Return of the Roger III: Bride of Roger
Between the last Monday playtest (two weeks ago) and this one, DM Chris Sims took a week off. I'm sure he enjoyed himself, but more important was that we had an entire week to obey his command: rocket our characters from level 1 to level 14!
Which meant I had 17 decisions to make while taking Roger from undistin guished first-level rogue to 14th-level awesome infiltration master. They weren't that hard. Roger has a good theme to him that guided me away from the more deadly killing powers and into the ones that emphasized stealth and escape. And even though I didn't get to walk with Roger every step of the way, it feels like he's progressed, like he's built on a foundation, and that's how D&D characters are supposed to feel as you level them up. It's good to see and feel that.
Now, down to the game. We're supposed to visit a red dragon and convince (by hook or by crook) her not to ally with a society of warlock-knights that we hate and fear. Knowing PCs, there's probably a lot more hate than fear in there. The sneaky goblin ranger and Roger check it out, finding a couple hill giants playing "throw the rock," accompanied by some well-armed dragonspawn. We consider sneaking in, getting surprise rounds, and laying them waste, but cooler heads prevail. We talk to the dragonspawn.
They demand tribute in exchange for an audience. We offer some, but when they ask (and learn) the purpose of our visit, they increase the tribute past where we can pay. PCs not being a particularly patient race, battle is joined. I used stealth powers pre-battle to position myself for a nice surprise, so I get sneak attack damage and, luckily, a crit! It makes the attack feel very satisfying as I step out of the shadows and clock the spawn upside the head, knocking him prone and dazing him (which sets him up for my next sneak attack).
For my part, the battle went really well. Even though I took a good bit of damage, I felt really good that I was able to play tactically and arrange to use my sneak attack every round, through movement or special ability. If I weren't thinking about things tactically, I would have been still effective, if less so. That feels like the right balance to me.
We cleaned their clocks, which is good since it was designed to be an easier encounter, and we began moving deeper into the dragon's lair, unhappily already having chosen to be the beast's enemies.
