Another session of testing this party with
the substitution as noted. [MENTION=6801813]Valmarius[/MENTION] plays the fighter/rogue.
The necromancer and warlock/rogue nearly died again in the first big combat of the night when the party, led by the paladin and his ox, mounted a cavalry charge right through the battered gates of a ruined keep. A pitched battle ensued as Team Monster rallied to repel them. The party's horses were killed in a
fireball. A well-timed
blindness/deafness spell from the warlock/rogue managed to drop the difficulty a bit on the bugbear spellcaster in the scene which I think was the thing that turned the tide.
Later, the party stormed a fortified bridge and captured the towers on one side of a gorge while the paladin and mystic held off hobgoblins and hellhounds streaming across the bridge. The green dragon in the scene was nasty, but only got one breath off before it too was blinded - not really a problem for a dragon, but I didn't want to keep it too close to the PCs, so I had it retreat and try to make its saves and recharge its breath. Which it didn't, repeatedly, and at a certain point, the hobgoblins were basically wiped out and the bridge was collapsing, so I felt the scene was basically done. The dragon fled as a result to return again later. The paladin and mystic were hurting pretty badly in this challenge.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like I cannot figure out the mystic just by watching it be played. Just when I think I have a handle on the action cost of this or that power, it turns out I'm wrong. So I may have to do some reading after all.
