Rappan Athuk #11 - The Dark Warrior
4E is getting closer and I am still just as hopeful as when 4E was officially announced, but I am very anxious about other things that I’ve seen that could utterly ruin the whole edition for me.
I’m not talking about dragonborn, tieflings, and warlocks being included as part of the core. I can exclude those if I see fit.
I’m not talking about my opinions of the fluff of 4E. That’s the best part of fluff, it’s only story and stories can be changed or ignored.
I’m not talking about art. Hey, I’d love it if they went back to Elmore art or even the scribbles from the original AD&D books (paladin in hell, fighter afraid of rust monster, no honor amongst thieves, etc.).
I have two concerns that have my anxieties growling away.
Anxiety number one – a lot, but not all, of the special abilities require players to remember way too many things. What’s going to happen when players have to remember even more?
“My PC gives everyone +1 to hit.”
“Oh and don’t forget that we each can do Y now.”
“Don’t forget about those temporary hit points when I heal you.”
“And we all have +10’ of movement.”
“I’ve also trained all of the fighters to kill goblins, so that’s another +2 to damage against goblins.”
“Wait, what now?”
In my experience players forget things, all kinds of things. And these memory lapses usually come out as “Oh, my PC should have died in that last encounter”, or “Oh, I read the rules wrong. I guess my PC couldn’t have done that”, or my personal favorite “Oh wait, I had X so Y didn’t happen. Can we rewind back to a minute ago and fix it?”
DM’s do the same thing, but DM’s can write things like that off. Who cares if that goblin shouldn’t have died?
Player’s tend to get a bit irritated if their PC is barbecued and the DM says “Hey, you should have remembered your PC’s abilities. I’m the storyteller, not your nanny.”
Anxiety number two – could the expansion of the “sweet spot” just mean that all levels are now 100% equal and have all become the same thing just with larger numbers at higher levels?
In the current and all previous versions of D&D the lower levels (1-4) were about surviving to the middle levels, while the middle levels (5-9) were the sweet spot and tended to be the most fun, and the higher levels (10+) just weren’t as fun as either the paperwork became too cumbersome or the PC’s weren’t challenged enough or possibly the DM was burnt out, and so on.
What WotC has promised is that all the levels will be that sweet spot.
I hope so very much that they’ll deliver, but what if they deliver something that is so proportionately equal that level 1 feels identical to level 10?
I honestly don’t believe this will be as much of an issue as I do with the first one, but I’m concerned. Making everything equal doesn’t always mean better.
Enough of my rambling, let’s talk about Rappan Athuk and perhaps sing a few rounds of “Ding! Fries are done!”
There was no Brian this session, so Aaron’s Dargo (second incarnation) poofed in made a repeat appearance.
So for this session we had:
Saver – Dale’s level 6 favored soul/sorcerer
Gehei – Aaron’s level 6 favored soul/knight
Spotted Dragon – Justin’s level 6 monk/fighter
Dargo – Aaron’s level 5 scout/sorcerer
We last stopped with the party looking down into the familiar graveyard of Rappan Athuk.
Tonight they intended to begin the exploration of level 3 of the dungeon, but there was a small snag with that.
They didn’t have a map of the dungeon at all. They know they had found a way down, but did not remember specifically what room led down from level 2 into level 3.
What the DM thought would be a minor correction (making maps) ended up taking most of the night.
They re-explored the crazed barbarian’s room, then walked past some storage rooms (including one with the stairs down), and then decided to make a map.
After proving that they had on them something portable to write on and write with, they began mapping.
During their new explorations they encountered a trio of black-boned skeletons like the one they encountered back in the mausoleum long ago that nearly killed them right before the mausoleum trap nearly killed them.
But thanks to Spot’s magical fists and Saver’s Remove Fear spell, the combat was minor.
During this repeated exploration they come across an ebony door with gold trim and a lock that Javier was poisoned by long ago.
On the door was a kind of nausea inducing writing that used the celestial alphabet but used infernal words. GI’s magical helm showed it saying, “Saraseck, in life a deluded slave of blinding light, in death a dark warrior king.”
Refer to my above statement about players forgetting things.
At that time Aaron believed that scouts could look for traps but not disable them, but could pick locks.
If that is incorrect, then Aaron probably feels a little silly after all the trouble Dargo went through.
Nonetheless we spent probably 20 minutes of time while Aaron rolled to pick the lock while incessantly getting stabbed with a poison needle that did strength damage. Aaron needed to roll an 18 on a d20, while I only needed a 12 to hit Dargo for 1 damage then force a DC17 fortitude save to prevent 1d4/1d4 strength damage.
