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[JayDubya]

There are d12 one handed weapons?
wow... that seems... overpowered? I thought d12 was reserved for 2-handers. I hadn't really looked into weapons yet. Do decent 2handers start out at 2d8 or something?

It seems that way, but the key thing is actually the properties. 2 handers will always have more damage or more properties for what you're trading off. Different things have different value in the eyes of the game developers - reach and high crit and brutal are heavily valued, as well as the +3 prof bonus.

2H are going to have more overall assets than the 1H; Military more than Simple, and Superior will have more than Military.

In other words, if there is a +2 Prof, 1d10, Versatile standard military battleaxe, then the equivalent of 3.5's "Dwarven Waraxe" is going to be one die size of damage higher and otherwise the same.

Hell, I'll just text dump, and I'll skip the simple weapons - it's easier than explaining what I mean.


Military 1H Weapons

Battleaxe +2 1d10 — 15 gp 6 lb. Axe Versatile
Flail +2 1d10 — 10 gp 5 lb. Flail Versatile
Handaxe +2 1d6 5/10 5 gp 3 lb. Axe Off-hand, heavy thrown
Longsword +3 1d8 — 15 gp 4 lb. Heavy blade Versatile
Scimitar +2 1d8 — 10 gp 4 lb. Heavy blade High crit
Short sword +3 1d6 — 10 gp 2 lb. Light blade Off-hand
Throwing hammer +2 1d6 5/10 5 gp 2 lb. Hammer Off-hand, heavy thrown
Warhammer +2 1d10 — 15 gp 5 lb. Hammer Versatile
War pick +2 1d8 — 15 gp 6 lb. Pick High crit, versatile

Broadsword +2 d10 — 20 gp 5 lb. Heavy blade Versatile
Khopesh +2 d8 — 20 gp 8 lb. Axe, Brutal 1, versatile
heavy blade
Light war pick +2 d6 — 10 gp 4 lb. Pick High crit, off-hand
Scourge +2 d8 — 3 gp 2 lb. Flail Off-hand
Trident +2 d8 3/6 10 gp 4 lb. Spear Heavy thrown,



Military 2H Weapons

Falchion +3 2d4 — 25 gp 7 lb. Heavy blade High crit
Glaive +2 2d4 — 25 gp 10 lb. Heavy blade, polearm Reach
Greataxe +2 1d12 — 30 gp 12 lb. Axe High crit
Greatsword +3 1d10 — 30 gp 8 lb. Heavy blade —
Halberd +2 1d10 — 25 gp 12 lb. Axe, polearm Reach
Heavy flail +2 2d6 — 25 gp 10 lb. Flail —
Longspear +2 1d10 — 10 gp 9 lb. Polearm, spear Reach
Maul +2 2d6 — 30 gp 12 lb. Hammer —

Heavy war pick +2 d12 — 20 gp 8 lb. Pick High crit



Superior 1H Weapons

Bastard sword +3 1d10 — 30 gp 6 lb. Heavy blade Versatile
Katar +3 1d6 — 3 gp 1 lb. Light blade Off-hand, high crit
Rapier +3 1d8 — 25 gp 2 lb. Light blade —

Craghammer +2 d10 — 20 gp 6 lb. Hammer Brutal 2, versatile
Kukri +2 d6 — 10 gp 2 lb. Light blade Brutal 1, off-hand
Parrying dagger2 +2 d4 — 5 gp 1 lb. Light blade Defensive, off-hand
Spiked shield3 +2 d6 — 10 gp 7 lb. Light blade Off-hand
Tratnyr +2 d8 10/20 10 gp 5 lb. Spear Heavy thrown, versatile
Triple-headed flail +3 d10 — 15 gp 6 lb. Flail Versatile
Waraxe +2 d12 — 30 gp 10 lb. Axe Versatile



Superior 2H Weapons

Spiked chain +3 2d4 — 30 gp 10 lb. Flail Reach

Execution axe +2 d12 — 30 gp 14 lb. Axe Brutal 2, high crit
Fullblade +3 d12 — 30 gp 10 lb. Heavy blade High crit
Greatspear +3 d10 — 25 gp 8 lb. Polearm, spear Reach
Mordenkrad +2 2d6 — 30 gp 12 lb. Hammer Brutal 1

 

[slayn]

I take it the idea must be that superior weapons are then objectively better because you probably don't start off with the feats to be proficient with them?

