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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 4244291" data-attributes="member: 1165">Spoilers for KotS!This is technically my second playtest; I had some players who ran through Raiders of Oakheart.Today my group ran our first session of KotS. We had one new player to the group, and (through luck) the two players who didn't like 4e weren't able to make it. Well, maybe that was bad luck for the group, considering how happy all the players were at the end of the session. Smiling faces, much complimenting of the combat system.We had a dragonborn warlord (new player), half-elf cleric of Bahamut, a dwarven fighter (the one from DDXP), an eladrin fey-pact warlock (loads o' teleporting) and a human wizard.The heroes did quite well against both kobold ambushes (which, IMO, were a bit poorly planned in the adventure). I got to smackdown PCs and make them feel like they could die without actually killing any of them. That was good, IMO.The players really got into the tactical nitty-gritty. The encounter map really helped. (The last time we played, the fighter felt useless. With a map, the fighter and especially the warlock turned into badasses. Fighter + warlord = lots of flanking. The fighter could prevent shifting, the warlord could shift the fighter, so they basically got to flank every round.)The heroes did the first kobold encounter, which included a delightful "counter-ambush" (they bluffed the kobolds into thinking they hadn't seen them) but missed almost all the surprise round rolls anyway. When they got to town they waited for Lord Padraig to come by, which was in the evening, so they only performed one encounter that day. (Maybe I should have made him come earlier.) Ah well, that let Ninaran pass a message "up the chain".They sent the stealthy warlock ahead to scout for the second encounter, so again they got surprise on the kobolds. This time the cleric and warlock were nearly killed.Then came the A4 Dragon Hoard encounter. The players tried to be clever. They sent the warlock and warlord (heh) to investigate. They managed to avoid triggering combat for some time (by not telling Agrid their mentors' name) but failed their Insight checks. Eventually they kept mentioning the mentor (but not by name) enough times to make Agrid suspicious, and he initiated combat.And the party was split! And lo, the guard drakes lay the beatdown on the warlord. Both hit, both doing max damage, taking advantage of their +6 damage bonus when near each other. The chances of both hitting were pretty low. That set the tone for the encounter. They just ripped to shreds anyone they could get their teeth on.The drakes literally killed the warlord (only one hit the last time... but it was a crit) as the rest of the party poured in to save them. The drakes turned on the already-bloodied cleric (the halfling stone rained him), avoiding OAs from the fighter (he missed both). The +18 damage bonus from the two attacks would insta-kill the cleric (even minimal rolls would drop him to complete death) so he was out of the battle and dead. This left the PCs with no healing, as well.Meanwhile, the warlock got to show his stuff, teleporting (as his eladrin ability) into position to zap a human rabble, then using his death to power another teleport in the same round. The villains' eyes bugged out and even the players were a bit surprised; I know I was. The warlock remained hidden for most of the encounter. I think I'm misinterpreting one of his powers (the one that lets him move to gain concealment).Finally the heroes started using their daily powers (only second encounter of the day, please note). The wizard dropped the sleep bomb, taking out both guard drakes. Neither woke up.Agrid was finally hit and vanished. He failed to sneak attack the fighter with his crossbow, and was then hit by the warlock's Dark Dream ability, doing massive damage and forcing him to move towards the fighter. Ow.So that's how the day ended, three battles in five hours (and this includes the in-between combat stuff).Next session: they'll have to face the undead, missing two out of five PCs and with two (out of three available) dailies expended. I figure I can add another two characters, but the party will be wanting to turn in and sleep instead of fighting. (Heh heh heh.)</blockquote>

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