bjorn2bwild
First Post
We held an impromptu 4E playtest tonight.
We randomly rolled for character assignment. Initially, the party consisted of the warlock, the cleric, and the paladin. Later, a fourth player showed up and brought in the fighter.
We had decided that tonight’s session was strictly going to be an attempt to learn the rules, so we opted for a simple delve with varying opponents.
All of the monsters used were taken directly from compiled lists acquired here on ENWorld.
The first combat was set up in a C shaped room with the party entering on one end. Around the corner waited two kobold skirmishers and eight kobold minions (400XP encounter). The cleric won initiative and moved forward to the middle of the room. Once there, I placed the minis for the kobolds (filling the entire width of that end of the room with two ranks of troops) and the cleric’s player let out a yelp of terror. He readied an action to heal himself if any advanced and did damage. The kobold minions went next and were able to surround the cleric. The other players moved forward, but to no avail as the skirmishers were able to set up some awesome mob tactics on the cleric, and to a lesser extent, the warlock. If the DM’s damage rolling hadn’t been so terrible, the cleric would have dropped in short order. As it was, the players spent most of this combat figuring out how to combine their powers together for the best effects. The combat ended when both skirmishers dropped. I had the remaining minions flee in abject terror, with several of them being cut down in the process by opportunity attacks.
After a short rest, the party healed up and moved on to the next encounter which took place inside a T shaped room, with the party entering on the side that dead ends. On either end of the room, a Human Berserker waited (300XP encounter). Unfortunately the berserkers beat the entire party on initiative and spent their first turns moving and then charging the paladin. The party actually put themselves in good formation before the fight started this time! The berserkers positioned themselves to allow no one past them without drawing opportunity attacks. When the warlock’s turn came around, he masterfully used an eyebite to blind one berserker, allowing him to slip past and gain a better tactical position. The cleric stood behind the paladin the entire fight and filled the buffer role quite nicely. The paladin was bloodied several times, but between his self heals and the cleric’s heals and buffing, he did not face any real difficulty. The berserkers were chewed down, with neither of them hitting their immediate action schtick.
The party took another short rest and was joined by the fighter before venturing on to the next encounter. For this final encounter, I set up a bent hourglass-shaped room with a path but a single square width in the center. The room defenders included two skeletal warriors in full view from the center square as well as a boneshard skeleton hanging in a blind spot (500XP encounter). The fighter rushed forward and blocked the center square creating what turned out to be a nearly impenetrable choke point. The two skeleton warriors moved up and began slogging on the fighter as the party formed up behind her. The boneshard skeleton then revealed itself and moved into a square a diagonal away from the other skeletons. At this point, the cleric turned undead and sent one of the skeleton warriors fleeing. This opened up the front line and allowed the boneshard skeleton to step up and wail on the fighter. Of course, everyone focused their attention on the big flaming bad-guy, totally unaware of the terror it was about to unleash. A couple of rounds later, the fighter was the one who ended up triggering the mayhem with the use of an action point to strike with her daily power. With it, the skeleton hit bloodied and set off the first boneshard burst, catching and hitting every party member. After this hit and the skeletons’ next attacks, the fighter was in pretty bad shape, but she stayed up there, using her second wind to buy herself one more round on the front line. The warlock witchfired down one of the skeleton warriors to near death (Well, second death?). That skeleton warrior chose to back off the front line and allow the other skeleton warrior to step up. Unfortunately for the retreating skeleton, the fighter used her class ability to get one final swing at it, which destroyed it. The other skeleton moved up and attacked the fighter, which put her dangerously close to 0hp. On her turn, she took one last swing at the warrior, cleaving into the boneshard skeleton. The cleave took the boneshard skeleton to 0, and it erupted in a glorious explosion, bathing the paladin and cleric in sizzling unholy fire, yet somehow totally missing the fighter, who then shifted out of the choke point before succumbing to ongoing damage from the boneshard skeleton’s last scimitar hit (we were resolving ongoing damage at the end of the player’s turn, just before the saving throw attempt. And yes, I know this is incorrect by RAW--it just felt a little more satisfying to give the player one last ditch shot before going down). The fighter’s hit points had dropped to exactly zero. The remaining skeleton warrior seized this opportunity and stepped up, taking a crack at the paladin who stood next to his fallen comrade. The cleric spent his turn using Sacred Flame to give the fighter 2 temp hit points. This brought the fighter back to consciousness. On her turn, she attacked from prone, and more than that, she used tide of iron to knock her opponent back so she could crawl to safety. The force of her blow was such that it shattered both of the skeleton’s legs, the rest of it crumbling apart as tumbled helplessly to the cavern’s floor.
