D&D on Saturday
So, Fred ran a truly kicking conclusion to season 1 of his game yesterday, with our headquarters getting blown up, big plot reveals and all the other things that you might want to expect. One of the most notable things about the game is that we managed to include one of the players remotely. He's in NYC, but we set up video chat with the camera in position so he could see the maps decently well. It called for a little flex since he couldn't always count the squares precisely, but all in all it worked out very well. (For the curious, it was done on my Macbook pro, using the built in camera, speakers and mic. We started out using Skype, but it got disconnected every 20 minutes (presumably by his cable company) so we switch to google video and had no further problems.
The game itself was for 5 level 8 characters: Human Paladin of the Raven Queen, Human Cleric of Erathis, Dwarf Melee Ranger, Dragonborn Inspirational Warlord and Elf Artful Dodger Rogue. The characters in the game are the city watch for the non-giant population in the last bastion of hope and civilization against the encroaching darkness. Big things are going on, but for this part of the arc, we've been finding out about them, and cleaning up messes.
Play began with all hell breaking loose. A pair of hill giants carried off another member of the watch (Our Genasi Swordmage, whose player was not present) as the forces of darkness attacked, and we had individual scenes of dealing with the problems this was causing in the city, including seeing the Hill Giants. We gathered forces back at HQ jut in time for it to get blown up and for unpleasant things to come out.
First fight went pretty well for us. A big tentacle thing back by a trio of couple Shadar Kai chainfighters, two Shadow Shapers and a stack of minions. The minions got mostly cleared by the Dragonborn, and the fight was in large part colored by the fact that the big bad has threatening reach 4. Our Ranger's mobility helped him get behind it, and while the chainfighter's cause some trouble for us with their movement abilities, they weren't to much of a problem. I (the rogue) had to slip into the backfield to engage the shapers, and that kind of sucked. Their baseline attack does 2d6+5 o a hit an d8 on a miss. They never hit me once, but I got absolutely mauled all the same. This is one of those critters from an RPGA product, and I know that it's all supposed to be equally well vetted, but I admit that something like this makes me question that a bit.
After the fight, we talked to some folks and found out what the issue was our Genasi friend was not a Genasi at all, but an infant Storm Giant, daughter of the one who ruled the city and was right this minute fighting a horde of shadow dragons high overhead. The giants had no doubt come to take her to safety, since she was technically heir.
We were a little suspicious of this, so we set off after our captured compatriot, and encountered some trouble along the way. We came across a crowd running from a Hill Giant, one of the same Hill Giants that had captured the heir. However, this giant looked like the back of its head had been cracked open, and something unpleasantly tentacled was riding its head with tentacles going into the brain.
That fight was brutal, since both the giant and the thing controlling it (a modded Grell) were 5 levels up on us, and the giant's height made it rough to hit the grell, since the Cleric and I were the only ones with any range capability. Despite that, the fight ended up going awesomely because of two things: first, our paladin got every condition imaginable and just could not save, so he was at one point slowed, weakened, dazed and attacking targets at random. Even better, when the giant got knocked prone (thank you Command), the Grell disengaged and started levitating away. The Ranger jumped on the giants head to use as a platform to try to hit the grell from when it stood up, and the warlord jumped onto the grell, and tried to pull it to the ground. He was not terribly successful, only getting it halfway down before it shook him off, leaving him dangling in the air, holding onto one of the tentacles, but we managed to drop it, and the Warlord still had a few hit points by the end.
The giant recovered, though it was clearly addled, and we got a little bit more information about what was going on, and continued our pursuit. The last fight was in the chamber where the had the heir strapped to a table and were making preparations to transplant the brain from an armored brain in a jar into her. We bollixed that up properly, but the fight was rough. The bad guys had a shadow troll (elite brute) whose damage output was HUGE, and combined with the GM profoundly outcritting us, managed to take down the Paladin late in the fight. Thankfully, we got him back up immediately (the joy of two leaders in the party) and managed to polish it off. The Paladin really shone for that fight, primarily as a damage sink - most everyone else stayed pretty healthy because he did such a good job drawing fire. That said, the Cleric also really shone for this one, specifically on the buffing side.
One of the nastier bad guys made a run for it, and we ran him down hard, leading fred to observe "This is why you guys have no recurring villains". We were ok with that.
