Xorn
First Post
So my gaming group started Keep on the Shadowfell tonight! The group consists of:
Omar Irontoe, Dwarf Fighter (Great Weapon) w/ Maul
Daichot, Tiefling Warlord (Inspiring) w/ Greataxe
Percival Padfoot, Halfling Rogue (Trickster) w/ Dagger & Hand Crossbow)
Oleaf, Elf Ranger (Archer) w/ Longbow
They began the adventure at level 2, as they completed The Kobold Lair (back of DMG) before starting this adventure. (I didn't scale the adventure down, so they actually leveled.) Anyway, after some roleplaying in Fallcrest, they were asked to travel to Winterhaven after they sent a messenger requesting help. (The second one sent, the first didn't make it.)
Equipped for travel and freshly leveled (the warlord took the paladin multiclass feat, and the rogue took the ranger feat), they set out for Winterhaven. After two days on the road with no incident, they were ambushed by kobold brigands on the king's road.
Kobold Brigands
Though they were caught by surprise, the kobolds withered under the storm of their fury, and quickly fell to the veterans who had cleared out a kobold lair and slain a white dragon not even a week before. Even lacking a controller, their ranger and fighter were both expertly dropping several minions on each of their turns.
After recovering what they could from their attackers, they scouted the area a bit, and failing to find any trails, completed their journey to Winterhaven. They were welcomed through the gates as the news of their victory over the kobolds spread, and while having breakfast at the inn, they were eventually paid a visit by the Lord Warden, after requesting to see him. While the rogue found out what gossip he could about the town, the others had their own bits of searching, till they finally talked to the Lord Warden.
They promptly agreed to investigate the lair of the kobolds, casually promising they would have no problems with the annoying beasts. Soon they found themselves ambushed on the King's Road again!
Kobold Ambush
Thanks to the keen eyes and ears of the rogue and ranger, they actually spotted the kobold trap before it could be sprung, and the kobolds stood no chance, quickly being cut down and smashed into a pulp by the ferocious adventurers. As the warlord (who just wasn't quite cut out to be a full paladin) searched the bodies, he found a necklace honoring Orcus, and they became a little concerned, especially since kobolds tend to worship dragons.
But those are only nagging concerns when there are kobold lairs to clean out, and they quietly approached the beautiful forest cliffs, looking down over the waterfall without alerting the kobolds outside. At least, not until Omar tried to move.
Kobold Lair, Outside 1
Between Percy and Oleaf, the slinger hurling firepots died miserably in the first round of combat, as they concentrated vicious ranged attacks on him.
Kobold Lair, Outside 2
The minions and skirmisher swarmed around them quickly, but between the fighter's cleaving and the ranger's hail of twin shots, their numbers were quickly thinned, and everywhere they tried to flee, there was either a warlord or rogue moving into perfect position to put axe or dagger into a vital spot. Before the fighting had really even started, they were nearly wiped out.
As they tried to quietly enter the caves, Omar continued to demonstrate that plate armor and quiet don't belong together, and the minions and skirmishers swarmed about them like gnats, lining up combat advantage and mob attacks almost at will. Until the rogue and ranger proceeded to demonstrate how to break out of such tactics. The rogue dropped two minions as he slipped out of the surrounding kobolds, followed by the ranger ignoring their opportunity attacks and squarely putting an arrow in the chest of four of them in a single turn!
Kobold Lair Inside 1
By the start of the 3rd round, everything was dead, and the bleating horn of Irontooth was clamouring off the walls of the cave. Oleaf and Percy quietly lined up and took shots at Irontooth, retreating back to the safety of Omar and the front line. The brave dwarf strode into the maw of Irontooth's view and readied for the goblins charge.
Kobold Lair Inside 2
Before that charge came, a wyrmpriest and dragonshield flooded into the room, badly wounding Daichot and Omar, and leaving Irontooth ready to easily flank the outmaneuvered dwarf. Before Irontooth's charge landed though, Omar swung with a Brute Strike--missing, and receiving a powerful return blow from Irontooth.
