4e Scouring of Gate Pass - reworking the encounters

[Neonchameleon]

I'm going to be running the (4e) Scouring of Gate Pass fairly soon. As an adventure module it was impressive. But I'm ... unhappy with a lot of the mechanics. The skill challenge DCs obviously need errata.

It's the encounters (and the monsters in specific) that worry me. One of the enemies has a 3e True Strike. A lot of them have either a dazed and pushed effect (really nasty as it even blocks counter-charges) or even three Thunderstones for IIRC mass burst 2 dazing. To me this doesn't feel right (the guy with the true strike (I'm no good at remembering names) should IMO be an elite (and probably use his AP to run like buggery in the first encounter). The thunderstones are powerful enough that everyone should be carrying them.

Oh, and the feats - +1d6 damage to unarmed attacks? On a monk?!?

(We also have an ensnaring swordmage who will occasionally be toasting marked minions with the lure).

Has anyone else reworked things like this? If so are there any notes I could raid?

 

[RangerWickett]

Definitely, the first module has some edition growing pains, but if you're familiar with 4e, it shouldn't be hard to see where problems will crop up. For instance, the Dead Rising encounter is way too tough for most parties.

Oh, and the feats - +1d6 damage to unarmed attacks? On a monk?!?

Well, to be fair, when they printed that, there were no Monks yet in 4e, so it was a way to make unarmed strikes a valid combat option.

 

[Gorok]

The "True Strike" power mentioned is on Kathor. The only similarity to the 3E spell is the name. All this power does is allow Kathor to deal half damage on a miss with his attack, if the attack misses. This is NOT the 3E mechanics, where it allows a +20 to hit bonus on the person's next attack once the spell is cast. I see no problem with this power in the 4E writeup of Kathor.

The 3 thunderstones are typical of skirmishers. I see this type of "limited quantity of ammunition" throughout those type of monsters in 4E. Again, I don't see a big deal with this effect. Limiting the amount of these to only the skirmishers, and then only allowing them 3 attacks each helps reduce the nastiness of the effect.

I definitely agree that the background feat allowing +1d6 lightning damage to all unarmed attacks is quite broken when combined with a monk. I'll just not allow this particular feat to be used when I run this campaign (although a starting character won't get it since there is a pre-req that he has trained at the Monastery of Two Winds, unless the player decides that is part of his "background").

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, the unarmed attack power existed long before the Monk class.

Now there's a Monk class, it could probably use a revision.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I didn't think it was designed with the monk or brawler fighter Most of it reads like teething pains (the skill challenge issues are WoTC's problem)

And it's not the True Strike attack I'm thinking of. It's Trillith True Strike.

Trillith True Strike (imm reac, after being attacked by an enemy; rchg 56) Kathor gains a +20 combat bonus on any single attack performed until the end of Kathor’s next turn.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

As a DM who's just starting Scouring of Gate Pass, I would suggest that we (the EnWorld community) go over all the encounters and skill challenges in the modules and produce the errata, which can then be made into updated versions of the pdf's

 

[Neonchameleon]

As a DM who's just starting Scouring of Gate Pass, I would suggest that we (the EnWorld community) go over all the encounters and skill challenges in the modules and produce the errata, which can then be made into updated versions of the pdf's

It's what I was thinking of doing - I was mostly hoping that someone else had done the work first and saved me the trouble

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

I'm game for that. Session 1 is on Friday.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

One of the things I observed from my first session was that the first encounter, and glancing at later encounters, some of those too...have too many types of monsters in them. It's very tough to keep a handle on everything.

 

[Helthani]

I am in the same boat. I started last week (using fantasy grounds), and while the first encounter was ok, I can see lots of trouble coming, and I am already plotting some changes.

In the immediate aftermath of the tavern fight (where we left off), I plan to wrap Scene 3, which consists of four small quests, into one complexity 5 skill check. That's a lot of skill checks (at a minimum 12), but the first three quests work nicely as parts of a structured skill challenge. For example, the party makes a perception check to find the best way through the crowd, and I'll point out the woman in the building of the burning building, that should lead to some skill checks to get her down, etc. The final part of that section, with the dire weasel, I find totally goofy, so I'm going to replace it with a merchant begging for help against some looters, which the party can deal with either through skill checks, or as a light combat encounter (300 xp or so) which will count as successes towards the overall skill challenge. If they fail the skill challenge earlier then they'll miss the looter encounter (which is where they can get the treasure parcels). If they pass the skill challenge I'll give them all an additional 5 temporary hit points going into the next encounter, for their good feelings of helping Gate Passers in their hour of need.

Act Two starts with two encounters that are just horridly anti-4th edition. In Scene 1 it seems like Larion is intended to escape easily and then the party will end up beating down a poor controller (the solon) for a few rounds. I plan to decrease the controller's level a bit, and give it a few Eladrin Ninjas (skirmishers) to spice up the combat a bit.

In scene 3 we have another battle against a single opponent, which in my experience is not where 4E excels. I haven't thought this through much, but perhaps I'll power down Flaganus a bit and then attempt a rescue by another wyvern & rider. He's also not going to successfully kill that baby, but that's not neither here nor there.

In Scene 5, with the White Wyrms, I really dig that encounter. But looking at the xp value for it, 1200xp!!!, that seems way too high, and there are too many soldiers. Soldiers suck the life out of any encounter, so perhaps I can reconfigure the numbers and be happy. By then I'll have a better feel for the party's abilities too.

In Scene 6, quest 1, with the overpowered boneshards, that seems pretty well documented, so I'll follow the lead of others with that encounter, but it is one I'll keep as I have two dwarves in my party and I think it will play well with them.

That's as far as I've gotten at this point. I hope the future installments get far more 4E friendly. 4E needs a specific type of encounter (lots of monsters, not just one big guy), and The Scouring isn't really configured that way.