Einan
First Post
Let me preface this by stating my D&D history: I played maybe 2-3 games of second edition. It was fun, but the rules were near incompehensible to me. So, in college I mostly played GURPS and the various White Wolf products. Then I left the country for six months, which I spent in a mud hut in West Africa. When I got back my gaming buddies told me about this great new edition: 3rd! I got involved, started DMing it, and loved it. When 3.5 came around we reluctantly switched over, came to love it as well and I still am in a gaming group that primarily plays D&D 3.5.
So a couple weeks ago, our FLGS owner offered to run a 4e demo for us, owing to the fact that one of our number is a prime revenue stream for the FLGS. We agreed and last night the five of us plus a nice bystander who happened by joined up to take on the Escape from Sembia demo game from WotC. I played the Tielfing Wizard.
What We Wrought: The first few minutes were spent getting used to the character sheet. There were a few changes, of course, so we read over them, swapped sheets and oo'd and ah'd. Then we began. Our mission was to deliver a scroll to a cobbler who would pay us for the trouble. As we waited for the signal to approach him from a local bar across the way, a brigand and four guards walked up. The brigand stabbed the cobbler, who fell to the ground. We sprang into action, mainly since we hadn't yet been paid. The first combat consisted of us attempting to save the cobbler, who lay bleeding upon the ground from the predations of the obviously evil guards. This combat went a little slow, as we all got to know our capabilities. However, it was fun. Magic missiles flew, eldritch blasts cracked the air, healing words were spoken and smiting was had. We managed to kill two guards, but the brigand and remaining guards were able to flee like scared chickens. We healed the cobbler, who paid us and told us we had to get the scroll out of Sembia. So we took off.
We ran straight into a dead end alley filled with crates. At this point we got to check out the skill encouter system, which I have to admit was pretty cool. We needed to get eight successes before we got four failures. We could have hidden, found another way out or climbed atop crates to get to the roof. My tiefling, being sneaky decided to hide. And rolled two 1s. In a row. So, while the others scrambled to find cover, I contented myself with hiding badly and pronouncing loudly in a russian accent that I was a a crate, nothing to see here, move along. Luckily the cleric had the presence of mind to drag me into the nearby hole in the warehouse wall he had discovered. As the guard tried the locks outside, we rolled again to see if we suceeded. And we failed. Again. Rather than get bogged down in endless guard attacks, the DM handwaved us out of town. Probably wise, as my tiefling still had some epic failures in him!
We "procured" some horses outside of town and rode toward the border. Upon reaching a forest, we came across a ruined tower and some hobgoblins. Overhearing them planning evil, we attacked and managed to kill them all, in a much quicker fashion than before. COmbat really does speed up when you're not endlessly groping through rulebooks to find a suitable option. However, Skamos the Russian-accented tiefling wizard was slain in a most unpleasing fashion by an archer's cruel arrow. He died as he lived, cursing and threatening to drag souls screaming into hell. However, due to the DM's kind nature, another tiefling wizard, this time a Scottish accented stereotype happened to be wandering by and joined the party. Much rejoicing was had.
Our third encounter was against some particularly nasty undead. Which is to say, normal undead, who are now particularly nasty. This made me happy, as wimpy undead aren't scary, but exploding undead who cause ongoing necrotic damage are downright creepy. Cue manic laughter.
Our last encounter took place on a bridge, where bounty hunters stood waiting to deny us our rightful escape. Four beserkers, one wizard and chain-wielding roguish type who I rapidly dubbed Cheney. (Much shooting your friend in the face jokes ensued.) The berserkers were pretty tough, the wizard was less so, mainly due to the DM being unable to roll above a 9. The chain fighter was brutal. His Dance of Death ability allowed him to move five squares and attack anyone he could along the way. Ouch. We were hurting and ready to drop when the warlock managed to eldritchly blast the bugger into oblivion. Hooray! We escaped from Sembia. (Worst. Vacation. Ever.)
The lowdown: Once we got our legs under us, combat DID go faster. In the last battle we went through about six rounds of combat with six players in the same time it usually takes a group of four to go through four rounds. Definitely an improvement. Critical hits now deal max damage with no confirm rolls. That was pretty awesome, and saved a lot of time. Static saves made things quicker and gave us less to worry about. The skills seemed pretty streamlined, though a better explanation of what you'd use each skill for would be nice. Racial abilities were neat and really gave the characters difference. Especially the halfing's forced reroll ability: that was awesome and saved him from at least two critcal hits.
