Dungeons & Dragons Through the Versions - Part 16

Although not technically a D&D product, Pathfinder RPG is based on D&D 3.5 with some minor differences. So, in essence, you can refer to this as a D&D 4E Alternative, or PFD&D. Either way it's essentially the same as D&D.

We sat down last weekend with two additional, more experienced, players who have had a go at Pathfinder in the past before moving on to D&D 5E. I gave the players several options for making characters but in the end they decided to remake past characters in the Pathfinder Chronicle world. We used 4d6 drop the lowest to roll stats (for those who did not have them already) and came up with the following characters:

• Elianna, female elven cleric 1 of Serenrae
• Ludo, male half-orc barbarian 1
• Axel Pine, male half-elf fey sorcerer 1
• "Frank", female human rogue 1
• Kruhnk, male half-orc barbarian 1

The party seems to have a slightly Chaotic edge to it, which it fine. The half-orcs are of average intelligence but everyone in the group has an 18-20 score in their prime stat!

We will be starting in Sandpoint, although I'm not sure if I want to go with a campaign route or a one-shot adventure from the Basic Box. The characters seem too unruly to be involved in a meaningful campaign arc, and everyone took combat-heavy options instead of role-playing options. I think the cave adventure from the Basic Box is the way to go!

As an alternative, I remade the characters from my 1st edition AD&D campaign in Pathfinder stats to give the players an idea of what changes happen between the editions. They looked them over but in the end decided to work with the new characters.

Dungeons & Dragons Through the Versions - Part 15

We began the next session where we had left off. The party was convalescing in the care of Sister Linora in the Temple of Avandra at Winterhaven. When they felt well enough to get up, the clergy urged them to be on their way (seeing as they were now broke - the kobolds fleeced them for all the remaining coins in their pockets and one item from each of their gear). The party set about exploring the town and we spent about an hour or so interacting with the NPCs at the inn, Lord Padraig, the shopkeep, and some lesser citizens and guards. They thanked the guards who found them in their hour of need and then set out on the road with a bounty for the kobold leaders from the Lord of the Manor.

I thought things were turning around. The party was hale and hearty again and ready to pick up where they left off, a little poorer but definitely wiser. In my innocence I neglected to alter the next encounter, thinking that the reduced numbers would produce a different outcome. Oh how wrong I was...

The second encounter occurs as the characters are leaving Winterhaven on their way to either the kobold lair at the waterfall or the dragon burial site. In either case they leave along the eastern road (and the map used is the same as for the first encounter). The perceptive elven ranger was not surprised again, but his companions WERE surprised! The kobold ambush began in earnest. This time they faced 3 kobold dragonshields, 1 kobold skirmisher, and a kobold wyrmpriest! No minions, but still outnumbered by the kobolds by almost 2:1. Keep this in mind because it is important to note.

The combat started off poorly, since the skirmisher was able to move up to the party and engage immediately. The ranger was first struck by his spear. The ranger struck well and was able to injure the kobold, but the amount of hit points possessed by these kobolds took the party by surprise. I had to explain that ALL creatures began with increased hit points now, not just the party, and that the only pushovers were minions. In hindsight, I should have removed 2 dragonshields and replaced them with 2 minions...

Then the dragonshields moved into position by charging and struck blows on the warlord and the ranger. Things were already looking grim. When the wyrmpriest emerged and cast his acid orb at the wizard, everyone groaned. Luckily he missed on this first attack! Once surprise was over, the party kicked it into high gear, attempting to take out the kobolds as quickly as possible. However, for each strike they landed, the kobolds were able to land 2 (since they were outnumbered). It took many rounds to finish off the skirmisher, but the dragonshields were proving almost impossible for the party to hit. Their armor was just too good. Then the wymrpriest used his divine favor to bolster the kobolds with 5 temporary hp and things went downhill. The wizard learned that her scorching burst had no effect because the dragonshields had resist fire 5, something that the ranger player thought overpowering for 1st level creatures (and I would agree).

The party used good tactics and they were blowing through daily and encounter powers but they just were not able to defeat those dragonshields. They began to retreat, with the eladrin wizard using her fey step to hide behind a large boulder. This allowed her to effectively leave danger and remain undetected for a little while to gain her Second Wind. The others were less successful in disengaging from the 3 dragonshields who pressed the attack and dropped the ranger. The warlord hung in there another few rounds and managed to drop one dragonshield with his daily power, but the damage was already done and he too fell shortly thereafter. The wyrmpriest pursued the wizard until she conjured a flaming sphere on his scaly ass and made it pursue him as he fled. She then managed to use First Aid on one of her fallen comrades as the other dragonshields also fled to assist their wyrmpriest. The wyrmpriest was killed but the dragonshields remained and the wizard knew she could not hold out against them....

