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Excerpt: Swarms
- Thread starter Fallen Seraph
- Start date
Rat swarm is considerably milder (though comparing X skirmishers to X soldiers isn't entirely fair).
Five 1st level KotFS characters vs 4 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 5 Healing surges.
After Combat: 8 healing surges between 3 characters.
Five 2nd level KotFS characters vs 5 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 4 Healing surges.
After Combat: 5 healing surges between 3 characters.
Five 3rd level KotFS characters (w/ +1 weapons/implements/armor) vs 6 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 4 Healing surges.
After Combat: 4 healing surges between 3 characters.
The rat swarms are fairly well balanced. They require an appropriate amount of resources to deal with. They can still be pretty dangerous, as at one point, I had the dwarf taking 12 points of ongoing damage, good thing he's a fast healing HP junkie. The slow speed of the swarm just about guaranteed that the wizard could dump a double scorching burst on them with the crazy warlord bonuses on the second attack. Combine this with a Divine Strength Breath attack during an action point from the Dragonborn Paladin, and stuf goes down fast. A party without the AoE options may be a bit more challenged, but using a daily power or two should get them through the encounter.
Five 1st level KotFS characters vs 4 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 5 Healing surges.
After Combat: 8 healing surges between 3 characters.
Five 2nd level KotFS characters vs 5 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 4 Healing surges.
After Combat: 5 healing surges between 3 characters.
Five 3rd level KotFS characters (w/ +1 weapons/implements/armor) vs 6 Rat Swarms:
Resources spent during combat: 2 Action Points, 1 Lay on Hands, 4 Healing surges.
After Combat: 4 healing surges between 3 characters.
The rat swarms are fairly well balanced. They require an appropriate amount of resources to deal with. They can still be pretty dangerous, as at one point, I had the dwarf taking 12 points of ongoing damage, good thing he's a fast healing HP junkie. The slow speed of the swarm just about guaranteed that the wizard could dump a double scorching burst on them with the crazy warlord bonuses on the second attack. Combine this with a Divine Strength Breath attack during an action point from the Dragonborn Paladin, and stuf goes down fast. A party without the AoE options may be a bit more challenged, but using a daily power or two should get them through the encounter.
VBMEW-01
First Post
In our session last night (we've completely switched over for this last month since we now have enough info to get to 4th level) I put my group of 3 level 2s (fighter/warlord/wizard) against a deathjump spider and a swarm of stinging spiders (the drakes renamed). These critters just swarmed out of a huge chest they opened and commenced to wreaking havoc.
It was an awesome fight. The swarm just followed them every round , taking advantage of the fact that at least two of them were generally always within aura radius and getting second strikes at the beginnings of their next turns. I only managed to pull one of them down (due to abysmal rolls), but the effect was nasty on his next turn.
Couple that with the spider's nasty death from above/prodigious leap combo (which often left him out of reach, on the ceiling), and it became a very memorable encounter.
They won of course, which is the point, but the immanent threat of loss was in the air (though never as close as they thought).
It was an awesome fight. The swarm just followed them every round , taking advantage of the fact that at least two of them were generally always within aura radius and getting second strikes at the beginnings of their next turns. I only managed to pull one of them down (due to abysmal rolls), but the effect was nasty on his next turn.
Couple that with the spider's nasty death from above/prodigious leap combo (which often left him out of reach, on the ceiling), and it became a very memorable encounter.
They won of course, which is the point, but the immanent threat of loss was in the air (though never as close as they thought).
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