Stormtalon
First Post
Aka: Yet Another KotS Review, As If We Needed Any More 
Ran my usual gaming group (well, a subset of them, anyway) through a goodly chunk of it over the weekend. The group consisted of:
Paladin
Wizard
Rogue
Cleric
Warlord
We'd already done one session with the DDXP characters, so they were already a bit familiar with how things go. Still, these are slightly different characters with some different powers, so they had a bit to figure out. For the hooks, I had everyone write down a number from 1-3 and give it to me in secret.
Of note, the paladin caught on to his schtick on the first scan of his sheet and ran with it in a big way. Overall, he spent more than 50% of each fight hovering just below Bloodied, and always sought to be surrounded.
The opening fight went pretty well for the party. Scorching Burst was the big winner here, as the wizard dispatched a whole lotta minions quickly. After that, the normal kobolds got mobbed and squished.
Kobold ambush went a bit rougher for the party, in part due to odd tactics. This is also where I made one of my more questionable rulings (in the party's favor, but I'm gonna make sure of it once the books are in hand) and allowed the Warlord to designate the Wizard with his Viper's Sting so she could zap his scaly target if it shifted. The warlord hared off on his own after the Wyrmpriest rather than sticking in with the paladin, rogue & cleric, leading to both him and the Wyrmpriest being more or less ineffectual in the fight. The dragonshields kept the Paladin flanked more or less at all times and the skirmisher managed to catch the entire party by surprise. Despite this, they managed to make it out with all Dailies still intact.
The Burial site went fast -- the party walked in and made short work of the Drakes and minions, the halfling slinger was utterly ineffectual with his rain of stones and Agrid was annoying but died quickly once he got into the fight. The Slinger surrendered without ever being injured (hey, he saw how things went and he wasn't paid enough for that). We had a bit of RP fun when the wizard demanded to know where Dougan was and the slinger pointed at the blanket covering him: "Oh, no -- Old Man!!!"
The kobold lair was a totally different story. The outside portion was pretty quick for them, what with the minions dogpiling into the circle (burning hands + dragonbreath == dead minions by the bucketload), but the Kobold with the sling booked into the lair when the Dragonshield went down. 2 of the 3 rounds until wave 2 ticked by while the party 1) tried to set for a charge and 2) the rogue snuck her head thru the waterfall and saw that there WAS no charge coming (and that there were side entrances). Then they Scooby-Doo'd it and 3 of the party (warlord, cleric, wizard) went to the left entrance, the rogue snuck thru the right side of the waterfall and the paladin charged straight on into the middle.
I mentioned earlier that the paladin liked to be surrounded? Well, he got what he wanted and then some. At no point during this fight did he have any less than 4 kobolds adjacent to him. In the second round once inside, the paladin went down to zero after a couple minions, a couple dragonshields and a skirmisher had their merry way with him. The Wyrmpriest was close by this point and Inspired everything in the joint with, "See how our foes fall before us? None can stop our might!" Minions with 6hp -- a force to be feared.
The paladin managed to get close to Irontooth and mark him. The rogue was out of position dealing with the Wyrmpriest and 2 minions by herself (amusingly, the WP decided to use ITS breath on the rogue while 2 minions were in the way and dealt.... 5 damage -- curse you, temporary HP!). The warlord, wizard and cleric got backed up against the eastern wall, while the surviving northern minion and skirmisher proceeded to continually NOT hit the warlord. The slinger completely slipped my mind and ended up watching in quivering koboldy horror as what looked like a sure thing turned quickly around.
The party DID finally get their act together and focused on Irontooth once they got him bloodied and he got that crazed look in his eyes. He never did get to heal at the end of his turn -- the paladin refreshed his mark, attacked him (with a silly bonus to his attack due to being surrounded and being bloodied himself) then shifted back to let the rogue in, with the intent to shift back adjacent to Irontooth the next round. The attack, however, left the poor goblin at 12 hp and being blood-crazed, he was forced to attack the nearest target -- one double-swing at the warlord and cleric later (both missing, alas), he'd burned himself to death. After that, it was just mopping up (and since I'd forgotten the slinger to this point, I just had it run away). The party had about 3 healing surges left among them -- mostly all on the wizard, heh.