After that door was finally opened, they saw a 20’ hallway that showed an identical doorway that had to be picked as well.
Let’s just say there were a lot Lesser Restoration spells being cast, including burning some third level spell slots to cast them, even after giving a dodge bonus.
While Dargo was busy getting a swollen hand, the rest of the group saw the story of Saraseck while Saver filled in what the frescoes on the walls did not cover. Saraseck was once a paladin of Heironeous that chased the cult of Orcus to here, but he eventually fell to evil and is now entombed here in death.
When Dargo finally got the second door open everyone got to meet Saraseck in all of his undead glory.
He was fully ready for battle, because he heard the party coming (you can only get stung in the hand so many times by a needle before you start swearing up a storm).
The party refused to kneel before him and declare their allegiance to him, so a fight began.
What should have been a nasty fight turned out to be pretty one-sided.
Saraseck had a nice greatsword that hurt whoever he hit, but his AC was a pathetic 17 and he had no spell resistance. He did have damage reduction 10/magic and bludgeoning, but a monk gets past that.
Out of six attacks in 3 rounds, Saraseck only hit once. It was a good hit for 45 damage, but dealing 45 while taking over 120 from spells and a monk’s fist isn’t a fair trade.
I gave the party XP for a CR10 rather than CR12 because the fight was so one-sided, but that was till 1500xp, so they didn’t complain.
After searching around, they found plenty of magic items, including his sword, and a shield Saraseck could no longer use.
They holed up in this room (it has some nice protection with those doors) afterwards and used a scroll of identify on the shield (+2 as a shield and a weapon, blinding and holy).
After resting and leveling (Saver and GI are now level 7), they resumed mapping the nearly clear level.
They nuked a room full of baby dire rats and their moms (no XP, but they did find 2pp).
They found another room full of a variety of fungus. When some of it began shrieking and moving, they cleansed this room with fire and searched through what was left. (Rather than fighting I just had them mark off some spells.)
They were rewarded not with treasure, but with a hole that led up and out of the dungeon that was big enough for a human.
They made note of the hole on their map and went back to exploration and eventually found the stairs leading down to level 3.
They descended the stairs and at the bottom was a written warning in glowing green letters “Beware of purple worms. Signed Spiegel the Mage”
They are finally on level 3 and have found a huge natural cavern over 30’ in height and spreading farther out than their magical torches would shed light.
After they magically crossed a rapid-flowing river and searched a bit of the area we stopped for the evening.
I’m not talking about dragonborn, tieflings, and warlocks being included as part of the core. I can exclude those if I see fit.
I’m not talking about my opinions of the fluff of 4E. That’s the best part of fluff, it’s only story and stories can be changed or ignored.
I’m not talking about art. Hey, I’d love it if they went back to Elmore art or even the scribbles from the original AD&D books (paladin in hell, fighter afraid of rust monster, no honor amongst thieves, etc.).
I have two concerns that have my anxieties growling away.
Anxiety number one – a lot, but not all, of the special abilities require players to remember way too many things. What’s going to happen when players have to remember even more?
“My PC gives everyone +1 to hit.”
“Oh and don’t forget that we each can do Y now.”
“Don’t forget about those temporary hit points when I heal you.”
“And we all have +10’ of movement.”
“I’ve also trained all of the fighters to kill goblins, so that’s another +2 to damage against goblins.”
“Wait, what now?”
In my experience players forget things, all kinds of things. And these memory lapses usually come out as “Oh, my PC should have died in that last encounter”, or “Oh, I read the rules wrong. I guess my PC couldn’t have done that”, or my personal favorite “Oh wait, I had X so Y didn’t happen. Can we rewind back to a minute ago and fix it?”
DM’s do the same thing, but DM’s can write things like that off. Who cares if that goblin shouldn’t have died?
Player’s tend to get a bit irritated if their PC is barbecued and the DM says “Hey, you should have remembered your PC’s abilities. I’m the storyteller, not your nanny.”
Anxiety number two – could the expansion of the “sweet spot” just mean that all levels are now 100% equal and have all become the same thing just with larger numbers at higher levels?
In the current and all previous versions of D&D the lower levels (1-4) were about surviving to the middle levels, while the middle levels (5-9) were the sweet spot and tended to be the most fun, and the higher levels (10+) just weren’t as fun as either the paperwork became too cumbersome or the PC’s weren’t challenged enough or possibly the DM was burnt out, and so on.
What WotC has promised is that all the levels will be that sweet spot.
I hope so very much that they’ll deliver, but what if they deliver something that is so proportionately equal that level 1 feels identical to level 10?
I honestly don’t believe this will be as much of an issue as I do with the first one, but I’m concerned. Making everything equal doesn’t always mean better.