The players pulled the plug! They basically said they were done with this edition. I don't blame them. It was an exercise in futility. The amount of time and effort that went into the play and preparation of their characters was not worth the beat down they received each and every encounter. Although they were a party of fewer than the recommended average of 5 characters, the scenario just seemed brutal to initiate characters, especially played by people new to the system! The advantages held by the kobolds (especially mob attack and the dragonshields' fire resist) far outweigh any advantages of the character races. Kobolds should not be able to take out a well-rounded party of any size as easily as these kobolds did!

Our assessment of the 4th edition D&D system is that it's not worth playing. Perhaps in a larger group of more experienced players the situations would have gone differently. It's interesting to note that, despite changing out my dice from last week, I was still able to hit almost every single time while the players were unable to do the same. Had I modified the encounter numbers I doubt that the outcome would have been any different. I even decided to grant them the XP from the 5 minions that they managed to defeat last week, and this was insufficient to get them a level. I assumed that less of an XP split would mean faster advancement - this was a bad assumption on my part. I also assumed that the second encounter would be slightly easier due to the lower numbers of opponents, but these kobolds were jacked up! In other editions, such creatures would have been defeated after maybe 3-4 rounds maximum, but each encounter with kobolds in 4th edition took almost the entire game session! There's no way they would have survived an attack on the lair given the number of kobolds involved in that encounter. And the encounter at the dragon burial site would have done little more than add their bones to the pile.

Therefore, this edition is done and we're moving on. I gave the players a choice; either we move on to 5th edition D&D or the alternative to 4th Edition D&D known as Pathfinder. They opted for Pathfinder, so I've been reading up on the changes made to that system from D&D 3.5. Interestingly, the changes are not that drastic, but they are subtle enough to make a difference in the way the game is played. The options are immense - we're gonna stick to the Core Rules for this experiment. I'm going to give them several options in creating characters. They can either re-create beloved characters of the past in this system, or create all-new characters for use. I'm hoping that their experience with D&D 3.5 will allow the character creation to go faster. Not sure that I want to use Golarion for the campaign setting. I have only the Rise of the Runelords adventure arc and the basic box adventure to use. I'm leaning towards using the basic box, but not sure I want to use the basic characters. It seems like a waste of time to just jump in and explore only the mechanics of the basic classes and races when there are so many options open to them. Their usual characters in my AD&D campaign are a druid, wizard, and ranger with a fighter NPC henchman. This would be the optimal mix for Pathfinder, since 4 characters is the recommended quantity. I'm just not sure I want to run an NPC for the group, although I could let the wizard player run him since it is HER henchman after all. guess we'll find out next weekend!

Dungeons & Dragons Through the Versions - Part 14

Well, we finally took the plunge into that version of D&D that made me jump off the treadmill screaming..... 4th edition!

I was reticent to even buy these books. I opted for only the hard copies of the core rules (PHB, DMG, MM) and then went to the digital sources for adventures (H1: Keep on the Shadowfell). My first read-through left me thoroughly confused. Everyone has powers? Spells are powers? Magic Missile can be cast AT WILL?!?!? There are no druids? What the hell is a warlord? Dragonborn?!? What have I gotten myself into???

In the spirit of showing the players what they are missing (or not missing as the case may be) we sat down to generate characters. The first question that came out of their mouths, "What do you mean we won't need dice to generate characters??" Yep, that's right, using the character ability score array from the book, the players set about placing their ability scores. The order of the scores changed to reflect their use as "defenses." They chose their races (thankfully no dragonborn) and proceeded to select their classes. I ended up with the following:

• Elianna, female eladrin wizard
• Lukus Ironwill, male human warlord
• Katar Silvercloud, male elf ranger

The only strangeness came with trying to explain the abilities of these races. Some of the abilities were listed as if they were powers, and the players were confused as to when and how they could be used with their other powers. They were very happy with their hit points totals since they were universally above 20 for first level. I told them that it was all relative and that the monsters were boosted as well.

It took HOURS to go over the choices they had, explaining how it all worked, and getting through option choices based on other choices they made. In the end, the warlord became a Tactician, the wizard a War Wizard, and the ranger a Two-Blade style ranger. The first session ended with only a bare framework of a character. I assigned "homework" for the players to read up on their character choices so that they understood them, and make a list of questions to ask the DM for the next session. Notably, no one rolled a single die the whole night!