Everyone is so far really jonesing for the books now. They want to make their own characters and actually start progressing.
Ran my usual gaming group (well, a subset of them, anyway) through a goodly chunk of it over the weekend. The group consisted of:
Paladin
Wizard
Rogue
Cleric
Warlord
We'd already done one session with the DDXP characters, so they were already a bit familiar with how things go. Still, these are slightly different characters with some different powers, so they had a bit to figure out. For the hooks, I had everyone write down a number from 1-3 and give it to me in secret.
Of note, the paladin caught on to his schtick on the first scan of his sheet and ran with it in a big way. Overall, he spent more than 50% of each fight hovering just below Bloodied, and always sought to be surrounded.
The opening fight went pretty well for the party. Scorching Burst was the big winner here, as the wizard dispatched a whole lotta minions quickly. After that, the normal kobolds got mobbed and squished.
Kobold ambush went a bit rougher for the party, in part due to odd tactics. This is also where I made one of my more questionable rulings (in the party's favor, but I'm gonna make sure of it once the books are in hand) and allowed the Warlord to designate the Wizard with his Viper's Sting so she could zap his scaly target if it shifted. The warlord hared off on his own after the Wyrmpriest rather than sticking in with the paladin, rogue & cleric, leading to both him and the Wyrmpriest being more or less ineffectual in the fight. The dragonshields kept the Paladin flanked more or less at all times and the skirmisher managed to catch the entire party by surprise. Despite this, they managed to make it out with all Dailies still intact.
The Burial site went fast -- the party walked in and made short work of the Drakes and minions, the halfling slinger was utterly ineffectual with his rain of stones and Agrid was annoying but died quickly once he got into the fight. The Slinger surrendered without ever being injured (hey, he saw how things went and he wasn't paid enough for that). We had a bit of RP fun when the wizard demanded to know where Dougan was and the slinger pointed at the blanket covering him: "Oh, no -- Old Man!!!"
The kobold lair was a totally different story. The outside portion was pretty quick for them, what with the minions dogpiling into the circle (burning hands + dragonbreath == dead minions by the bucketload), but the Kobold with the sling booked into the lair when the Dragonshield went down. 2 of the 3 rounds until wave 2 ticked by while the party 1) tried to set for a charge and 2) the rogue snuck her head thru the waterfall and saw that there WAS no charge coming (and that there were side entrances). Then they Scooby-Doo'd it and 3 of the party (warlord, cleric, wizard) went to the left entrance, the rogue snuck thru the right side of the waterfall and the paladin charged straight on into the middle.
I mentioned earlier that the paladin liked to be surrounded? Well, he got what he wanted and then some. At no point during this fight did he have any less than 4 kobolds adjacent to him. In the second round once inside, the paladin went down to zero after a couple minions, a couple dragonshields and a skirmisher had their merry way with him. The Wyrmpriest was close by this point and Inspired everything in the joint with, "See how our foes fall before us? None can stop our might!" Minions with 6hp -- a force to be feared.
The paladin managed to get close to Irontooth and mark him. The rogue was out of position dealing with the Wyrmpriest and 2 minions by herself (amusingly, the WP decided to use ITS breath on the rogue while 2 minions were in the way and dealt.... 5 damage -- curse you, temporary HP!). The warlord, wizard and cleric got backed up against the eastern wall, while the surviving northern minion and skirmisher proceeded to continually NOT hit the warlord. The slinger completely slipped my mind and ended up watching in quivering koboldy horror as what looked like a sure thing turned quickly around.
The party DID finally get their act together and focused on Irontooth once they got him bloodied and he got that crazed look in his eyes. He never did get to heal at the end of his turn -- the paladin refreshed his mark, attacked him (with a silly bonus to his attack due to being surrounded and being bloodied himself) then shifted back to let the rogue in, with the intent to shift back adjacent to Irontooth the next round. The attack, however, left the poor goblin at 12 hp and being blood-crazed, he was forced to attack the nearest target -- one double-swing at the warlord and cleric later (both missing, alas), he'd burned himself to death. After that, it was just mopping up (and since I'd forgotten the slinger to this point, I just had it run away). The party had about 3 healing surges left among them -- mostly all on the wizard, heh.
Everyone is so far really jonesing for the books now. They want to make their own characters and actually start progressing.
