4E in play

I finally got the chance to the Raiders of Oakhurst 4E adventure last
night (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=220317).

The group started out in Oakhurst where they found out about the
problems being caused by the raiders. They saw the broken fences,
chicken carcasses and livestock with shocked expressions wandering
around. There were 5 players so only 5 PCs: the cleric, ranger, fighter,
warlock and wizard, with the paladin being left out. They managed to
bargain Teren into paying them 10 silver pieces each, making 60 sp in
all. This is what happens when the DM has had a beer before playing.

They followed the trail of destruction, dead chickens and duct tape
barnyard animals to the dark, damp gash in the hillside which
constituted the dungeon. Play stopped here for a minute or so while we
got the images of rockets taking off and trains entering tunnels out of
our system.

ANYWAY, they had little trouble dispatching the first mob of kobolds,
although the warlock kept missing her attack rolls -- a sign of what was
to come. I got the map messed up, so instead of more kobolds coming to
join the fight, it was the hobgoblins who surprised the party while they
were checking the cave out. That was a much tougher fight, with the
fighter being knocked out and knocked into the water from the
warcaster's force lance. But then they killed both the warcaster and the
soldier, and the two archers ran away.

After retreating for a bit to rest up, they came back, fought the
remaining kobold minions and skirmishers and killed them quickly.
Advancing further, the ranger walked into Meepo's cave and underneath Ix
the spider, who was hanging from the ceiling. Ix scored max damage with
the ensuing death from above and took him down in one hit. This brought
a brief flurry of panic, but Ix with a spent DFA wasn't much of a threat
and they killed it too.

Meepo put up some token resistance after they killed his spider but
quickly surrendered. He wasn't one for personal dignity and was entirely
willing to debase himself in the interests of self-preservation. "Meepo
appeal to mighty warriors' better side! Meepo give out information about
evil dragon who is wreaking havoc!", "Meepo appeal to greedy
adventurers' baser side! Meepo let you clean up all his treasure!" and
so on in a rather unseemly and embarrassing way. The cleric pointed to
his crotch and said hey Meepo, if you're serious, clean this. Meepo,
being a mere kobold with no idea about human social mores and innuendo,
pulled out a wire brush and detergent, and got clipped around the ear as
a result.

They finished him off ("for heinous and unspeakable crimes against
innocent livestock"), rather cold-heartedly I thought, and went off to
confront Nightscale. It wasn't quite a massacre, but it was close. The
dragon's AC and defenses were basically too high for them to handle, and
the fighter got repeatedly punished by the reactive tail slash. I even
nerfed the dragon inadvertently by forgetting its action points and
reach, and they still only did about 70 points damage to it before
running away. The party got separated, with the fighter, ranger and
cleric escaping while the wizard got killed and the warlock pledged her
service to the dragon. Karma bites, literally in this case.


.. . .


The warlock's player was frustrated by always missing. That was more due
to rolling badly, but for a striker class, the warlock didn't prove that
much more dangerous than the other PCs.

The cleric proved surprisingly effective as an attacker. His daily power
took down the hobgoblin warcaster after the fighter was knocked out,
which swung the fight, and his lance of faith was also very useful.

The fighter was frustrated at being a damage sponge. Not having the
paladin probably hurt him more than the others, since he was basically
the only melee guy (the cleric tended to hang back and use lance of
faith). This might be a play style issue more than anything; this player
usually plays characters who hang back and avoid tangling in melee.

1-1-1 diagonals didn't bother anyone, and being able to count off
squares rapidly helped keep things moving at a fast pace.

Movement (voluntary or involuntary) didn't play as big a role as I
thought it would. Possibly as we get more experience with 4E tactical
options, this will change.

The fights were fast and we managed to do the whole dungeon (5 fights
plus out-of-combat interaction) in about 4 1/2 hours. I didn't count the
rounds, but I think most of them were 10 rounds or less. The Nightscale
fight was about 20 rounds; the characters survived that long because the
dragon also kept missing with its attacks.

From this, I conclude there's not as much "shock" as in 3E fights.
Except for Ix's death from above, none of the enemies could really deal
large chunks of damage in one blow, so the fights were more tactical: a
process of outmaneuvering/out-attritioning the enemy. Say what you will
about 3E combat, there's something viscerally satisfying about removing
half or more of someone's hp in one hit (that spike damage I keep
harping on about). Hopefully this is something that will change at
higher levels.

When I played Sunless Citadel we made friends with the kobolds not
only because we returned their "pet" (Meepo died in the fight) but
also we took out their goblin rivals so they gained control of the
dungeon. Oakhurst and the kobolds didn't become fast friends, but
they left each other alone with the occasional trade.

How sad to see things didn't work out.



I know kobolds are evil, but I never get the impression they are
Evil. If people just leave them alone you could get along with them.

:b

Gerald Katz