D&D 3E/3.5 converting 3e combats to 4e - are they serious?
- Thread starter Herobizkit
- Start date
Herobizkit
Adventurer
Thanks, [MENTION=54846]Rechan[/MENTION]! I'll post how it went once it goes down.
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
With a smaller party, you can accomplish a lot more in a session, IME. The first time I ran a group with only 3 PCs, we managed to rip through a skill challenge, some RP and 3 decent combat encounters, plus a bunch of exploration. That was my first go at DMing 4e, to boot (though I'm a long time DM in other editions and games).
The second time I still got in two combats, a pile of exploration, and some RP. Pretty good considering my latest games with 6 PCs I'm lucky if I can pull off more than one combat a night and still have time for anything else.
Good gaming, and let us know how it goes!
The second time I still got in two combats, a pile of exploration, and some RP. Pretty good considering my latest games with 6 PCs I'm lucky if I can pull off more than one combat a night and still have time for anything else.
Good gaming, and let us know how it goes!
Herobizkit
Adventurer
The adventure is over. As it turned out, no one was in any real danger.
The players spent a great deal of time RP'ing in town and by the time 3 hours had gone by, they still hand't really started the adventure. I decided the Ankheg and broodlings would advance on the town.
The Ankheg and broodlings were a great icebreaker to test out powers and such. They decided that the Ankheg was relevant (it wasn't) and so tracked it back to its lair, then proceeded to crawl into its tunnels... to reward their dilly-dallying, I had some bandits waylay them when they came back out. The Blackguard took a few arrows in the rump before things Got Serious and the Bladesinger got an Argent Rain to waste most of them. The lone survivor got handed in to the town.
THEN they got the local Ranger's help to track some goblin tracks to the Gnoll lair. On their way, they encountered the witch's familiar spying on them. Without a thought, the (evil, btw) Blackguard one-shots it with a 20 at max range. The Good Ranger and the Lawful Good Dwarf Cleric NPC's are grossly unimpressed.
And then, they finally get to the Gnoll Lair.
They managed to bypass the pit trap altogether by finding the secret alternate entrance.
This enabled them to sneak and gank one of the two gnoll guards. They got off a warning yell, but they were both dead before the reinforcements (the Gnoll Wizard) arrived. Instead, he went to the room with the Mockery priestess and prepared for a standoff.
The toughest fight ended up being a combo of the gnoll male and female wizard-types and their four snipers. The two Gnolls alone gave them quite a go with their powers, nearly knocking out the Blackguard.
The Grick gave them a few solid whacks, and I had it appear and disappear into the walls at various stages to keep them on their toes. It did succeed to knock one into the pit (there was an entrance to the same bridge pit on the 2nd level, halfway down)
but didn't I randomly roll the guy who had feather fall... *lol*
The didn't make it to the wight. They found what they were looking for on the first level, and I dropped a subtle hint that the deeper they went on the 2nd floor, the harder fights would get, Kinda like a Boss Rush mode. Once they dealt with the Grick, they decided enough was enough and left.
All in all, the session took eight hours, was loads of fun, and gave me an idea of how fights go. I took two hours ahead of time to write my own statblocks for the creatures and put them on a spreadsheet. Yes, I could have printed them off and made little cards, but I'm old school, and it helped solidify their powers in my mind.
The players seemed to have fun too, and had some pretty solid attitudes for their characters figured out.
The Warforged Alchemist 'Three' was logical and threw in scientific mumbo jumbo in with his regular speech ("I dispense 3.5 ounces of stew to each human.")
The Eladrin Bladesinger 'Celeste' was a pretty elf girl who acted like a spoiled princess.
The Vryloka Blackguard 'Abaraxas' was a royal jerk. He worshiped Asmodeus. He made no friends, only enemies. And he was a half-undead that drank blood. Regularly. In plain view.
Good cast, imo.
The players spent a great deal of time RP'ing in town and by the time 3 hours had gone by, they still hand't really started the adventure. I decided the Ankheg and broodlings would advance on the town.
