Thattanguy
First Post
So, here's another short playtest report. I forget to take notes Monday night but I have a fairly good recolection of the devistation I wrought apon my players. 
I'll preface by giving a quick run down on the players, their experiences and general feel to the new game.
Jon comes from 2E/3E and was an avid LC player and your typical min/maxer, prefering caster since, according to him and his dice, "[he] Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if it fell on him when it comes to melee." He played the Wizard (and quoated that damnable cell phone comercial everytime anyone said Wizard...)
Stef is Jon's GF and was brought into D'n'D here a few months back when I started running LG localy. She also has a taste for the arcane, dabbling with both the Beguiler and Sorceress (Evoker-style) classes in 3.5 and taking up the roll of the Warlock for the adventure. She's still a bit novice but shes gotten more taticle as we play, much to my (monster's) detriment.
Kent is a fellow Coastie and avid PC gamer and took some teeth pulling to get him into 3.5E but once in he was hooked. He prefers the Melee types, playing, and avidly roleplaying, the fanatic Paladin in 3.5, sneering at the Halfling Pally in 4E and playing the Fighter in the end (then getting mad at me when they have to fight undead ;![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
) Though he's only been playing as long as Stef, he's picked up the mechanics quickly, which has thankfully been offset by his innability to roll above a 10.
Lastly is Emma. She came to us via a Craig's List post by Stef saying we were looking for players for our LG game. She picked up 3.5E in a home game her dad and his friends used to play. She had no real prefrence for class/race so we gave her the Elf Rogue that was posted up here on Enworld and was excited to try 4E.
As a point of house ruling, I allowed Action Points to be more flexible, allowing them to be spent to re-roll 1 die of their choice (attack roll, one damage die, save, etc), gain one extra action in a round, or to use their Second Wind if they were uncounscious (representing their destiny not being completed enough for them to die). Also, I allowed the major baddies have an Action Point aswell, representing them as being more than "just another monster."
The 1st two encounters were played in one sesion each with only Jon, Stef and Kent playing, but each having 2 chars.
The 1st went rather quickly with the HG Soldiers charging the Warlock, her fault for being the closest, and and generaly buddieing around the field, Using the bonus AC to their advantage. the Dwarf and Paladin mamage to knock one down and the Wizard uses his Ghost Sounds rather creatively to make it sound like the HG's tunnels were calling for help. That distracted the last one up enough for the pally to finish him off.
So far the Ranger was feeling rather impotent, not rolling about 10 and missing the 22 AC all but once. The Dwarf and Paladin are feeling good about their powers and the Warlock and Wizard are getting creative use out of what they have, though the Wizard does say it feel rather lack-luster thus far. The cleric saw nearly no use, usualy firing off a Lance and missing.
The Second Encounter begins with the ranger being left behind and the rogue joining the ranks, fudging his steath check vs the HG Soldier and Innit being rolled. The cleric startf off combat by, rather ineffictively, using Fear on the HG Warcaster, sending him to cower in the corner while the HG Archer starts putting shafts into the front-lined Dwarf. the HG Soldier charges the Dwarf and flails him for a few while the Rogue, Warlock and Wizard attempt and fail to try to put some damage on him in return. Fear ends and HG Warcaster makes his jump check to hop off the ridge and put his Force Lance to good use on the Pally, Rogue and Wizard, using the Soldier as a meat shield. Fighter, Rogue and Paladin put the hurtin on Soldier, with the Rogue ending up right next to the Warcaster (bad move ), while the HG Archer keeps plugging away at the Fighter. Warlock is blasting back with moderate success and the Wizard Second Winds and stand up. Yay for Shocking Staff time! I dont recall if I crit or just rolled near max damage but either way the Rogues goes down. (I was sad my Lance hadn't rechagred...) Cleric starting aiming her Lance at the archer while the pally and Fighter step up and finish off the Warcaster. The Archer tried to run but ends up with a Hammer flying into the back of his head, ending that rather quickly. Some Daily powers were used, though ineffictively, and Surges were spent.
Its just over a week before we play again so we all dicide they went out for an extended rest since no one kept track of hp and power usage in the interm. Wizard is still feeling inneffictive, and so is the Cleric, mostly due to low dice, but such is life.
