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Matthew M Monin
United States
Branford
Connecticut
8/8 FREE, PROTECTED
513ers Assemble!
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Backstory - I'd been dying to play some 4e, however I've recently had a kid and the people I used to roleplay with in the area had likewise gotten real jobs and the real world (read: no time) schedules that go with them. So I got creative and lured one of my good friend's kids into making some characters. That was enough to get them asking their dad when they could play D&D and when school was let out for the summer he acquiesced. So now Wednesdays are D&D night.
Here are the characters:
Zoe - Elf Archer Ranger (played by 10yo Rose)
Aleenah - Eladrin Wizard (played by 6yo Ella)
Fargrim - Dwarf Paladin (played by 34yo Nick)
First, a couple general points. My only 4e experience prior to this was playing in a single level 5 Dungeon Delve. However I've been voraciously reading the books, reading blogs, and listening to podcasts about the system since it came out last year.
I was initially worried about running a game with only three characters, as obviously we'd be missing one role. I intentionally opted to create a Paladin for Nick because it covers a little bit of Defender and Leader - the roles missing after the girls made the characters they wanted. Now that we have several adventures under our belts I think it works really really well with only three PCs - the downtime in combat is much smaller with fewer players around the table (as well as having fewer creatures needed to threaten them appropriately), and the missing role and reduced number of adventurers puts a lot of delicious tension in each battle that I didn't really feel in the Delve. With no true Leader, each hit becomes a lot more meaningful, and the Paladin has had to carefully balance being close to the action to keep his Divine Challenge engaged while being far enough back to be able to Lay Hands on the two ranged characters should things get dicey.
Alright...onto today's Big Fight. The story so far has seen the three PCs escorting a minor Eladrin noble's daughter to the Dwarf kingdom where she is (much to her chagrin) be wed to a minor Dwarf prince. Having a wedding be at the center of the first quest was an adventure hook that I hoped would keep the girls interested and engaged while we all felt our way through the system. Little did I know how quickly they'd take to the hack-and-slash aspects! Part way through the first ever encounter (ambushed by kolbolds, of course) Ella remarked about how much she liked the game! And Rose relished in her character's resemblence (in ability) to Legolas. And both girls liked how much more damage they could do compared to their dad  So it was immediately a big hit.
Well, the crew had gotten past the kobolds, helped a small village with the young dragon that was spurning the kobolds boldness, executed a skill challenge to motivate the villagers to rise up against the kobolds themselves (the girls' solution: put on a play depicting how easily they squashed the kobold ambush earlier in the day!), and survived a night encounter against a couple shadow hounds later on the trail, eventually making it to the dwarf stronghold with their newly gained Level 2 abilities. Ella actually expressed some regret that they'd reached their destination, assuming that it meant that the story was over. I had them fully hooked! I told her not to worry - you never know when more adventure is right around the corner!
It turned out that the Eladrin princess, already skeptical about marrying a guy she's never met and living underground for the rest of her life, had her worst nightmares exceeded when they finally met the prince she was to marry and he turned out to be a quite young and quite petulant spoiled brat! She went to go cry in her quarters and the PCs decided to have a chat with the prince about how he might change his behavior so that the princess might like him (skill challenge number 2).
They had just gotten through to the prince when a blood curdling scream came from the princess' quarters! The prince is the first to react and runs with surprising speed to save his fiancee. The PCs are quick to follow:
Round 1
Aleenah roles the highest initiative and is first to reach the door. Opting not to step into the entrance, she sees the prince lying on the ground just inside the doorway, unconscious with a bruise on his head. She communicates this to her compatriots.
Zoe is next to act and rushes through the entrance and sees the source of the screams - the princess has been grabbed by a zombie, which is dragging her back toward a freshly dug hole in the wall of the princess' bedroom! A kruthik, the likely source of the tunnel, is in the middle of the room standing on the princess' poster bed. A second zombie is in between the entrance and the princess' captor. And the ring-leader, a human bandit, has been holding his action right around the corner from the entrance - unfortunately for Zoe! WHACK! Zoe gets hit by a crit attack that also puts her in a daze, immediately ending her turn (as she just finished her move action).
