Kobold Hall

[ForbidenMaster]

I am going to be running the Kobold Hall adventure in the back of the DMG for some friends who will be playing 4ed for the first time. I was wondering if anyone who had already played it had any comments on the adventure.

Also, is it as hard as it looks? It seems like the combination of multiple lvl+X encounters seems a bit hard for one adventuring day. Did you take an extended rest in between each encounter, or were the PCs fine with just continuing along? What about adding another encounter, do you think that will change things significantly?

 

[nckestrel]

The first two encounters were pretty easy for our party. We haven't gotten any further than that, but nobody has used more than two healing surges, no dailies have been used. the first encounter was almost a joke for them. The second one was more annoying, but still didn't hurt all that much.
I'm hoping the next couple encounters are more difficult for them.

 

[arghost]

I haven't played that adventure specifically, but based on my own experiences, the two first encounters are pretty easy for a 5-member group. The next (650xp) is somewhat more difficult, but not that much. The last two look nasty, though. Especially area 4 (850xp). But of course, some of that xp comes from a lvl 3 trap that is not actively going after the pc's, and the monsters does not have much in the way of forced movement. So the xp-numbers is not really saying much.

All in all, it looks straight-forward, and should be doable in a single adventuring day, without any need for extended rests.

 

[Oompa]

I havent runned it but i am busy preparing it for hopefully this weekend for an 6 player party, new to 4th.. I think the last two encounters are going to be hard..

Knowing my party they are going to do an extended rest, if they return within 24 hours nothing changed, if they come back later, new kobolds have come..

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I started this last Friday. The group of five (Elf Ranger, Halfling Rogue, Githyanki Wizard, Half-Elf Cleric and Dwarf Paladin) made it through the third room and have decided to take an extended rest. I swapped some of the planned kobolds with ones from the web enhancement. In the second room I replaced two of the skirnishers with the warpriest and in the third room I replaced the two slingers with the wild mage.

The traps in the second room became more challenging because of the warpriest's fear push effect.

The party thought they had sneaked an edge against me in the third room when the Githyanki Wizard used his telekinetic leap ability to hurl the dwarf up on the wall, until they realized they still needed to get through the door and the paladin was left pretty much on his own.

Those changes plus a string of really bad dice rolls ate up alot of their healing surges, so an extended rest is much needed. I haven't decided whether the kobolds will emerge from their lair to attack during the night.

Only one character dropped (the Cleric), but was saved from dying. The Cleric only dropped because the player, for some reason, didn't use his healing surges during the previous short rest. Then a crit when the wild mage exploded....

 

[beldar1215]

Can anyone post the link to the web enhancement. I'm having trouble finding it.

Beldar

 

[Agamon]

Ran the 1st 3 rooms as a test run for my players last night. It was fun.

The 2nd room wasn't all that easy for my group. Buth then I had on of the slingers from room 1 run down to join in, which helped. The dart trap hurt them pretty good. They make the save to not be immobolized then start their turn on the trigger and get shot at again. The cleric dropped (but was in no trouble of dying).

 

[Witchfinder General]

Can anyone post the link to the web enhancement. I'm having trouble finding it.

Dragon #364 - Creature Incarnations: Kobolds!

 

[Kesh]

We ran this one last week. As others said, the first two encounters were pretty easy. Though the trap in room 2 can get nasty really fast if too many people get hit.

Room 3 (skull-skull) is challenging. Our group was melee heavy, so we didn't have any really effective ranged attacks. Our warlock got nailed by the rock-on-a-rope, knocked into the slime pit and dropped below 0 HP. My paladin healed him, then decided to rush through the door to get up onto the platforms.

Oops. Didn't know about the two drakes! That made the fight a lot tougher, but we managed. Blew a lot of healing on that one, and I think a daily or two.

Room 4 can either go really easily or really, really bad. We went in cautiously, spotted the kobolds and started to go for them… then the boulder came out. Most of us ran around ahead of it, but I got hit by the kobold with the sticky attacks. I got stuck to the spot… and failed two or three saves in a row. The boulder ran me down. I still survived but got badly hurt. After that, we managed to mop up the kobolds without too much trouble.

Didn't get to run the last encounter, due to time constraints. I was looking forward to that too.

 

[Tzarevitch]

We ran this one last week. As others said, the first two encounters were pretty easy. Though the trap in room 2 can get nasty really fast if too many people get hit.

Room 3 (skull-skull) is challenging. Our group was melee heavy, so we didn't have any really effective ranged attacks. Our warlock got nailed by the rock-on-a-rope, knocked into the slime pit and dropped below 0 HP. My paladin healed him, then decided to rush through the door to get up onto the platforms.

Oops. Didn't know about the two drakes! That made the fight a lot tougher, but we managed. Blew a lot of healing on that one, and I think a daily or two.

Room 4 can either go really easily or really, really bad. We went in cautiously, spotted the kobolds and started to go for them… then the boulder came out. Most of us ran around ahead of it, but I got hit by the kobold with the sticky attacks. I got stuck to the spot… and failed two or three saves in a row. The boulder ran me down. I still survived but got badly hurt. After that, we managed to mop up the kobolds without too much trouble.

Didn't get to run the last encounter, due to time constraints. I was looking forward to that too.

The rock on a rope never did anything to my PCs. They saw the kobold standing there with the rope and unloaded on him before he got to go. They had no idea what the thing did but they (correctly) decided that if the kobolds wanted to use it, they did NOT want the kobolds to use it.

They killed one drake without it ever hitting any of them, the other one hit the ranger HARD, then they concentrated fire and killed it. It was however a definate shock and forced the first use of healing surges in the game.

The pressure-plate trap in the previous room proved more problematic for them until they started jumping from sacrophagus to sarcophagus to avoid touching the floor.

As for the encounter with the leader, I would recommend having him and his bodyguards start closer to the entrance. They are simply too far away. The slingers had engaged the PCs down the long hallway for almost 3 rounds before the wyrmpriest could even enter the fight, and by then it was almost too late. The boulder was never a factor as the PCs didn't enter the room until the fight was nearly in hand. That trap is badly placed. It should've been set up to roll the boulder down the hallway to the previous room. THAT would have been a surprise.

The final solo encouunter (which I will try not to spoil) probably should've been tougher but I couldn't hit worth a damn. Its AoE kept missing almost everyone. The PCs also flanked it quickly to keep it from moving. It still caused a good bit of damage though (action points work wonders).

All and all we were all pleased with the way 4e ran. In the future (for Keep on the Shadowfell) I will be making changes to the kobolds using the new kobold stuff on the website..

Tzarevitch