Kobold Skirmisher

[ironvyper]

I thought encounters were supposed to be faster in 4e? From what i have seen so far weapons all do about the same damage, so at 1d8 with an average of 4 a character without much of a STR bonus would need to hit this guy 7 times, for a first level monster. Thats completely rediculous, even assuming u hit most of the time your looking at 9 or 10 rounds to kill this guy 1 on 1. If anything it looks like this new edition is going to be ungodly slow in combat. Or has something concrete been shown that refutes this?

 

[Festivus]

You really don't want to be surrounded by them either, do you? 8 kobolds, each attacking at +13 and doing 1d8 + 1d6? That's gotta hurt no matter how many hit points you have!

For some reason I thought that the number of enemies you faced would be smaller in 4E. e.g. 4 minions, a commander and a couple support pieces.

I like the statblock, easy to read and understand... not too much info on there. I'd like to see a spell casting one though, or a higher level melee piece.

 

[Nine Hands]

Just mark the minis with a poker chip underneath or a glass bead next to them or something, and you'll be able to see the wounded you are creating as you wade through the battlefield... except that the monsters are just as powerful as you are.

Hasta,
Flynn

A BLOOD RED glass bead

 

[Mentat55]

We got a Dungeons of Dread booster for being press, which has 4e stats on the other side of the minis, and with the character sheets we grabbed were seriously considering playing tonight.

Only problem is, I only got one mini that is an appropriate challenge for a 1st level party. All the rest were much higher.

So...is there any chance that we might see the 4e stats for the other minis in the boosters? While the high level ones are no good for playing an off-the-cuff 4e game, it would no doubt generate all sorts of fun discussion on the board to see the stats.

 

[Spatula]

I thought encounters were supposed to be faster in 4e? From what i have seen so far weapons all do about the same damage, so at 1d8 with an average of 4 a character without much of a STR bonus would need to hit this guy 7 times, for a first level monster. Thats completely rediculous, even assuming u hit most of the time your looking at 9 or 10 rounds to kill this guy 1 on 1. If anything it looks like this new edition is going to be ungodly slow in combat. Or has something concrete been shown that refutes this?

That depends by what you mean by "faster." Combat in 3e rarely takes longer than three rounds, but those rounds take 90 minutes to resolve at higher levels. 4e is supposed to reduce all the complications that make 3e rounds take up so much real time. Pretty much all reports have said that 4e encounters last a lot longer in game time.

 

[Lizard]

Do kobolds (or any monsters) have healing surges? There's none listed, but that could just mean there's some default like 'all monsters have one per encounter'.

It matters for several reasons:
a)Presumably, there a kobold shamans to heal the troops.
b)When you manage to make an enemy an ally and he's with you for several encounters, or even for many adventures, he needs to use the same rules as you do.

 

[Khur]

Monsters go down in 1 or 2 hits hit a lot in my game. And not just minions, which always go down in 1 hit.

In my game just last night, I was using a normal "monster" version of an elf archer as a guide for the PCs. He worked fine with the party, even when he bore the brunt of some attacks. He provided some extra firepower and roleplaying opportunities, but no player would ever confuse him for the caliber their PCs display.

 

[Flynn]

We got a Dungeons of Dread booster for being press, which has 4e stats on the other side of the minis, and with the character sheets we grabbed were seriously considering playing tonight.

Only problem is, I only got one mini that is an appropriate challenge for a 1st level party. All the rest were much higher.

Out of curiosity, davethegame, will you be posting these stats anywhere where we can look at them?

If you already have, could you or someone else post a link to them?

I definitely am curious to see how different monsters look under 4E rules.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[rkanodia]

Do kobolds (or any monsters) have healing surges? There's none listed, but that could just mean there's some default like 'all monsters have one per encounter'.

It matters for several reasons:
a)Presumably, there a kobold shamans to heal the troops.
b)When you manage to make an enemy an ally and he's with you for several encounters, or even for many adventures, he needs to use the same rules as you do.

I doubt that monsters have healing surges. The DDXP reports seem to indiciate that Healing Surges are a strategic resource to be whittled down over the course of a day, with it being unlikely that you could go through all of them in a single battle. Thus, monster healing will probably be constrained by the Shaman having a limited number of uses of his healing powers, not by the Skirmisher being able to receive a limited number of Healing Surges.

As for your second point, I would surmise that the rules don't really handle 'monsters as PCs' very well. They've said very explicitly that monsters are constructed around being interesting for one fight and then dying. I believe it was mentioned at the seminar that the Monster Manual has 500 stat blocks, and 12 races that can be played as PCs.

I suppose it could be the case that a monster, when he is a long-running character, has some number of Healing Surges that isn't included in the default statblock because of the assumption that it will never be expended during one fight.

 

[Lizard]

As for your second point, I would surmise that the rules don't really handle 'monsters as PCs' very well. They've said very explicitly that monsters are constructed around being interesting for one fight and then dying. I believe it was mentioned at the seminar that the Monster Manual has 500 stat blocks, and 12 races that can be played as PCs.

I suppose it could be the case that a monster, when he is a long-running character, has some number of Healing Surges that isn't included in the default statblock because of the assumption that it will never be expended during one fight.

I'm not talking about monsters-as-PCs...that ship has sailed, for better or worse (mostly worse). Rather, despite the deeply held belief at WOTC that monsters spawn into existence at the beginning of a combat and vanish forever at the end of it, in actual play, just ain't so. They often end up tagging along with the PCs as yakky prisoners, unwilling allies, unexpected love interests, sullen captives looking for a chance to escape, and so on. Sometimes they even become true friends. The mechanics need to support the monster outside the span of a single encounter, of they're...well, I won't say "useless", but "a lot less useful than they should be".