 

[JayDubya]

I take it the idea must be that superior weapons are then objectively better because you probably don't start off with the feats to be proficient with them?

Precisely. They will have some extra property or extra damage that will make them feat-worthy.

The fullblade seems particularly awesome, though I'm not sure if it's unbalanced - for one thing, the fighter class has a wide array of powers that can only be used with certain weapon classes, or if you have a shield in hand, etc. You also have to get your Dex pretty high if you want to be an effective late-game swordsman - whereas hammers and axes require a higher Con, which is much more synergistic for your typical Fighter.

 

[slayn]

flails seem to sort of get screwed. A greatspear looks objectively better than a spiked chain at first glance. Especially when I sort of remember being most impressed with the feats for heavy blades and polearms.

Why would someone use a spiked chain?

 

[JayDubya]

flails seem to sort of get screwed. A greatspear looks objectively better than a spiked chain at first glance. Especially when I sort of remember being most impressed with the feats for heavy blades and polearms.

Why would someone use a spiked chain?

My guess would be that they value a [W] of 2-8 as much as they do one from 1-10. That's only a little bit off, as one has an average damage output of 5, the other 5.5. In any event, the main reason would be if you were a Fighter that liked the powers associated with the Flail Weapon Group rather than the powers associated with the Spear or Polearm group.

Take a look at the encounter powers for Fighter L3, L13, or L23, for example.

 

[slayn]

I imagine the difference in power could become not so little if you factor in crits that do stuff like 5w damage though.

Then its 40 damage vs 50. I certainly wouldn't call them the same...

It seems like spiked chain should have 1 more keyword on it to make it more versatile in terms of feat selection or something. Without looking at specific feats to see if it would be overpowered, maybe a spiked chain should count as like a heavy blade? That would make it unique in being the only reach heavy blade (glaive type) superior weapon. If not heavy blade then maybe light blade?

edit:
don't have the phb handy. I'll check out the powers after work.

 

[JayDubya]

I imagine the difference in power could become not so little if you factor in crits that do stuff like 5w damage though.

Then its 40 damage vs 50. I certainly wouldn't call them the same...

Let's go with the the Fighter's L29 Daily - No Mercy. 7[W] + Str damage.
Spiked Chain: 14-56 vs. Greatspear: 7-70.

I dunno, I usually just count the average damage as the most important factor, but you raise a point nevertheless - the high end powers can do 5[W]-7[W], so a difference of .5 comes out to being about 2.5-3.5 in that case. That's not huge, I suppose, but it's something.

Personally, I think I like the Flail powers a bit more than the Spear powers, but that's a matter of taste - they're distinctive but all reasonably good choices.

In general, flail seems to be most effective for the sword-and-board types; spear - their more aggressive counterparts. Flail powers seem to more damage and trip up the opponent, while the spear powers push the enemy around and focus on that reach element.

 

[slayn]

Perhaps the flail really is meant just for the fighter then. When looking at melee I've almost always been looking more at the tactical warlord whome I really, really liked the idea of having reach with and when looking at reach weapons for a warlord, heavy chain seems to be the bottom.

Whereas a fullblade would get you heavy bldae opportunity and great spear would get you polearm gamble. I remember being dissapointed that the only reach heavy blade was glaive which didn't look that great because I wanted a warlord using both of those feats at the same time along with something like wolfpack tactics or commander's strike.

A flail using fighter with a glaive using warlord standing directly behind him makes me smile.

 

[JayDubya]

A flail using fighter with a glaive using warlord standing directly behind him makes me smile.

I really want to see these guys finally get in a good formation; the polearm-based Cha Paladin with the (bastard) sword and board Warlord should be a very, very good combo, especially if said Warlord boosts her AC with some extra proficiencies.

And yeah, we have Gromm doing his axe-and-board thing, but he usually tanks by way of being 20 squares away from everyone else. :lol

Edit: Hey, did you guys notice that Clerics don't get Light Shield Proficiency? Because I sure didn't until now. And kaze's been playing a Cleric with a shield for months. :lol

Edit 2: Hey Spook.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1080296

Fighter's handbook - chockablock full of suggestions.

