Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5139508" data-attributes="member: 16069">I have found that the higher the PCs level the longer the combat takes, while many of their powers were doing 1/6th HP damage/hit they're now down to 1/8th or worse, and with some poor rolls the grind becomes much more apparent.Also we play via Skype & Maptools and it's really slow at times.Fighter takes ongoing damage- use macro, now bloodied, press macro that confers bonuses for being bloodied.Fighter moves five, no... hang on... moves a different five... one, two, three, four, five- that's it. AoO from Monster A, find macro for monster, find other macro that confers additional bonus for AoO, roll do the maths- subtract damage from Fighter, apply condition to fighter.Fighter has Strikebacks... Here we go.Resolve movement- bloody hell. Some Fighter close burst attack follows- count the bad guys in the attack effect- press macro, fill in additional bonuses because flanking one enemy, but not the others. Add bonus to damage granted by X power. Roll.Apply damage to all tokens, a macro of course but that causes Monster X to be bloodied- which instigates Immediate Reaction. Forget that monster Y has Immediate Interrupt which negates first roll. Re-roll- reapply bonuses to hit and damage- one target and hit the macro, oh he's hit anyway. The attack power applies a condition, set condition to all targets hit.Set all targets attacked as marked.Realise that monster A that did the AoO was marked by the Fighter back then and so should take an extra 3 damage, which bloodies it... Immediate Reaction kicks in... Ahhhhhhhh!Work it all out again.Hmmm...Fighter spends Action Point.Player B confers bonus for Action Point use- hit macro.Fighter goes for another close burst type power, go back to 2nd paragraph above and re-visit with new attack power and additional bonuses conferred by player B for action point use. Hit the new power macro.Apply new results, discover monster Z is now bloodied and has Immediate Reaction also.Fighter then uses free power from magic item- shifts or applies bonus to defences, or whatever. Sets new status on himself- shielded, whatever.Turn over.Oh hang on Fighter required to make saving throws for ongoing damage and another condition. Fighter rolls... fail, searches out macro that will give him +... hang on it's here somewhere, yeah that's it... Here, +2 to saves vs...That's still not enough- save failed.Somebody else's turn.Two minutes later...Fighter realises he has magic item that means he has resist 10 acid, therefore he shouldn't have taken any damage, and wouldn't have been bloodied, and so wouldn't have hit half the creatures he hit.DM goes silent.Fumes.Refuses to go back.Player fumes, but understands.I've been using Maptools for three years so it's not a usage thing, the maps etc I build are getting better looking all the time, however the weight of macro's and the variables required to work them is growing exponentially with each and every level rise, and/or new magic item.I play via maptools because I don't know anyone in Grimsby, UK that plays 4e, oh there's a D&D club but they're not shifting from 3.5e (still), and believe me I've asked around (for nigh on 12 years).And so imagine my surprise when five guys from work decided that I should teach them the game, and so I did- here's the thing, even with newbies the game around the table, from a time perspective is soooooooooo much easier. Particularly as real life often intrudes on our internet game- wives, children, etc. The only interruptions we had in our first session was the Pizza guy.And so Maptools etc, typical session 4-5 hours, maybe two combat encounters and an hour of roleplay etc.Round-the-table, typical session (we've played four so far) 3-4 hours, easily 4 combat encounters (sometimes 5, or 6). Lots more roleplay. Pizza- cups of tea, a chat about the weather, football, the state of the nation- short tirade; a look at Dave's new tattoo, and time to level up design new character traits, catch phrases, etc.Maptools is ace, it saved my sanity, but the real thing... you really can't beat it.So count yourself lucky fellow gamers.Cheers Paul</blockquote>

Verification