Post your Lair Assault Results Here (Spoilers)

[On Puget Sound]

Form of Mountain's Thunder deals STR damage to all marked creatures when you hit. Maw of the Guardian weapon adds CON damage when in guardian form. Crushing Guardian feat adds +2 damage with a hammer when in guardian form. So a 1(w) attack deals:

1d10+4Str+3Con+2feat+4Str (again, because the thing you hit is marked, right?) +1 weapon = 1d10+14 without really optimizing for damage - leaving the other 2 feats for defense, mobility or stickiness. So yeah, I could see mid-20s for a striker-y warden's at-wills.

 

[Taed]

+4Str (again, because the thing you hit is marked, right?)

I totally missed the +STR against marked enemies when in Form of Mountain's Thunder. I've only used that character a few times and had never used that daily before. "Know your character."

Although I'm still interested in how they got up into the 30s. The Maw of Guardian is limited to mace/hammer, so no greataxe, but to get the AC that was mentioned, I'd certainly assume that they're using a heavy shield and a one-handed weapon.

 

[Mengu]

[sblock=Dwarf Warden 5]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Warvin, level 5
Dwarf, Warden
Build: Earth Warden
Guardian Might Option: Earthstrength
Auspicious Birth (Auspicious Birth Benefit)
Theme: Noble

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 20, CON 18, DEX 10, INT 10, WIS 13, CHA 8

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 17, CON 15, DEX 10, INT 10, WIS 13, CHA 8


AC: 23 Fort: 19 Ref: 15 Will: 15
HP: 65 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 16

TRAINED SKILLS
Athletics +10, Dungeoneering +10, Endurance +10, Nature +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics –1, Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Heal +3, History +2, Insight +3, Intimidate +1, Perception +3, Religion +2, Stealth –1, Streetwise +1, Thievery –1

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Noble Utility: Noble Presence
Dwarf Racial Power: Dwarven Resilience
Warden Feature: Warden's Fury
Warden Feature: Warden's Grasp
Warden Attack 1: Weight of Earth
Warden Attack 1: Thorn Strike
Warden Attack 1: Thunder Ram Assault
Warden Attack 1: Form of Mountain's Thunder
Endurance Utility 2: Endure Pain
Warden Attack 3: Earthgrasp Strike
Warden Attack 5: Boiling Cloud

FEATS
Level 1: Dwarven Weapon Training
Level 2: Crippling Crush
Level 4: Bludgeon Expertise

ITEMS
Maw of the Guardian Craghammer +1 x1
Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1
Gauntlets of Ogre Power (heroic tier) x1
Heavy Shield x1
Magic Hide Armor +2 x1
Collar of Recovery +1 x1
====== End ======
[/sblock]

Here are the bonuses to Weight of Earth:

1d10(b2) Craghammer
+5 Str
+2 feat (DWT)
+2 item (IAoP)
+4 Con (Crippling Crush)
+4 Con (Maw of the Guardian)
+5 Str (Form of Mountain's Thunder)
+2 power (Gauntlets)

1d10(b2)+24, average is 30.5.

If I didn't feel expertise was so essential, I would have gone with barbarian MC for another +2.

 

[On Puget Sound]

How cheesy is too cheesy? I'm working on a LA party and I came across this Sorcerer Daily 5:

Deep Freeze

Driving your blade home, you hiss a word of power , and white bone-chililng mist begins to seep from your foe's body.

Daily Arcane, Cold, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon

Target: One creature

Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude

Hit: 2[W] + Intelligence modifier damage.

Effect: until the end of the encounter, any enemy takes 1d10 cold damage when it moves adjacent to or starts its turn adjacent to the target.

Published in Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, page(s) 29.

So, given the "creature" rather than "enemy", and the "effect" tag, I want to hit attack the barbarian with it at the start of the assault. Obviously I'm going to put away my dagger and hit unarmed, and warn the barbarian to go into full defense. I'm wondering whether closing my eyes before attacking to give him total concealment would take it over the edge from clever cheese to enrage-the-GM cheese.

(I'm also wondering whether it's worth giving up a damaging Sorc5 power and the first round's actions from at least the sorc and possibly the barb. Probably not, but it would sure be funny!)

 

[Mengu]

Also lets face it, the Essentials Thief can find CA like a pig snuffling for truffles. The AEDU version of the rogue requires way more teamwork and build precision to get that.

