Great read. 
Anyhow, let me peek into the future and come up with:
4E
The peeceez have just left their previous lives behind and taken up the profession of an adventurer. After a blessing from the village wise woman, who had a large hand in raising the Dragonborn from birth, they leave the village they all grew up in and head out into the vast and dark wilderness that surrounds their home, hoping to reach the fabled city of Mythagar and seek a more purpose filled life, and make their mark upon the darkened world in which they live.,
While traversing through the wild and sinister lands, ever watchful for the monsters and vile creatures they have heard about but never yet seen, the pc's stumble across the ruin of what appears to be an ancient tower. Being explorers at heart they decide to venture inside and see what lies therein; perhaps they can find clues to the past, some evidence of what the world was like during the days of the Dragonborn and Tiefling empires, before the Great War between them both ravaged their world and left it into a few scattered villages and towns scattered across a dark and festering land.
The Tiefling rogue creeps down first, using his Stealth to good effect. Not that anything really has a chance to see him, since with Skill Focus Stealth he's pretty much invisible. Just to be on the safe side, the rogue declares he is using "The Koiled Kobra" stance as he enters; that boost to initiative the stance gives will be useful if he needs to enter combat.
Once down there, he declares the all clear and the rest of the party comes down. Since no one has darkvision, the Eladrin wizard with staff focus uses his power and causes light to come a glow at the end of his staff. The Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut leads the group, with the Tiefling rogue at his side.
Expecting imminent combat, all pc's have declared stances: the Paladin is using "Destructive Force of Smiting", the Rogues continues "Koiled Kobra", the wizard uses "Golden Wyvren" while the cleric uses "Tortoise Shell"
The pc's cross the corridor and come across a large, empty room with a chest and a door at one end. Suddenly, the door opens and 20 goblins burst forth! A loud roar! ensues, and a white DRAGON bursts forth from the roof, shattering the dome ceiling and landing in true dramatic fashion in the center of the room.
The pc's realize this is a Dragon Lair, and the goblins are its servants!!
The rogue, thanks to Skill Focus Initiative(remember, init is a skill in 4e) and koiled kobra goes first. His initivative count is so freakin’ far above anyone else it ain’t even funny, so he effortlessly moves to the side of the dragon...and delays.
The dragonborn charges at the dragon while using his Exploding Boulder Maneuver; at the same time he activates a power he gained from his Warlord Traniing Feat and yells out to bahamut, granting everyone +1 to a whole lotta, and then lays in with a Defensive Smite; all in one round!! Due to the massive attack bonusii he gets, rolling for attack is just basic ettiquette’s at this point
.
He does a ton of damage, and at the same time the AC of the rogue goes up by 4, thanks to the defensive smite. There is no in-game reasoning of why this should be so; we will assume the dragon is distracted by the paladin and thus the rogue is harder to hit for it.
The rogue immediately activates his delayed action and attempts to make a flanking sneak attack with a huge bonus thanks to the dastardly strike talent he has…sadly, flanking the dragon results in activating an immediate action on the part of the dragon!
The dragon uses it to make a free counter attack on the rogue and paladin; the rogue is missed thanks to the increased AC, and the fact the dragon is taking massive penalties on its attack rolls, since the paladin’s attack pushed down the condition track and bloodied it! The paladin though takes damage, but he takes it like a dragonborn should. The tiefling rogues racial counterattack ability the kicks in, and THEN he gets his regular attack (which he delayed ages ago) and the dragon dies from massive retributive strike/flanking/dastardly strike damage. The poor thing never even had time to use its breath weapon, or get its turn! (initiative is not a class skill for white dragons!)
Gm and Players: “Whew! That was a load of actions. Oh and we have two pc’s yet to go. Its still the first round…”
The wizard is up next; he uses his Eladrin racial ability to teleport right in front of the horde; he the uses his staff as a focus to cast a per encounter burning hands and use the Golden Wyvren Adept feat to shape it so it only affects the goblins and no one else. 20 Gobbies die!
Wizard Player: “Feel teh poWaH of teh Golden Wyvren!!
