FitzTheRuke
Legend
Well, this time I had 7 players. 5 guys, 2 women. One of the guys (I think, he was a bit slow) and both women had never played an D&D before (or any other tabletop RPG before). Two of the other guys had rarely played 3.x, but had played 2nd, but mostly 1st Edition. The other 2 guys were hardcore 3.5 boys.
The women picked the Dwarf Fighter and the Half-Elf Warlock Pregen
The 2 oldschoolers picked my PHB Lite-made Elf Rogue and Eladrin Fighter
The other three picked the Human Cleric, Halfling Paladin, and Eladrin Ranger.
I started with a quick forced-hook: " The Magistrate of Moonsborough has given you a Warrant, charging you with the arrest of Nilosh, a man accused of graverobbery and worse, a suspected Necromancer. You've asked about in a nearby hamlet and the locals say he's holed up in some old dwarf ruins to the north. You're on your way now."
I started with a skill challenge : "The large staircase leading 60 feet up the side of the mountain to the great stone doors of the dwarven stronghold are cracked from some long-forgotten earthquake, split down the middle and twisted on a slight incline. A nosy drake eyes you suspiciously from a nearby tree. The steps to either side of the large crack appear to be loose stone."
12/15/18 (8/6) The goal being to get everyone up. The failure being the whole staircaie collapses and they have to find their way up some other way.
They quickly spotted the rope ladders that were rolled up and pinned every 20 feet (3 of them), and eventually managed to get someone up to each, only knocking a few steps loose on the guys below (every medium or hard failure) I had hoped that someone would try to coax the drake into flying over and knocking a rope-ladder down for them, but they mostly ignored it. Most skills used were athletics, acrobatics, and perception.
They got in (passing a simple bell-alarm) but then they forgot all about being quiet and started tossing Sunrods around (I think of them like roadside flares, you toss 'em on the ground and they burn for awhile or carry them) while chatting. So from out of the dark fired three arrows from my Skeleton Archers. Then nine Skeleton Minions rushed them.
The first fight went well, with most of them picking up their shticks pretty fast. The slowest one being the Cleric, who's player didn't seem to think of much else other than firing Lance of Faith every round. It took coaching by the other players to get him to Turn Undead. (Which smashed alot of skeleton minions) The women did well, and I think the Warlock was MVP of that fight. The rogue had some trouble finding a way to flank, but I think he got the hang of it after some advice from me.
The encounter was 750 XP, so only a little tough, and they did pretty good. There were a few charges, the Dwarf Fighter got to Tide of Iron a skeleton out of melee with the Warlock.
As an aside, I find I am very impressed with how 4E rules manage to make players who really have no idea what they are doing, find it quickly obvious how to use teamwork. It happens naturally just through picking from the cool things your character can do.
I'm pretty sure no one used their dailies, and I think only the Eladrin Fighter used his action point that fight. The cleric used both healing words (first on the Rogue who mistakingly managed to draw the fire of the archers, a bit foolishly, as up til that point they had mostly harmlessly shot their arrows into the Paladin and Fighter's shields (I couldn't roll high enough for their ACs for a bit.)
So after a short rest, they worked their way down a long flight of stairs to find:
Using the Dwarven Outpost Map from the new DDM starter, I had Nilosh the Necromancer peer out of the Dwarven outpost while the party came down the stairs I put in the far corner. The player of the Eladrin Fighter took it upon himself to roleplay attempting to get the necromancer to surrender.
The necromancer replied with something along the melodramatic line of "But you have yet to face my final creation!" At which point the Colossal Skeleton emerged from the lake beside the bridge. (Here's the statblocks for the encounter)
Human Necromancer Level 4 Elite Artillery (Leader)
Medium Natural Humanoid XP 350
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +5
HP 104 Bloodied 52
AC 16 Fort 14 Ref 14 Will 15
Speed 6 Saving Throws +1 Action Point 1
Staff (Standard, At-Will) Weapon
+7 vs AC; 1D8 +1 damage (1D8 + 9 Crit)
Ray of Pain (Standard, At-Will) Necrotic, Range 10
+6 vs Reflex, 1D6 + 4 Necrotic damage AND target is Weakened until
end of Human Necromancer’s next turn
Wave of Nausea (Standard, Recharge 
, 
) Necrotic, Close Burst 3
+6 vs Fortitude, 1D4 + 4 Necrotic damage AND target is Dazed (save ends), if first save fails, target is Stunned (save ends)
Shadow Step (Move, Recharge 6)
Teleport 5 squares and gain concealment until beginning of Human Necromancer’s next turn
Skills Arcana +11 Stealth +9
Str 11 (+2) Con 12 (+3) Dex 14 (+4) Int 18 (+6) Wis 17 (+5) Cha 14 (+4)
Equipment: +1 Staff of Pain, Robes, Wand
Skeletal Colossus Level 4 Elite Skirmisher
Huge Natural Animate (Undead) XP 350
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3, Darkvision
HP 120 Bloodied 60
AC 18 Fort 20 Ref 16 Will 15
Speed 8 Immune Poison Disease
Resist 10 Necrotic Vulnerable 5 Radiant
Huge Sword (Standard, At-Will) Weapon
Reach 3, +10 vs AC; 2D6 +6 damage
Huge Knife (Standard, At-Will) Weapon
Reach 3, +10 vs AC; 1D10 +6 damage
Double Attack (Standard, Recharge 4,5,6)
Make a Huge Sword and a Huge Knife attack
Kick (Minor, while making a move action)
+8 vs Reflex, 1D8 + 6 damage AND slide target 3 squares AND target knocked prone
Big Step (Special)
Skeletal Colosus may shift up to 2 squares
Special: Skeletal Colossus can move through, and end his movement in enemies’ squares
Too Big to Move
Immune to forced movement effects
Str 22 (+8) Con 20 (+7) Dex 14 (+4) Int 3 (-2) Wis 12 (+3) Cha 3 (-2)
Well, as can be expected everyone unloaded with their dailies and appart from some fun moments with the Skeleton booting around the fighters (he came very close to slaughtering the Eladrin Fighter who made the mistake being the only one close enough to take both attacks from the sword and knife in the same round) and the Necromancer just destroyed the Rogue with a well-placed Ray of Pain.
