In which I experience D&D 4.0 hands on for the first time...
I got to play the opening act of Keep on the Shadowfell last night using the D&D 4.0 quickstart rules and some pre-genned characters and I am not dissapointed.
I can't speak much for it yet as last night's session consisted of two battles with marauding bands of Kobolds. D&D 4.0 has the new warband style of encounter which pitches you against different types of Kobold not just half a dozen 'kobolds with swords'. So we were up against a handful of mooks, two hardened warriors, a stealthy assassin type that kept dissapearing into the trees and a wizard. That said, inspite of all the kewel powerz flying about we still seemed to just stand toe-to-toe and roll D20 against AC or Reaction and do damage. Rinse. Repeat until all are dead - which took quite a while. Wether that was the GM's fault or the rules I'm not sure.
The powerz were fun though and it was just as entertaining reading the character sheets for the first ten minutes before the game started as it was actually playing. Our Halfling Rogue seemed to be able to stack his attacks into uber-damage which resulted in some pretty spectacular and explosive Kobold deaths. My DragonBorn Paladin on the other hand kept igniting his weapon into holy flaming light, bringing down the wrath of the heavens upon his holy marked infidel foe... and missing. That said, I do have dragon breath. That's just amazing. I've never had a character that could breath fire before and at 1st level too. Of course, being first level that was more like Godzuki than Smaug but, it was still freaking cool billowing a sheet of flame at my foes.
I'll probably have more to say once we've played a couple more sessions, but so far it feels as disconcertingly complex under the hood as 3.0 but with much funner 1st level characters.
I can't speak much for it yet as last night's session consisted of two battles with marauding bands of Kobolds. D&D 4.0 has the new warband style of encounter which pitches you against different types of Kobold not just half a dozen 'kobolds with swords'. So we were up against a handful of mooks, two hardened warriors, a stealthy assassin type that kept dissapearing into the trees and a wizard. That said, inspite of all the kewel powerz flying about we still seemed to just stand toe-to-toe and roll D20 against AC or Reaction and do damage. Rinse. Repeat until all are dead - which took quite a while. Wether that was the GM's fault or the rules I'm not sure.
The powerz were fun though and it was just as entertaining reading the character sheets for the first ten minutes before the game started as it was actually playing. Our Halfling Rogue seemed to be able to stack his attacks into uber-damage which resulted in some pretty spectacular and explosive Kobold deaths. My DragonBorn Paladin on the other hand kept igniting his weapon into holy flaming light, bringing down the wrath of the heavens upon his holy marked infidel foe... and missing. That said, I do have dragon breath. That's just amazing. I've never had a character that could breath fire before and at 1st level too. Of course, being first level that was more like Godzuki than Smaug but, it was still freaking cool billowing a sheet of flame at my foes.
I'll probably have more to say once we've played a couple more sessions, but so far it feels as disconcertingly complex under the hood as 3.0 but with much funner 1st level characters.