Fargrim steps in and puts himself between the free zombie and the dazed Zoe, using Shielding Smite to bloody the zombie and boost Zoe's AC. The free zombie slams into Fargrim, somehow mustering enough force to get through his plate armor, while the other zombie struggles against the princess in trying to drag her towards the tunnel. The kruthik skitters across to the opposite side of the room and fires some toxic spikes but fails to penetrate either Fargrim's or Zoe's AC.
Round 2
Allenah rushes in and casts what has easily been her MVP spell of the series of adventures to this point - Sleep. As usual, she rolls amazingly well and manages to hit both zombies and the bandit (and the princess) with the full effect. As usual, I roll like crap on the saves and all four end up unconscious - however on the bandit's turn, before going night-night, he shifts back, away from the paladin and ranger and pulls out some kind of magic necromatic glass bauble - he smashes it at the ground between himself and the PCs just before passing out and up from the ground rise four decrepit skeleton minions.
Zoe shifts away from the wall of skeletons and decides to target the kruthik, the obvious big threat that is still awake. She does significant damage with her encounter power (Singular Shot), deciding to save her Hunt's End daily as a revenge hit against the bandit once she's got a clear shot. Fargrim likewise decides to ignore the skeletons in favor of the kruthik, issuing his Divine Challenge and hitting it with Radiant Delirium, putting a whole mess of status conditions on it.
The kruthik ends up taking the low hanging fruit (who also happen to be the closest to it) and ignores the Divine Challenge to launch toxic spikes at the wizard and ranger. Both get hit, both are bloodied, and both are taking on-going 5 poison damage with only about 10 hit points left. The skeletons then rush forward, engaging all 3 PCs in melee, but with only one hit actually getting through (on Zoe).
- Time for an aside - My idea behind this encounter was to finally put the archer ranger in a position of feeling in danger. Up to this point she had managed to remain almost entirely unscathed after five encounters due to her long range and the relatively wide-open encounter environments. So I wanted an encounter with a tightly confined space with LOTS of creatures on the board and a pressing need to get in there - like a princess being kidnapped through a tunnel. Check, check, and check! And after two rounds I was totally pleased with how it had been turning out. The ranger was scared for her life for the first time ever, and the situation looked dire, but was still totally manageable with some luck (which they already had in the form of the super-effective sleep spell), sound strategy, and the fact that all three PCs still had an Action Point to spend. Back to the game:
Round 3
Aleenah rightly decides that she needs to get to some relative safety. She's right near the door to the adjoining room belonging to the princess' handmaiden, so decides to take her Second Wind and chances an opportunity attack from the adjacent skeleton to make it through the door and bar herself inside. The +2 to defenses proves invaluable as the skeleton misses by one. However Aleenah doesn't manage to shake off the poison damage and remains in a dangerous situation.
The Bandit and the unhurt zombie wake up. The bloodied zombie remains in dream land.
Zoe shifts against the wall of the room and uses Twin Strike to lighten the pressure of all the minions clogging up the room, picking off two of the three that had followed her and Fargrim. She also takes the opportunity to down her Healing Potion to regain some much needed HP, but is also unable to shake off the Poison damage. Fargrim, however, uses his Divine Mettle to grant Zoe another save, this time with a hefty bonus which does allow her to overcome the ongoing damage. In the meantime, Fargrim shifts away from the skeleton to engage the kruthik in melee, using Enfeebling strike to keep its attack potential low.
The third skeleton moves into flanking position with the kruthik against Fargrim, and though both creatures manage to hit Fargrim, neither puts a significant dent in his HP total. The final skeleton tries, unsuccessfully, to break down the door Aleenah is hiding behind.