Seems to highly recommend this for your utility power, from Martial Power:

Pass Forward (Fighter Utility 2)
At-Will ✦ Martial
Move Action, Personal
Effect: You pick an adjacent enemy and move up to your speed. As long as you end this movement in a square adjacent to that enemy, your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from that enemy.

Really, just helps you position yourself; might be helpful with all these melee types and such. I guess the best thing about it is that it's an At-Will utility power, meaning it's practically a class feature instead of a power since you can use it every time you move.

As for your new L2 feat; I dunno, Shield Push, Armor Proficiency: Plate, or Toughness would all be solid choices. I know you have the PHB2 - Weapon Expertise gives you a +1 to hit with a particular weapon group, so that's really nice, too.

For Kethanel, Yield Ground as Utility 2 is easily the best choice; for feats, I'd consider, as I said, Lethal Hunter, Superior Weapon Prof. Greatbow, or maybe even Quickdraw if he's really keen on mixing melee and ranged.

* * *

Okay, I officially love the CO boards.

Paladin Handbook for you, chap.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1054956

Utility 2 isn't a fun level; Martyr's Blessing could be helpful, just not too often. Probably more than Astral Speech in this module, though.

For retraining, they heavily recommend Radiant Delirium as the Daily 1 du jour for a Cha Paladin.

And one more quick pointer, chap - don't forget that you can make Bloodied, intelligent foes surrender with a good Intimidate roll (well, realistically, you need to speak their language, too). It may help play up your role a bit as well - Paladins in 4th have lost quite a bit of their moral center, but as a holy knight of Pelor, you probably should remember that some evil can be redeemed; or at least, brought to justice without summary execution. I'll be sure to pass that advice on to kaze as well.

Ricdak will want Shield. For his new feat, I'd recommend Improved Initiative, or maybe Jack of all Trades, or Sneak of Shadows if that's still what he's thinking. He does seem to like fire damage, so if his cha's high enough Astral Fire, maybe.

Triese will likely be picking up Inspired Belligerence as her Utility 2; maybe Improved Inspiring Word, Inspired Defense, Saving Inspiration, Weapon Expertise, or Heavy Shield Prof. as her feat. Up to her.

 

[JayDubya]

For a bump, rather than a PM everyone individually thing; most of you have the PHB2. I will have it in hand later today. In said PHB2, they go into some information on character backgrounds (they're already standard in Forgotten Realms and Dragon magazine's Scales of War campaign).

They usually provide some minimal mechanical benefit, but I think going forward, it might not hurt to go through those and think about that sort of thing, if even on a very broad or superficial level, because it could help invest your characters with a bit more personality.

What do y'all think? Now'd be a good time to do it, too, as you're levelling up now, and a different option on your class skill list might be something you'd want to retrain into, or whatever. Or maybe one of you wants to have a history of being a blacksmith (there's some modest rules for that, now, as well).

It doesn't have to be complex.

Example Questions: (paraphrased from PHB2)
What sort of geographic environment did your character grow up in (including urban)?
What's the social / economic standing of your character amongst his people?
Before becoming the sort of person that would go on quests and adventures, did your character have a different occupation?
How important is racial / cultural background to your character (and if important, how does that element define your character)?

The possible results are also in PHB2, and for another example of such a thing, you could look at this document from Scales of War: http://www.wizards.com/files/366_Characters_of_War.pdf

 

[Davidion]

I'm going to tack on the Eldritch Harlequin background to my character just for the minor skill bonuses. It's a natch fit for my actual character background anyhow.

 

[JayDubya]

I'm going to tack on the Eldritch Harlequin background to my character just for the minor skill bonuses. It's a natch fit for my actual character background anyhow.

Fine by me.

 

[Davidion]

Fine by me.

Ugh, I'm itching to get started playing and start some shit. It's been way too long.

 

[JayDubya]

Ugh, I'm itching to get started playing and start some shit. It's been way too long.

When was the last time you played, by the way?

 

[Davidion]

When was the last time you played, by the way?