This is very true, though Pack Outcast is pretty sick in that regard, for a human melee rogue.

It will be interesting to see how Lair Assault plays with CharOps assumptions about build strategies. Most are going for DPR, but ignore synergy between PCs.

Charop is a three edged sword. Have nova potential, have round to round good DPR, and be survivable. I think the weight shifts slightly away from nova and early encounter damage via immediate and minor action attacks, toward a bit more survivability for this exercise. But otherwise, I imagine most principles remain the same. Charop doesn't really ignore synergy between PC's. Warlord + Essentials striker is the chicken that lays golden eggs or something. Relying on another PC for round to round actions is tough but not out of the realm of possibility. It is however difficult to find such synergies at level 5, though with some investment, radiant damage could be exploited a bit I suppose. Most cool party tricks that I like come from encounter powers, and in a 15 round encounter, those are going to be pretty sparse.

 

[Knowledge Checks]

We had our second crack at the dungeon this past Sunday. Instead of dying in the 14th round (1st try), we killed the boss during the 7th round.

Party Line Up

Revenant (human) Rageblood Vigor Barbarian (me)
Half-Elf Bard (super heals...had around 9 or 10 heals)
Genasi Warden (our only defender, only one we needed)
Human Blackguard (died in round 6)
Human Thief (charging spec)
Human Bladesinger

We decided to just rush to the forge room this time instead of messing around with the glyph hallway. The DM anticipated this and stacked up the enemies in the first two rooms. We stuck to our plan and just ran while the defender cleaned up the minions.

On round 3 we were in the small room to the left of the forge room, stacked up to the door. It got opened and the bosses readied action went off, immobilizing 4 of us until EONT...which was the end of Round 4. So at the start of Round 5 the floor drops and the bard goes into the lava. The Warden and I are still stuck in the entry room on the wrong side of the lava while the rest of the party surges into the forge room.

Thanks to my +12 athletics check, I run while climbing and make it to the forge room, spending my AP to attack the boss on round 5. The warden spider walks through the lava room and then teleports (armor magic item) through the door.

Round 6 was us beating up on the boss. There was 1 firebat left in the room with him, but it died quickly and in the middle of round 7 we finished off the boss. I actually used my Fey Strike Maul to pull him right next to me and the defender on Round 6, and we surrounded him.

---

The difference between this week and the first run was that we knew the layout and knew ahead of time where we were going. The first run we wasted a lot of rounds just exploring. Also, we knew what to expect and built our characters for the dungeon. My revenant had the belt of sonnli-something (resist all 10 when at 0 or under) and I had boosted my death saving throw to +9, so I never went unconscious when I dropped below zero. The stance power of the Wolfstone Heritage feat gave my Resist all 5 when I was bloodied.

If you're going to run an all 1 race group, use Revenant (humans). The Wolfstone Heritage feat is awesome. With the stance power you reduce forced movement by 2, which is great for not getting pushed or slid into lava. The resist 5 when bloodied and immune to prone when bloodied is also solid.

 

[KarinsDad]

[sblock=Dwarf Warden 5]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Warvin, level 5
Dwarf, Warden
Build: Earth Warden
Guardian Might Option: Earthstrength
Auspicious Birth (Auspicious Birth Benefit)
Theme: Noble

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 20, CON 18, DEX 10, INT 10, WIS 13, CHA 8

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 17, CON 15, DEX 10, INT 10, WIS 13, CHA 8


AC: 23 Fort: 19 Ref: 15 Will: 15
HP: 65 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 16

TRAINED SKILLS
Athletics +10, Dungeoneering +10, Endurance +10, Nature +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics –1, Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Heal +3, History +2, Insight +3, Intimidate +1, Perception +3, Religion +2, Stealth –1, Streetwise +1, Thievery –1

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Noble Utility: Noble Presence
Dwarf Racial Power: Dwarven Resilience
Warden Feature: Warden's Fury
Warden Feature: Warden's Grasp
Warden Attack 1: Weight of Earth
Warden Attack 1: Thorn Strike
Warden Attack 1: Thunder Ram Assault
Warden Attack 1: Form of Mountain's Thunder
Endurance Utility 2: Endure Pain
Warden Attack 3: Earthgrasp Strike
Warden Attack 5: Boiling Cloud

