I played the BI on Friday, wasn't even thinking about replaying on Saturday, so have no clue about fixes and/or changes.
Interestingly, Marshall - I was almost at your first table (I think).
I had sat down for the H3 version with five others. Then an HQ-type person came by and asked us to yield one player for a new table being put together. I was the odd man out, so I went. But by the time I got to the table, I had discovered there were nothing but 5 strikers, and all but one ranged. On one hand, that sounds deadly, but no healing and no tank spelled trouble to me.
So I went over to the muster area and recruited JD, a released judge I knew - thankfully, he had an H3 cleric. Coming back to the table, it dawned on me that there were now 6 players here. I figured, better off without me (since the scaling rules would drop more baddies on us), so I went back to my original group.
I didn't feel too bad about it, but did kinda feel like the obstinate shmuck for not following HQ's lead. Hope I didn't come across too badly.
Anyway, my group consisted of an inspiring warlord (10th), a fey warlock (10th), a beastmaster ranger (7th), an ardent paladin (8th), an assassin (8th), and my archer ranger (10th). They called themselves The Fallen, since everyone in the group was either dhampyr or revenant. Interesting bunch. We played 'down'.
So, how things went for us, from a tactical viewpoint (I love the story/flavor in the OP, but have no voice for that right now):
Encounter 1 - We came close to losing several civilians, but managed to save each in the nick of time. The melee guys drew a lot of aggro and I illustrated to them how maneuverable Sam is (shifting and interrupting and so forth). Nothing jumps out at me from this encounter as noteworthy, but it was kind of fun.
Encounter 2 - We specifically wasted three or four minutes at the start of the encounter getting explicit descriptions of all of the terrain. Which mattered later as myself and the warlock went zipping through it trying to get to the archers (I could've stayed back, but figured why Not close - I could take my chances with the river). We did well enough here that when an adjacent table called for help, we stepped in and took over all three of their archers plus one soldier. Since we started the new battle where we had left off (everyone most of the way to the wall, two people on it), they were kinda pwned right from the start.
Oh, and my character and the cleric made all of the 'redeemable/not redeemable' checks for our original baddies - so we killed only the right ones and didn't have anyone erupt on us. The reinforcements/help fight was all 'need to be killed' baddies.
We voted heavily in favor of the ritual to change the Companion. Esp since we have undead in the group - they went from suffering penalties to having bonuses.
Encounter 3 - We didn't concentrate much fire on the monolith to start. I was tempted to do so, but the archers were really rolling well. So we nuked (two crits took out the zombies) three of the henchmen before most of us had turned on the biggie. Thankfully, the warlock had put up some effect that allowed him to roll off against the DM for every attack it made - and he canceled at least half of them that way. Figuring correctly that this was it for the day, numerous dailies popped out and down the monolith went. We considered taking a second one, but our DM hinted it would be a P1 challenge, so we settled for the one.
The BI as a whole defeated enough monoliths to be successful, so our characters slept well that night.
Encounter 4 - The Slaad fight was kind of interesting, since the energy motes/rifts on the ground kept erupting and spitting out fire or thunder or what-have-you. By now, the warlock and I were a fairly in-sync duo, picking a target and burning it down each round or two while the meleers ran in and engaged. The start and end time of this encounter were less than clear, so we almost didn't finish - but there was only one beast left and it had just taken its turn, so the DM called for one attack from everyone and it fell hard to the concentrated fire.
One note about this encounter - it was the only one that really didn't impact or connect to the story much. With all of the other fights, there was a connection to the main plot. This one was the only one that felt "speedbump"ish, even if we had fun with it.
I was the only PC to offer tribute to Yeenoghu at our table. As a rough and tumble, live by your means kind of guy, it made sense for me.
The game mechanic - I didn't have to draw from the change deck, but could if I wanted. Eh.
Skill Challenge - yet another interpretation.
We faced 11 motes. We had two options for how to spend our move action each round - a, help the ritual or b, use a skill that allowed you to intercede between the motes and the caster. Then we could use a standard action to attack as many motes as possible (one or two, generally). If any motes were left, they hit the interceding PCs first (one each) and then piled onto the caster.
A couple players were rather annoyed by the whole thing, seeing it as more of a healing surge sink rather than an unwinnable encounter. Of course, we kept the caster alive (by regularly putting five PCs in front of her) and got the ritual done in four or so rounds, so their opinion might be colored by that.
I didn't mind the whole thing, except for the part where we had to roll to hit, but they did not. So having a good defense (or defensive encounter powers) was no help whatsoever. It was only after the event that we learned the motes could be slowed or similar and that would have worked too (since they blow up no matter what, it's just a matter of whether they blow up next to someone).
I don't recall booing anyone. *shrug*
btw - for those who have seen the text, does it say anything about needing to be a ritual caster in order to Aid? I heard that PCs like mine (merely trained in Nature and Religion) should not have been able to help.
Encounter 5 - The visual we got was a little different on friday (than what is presented above). Chiefly, I don't recall any chasm, earth motes or head. Some terrain, yes, but nothing that exciting. Instead, there was a well-protected heart and multiple tentacles (eventually) and lots of minions. Luckily, the assassin had pulled an aura from the change deck, so the minions were much less effective against the meleers.
This was Sam's fight. First round, I hit the heart with Splintering Shot, to give it an attack penalty for the whole fight. Some dmg even got through its resistance. Second round, I used Attack on the Run to kill one of the tentacles (from full to gone) and an AP to bloody another (crit'ing with Biting Volley). It wasn't terribly spectacular from there on out, but the victory was never in doubt.
We finished early, offered help, considered reinforcements and ended up doing neither.
Final Encounter - Well, first, the Companion went dark. That was a baaad sign. Guess we shouldn't have voted in favor of the ritual, eh?
Then things started popping in, including the dragon. The warlock and I looked at each other, then the layout, then rest of the group. "He's ours. Save the priest." And it worked! We both got a crit in, and proved obnoxiously hard to reach and keep within reach that it went for the paladin after two or three rounds - and then He got a crit on it. Boom, no more dragon.
The rest of the fight, however, had not gone swimmingly for the rest of the group, as they had some cold dice. But things came around and just in time - we killed the final archer with two minutes to spare.
I had a lot of fun with this, very much enjoyed the flavor, and will gladly play one again. Especially if it's completely written a full week or more before the con (as opposed to completed on Thursday, sheesh).
btw - Two mvp's for Sam...
Lightning Arrow, which is a surprisingly cheap ammunition item that dazes on a hit (plus 1d6 dmg). Just awesome against things like the dragon and the archers in encounter 2.
Disruptive Strike, which got me free in-between-rounds damage in every encounter, plus had a decent chance of creating a miss. Our DM was very flexible about when I declared I was using it since he was moving through the bad guys turns as quickly as possible - so it was never a wasted effort (that is, RAW, you use it before they roll, not after, and if they skunk the roll anyway, oh well). I even recharged it once or twice using the energy nodes in two of the encounters.
-VIC