The following week we tackled feats, skills, finalizing powers and choices, then buying equipment. They pointed out the lack of lantern oil and sacks in the rulebook. I did some investigation and found these items in later errata and sourcebooks online. I then had to explain how implements worked for the wizard and then go over all the errata for the powers they had selected. The second week left me feeling rather insecure about trying to run this since the amount of options open to the party was immense! I told them to read up on these new choices.

The week after that we sat down for our first actual playing session. The players had made their own combat power cards for their relevant abilities, listing all the info from the books. I was so proud! They also proved to have read the combat chapter, so I was not gonna tackle this alone.

We spent about 1-1/2 hours going over the details and fine points before beginning the first encounter. In the module, the first encounter is a kobold ambush along the road to Winterhaven. The ranger has a passive Perception of 19 so the kobolds never really had much of a chance to surprise anyone (especially since the module breaks the chance of surprise by having the minions scamper among the rocks). I had spent about 4 hours before the session drawing the maps of the first few encounter areas and the town of Winterhaven on Game Table. The players were duly impressed with the scene before them, and somewhat disheartened by the number of opponents they faced. Things got even worse when I rolled initiative for the kobolds and they beat everyone else. The minions moved in first (as described in the tactics) and engaged the group. The ranger, thinking himself smugly competent, used his Dire Wolverine Strike and managed to miss all 3 kobold minions surrounding him! Regrettably, the kobolds did NOT miss him! The slinger was abusing the wizard from the get go, and she returned the complement with a few magic missiles. The warlord tried very hard to get into the battle but kept thinking that all his powers only allowed OTHERS to do stuff, and that he couldn't use them and still attack (spent about 20 minutes trying to explain that was not the case with ALL of the powers). When the kobold dragonshields finally emerged from hiding, the party let out a collective groan, especially when I hit with them every single roll and the party missed on almost every single roll. The sligers managed to hit the ranger with his fire pot, then glued the wizard in place with a glue pot. This kept her from later using her Scorching Burst for fear of catching herself or her allies in the burst as well.

The party ended up using all their action points, encounter powers, daily powers, and racial powers and still the kobolds dropped them all. After a long night of explaining rules and how the system worked, it all came down to the fact that my dice were hot and no one else could hit the high AC of the dragonshields. We ended early for Daylight Savings, but the mood in the party was grim. We had spent 2 sessions making these god-awful complicated characters and they were felled in their first encounter by a group of 8 kobolds. Oh how the bards would laugh at them!

Things we learned:

1. Monsters are no joke in this edition. Even the lowly kobold has a plethora of abilities to use tactically on the play map.
2. When a party is outnumbered more than 2:1, retreat should be foremost in your mind, especially if they win the initiative.
3. Trying to escape from Shifty opponents is very difficult.
4. Wizards who marvel at being able to cast Magic Missile every round should instead be using area-of-effect powers like Scorching Burst to remove minions from the battle early.
5. Even though minions have but 1 hp, they still hit like a full hp tank when the DM's dice are hot!
6. High Reflex defense is essential against spellcasters.
7. Warlords are great in a large party - they are a poor tanking substitute in a small party.
8. The recommended party size is 5 players, we had only 3, so NPCs or encounter adjustments are probably required.

The session was still exciting to play. The players marveled at all their strange abilities and saw how utterly ridiculous it would be at higher levels to keep track of all they could do. Luckily we had no magic items in the group so I have yet to explain how daily abilities work with those. We got to see everything from Shifting in combat, to use of healing surges, and the death and dying rules. We dealt with Ongoing damage and saving throws as well.

The general consensus was to reboot and try again. I opted to say that some scouts from Winterhaven heard the battle and drove off the wounded kobolds remaining, rescuing the party with First Aid (Heal) checks before they died. This way I progress them to Winterhaven where they will awaken in the care of Sister Linora. From here they can interact with the townsfolk and learn more about the fate of Douven Stahl (leading them to the dragon's  graveyard and the second kobold ambush). No XP was gained by the characters since they failed in their first encounter. This may hurt them down the road.

Dungeons & Dragons Through the Versions: Part 13

Well, that's ominous - the 13th posting on this topic.... As I mentioned in my previous posts, the 2nd edition playtest went very poorly and we opted to bail shortly after play began. I don't know if it was a failing of the system so much as an unwillingness to play in the Forgotten Realms or an Ed Greenwood module. In any case it bombed and we moved on after 2 sessions.