FEATS
Level 1: Dwarven Weapon Training
Level 2: Crippling Crush
Level 4: Bludgeon Expertise

ITEMS
Maw of the Guardian Craghammer +1 x1
Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1
Gauntlets of Ogre Power (heroic tier) x1
Heavy Shield x1
Magic Hide Armor +2 x1
Collar of Recovery +1 x1
====== End ======
[/sblock]

Here are the bonuses to Weight of Earth:

1d10(b2) Craghammer
+5 Str
+2 feat (DWT)
+2 item (IAoP)
+4 Con (Crippling Crush)
+4 Con (Maw of the Guardian)
+5 Str (Form of Mountain's Thunder)
+2 power (Gauntlets)

1d10(b2)+24, average is 30.5.

If I didn't feel expertise was so essential, I would have gone with barbarian MC for another +2.

Funny how everyone and his brother is a noble these days. Fricking WotC and their #*#&#^#%#&# unbalanced themes.

 

[Mengu]

Funny how everyone and his brother is a noble these days. Fricking WotC and their #*#&#^#%#&# unbalanced themes.

Eventhough this character doesn't make the optimal use for it, in the LA format, it's a no brainer (either that or Wizard's Apprentice). Otherwise, I'd say Guardian and Pack Outcast are the most powerful themes. Pack Outcast level 5 feature is just horribly wrong.

For home games and even LFR, it's not difficult to ignore the power play options, I have characters ranging from Ordained Priest, to Wizard's Apprentice, to Harper, to Mercenary, though for one of my characters, Guardian was too perfect to pass up.

 

[Alphastream]

I'll be honest and say that I was negative about this program. I really like story, RP, and seeing interesting builds. I'm not a fan of delves and optimization for its own sake. When I look at the landscape I think there are people who want a pregen, people that want to spend minimal time making a PC, people that want to work on strong builds for a PC, and then some that really live to optimize. I just couldn't see the program drawing enough people.

And then I played it. I was part of Saracenus' table. I played an efficient elven huntress (she missed once) with a smart choice in armor and some straight-forward (nothing insane) build choices. I basically took my dwarven huntress from LFR and just tweaked for the description of the Lair Assault. We did extremely well, despite not being the cheesiest people out there. Most importantly, we all had an absolute blast.

It would be smart of WotC if this initial adventure was a bit easier than those to come later. Regardless, I'm really impressed with how many people are interested in this program and having fun with it once they play. The number of people posting that they have tried more than once is high. The adventure itself is a very good delve written by a very good author. The materials are excellent with fun bits for the DM. I'm impressed and glad to be proven wrong.

 

[Zuche]

We've lost six parties now in Calgary, though the last group (three dwarves and a genasi) came within 3 hp of victory. A few misjudgments cost them a faster win, but they get points for these stunts:

1) After drawing the attention of a second room full of temple elect, the party went into the room with the weak floor, only for the genasi warlock to get cut off from the group by them. He then triggered a fire power and went Brave Little Tailor on them and managed to avoid taking any damage at all. His allies in the doorway took a few hits. Yes, a fire power. Even managed to lay a respectable amount of hurt on the one non-minion in the room with that.

2) After the dwarf ranger/barbarian knocked Vell down, the dwarf knight leapt over him (drawing and avoiding the resulting opportunity attack) to cut off his escape route. He was then able to push him out from behind his defensive position, whereupon the group managed to surround and daze him.

3) After Vell knocked the knight back and dropped the barbarian/ranger, I opted to spend his action point on making sure the barbarian stayed down. I rolled a 1. The cleric then restored the barbarian, and that character managed to stay in the fight for another four rounds, most of them with no more than 6 hp (real and temporary combined).

Once again, it was an educational experience. There were several mistakes I have to avoid next time, and I know the group spotted a few of their own that might have turned the tide.

The best death this week went to another DM at the same location. The team opted to beeline for the forge, ignoring the first room's guardians to break down the sealed door at the end of round three. Round four came, the party advanced on Vell to a promising start...and then one of the warlocks that had been pursuing us struck the cleric with his fire blast, letting the other finish the round by using a teleportation power to switch places with him and then drop concussive burst on the rest of us.

Then the floor collapsed and the cleric left play in classic Wile E. Coyote style. No one else lasted beyond the seventh round.