Nightchilde-2
First Post
I ran a 4e playtest with my 12-year old. She played a pregenerated human fighter. The adventure was pretty simple; some goblins stole a child from the village taking it to a nearby abandoned keep, she had to go out and retrieve said child. I wanted to a) get a feel for the rules before running with my regular group and b) see how easily the game could scale for a smaller group. This was pretty much a combat/system test so was light on the roleplaying.
Encounter One
There was a goblin sharpshooter hiding in the tree outside of the keep's doors. Unfortunately, she had no ranged weapons, so this battle involved her climbing the tree and knocking the sharpshooter out of it, then taking the battle to the ground.
Encounter Two
Probably the simplest encounter, vs. a fire beetle. She had her character use Steel Serpent Strike to slow the beetle then opened up with Brute Strike (a daily that does 3x damage) and laid waste to the beetle after a couple of rounds.
Encounter Three
A hallway with several tunnels leading off of it, which were used to travel around by 4 goblin cutters (minions). Cleave really shinrf here, and she took out all four pretty quickly and easily.
Encounter Four
A pit trap at the far end of a hallway. Though she didn't see the pit trap, she didn't fall into it either. Down below were four skeletons. She opted to suck up the 1d10 falling damage and leap down into the pit to hack apart the skeletons, from which she pilfered a shortbow. This would be the last battle where she didn't at least go unconscious.
Encounter Five
I should point out now that, despite her character having a pretty low Thievery skill, she was able to pick locks pretty darned easily.
1 goblin warrior. She ended up going down, but made her save against death and was able to use a second wind to get up. This was a pretty tough fight, but not as tough as the final battle.
Encounter Six
A goblin hexer and four goblin cutter minions. This one got vicious; at one point, the hexer had her blind and unable to move without taking damage. Hexers also have a VERY nasty power that I couldn't make proper use of due to the fact that she didn't have any other characters along...but even without it, it was a nasty, very long (round-wise..time-wise it went pretty quickly) and protracted battle. She went down twice during this combat, the first time managing to get back onto her feet thanks to another 20 on the death save. The second time, she made her save, but couldn't heal up, so she got captured and stripped of all equipment.
(Speaking of saves, I was a little worried about the 50% chance to shake stuff off originally, but after seeing it in action, it's a pretty good mechanic)
Another series of good rolls and she got free of her ropes and was able to pick the lock. I did give her a little advantage here and said that she'd been unconscious for about 6 hours (long enough for her to get an extended rest and refresh both her hit points and her daily powers. Even with that, this was a difficult battle, especially before she was able to get her weapons (her acrobatic skill rolls to leap over the goblin were nowhere nearly as good as her rolls to pick locks). She was blinded and "stuck in place" at least two more times. The thing that really saved her was the "reliable" ability of her Brute Strike, which meant that when she missed the first time she tried to use it, it wasn't used up and she managed to use it later to great effect.
She did forget to use her action points unless I reminded her, and didn't bother with marking since there was nobody else for the goblins to attack.
She almost bought it again, but managed to come out ahead. It was a pretty intense (and long) fight, even after she got her weapons back (but, of course, she didn't have time to slip on her armor) Goblin hexers, BTW, will screw up a group of combatants. Very vicious, nasty little buggers.
She got enough XP to hit 2nd level (I did throw a little extra her way because I wanted to level the character up), and took a fighter utility daily power that grants regeneration when bloodied, which is awesome in a can, and Alertness which, in 4e negates surprise round combat advantage and gives a bonus to perception. This is awesome 'cause it'll help a lot vs. stupid rogues and their sneak attack damage.
Overall, I liked it. A lot. She thought it was a little complex, which leaves me scratching my head since she didn't think 3e was complex...
Encounter One
There was a goblin sharpshooter hiding in the tree outside of the keep's doors. Unfortunately, she had no ranged weapons, so this battle involved her climbing the tree and knocking the sharpshooter out of it, then taking the battle to the ground.
Encounter Two
Probably the simplest encounter, vs. a fire beetle. She had her character use Steel Serpent Strike to slow the beetle then opened up with Brute Strike (a daily that does 3x damage) and laid waste to the beetle after a couple of rounds.
Encounter Three
A hallway with several tunnels leading off of it, which were used to travel around by 4 goblin cutters (minions). Cleave really shinrf here, and she took out all four pretty quickly and easily.
Encounter Four
A pit trap at the far end of a hallway. Though she didn't see the pit trap, she didn't fall into it either. Down below were four skeletons. She opted to suck up the 1d10 falling damage and leap down into the pit to hack apart the skeletons, from which she pilfered a shortbow. This would be the last battle where she didn't at least go unconscious.
Encounter Five
I should point out now that, despite her character having a pretty low Thievery skill, she was able to pick locks pretty darned easily.
1 goblin warrior. She ended up going down, but made her save against death and was able to use a second wind to get up. This was a pretty tough fight, but not as tough as the final battle.
Encounter Six
A goblin hexer and four goblin cutter minions. This one got vicious; at one point, the hexer had her blind and unable to move without taking damage. Hexers also have a VERY nasty power that I couldn't make proper use of due to the fact that she didn't have any other characters along...but even without it, it was a nasty, very long (round-wise..time-wise it went pretty quickly) and protracted battle. She went down twice during this combat, the first time managing to get back onto her feet thanks to another 20 on the death save. The second time, she made her save, but couldn't heal up, so she got captured and stripped of all equipment.
(Speaking of saves, I was a little worried about the 50% chance to shake stuff off originally, but after seeing it in action, it's a pretty good mechanic)
Another series of good rolls and she got free of her ropes and was able to pick the lock. I did give her a little advantage here and said that she'd been unconscious for about 6 hours (long enough for her to get an extended rest and refresh both her hit points and her daily powers. Even with that, this was a difficult battle, especially before she was able to get her weapons (her acrobatic skill rolls to leap over the goblin were nowhere nearly as good as her rolls to pick locks). She was blinded and "stuck in place" at least two more times. The thing that really saved her was the "reliable" ability of her Brute Strike, which meant that when she missed the first time she tried to use it, it wasn't used up and she managed to use it later to great effect.
She did forget to use her action points unless I reminded her, and didn't bother with marking since there was nobody else for the goblins to attack.
She almost bought it again, but managed to come out ahead. It was a pretty intense (and long) fight, even after she got her weapons back (but, of course, she didn't have time to slip on her armor) Goblin hexers, BTW, will screw up a group of combatants. Very vicious, nasty little buggers.
She got enough XP to hit 2nd level (I did throw a little extra her way because I wanted to level the character up), and took a fighter utility daily power that grants regeneration when bloodied, which is awesome in a can, and Alertness which, in 4e negates surprise round combat advantage and gives a bonus to perception. This is awesome 'cause it'll help a lot vs. stupid rogues and their sneak attack damage.
Overall, I liked it. A lot. She thought it was a little complex, which leaves me scratching my head since she didn't think 3e was complex...
