Xorn
First Post
So I ran The Second Son again for a new group of players, and although I was supposed to be running a five-man game, two of the players had something come up at the last minute and weren't able to play. So at first my three players asked about running with two characters each, which was a possibility, but then I suggested we just run with three, and I'll try adjusting the XP for the encounters on the fly and see how it stacks up! They were eager to try that out (all three have played 4E fan games several times now), and decided to take it a step further:
The took the ranger, wizard, and rogue.
Yup, no one that was truly considered a tank, no healing class, either. Well this would be interesting. How many encounters in will they already be talking about an extended rest? I drag in all the fluff text (we're playing over Fantasy Grounds II) and after listening to the stories about the tower ruins, they agree to meet with the mayor. He offers them 200 gold each to find his brother's body, and though none of them have the Insight rolls to back it up, they found it odd that this guy was paying so much just to get a corpse. Chalking it up to being more dangerous than they let on, the party gets ready to leave, but not before the rogue asks Keit (the chainfighter bodyguard) why he's eyeballing them. A bit of raised tones went by before Keit backed down at the mayor's behest and the party left.
Three days later they reach to tower, and the ranger and rogue easily notice the firelight coming from the ruins. With a marvelous group of stealth rolls, they sneak up on the two hobgoblin soldiers with little effort and spring a surprise attack! First tactical mistake made: the rogue attacked first. This thereby made him the tank--except he's really not built for it. Nearly dropping in the first round, the ranger blows his daily and an action point to bring down one of the hobgoblins, and the wizard and rogue combined manage to fell the other. They discuss how letting the rogue delay his action might be a good idea.
Notes: This was a 300 xp encounter, which should be a solid matchup for 3 level one characters. Having the rogue launch the first attack was a mistake, but otherwise they did well. They took a short rest for the rogue to recover, and moved on.
As they search the bodies (which the rogue was happy to do, making Thievery checks to pocket the small items without the others noticing), the wizard overhears orders being given down in the darkness. There is enough ambient light in the tunnel from outside to light their way to the next torchlit room, so they continue stealthily towards the noise. As they get closer the wizard recognizes the goblin language and warns the others that the guards they killed have been noticed missing and preparations are being made on a ledge.
As they reach the edge of the chamber with great stealth rolls, the warcaster and archer are watching the entrance actively, but still don't see them. They quickly start the round off with surprise attacks, but do little damage. Still, they win initiative the next round, and the ranger teleports up onto the ledge and attacks the warcaster, the wizard force orbs, and the rogue cleverly uses his deft strike to move into line of sight and use his crossbow, then move back out of line of sight. The warcaster manages to Force Lance the ranger off the ledge, but otherwise the two hobgoblins are slain without much more damage dealt out. They again took a breather and the ranger healed some (Fox's Cunning and Nimble Strike were paramount for the ranger).
Notes: I removed the soldier from this encounter, for a 300 xp total. 2 or 3 surges were consumed in this fight, and the ranger could have taken a lot more damage than he did, he got lucky.
Again searching the bodies, the rogue reported there was only their weapons and armor, no treasure at all. They pressed onto the next chamber, reaching the barred door, which caused them to double-take, as they had not found the corpse. They decided the hobgoblins might have barred the door, but felt this still felt fishy. They stealthed quietly through the pool room, and after slipping along the wall, two skeleton warriors rose to attack. Only a minor hit was scored by the skeletons before the group had put them down, again using the movement wildly to get around the room and launch attacks before slipping back away. The ranger used teleport, nimlbe strike, and fox's cunning nearly every single fight. As they were felled a few more surges vanished to keep them standing, and they pressed on.
Notes: Removing the blazing skeleton made this encounter just right, and I was seeing the same amount of surges burned after the encounter to keep moving. Still only one daily down, they decided to press on, also not wanting to try and rest without knowing what was beyond the next tunnel.
Coincidentally, the skeletons had no treasure either (the rogue was actually telling the truth this time) and they passed onto the next chamber. The chillborn are level 6 soldiers, which I think places them at about 250 xp? With that "resist 10 weapon" I actually think they are nastier than 250 xp, but part of that is party composition. I actually forgot to apply the resistance once, but as the group was bravely running the hell away as they wore the thing down (and the wizard was dropping bombs on it) they managed to take it down with only the rogue eating some damage. Still, enough damage accumulated to kill the thing and they recovered quickly as they looked at the crossbow trap and the dead chillborn.