When we pick up again, Emma has join the party, improving table aesthetics and morale. With the addition of a player they only get one PC each so they re-enter the tunnels as a party of Rogue, Wizard, Fighter and Warlock; rather balanced, if light on the healing. The Skeleton encounter is fun, if a bit cramped with them all turtled in the stairwell. The Skel Soldiers lay into the, once again front-lined, Dwarf while the Flamer starts lobbing orbs as him aswell, though missing and hitting the wall. The Rogue goes ranged with her crossbow, supplimenting the Magic Missiles and Eldritch Blasts at SS#2. its pretty much basic combat here, nothing real tricky with the Fighter taking 90% of the hits, and feeling them, and everyone else trying to finish off one of the Skells to open up the entrance to the room. The Warlock eventualy uses her Daily to assault the Flamers mind (?) and thinks, hey, its on fire, ill push it into the water. Though it didn't gutter like she expected, everyone was a but suprised to see it get jolted from the charged liquid. They all make a mental note that none need a bath currently. It goes back and forth and eventualy the Dwarf goes down and Magic Missiles win the day.
I remind everyone after they heal up that they still have an Action Point each to which the universal response is "Oh Yeah!...Damnit!" ( Not my fault they didnt remember, I only explained APs to Emma, with the rest of them listening, just before we began the adventure....)
The Chillborn encounter is rather basic, they turle in the tunnel again, (i think they are still in that 3.5E "stand your ground and duke it out" mentality) with the Dwarf getting brutalized and everyone breathing heavy at the end. I softball it a bit by giving the Chillborn Vunerability 5 Fire to make up for 2 less PCs, they give me the stink-eye in return when i tell them they just fought 2 Lvl 6 mobs.
We RP it up a bit with mono-poded local hero. I thew in the +1 Viscous Longbow here as his weapon, which he lends to the Rogue since hes to weak to use it. (Everyone's eyes light up at their first shiny new toy)
Boss Fight #1:
So they begin their treck back to the surface, feeling worn but good. Then they get to the pool chamber again. The baddie monologues at them, the hero retorts and combat begins. Again with the tunnel turtling, I'm going to make them places them selves in the rooms from now on I swear, and the bandits start getting torn up by the Warlock and Fighter up front. Warlock takes some damage but nothing too serious. Rogue starts to impersonate a turret and punctures a bandit while the Wizard uses his Daily to knock one bandit out and slowing the other. (i remove the unconscious one from combat at this point since he was barely alive and now asleep) In comes the Shardar-kai, chain swinging, thinking hes gonna put a whoopin on some PCs. He appearently didnt read the front part of the Fighter's Character sheet, trying twice to shift away from the stumpy bugger and receiving a sound hammering for the effort. Still, hes swatted the Fighter, Rogue and Warlock for a few, knocking the Warlock out completely. The remaining Bandit tries to Dazzle and flee, fails and dies, Wizard and Rogue saw to that. Warlock uses her AP to Second Wind to stop dieing while the Shardar-Kai uses his teleport ability to move away from the dangerous fighter and opening up the room. next round Shadar-kai moves up and chains the Dwarf twice thanks to his own AP (that drew some glares ), dropping him, then getting a face full of MM's and an arrow to finish him off.
Boss Fight #2:
They are pretty ragged now, with almost all of their Healing Surges used up and some Dailies spent. They surface to see the mayor and his goons, get monologued at again and hope for the best. Now in retrospect, I probably could have removed one of the Guards here to lighten the combat, but all they did was stay back and pepper the PCs with bolts since it was working rather well, then surrendering when the mayor fell. meh. Combat begins with them all getting Thundering Blasted, some bolts launched at them. The Barbarian charges the Fighter and trades blows, then gets a hefty MM to the face and a flank from the Rogue who crits and bloodies and gets a hefty axe to the face in retalliation. She crumbles like so much dust and the Warlock begins Witchfiring the mayor. The Mayor uses his Dancing Lighting power, they laughed and thought I cast Dancing Lights...till i made an attack roll, hitting the Fighter, Wizard and Rogue and, if I recall, dropping the fighter. The Wizard drops the Barbarian and the Warlock successfully Heal checks the Rogue, who then uses her AP to Second Wind up. Next round an EB and a magic arrow take out the mayor, the Guards surrender and Jansen go to get him a barwench. I had the Barbarian wearing the the +1 Delvers Leather Armor and the Mayor wielded the +1 Staff of the Arcmage, though he never needed to uses its activation. So everyone but the Fighter got a cool item to play with (he'll get one next adventure).
Everyone had a lot of fun, the Wizard was kinda whiney about his power options but was one of the most effective PCs with his plethora of MMs. Despite taking a rediculous pounding, I think the Fighter won MVP for overall effectiveness (Meat Shield is a Fighter feat right?) The Rogue and Warlock were good DPS when they hit and Witchfire nearly saved the day, but even with a -4, most of these guys still swung with +6 or better. I'm running some 3.5 tonight for the same crew and I'll ask for some more in-depth responses to the game, pcs, and adventure.
