The Keep on the Shadowfell #1
What should have been an immediate jump full bore into 4E was stalled.
We should have had a new player this week, a friend of Justin’s. But he wasn’t ready to join us just yet. That’s usually a bad sign, meaning the guy’s never going to join or he’s a flake.
That’s not a 100% for sure sign of course, but past experience would go with the more pessimistic version.
Brian also cancelled on us because he was sick. He’s going to be out an additional two weeks on vacation.
In related news there were several jokes at Brian’s expense the first hour of the game. At this rate he’ll be two levels behind the rest of the group when he joins us.
Dale decided to end the mini-adventure that we started last session and start us anew with the Keep on the Shadowfell.
The problem was that there were only going to be 3 PC’s in a 5 PC module. Dale gave us options and we went with the 2 PC’s per player option.
So in addition to Tornok, my tiefling warlord, Stout, Justin’s dwarf fighter, and Valenae, Aaron’s eladrin rogue we added:
Faerel, my elf bow ranger
Berlin, Justin’s eladrin wizard
Morgan Starlock, Aaron’s half-elf star-pact warlock
(Note to self – find the guy who nicknamed the warlocks starlock, feylock, and hellock, and punch him in the back of the head.)
It only took us just under an hour to make the PC’s this time around, but that was a costly hour and then we had to learn the new abilities of our new PC’s while trying to still master the powers of our original PC’s.
I made the bow ranger because I wanted something easy to run. Since he was a second PC, I could afford to make him an eggs-all-in-one-basket type. I gave him a 20 Dexterity, 14 Wisdom, 12 Constitution, 10 Intelligence, 10 Strength, and 8 Charisma and all of his powers and feats have to do with ranged attacks and getting out of melee combat.
The 2 PC’s per player did split our attention a bit, but it was our best option.
It also allowed us to experience another character class and race without having to wait for our PC to die a campaign to end.
Like last week we had to consult the book for rules a few times, but it was much easier to find things this week.
The biggest game mistake this week was done by me. I found out after the fact that the ranger power Twin Strike does not get to add your Dex modifier to your damage rolls.
Oops. It was nothing major, and had only a slight impact on the combat it was used in.
The rules mechanics I’ve read so far seem to me to be very similar to 3.5, but have been adjusted to be more streamlined to work with. Additionally, having all of a monster’s abilities spelled out in the stat block helps the DM a lot.
Dale started us in the town of Fallcrest and gave each of our main PC’s a plot hook to get us involved.
Stout’s dwarf mentor, Dalvin Stahl, had gone missing while adventuring and searching for a dragon’s tomb, and his wife asked Stout to investigate. The old dwarf’s last known location was in the village of Winterhaven.
Valenae was approached by the scholar Parlay Cranewing, who hired him to map an old keep near Winterhaven for 250gp.
Tornok’s was asked by Marla, of the church of Pelor, to investigate a group of death cultists who had been last seen near Winterhaven.
The clerics and paladins of the church of Pelor are now very good friends with Tornok. Much drinking was done at the inn and Tornok didn’t have to pay a copper (an 18 charisma is awesome), plus he kept his head on. So when morning comes those Pelorites prayed to the porcelain god while Tornok and his 5 new friends headed to Winterhaven.
We traveled along the King’s Road for 3 days and on the last day we were ambushed by a squad of kobolds that somehow were able to avoid Faerel’s 19 in Passive Perception.
We realized quickly that Dale handicaps are going to hurt him when running this new version of the game.
His vision makes it hard for him to read the monster stat blocks. There’s not much we can do there except maybe buy him a magnifying glass.
But we were able to help Dale with the initiative tracking. He’s not exactly an icon of organization and his fingers just don’t get along with the initiative tracker we bought and love. By taking over that for him, we helped speed the game up almost enough to make up for how slow we made it by taking on 2 PC’s.
The six of us level 1 PC’s were up against 4 kobold minions, a kobold “slinger”, and a pair of dragonshield warrior kobolds.
The round of surprise they got on us hurt us, but we were fine in the end.
Stout was glued with another gluepot, but that was more of an annoyance for a round.
They surrounded us which annoyed all 3 strikers who need a bit more maneuverability, but once one of their sides broke, we made quick work of the rest.
Near the evening of the third day we made it to the small farming village of Winterhaven.
We explored the market area a little bit and Valenae was warned by an old elf lady selling flowers that there were goblins near the keep where she picks her flowers.
Today’s quote of the game is a tie between “Pilsner swilling pretty boy” and “Child molester mustache”.
…Don’t ask.
While at the inn we met with Lord Hadrag, the man in charge of Winterhaven.
The conversation ended with us offering our services to him to help cleanse the local area of the evils it was plagued with, assuming that he helped us with information and there was a reward involved.
He paid for our rooms and gave us directions to find the lair of some kobolds that had been raiding the King’s Road.
