zoroaster100
First Post
I ran my first fourth edition adventure last night. I ran a modification from the Raiders of Oakhurst adventure from the boards here. The players used the elf rogue posted on these boards along with three charactes from D&D Experience: the tiefling wizard, human cleric and dwarf fighter. We played for about 4 hours.
The would-be heroes tracked down some kobolds who had been causing havoc to the local town's chicken farmers by killing and stealing chickens. They found the cave from which the kobold tracks originated. The wizard used his light cantrip to light up a coin to use for illumination on entering the forbidding tunnel. For some way into the cave, the group found nothing but occasional droplets of water dripping from above. The rogue led the way, but did not go far ahead because he needed the group's light (and maybe he was afraid of being assaulted alone by whatever lurked within).
As the group passed through a cross-tunnel, the dwarf did not notice the stealthy critter lurking in a small alcove above. The creature was camouflaged perfectly against the stone wall. The dwarf didn't know what hit him when he suddenly found himself chocking with a jagged suckered tentacle claw around his neck. The dwarf's allies reacted immediately to help him. The wizard blasted a magic missile at the creature. But alas! The creature used the dwarf to block the spell, causing the dwarf to take the blast full on. After that the others feared to use many of their strongest attacks for fear of hurting their friend. The dwarf attacked the creature, but was still held fast around the throat. The others in desperation decided to blast after all, hoping at least some of their attacks would get through. The chocker had not yet managed to get a good hold again after hurling the dwarf into harm's way, and was unable to use the dwarf as a shield this time. Then the dwarf struck again, hoping to kill the creature that was trying to sap his life away. He hacked it on the head (a critical) and killed it outright.
The group took a brief rest to catch their breath. Then they continued. They wondered about a minor maze of tunnels, looking for the sneaky kobolds they sought to deal with.
Unfortunately the kobolds had prepared an ambush, and the heroes found themselves surrounded at an intersection that circled back. One path was blocked by two kobold skirmishers and four kobold minions. The way back was blocked by one skirmisher and four more minions! The kobold skirmishers struck first, smiting the rogue with a barrage of deadly spears.
The heroes swung into action. They were surprised by the ferocity and danger of the kobolds. The wizard unleashed his once per day sleep spell to catch the biggest group of kobolds. He slowed several, and later one skirmisher and one minion would fall asleep. The fighter moved into position to block one of the kobold groups from advancing on his friends. During the fight he took a lot of damage, and the cleric had to heal him and he had to use a second wind, but he stood his ground and kept back that one small horde. Meanwhile the cleric and wizard focused their ranged magic attacks on the other group of kobolds, and the rogue and one kobold skirmisher engaged in a game of mutual hit and run attacks until the rogue finally took down the skirmisher. (The rogue tried to retreat to safety at one point, bu the shifty skirmisher actually managed to race around a tunnel all the way around to come at the rogue from the other direction. The players were impressed by the kobolds' mobility throughout this fight.) The wizard shifted the tide at one point when he managed to catch two skirmishers and three minions in a clump with his scorching burst attack. The dwarf was consistently effective against the foe. The rogue did not do as well in this fight because of the cramped tunnel conditions which made it difficult for him to maneover into flanking position.
Two kobold minions got away despite the heroes' best efforts to shoot them down. The heroes again took a brief rest, but then decided instead of pursuing the foe deeper in, they would set up an ambush. The kobolds, however, did not regroup to attack under the leadership of their king. Instead, their cowardly king, Meepo, went straight to his hobgoblin slavemasters and pleaded that all of the hobgoblins' kobold slaves would be killed if the hobgoblins did not eliminate the invaders. So the hobgoblins in the caverns organized themselves into a deadly strike team of two soldiers, two archers and their warcaster leader.
The heroes had their ambush prepared, but they were expecting weak kobolds, not fully armed and armored hobgoblins with military precision training. The hobgoblins marched in formation and used coordinated tactics. The soldiers moved on ahead into melee, blocking the passage and providing each other with their formation armor bonus. The archers began to do devastating ranged damage to the heroes from behind the soldier lines. The warcaster used his force lance to good effect, blasting heroes into the reach of the soldiers. Things looked pretty grim for a bit. Then the heroes decided to give it all they had, using their action points and daily powers in a comined burst, which combined with rolling several criticals on important rolls, lead to the death of one soldier, severe wounding of the other, one archer running away from the cleric's fear, and the warcaster making a strategic withdrawal. The dwarf fighter stayed behind to finish off the soldier, while the rogue managed to get past the soldier to strike at the wounded warcaster, finishing him off with a dagger to the throat (a crit!). The archer that ran away came back, but by then the four heroes mobed the two wounded archers against a wall, and forced them to rely on their less trained skill with their longswords. After coming close to disastrous defeat, the heroes rejoiced over their defeat of the hobgoblin strike force. At that point the characters would probably have taken a long rest outside the cave, but it was time to end our playtest for the day anyway.
The figher's player commented the fighter was fun to play and fulfilled his role well. He especially liked the tide of iron power and his ability to push enemies around the battlefield. The wizard's player, who usually plays a wizard in third edition, seemed pleased with the options available to the first level wizard, especially that he never had to resort to the dreaded crossbow. He did raise a concern about saving throws, however. He wondered whether even after a wizard is high level, will weaker foes still be able to shrugg off continuing effects from his spells with a 55% chance per turn? The cleric's ability to heal while still attacking was praised, though the player remarked that he wished the cleric had an area effect like the wizard. I thought the rogue performed adequately, but the player remarked that if the fights had taken place in larger areas he would have been much better able to take advantage of flanking and sneak attacks. Over all we had a lot of fun, and the players asked to continue the adventure next weekend, when we will likely be joined by another player and use of another of the sample characters. I said I would love to run part two of the adventure, but warned that we cannot pass on to second level until June....