So, there you have it. We went from having no experience with running 4E to having three complete combats, built on the fly, in a little over three and a half hours.
The important question is what did everyone think? The general consensus was that, while the game was fun, it didn’t “feel” like DnD should feel at first level. Everyone agreed that combat was much smoother, more dynamic, and simply better than in any other edition of DnD, it just seemed as though first level characters could do a little too much. One player suggested a “mundane” tier of levels, preceding the heroic tier, and this was widely regarded as a good idea which we may houserule in come June.
It seemed, to everyone, as though this edition played out a bit more like a CCG than we would have liked. Nobody’s given up on 4E yet though. Everyone wanted to try it again, building characters themselves once we have everything in front of us.
I think that may have been part of the problem. Nobody had any sort of attachment whatsoever to any of the characters they were running. This will certainly be corrected in June, but still, some players commented that they weren't going to develop the same sort of investment in these characters since they already start out on the powerful side of things. Time will tell if they are right or not.
Favorite quotes of the night:
“I used to hate fighters, but OH MY GOD! I’m so playing a fighter from now on, THEY ROCK!” –the fighter after her impressive stand vs. the skeletons.
“Man these cleric buffs are awesome…. IF ONLY I HIT WITH THEM!” –the cleric, whose dice were quite cold tonight.
“UGH I’m never throwing hammers again!” –The paladin after rolling, on back to back rounds, a 2 and a 1 on his attack rolls with his only ranged weapons.
“Know your class HAHA!” –the warlock player to the DM when his use of a power was mistakenly questioned.
Followed by:
“Know YOUR class HAHA!” –the DM to the warlock player as, not one minute later, the warlock player had attempted to use a class ability incorrectly.
All in all, a good time was had by everyone.
We randomly rolled for character assignment. Initially, the party consisted of the warlock, the cleric, and the paladin. Later, a fourth player showed up and brought in the fighter.
We had decided that tonight’s session was strictly going to be an attempt to learn the rules, so we opted for a simple delve with varying opponents.
All of the monsters used were taken directly from compiled lists acquired here on ENWorld.
The first combat was set up in a C shaped room with the party entering on one end. Around the corner waited two kobold skirmishers and eight kobold minions (400XP encounter). The cleric won initiative and moved forward to the middle of the room. Once there, I placed the minis for the kobolds (filling the entire width of that end of the room with two ranks of troops) and the cleric’s player let out a yelp of terror. He readied an action to heal himself if any advanced and did damage. The kobold minions went next and were able to surround the cleric. The other players moved forward, but to no avail as the skirmishers were able to set up some awesome mob tactics on the cleric, and to a lesser extent, the warlock. If the DM’s damage rolling hadn’t been so terrible, the cleric would have dropped in short order. As it was, the players spent most of this combat figuring out how to combine their powers together for the best effects. The combat ended when both skirmishers dropped. I had the remaining minions flee in abject terror, with several of them being cut down in the process by opportunity attacks.
After a short rest, the party healed up and moved on to the next encounter which took place inside a T shaped room, with the party entering on the side that dead ends. On either end of the room, a Human Berserker waited (300XP encounter). Unfortunately the berserkers beat the entire party on initiative and spent their first turns moving and then charging the paladin. The party actually put themselves in good formation before the fight started this time! The berserkers positioned themselves to allow no one past them without drawing opportunity attacks. When the warlock’s turn came around, he masterfully used an eyebite to blind one berserker, allowing him to slip past and gain a better tactical position. The cleric stood behind the paladin the entire fight and filled the buffer role quite nicely. The paladin was bloodied several times, but between his self heals and the cleric’s heals and buffing, he did not face any real difficulty. The berserkers were chewed down, with neither of them hitting their immediate action schtick.
