I got to play Scalegloom and Escape from Sembia

[Elodan]

While the character can't do anything about it, other characters can. The Paladin has an ability to give characters an extra save as a minor, and I believe you can use heal as a standard to to give someone an extra save. Doesn't make it less annoying if those options aren't available though.

The problem was that we were all spread out around the room to avoid the breath and the other characters couldn't reach me in time. We had used a lot of action points by that point to keep going so no one had any left.

 

[Elodan]

I guess I fail to see how falling back on a core of at will powers (which are attacks) is any different than falling back on some attacks.

My point was there really isn't. I was trying to get a feel of the differences between the two systems and see if there are enough "better" (notice the quotes) things to make us want to upgrade.

 

[Elodan]

What skill uses did you use in the escape from the guards?

I used athletics to climb up some crates to get to the roofs and then Stealth to move along the rooftops (the later was a tremendous success). Unfortunately, most of my team failed their checks.

My buddy Dave felt that people would only pick their best skills when it came to these types of challenges. I saw it as no different than 3E in that regard. I liked to see these things would be a little more codified in the rules.

 

[Elodan]

Sounds like you had bad DMs and that affected your experience. They were flat out wrong in a couple of cases. For example, when you take a short rest, you can spend as many healing surges as you like.

If you don't know who is marking who, that is a failure of your DM to communicate and manage the game. In my 4e playtest, we had no problems and none of us have even seen the actual 4e rules. Heck, I played both the cleric AND the wizard simultaneously and had no issues managing both my characters.

Out of curiosity, did you play these at D&D Experience?

In the 1st encounter from Escape from Sembia, the guards can mark you as the fighter and paladin can mark enemies. I couldn't keep track of who was marked by who. Luckily the DM did. I see this as potentially confusing if the group isn't focused.

The DM for Scalegloom was bad. The DM for Escape from Sembia was much better.

After Scalegloom we played two 7-9th level 3.5 adventures. The first was a drag and I thought using 4E would much improve the game. The second was much more fun. I realized that it was the different styles of the DM that made the difference. In any system, rules knowledge and the ability of the DM to "wing it" really affect your enjoyment.

I don't think the minor rule inconsistencies we faced made that much of a difference. I was unsure about facing each encounter with full HPs each time. Once I played the ranger I realized this was not the case even with the use of multiple uses of healing surges between encounters.

As I said, I had fun. I'd definitely play but I just haven't seen enough "improvements" (again, note the quotes, not belittling any system) in 4E to make me want to upgrade. I'm waiting until my pre-order comes until making up my mind.

 

[LEHaskell]

My buddy Dave felt that people would only pick their best skills when it came to these types of challenges. I saw it as no different than 3E in that regard. I liked to see these things would be a little more codified in the rules.

Well...yeah. I would expect players (and characters) to go with their strengths when solving problems. The trick is to find plausible ways to apply your strongest skills to the problem at hand -- putting on an acrobatics display when you're trying to convince Lord Piecemeal to go to war probably isn't going to help, though it might impress the guys in the circus caravan you're trying to hitch a ride with.

And you're right, this isn't really something new to D&D -- I've played RPGA adventures with similar mechanics spelled out. What I think is new is including a framework and guidance for the DM in the core books for such as system.

 

[Dragonblade]

Out of curiosity, did you play these at D&D Experience?

In the 1st encounter from Escape from Sembia, the guards can mark you as the fighter and paladin can mark enemies. I couldn't keep track of who was marked by who. Luckily the DM did. I see this as potentially confusing if the group isn't focused.

I was not at DDXP, I played in a playtest with some friends. I agree that if the group isn't focused then it could be confusing, but I think that's equally true with 3e as well in regards to tracking buffs and such. IMO, 3e lends itself more to zoning out and OOC chatter because it takes so long before your turn comes back to you.

In my 4e game, everyone was alert and attentive. In all fairness, I will say this could be because the system was new, and perhaps once people get familiar with it, things will go back to normal. But we'll see, I guess.

 

[Rex Blunder]

Very interesting report! Thanks for providing it.

 

[The Little Raven]

* Ongoing effects suck. Dragon’s acid carries to the next round. You take 5 points of damage at the start of the round, do your actions and save at the end. If you don’t save the effect continues. Save is 10+ on a d20, no modifiers. Nothing worse than being at 2hp, failing your save and knowing that you’re going to take 5 points of damage and there’s nothing you can do about it. Really dislike this.

How is this any different from 3e's ongoing effects, except for the fact that in 3e, you don't have any chances to stop ongoing effects if you fail your initial save? Heat Metal gives one saving throw when you cast it, then takes it's full effect if you fail. No chance to get it off next round. Your 2 hp example is even worse off in 3e because you don't have the chance to end the effect each round, and you have less negative hit points and are more likely to die.

 

[MerricB]

* The DM allows us to use as many healing surges as we need between encounters. The means we essentially have full HPs at the start of each encounter. Not liking. We later find out you’re only supposed to use one per short rest. Better.

It's any number per short rest; only one during an encounter (as a Second Wind; you might get more due to special abilites and skills).

This is effectively no different to 3rd edition, where past level 1 the wand of cure light wounds and similar magicks meant that every group always began each encounter on full hit points.

Of course, you *do* run out of healing surges if the day goes on long enough. It's just that it isn't the four-encounter (or one encounter) day any more... you can do more each day.

Cheers!

 

[Baumi]

Thanks for your Report!

My buddy Dave felt that people would only pick their best skills when it came to these types of challenges.

I think that this is a great feature because now everyone solve the problems how it most fit to their Character Backgrounds and therefore differentiate the Characters more. Also you will no longer put someone to shame because you always succeed the skill-checks that another one with a higher Training (in the same skill) fail because he has bad luck with the dice.