My KOTS experience [spoilers]

Bayonet_Chris

First Post
I ran KOTS today for six players - we played for 4.5 hours and got through four combat before calling it quits due to time constraints. I changed a little of the fluff here and there and modified 3 of the 4 encounters for the extra player.

I used the Ruin of Empire hook and had the PCs looking for the Keep off the bat. Three of the four encounters were increased to account for the extra player (all except the Kobold Lair attack). Several players were bloodied at various times and many close to dropping down, but the warlord and cleric never let it get to that point. The players were even able to cover for their allies when they needed to take a second wind. Three of the six players have played together often in the past; the other three are new to the group. All of them are pretty experienced with 3.5.

The players were rolling a bit cold early, got some hot streaks late, but nothing was really aberrant about their rolls - they consistently had problems hitting the Dragonshields, for instance. The monsters were effective enough - the Dragonshields were especially tough on the fighter (seemingly always getting max damage).

The party was well balanced and very effective. The warlord and the wizard had the most obvious role in victory, to me and to my players. Here's a blow-by-blow breakdown:

Encounter 1
[sblock]I modified this a little bit, both in presentation and number of enemies. I upped it to a 575XP encounter by adding a slinger and had two minions blocking the road at the rocks, demanding payment to pass. The PCs tried to negotiate and intimidate their way through it, but it ended in combat anyway. The funniest part was one of the slingers climbing the rock and the halfling unsuccessfully trying to get up there and get to him. He finally did and used his Positioning Strike to kill the kobold and knock him off the rock.[/sblock]

Winterhaven
[sblock]I modified most of the fluff to make the introduction to the town a bit more rich. The PCs helped some tradesmen get their car unstuck from the market and joined them for a drink. They eventually talked to Valthrun, Lord Padraig, Salvana, Barwin, and Ninaran. I played Ninaran a little more subtle than presented, so the PCs have tried to enlist her help. They took the commission from Lord Padraig to exterminate the kobolds. Ninaran gave them directions with the expectation that they'd be wiped out.[/sblock]

Encounter 2
[sblock]I upped the ambush to 750XP by adding a Dragonshield. This was a close thing and the Wyrmpriest surprised them with his magic. The Dragonshields were consistently a problem all day. After the initial shock of the ambush (the fighter was hurt badly), they rallied and beat the kobolds back. The warlord and the wizard proved to be the keys to the turnaround. The skirmisher tried to make a run for it, but the Warlord ran him down and killed him.[/sblock]

Encounter 3
[sblock]Upped to 675 by adding a slinger. It didn't really matter - the PCs, after the first two encounters, had a good idea of what each other could do and were starting to click. They discovered the kobolds before being spotted, so were able to set up an ambush. The wizard used his cantrips to create a distraction in the stream - sounds coming from the water. The minions crept closer to investigate and he hit them all with a sleep spell. The fighter and rogue rushed through the trees and hit the Dragonshield hard. He was down before getting off a shot. The paladin and warlord took the flank while the cleric supported where necessary. One of the minions got to the edge of the waterfall, intending to warn the rest, before the wizard killed it with a Ray of Frost.[/sblock]

Encounter 4
[sblock]The rogue scouted beneath the waterfall and saw the large group of kobolds before backing off. He looked for another way in and, rolling a 1 on stealth, was spotted by a minion at the north entrance. Surprise gone and only the fighter behind him, he threw a dagger and killed the minion. The rest of the minions went after the rogue in initiative order and rushed over to meet the intruder. The rest of the group, seeing something up, burst through the waterfall. The wizard dropped Burning Hands on a large group of the minions, spent an action point, then cast scorching blast on another group. Let me point out that when spending the action point, the wizard had a +5 to hit and +4 damage. +2 from the warlord, +3 from his feat, and +4 to damage from the warlord. Ugly. In one fell swoop, the wizard had knocked out the majority of the kobolds in the room. The "first wave" of the fight was over so quickly that I had to introduce the second wave a round early.

The fighter was a bit overextended and soon became surrounded by the dragonshields, wyrmpriest, and Irontooth. This is where the rest of the party came to his rescue. The warlord rushed in and unleashed Lead the Attack on Irontooth, then used his action point to perform Leaf on the Wind to get the fighter out of trouble. He also unleashed a heal to help him out. The Rogue followed up with his daily and the fighter finished him off with his. Considering they all had a +5 against Irontooth in addition to everything else they were throwing, Irontooth never got to use his bloodied ability. That's how quickly it was over. The Dragonshields and Wyrmpriest were worn down and taken out.[/sblock]
 

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Ah I was hoping there would be a general "reaction thread" ...

I got to play for a few hours today. We only had two encounters. The first, with the kobolds, felt like it took a very long time, but of course we were all getting used to the new rules. With three players, each running two characters, it got to be a lot to juggle. On the other hand, it was interesting to get to see six different classes in play. There were a lot of 3E-isms to erase from the brain (at least temporarily), and even five hours into it we were still wrapping our brains around how different "shift" and "5-step" really are.

