation for time's sake (which made sense). The skill challenge went down and the party quickly failed with low rolls (one player hadn't really followed what had happened and didn't even realize why the party was running away).[/sblock]
They rotated and the table was filled for the undead encounter. [sblock]A friend of mine took the paladin, and some of the players from last time jumped in (the guy who wanted to play the warlock did this time, and the ranger player replayed the ranger). I opted to watch, plotting with my other friend to maybe sneak off to run our own pre-4e game (I've been trying to put one together and already had two players with characters ready to go). They went through the skill challenge, and also were quickly captured - but then the dm ruled that they were able to break loose and the guards knew what they looked like. I dislike that there wasn't more of an in-game mechanical repercussion, but I guess it makes sense for the module and spirit of running people through things. The undead fight began soon, and I left to spend time with my girlfriend before the potential game.
A few hours later both friends came over. The one who had played the paladin was very confused and upset with the encounters and asked to look at the undead monster sheets. I printed them out a few weeks ago to create encounters with so we went over them together. The two biggest flaws were that 'vulnerable radiant:5' was not taken into account (the paladin had made at least four successful attacks involving radiant damage) and that the daily attacks that have Miss:Lesser Effect were completely skipped over. He said he had fun, but he would rather play with the rules fully in effect some time. He headed out. (Info about him... he's an ex-power-gamer-uber-munchkin. He found many many ways for 3e to be broken, but then decided that he preferred to use mechanics to fully create ideal story-oriented characters who were interesting to role-play, but fully viable. He has experience as a 3.x dm, and was my first 3.0 dm)[/sblock]
A little bit later another friend came over to make a character. [sblock]These two I'll call by character names, Jonas (the newly arrived) and Amir (the one who was all for sneaking off to run our own pre-4e game). Amir has experience with nWoD Mage, V:tM, and munchkin card game. Jonas digs video games and M:tG, but never had a group to play D&D more than once or twice in 3.x. So, off we go making characters using known information etc. They used 32 point buy and generated stats. I helped Amir more with this, because Jonas seemed more interested in doing it on his own to learn it - both approaches are totally cool with me. Amir is a halfling rogue along the trickster path. (I had to fudge some things such that I made up Trick Strike and Sly Flourish, informing the table that these were temp powers) Amir's background included a connection with nature and living on the rivers once, so he picked up the ranger multiclass feat.
(Btw, I plan on running my first 4e game w/ little to no homebrewing to see what it's like. For now I'm down with fuzzy alterations as long as they don't break the game)
I gave Jonas, the Paladin, the wizard training feat, but had it powered by Wis instead of Int. His wis is not that high, and his character's background has to do with being exposed to dark magics(tm) and having an uncanny loathing of them. Thus, in his studies, he has developed his own magical path. It's pre-4e, it doesn't have to be that great, right? Gave him Scorching Blast because the group has no controller.
During this time the elven cleric, Bael, showed up (He was my V:tM storyteller for about a year and a half, and I've played D&D games w/ him and have dmed games he has played. He likes cinematic moments in-game, whether they be dramatic plot reveals or awesome combat). I started the adventure, not knowing where Kylin was(She's a Half-elf Fighter/paladin. Yes, most of the group is multi-classing, mostly for character reasons, though. She's played in about three of my D&D games in college, and generally enjoys the defender position. As soon as I described fighters' sticky abilities and Tide of Iron she immediately was happy with the tactical possibilities).
They had a little bit of in-game conversation and set off on their quest. I'm heavily banking on the implied setting for this world, with prominent npcs being based on posters from EnWorld (I'm lazy). The world is falling into a bleak dark ages and the church of Bahamut is desperately trying to protect the good and just in the world. Thus, resources are thin. Rumours of attacks at Southbrooke (most original name for a town to the south, ever) prompted the church to send one of its knights (Kylin) to investigate/kill kobolds and goblins. Soon, reports have been arriving that the attacks may be organized by greater evil powers (a warlock and a dragon if one believes the reports). The church performed a ritual (Ha, I know, right?) to tell Kylin to turn around and meet up with support. This support consists of the other three PCs, who are driving their church-loaned mounts south. They were making good time when Bael and Amir spotted at least eight Kobolds tailing them in the nearby trees. Te trees in this region are called sharpwood. To deter animals from getting their fruit, they have large spear-like protrusions. Amir notices a recently crafted trap of quicksand and pulls his riding dog short. Jonas recognizes the wisdom in this and also stops his horse's gallop. Bael (gets a nat 1 to try and actively examine his surroundings) - he barely stops short of the quicksand trap. Amir examines it and realizes that there will be no way to go over, so they have to go off the beaten path (exactly like the kobolds want). Jonas, and Amir have little trouble leading their animals into the thick woods, but Bael has some seriously low rolls. Amir goes back to help, and successfully dismounts his dog and takes the reins of the horse. They all enter the sharpwood forest when the kobolds attack (but the party realized that they were there).
(Jonas had to go home at this point so I NPCed his character for the fight. Kylin's player showed up a few minutes before)
Summary... Kylin imapled a kobold on a tree with her Tide of Iron. Her stickiness worked wonders. Bael consistently rolled poorly, but enjoyed being able to heal and still attack (albeit missing often). I constantly rolled low for Jonas (but did describe him holding a kobolds spear in his side while Holy Striking it). Amir hit pretty often early on, but then had a missing streak. The kobolds used a strategy of stab, dodge away (out of melee range), and let another kobold move forward, stab, and shift away. This tactic was incredibly useful. Kylin killed the most kobolds (who in game had to learn the hard way about her sticky-fighter powers). Then Bael at the end targeted one of the stronger kobolds (I had intermixed minions with two skirmishers. After a few rounds of fighting, Bael's passive insight informed him which were toughest) and unleashed Bahamut's divine fury by way of Cascade of Light. A beam of white hot light seared down from the sky and eradicated the opponent (I fudged its hp down by one to die instantly. I also fudged the other skirmisher's hp down by 3 to die against a holy strike critical from Kylin). The last minion ran away, but Amir nailed it with a throwing knife (shuriken) to the base of its skull.
It was getting late, but we had to call it a night. All-in-all, I think we started rolling the two characters around 11, had them playing by just after 11:40 or so, and had the combat done about 12:40 am. I hoped it would be a faster process, but at the same time, 3.x games usually take a lot more time for us to prep and play. That many monsters in 3.x would have made it a non-tactical slugfest at level one. There was a sense of positioning and in combat flow that is pretty unique and fun. I actually had fun using the kobolds' tactics and I seldom have fun actually running the fight outside of describing hits and fluff. The next session should be better prepared. All of the players are looking forward to it from this... teaser... session of sorts.[/sblock]If you read all of that... ::Thumbs up::
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