My take: I was skeptical about 4e. I wanted to wait until I had seen the rules before I made any decisions. After playing this demo, I'd pretty happy about what I've seen. I don't know if I'm completely ready to give up the ghost and drop 3.5/Pathfinder completely, but I think I'm a lot more excited about the release than I was. I'll definitely pick up the core books and read them through. If the game is this fun at higher levels, then I'll definitely play. And of course, if they don't screw up my beloved Bard when he finally gets released...
So a couple weeks ago, our FLGS owner offered to run a 4e demo for us, owing to the fact that one of our number is a prime revenue stream for the FLGS. We agreed and last night the five of us plus a nice bystander who happened by joined up to take on the Escape from Sembia demo game from WotC. I played the Tielfing Wizard.
What We Wrought: The first few minutes were spent getting used to the character sheet. There were a few changes, of course, so we read over them, swapped sheets and oo'd and ah'd. Then we began. Our mission was to deliver a scroll to a cobbler who would pay us for the trouble. As we waited for the signal to approach him from a local bar across the way, a brigand and four guards walked up. The brigand stabbed the cobbler, who fell to the ground. We sprang into action, mainly since we hadn't yet been paid. The first combat consisted of us attempting to save the cobbler, who lay bleeding upon the ground from the predations of the obviously evil guards. This combat went a little slow, as we all got to know our capabilities. However, it was fun. Magic missiles flew, eldritch blasts cracked the air, healing words were spoken and smiting was had. We managed to kill two guards, but the brigand and remaining guards were able to flee like scared chickens. We healed the cobbler, who paid us and told us we had to get the scroll out of Sembia. So we took off.
We ran straight into a dead end alley filled with crates. At this point we got to check out the skill encouter system, which I have to admit was pretty cool. We needed to get eight successes before we got four failures. We could have hidden, found another way out or climbed atop crates to get to the roof. My tiefling, being sneaky decided to hide. And rolled two 1s. In a row. So, while the others scrambled to find cover, I contented myself with hiding badly and pronouncing loudly in a russian accent that I was a a crate, nothing to see here, move along. Luckily the cleric had the presence of mind to drag me into the nearby hole in the warehouse wall he had discovered. As the guard tried the locks outside, we rolled again to see if we suceeded. And we failed. Again. Rather than get bogged down in endless guard attacks, the DM handwaved us out of town. Probably wise, as my tiefling still had some epic failures in him!
We "procured" some horses outside of town and rode toward the border. Upon reaching a forest, we came across a ruined tower and some hobgoblins. Overhearing them planning evil, we attacked and managed to kill them all, in a much quicker fashion than before. COmbat really does speed up when you're not endlessly groping through rulebooks to find a suitable option. However, Skamos the Russian-accented tiefling wizard was slain in a most unpleasing fashion by an archer's cruel arrow. He died as he lived, cursing and threatening to drag souls screaming into hell. However, due to the DM's kind nature, another tiefling wizard, this time a Scottish accented stereotype happened to be wandering by and joined the party. Much rejoicing was had.
Our third encounter was against some particularly nasty undead. Which is to say, normal undead, who are now particularly nasty. This made me happy, as wimpy undead aren't scary, but exploding undead who cause ongoing necrotic damage are downright creepy. Cue manic laughter.
Our last encounter took place on a bridge, where bounty hunters stood waiting to deny us our rightful escape. Four beserkers, one wizard and chain-wielding roguish type who I rapidly dubbed Cheney. (Much shooting your friend in the face jokes ensued.) The berserkers were pretty tough, the wizard was less so, mainly due to the DM being unable to roll above a 9. The chain fighter was brutal. His Dance of Death ability allowed him to move five squares and attack anyone he could along the way. Ouch. We were hurting and ready to drop when the warlock managed to eldritchly blast the bugger into oblivion. Hooray! We escaped from Sembia. (Worst. Vacation. Ever.)
The lowdown: Once we got our legs under us, combat DID go faster. In the last battle we went through about six rounds of combat with six players in the same time it usually takes a group of four to go through four rounds. Definitely an improvement. Critical hits now deal max damage with no confirm rolls. That was pretty awesome, and saved a lot of time. Static saves made things quicker and gave us less to worry about. The skills seemed pretty streamlined, though a better explanation of what you'd use each skill for would be nice. Racial abilities were neat and really gave the characters difference. Especially the halfing's forced reroll ability: that was awesome and saved him from at least two critcal hits.
My take: I was skeptical about 4e. I wanted to wait until I had seen the rules before I made any decisions. After playing this demo, I'd pretty happy about what I've seen. I don't know if I'm completely ready to give up the ghost and drop 3.5/Pathfinder completely, but I think I'm a lot more excited about the release than I was. I'll definitely pick up the core books and read them through. If the game is this fun at higher levels, then I'll definitely play. And of course, if they don't screw up my beloved Bard when he finally gets released...