The next morning we were back on the King’s Road to kill some more kobolds.
Once again they surprised us (Dale was rolling killer for their hiding).
Tornok was at the bottom of the initiative stack, meaning that every monster would get two actions before was able to act once.
This time the kobolds were a trio of dragonshields, a skirmisher, and a “wyrmpriest” who started the fight with a cold breath attack that hit everyone in the group save Faerel.
Those simple kobolds hurt everyone a little bit, but tore up Tornok who went from 24hp to 6hp before he even acted once. His first round he used his Second Wind and Inspiring Word to heal himself back up to 23hp.
Once we were on our feet and able to fight back, we slaughtered the kobolds, especially the wyrmpriest.
Justin critted with his wizard’s Force Orb, my ranger nearly took out a dragonshield alone, Aaron’s warlock played the blasting game, while Aaron’s rogue and Justin’s fighter had a good time flanking and killing.
The wyrmpriest tried to run when he was the last kobold around, but we captured him. When he refused to speak to us, Tornok killed him (he gives no mercy to someone who just tried to kill him).
On the bodied we found around 7gp in coins and a golden symbol of Orcus.
That’s not a good sign. But does tell Tornok the kind of death cult he’s looking for.
After that we stopped for the night and wondered how many more fights we could have taken on had we had that hour, I’m betting on two because Dale had the miniatures for the fights ready.
We should have had a new player this week, a friend of Justin’s. But he wasn’t ready to join us just yet. That’s usually a bad sign, meaning the guy’s never going to join or he’s a flake.
That’s not a 100% for sure sign of course, but past experience would go with the more pessimistic version.
Brian also cancelled on us because he was sick. He’s going to be out an additional two weeks on vacation.
In related news there were several jokes at Brian’s expense the first hour of the game. At this rate he’ll be two levels behind the rest of the group when he joins us.
Dale decided to end the mini-adventure that we started last session and start us anew with the Keep on the Shadowfell.
The problem was that there were only going to be 3 PC’s in a 5 PC module. Dale gave us options and we went with the 2 PC’s per player option.
So in addition to Tornok, my tiefling warlord, Stout, Justin’s dwarf fighter, and Valenae, Aaron’s eladrin rogue we added:
Faerel, my elf bow ranger
Berlin, Justin’s eladrin wizard
Morgan Starlock, Aaron’s half-elf star-pact warlock
(Note to self – find the guy who nicknamed the warlocks starlock, feylock, and hellock, and punch him in the back of the head.)
It only took us just under an hour to make the PC’s this time around, but that was a costly hour and then we had to learn the new abilities of our new PC’s while trying to still master the powers of our original PC’s.
I made the bow ranger because I wanted something easy to run. Since he was a second PC, I could afford to make him an eggs-all-in-one-basket type. I gave him a 20 Dexterity, 14 Wisdom, 12 Constitution, 10 Intelligence, 10 Strength, and 8 Charisma and all of his powers and feats have to do with ranged attacks and getting out of melee combat.
The 2 PC’s per player did split our attention a bit, but it was our best option.
It also allowed us to experience another character class and race without having to wait for our PC to die a campaign to end.
Like last week we had to consult the book for rules a few times, but it was much easier to find things this week.
The biggest game mistake this week was done by me. I found out after the fact that the ranger power Twin Strike does not get to add your Dex modifier to your damage rolls.
Oops. It was nothing major, and had only a slight impact on the combat it was used in.
The rules mechanics I’ve read so far seem to me to be very similar to 3.5, but have been adjusted to be more streamlined to work with. Additionally, having all of a monster’s abilities spelled out in the stat block helps the DM a lot.
Dale started us in the town of Fallcrest and gave each of our main PC’s a plot hook to get us involved.
Stout’s dwarf mentor, Dalvin Stahl, had gone missing while adventuring and searching for a dragon’s tomb, and his wife asked Stout to investigate. The old dwarf’s last known location was in the village of Winterhaven.
Valenae was approached by the scholar Parlay Cranewing, who hired him to map an old keep near Winterhaven for 250gp.
Tornok’s was asked by Marla, of the church of Pelor, to investigate a group of death cultists who had been last seen near Winterhaven.
The clerics and paladins of the church of Pelor are now very good friends with Tornok. Much drinking was done at the inn and Tornok didn’t have to pay a copper (an 18 charisma is awesome), plus he kept his head on. So when morning comes those Pelorites prayed to the porcelain god while Tornok and his 5 new friends headed to Winterhaven.
We traveled along the King’s Road for 3 days and on the last day we were ambushed by a squad of kobolds that somehow were able to avoid Faerel’s 19 in Passive Perception.
We realized quickly that Dale handicaps are going to hurt him when running this new version of the game.
His vision makes it hard for him to read the monster stat blocks. There’s not much we can do there except maybe buy him a magnifying glass.