Percy slipped around the outskirts of the melee and viciously buried his magical dagger of the duelist into Irontooth, before Oleaf calmly drew two arrows and impaled both the dragonshield and Irontooth with a horrendous shot. Then Daichot finished off the dragonshield with a bastion attack, bolstering everyone with defense and temporary health, before striding forcefully into the wyrmpriest and chopping him across the torso horribly, and challenging the priest with his fledging, but divine wrath.
As Omar recovered from Irontooth's first attack with an unstoppable drive of energy, he again brought down a titanic, brute strike, this time cleanly catching Irontooth, crushing his arm and rib cage with a single blow. Seeing the chance to finish the raging goblin, he spun about with his hammer in the other direction and caved in his head, dropping the foul attacker to the floor as Daichot screamed in agony as the wyrmpriest caught him in a torrent of fiery breath.
Before the priest could celebrate his victory though, Percy was upon him, and slid the cool steel of his dagger between the wyrmlings ribs, unceremoniously ending the creature.
Yup. Irontooth took one swing, and died before making a bloodied attack. In fact, they took this encounter apart! Being 2 helped for sure, but it was still scaled as a level 6 encounter for 4 people (1000 xp). They were really beat up at the end, and actually opted to use the lair to rest rather than risk going back to Winterhaven first, with the news they found--they weren't sure that would be safe. As the dwarf (who hasn't gotten any magic stuff yet), wears plate and not chain, and the difference between them cost wise is negligible (it's feat cost that's big) I made the armor +1 dwarven plate, which pleased him greatly.
We're really looking forward to the next game! Omar's player has mentioned he somewhat wishes he had gone with 1-hand specialty now, as he wants to use a heavy shield and warhammer instead of a maul. (Not that it's been a problem for him to be a tank now, though.)
As this is our first 4E campaign, I think I'm going to let him change it. The difference is +1 to hit from his maul swings thus far, which would have had no real impact, there weren't any "you BARELY hit" moments for him yet. (The retraining rules specifically prohibit retraining class features.)
Omar Irontoe, Dwarf Fighter (Great Weapon) w/ Maul
Daichot, Tiefling Warlord (Inspiring) w/ Greataxe
Percival Padfoot, Halfling Rogue (Trickster) w/ Dagger & Hand Crossbow)
Oleaf, Elf Ranger (Archer) w/ Longbow
They began the adventure at level 2, as they completed The Kobold Lair (back of DMG) before starting this adventure. (I didn't scale the adventure down, so they actually leveled.) Anyway, after some roleplaying in Fallcrest, they were asked to travel to Winterhaven after they sent a messenger requesting help. (The second one sent, the first didn't make it.)
Equipped for travel and freshly leveled (the warlord took the paladin multiclass feat, and the rogue took the ranger feat), they set out for Winterhaven. After two days on the road with no incident, they were ambushed by kobold brigands on the king's road.
Kobold Brigands
Though they were caught by surprise, the kobolds withered under the storm of their fury, and quickly fell to the veterans who had cleared out a kobold lair and slain a white dragon not even a week before. Even lacking a controller, their ranger and fighter were both expertly dropping several minions on each of their turns.
After recovering what they could from their attackers, they scouted the area a bit, and failing to find any trails, completed their journey to Winterhaven. They were welcomed through the gates as the news of their victory over the kobolds spread, and while having breakfast at the inn, they were eventually paid a visit by the Lord Warden, after requesting to see him. While the rogue found out what gossip he could about the town, the others had their own bits of searching, till they finally talked to the Lord Warden.
They promptly agreed to investigate the lair of the kobolds, casually promising they would have no problems with the annoying beasts. Soon they found themselves ambushed on the King's Road again!
Kobold Ambush
Thanks to the keen eyes and ears of the rogue and ranger, they actually spotted the kobold trap before it could be sprung, and the kobolds stood no chance, quickly being cut down and smashed into a pulp by the ferocious adventurers. As the warlord (who just wasn't quite cut out to be a full paladin) searched the bodies, he found a necklace honoring Orcus, and they became a little concerned, especially since kobolds tend to worship dragons.