The Ankheg and broodlings were a great icebreaker to test out powers and such. They decided that the Ankheg was relevant (it wasn't) and so tracked it back to its lair, then proceeded to crawl into its tunnels... to reward their dilly-dallying, I had some bandits waylay them when they came back out. The Blackguard took a few arrows in the rump before things Got Serious and the Bladesinger got an Argent Rain to waste most of them. The lone survivor got handed in to the town.
THEN they got the local Ranger's help to track some goblin tracks to the Gnoll lair. On their way, they encountered the witch's familiar spying on them. Without a thought, the (evil, btw) Blackguard one-shots it with a 20 at max range. The Good Ranger and the Lawful Good Dwarf Cleric NPC's are grossly unimpressed.
And then, they finally get to the Gnoll Lair.
They managed to bypass the pit trap altogether by finding the secret alternate entrance.
This enabled them to sneak and gank one of the two gnoll guards. They got off a warning yell, but they were both dead before the reinforcements (the Gnoll Wizard) arrived. Instead, he went to the room with the Mockery priestess and prepared for a standoff.
The toughest fight ended up being a combo of the gnoll male and female wizard-types and their four snipers. The two Gnolls alone gave them quite a go with their powers, nearly knocking out the Blackguard.
The Grick gave them a few solid whacks, and I had it appear and disappear into the walls at various stages to keep them on their toes. It did succeed to knock one into the pit (there was an entrance to the same bridge pit on the 2nd level, halfway down)
but didn't I randomly roll the guy who had feather fall... *lol*
The didn't make it to the wight. They found what they were looking for on the first level, and I dropped a subtle hint that the deeper they went on the 2nd floor, the harder fights would get, Kinda like a Boss Rush mode. Once they dealt with the Grick, they decided enough was enough and left.
All in all, the session took eight hours, was loads of fun, and gave me an idea of how fights go. I took two hours ahead of time to write my own statblocks for the creatures and put them on a spreadsheet. Yes, I could have printed them off and made little cards, but I'm old school, and it helped solidify their powers in my mind.
The players seemed to have fun too, and had some pretty solid attitudes for their characters figured out.
The Warforged Alchemist 'Three' was logical and threw in scientific mumbo jumbo in with his regular speech ("I dispense 3.5 ounces of stew to each human.")
The Eladrin Bladesinger 'Celeste' was a pretty elf girl who acted like a spoiled princess.
The Vryloka Blackguard 'Abaraxas' was a royal jerk. He worshiped Asmodeus. He made no friends, only enemies. And he was a half-undead that drank blood. Regularly. In plain view.
Good cast, imo.
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
My group also regularly does 6-8 hour sessions, but it's getting harder every year! We're not as young as we used to be and burning the candle at both ends is becoming more taxing and less desirable.
Thanks for following up with us and letting us know how it turned out.
One of my biggest challenges in moving from 3.5E to 4E is challenging the players properly. I've always been one that enjoyed the one big, climactic combat, but it's a lot harder to do in 4E.
I've also found that I need several above level encounters to challenge the party - last session, the level 9 party was just finishing up a level 10 encounter and is now getting hit with a level 11 encounter to follow up, with zero rest in between.
Before that, when they were level 8, they ran into a similar situation with a level 9 and 10 encounter with no rest. Before that, it was two level 9 encounters with no rest, and then a level 11 after a short rest that was preceeded by a level 9 trap.
Herobizkit
Adventurer
As for the next game...
We'll see. Xmas vacations all around... once the new year hits, school gets heavy and with three possible games (my homebrew, the other DM's Thunderspire Labyrinth, and a third's Serenity game), not sure what everyone's going to want to do.
We'll see. Xmas vacations all around... once the new year hits, school gets heavy and with three possible games (my homebrew, the other DM's Thunderspire Labyrinth, and a third's Serenity game), not sure what everyone's going to want to do.
Good god, man. You are not poor for gaming. *shakefist*