But we were able to help Dale with the initiative tracking. He’s not exactly an icon of organization and his fingers just don’t get along with the initiative tracker we bought and love. By taking over that for him, we helped speed the game up almost enough to make up for how slow we made it by taking on 2 PC’s.
The six of us level 1 PC’s were up against 4 kobold minions, a kobold “slinger”, and a pair of dragonshield warrior kobolds.
The round of surprise they got on us hurt us, but we were fine in the end.
Stout was glued with another gluepot, but that was more of an annoyance for a round.
They surrounded us which annoyed all 3 strikers who need a bit more maneuverability, but once one of their sides broke, we made quick work of the rest.
Near the evening of the third day we made it to the small farming village of Winterhaven.
We explored the market area a little bit and Valenae was warned by an old elf lady selling flowers that there were goblins near the keep where she picks her flowers.
Today’s quote of the game is a tie between “Pilsner swilling pretty boy” and “Child molester mustache”.
…Don’t ask.
While at the inn we met with Lord Hadrag, the man in charge of Winterhaven.
The conversation ended with us offering our services to him to help cleanse the local area of the evils it was plagued with, assuming that he helped us with information and there was a reward involved.
He paid for our rooms and gave us directions to find the lair of some kobolds that had been raiding the King’s Road.
The next morning we were back on the King’s Road to kill some more kobolds.
Once again they surprised us (Dale was rolling killer for their hiding).
Tornok was at the bottom of the initiative stack, meaning that every monster would get two actions before was able to act once.
This time the kobolds were a trio of dragonshields, a skirmisher, and a “wyrmpriest” who started the fight with a cold breath attack that hit everyone in the group save Faerel.
Those simple kobolds hurt everyone a little bit, but tore up Tornok who went from 24hp to 6hp before he even acted once. His first round he used his Second Wind and Inspiring Word to heal himself back up to 23hp.
Once we were on our feet and able to fight back, we slaughtered the kobolds, especially the wyrmpriest.
Justin critted with his wizard’s Force Orb, my ranger nearly took out a dragonshield alone, Aaron’s warlock played the blasting game, while Aaron’s rogue and Justin’s fighter had a good time flanking and killing.
The wyrmpriest tried to run when he was the last kobold around, but we captured him. When he refused to speak to us, Tornok killed him (he gives no mercy to someone who just tried to kill him).
On the bodied we found around 7gp in coins and a golden symbol of Orcus.
That’s not a good sign. But does tell Tornok the kind of death cult he’s looking for.
After that we stopped for the night and wondered how many more fights we could have taken on had we had that hour, I’m betting on two because Dale had the miniatures for the fights ready.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 9:34 PM
4 Comments:
I played the same canned adventure you are as a 12-hour demo (we got to the end of the first 'mini-arc,' so to speak), so it's fun to hear about your experiences.
Fights do seem a lot faster in 4e, although part of it on your end of things might be that you only had part of your group attending? It's not like 3.5, where you got through maybe one fight a day, two if you were lucky. That makes me happy as hell.
That second kobold encounter tore us up pretty damn hard - the wyrmpriest actually got away after one party member was knocked out. Kobolds are shifty bastards!
Also, is it just me, or is Burning Hands an incredibly nice first level wizard encounter power? I nearly shat a brick when I realized just how wide of an area it covered.
The one concern I have about 4e is whether the map tools for online play will be up to the job - most of my gaming participation is online, as my two residences are on opposite ends of the States. I was a bit put out to hear that WotC's program wasn't released on time, and I have yet to find a really good free mapping program that'll work for my purposes. With all the focus on mobility and combat positioning some characters require, it seems like a map is an absolute requirement/priority.
Hi again!
After further reading the rules I found that surprise rounds allow only 1 action, not a full round of actions. That might have changed things.
I haven't seen Burning Hands in action yet, but I'm sure I will.
Sorry about your issues with DDI. Their schedule seemed pretty aggressive for software like that. It was guaranteed to have problems.
Yeah, they've kept that holdover from 3.5 with regards to surprise rounds being abbreviated. It's not too bad, but of course annoying if you need to do some moving too.
Also, Burning Hands is literally a 5 by 5 square - I forget what 4e's terminology is, but it has to start adjacent to the caster's square. So it can start in any one of those 8 surrounding squares. It's, I believe, 2d6+Intmod fire damage, INT versus Reflex. And that's a level 1 encounter power. Hell of a minion killer.
(And yeah, expect to see me popping up on your blog now and then. It's summer and I'm bored. Go figure.)
The surprise thing was something I noted because the surprise rounds we used this time around were full rounds, and my warlord took a beating in the 2nd combat with the kobolds.
Burning Hands, now that I've looked at it closer does seem strong. But you have to cast it kind of close to the enemy, and it diesn't discriminate vs. friend or foe. So you'll probably be open for further attacks from any non-minions (since even kobolds have 20hp now).
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