Nice blow by blow description of a combat.
It really doesn't feel like any level 1 combat did in any previous (A)D&D edition.
BTW: I noticed your party setup. If the Wizard multiclasses into Warlord you got the same classes as the group has in the latest D&D (video) podcast (but with other races)
I noticed a few things we stumbled over in our group, so I thought I'd point them out to you before your first real game.
We had some debate about whether this power counted as a "hit" for purposes of wounding a minion; we assumed it did.
It doesn't matter if cleave damage counted as a hit or not, minions are only immune to "misses", so any effect that does damage regardless of hit or miss kills them (like standing next to a "flaming sphere")
The 1d6 damage from the breath weapon seems a little low. We also debated whether it was better to have to roll to hit each enemy, or whether it should automatically hit.
It isn't that bad if you note that activating this thing is a minor action (so he still would have had his standard action), the attack is his best physical attribute+2 and the damage (and to hit bonus) scales at later tiers.
Cory would rather have everything hit or miss based on one die roll, but others pointed out that works both ways. If the party is up against a dragon, they're going to want their individual defenses to come into play.
If you really want to speed up area attacks just roll once and apply the hits to each defense. So if you roll a total of 17 everyone with the applicable defense 17 or lower would be hit, those with 18+ would be missed.
This way everyone still has his own defenses but you don't have to roll for everyone in the area (but would probably hit/miss all of them with especially good/bad rolls)
Rolling each attack balances this out nicely.
At least the damage is rolled only once and applied to all as applicable.
The goblin blackblade moves to face Haagalaz, shifts into position, drawing attack from the fighter, but both miss.
It isn't clear in the description, but if the Blackblade moved to engage the fighter he doesn't get an opportunity attack. As he only gets opportunity attacks on opponents adjacent to him that shift (or attack someone else), if the Blackblade had to close in he wouldn't be adjacent.
The paladin switches his challenge to one of the goblin cutters, closes with it,and hits with his holy strike, killing the minion.
As our paladin discovered... first attack your opponent, then (if he still stands) mark him - or another enemy if you kill your opponent.
Personally, I'd like to have seen a little more randomness to the effect; e.g. perhaps there's a variable teleport, or a possible downside to the curse (taking damage and teleporting). Unfortunately, 4E's stripped out a lot of these secondary, quirky mechanics
Why hassle a player with an ability that isn't sure to be activated anyway? If he doesn't want he doesn't have to teleport ("you can" not "you must")
Saves kind of still exist in 4E; if you're subject to an ongoing effect, you roll a d20; if you get higher than a 10, you succeed and the effect ends.
Little difference. It's 10 or more, not more than 10, so a save is a bit more than 50/50
There are bonuses to certain saves (Dwarves get +5 vs. poison, Eladrin +5 vs. Charm, ...), but overall they try to keep it easy to remember (10 is easer than 11) and simple (the same number for every save)
Thu, 06/19/2008 - 2:40pm
Nice blow by blow description of a combat.
It really doesn't feel like any level 1 combat did in any previous (A)D&D edition.
BTW: I noticed your party setup. If the Wizard multiclasses into Warlord you got the same classes as the group has in the latest D&D (video) podcast (but with other races)
I noticed a few things we stumbled over in our group, so I thought I'd point them out to you before your first real game.
It doesn't matter if cleave damage counted as a hit or not, minions are only immune to "misses", so any effect that does damage regardless of hit or miss kills them (like standing next to a "flaming sphere")
It isn't that bad if you note that activating this thing is a minor action (so he still would have had his standard action), the attack is his best physical attribute+2 and the damage (and to hit bonus) scales at later tiers.
If you really want to speed up area attacks just roll once and apply the hits to each defense. So if you roll a total of 17 everyone with the applicable defense 17 or lower would be hit, those with 18+ would be missed.
This way everyone still has his own defenses but you don't have to roll for everyone in the area (but would probably hit/miss all of them with especially good/bad rolls)
Rolling each attack balances this out nicely.
At least the damage is rolled only once and applied to all as applicable.
It isn't clear in the description, but if the Blackblade moved to engage the fighter he doesn't get an opportunity attack. As he only gets opportunity attacks on opponents adjacent to him that shift (or attack someone else), if the Blackblade had to close in he wouldn't be adjacent.
As our paladin discovered... first attack your opponent, then (if he still stands) mark him - or another enemy if you kill your opponent.
Why hassle a player with an ability that isn't sure to be activated anyway? If he doesn't want he doesn't have to teleport ("you can" not "you must")
Little difference. It's 10 or more, not more than 10, so a save is a bit more than 50/50
There are bonuses to certain saves (Dwarves get +5 vs. poison, Eladrin +5 vs. Charm, ...), but overall they try to keep it easy to remember (10 is easer than 11) and simple (the same number for every save)
»