I think my character is broken. :-(

[HighTemplar]

Hey Krump985,

Don't worry about it. We've all been wrong at some point, obviously if most of your crew is still learning the game, it should be no surprise that you come up on many inconsistencies.

Keep playing and have fun, with experience everything sorts out properly and like the admin said, don't take anything here personnal.

The only thing that might not have been 100%clear is that the two flankers get combat advantadge bonus, not just you, and it is possible to flank 2 by 2 for up to 8 medium allies on a single medium size foe.

like many people pointed out, having high primary ability scores will give a great boost to your combat skills, which might lead to some jealousy in you team. The only one able to balance things out to make everyone happy is your DM and if he's doing everything wrong, you know what the real problem is ^^

I literally let my players make caracters with a 14 average ability scores and of course they're destroying anything thats of equal level. Thats why 3e had something called level adjustment. If you guys are always beating the monsters too easily, your team either has very good strategy(metagaming?) or your monsters are not played smartly. If a level 1 party slays a lvl 9 solo monster in a few rounds i'd say there's DEFINATELY an issue here .

The dm can always adjust the level of your challenges in order to optimize the pleasure of the players. Game is a game right ? Of course if you want to learn it right, might as well start with what the book suggests...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I logged in and decided to reply just to laugh at the guy who asked for help and then pretty much just refused to read a reply he got.

How amazingly silly some people are.

So someone is new to 4e, new to ENworld, and you decide to login to laugh at them and insult them? That's what I call being really amazingly silly.

That's not the ENworld way, thanks very much. You're banned for 3 days.

 

[MrMyth]

Possible. But a level 9 creature still has a 25 AC and a 100 hit points, plus the ability to almost automatically hit a first or second level character. Two of those hits will drop a first level character to zero hit points. And if they're typical 9th level foes the hits will come with some sort of status effect. If they're an NPC they'll have stuff to heal themselves, striker damage, buffs, or other fun tricks. Not to mention a lonely rogue has a much harder time getting combat advantage.

It's possible, but I'm just not seeing it.

That's plenty possible, if it was a normal level 9, rather than a Solo. He's looking at +11 to hit with a flank, and if he uses Piercing Strike, he can go after Reflex for around 20 damage. If he gets some assistance, rolls in the double-digits for several attacks, and uses his encounter/daily powers, I'd say it is perfectly plausible he'd be able to take such a foe down in 3-4 rounds.

Now, its not a fight I think should be regularly featured in such a game, and it would require a bit of luck to take down so quickly. But not so much luck that it is an outrageous claim to make.

 

[James McMurray]

Sure. But how did he survive those 3-4 rounds? A 9th level monster is going to lock him down with status effects or eat through his hit points a lot faster than that. It wouldn't take the archetypical "I killed Thor with a Push spell" luck, but it seems incredibly unlikely.

Besides, he's alone. How did he flank or get assistance?

It's much more likely that the GM also had no clue what he was doing, and it wasn't an actual 9th level NPC. Or it was a strong NPC and he assumed it was 9th level.

 

[HighTemplar]

I'm not sure we have to look that far, I mean if the DM is new to dnd and the player has experience in RPG combat, then the problem is solved, I'm pretty sure I could lock down some lvl 11 foes with a lvl 1 character that moves faster to a newb DM that dosent know how to handle me strategically...

 

[MrMyth]

Sure. But how did he survive those 3-4 rounds? A 9th level monster is going to lock him down with status effects or eat through his hit points a lot faster than that. It wouldn't take the archetypical "I killed Thor with a Push spell" luck, but it seems incredibly unlikely.

Besides, he's alone. How did he flank or get assistance?

It's much more likely that the GM also had no clue what he was doing, and it wasn't an actual 9th level NPC. Or it was a strong NPC and he assumed it was 9th level.

Well, I'm assuming that by 'killed it alone' he meant 'did all the damage that killed it', as I believe he specifically referred to someone else giving him a buff to hit.

A regular level 9 foe is not instant death for a level 1 character. It is a very tough fight, but it wouldn't take outrageous luck for it to be bested. Maybe it has a 66% chance to hit him for 1/3 of his health - but it rolls poorly, and in the four rounds he takes to kill it, it misses him twice. Or maybe he does have some ally assistance and gets a single healing word during that time, or the Defender absorbs some blows, or similar.

It is feasible for him to defeat it on his own. With a full group, it is highly likely that they will do so, and that if he rolled well, he could be the one who did nearly the entirety of the damage that took the creature out.

I think your other possibilities are, well, possible - but I don't think this is such a difficult to believe scenario as to merit such thorough disbelief.

 

[Krump985]

Okay the 9th level fight was like this.... The DM put this spider looking thing in front of the castle I needed to get into. My wizard friend was in the castle attempting to exit, but the door was blocked by the beast. I had my friend run up to it (despite his claims of WTF are you crazy??) but I assured him it'd be fine. Once he had the beasts attention, I stealthily jumped from the bushes to use trick strike w/ sneak attack for a +11 to hit, and a roll of nat 20 meant i crited (since my 31 would have hit, it meant max damage) and I dealt 37 damage. (2d8+4 + 3d4+5) I popped my action point to throw torturous strike next, which I rolled a 17, making 28 total and hitting its 25 or 26 AC, i forget which. I dealt 13 damage (2d4+9) because I am a nice high rolling lucksack. I had dealt 50 damage to the beast in one turn and things were looking bleack for the DM. I used my move action to run up and flank the beast, and the DM knew he was in trouble. He turned to fight me, but rolled a naturual one, as anything else would have probably hit me. My wizardly friend wanted to back up, but seeing as I'm the tactician, I told him to just throw some powerful move at the beast and not be fearful. He managed to hit the beast with difficulty, rolling an 18 and only barely hitting it according to the DM. Another 10 or so damage dealt saw its way to my turn, where I decided to use Riposite Strike (successfully with my +11 to hit) for 8, and then popped my Action point to do another 7. The DM looking flustered attacked me finally for more than half my HP, only to be surprised when i told him what the effect of riposite strike was... I'd get to counter attack now. I missed the first, but the second saw its way through for 5 damage and the beast fell to the ground with a mighty sigh that nearly crushed both the wizard and myself.


Our DM is new to DMing, as this is his first game to DM in 4e or in 3.5, where I have DM'd and played for years in 3.5 and played one game of 4e before this as well. Don't say something is impossible, because in a game where luck reigns just as much as skill and tactics, anything is possible.

 

[BeauNiddle]

Did you just use two action points in a single encounter?

And nice dice rolling!

 

[Krump985]

Yes, we had several built up, and i didn't know it was one per enc, i thought it said one per turn. is it one per enc?

 

[Plane Sailing]

thanks for providi g the detailed explanation. Since your party did a total of 80 damage I think we can confidently say this was not a 9th level solo!

After all, the 3rd level elite in keep on the shadowfell had about 110hp, and solos would have even more!