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Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 5156968" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>This was the fourth game at lvl 7, and only the second combat in all that time. I'm clearly getting my money's worth out of skill challenges, investigation and diplomacy. The PCs are on track to level if they live until tomorrow's dawn.</p><p></p><p>Last Thursday's game was an unusual one. With three of the six players missing (one illness, one concert rehearsal, one religious obligation) I invited Dr. Rictus to play with us, and had a table of four instead of the usual six. Dr. Rictus played in my Defenders game way back at the start of the storyhour in 2002 or so before he moved to NY and had to leave the game. He's recently moved back to Boston. If you ever heard us refer to the term "push the tummy and it will spout rules," he was the origin of the joke; he knew the 3.5 rules so well that any time we needed a citation we could push his tummy and get the answer. (No tummies were actually pushed, incidentally. That's decorum for you.) </p><p></p><p>This turned out to be Dr. Rictus's first game of 4e. I gave him Arogg, a lvl 7 half-orc brawling fighter who happened to be an owlbear wrangler. The set-up is that the city is in chaos (aforementioned colossus, Imperial ultimatum, panicking mobs, locked gates, roving cultists, etc.) and a rich wizard's pet owlbear escaped. The PCs were heading down the same street where the wizard's hireling was trying to recapture the owlbear, so they jumped in to help. Amidst the chaos and stampeding mob, another kenku assassin seized the opportunity and tried to kill Bramble. It was one elite lvl 8 and one elite lvl 9 monster against four lvl 7 PCs.</p><p></p><p>I drew a wide street and placed Arogg and the owlbear (which this group calls "browls") in the middle of the street. The monster was feeding on a dead horse and Arogg was trying to recapture it. I described the owlbear as having painted talons, dyed feathers and fur, and lots of jewels on its collar and pierced beak; it was clearly not wild. I then took a pipecleaner and formed a circle around the owlbear in about an aura 2. I told the group that the street was full of a panicked and running mob of people, and that everyone would be pushed 2 squares each round due to the surging crowd; the crowd would avoid the monster, so anyone within that aura wouldn't be pushed (but would be within range of the owlbear.) I also gave the group several options for avoiding being pushed, including an intimidation, streetwise or acrobatics check.</p><p></p><p>We started off with the owlbear roaring ("GrrRRAARRRGH-hoo-hoo!") and the fighter saying "Owls can turn their heads around, right? Let's see if this one can, too. I grab its head and <em>twist.</em>" The fight was great fun. Brawling fighters are full of control options and are great at grabbing. I really don't think the damn owlbear got to move more than one square the entire fight. It also never landed both of its claw attacks in the same round; it almost did in round one, but Arogg used an immediate interrupt to add +5 to his AC, grabbing the horse noggin to interpose.</p><p></p><p>Simultaneously, the kenku assassin started putting shrouds on Bramble in preparation for an attack. I described these as cold, terrifying chills crawling across her body. Bramble spotted the assassin up on a roof before I expected her to. The fight then became "avoid the crowds / escape the assassin / recapture the owlbear / keep the shaman alive long enough to escape!" Very tactically interesting.</p><p></p><p>Also, I am clearly a masochist. Instead of creating a monster version of the assassin, I built it in the character builder. It was too complicated to want to do very often (or in fights with more than one or two opponents.) Tremendously successful, though; the wide range of powers made for a tactically rich fight, but I definitely shuffled paper a little bit more than I like to. The trick is hiding the irrelevant powers, using inherent bonuses instead of magic items, and increasing hit points to be monster-appropriate.</p><p></p><p>I was sure I had Bramble dead when the assassin knit together their shadows, using a power that says "if I take damage, you also take 5 points." Since Bramble was down to 8 hp by then and out of healing, I figured the heroes would either accidentally kill Bramble themselves or let the assassin go. Instead, Bramble cleverly used a new daily that gives her damage reduction 4 for the rest of the fight.</p><p></p><p>It turns out 1 pt of damage per hit is a lot easier to withstand than 5 per hit. And the fighter grabbed the prone assassin, stood on her neck, and everyone proceeded to beat on her. </p><p></p><p>Dang.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Logan recently redesigned his character to be a cunning sneak; he stood on the roof and used his new superior repeating crossbow to rain fire down on the assassin. His attack rolls generally sucked, but the strategy was great; hiding worked well due to his massive stealth, and his choice of "force" on his magical crossbow meant that the insubstantial assassin was taking full damage from his shots. I'll be curious to hear his impressions so far.</p><p></p><p>We ended with the group trying to recruit Arogg while his wizardly master, determined to teleport out of the city while there was still time, demanded the half-orc bring the owlbear "Petunia" to the summoning circle. Arogg declined to leave his current employment for a life of monster hunting.</p><p></p><p>Interesting note about treasure: the owlbear was loaded down with jewels, but no one (quite correctly) wanted to loot her with Arogg there. Similarly, I thought they might bargain with the wizard to have him teleport their families out of the city, but no one thought of it. they did get loot from the kenku assassin, however.