The cleric moves a little bit forward so that all allies are with the 6X6 range for his ability which increases their healing, but otherwise does nothing.
Combat is over. The +1 the pc’s got from te warlord ability is gone, as is the boost to the rogues AC. Those were per encounter powers and the encounter is over. Finally, the rogues moves to have an encounter with the chest. (open the chest). He takes 10 on his search and discovers the trap; however he is not sure about being able to disarm it. So the cleric moves a bit forward and activates an aura that boosts the tieflings AC a bit; while the paladin moves back and punches the cleric in the head. The tiefling’s AC suddenly shoots back up.
The disarm attempt fails but hey, who cares. With his buffed AC the trap misses by a long shot. The Tiefling opens the chest to reveal a magnificent yet flawed Opal,a Feyrazor Dagger and a map detailing ancient Dragonborn empire ruins from the earlier ages!
The Tielfling takes the dagger, the wizard takes the Opal while the dragonborn keeps the map, hoping to go there and discover his heritage! The cleric gets nothing but that’s ok, since he also did not do much of anything the entire adventure. (the class in fact will go on to not do much in this entire dnd edition!)
On the way back up they come across the village ‘Wise Woman’, who turns out to be an Elder Hag! She cackles and caw’s, and (taking a free action) tells them her kind were responsible for the misunderstanding and the eventual war between the Dragonborn and the Tiefling empires. She says that eventually her masters will cover this entire world in darkness; but first she needs the map the party has so convieiently extracted for her.
Obviously the pc’s disagree. They fight. The dragonborn uses his breath weapon, the wizard uses his per encounter Burning Hands in conjunction with the staff and the Golden Wyvren feat (player: “Golden Wyvren ruelZ!!”); the Tiefling uses ‘flurry of daggers‘, while the cleric shuffles forward a few steps so that his activated aura, which grants enemies a penalty to attack rolls and AC, encompasses the hag.
They kill the hag, and return back to their village, eager to set out next day for the ruins of the DragonBorn Empire, and tell the world about the hag and her kind!!!
Anyhow, let me peek into the future and come up with:4E
The peeceez have just left their previous lives behind and taken up the profession of an adventurer. After a blessing from the village wise woman, who had a large hand in raising the Dragonborn from birth, they leave the village they all grew up in and head out into the vast and dark wilderness that surrounds their home, hoping to reach the fabled city of Mythagar and seek a more purpose filled life, and make their mark upon the darkened world in which they live.,
While traversing through the wild and sinister lands, ever watchful for the monsters and vile creatures they have heard about but never yet seen, the pc's stumble across the ruin of what appears to be an ancient tower. Being explorers at heart they decide to venture inside and see what lies therein; perhaps they can find clues to the past, some evidence of what the world was like during the days of the Dragonborn and Tiefling empires, before the Great War between them both ravaged their world and left it into a few scattered villages and towns scattered across a dark and festering land.
The Tiefling rogue creeps down first, using his Stealth to good effect. Not that anything really has a chance to see him, since with Skill Focus Stealth he's pretty much invisible. Just to be on the safe side, the rogue declares he is using "The Koiled Kobra" stance as he enters; that boost to initiative the stance gives will be useful if he needs to enter combat.
Once down there, he declares the all clear and the rest of the party comes down. Since no one has darkvision, the Eladrin wizard with staff focus uses his power and causes light to come a glow at the end of his staff. The Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut leads the group, with the Tiefling rogue at his side.
Expecting imminent combat, all pc's have declared stances: the Paladin is using "Destructive Force of Smiting", the Rogues continues "Koiled Kobra", the wizard uses "Golden Wyvren" while the cleric uses "Tortoise Shell"
The pc's cross the corridor and come across a large, empty room with a chest and a door at one end. Suddenly, the door opens and 20 goblins burst forth! A loud roar! ensues, and a white DRAGON bursts forth from the roof, shattering the dome ceiling and landing in true dramatic fashion in the center of the room.
The pc's realize this is a Dragon Lair, and the goblins are its servants!!
