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<blockquote data-quote="Gruns" data-source="post: 4532042" data-attributes="member: 10312">Hey all.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; It only took 6 levels for the group I DM for to experience their first death in 4E. It happened tonight during the &quot;boss encounter&quot; i.e., the &quot;PCs level +3&quot; encounter that is recommended once every level. I think my encounter was fairly designed, and I have to blame horrible player tactics. (But as DMs, don't we all?)&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The funny thing is, a seemingly innocent little magic item from Adventurer's Vault played a big part in their demise. The BBEG gave his typical &quot;you found me, now you fools will meet your doom!&quot; speech, and then activated his Darkskull. (As a minor action, you cause all active light sources within 10 squares of you to be suppressed until the end of the encounter. Light sources activated after you use the power function normally.) That's all it does. All of the PCs have a plethora of Sunrods. Not one of them bothered to try to relight their lights! Instead they fumbled around making perception checks to try to locate the Vampire Spawn minions and the Mad Wraith that was eating them alive. +5 to AC is a bit tough to overcome.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; And speaking of the Mad Wraith, his aura was amazing. Especially when it seemed like my group did their best to make sure they were all caught in it at all times. The wraith had a personal vendetta against the Paladin in the party, and so stuck on him throughout the entire fight. Sadly, I don't know why the other PCs didn't pick up on the fact that when they were near the pally, they took aura damage. When they (usually accidently) spread apart from the pally, they were safe from the aura.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; All in all, definitely not their best tactical display. Even after the paladin went down, the PCs could have attempted a Heal check to stabilize him, but alas they all more or less watched as he failed three death saving throws in a row. This would have likely been a TPK if not for a massive crit (and max damage on the crit dice!) by the rogue on a sneak attack with an Encounter power. I give the PC's performance a 3 out of 10.Later!Gruns</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gruns, post: 4532042, member: 10312"] Hey all. It only took 6 levels for the group I DM for to experience their first death in 4E. It happened tonight during the "boss encounter" i.e., the "PCs level +3" encounter that is recommended once every level. I think my encounter was fairly designed, and I have to blame horrible player tactics. (But as DMs, don't we all?) The funny thing is, a seemingly innocent little magic item from Adventurer's Vault played a big part in their demise. The BBEG gave his typical "you found me, now you fools will meet your doom!" speech, and then activated his Darkskull. (As a minor action, you cause all active light sources within 10 squares of you to be suppressed until the end of the encounter. Light sources activated after you use the power function normally.) That's all it does. All of the PCs have a plethora of Sunrods. Not one of them bothered to try to relight their lights! Instead they fumbled around making perception checks to try to locate the Vampire Spawn minions and the Mad Wraith that was eating them alive. +5 to AC is a bit tough to overcome. And speaking of the Mad Wraith, his aura was amazing. Especially when it seemed like my group did their best to make sure they were all caught in it at all times. The wraith had a personal vendetta against the Paladin in the party, and so stuck on him throughout the entire fight. Sadly, I don't know why the other PCs didn't pick up on the fact that when they were near the pally, they took aura damage. When they (usually accidently) spread apart from the pally, they were safe from the aura. All in all, definitely not their best tactical display. Even after the paladin went down, the PCs could have attempted a Heal check to stabilize him, but alas they all more or less watched as he failed three death saving throws in a row. This would have likely been a TPK if not for a massive crit (and max damage on the crit dice!) by the rogue on a sneak attack with an Encounter power. I give the PC's performance a 3 out of 10. Later! Gruns [/QUOTE]

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