In the end, we rescued the heir and the assault was driven off, but the giants were going to counterattack, so the game ended with the giants leaving the city in formation, leaving the heir (and by extension, us) in charge. Fred's kid is due in the next few weeks, so this was the start of a multi-month hiatus, and when we pick up again it will be in the low Paragon levels, with the game focus shifting to running the city.
Impressions
* Man, Paladin marking sucks. I mean, I knew this intellectually, but finally seeing it in action above 6th level? It's terrible. I sincerely hope Divine Power offers a fix. (For those who don't know, the problem is this. The paladin's mark is that hardest to place and maintain of all the defenders, and it has the least impact. If ignored, it inflicts penalty to hit, but other than that all it does is inflict a trivial amount of damage. The damage it deals basically is in keeping at first through third level, but not much beyond that. . Normal creatures can ignore it easily when needed, and elites and such can laugh it off.)
* Fred was going to do 1/2 hit points, but after discussing it, the Paladin's player suggested 2/3rds worked a little better. Fred had been concerned about the ranger and rogue one-shotting everything, so he went with that. We ended up not one-shotting anything but minions, but the fights still went pretty fast, so I'd say it worked.
* I finally got my character to exactly the super twinky place I had been gaming for, basically twinking on the stealth rules to be able to do pop-up attacks (pop out from hiding, throw a shuriken with sneak attack dice, pop back into hiding) and it is tactically very potent, but it is also really, really boring. I need to look at paragon paths to see if something excites me because otherwise, as much as I like this character, I'm a little worried he may be finished in my mind.
* Command is an awesome spell. It got used in every encounter, and in each encounter the ability to knock the target prone was the important effect. Leaves me all the more boggled by the monk (who has an at-will knock prone attack)
* Did I mention that level 6 artillery who do d8 damage on a miss with their primary attack are crap? Just wanted to reiterate that one.
* I was reminded of how essential magic items are. Not for the damage or advantage they bring but for the ability to offer you additional things you can do. I was kitted up entirely in generic +2s, and I was definitely feeling the lack.
* Our Ranger is the fastest Dwarf alive.
* We got some decent stunting in this time, and it went pretty darn well. I was a little sad that there was really now way I could drive a charging oxen towards the giant because doing so would have taken me out of the fight for 3 or 4 turns pretty easily, which we couldn't afford.
* I need to remember that everything can be pushed. I sometimes think of Bull Rush's specific limitations and forget that they apply only to Bull Rush.
* I need to double check that I am remembering all the rules for Backstab right.
The game itself was for 5 level 8 characters: Human Paladin of the Raven Queen, Human Cleric of Erathis, Dwarf Melee Ranger, Dragonborn Inspirational Warlord and Elf Artful Dodger Rogue. The characters in the game are the city watch for the non-giant population in the last bastion of hope and civilization against the encroaching darkness. Big things are going on, but for this part of the arc, we've been finding out about them, and cleaning up messes.
Play began with all hell breaking loose. A pair of hill giants carried off another member of the watch (Our Genasi Swordmage, whose player was not present) as the forces of darkness attacked, and we had individual scenes of dealing with the problems this was causing in the city, including seeing the Hill Giants. We gathered forces back at HQ jut in time for it to get blown up and for unpleasant things to come out.
First fight went pretty well for us. A big tentacle thing back by a trio of couple Shadar Kai chainfighters, two Shadow Shapers and a stack of minions. The minions got mostly cleared by the Dragonborn, and the fight was in large part colored by the fact that the big bad has threatening reach 4. Our Ranger's mobility helped him get behind it, and while the chainfighter's cause some trouble for us with their movement abilities, they weren't to much of a problem. I (the rogue) had to slip into the backfield to engage the shapers, and that kind of sucked. Their baseline attack does 2d6+5 o a hit an d8 on a miss. They never hit me once, but I got absolutely mauled all the same. This is one of those critters from an RPGA product, and I know that it's all supposed to be equally well vetted, but I admit that something like this makes me question that a bit.
After the fight, we talked to some folks and found out what the issue was our Genasi friend was not a Genasi at all, but an infant Storm Giant, daughter of the one who ruled the city and was right this minute fighting a horde of shadow dragons high overhead. The giants had no doubt come to take her to safety, since she was technically heir.