The party took another short rest and was joined by the fighter before venturing on to the next encounter. For this final encounter, I set up a bent hourglass-shaped room with a path but a single square width in the center. The room defenders included two skeletal warriors in full view from the center square as well as a boneshard skeleton hanging in a blind spot (500XP encounter). The fighter rushed forward and blocked the center square creating what turned out to be a nearly impenetrable choke point. The two skeleton warriors moved up and began slogging on the fighter as the party formed up behind her. The boneshard skeleton then revealed itself and moved into a square a diagonal away from the other skeletons. At this point, the cleric turned undead and sent one of the skeleton warriors fleeing. This opened up the front line and allowed the boneshard skeleton to step up and wail on the fighter. Of course, everyone focused their attention on the big flaming bad-guy, totally unaware of the terror it was about to unleash. A couple of rounds later, the fighter was the one who ended up triggering the mayhem with the use of an action point to strike with her daily power. With it, the skeleton hit bloodied and set off the first boneshard burst, catching and hitting every party member. After this hit and the skeletons’ next attacks, the fighter was in pretty bad shape, but she stayed up there, using her second wind to buy herself one more round on the front line. The warlock witchfired down one of the skeleton warriors to near death (Well, second death?). That skeleton warrior chose to back off the front line and allow the other skeleton warrior to step up. Unfortunately for the retreating skeleton, the fighter used her class ability to get one final swing at it, which destroyed it. The other skeleton moved up and attacked the fighter, which put her dangerously close to 0hp. On her turn, she took one last swing at the warrior, cleaving into the boneshard skeleton. The cleave took the boneshard skeleton to 0, and it erupted in a glorious explosion, bathing the paladin and cleric in sizzling unholy fire, yet somehow totally missing the fighter, who then shifted out of the choke point before succumbing to ongoing damage from the boneshard skeleton’s last scimitar hit (we were resolving ongoing damage at the end of the player’s turn, just before the saving throw attempt. And yes, I know this is incorrect by RAW--it just felt a little more satisfying to give the player one last ditch shot before going down). The fighter’s hit points had dropped to exactly zero. The remaining skeleton warrior seized this opportunity and stepped up, taking a crack at the paladin who stood next to his fallen comrade. The cleric spent his turn using Sacred Flame to give the fighter 2 temp hit points. This brought the fighter back to consciousness. On her turn, she attacked from prone, and more than that, she used tide of iron to knock her opponent back so she could crawl to safety. The force of her blow was such that it shattered both of the skeleton’s legs, the rest of it crumbling apart as tumbled helplessly to the cavern’s floor.
So, there you have it. We went from having no experience with running 4E to having three complete combats, built on the fly, in a little over three and a half hours.
The important question is what did everyone think? The general consensus was that, while the game was fun, it didn’t “feel” like DnD should feel at first level. Everyone agreed that combat was much smoother, more dynamic, and simply better than in any other edition of DnD, it just seemed as though first level characters could do a little too much. One player suggested a “mundane” tier of levels, preceding the heroic tier, and this was widely regarded as a good idea which we may houserule in come June.
It seemed, to everyone, as though this edition played out a bit more like a CCG than we would have liked. Nobody’s given up on 4E yet though. Everyone wanted to try it again, building characters themselves once we have everything in front of us.
I think that may have been part of the problem. Nobody had any sort of attachment whatsoever to any of the characters they were running. This will certainly be corrected in June, but still, some players commented that they weren't going to develop the same sort of investment in these characters since they already start out on the powerful side of things. Time will tell if they are right or not.
Favorite quotes of the night:
“I used to hate fighters, but OH MY GOD! I’m so playing a fighter from now on, THEY ROCK!” –the fighter after her impressive stand vs. the skeletons.
“Man these cleric buffs are awesome…. IF ONLY I HIT WITH THEM!” –the cleric, whose dice were quite cold tonight.
“UGH I’m never throwing hammers again!” –The paladin after rolling, on back to back rounds, a 2 and a 1 on his attack rolls with his only ranged weapons.
“Know your class HAHA!” –the warlock player to the DM when his use of a power was mistakenly questioned.
Followed by:
“Know YOUR class HAHA!” –the DM to the warlock player as, not one minute later, the warlock player had attempted to use a class ability incorrectly.
All in all, a good time was had by everyone.
