My KOTS experience [spoilers]

[That One Guy]

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.

Is exactly how I like a good D&D strategy to play out.

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!

Is also an excellent story. Totally rad.

That's sad that the first two encounters are so similar. I'm not going to buy KotS, but I'm interested in how it plays and its reception. I think the OP's suggestion of having a toll fight (w/ a kobold who speaks common) and a revenge ambush makes some decent fluff. Any DMs planning on picking up that idea?

 

[Graf]

glad to hear the wizard ccan contribute. The pregen looked fine to me but there had been much complaining about how "weak" the class was when the pregebs came out.

The tiefling warlord looked sick and wrong when I saw it. Wonder if its supposed to be an antidote to the difficulty of some of the encounters?

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

Wizards

glad to hear the wizard ccan contribute. The pregen looked fine to me but there had been much complaining about how "weak" the class was when the pregebs came out.

The tiefling warlord looked sick and wrong when I saw it. Wonder if its supposed to be an antidote to the difficulty of some of the encounters?

Well, I ran the Burning Plague for these same players (-2) - they had a rogue, cleric, ranger, and warlock. After running KOTS yesterday, the major difference they noticed was in the ability the wizard had to lay down area effects on the battlefield. It made a major difference. I can tell you right now that the lair battle would have gone very, very differently without the wizard.

The warlord is funny because he really is only effective in concert with others, but when he is he's extremely effective.

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

The Warlord Speaks

As the guy playing BayonetChris' Warlord, I'd like to throw in my two cents:

I feel like the Warlord class has the possibility of becoming 4e's Cleric. The bonuses to Action Point rolls were crucial in several instances and we'd probably have had a dead defender and maybe wizard without Wolf Pack Tactics, which is crazy good, even though it seems silly. However, if no one is injured or surrounded, I might as well be making melee basic attacks. (Which I did for most of one encounter) Overall, I enjoyed playing the character when the fight was tough, but as things got better over time, I began to envy the fighter's opportunity attacks, the rogue's Sly Flourish, the wizard's area attacks; things that functioned 'in a vaccuum,' so to speak. I'll have a great time finishing out this module with the pregen, but I'll probably run something else next time.

 

[Gargoyle]

Is exactly how I like a good D&D strategy to play out.Is also an excellent story. Totally rad.

That's sad that the first two encounters are so similar. I'm not going to buy KotS, but I'm interested in how it plays and its reception. I think the OP's suggestion of having a toll fight (w/ a kobold who speaks common) and a revenge ambush makes some decent fluff. Any DMs planning on picking up that idea?

Yeah, I'm yoinking that, and I'll probably use Dungeon Tiles for the second fight.

 

[Styracosaurus]

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.

It seems that there are more rounds fought in a 4e encounter than in a 3e encounter. My experience is that 3e spends a lot of time resolving each player's turn (resolving bonus' and rolling lots of dice) and having fewer rounds fought. All of the opposing dice rolls really make a mess of melee in 3e. Now that my group is 12th level, it takes longer to resolve a turn due to iterative attacks, etc... My hope is that 4e scales better for higher levels, so that a combat for 10th level characters in 4e will be on the same time frame (in real time) as it was at first level.

"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.

Playing two characters simultaneously will be much more difficult. In 3e, you could just hack/slash with one guy and move the other one around more. Now each character will require more attention during each round. Hopefully the brunt of that complexity will sit on the PC rather than the DM.

 

[Wormwood]

"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.

Ditto.

I'm an unabashed 4e fanboy, but the kludgy 'marking' mechanic is a mighy big turd in the punchbowl.

 

[Stalker0]

Ditto.

I'm an unabashed 4e fanboy, but the kludgy 'marking' mechanic is a mighy big turd in the punchbowl.

Yep, marking was my biggest hate when I ran some pregen runs.

 

[ArchAnjel]

"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.

This would seem to be something remedied by using a virtual tabletop (VTT) such as MapTool or (presumably) the one that will come with the PHB. As a MapTool user, this wouldn't be a problem in my games at all. Paladin marks the Dragonshield? Put a blue aura around them both so you can easily and quickly see that. 3 of the 8 attackers are bloodied? Just put a red aura or slap a state on them and you're set. Don't have to keep track of it in your mind at all.

 

[MrJamela]

Sounds like you could track this easily enough with the usual colored gamer glass beads we use for pretty much everything.... One color to show the character and marked enemy and you are good to go.

Jaime