TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
We didn't kill it, but I am glad to see somebody did, right in front of the master.
From his blog:
I ran the adventure I wrote for D&D Experience tonight from 7 PM to 12 AM. The final encounter involves a big, bad, black dragon, a 4th level solo critter. I put it in there because, basically, a lot of 4e doubters have expressed the belief that characters won't die in 4e. I could've put in something a little easier but I figured, nah, let's show them that PCs can still die.
A 4th level solo vs. a 1st level party is not impossible, but it's a tough fight. Especially as people learn to fight dragons and handle their characters, the rate will go down.
So of course, as DMs around me racked up TPKs, I drew the group that was both good and lucky enough to take it down. The dragon started off well enough, burning almost the entire group with its breath weapon, but after that it went down hill.
First, they put it to sleep. This has about a 10% chance of happening. How often will THAT actually happen? OK, one time in ten. But why did it have to happen at my table?
Then, my poor sleeping dragon took a fighter's daily attack to the head. Once awake, the rest of the party piled on just enough damage to push it to bloodied. This was important, because the sleeping dragon didn't have its immediate action available to breath when bloodied. A chance to spit acid death at the PC, lost to the vagaries of the Dice Gods!
So, the dragon is at half hit points and flanked by a fighter and paladin, not a good place for it to be. It had enough hp's left and a high enough AC that it could afford to soak up an oppy or two, right?
Well, the fighter now has an ability that, when she hits with an oppy, the target can't move. Three consecutive rounds of the fighter rolling 16+ on oppys, and the dragon was still flanked.
From there, things went down hill fast. The poor little dragon, my marvelous little beastie, was soon dead. Crit after crit fell upon it, while my dice, perhaps suffering the wrath of the vengeful Gaming Gods due to my hubris in assuming I could dish out TPKs like a terrible, mad god of gaming, laid 2s, 3s, and 5s time and again.
So, that's the story of my dragon. I'll have my chance for revenge tomorrow night!
The show has gone very well. Everyone seems to love the game, and it's a relief to actually play it with the gaming public and see them react sans torches and pitchforks. The game is working, and people are reacting to it in ways that I could only dream of.
From his blog:
I ran the adventure I wrote for D&D Experience tonight from 7 PM to 12 AM. The final encounter involves a big, bad, black dragon, a 4th level solo critter. I put it in there because, basically, a lot of 4e doubters have expressed the belief that characters won't die in 4e. I could've put in something a little easier but I figured, nah, let's show them that PCs can still die.
A 4th level solo vs. a 1st level party is not impossible, but it's a tough fight. Especially as people learn to fight dragons and handle their characters, the rate will go down.
So of course, as DMs around me racked up TPKs, I drew the group that was both good and lucky enough to take it down. The dragon started off well enough, burning almost the entire group with its breath weapon, but after that it went down hill.
First, they put it to sleep. This has about a 10% chance of happening. How often will THAT actually happen? OK, one time in ten. But why did it have to happen at my table?
Then, my poor sleeping dragon took a fighter's daily attack to the head. Once awake, the rest of the party piled on just enough damage to push it to bloodied. This was important, because the sleeping dragon didn't have its immediate action available to breath when bloodied. A chance to spit acid death at the PC, lost to the vagaries of the Dice Gods!
So, the dragon is at half hit points and flanked by a fighter and paladin, not a good place for it to be. It had enough hp's left and a high enough AC that it could afford to soak up an oppy or two, right?
Well, the fighter now has an ability that, when she hits with an oppy, the target can't move. Three consecutive rounds of the fighter rolling 16+ on oppys, and the dragon was still flanked.
From there, things went down hill fast. The poor little dragon, my marvelous little beastie, was soon dead. Crit after crit fell upon it, while my dice, perhaps suffering the wrath of the vengeful Gaming Gods due to my hubris in assuming I could dish out TPKs like a terrible, mad god of gaming, laid 2s, 3s, and 5s time and again.
So, that's the story of my dragon. I'll have my chance for revenge tomorrow night!
The show has gone very well. Everyone seems to love the game, and it's a relief to actually play it with the gaming public and see them react sans torches and pitchforks. The game is working, and people are reacting to it in ways that I could only dream of.
