This is my experience too. Most groups last only 3 months for me for either cause.
See the poll I linked on (I think) the second page, about unstable games.
Do you Expect to hit Epic tier?
- Thread starter Rechan
- Start date
See the poll I linked on (I think) the second page, about unstable games.
Quickleaf
Legend
I was wondering how you connected what you do with monsters to your group's ROA (that's "rate of advancement" not the sound Wily E. Coyote/Road Runner make at the edge of a cliffI halve all monster hp, otherwise they are as per current RAW - I'll eg upgrade damage output on older monsters. Did you mean how I use them? I pretty much follow 4e DM advice, but 'Spike' encounters are quite common IMCs; players love the feeling of really going all-out for death or glory, especially if they get the glory.
). You said their 1 level per 3 sessions advancement was due to halving monster HP. That's what I don't follow.
I was wondering how you connected what you do with monsters to your group's ROA (that's "rate of advancement" not the sound Wily E. Coyote/Road Runner make at the edge of a cliff
You said their 1 level per 3 sessions advancement was due to halving monster HP. That's what I don't follow.
With half hp monsters:
Fights go faster. More fights = more XP.
I can use more monsters in a fight. More monsters = more XP.
I use higher level monsters that still die quite fast. Higher level = more XP.
I regard 1 level per 3 3-hour sessions to be a fast advancement rate with 5-6 PCs; it's only 1 hour/level faster than the 4e DMG suggestion of 10 hours/level, but when I played sandbox style with full hp monsters the rate was typically well below that, closer to 1 level per 18 hours.
BTW we only had 3 players last night, 3 5th level PCs vs a Dungeon Delve written for 5 6th level PCs (DD#6): I had an additional intro encounter, monster hp halved, monster damage upped & other modifiers to current stat norms, didn't remove any monsters. The game ran late as we squeezed in the finale encounter, 4 fights in 4 hours, somehow the three PCs survived, triumphed, and ended up with 2050 XP each, which has got to be a record for a 4e game session with me. That put them to 6th, half way to 7th level.
Discussion & kill tally here: The Southlands Campaign: 4e D&D in the Wilderlands
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DarkLord Of DForce
First Post
Well, our battle with Acererak at the end of the Tomb Of Horrors turned out to be a bit of a letdown.
The DM had us in room with multiple columns that blocked line of effect/sight and some odd columns that did different effects.
First blow against the DMs setup was that, amazingly enough, we never got close enough to these special columns to set anything off.
Next, he actually had NPCs that were min-replicas of our own characters. Many of the same powers, abilities, etc...
2nd blow came when our mage/caster rolled high init and got to go first. He dropped Chain Lightning, followed by Delusional Salutation (?) off his action point. He rolled a couple of crits, hit almost every single roll and did something like 667 points of damage in the first very turn of the first round.
Ouch. What didn't help was that these NPCs were clustered right around Acererak, making it easy for our guy to nail them with the AOE stuff. Many of them were also stunned after this.
3rd, our party had a good night. I had 2 crits, the raging Barbarian had 3 crits (including one against Acererak for 227 pts of dmg), and others in the party critted as well, with only a handful of missed attacks all night.
We pretty much wiped this bunch out in 3 rounds.
Our DM told us he was very disappointed. He really thought that the NPCs with PC powers and abilities would do a lot better against us. I think they might have, if they had ever gotten the chance.
Anyways, we leveled up to 24, and our DM and guest DM are cooking up something for us for the rest of Epic, as we finished this particular story arc.
Off to bed now guys. Cya.
The DM had us in room with multiple columns that blocked line of effect/sight and some odd columns that did different effects.
First blow against the DMs setup was that, amazingly enough, we never got close enough to these special columns to set anything off.
Next, he actually had NPCs that were min-replicas of our own characters. Many of the same powers, abilities, etc...
2nd blow came when our mage/caster rolled high init and got to go first. He dropped Chain Lightning, followed by Delusional Salutation (?) off his action point. He rolled a couple of crits, hit almost every single roll and did something like 667 points of damage in the first very turn of the first round.
Ouch. What didn't help was that these NPCs were clustered right around Acererak, making it easy for our guy to nail them with the AOE stuff. Many of them were also stunned after this.
3rd, our party had a good night. I had 2 crits, the raging Barbarian had 3 crits (including one against Acererak for 227 pts of dmg), and others in the party critted as well, with only a handful of missed attacks all night.
We pretty much wiped this bunch out in 3 rounds.
Our DM told us he was very disappointed. He really thought that the NPCs with PC powers and abilities would do a lot better against us. I think they might have, if they had ever gotten the chance.
Anyways, we leveled up to 24, and our DM and guest DM are cooking up something for us for the rest of Epic, as we finished this particular story arc.
Off to bed now guys. Cya.
You might be more generous than me with the quest & ad hoc XP awards*. Your advancement rate looks fast to me, especially with a 6-PC group; the 4e game goes much slower as PC numbers increase, IME. Both my current games I'm deliberately aiming at a fast advancement rate, faster than my first 4e campaign, but with the regular 5-6 PCs I don't see advancement much beyond 2.5 sessions/level at best, usually 3. With 4 PCs it goes faster, esp if they get a big Quest award, and with 3 PCs much faster still.
*Or your 'not tracking XP' had a bigger impact than you think.
Anyway, I like the current advancement rate I'm seeing, it seems to suit 4e well to have (what I regard as) rapid advancement, very rapid compared to prior editions. It helps IME to think of 4e levels as about 2/3 of a prior-edition level when world-building, and high level PCs or NPCs have far less impact than they did in earlier eds.
keterys
First Post
Destructive Salution... and yeah, there's a reason the proposed revision for the power changes the stun to dazed
Monsters with PC powers can work very well, but you have to know which ones to take - things like immediates that exclude you from attacks, or deny an attack in the first place.
Also, you generally want enemies spread out a lot at Epic. At least at the start of combat. If the burst 3 from the wizard had only caught half the enemies at most, pretty different encounter.
That said, it's generally the case that PCs can do some amazing things at epic. Especially when the crits start happening (someone crit for 160 last night - that's one heck of a crit).
It's also been very interesting for me to compare two epic groups I'm running at the moment through an adventure - I think one of them might have at least 50% more damage output than the other.