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 5156968, member: 2"] This was the fourth game at lvl 7, and only the second combat in all that time. I'm clearly getting my money's worth out of skill challenges, investigation and diplomacy. The PCs are on track to level if they live until tomorrow's dawn. Last Thursday's game was an unusual one. With three of the six players missing (one illness, one concert rehearsal, one religious obligation) I invited Dr. Rictus to play with us, and had a table of four instead of the usual six. Dr. Rictus played in my Defenders game way back at the start of the storyhour in 2002 or so before he moved to NY and had to leave the game. He's recently moved back to Boston. If you ever heard us refer to the term "push the tummy and it will spout rules," he was the origin of the joke; he knew the 3.5 rules so well that any time we needed a citation we could push his tummy and get the answer. (No tummies were actually pushed, incidentally. That's decorum for you.) This turned out to be Dr. Rictus's first game of 4e. I gave him Arogg, a lvl 7 half-orc brawling fighter who happened to be an owlbear wrangler. The set-up is that the city is in chaos (aforementioned colossus, Imperial ultimatum, panicking mobs, locked gates, roving cultists, etc.) and a rich wizard's pet owlbear escaped. The PCs were heading down the same street where the wizard's hireling was trying to recapture the owlbear, so they jumped in to help. Amidst the chaos and stampeding mob, another kenku assassin seized the opportunity and tried to kill Bramble. It was one elite lvl 8 and one elite lvl 9 monster against four lvl 7 PCs. I drew a wide street and placed Arogg and the owlbear (which this group calls "browls") in the middle of the street. The monster was feeding on a dead horse and Arogg was trying to recapture it. I described the owlbear as having painted talons, dyed feathers and fur, and lots of jewels on its collar and pierced beak; it was clearly not wild. I then took a pipecleaner and formed a circle around the owlbear in about an aura 2. I told the group that the street was full of a panicked and running mob of people, and that everyone would be pushed 2 squares each round due to the surging crowd; the crowd would avoid the monster, so anyone within that aura wouldn't be pushed (but would be within range of the owlbear.) I also gave the group several options for avoiding being pushed, including an intimidation, streetwise or acrobatics check. We started off with the owlbear roaring ("GrrRRAARRRGH-hoo-hoo!") and the fighter saying "Owls can turn their heads around, right? Let's see if this one can, too. I grab its head and [i]twist.[/i]" The fight was great fun. Brawling fighters are full of control options and are great at grabbing. I really don't think the damn owlbear got to move more than one square the entire fight. It also never landed both of its claw attacks in the same round; it almost did in round one, but Arogg used an immediate interrupt to add +5 to his AC, grabbing the horse noggin to interpose. Simultaneously, the kenku assassin started putting shrouds on Bramble in preparation for an attack. I described these as cold, terrifying chills crawling across her body. Bramble spotted the assassin up on a roof before I expected her to. The fight then became "avoid the crowds / escape the assassin / recapture the owlbear / keep the shaman alive long enough to escape!" Very tactically interesting. Also, I am clearly a masochist. Instead of creating a monster version of the assassin, I built it in the character builder. It was too complicated to want to do very often (or in fights with more than one or two opponents.) Tremendously successful, though; the wide range of powers made for a tactically rich fight, but I definitely shuffled paper a little bit more than I like to. The trick is hiding the irrelevant powers, using inherent bonuses instead of magic items, and increasing hit points to be monster-appropriate. I was sure I had Bramble dead when the assassin knit together their shadows, using a power that says "if I take damage, you also take 5 points." Since Bramble was down to 8 hp by then and out of healing, I figured the heroes would either accidentally kill Bramble themselves or let the assassin go. Instead, Bramble cleverly used a new daily that gives her damage reduction 4 for the rest of the fight. It turns out 1 pt of damage per hit is a lot easier to withstand than 5 per hit. And the fighter grabbed the prone assassin, stood on her neck, and everyone proceeded to beat on her. Dang. Meanwhile, Logan recently redesigned his character to be a cunning sneak; he stood on the roof and used his new superior repeating crossbow to rain fire down on the assassin. His attack rolls generally sucked, but the strategy was great; hiding worked well due to his massive stealth, and his choice of "force" on his magical crossbow meant that the insubstantial assassin was taking full damage from his shots. I'll be curious to hear his impressions so far. We ended with the group trying to recruit Arogg while his wizardly master, determined to teleport out of the city while there was still time, demanded the half-orc bring the owlbear "Petunia" to the summoning circle. Arogg declined to leave his current employment for a life of monster hunting. Interesting note about treasure: the owlbear was loaded down with jewels, but no one (quite correctly) wanted to loot her with Arogg there. Similarly, I thought they might bargain with the wizard to have him teleport their families out of the city, but no one thought of it. they did get loot from the kenku assassin, however. [/QUOTE]
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Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)
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