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Official D&D 4th edition Thread

Discussion in 'Archive: Games: RPG & Miniatures' started by darthmythos, Jan 11, 2008.

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  1. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Yeah, well...
    They had to settle for 2nd winding, and taking longer breaks between encounters.
    Now, as soon as they had coinage from the first encounters, they bought wound patches, which helped.

    The Spectre was almost a joke. Sure, it's insubstantial, so they only do 1/2 damage, but they were tagging it with so much, that the fight was only 2 rounds. They used bottlenecks and tactics to hamper the monsters in one room so only one could attack at a time. And the minions scored some nasty damage, but the best one was a crit with a stone that just made a loud noise and knocked the target prone.

    So yeah, no leader/healer, and they ripped everything except the 2 climactic encounters to shreds.

    (would have been more fun if they hadn't spotted the spectre, because then it would have followed them into the next fight, which ended up being the climactic one against the necromancer deciple...)
     
  2. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    4E is all about how players have specialised roles working together, that's why in later levels party composition is so important. At level 1 you can more or less get away with a party of strikers, but when you get towards Paragon tier you really start to suffer.

    I'm running a game for level 10 characters at the moment, and the different party roles make a difference. Particularly how controllers seem out just to ruin the DMs day.

    Take a look yourself...
     
  3. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

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    May 30, 2003
    Oh, I agree. And from now on I intend to amp up the encounters more than "intended" by the system. The players agreed that first character to die gets replaced by a leader.

    Funny part: the super spotter annoyingly high perception guy spotted ruins over the door on the inside of the Necromancer deciple's lair. The warlock confirmed that they were arcane, and still active, but no one noticed any effects. So they ignored them. When they tried to take out the Necromancer's ritual book, the ruin triggered, and the book burst into flames. Someone didn't want his books stolen. Well, they report the whole thing to the town guard, who send scribes and academics down to recover the library, but the party didn't bother to mention the ruins. So almost the entire library is destroyed.
     
  4. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Sounds fun, but you can't always get players to do what you want.

    Any thoughts on my game? They have this encounter about done, it's just a matter of time.
     
  5. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Play-by-post format is a little odd... but looks like everyone is having fun.

    I took goblins and kobolds and hybrid crossed them to create a race called YazYaks. Really annoyed the party when they weren't the std monsters they'd been expecting. "Wait, that's a goblin power" "No, that one's a kobold power. What race are we fighting?" "That's a cheat!" heh, heh, heh....
     
  6. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Your the DM, you can't cheat. :D

    All my homebrew so far was a gazebo.
     
  7. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

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    May 30, 2003
    Since one player wasn't able to make last game, and a different on is going to be out next week, I gave them an NPC guest, Pidge KhiRop, a fiesty 1/2ling ranger who is going to join the Order of the Lions of the Blazing Sword.
    No one figured out his inspriation yet.
    "Pidge? That sounds familiar." [face_whistling]
     
  8. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

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    Mar 3, 2003
  9. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    "order of the LIONS of the BLAZING SWORD"
    ever see Voltron GoLion/Lion Force/VoltronIII cartoon?
    Pidge was the Green Lion pilot voiced by Billy West.
     
  10. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    No, I have not. :(

    I am regretting lending MM2, MM3 and Manual of the planes to a friend, I want them back!!!
     
  11. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    You must have had better things to do in the 80s...
    I'm working with just MM1, PH1, and DMG
     
  12. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Actually, I did have better things to do in the '80s. I was being born.
     
  13. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

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    May 30, 2003
    you child you ;)
     
  14. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

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    Mar 3, 2003
    BTW, MM3 is much more balanced than MM1.
     
  15. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Well, the super-anime fan was at this week's game, so he got the Voltron joke. He was laughing so hard he ended up in pain.
    And the party is feeling the effects of not having a healer. Healing potions are actually useful. In 3 fights, 1/2 of them had burned up all their healing surges 2nd winding.

    My monsters rolled 4 1's in a single round. and there were only 8 left at that point.

    I like the Dragonborn minions I created. They have mostly low defences except for AC, because they're young mercenaries in training, and they have a blast 1 breath weapon.
     
  16. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    So now do you believe me how useful healer's are? Particularly a cleric or a tactical warlord. The warlord in my party in the last D&D game I ran was wonderful, all he did was flank, heal and give the monk MBAs.
     
  17. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Oh, I completely agree and agreed. It was the players' idea to do all-strikers.
     