The thing that really went "wrong" for me was the round in which NO FEWER than FOUR of the players rolled a CRIT (in the same round!) That pretty much did the skeleton it (they all attacked the Skeleton, it was dead before they did a single point of damage to the necromancer.)
They had to spend a few rounds looking for the Necromancer after he Wave of Nausea'd them when they got in a bunch and Shadow Stepped off behind the Outpost and hid in the shadows, but the Eladrin Fighter found him first and before he could get away he was flanked by two fighters. He couldn't move (or even shift) without getting two fighter's basic attacks, and he couldn't cast without the same, so faced with that, and with the players roleplaying calling for him to surrender, the Necromancer was too smart to keep that up, so he surrendered. (Maybe to escape some other day.)
So we role-played some handing him over to the magistrate, and that was that. About 2.5 hours of actual play (about 40 minutes of explainations and character selection beforehand.
Everyone had a good time and it looks like most of 'em will be buying the books.
Overall I'd say it went a little slower than I'd like, but about half of these players may have been the slowest to pick it up I've seen so far, and they really were doing fine by the end. I think if I had had the time to run even one more encounter they'd have totally picked it up. The ranger and warlock were quarrying and cursing without prompting and the fighters were starting to get the hang of their marks (though they let the paladin mark the Huge Skeleton, as well they should. Even the slowest player to pick it up (the Cleric) came up with the Channel Divinity Power of Anameuter / Cascade of Light combo on his own.
Any questions?
Thanks for reading!
Fitz
The women picked the Dwarf Fighter and the Half-Elf Warlock Pregen
The 2 oldschoolers picked my PHB Lite-made Elf Rogue and Eladrin Fighter
The other three picked the Human Cleric, Halfling Paladin, and Eladrin Ranger.
I started with a quick forced-hook: " The Magistrate of Moonsborough has given you a Warrant, charging you with the arrest of Nilosh, a man accused of graverobbery and worse, a suspected Necromancer. You've asked about in a nearby hamlet and the locals say he's holed up in some old dwarf ruins to the north. You're on your way now."
I started with a skill challenge : "The large staircase leading 60 feet up the side of the mountain to the great stone doors of the dwarven stronghold are cracked from some long-forgotten earthquake, split down the middle and twisted on a slight incline. A nosy drake eyes you suspiciously from a nearby tree. The steps to either side of the large crack appear to be loose stone."
12/15/18 (8/6) The goal being to get everyone up. The failure being the whole staircaie collapses and they have to find their way up some other way.
They quickly spotted the rope ladders that were rolled up and pinned every 20 feet (3 of them), and eventually managed to get someone up to each, only knocking a few steps loose on the guys below (every medium or hard failure) I had hoped that someone would try to coax the drake into flying over and knocking a rope-ladder down for them, but they mostly ignored it. Most skills used were athletics, acrobatics, and perception.
They got in (passing a simple bell-alarm) but then they forgot all about being quiet and started tossing Sunrods around (I think of them like roadside flares, you toss 'em on the ground and they burn for awhile or carry them) while chatting. So from out of the dark fired three arrows from my Skeleton Archers. Then nine Skeleton Minions rushed them.
The first fight went well, with most of them picking up their shticks pretty fast. The slowest one being the Cleric, who's player didn't seem to think of much else other than firing Lance of Faith every round. It took coaching by the other players to get him to Turn Undead. (Which smashed alot of skeleton minions) The women did well, and I think the Warlock was MVP of that fight. The rogue had some trouble finding a way to flank, but I think he got the hang of it after some advice from me.
The encounter was 750 XP, so only a little tough, and they did pretty good. There were a few charges, the Dwarf Fighter got to Tide of Iron a skeleton out of melee with the Warlock.
As an aside, I find I am very impressed with how 4E rules manage to make players who really have no idea what they are doing, find it quickly obvious how to use teamwork. It happens naturally just through picking from the cool things your character can do.