Round 4
Aleenah, despite being seriously depleted from all the poison damage, decides she needs to go out there and help her friends. Opening the door, she connects with a Ray of Frost to fell her skeleton pursuer. Stepping back into the master bedroom, she uses an action point to fire off Orbmaster's Incendiary Detonation in the opposite corner of the room, catching the sleeping zombie and the bandit in the blast, and getting some extra damage on top of it due to her Destructive Wizard feat.
The bandit, still feeling bold from only now having taken his first damage from the encounter, barks an order to the zombie that woke up to "get the girl and take her to the master" and then charges out of the fire to swing his mace at Zoe, hoping to finish her off. His swing connects, but it turns out only to be a glancing blow. His boast of "you can't stop us" ends up being the last words he speaks as Zoe makes the bandit her quarry, shifts back into the corner of the room, and fires a Hunt's End shot that does well over 30 damage. She caps off her turn by spending her action point to pick off the final skeleton and stick an arrow in the kruthik. Fargrim continues the punishment of the kruthik with another enfeebling strike. Bloodied, and with its trainer dead, the kruthik decides to scamper away with a double-move run through the tunnel it came from, never to be seen again.
Only the two zombies remain. With the princess still asleep, the awake zombie easily grabs her and starts dragging her towards the escape tunnel as ordered, making it just to the opening and threatening to slip through into darkness and gods know what else on the next turn.
The bloodied zombie continues to sleep in the fire.
Round 5
Aleenah uses her minor action to keep the fire going around the roasting zombie and staggers close enough to the other to Thunder Wave it away from the tunnel entrance, using a feat to expend her Fey Step in order to teleport the princess out of harm's way. Zoe and Fargim bat clean-up as Zoe crits the zombie in the corner for an insta-kill and Fargrim coup-de-graces the toasty zombie out of his misery. Fargrim is able to Lay Hands on Aleenah before she falls unconscious, and she finally makes her saving throw against the poison. Zoe finds quite a rich bounty on the body of the bandit, as well as a mysterious note, signed only with an "X", giving instructions for where to tunnel to get to the princess' chamber.
Who is this "X"? And what does he want with the princess? Should they risk following the tunnel to find some clues? These questions, and more, will be answered...in the next adventure.
In closing, D&D 4e has exceeded my expectations in terms of how kid friendly the system is. Granted, there are two adults at the table to help keep things focused, but both Rose and Ella feel empowered in making their own decisions and do so regularly. The powercard system makes it very easy for them to have a concrete idea about their capabilities, and often they take the initiative in expressing what they intend to do with their turn and only sometimes asking for tactical advice about how to attain their stated goals.
-MMM
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Kevin J
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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Octavian wrote: With no true Leader, each hit becomes a lot more meaningful, and the Paladin has had to carefully balance being close to the action to keep his Divine Challenge engaged while being far enough back to be able to Lay Hands on the two ranged characters should things get dicey.
One suggestion is that he could use a throwing hammer or handaxe for a weapon if he's using a shield, or otherwise have one in reserve. To maintain the Divine Challenge, the paladin must either end his turn next to the target, or attack it on his turn. Thus, he could throw his weapon for his standard action, and use his move and minor to go and heal anyone who needs it.
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Matthew M Monin
United States
Branford
Connecticut
8/8 FREE, PROTECTED
513ers Assemble!
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The Dwarf has some wildrunner boots so he will usually start with a melee attack against his mark and then disengage to get to the person who needs healing. The new Divine Sanction feature from Divine Power is going to help make him even stickier very soon.
-MMM
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Chris Tannhauser
United States
San Diego
California
Callisto 1 Mission Log, Day 3,125: I swear to god, if Logan does that spoon tapping thing again I will use it to dig his other eye out of his head. Also, the toilets stopped working sometime last month. Probably should've mentioned that first.
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DRINK UP, KIDS!
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Posted Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:38 am