  18. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Sometimes the worst thing you can do to your players is to let them do what they want. [face_devil]
     
  19. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    I love giving players what they say they want...

    In the old days of 2nd edition, there was one player who was bugging me for a magic katana. OK. The pirate queen and mistress of icy magic, after capturing their ship and robbing them, enchanted his katana so that he could go forth and get more treasure for her to loot (she robbed ships, but left the crews with their personal equipment).
    "So I practice with it. What plus is it?"
    "You notice no difference. The only thing you see is the rune for 'Ran'"
    Snickers from the guy studying Japanese.
    So, the next time he scores a critical hit, I roll on a modified Wand of Wonder chart. And he gets the fireball, which set the ship's rigging and sails on fire, as well as severely injuring the crew. No more sparring on ship with real weapons allowed.

    And it did bite me back later, when he critted an ancient dragon on his first attack, got the shower of 2d4 x10 gem stones(he rolled 2 4's, each of which did d4 damage (I gave him 1 roll for all of the, and he rolled a 4 again). So, combined with his already massive damage, he did about 400hp to the dragon and killed it. His mate was not pleased...
     
  20. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    I love the wand of wonder, and I'm planning on adapting it for 4e.
     
  21. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    I did it! I dropped a Good Guy. Sadly, it was the NPC striker that I'd brought in to fill the ranks because one of the players was missing. He took 2 Power Strikes (d10+9+prone each) and the monsters rolled high. He was already bloodied, and ended up taking another 38 points of damage (his max was 27, so those hits alone would have dropped him). The players were just grateful they weren't on the receiving end. Poor Pidge soaked up all the damage.
    Pidge's twin brother, Chip, showed up to replace him. He is different. He has a crew-cut instead of long hair, and he wears hide armor instead of leather. See: Different.

    If Chip gets dropped, Paragon, the Eladrin 2-weapon fighter, will show up.
     
  22. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Sadly, we lost a player last week--loss of work hours means he can't afford to live here and had to move back in with his parents down in LA to save up $.

    Funny thing about the all-striker party: sure, there's no healing, but the massive damage they do keeps the fights so much shorter--almost all fights are over within 3 or 4 rounds. One player scored a crit and dropped a brute in a single round! Brute had to charge on his turn to attack, so he didn't even get to use his good, powerful attacks. (sigh)
     
  23. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    <Sigh>!
    Ran 3 encounters last week, with a lot of role-playing and player speculation in between.
    Party is still all-strikers, mixed level 2 and 3.
    First encounter was a young black dragon--level 4 solo. The party mopped the floor with him. Took 4 rounds, maybe five, but he was not a serious challenge for them. Though since the rogue is played by a guy who always wants souveniers, I made a basic skill challenge for him to harvest dragon claws and teeth.
    Second fight was in a village of my goblin/kobold hybrids. Because the rogue and ranger sneaked around to the rear, they destroyed the chieftan/spellcaster (lvl4 artillery) with a surprize round and their first actions. The only thing that poor chieftan got to shoot off was his mouth! The rest of the encounter had mobs of women & children running while 4 dragonborn zombies (2 lvl2 soldiers & 2 lvl2 skirmishers) briefly distracted the party, 8 lvl2 minions absorbed the warlock's Arms of Hadar (which also hit the zombies), and 2 lvl1 artilery shot at them. The women, children, and one archer escaped.
    Last encounter was a lvl4 brute Human Berserker, his 2 lvl2 skirmisher Human Bandits, and 2 lvl3 skirmisher beasts I made up called Dew-ah-ogs (ever hear a new yorker say "dog"?). This was the only encounter where I was able to drop a party member to 0, and threaten to kill him. And only because he failed 2 death saves.
    Not having a healer may slow down their progress between extended rests, but the damage they do drops monsters so fast that it's hard to say that this party is any less effective than a "well rounded" party. The only drawback they seem to have is that their area attacks are 1 encounter and 1 daily. And now there's a second encounter since the warlock made lvl3! The fights are short and brutal. To actually challenge the party, the encounters have to be at least +1 if not +2 levels.
     
  24. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Well, we have three games running at the momment.
    One is my all-striker party. (now 3rd level and still kicking posterior)
    One is 4 strikers and a pacifist cleric dedicated healer. (6th level and mulching mosters)
    and the last one (actually, the oldest one) is 'well rounded'. (level 14)

    So far, in spite of the lack of 'balance' the all-strikers aren't really suffering for what they lack.
     
  25. Katana_Geldar

    Katana_Geldar Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2003
    Not yet, anyway.
     
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