Notes: The rogue finally engaged the chillborn, and ate a ton of damage for doing so and got immobilized. Had the ranger and wizard not managed to finish it off the next turn, the rogue might have died to the nasty thing. Still, with good tactics (and no daily power) they managed to kill it.
The trap quickly caught their (passive) attention, and they set about working out how to disarm the simple trap. The ranger wanted to Legolas the cords connected to one of the crossbows, so I let him, and he rolled a natural 20. Decided to let that disarm one, and the rogue easily got the other with a Thievery roll. Testing the doors to find they were barred from the other side, they heard shuffling and someone calling out they were ready to die, and would not perish without a fight!
They exchanged weird glances, and suddenly everything changed on them... Rakin is alive? They called out his name, and the weak man managed to unbar the door and let them in. With no healer or means of triggering a healing surge, they heard his story, gave him some food and water, and made the one-footed warrior a crutch. They thought about waiting, but after hearing about Keit, and deciding that they had already cleared the ruins, they quickly left the way they came.
They tried to stealth their way back to the surface, but a starving, barely alive man with a crutch is not terribly quiet, and when they reached the pool room, Keit and one bandit was waiting for them. They rolled great initiative, and before Keit could even act they had spread out and nearly bloodied the chainfighter. He shifted like crazy across the room, landing an attack on each of them, and teleported after that. They actually thought that part was really cool, until the ranger used fox's cunning and Keit got to OA him (he has reach during his turn). Still, they dropped Keit quickly (blowing the rogue and wizard's daily powers) and the bandit actually threw down his weapons and ran for it. Thinking quickly, the wizard mentioned they could be barred in here, and they gave chase. The rogue managed to bash the door open before the bandit could get the bar set, and the three of them slaughtered the man before he could stand.
Notes: Removing one bandit put the fight just under 300 xp for them, and the players felt like Keit was definitely nasty, but easily dropped with their daily powers. They rested one last time, burning the last of the healing surges for the rogue and ranger. Had they tried to extended rest at this point, I probably would have had Jantzen come down into the ruins to see what was taking Keit so long. If they'd rested at the chillborn room, I would have let them--Keit would not have risked going to that room.
As they emerged into the daylight again, Jantzen (human wizard) and the human berzerker were waiting for them, and again Rakin's shuffling and limping gave them away. There was no surprise either way, but they had a terrible initiative, and the bad guys went first. The wizard opened with a Thunder Blast that hit everyone but the one-footed Rakin, dazing them all. Then the berserker rushed in and nailed the ranger, for max damage (didn't roll a crit, just rolled max damage). This drove the ranger to below negative bloodied--insta-kill. Even if they had a healer in the party, he was a grease-stain. Hilarity ensued at this point, as the rogue and wizard--unaligned--decided they got the corpse to Jantzen and were no longer bound to any type of deal, and could leave with good conscience.
They both made a break for it away from the murderous humans, and Jantzen blasted them with Dancing Lighting, reducing the rogue to 1 hit point, and also killing his brother Rakin in the blast. Then the berzerker charged, nailing the wizard and dropping him to 1 hit point. Unable to shake off the daze from the thunder blast, the wizard surrendered and dropped to his knees, expecting the berzerker to take his head off, while the rogue kept running! The wizard ran up to the berserker and stopped him from killing the player wizard, and fired a magic missile at the rogue, missing, and the infuriated berserker hurled a handaxe, missing also! The rogue managed to get out of sight and vanished into the forest!
So in the end, after 6 encounters, the ranger died, the wizard is now Jantzen's new "Keit" (he said if he's learning magic, it doesn't matter who he calls master), and the rogue made off with 100 gold pieces and a decent amount of loot.
Notes: This fight was three damage dealers (1 melee and 2 ranged) against two damage dealers (1 melee and 1 ranged), and the players had no daily powers. It really came down to intiative. The bad guys went first, dropping the ranger and putting a melee in their faces. Had they won the initiative (or not had Rakin blowing their surprise, mentioning after the game they should have had him wait below till it was safe) they likely would have dropped either the berserker or wizard, whichever they had focused on, and won the day. This fight was 325 xp, so it should have been rough for a group out of action points and daily powers.
