Kwalish Kid
Explorer
I can say that in the two sessions I've ran for our old 3.5/SWd20 group, we have gone through a staggering amount of encounters.
In one session, we had character creation, a little setting review, a fight against goblins, a meeting with a group of elves, a big fight against goblins over a ravine with two thin bridges made of tree trunks, a recon of the goblin den, a fight with the guards of the goblin den, a fight with another group of guards at the goblin den, some exploration of the goblin den, a non-combat encounter with a group of goblins and their children.
Whew.
The next session saw a little more character creations and recap and continuation of the non-combat encounter. Then a fight against a goblin hexer, his wolves, a spiretop drake and a couple of giant rats to take some hits for the hexer. Then back to town for explanations. Then levelling up. Then a big fight with a bunch of kobolds (though the wizard took out a gross amount of minions in the first round). Then a fight with guards at the goblin den again. This fight kept going double length because the guards called in reinforcements (an elite bugbear).
So four fights in the first session and three in the second, with the last fight being particularly long (no encounter recharge between two waves). This really impressed our group. We're getting more fights done and they seem more epic to me. (It certainly seems like we're getting more fights done, in the way I want them done (lots of terrain drama), than we were in the original SW d20.)
The elf ranger really shines. At second level, he multiclassed into rogue and he's looking forward to some of the attack powers and utility powers of the rogue. He feels that he has the makings of the stealth ahead and scout out character that he wanted to make, while at the same time he does well in combat. I've noticed that he is able to get the last shot on a bunch of creatures. This is, in part, because he is using a longbow and so he can shoot his arrows wherever they are needed. I've also noticed that he moves a lot in order to get the Prime Shot bonus.
The dragonborn paladin is doing pretty good. His marking didn't really come into play all that much until the party added another defender. Of course, his marking ability means that the warlord can come up close to the fight without being to worried about getting hit by the worst opponent. At second level, he took the feat that let him get more healing surges per day, since he used all of his surges in their first day of fighting.
The warlord is interesting. The PCs have been getting the advantage of the +2 to initiative and I think that has made a difference, at least when they get to take out minions before they can fire back. In the last session, she would flank a lot and then use her commander's strike ability to let the fighter with his maul make an attack with combat advantage. It was quite a good combo.
The fighter is a warforged fighter who specializes in using a maul. He also has the enhanced warforged tactics feat (?) that gives him a +1 to hit for every ally adjacent to his enemy. This makes him really effective when the warlord uses her commander's strike ability.
The half-elf wizard is OK, but he seems to get stuck, like most of the wizard's I've seen, in a magic missile rut. However, I should point out that he has been very effective with scorching burst. Actually, his best moment was when he fired a force orb, while blind, at a goblin hexer. (He would have hit, too, if the hexer hadn't used his ability to deflect an attack to an ally.)
That's a brief summary of some of the things I've noticed in one group.
In one session, we had character creation, a little setting review, a fight against goblins, a meeting with a group of elves, a big fight against goblins over a ravine with two thin bridges made of tree trunks, a recon of the goblin den, a fight with the guards of the goblin den, a fight with another group of guards at the goblin den, some exploration of the goblin den, a non-combat encounter with a group of goblins and their children.
Whew.
The next session saw a little more character creations and recap and continuation of the non-combat encounter. Then a fight against a goblin hexer, his wolves, a spiretop drake and a couple of giant rats to take some hits for the hexer. Then back to town for explanations. Then levelling up. Then a big fight with a bunch of kobolds (though the wizard took out a gross amount of minions in the first round). Then a fight with guards at the goblin den again. This fight kept going double length because the guards called in reinforcements (an elite bugbear).
So four fights in the first session and three in the second, with the last fight being particularly long (no encounter recharge between two waves). This really impressed our group. We're getting more fights done and they seem more epic to me. (It certainly seems like we're getting more fights done, in the way I want them done (lots of terrain drama), than we were in the original SW d20.)
The elf ranger really shines. At second level, he multiclassed into rogue and he's looking forward to some of the attack powers and utility powers of the rogue. He feels that he has the makings of the stealth ahead and scout out character that he wanted to make, while at the same time he does well in combat. I've noticed that he is able to get the last shot on a bunch of creatures. This is, in part, because he is using a longbow and so he can shoot his arrows wherever they are needed. I've also noticed that he moves a lot in order to get the Prime Shot bonus.
The dragonborn paladin is doing pretty good. His marking didn't really come into play all that much until the party added another defender. Of course, his marking ability means that the warlord can come up close to the fight without being to worried about getting hit by the worst opponent. At second level, he took the feat that let him get more healing surges per day, since he used all of his surges in their first day of fighting.
The warlord is interesting. The PCs have been getting the advantage of the +2 to initiative and I think that has made a difference, at least when they get to take out minions before they can fire back. In the last session, she would flank a lot and then use her commander's strike ability to let the fighter with his maul make an attack with combat advantage. It was quite a good combo.
The fighter is a warforged fighter who specializes in using a maul. He also has the enhanced warforged tactics feat (?) that gives him a +1 to hit for every ally adjacent to his enemy. This makes him really effective when the warlord uses her commander's strike ability.
The half-elf wizard is OK, but he seems to get stuck, like most of the wizard's I've seen, in a magic missile rut. However, I should point out that he has been very effective with scorching burst. Actually, his best moment was when he fired a force orb, while blind, at a goblin hexer. (He would have hit, too, if the hexer hadn't used his ability to deflect an attack to an ally.)
That's a brief summary of some of the things I've noticed in one group.