But those are only nagging concerns when there are kobold lairs to clean out, and they quietly approached the beautiful forest cliffs, looking down over the waterfall without alerting the kobolds outside. At least, not until Omar tried to move.
Kobold Lair, Outside 1
Between Percy and Oleaf, the slinger hurling firepots died miserably in the first round of combat, as they concentrated vicious ranged attacks on him.
Kobold Lair, Outside 2
The minions and skirmisher swarmed around them quickly, but between the fighter's cleaving and the ranger's hail of twin shots, their numbers were quickly thinned, and everywhere they tried to flee, there was either a warlord or rogue moving into perfect position to put axe or dagger into a vital spot. Before the fighting had really even started, they were nearly wiped out.
As they tried to quietly enter the caves, Omar continued to demonstrate that plate armor and quiet don't belong together, and the minions and skirmishers swarmed about them like gnats, lining up combat advantage and mob attacks almost at will. Until the rogue and ranger proceeded to demonstrate how to break out of such tactics. The rogue dropped two minions as he slipped out of the surrounding kobolds, followed by the ranger ignoring their opportunity attacks and squarely putting an arrow in the chest of four of them in a single turn!
Kobold Lair Inside 1
By the start of the 3rd round, everything was dead, and the bleating horn of Irontooth was clamouring off the walls of the cave. Oleaf and Percy quietly lined up and took shots at Irontooth, retreating back to the safety of Omar and the front line. The brave dwarf strode into the maw of Irontooth's view and readied for the goblins charge.
Kobold Lair Inside 2
Before that charge came, a wyrmpriest and dragonshield flooded into the room, badly wounding Daichot and Omar, and leaving Irontooth ready to easily flank the outmaneuvered dwarf. Before Irontooth's charge landed though, Omar swung with a Brute Strike--missing, and receiving a powerful return blow from Irontooth.
Percy slipped around the outskirts of the melee and viciously buried his magical dagger of the duelist into Irontooth, before Oleaf calmly drew two arrows and impaled both the dragonshield and Irontooth with a horrendous shot. Then Daichot finished off the dragonshield with a bastion attack, bolstering everyone with defense and temporary health, before striding forcefully into the wyrmpriest and chopping him across the torso horribly, and challenging the priest with his fledging, but divine wrath.
As Omar recovered from Irontooth's first attack with an unstoppable drive of energy, he again brought down a titanic, brute strike, this time cleanly catching Irontooth, crushing his arm and rib cage with a single blow. Seeing the chance to finish the raging goblin, he spun about with his hammer in the other direction and caved in his head, dropping the foul attacker to the floor as Daichot screamed in agony as the wyrmpriest caught him in a torrent of fiery breath.
Before the priest could celebrate his victory though, Percy was upon him, and slid the cool steel of his dagger between the wyrmlings ribs, unceremoniously ending the creature.
Yup. Irontooth took one swing, and died before making a bloodied attack. In fact, they took this encounter apart! Being 2 helped for sure, but it was still scaled as a level 6 encounter for 4 people (1000 xp). They were really beat up at the end, and actually opted to use the lair to rest rather than risk going back to Winterhaven first, with the news they found--they weren't sure that would be safe. As the dwarf (who hasn't gotten any magic stuff yet), wears plate and not chain, and the difference between them cost wise is negligible (it's feat cost that's big) I made the armor +1 dwarven plate, which pleased him greatly.
We're really looking forward to the next game! Omar's player has mentioned he somewhat wishes he had gone with 1-hand specialty now, as he wants to use a heavy shield and warhammer instead of a maul. (Not that it's been a problem for him to be a tank now, though.)
As this is our first 4E campaign, I think I'm going to let him change it. The difference is +1 to hit from his maul swings thus far, which would have had no real impact, there weren't any "you BARELY hit" moments for him yet. (The retraining rules specifically prohibit retraining class features.)