They said this was probably the most entertaining run, yet. We are really so stoked for 4E; well I took two days off work for 4E, so that should say something.
Last Edit: One more thing I neglected to mention (one of my players just reminded me)--this game took just under 4 hours; 6 encounters in 4 hours!
The took the ranger, wizard, and rogue.
Yup, no one that was truly considered a tank, no healing class, either. Well this would be interesting. How many encounters in will they already be talking about an extended rest? I drag in all the fluff text (we're playing over Fantasy Grounds II) and after listening to the stories about the tower ruins, they agree to meet with the mayor. He offers them 200 gold each to find his brother's body, and though none of them have the Insight rolls to back it up, they found it odd that this guy was paying so much just to get a corpse. Chalking it up to being more dangerous than they let on, the party gets ready to leave, but not before the rogue asks Keit (the chainfighter bodyguard) why he's eyeballing them. A bit of raised tones went by before Keit backed down at the mayor's behest and the party left.
Three days later they reach to tower, and the ranger and rogue easily notice the firelight coming from the ruins. With a marvelous group of stealth rolls, they sneak up on the two hobgoblin soldiers with little effort and spring a surprise attack! First tactical mistake made: the rogue attacked first. This thereby made him the tank--except he's really not built for it. Nearly dropping in the first round, the ranger blows his daily and an action point to bring down one of the hobgoblins, and the wizard and rogue combined manage to fell the other. They discuss how letting the rogue delay his action might be a good idea.
Notes: This was a 300 xp encounter, which should be a solid matchup for 3 level one characters. Having the rogue launch the first attack was a mistake, but otherwise they did well. They took a short rest for the rogue to recover, and moved on.
As they search the bodies (which the rogue was happy to do, making Thievery checks to pocket the small items without the others noticing), the wizard overhears orders being given down in the darkness. There is enough ambient light in the tunnel from outside to light their way to the next torchlit room, so they continue stealthily towards the noise. As they get closer the wizard recognizes the goblin language and warns the others that the guards they killed have been noticed missing and preparations are being made on a ledge.
As they reach the edge of the chamber with great stealth rolls, the warcaster and archer are watching the entrance actively, but still don't see them. They quickly start the round off with surprise attacks, but do little damage. Still, they win initiative the next round, and the ranger teleports up onto the ledge and attacks the warcaster, the wizard force orbs, and the rogue cleverly uses his deft strike to move into line of sight and use his crossbow, then move back out of line of sight. The warcaster manages to Force Lance the ranger off the ledge, but otherwise the two hobgoblins are slain without much more damage dealt out. They again took a breather and the ranger healed some (Fox's Cunning and Nimble Strike were paramount for the ranger).
Notes: I removed the soldier from this encounter, for a 300 xp total. 2 or 3 surges were consumed in this fight, and the ranger could have taken a lot more damage than he did, he got lucky.
Again searching the bodies, the rogue reported there was only their weapons and armor, no treasure at all. They pressed onto the next chamber, reaching the barred door, which caused them to double-take, as they had not found the corpse. They decided the hobgoblins might have barred the door, but felt this still felt fishy. They stealthed quietly through the pool room, and after slipping along the wall, two skeleton warriors rose to attack. Only a minor hit was scored by the skeletons before the group had put them down, again using the movement wildly to get around the room and launch attacks before slipping back away. The ranger used teleport, nimlbe strike, and fox's cunning nearly every single fight. As they were felled a few more surges vanished to keep them standing, and they pressed on.
Notes: Removing the blazing skeleton made this encounter just right, and I was seeing the same amount of surges burned after the encounter to keep moving. Still only one daily down, they decided to press on, also not wanting to try and rest without knowing what was beyond the next tunnel.
Coincidentally, the skeletons had no treasure either (the rogue was actually telling the truth this time) and they passed onto the next chamber. The chillborn are level 6 soldiers, which I think places them at about 250 xp? With that "resist 10 weapon" I actually think they are nastier than 250 xp, but part of that is party composition. I actually forgot to apply the resistance once, but as the group was bravely running the hell away as they wore the thing down (and the wizard was dropping bombs on it) they managed to take it down with only the rogue eating some damage. Still, enough damage accumulated to kill the thing and they recovered quickly as they looked at the crossbow trap and the dead chillborn.
