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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JustKim" data-source="post: 4241203" data-attributes="member: 5478">We just finished encounter A2. Same setup, I play the monsters and one player plays all the PCs. I can see the point raised earlier that one person might not play 5 PCs to the fullest, but I'm not convinced it's that much more demanding than a 2 player game of DDM or Descent. When I run the adventure with my regular gaming group the core books will be out and they'll be playing PCs of their own design- this test run is mostly to give me an idea of the things I'll need to anticipate and the difficulty of the adventure.A2 starts with the PCs approaching the kobold camp. The player elected to use stealth and creep through the trees. The low stealth DC enabled the rogue, wizard, and fighter to sneak by the kobold camp, but they also did not notice it. The first PC to notice the kobolds was also the one to bomb the stealth check, and when initiative was rolled the party was split into two groups. When the kobolds made themselves known the hidden fighter and wizard sprang from the trees to attack, but the rogue remained hidden.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Does stealth reduce movement? I couldn't find a reference under movement or the stealth skill, so I ruled it does not.</li> </ul>I followed the tactics section this time, keeping the dragonshield on the magic circle even when he had been marked by the paladin and piling all the minions around him. The paladin became the target of 10 javelins, but his 22 AC due to cover protected him from all but one. A character with lower AC might have been dropped immediately.Once the PCs moved into the camp I noticed that the area features seems to be missing an entry.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The dry wood and rocks between the trees and the river is marked with a difficult terrain symbol, but it isn't listed in the encounter. I ruled it was difficult terrtain that did not provide cover.</li> </ul>The kobold minions were absolutely massacred by the wizard's Scorching Burst. 7 out of 10 were killed. The suggested tactics worked against them by dogpiling them on the magic circle.Also working against the kobolds was the difficult terrain, which prevented them from making good use of their shift powers. This battle went much more in the PCs' favor, which suggests to me that the number of minions in an encounter will not matter much. 5 regular kobolds was a real challenge, 3 regular kobolds and 10 minions was not.While the dragonshield was being swarmed the rogue continued sneaking through the trees to get to the kobold slinger. I asked the player to roll stealth again since conditions had changed, and she easily retained stealth. When she reached the kobold slinger the rogue rolled a critical hit, which brought up a couple more questions.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Does a rogue attacking from stealth gain a combat advantage? Although the surprised condition doesn't seem to apply, I ruled yes because the combat advantage description states "This usually occurs when the defender is [...] caught off guard."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Is sneak attack damage maximized by a critical hit? The language for critical hits says that it maximizes attack damage, not weapon damage, so I ruled that it does.</li> </ul>As a result the kobold slinger was killed in one hit.All told, the encounter really did not take very long, roughly half an hour. I hope that familiarity with the rules will continue to keep combat time low, because I don't like the action to take a long time and this was one of my biggest fears about converting to 4E.When we concluded the encounter the PCs took a short rest and spent a healing surge or two to regain full health. All of the PCs' daily powers and action points are still available for the big fight in A3, so I'm starting to think it is doable. We'll find out later this evening.</blockquote>

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