Tuesday, July 01, 2008

4th Edition Gameplay Round-up

Well we've run two sessions of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I admit I was skeptical (see below or here) but it's won a spot in my heart. The Wotc people did their homework. Carl was running the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. We mostly used the pre-gens.

Our initial party was played by just myself and Casey doubling up on characters. Casey had Chip - the pre-genned rouge and Dale - the pre-genned wizard. I was playing Zipper - the pre-gen fighter and Monty a warlord (self gen).

Warning if you are planning to play Keep on the Shadowfell spoilers may ensue!

The initial group ventured down the King's Road towards Winterhaven. We didn't even reach the place before being semi-ambushed by kobolds. Zipper charged right in and promptly became flanked, surrounded and in deep trouble. Luckily the warlord moved up to cover soon joined by the rogue. The kobolds did a good job shifting to keep the warlord and the rogue from using their tactics to end the fight in any hurry. The wizard did a stand up job with ranged firepower until the fighter could finish up.

Early thoughts here: geez, combat is brutal. Kobolds ain't wimpy anymore. Sure they outnumbered us a little but we had a couple one off minions in there too. Rule number one: don't run into battle on your own. Rule number two: second wind, and healing powers (ie warlord class power) are key to battle. PCs lose HP fast since enemies can go toe to toe. Rule number three: Like I said enemies aren't wimpy anymore, a 1st level kobold is equal to a 1st level PC.

The party managed to survive and make it to the town where they learn the basic lay of the land and take on the job of clearing out kobolds from town as well as find their lost mentor.

More to come from the 1st two sessions but must pack now...