I'm pretty sure no one used their dailies, and I think only the Eladrin Fighter used his action point that fight. The cleric used both healing words (first on the Rogue who mistakingly managed to draw the fire of the archers, a bit foolishly, as up til that point they had mostly harmlessly shot their arrows into the Paladin and Fighter's shields (I couldn't roll high enough for their ACs for a bit.)
So after a short rest, they worked their way down a long flight of stairs to find:
Using the Dwarven Outpost Map from the new DDM starter, I had Nilosh the Necromancer peer out of the Dwarven outpost while the party came down the stairs I put in the far corner. The player of the Eladrin Fighter took it upon himself to roleplay attempting to get the necromancer to surrender.
The necromancer replied with something along the melodramatic line of "But you have yet to face my final creation!" At which point the Colossal Skeleton emerged from the lake beside the bridge. (Here's the statblocks for the encounter)
Human Necromancer Level 4 Elite Artillery (Leader)
Medium Natural Humanoid XP 350
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +5
HP 104 Bloodied 52
AC 16 Fort 14 Ref 14 Will 15
Speed 6 Saving Throws +1 Action Point 1
Staff (Standard, At-Will) Weapon+7 vs AC; 1D8 +1 damage (1D8 + 9 Crit)
Ray of Pain (Standard, At-Will) Necrotic, Range 10+6 vs Reflex, 1D6 + 4 Necrotic damage AND target is Weakened until
end of Human Necromancer’s next turn
Wave of Nausea (Standard, Recharge , ) Necrotic, Close Burst 3+6 vs Fortitude, 1D4 + 4 Necrotic damage AND target is Dazed (save ends), if first save fails, target is Stunned (save ends)
Shadow Step (Move, Recharge 6)
Teleport 5 squares and gain concealment until beginning of Human Necromancer’s next turn
Skills Arcana +11 Stealth +9
Str 11 (+2) Con 12 (+3) Dex 14 (+4) Int 18 (+6) Wis 17 (+5) Cha 14 (+4)
Equipment: +1 Staff of Pain, Robes, Wand
Skeletal Colossus Level 4 Elite Skirmisher
Huge Natural Animate (Undead) XP 350
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3, Darkvision
HP 120 Bloodied 60
AC 18 Fort 20 Ref 16 Will 15
Speed 8 Immune Poison Disease
Resist 10 Necrotic Vulnerable 5 Radiant
Huge Sword (Standard, At-Will) WeaponReach 3, +10 vs AC; 2D6 +6 damage
Huge Knife (Standard, At-Will) WeaponReach 3, +10 vs AC; 1D10 +6 damage
Double Attack (Standard, Recharge 4,5,6)Make a Huge Sword and a Huge Knife attack
Kick (Minor, while making a move action)+8 vs Reflex, 1D8 + 6 damage AND slide target 3 squares AND target knocked prone
Big Step (Special)
Skeletal Colosus may shift up to 2 squares
Special: Skeletal Colossus can move through, and end his movement in enemies’ squares
Too Big to Move
Immune to forced movement effects
Str 22 (+8) Con 20 (+7) Dex 14 (+4) Int 3 (-2) Wis 12 (+3) Cha 3 (-2)
Well, as can be expected everyone unloaded with their dailies and appart from some fun moments with the Skeleton booting around the fighters (he came very close to slaughtering the Eladrin Fighter who made the mistake being the only one close enough to take both attacks from the sword and knife in the same round) and the Necromancer just destroyed the Rogue with a well-placed Ray of Pain.
The thing that really went "wrong" for me was the round in which NO FEWER than FOUR of the players rolled a CRIT (in the same round!) That pretty much did the skeleton it (they all attacked the Skeleton, it was dead before they did a single point of damage to the necromancer.)
They had to spend a few rounds looking for the Necromancer after he Wave of Nausea'd them when they got in a bunch and Shadow Stepped off behind the Outpost and hid in the shadows, but the Eladrin Fighter found him first and before he could get away he was flanked by two fighters. He couldn't move (or even shift) without getting two fighter's basic attacks, and he couldn't cast without the same, so faced with that, and with the players roleplaying calling for him to surrender, the Necromancer was too smart to keep that up, so he surrendered. (Maybe to escape some other day.)
So we role-played some handing him over to the magistrate, and that was that. About 2.5 hours of actual play (about 40 minutes of explainations and character selection beforehand.
Everyone had a good time and it looks like most of 'em will be buying the books.
Overall I'd say it went a little slower than I'd like, but about half of these players may have been the slowest to pick it up I've seen so far, and they really were doing fine by the end. I think if I had had the time to run even one more encounter they'd have totally picked it up. The ranger and warlock were quarrying and cursing without prompting and the fighters were starting to get the hang of their marks (though they let the paladin mark the Huge Skeleton, as well they should. Even the slowest player to pick it up (the Cleric) came up with the Channel Divinity Power of Anameuter / Cascade of Light combo on his own.
Any questions?
Thanks for reading!
Fitz
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