Enough of my rambling, let’s talk about Rappan Athuk and perhaps sing a few rounds of “Ding! Fries are done!”
There was no Brian this session, so Aaron’s Dargo (second incarnation) poofed in made a repeat appearance.
So for this session we had:
Saver – Dale’s level 6 favored soul/sorcerer
Gehei – Aaron’s level 6 favored soul/knight
Spotted Dragon – Justin’s level 6 monk/fighter
Dargo – Aaron’s level 5 scout/sorcerer
We last stopped with the party looking down into the familiar graveyard of Rappan Athuk.
Tonight they intended to begin the exploration of level 3 of the dungeon, but there was a small snag with that.
They didn’t have a map of the dungeon at all. They know they had found a way down, but did not remember specifically what room led down from level 2 into level 3.
What the DM thought would be a minor correction (making maps) ended up taking most of the night.
They re-explored the crazed barbarian’s room, then walked past some storage rooms (including one with the stairs down), and then decided to make a map.
After proving that they had on them something portable to write on and write with, they began mapping.
During their new explorations they encountered a trio of black-boned skeletons like the one they encountered back in the mausoleum long ago that nearly killed them right before the mausoleum trap nearly killed them.
But thanks to Spot’s magical fists and Saver’s Remove Fear spell, the combat was minor.
During this repeated exploration they come across an ebony door with gold trim and a lock that Javier was poisoned by long ago.
On the door was a kind of nausea inducing writing that used the celestial alphabet but used infernal words. GI’s magical helm showed it saying, “Saraseck, in life a deluded slave of blinding light, in death a dark warrior king.”
Refer to my above statement about players forgetting things.
At that time Aaron believed that scouts could look for traps but not disable them, but could pick locks.
If that is incorrect, then Aaron probably feels a little silly after all the trouble Dargo went through.
Nonetheless we spent probably 20 minutes of time while Aaron rolled to pick the lock while incessantly getting stabbed with a poison needle that did strength damage. Aaron needed to roll an 18 on a d20, while I only needed a 12 to hit Dargo for 1 damage then force a DC17 fortitude save to prevent 1d4/1d4 strength damage.
After that door was finally opened, they saw a 20’ hallway that showed an identical doorway that had to be picked as well.
Let’s just say there were a lot Lesser Restoration spells being cast, including burning some third level spell slots to cast them, even after giving a dodge bonus.
While Dargo was busy getting a swollen hand, the rest of the group saw the story of Saraseck while Saver filled in what the frescoes on the walls did not cover. Saraseck was once a paladin of Heironeous that chased the cult of Orcus to here, but he eventually fell to evil and is now entombed here in death.
When Dargo finally got the second door open everyone got to meet Saraseck in all of his undead glory.
He was fully ready for battle, because he heard the party coming (you can only get stung in the hand so many times by a needle before you start swearing up a storm).
The party refused to kneel before him and declare their allegiance to him, so a fight began.
What should have been a nasty fight turned out to be pretty one-sided.
Saraseck had a nice greatsword that hurt whoever he hit, but his AC was a pathetic 17 and he had no spell resistance. He did have damage reduction 10/magic and bludgeoning, but a monk gets past that.
Out of six attacks in 3 rounds, Saraseck only hit once. It was a good hit for 45 damage, but dealing 45 while taking over 120 from spells and a monk’s fist isn’t a fair trade.
I gave the party XP for a CR10 rather than CR12 because the fight was so one-sided, but that was till 1500xp, so they didn’t complain.
After searching around, they found plenty of magic items, including his sword, and a shield Saraseck could no longer use.
They holed up in this room (it has some nice protection with those doors) afterwards and used a scroll of identify on the shield (+2 as a shield and a weapon, blinding and holy).
After resting and leveling (Saver and GI are now level 7), they resumed mapping the nearly clear level.
They nuked a room full of baby dire rats and their moms (no XP, but they did find 2pp).
They found another room full of a variety of fungus. When some of it began shrieking and moving, they cleansed this room with fire and searched through what was left. (Rather than fighting I just had them mark off some spells.)
They were rewarded not with treasure, but with a hole that led up and out of the dungeon that was big enough for a human.
They made note of the hole on their map and went back to exploration and eventually found the stairs leading down to level 3.
They descended the stairs and at the bottom was a written warning in glowing green letters “Beware of purple worms. Signed Spiegel the Mage”
They are finally on level 3 and have found a huge natural cavern over 30’ in height and spreading farther out than their magical torches would shed light.
After they magically crossed a rapid-flowing river and searched a bit of the area we stopped for the evening.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 7:57 PM
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