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!
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