Daniel
Edit#1: Guess this isn't so short a report huh?
I'll preface by giving a quick run down on the players, their experiences and general feel to the new game.
Jon comes from 2E/3E and was an avid LC player and your typical min/maxer, prefering caster since, according to him and his dice, "[he] Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if it fell on him when it comes to melee." He played the Wizard (and quoated that damnable cell phone comercial everytime anyone said Wizard...)
Stef is Jon's GF and was brought into D'n'D here a few months back when I started running LG localy. She also has a taste for the arcane, dabbling with both the Beguiler and Sorceress (Evoker-style) classes in 3.5 and taking up the roll of the Warlock for the adventure. She's still a bit novice but shes gotten more taticle as we play, much to my (monster's) detriment.
Kent is a fellow Coastie and avid PC gamer and took some teeth pulling to get him into 3.5E but once in he was hooked. He prefers the Melee types, playing, and avidly roleplaying, the fanatic Paladin in 3.5, sneering at the Halfling Pally in 4E and playing the Fighter in the end (then getting mad at me when they have to fight undead ;
) Though he's only been playing as long as Stef, he's picked up the mechanics quickly, which has thankfully been offset by his innability to roll above a 10. Lastly is Emma. She came to us via a Craig's List post by Stef saying we were looking for players for our LG game. She picked up 3.5E in a home game her dad and his friends used to play. She had no real prefrence for class/race so we gave her the Elf Rogue that was posted up here on Enworld and was excited to try 4E.
As a point of house ruling, I allowed Action Points to be more flexible, allowing them to be spent to re-roll 1 die of their choice (attack roll, one damage die, save, etc), gain one extra action in a round, or to use their Second Wind if they were uncounscious (representing their destiny not being completed enough for them to die). Also, I allowed the major baddies have an Action Point aswell, representing them as being more than "just another monster."
The 1st two encounters were played in one sesion each with only Jon, Stef and Kent playing, but each having 2 chars.
The 1st went rather quickly with the HG Soldiers charging the Warlock, her fault for being the closest, and and generaly buddieing around the field, Using the bonus AC to their advantage. the Dwarf and Paladin mamage to knock one down and the Wizard uses his Ghost Sounds rather creatively to make it sound like the HG's tunnels were calling for help. That distracted the last one up enough for the pally to finish him off.
So far the Ranger was feeling rather impotent, not rolling about 10 and missing the 22 AC all but once. The Dwarf and Paladin are feeling good about their powers and the Warlock and Wizard are getting creative use out of what they have, though the Wizard does say it feel rather lack-luster thus far. The cleric saw nearly no use, usualy firing off a Lance and missing.
The Second Encounter begins with the ranger being left behind and the rogue joining the ranks, fudging his steath check vs the HG Soldier and Innit being rolled. The cleric startf off combat by, rather ineffictively, using Fear on the HG Warcaster, sending him to cower in the corner while the HG Archer starts putting shafts into the front-lined Dwarf. the HG Soldier charges the Dwarf and flails him for a few while the Rogue, Warlock and Wizard attempt and fail to try to put some damage on him in return. Fear ends and HG Warcaster makes his jump check to hop off the ridge and put his Force Lance to good use on the Pally, Rogue and Wizard, using the Soldier as a meat shield. Fighter, Rogue and Paladin put the hurtin on Soldier, with the Rogue ending up right next to the Warcaster (bad move
), while the HG Archer keeps plugging away at the Fighter. Warlock is blasting back with moderate success and the Wizard Second Winds and stand up. Yay for Shocking Staff time! I dont recall if I crit or just rolled near max damage but either way the Rogues goes down. (I was sad my Lance hadn't rechagred...) Cleric starting aiming her Lance at the archer while the pally and Fighter step up and finish off the Warcaster. The Archer tried to run but ends up with a Hammer flying into the back of his head, ending that rather quickly. Some Daily powers were used, though ineffictively, and Surges were spent.Its just over a week before we play again so we all dicide they went out for an extended rest since no one kept track of hp and power usage in the interm. Wizard is still feeling inneffictive, and so is the Cleric, mostly due to low dice, but such is life.
