KotS TPK

[moticon]

Tonight we kicked off 4E around here and things went well for the first few hours... Not wanting to give anything away... The party suffered a TPK when the paladin charged into a group of enemies and was brought down quickly.. this was followed by a series of bad rolls by the PC's and a series of good rolls by the enemies...

Net result, after 4 hours all were dead...

Comments, the "Walord" was not too powerful. The party played without the rogue and dwarf fighter (yes there were only 4 PC's) and we believe they missed the fighter or the rogue, each would have been better for battle than the warlock as built.. I"m hoping the warlord will have more options and be able to be better built than this one.. The player is a good player, but things didn't go well for the "Walord"...

 

[Hammerhead]

Dude, it's Warlord. Not Warlock.

Did you use the newest, correct version...the WaRlord, instead of the Walord? Because that Inspiring Word makes quite a difference. Our consensus has been that the Tiefling Warlord pwns that lame Half Elf Cleric.

 

[Family]

For an Introduction KotS is tough especially with less players (or that warlord) and not scaling it. Heck we don't even know the rules yet. Let alone take on 1000xp of kolbolds that ambushed us right after another fight, or the L8 guy that can basically autohit you into oblivion.

/PS I really like the adventure though for some odd reason. 1ce as a player and now as a DM.

 

[unan oranis]

Tonight we kicked off 4E around here and things went well for the first few hours... Not wanting to give anything away... The party suffered a TPK when the paladin charged into a group of enemies and was brought down quickly.. this was followed by a series of bad rolls by the PC's and a series of good rolls by the enemies...

Net result, after 4 hours all were dead...

Comments, the "Walord" was not too powerful. The party played without the rogue and dwarf fighter (yes there were only 4 PC's) and we believe they missed the fighter or the rogue, each would have been better for battle than the warlock as built.. I"m hoping the warlord will have more options and be able to be better built than this one.. The player is a good player, but things didn't go well for the "Walock"...

Hooray for the badguys! I'm sure they were the most surprised of all...

Can you say which encounter specificly? when I run it I'll have the pre-gens skulls as decorations on these villains' armor or something (my groups waiting to play with their own characters).

 

[pogminky]

when I run it I'll have the pre-gens skulls as decorations on these villains' armor or something (my groups waiting to play with their own characters).

That is a great idea. Consider it stolen.

I think that when I DM my first 4ed game I might also have the dead remains of the 3.5e iconics sprinkled about. Sorta make a statment to the players, ya know?

 

[moticon]

Hooray for the badguys! I'm sure they were the most surprised of all...

Can you say which encounter specificly? when I run it I'll have the pre-gens skulls as decorations on these villains' armor or something (my groups waiting to play with their own characters).

Yes, it was Encounter A3. For this adventure I really wanted to see how things work so the bad guys used the best tactics available. Whenever something had a bonus to hit due to ally presence the enemies would swarm to "assist". This proves deadly if the party can't take care of minions properly - which the PC's didn't do as a result of some poor attack rolls.

 

[moticon]

Dude, it's Warlord. Not Warlock.

Did you use the newest, correct version...the WaRlord, instead of the Walord? Because that Inspiring Word makes quite a difference. Our consensus has been that the Tiefling Warlord pwns that lame Half Elf Cleric.

whoops! Thanks.. I fixed that.

I didnt' use the newest version. Printed char sheets early in the day.. I'll reprint them for the next game session... perhaps I'll play the warlord when someone else runs...

thanks!

 

[D'karr]

Tonight we kicked off 4E around here and things went well for the first few hours... Not wanting to give anything away... The party suffered a TPK when the paladin charged into a group of enemies and was brought down quickly.. this was followed by a series of bad rolls by the PC's and a series of good rolls by the enemies...

Net result, after 4 hours all were dead...

Comments, the "Walord" was not too powerful. The party played without the rogue and dwarf fighter (yes there were only 4 PC's) and we believe they missed the fighter or the rogue, each would have been better for battle than the warlock as built.. I"m hoping the warlord will have more options and be able to be better built than this one.. The player is a good player, but things didn't go well for the "Walord"...

Bad tactics, bad rolls and only 4 characters. That's totally asking for a TPK....

 

[Nightchill]

when I run it I'll have the pre-gens skulls as decorations on these villains' armor or something (my groups waiting to play with their own characters).

Brilliant (and now stolen).

I might even have the Winterhaven townsfolk comment disparagingly on them..

 

[legiondevil]

I ran the module last night, and there were three deaths out of 4 PC's. Never underestimate the compulsive power of revenge. After the first encounter, the Eladrin Ranger began to track the enemies back to where they came from (impromptu skill challenge, 5 successes before 3 failures, DC 20). He succeeded, and took the Dragonborn Paladin, Tiefling Warlord, and Half Elf Warlock along with him.

SBlock'd for Minor Spoilers
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They handled the group of Kobolds outside the waterfall well, but suffered minor damage. Healing Surges after the combat brought them back up to full, however. The Ranger noticed a kobold spying on them from around the edges of the waterfall and the group charged in.

This is where it got nasty.

The minions had formed a line and on their initiave all threw javalins at the PC's as they came through the water. Spurred on by two of the Dragonshields and the Skirmisher, they quickly surrounded the PC's and started plinking heavily at them. Eventually, the Wyrmpriest arrived and let every bad guy shift and gave them temporary hit points to boot.

The PC's soldiered on, almost robotically dispatching minions and bearing down the enemies.

When they finally killed the last visible bad guy, the horn sounded and Irontooth made his appearance with the last Dragonshield. I played it very strategically with both of them using their free shifts to surround and flank enemies, but even then the fight was going to the PC's until they bloodied Irontooth.

Then he killed two of them on his action.

Bam. Bam. Just like that. 1d8+1d10+4 with a +8 to hit, he dropped the Paladin and the Warlord as they were flanking him. The Dragonshield shifted to the Warlock, and followed him when he tried to shift away, then dropped him when he tried to use Eyebite to help himself get away. The Ranger, seeing this, ran.

And honestly, I don't blame him.

The corpses of the PC's will now be used as descritive elements when the new group who joins up with the ranger makes their way to the Head Priest. I think it's a suitable end for them. All-in-all though, it went better than I thought since they were just 4 PC's at first level in a Level 6 encounter. As one player put it, "Not feeling like you're a first level PC is both the most awesome, and most dangerous, thing about the new system."
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