Stuff I liked: I think the general game (the numbers side of it, the basic procedures, what you can do in a round, etc.) seems very solid and not all that different from the D&D I know. I had fun with the warlord; it was fun supporting others in a non-clericky way. I liked how tough the 1st level characters were, and I liked the amount of healing available (though not always the flavor of "quick but somehow not magical" healing). The minion rules seemed to work out as intended -- they posed a threat but were easy to get rid of. I didn't have any problem adjusting to 1-1-1 diagonal movement.

Stuff I didn't like so well: "Marking" seemed to be a pain in the ass and (to me) adds just enough complexity to wipe out its benefit of making the game more interesting. Same deal with "bloodied" - none of us were able to pay attention to that aspect of the game, so it might as well have not existed. Keeping track of conditions seemed pretty complex, at least as complex as 3.x -- there was a lot to keep track of. I felt the rogue pregen had a lot of the same type of powers, just in slightly different forms. I had trouble "seeing" how some of the forced movement powers worked.

I think we're going to try to get together again sometime to go through some more of KotS, and I look forward to seeing more. I don't see 4E replacing my own D&D needs any time soon, however.
 

I am a bit disappointed in the first two combat encounters. They seem too similar. Both are ambushes by the same type of creatures using the same map. That is the only map of the Kings Road that I can find. It is not that either encounter is bad individually, but back to back it seems like fighting the same encounter twice.

IMO, using the same map in both encounters makes it even worse. The ambush takes place in the same place on the same map.
 

Due to various technical difficulties, we only got the first encounter down and arrived in town to hole up in the inn, waiting on the Dude.

The fight was fun, and epic, but would have went much smoother had 3 of the PCs bothered using their At-Wills instead of relying on Basic Attacks, and two not bothering to use their encounter powers at all.

The Shields decided I was the baddest threat on the field and concentrated on me; my HP went to 2, then 5, then 5 again by the end of the fight. I was targeted because my paladin was a wrecking ball; my kill count was 2 by the end of the first round, and 4 overall. My javelins were lethal, getting the kill shot on a dragonshield and a slinger. I paired Divine Strength with Radiant Smite and hit a fresh Shield for 22. I was hot! :cool:
 

Digital M@ said:
I am a bit disappointed in the first two combat encounters. They seem too similar. Both are ambushes by the same type of creatures using the same map. That is the only map of the Kings Road that I can find. It is not that either encounter is bad individually, but back to back it seems like fighting the same encounter twice.

IMO, using the same map in both encounters makes it even worse. The ambush takes place in the same place on the same map.

I gotta say, while I overall love KotS, this is totally true.

Another "Kobold Ambush" with a completely different locale would be okay.
Another ambush on the same map by totally different monsters would be okay.
Another Kobold ambush on the same map but much later in the game would be okay
What it has? Too much the same.

Fitz
 

Not just the same ambush on the same map, but a bunch of same maps that have been previously released. That sorta irks me, as I think a flagship adventure from WotC should have included all new poster-sized maps. Not a huge deal, certainly, but - from the rumors - it sounds like there's a fair amount of recycled art in the core books. Again, that irks me. I'm irked.

Outside of that, however, I think KotS is a darn good adventure to kick off the new edition. I've read it cover to cover, but have only played through the first two encounters. Very interested/excited to have the party delve into the keep.

I was not a fan of the encounter format for modules, but I'm slowly coming around.

Wis
 

Wisdom Penalty said:
Not just the same ambush on the same map, but a bunch of same maps that have been previously released. That sorta irks me, as I think a flagship adventure from WotC should have included all new poster-sized maps.

As someone who never bought any of the Fantastic Locations products, I have to say I'm really happy with their inclusion in KotS. There's no way Wizards would have been able to include this much new mappage in an adventure, so recycling the old ones is an excellent way of providing battlemaps for as much of the adventure as possible.
 

Similar encounter

Yeah, encounters one and two were too similar for my tastes, which is why I tried to alter the feel of them. The first "toll" was an easy setup for the revenge ambush later on. The players did comment on the identical map for the encounters though.

The first combat took an hour for us, as everyone adjusted to what they can do. If you're playing with an inexperienced group (as far as 4E goes anyway), I would recommend making the occasional suggestion.

I had one player using basic attacks, and that was the paladin when he was immobilized and realized he didn't have any effective ranged options. Otherwise, they only came up as opportunity attacks (mostly the fighter) and charges.

I tried to rely on the players to help me out with the marking - I would just tell one of them they're marked and get a -2 against everyone but that guy and they seemed to keep OK track of it. They kept me honest a few times when I forgot which target the paladin used his divine challenge on.
 

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