The would-be heroes tracked down some kobolds who had been causing havoc to the local town's chicken farmers by killing and stealing chickens. They found the cave from which the kobold tracks originated. The wizard used his light cantrip to light up a coin to use for illumination on entering the forbidding tunnel. For some way into the cave, the group found nothing but occasional droplets of water dripping from above. The rogue led the way, but did not go far ahead because he needed the group's light (and maybe he was afraid of being assaulted alone by whatever lurked within).
As the group passed through a cross-tunnel, the dwarf did not notice the stealthy critter lurking in a small alcove above. The creature was camouflaged perfectly against the stone wall. The dwarf didn't know what hit him when he suddenly found himself chocking with a jagged suckered tentacle claw around his neck. The dwarf's allies reacted immediately to help him. The wizard blasted a magic missile at the creature. But alas! The creature used the dwarf to block the spell, causing the dwarf to take the blast full on. After that the others feared to use many of their strongest attacks for fear of hurting their friend. The dwarf attacked the creature, but was still held fast around the throat. The others in desperation decided to blast after all, hoping at least some of their attacks would get through. The chocker had not yet managed to get a good hold again after hurling the dwarf into harm's way, and was unable to use the dwarf as a shield this time. Then the dwarf struck again, hoping to kill the creature that was trying to sap his life away. He hacked it on the head (a critical) and killed it outright.
The group took a brief rest to catch their breath. Then they continued. They wondered about a minor maze of tunnels, looking for the sneaky kobolds they sought to deal with.
Unfortunately the kobolds had prepared an ambush, and the heroes found themselves surrounded at an intersection that circled back. One path was blocked by two kobold skirmishers and four kobold minions. The way back was blocked by one skirmisher and four more minions! The kobold skirmishers struck first, smiting the rogue with a barrage of deadly spears.
The heroes swung into action. They were surprised by the ferocity and danger of the kobolds. The wizard unleashed his once per day sleep spell to catch the biggest group of kobolds. He slowed several, and later one skirmisher and one minion would fall asleep. The fighter moved into position to block one of the kobold groups from advancing on his friends. During the fight he took a lot of damage, and the cleric had to heal him and he had to use a second wind, but he stood his ground and kept back that one small horde. Meanwhile the cleric and wizard focused their ranged magic attacks on the other group of kobolds, and the rogue and one kobold skirmisher engaged in a game of mutual hit and run attacks until the rogue finally took down the skirmisher. (The rogue tried to retreat to safety at one point, bu the shifty skirmisher actually managed to race around a tunnel all the way around to come at the rogue from the other direction. The players were impressed by the kobolds' mobility throughout this fight.) The wizard shifted the tide at one point when he managed to catch two skirmishers and three minions in a clump with his scorching burst attack. The dwarf was consistently effective against the foe. The rogue did not do as well in this fight because of the cramped tunnel conditions which made it difficult for him to maneover into flanking position.
Two kobold minions got away despite the heroes' best efforts to shoot them down. The heroes again took a brief rest, but then decided instead of pursuing the foe deeper in, they would set up an ambush. The kobolds, however, did not regroup to attack under the leadership of their king. Instead, their cowardly king, Meepo, went straight to his hobgoblin slavemasters and pleaded that all of the hobgoblins' kobold slaves would be killed if the hobgoblins did not eliminate the invaders. So the hobgoblins in the caverns organized themselves into a deadly strike team of two soldiers, two archers and their warcaster leader.
The heroes had their ambush prepared, but they were expecting weak kobolds, not fully armed and armored hobgoblins with military precision training. The hobgoblins marched in formation and used coordinated tactics. The soldiers moved on ahead into melee, blocking the passage and providing each other with their formation armor bonus. The archers began to do devastating ranged damage to the heroes from behind the soldier lines. The warcaster used his force lance to good effect, blasting heroes into the reach of the soldiers. Things looked pretty grim for a bit. Then the heroes decided to give it all they had, using their action points and daily powers in a comined burst, which combined with rolling several criticals on important rolls, lead to the death of one soldier, severe wounding of the other, one archer running away from the cleric's fear, and the warcaster making a strategic withdrawal. The dwarf fighter stayed behind to finish off the soldier, while the rogue managed to get past the soldier to strike at the wounded warcaster, finishing him off with a dagger to the throat (a crit!). The archer that ran away came back, but by then the four heroes mobed the two wounded archers against a wall, and forced them to rely on their less trained skill with their longswords. After coming close to disastrous defeat, the heroes rejoiced over their defeat of the hobgoblin strike force. At that point the characters would probably have taken a long rest outside the cave, but it was time to end our playtest for the day anyway.
The figher's player commented the fighter was fun to play and fulfilled his role well. He especially liked the tide of iron power and his ability to push enemies around the battlefield. The wizard's player, who usually plays a wizard in third edition, seemed pleased with the options available to the first level wizard, especially that he never had to resort to the dreaded crossbow. He did raise a concern about saving throws, however. He wondered whether even after a wizard is high level, will weaker foes still be able to shrugg off continuing effects from his spells with a 55% chance per turn? The cleric's ability to heal while still attacking was praised, though the player remarked that he wished the cleric had an area effect like the wizard. I thought the rogue performed adequately, but the player remarked that if the fights had taken place in larger areas he would have been much better able to take advantage of flanking and sneak attacks. Over all we had a lot of fun, and the players asked to continue the adventure next weekend, when we will likely be joined by another player and use of another of the sample characters. I said I would love to run part two of the adventure, but warned that we cannot pass on to second level until June....
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beating the choking chicken joke like that. Hopefully you are spent and will not offer any more. 
