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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 5502702" data-attributes="member: 38357">I'll try. I had intended to write up a nice recap, but my note-taking didn't work out so well - I can't remember what some of the abbreviations are supposed to mean and I kind of fell off even doing it about halfway through the first fight... lol...In the first fight I had the big solo, some skirmishers that really worked like a hazard (I guess), laying down a wall of fire that the PCs didn't want to stand in (and moving through enemy squares so that they could lay it down where they where), and some minions that handed out vulnerable 10 fire and popped up if anyone used an immediate action or spent a healing surge...The layout of the room was one of the big things that I spent some time on but didn't really come up. I think this was largely due to the smaller group, actually. There where some platforms and pillars (blocking terrain) in a room filled with hot coals, with magical bridges between the platforms that could go down if you walked over them and could be brought back up with a minor-action arcana or nature check... The intention was to get the PCs spread out, and they did spread out a bit but 3 PCs trying to not be clustered within a burst effect covers much less ground than 5. The bridges would have gone down much more often if more people had been walking across them - and the fact that the ardent could casually jump across instead and everyone else was able to teleport when they needed to worked in the PCs favor there. But that was all OK, there could have been a bit more movement but the fight wasn't completely static. I think the thing is, I find almost all fights end up that way (the second one this session was one of the exceptions). You get a lot of shifting and such, but not much longer-ranged movement once people are in melee...The minions where kind of useless, they tended to die without the PCs having to do anything special. Likewise the skirmishers produced some effect, but ended up getting hit by a few secondary effects from the sorceress, etc. and going down. The Efreet was kind of nasty - he handed out a few big helpings of damage. It would have been nice if I could have remembered how to play it throughout the whole fight. Fortunately I had made the players aware of it's aura, because they kept having to remind me of it, but I completely missed the "recharge and use the blast" immediate that should have gone off if he was bloodied. The PCs did bust out a number of dailies in the fight, and would have used all of the ardent's heals if he hadn't ended up dazed at one point at the end (of course this just ended up meaning that the swordmage used his second wind that turn instead of going full defense... this while he was invisible, mind you...).The second fight (as the PCs had now entered the "air wing") got pretty hairy as well, which really surprised me until I realized that I actually hadn't applied any of the adjustments I had come up with for there only being 3 PCs. It was 2 different lurkers and 3 skirmishers. The skirmishers where really very effective, and I think that 5 of them might have ended with a TPK. The lurkers meanwhile where pretty tricky, and while they didn't end up being very effective in the long run (they basically got one shot in and then the PCs just screwed up their tricks) it was really nice seeing the players pay attention to their mechanics for a change... What was not so nice was seeing them misidentify some of them... The swordmage's player kept warning the others not to target Fort, when that was, in fact, their lowest defense... The skirmishers in particular had really pretty obscene AC and Ref (as good / better than the swordmage), while their Forts where just nothing...There was a lot of movement in that fight, but unfortunately I think it would most likely just encourage the players to not move as much... The sorceress got way out waya from the rest of the group while being divebombed by the skirmishers... And while she was giving back as good as she got the 3-on-1 while out of heal (and for a round aegis) range didn't really work in her favor. Of course she's very mobile herself, but she ended up having to take a 20' fall (1 damage got through after acrobatics... lol, prone...) to get back in range.I guess I should mention there where 2 20' high "steps" in that room, with these cyclone things in front of them that would let the PCs fly up to the next level... That was kind of fun. Might have actually been more interesting if the monsters had been using them as well, but they all flew...I don't think so... That might be the overall effect, but it's a pretty diverse group. I think the hack'n'slash is my fault - I'm trying to run a dungeon for a change, and it's kind of ended up as mostly just a series of fights (there has been some interesting (imo) atmospheric stuff, but I don't feel like I've really managed to make it that meaningful). Previously I had a lot of roleplay stuff, to the extent that the players where asking for more combat and we where doing the "5-minute workday" thing just because there would be several days of running around and talking with NPCs in between fights...I am strongly considering adapting an adventure coming up here. My work is going to be taking much more time / energy in the near future (which I knew was coming, but I had expected not until around Easter / Mothers Day). But, honestly, my big problem prep-wise has been just getting encounters together. As I've said, part of that has been a learning experience thing, going from MM1 / MM2 monsters that I wasn't updating correctly to MM3 / MV monsters mainly and having to re-do a bunch of encounters recently for fewer players (and the ones this week needed to get re-done a second time at the last minute). It's taking me probably about 30 - 45 minutes minimum per monster to get them picked out / read over / re-fluffed / organized / printed. And then there's working up the encounter area on top of that... And I'm not really that satisfied with the results, in terms of organization. It's still hard to keep track of stuff in play, I forget stuff, and things take too long...</blockquote>

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