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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 4882776" data-attributes="member: 726">Played again last night – run #18, I think.  We're all 4th level.  I'll leave the plot stuff to Piratecat and make some brief comments on the tactical stuff:The game's action consisted of a large skill challenge, followed by a small one, followed by a combat vs. the Big Boss of the current plot arc.The first Skill Challenge was a dash through the city streets, since we had discovered that our Arch Enemy was headed for our HQ, disguised as one of us.   It was of middling difficulty – 10 successes before 3 failures, and checks that weren't that difficult with others aiding.  I thought it was Piratecat's best yet in terms of its mechanics, particularly in that the DC went up as we used specific skills more than once, and that there were certain skills that could only be used once as a group.  Also, PC's had two options for aiding – a generic DC 12 check, but using the same skill as the primary PC, or a DC 17 Perception check, no matter what skill the primary PC was using.  The catch?  A failed aid roll for the DC 12 version resulted in a -2 penalty to the check, while failing the DC 17 roll had no negative consequences besides the wasted action.The chase was also fantastic from a cinematics point of view!We won the challenge, getting 10 successes with only 1 failure.  That got us to the tower, where we guessed (correctly) that our enemy, Aline, had gone to the basement to free her consort from the cells.  She had barred the door into the cell area, so that was our second skill challenge – to bust the door down.  It was a barred door – DC 20, and 2 PC's could assist the primary.  Our Goliath Barbarian (guest player) had a 20 STR, so he was primary.  The two 16 STR brawny rogues assisted, as we all slammed ourselves repeatedly into the door.  It was 4 successes before 3 failures.  Some quick-and-dirty math:  A PC with 16 STR can hit the DC 10 assist mark 70% of the time.   So, the primary PC is getting a +2.8 bonus to each roll.  Call it +3.  A 20 STR PC will hit DC 20, with a +3 on his roll, 45% of the time.  In other words, we needed more successes than failures, on a roll we rated to make less than half the time.  So the odds were against us, but it wasn't absurdly difficult.  We failed.  What was galling was that we succeeded in our first three rolls, and then failed the next four!  That had particularly dire consequences, as our delay gave Aline time to finish killing all of her hostages in some horrid necromantic ritual.   The dead included not only our Commander Pikeline, but our kindly halfling cook and two of her kids!  We were, as you can imagine, incensed!So, the fight: - Aline was a MM1 Rakshasa, scaled down to an appropriate level, made into a Solo, and with some tweaked abilities.- Said abilities included powers that blinded, powers that dazed, powers that pushed – and all of these seemed to come with large damage rolls.   Worst of all was the power that caused hits done by the party to instead target and damage other party members.  Ouch!- Piratecat borrowed a technique I had used recently in my 3.5 game, giving his solo villain multiple turns per round.  Basically she got two initiative cards.  That (rat) bastard!- Our rolling was utterly, utterly atrocious in this fight.  Strontium's was especially bad – she may have hit with 2 of her attack rolls (which included bursts, so we're talking lots of rolls) for the entirety of the combat.   Also, as a group, we rolled 20 to hit AC (we needed a 21) at least a half-dozen times.  Argh!- Another strike against us:  this was our second big fight of the day, and we had used up almost all of our dailies in the first fight.  Argh!- Aline was tough, but made the tactical blunder of forcing Toiva into a small dead-end feature of the tactical space.  That meant she was essentially pinned between Logan (rogue) and Toiva (paladin) for much of the fight.  Toiva had effectively goaded her into it by drawing the Big Magic Sword that we had recently acquired, and which she considered rightfully hers.  - Bramble (shaman) provided essential healing, and at least two of us benefited from the augmented Second Winds from being near her Spirit Companion.  - Of the six* of us, everyone but Strontium was bloodied at some point, and both the rogues were down to single digits at various points.  By the end of the fight, both rogues were out of Surges for the day.- The guest PC (played by Alomir's son) was a Goliath Barbarian with some funky weapon/feat combo that had him doing 6d6 damage on a couple of his powers.  (Piratecat, can you elaborate?) We were in awe, and he ended up doing about 100 points of damage to Aline by himself over the course of the combat.- We may have had to whittle a single enemy down from 200+ hit points, but it didn't feel grind-y at all.  Rather, despite the fact that no one even went unconscious in the fight, it felt like we were on the verge of massive defeat until nearly the very end.  She was one tough adversary -- one who, I'm happy to say, ended her day with a crushed windpipe and severed head.Between the skill challenges and the boss fight, this was the most exciting and emotional run of the game so far.  * Doc Caldwell's player couldn't make the game.  Piratecat cleverly removed him from the action during the first skill challenge.</blockquote>

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