On to D&D 3.5! The players were semi-experienced in this system. Two of them had played it before for a few weeks before life cancelled that project. The other was introduced via the Basic Game Boxed Set one evening. None of them had played it very long and only had an inkling of what to expect. We spent 2 whole sessions making characters. The first was the basics and number crunching; the second was checking their numbers and finalizing choices as well as introducing them to the campaign setting, my own campaign world of Talasia.

The group formed well from the get go. We had a half-orc barbarian named Orsha whose 19 Strength was ridiculously high. The elven cleric Elania naturally had an 18 in Wisdom and some other nice stats. Lastly, the half-elven sorcerer Axel Pine maxed out his Dexterity and Charisma as best he could and opted for leather armor despite not having any proficiency with it. I explained the part about spell failure while wearing armor and he was OK with the 10%.

I started them in an alternate reality version of my campaign set about 5 years after the events in my campaign (which was based in 2nd then 3rd edition, ending sometime in 2008). The heroes were based in the town of Korbal, last bastion of hope in the beleaguered northeastern Sturmgard Forest. They would be accompanied by a 1st level human ranger named Morten, originally a forester whose family was slain by marauding orcs. He convinced the others to join him in seeking vengeance against the orcs and slaying those that remained in his former home. The party equipped itself then headed east.

I tested the waters with a few example combats including a couple of wolves, a goblin ambush, and the site of a recent battle where skeletons had been animated by a roaming hobgoblin necromancer. They found only little treasure but I was able to explain how skills are used, the idea behind attacks of opportunity, the concept of stacking bonuses, and how spells work in this edition for non-Vancian spell casters. The players had a good time and marvelled at the number of hit points they had to start. Even so, once the party made it to the ruined house in the woods, I was able to take the barbarian to zero hit points rather quickly and the archer ranger was also severely wounded. The sorcerer and cleric held their own and saved the other two before they wisely retreated to an old barn several hundred yards away. They spent the night in the old barn, sharing the space with a barn owl (who would have made a cool familiar, but the sorcerer was broke and could not afford the components). They defeated a small monstrous spider in the barn during the night (which failed to surprise the sorcerer on watch duty). In the morning they spent all their time healing before heading back to the town.

On their way back I rolled a random encounter with the hobgoblin necromancer and his 2 badly beaten zombie servants! They took the necromancer apart! He barely had a chance to cast some defensive spells before being overwhelmed. The zombies went down relatively easy as well. When they made it back to town I calculated XP and they ALL made 2nd level! That little confidence boost was what they needed to return to the home in the woods and slay the remaining 6 orcs hiding in the root cellar (with one guard up top during daylight hours). They easily defeated the orcs and took what they could back to town to sell. They made some good coin, had a fun time playing the game, and really were amazed at the complexity (yet simplicity) of the system. It helped that I know how to run this edition since I ran several 3.5 campaigns before giving it up and reverting back to 1st edition (my first love).

The only snag they found in the system was with the Heal skill which seemed rather useless for a cleric to take (and I agree). In order to use the long-term care feature, one must have a healer's kit which has only a limited number of uses and costs 50 gp! They assumed that it would be able to get them hit points back immediately instead of increasing their natural healing only slightly. I decided to end this test on a high note (especially since the last two edition runs went poorly at the end). All told we played 3.5 a total of 5 sessions (2 to make the characters, one to get the basics of combat down, one to get beaten by the orcs and bed down in the barn, and one to encounter the necromancer and return to slay the orcs).

I tried to explain how the higher levels worked and the addition of feats and skill points. I also gave them a long explanation of how multi-classing worked before they chose their 2nd level. No one opted to multi-class thankfully, which helped them out tremendously! Since most of the terms were the same as previous editions they were able to assimilate the new information much easier. I tried to explain how XP awards were based on the encounter now, not so much the individual monsters, although that did play into it, and that treasure counted for no XP. They questioned why they would even bother collecting treasure, so I had to let them know that magic items could be created by the characters now (whereas that was frowned upon in previous editions, but not totally out of the question).

All in all, D&D 3.5 went well and we may revisit this in the future. I would LOVE to run one of the adventure arcs for them so that they can get an idea of how the system holds up through level 20. We also were unable to get into character as much as in previous versions since their attention was focused more on the digital map, counter positions, and all their abilities they had to remember.