We were a little suspicious of this, so we set off after our captured compatriot, and encountered some trouble along the way. We came across a crowd running from a Hill Giant, one of the same Hill Giants that had captured the heir. However, this giant looked like the back of its head had been cracked open, and something unpleasantly tentacled was riding its head with tentacles going into the brain.
That fight was brutal, since both the giant and the thing controlling it (a modded Grell) were 5 levels up on us, and the giant's height made it rough to hit the grell, since the Cleric and I were the only ones with any range capability. Despite that, the fight ended up going awesomely because of two things: first, our paladin got every condition imaginable and just could not save, so he was at one point slowed, weakened, dazed and attacking targets at random. Even better, when the giant got knocked prone (thank you Command), the Grell disengaged and started levitating away. The Ranger jumped on the giants head to use as a platform to try to hit the grell from when it stood up, and the warlord jumped onto the grell, and tried to pull it to the ground. He was not terribly successful, only getting it halfway down before it shook him off, leaving him dangling in the air, holding onto one of the tentacles, but we managed to drop it, and the Warlord still had a few hit points by the end.
The giant recovered, though it was clearly addled, and we got a little bit more information about what was going on, and continued our pursuit. The last fight was in the chamber where the had the heir strapped to a table and were making preparations to transplant the brain from an armored brain in a jar into her. We bollixed that up properly, but the fight was rough. The bad guys had a shadow troll (elite brute) whose damage output was HUGE, and combined with the GM profoundly outcritting us, managed to take down the Paladin late in the fight. Thankfully, we got him back up immediately (the joy of two leaders in the party) and managed to polish it off. The Paladin really shone for that fight, primarily as a damage sink - most everyone else stayed pretty healthy because he did such a good job drawing fire. That said, the Cleric also really shone for this one, specifically on the buffing side.
One of the nastier bad guys made a run for it, and we ran him down hard, leading fred to observe "This is why you guys have no recurring villains". We were ok with that.
In the end, we rescued the heir and the assault was driven off, but the giants were going to counterattack, so the game ended with the giants leaving the city in formation, leaving the heir (and by extension, us) in charge. Fred's kid is due in the next few weeks, so this was the start of a multi-month hiatus, and when we pick up again it will be in the low Paragon levels, with the game focus shifting to running the city.
Impressions
* Man, Paladin marking sucks. I mean, I knew this intellectually, but finally seeing it in action above 6th level? It's terrible. I sincerely hope Divine Power offers a fix. (For those who don't know, the problem is this. The paladin's mark is that hardest to place and maintain of all the defenders, and it has the least impact. If ignored, it inflicts penalty to hit, but other than that all it does is inflict a trivial amount of damage. The damage it deals basically is in keeping at first through third level, but not much beyond that. . Normal creatures can ignore it easily when needed, and elites and such can laugh it off.)
* Fred was going to do 1/2 hit points, but after discussing it, the Paladin's player suggested 2/3rds worked a little better. Fred had been concerned about the ranger and rogue one-shotting everything, so he went with that. We ended up not one-shotting anything but minions, but the fights still went pretty fast, so I'd say it worked.
* I finally got my character to exactly the super twinky place I had been gaming for, basically twinking on the stealth rules to be able to do pop-up attacks (pop out from hiding, throw a shuriken with sneak attack dice, pop back into hiding) and it is tactically very potent, but it is also really, really boring. I need to look at paragon paths to see if something excites me because otherwise, as much as I like this character, I'm a little worried he may be finished in my mind.
* Command is an awesome spell. It got used in every encounter, and in each encounter the ability to knock the target prone was the important effect. Leaves me all the more boggled by the monk (who has an at-will knock prone attack)
* Did I mention that level 6 artillery who do d8 damage on a miss with their primary attack are crap? Just wanted to reiterate that one.
* I was reminded of how essential magic items are. Not for the damage or advantage they bring but for the ability to offer you additional things you can do. I was kitted up entirely in generic +2s, and I was definitely feeling the lack.
* Our Ranger is the fastest Dwarf alive.
* We got some decent stunting in this time, and it went pretty darn well. I was a little sad that there was really now way I could drive a charging oxen towards the giant because doing so would have taken me out of the fight for 3 or 4 turns pretty easily, which we couldn't afford.
* I need to remember that everything can be pushed. I sometimes think of Bull Rush's specific limitations and forget that they apply only to Bull Rush.
* I need to double check that I am remembering all the rules for Backstab right.