When we pick up again, Emma has join the party, improving table aesthetics and morale. With the addition of a player they only get one PC each so they re-enter the tunnels as a party of Rogue, Wizard, Fighter and Warlock; rather balanced, if light on the healing. The Skeleton encounter is fun, if a bit cramped with them all turtled in the stairwell. The Skel Soldiers lay into the, once again front-lined, Dwarf while the Flamer starts lobbing orbs as him aswell, though missing and hitting the wall. The Rogue goes ranged with her crossbow, supplimenting the Magic Missiles and Eldritch Blasts at SS#2. its pretty much basic combat here, nothing real tricky with the Fighter taking 90% of the hits, and feeling them, and everyone else trying to finish off one of the Skells to open up the entrance to the room. The Warlock eventualy uses her Daily to assault the Flamers mind (?) and thinks, hey, its on fire, ill push it into the water. Though it didn't gutter like she expected, everyone was a but suprised to see it get jolted from the charged liquid. They all make a mental note that none need a bath currently. It goes back and forth and eventualy the Dwarf goes down and Magic Missiles win the day.
I remind everyone after they heal up that they still have an Action Point each to which the universal response is "Oh Yeah!...Damnit!" ( Not my fault they didnt remember, I only explained APs to Emma, with the rest of them listening, just before we began the adventure....)
The Chillborn encounter is rather basic, they turle in the tunnel again, (i think they are still in that 3.5E "stand your ground and duke it out" mentality) with the Dwarf getting brutalized and everyone breathing heavy at the end. I softball it a bit by giving the Chillborn Vunerability 5 Fire to make up for 2 less PCs, they give me the stink-eye in return when i tell them they just fought 2 Lvl 6 mobs.
We RP it up a bit with mono-poded local hero. I thew in the +1 Viscous Longbow here as his weapon, which he lends to the Rogue since hes to weak to use it. (Everyone's eyes light up at their first shiny new toy)
Boss Fight #1:
So they begin their treck back to the surface, feeling worn but good. Then they get to the pool chamber again. The baddie monologues at them, the hero retorts and combat begins. Again with the tunnel turtling, I'm going to make them places them selves in the rooms from now on I swear, and the bandits start getting torn up by the Warlock and Fighter up front. Warlock takes some damage but nothing too serious. Rogue starts to impersonate a turret and punctures a bandit while the Wizard uses his Daily to knock one bandit out and slowing the other. (i remove the unconscious one from combat at this point since he was barely alive and now asleep) In comes the Shardar-kai, chain swinging, thinking hes gonna put a whoopin on some PCs. He appearently didnt read the front part of the Fighter's Character sheet, trying twice to shift away from the stumpy bugger and receiving a sound hammering for the effort. Still, hes swatted the Fighter, Rogue and Warlock for a few, knocking the Warlock out completely. The remaining Bandit tries to Dazzle and flee, fails and dies, Wizard and Rogue saw to that. Warlock uses her AP to Second Wind to stop dieing while the Shardar-Kai uses his teleport ability to move away from the dangerous fighter and opening up the room. next round Shadar-kai moves up and chains the Dwarf twice thanks to his own AP (that drew some glares
), dropping him, then getting a face full of MM's and an arrow to finish him off. Boss Fight #2:
They are pretty ragged now, with almost all of their Healing Surges used up and some Dailies spent. They surface to see the mayor and his goons, get monologued at again and hope for the best. Now in retrospect, I probably could have removed one of the Guards here to lighten the combat, but all they did was stay back and pepper the PCs with bolts since it was working rather well, then surrendering when the mayor fell. meh. Combat begins with them all getting Thundering Blasted, some bolts launched at them. The Barbarian charges the Fighter and trades blows, then gets a hefty MM to the face and a flank from the Rogue who crits and bloodies and gets a hefty axe to the face in retalliation. She crumbles like so much dust and the Warlock begins Witchfiring the mayor. The Mayor uses his Dancing Lighting power, they laughed and thought I cast Dancing Lights...till i made an attack roll, hitting the Fighter, Wizard and Rogue and, if I recall, dropping the fighter. The Wizard drops the Barbarian and the Warlock successfully Heal checks the Rogue, who then uses her AP to Second Wind up. Next round an EB and a magic arrow take out the mayor, the Guards surrender and Jansen go to get him a barwench. I had the Barbarian wearing the the +1 Delvers Leather Armor and the Mayor wielded the +1 Staff of the Arcmage, though he never needed to uses its activation. So everyone but the Fighter got a cool item to play with (he'll get one next adventure).
Everyone had a lot of fun, the Wizard was kinda whiney about his power options but was one of the most effective PCs with his plethora of MMs. Despite taking a rediculous pounding, I think the Fighter won MVP for overall effectiveness (Meat Shield is a Fighter feat right?) The Rogue and Warlock were good DPS when they hit and Witchfire nearly saved the day, but even with a -4, most of these guys still swung with +6 or better. I'm running some 3.5 tonight for the same crew and I'll ask for some more in-depth responses to the game, pcs, and adventure.
Daniel
Edit#1: Guess this isn't so short a report huh?