Notes: The rogue finally engaged the chillborn, and ate a ton of damage for doing so and got immobilized. Had the ranger and wizard not managed to finish it off the next turn, the rogue might have died to the nasty thing. Still, with good tactics (and no daily power) they managed to kill it.
The trap quickly caught their (passive) attention, and they set about working out how to disarm the simple trap. The ranger wanted to Legolas the cords connected to one of the crossbows, so I let him, and he rolled a natural 20. Decided to let that disarm one, and the rogue easily got the other with a Thievery roll. Testing the doors to find they were barred from the other side, they heard shuffling and someone calling out they were ready to die, and would not perish without a fight!
They exchanged weird glances, and suddenly everything changed on them... Rakin is alive? They called out his name, and the weak man managed to unbar the door and let them in. With no healer or means of triggering a healing surge, they heard his story, gave him some food and water, and made the one-footed warrior a crutch. They thought about waiting, but after hearing about Keit, and deciding that they had already cleared the ruins, they quickly left the way they came.
They tried to stealth their way back to the surface, but a starving, barely alive man with a crutch is not terribly quiet, and when they reached the pool room, Keit and one bandit was waiting for them. They rolled great initiative, and before Keit could even act they had spread out and nearly bloodied the chainfighter. He shifted like crazy across the room, landing an attack on each of them, and teleported after that. They actually thought that part was really cool, until the ranger used fox's cunning and Keit got to OA him (he has reach during his turn). Still, they dropped Keit quickly (blowing the rogue and wizard's daily powers) and the bandit actually threw down his weapons and ran for it. Thinking quickly, the wizard mentioned they could be barred in here, and they gave chase. The rogue managed to bash the door open before the bandit could get the bar set, and the three of them slaughtered the man before he could stand.
Notes: Removing one bandit put the fight just under 300 xp for them, and the players felt like Keit was definitely nasty, but easily dropped with their daily powers. They rested one last time, burning the last of the healing surges for the rogue and ranger. Had they tried to extended rest at this point, I probably would have had Jantzen come down into the ruins to see what was taking Keit so long. If they'd rested at the chillborn room, I would have let them--Keit would not have risked going to that room.
As they emerged into the daylight again, Jantzen (human wizard) and the human berzerker were waiting for them, and again Rakin's shuffling and limping gave them away. There was no surprise either way, but they had a terrible initiative, and the bad guys went first. The wizard opened with a Thunder Blast that hit everyone but the one-footed Rakin, dazing them all. Then the berserker rushed in and nailed the ranger, for max damage (didn't roll a crit, just rolled max damage). This drove the ranger to below negative bloodied--insta-kill. Even if they had a healer in the party, he was a grease-stain. Hilarity ensued at this point, as the rogue and wizard--unaligned--decided they got the corpse to Jantzen and were no longer bound to any type of deal, and could leave with good conscience.
They both made a break for it away from the murderous humans, and Jantzen blasted them with Dancing Lighting, reducing the rogue to 1 hit point, and also killing his brother Rakin in the blast. Then the berzerker charged, nailing the wizard and dropping him to 1 hit point. Unable to shake off the daze from the thunder blast, the wizard surrendered and dropped to his knees, expecting the berzerker to take his head off, while the rogue kept running! The wizard ran up to the berserker and stopped him from killing the player wizard, and fired a magic missile at the rogue, missing, and the infuriated berserker hurled a handaxe, missing also! The rogue managed to get out of sight and vanished into the forest!
So in the end, after 6 encounters, the ranger died, the wizard is now Jantzen's new "Keit" (he said if he's learning magic, it doesn't matter who he calls master), and the rogue made off with 100 gold pieces and a decent amount of loot.
Notes: This fight was three damage dealers (1 melee and 2 ranged) against two damage dealers (1 melee and 1 ranged), and the players had no daily powers. It really came down to intiative. The bad guys went first, dropping the ranger and putting a melee in their faces. Had they won the initiative (or not had Rakin blowing their surprise, mentioning after the game they should have had him wait below till it was safe) they likely would have dropped either the berserker or wizard, whichever they had focused on, and won the day. This fight was 325 xp, so it should have been rough for a group out of action points and daily powers.
They said this was probably the most entertaining run, yet. We are really so stoked for 4E; well I took two days off work for 4E, so that should say something.
Last Edit: One more thing I neglected to mention (one of my players just reminded me)--this game took just under 4 hours; 6 encounters in 4 hours!
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