The rogue, thanks to Skill Focus Initiative(remember, init is a skill in 4e) and koiled kobra goes first. His initivative count is so freakin’ far above anyone else it ain’t even funny, so he effortlessly moves to the side of the dragon...and delays.
The dragonborn charges at the dragon while using his Exploding Boulder Maneuver; at the same time he activates a power he gained from his Warlord Traniing Feat and yells out to bahamut, granting everyone +1 to a whole lotta
, and then lays in with a Defensive Smite; all in one round!! Due to the massive attack bonusii he gets, rolling for attack is just basic ettiquette’s at this point.
He does a ton of damage, and at the same time the AC of the rogue goes up by 4, thanks to the defensive smite. There is no in-game reasoning of why this should be so; we will assume the dragon is distracted by the paladin and thus the rogue is harder to hit for it.
The rogue immediately activates his delayed action and attempts to make a flanking sneak attack with a huge bonus thanks to the dastardly strike talent he has…sadly, flanking the dragon results in activating an immediate action on the part of the dragon!
The dragon uses it to make a free counter attack on the rogue and paladin; the rogue is missed thanks to the increased AC, and the fact the dragon is taking massive penalties on its attack rolls, since the paladin’s attack pushed down the condition track and bloodied it! The paladin though takes damage, but he takes it like a dragonborn should. The tiefling rogues racial counterattack ability the kicks in, and THEN he gets his regular attack (which he delayed ages ago) and the dragon dies from massive retributive strike/flanking/dastardly strike damage. The poor thing never even had time to use its breath weapon, or get its turn! (initiative is not a class skill for white dragons!)
Gm and Players: “Whew! That was a
load of actions. Oh and we have two pc’s yet to go. Its still the first round…”The wizard is up next; he uses his Eladrin racial ability to teleport right in front of the horde; he the uses his staff as a focus to cast a per encounter burning hands and use the Golden Wyvren Adept feat to shape it so it only affects the goblins and no one else. 20 Gobbies die!
Wizard Player: “Feel teh poWaH of teh Golden Wyvren!!
The cleric moves a little bit forward so that all allies are with the 6X6 range for his ability which increases their healing, but otherwise does nothing.
Combat is over. The +1 the pc’s got from te warlord ability is gone, as is the boost to the rogues AC. Those were per encounter powers and the encounter is over. Finally, the rogues moves to have an encounter with the chest. (open the chest). He takes 10 on his search and discovers the trap; however he is not sure about being able to disarm it. So the cleric moves a bit forward and activates an aura that boosts the tieflings AC a bit; while the paladin moves back and punches the cleric in the head. The tiefling’s AC suddenly shoots back up.
The disarm attempt fails but hey, who cares. With his buffed AC the trap misses by a long shot. The Tiefling opens the chest to reveal a magnificent yet flawed Opal,a Feyrazor Dagger and a map detailing ancient Dragonborn empire ruins from the earlier ages!
The Tielfling takes the dagger, the wizard takes the Opal while the dragonborn keeps the map, hoping to go there and discover his heritage! The cleric gets nothing but that’s ok, since he also did not do much of anything the entire adventure. (the class in fact will go on to not do much in this entire dnd edition!)
On the way back up they come across the village ‘Wise Woman’, who turns out to be an Elder Hag! She cackles and caw’s, and (taking a free action) tells them her kind were responsible for the misunderstanding and the eventual war between the Dragonborn and the Tiefling empires. She says that eventually her masters will cover this entire world in darkness; but first she needs the map the party has so convieiently extracted for her.
Obviously the pc’s disagree. They fight. The dragonborn uses his breath weapon, the wizard uses his per encounter Burning Hands in conjunction with the staff and the Golden Wyvren feat (player: “Golden Wyvren ruelZ!!”); the Tiefling uses ‘flurry of daggers‘, while the cleric shuffles forward a few steps so that his activated aura, which grants enemies a penalty to attack rolls and AC, encompasses the hag.
They kill the hag, and return back to their village, eager to set out next day for the ruins of the DragonBorn Empire, and tell the world about the hag and her kind!!!