200...4,5? :lol :lol

It was ages ago. I've been out of it ever since I came out of unemployment and got a job. :lol

 

[JayDubya]

So... Davidion got banned, but he was supposed to join us on Sunday. So. Ideas? We could just post some kind of contact info for the game here.

Wait... I think you have to be logged in to read anything in Online / Matchup.

Grr. I know he was setup on Tokbox, so there's still a chance.

 

[slayn]

ask an admin for his email address?

 

[JayDubya]

ask an admin for his email address?

Might work / might not. Depends; if he didn't make it public the mods might presume he didn't make it public for a reason, and revealing it may violated the TOS for the site. Not sure, really.

 

[slayn]

Worth a shot right? If I was a mod even a cursory glance at this page would convince me to give it out since its clear he wants to be able to communicate with you.

At worst, tell a mod/admin to email him your email address without revealing his, that way you are giving permission to give out your email.

 

[JayDubya]

Okay, so contact has been achieved.

a) What time are we playing tomorrow?

b) Davidion was still planning on making that thread we talked about - do we want to invite more of GAF to join us, or is this inn at capacity? The module is written for 5 - we have 6. I could "adjust up" to an extent - I do have a Monster Manual and a DMG, afterall. I don't know how many people would actually be up for the early Sunday morning game. :lol

It actually works kind of okay for me since I have to be up early on Monday.

 

[slayn]

trip report time.

We had left off after the ambush on our way to the kobold lair

encounter outside the lair
we started in a clearing. I used stealth to move through the trees to get a view of the enemy positions. We saw the magic circle and figured out it gave an attack bonus. Based on positioning, we decided to swing around down to the corner by the waterfall while behind the trees to try and take out the skirmisher and ranged dude early on but things fell a apart a little when the paladin was forced to make a stealth check at -4. Even so, the wizard decided to drop her daily, the fire sphere, and we mopped this fight up taking next to no damage. Since we are ranged focused, we mostly sniped them from the trees and the paladin and warlord cleaned up anything that came near. The ranged kobold got away from us to warn irontooth. No idea if that actually did anything or if its just flavor.

inside the lair
tons of minions and skirmishers right at the start. The paladin and warlord (both dragonborn) immediately nuked the area with dragon breath killing 4 minions and then fell back into formation. I turned on my warlock daily armor of agathys (+13 temp hp and until the end of the encounter, all enemies that start next to me take d6+2 damage) and positioned myself to take out as many minions as possible. The paladin positioned himself to let him be surrounded and the minions and skirmishers gave him a bit of a beating but with a ranger, warlock, and wizard attacking them and the paladin burning his encounter powers we took them down without too much problem. All told it took about 3 rounds and irontooth hadn't yet shown up (seems weird, shouldn't he have heard the fighting and marched in on us right from the beginning?)

After that we glanced around the walls and saw the two dragonshields+slinger and irontooth. Paladin and Warlord took up positions to block a chokpoint in the cave to prevent the dragonshields and slinger to really get to us and the rest moved in behind them and prepared for irontooth's charge, which he did.

At this point the paladin pulled back to take on irontooth. The warlord was left to hold the chokepoint while being backed up by the wizard and ranger who were unleashing hell upon them.

I used eyebite to turn invisible against irontooth and moved in behind him to set up a flanking position with the paladin. The warlord with his backup was doing ok but the warlord was getting knocked around a lot and using all his healing on himself. The trio did eventually overcome them with the warlord barely hanging on.

Meanwhile, my warlock and the paladin proceeded to *rape* irontooth. At the start of his turn, he would take d6+2 damage from my armor. The paladin also hit him with his daily which damaged him every time he attacked on his turn until he saved he would take 1d8 damage. I was blasting him with d10+d6+4 damage from behind and if he wanted to take opportunity attacks against me he would take the divine challenge damage as well on top of being at a -2 from being marked. Looking back on it now, we cheated a tiny bit in that we thought the paladin daily would blast him on the opportunity attacks as well. We never actually got damage from that but it made the DM not take his opportunity attacks for fear of getting hit with d6+d8 just for an attempt at a -2 opportunity attack against the full health warlock who also had 13 temp hp. Irontooth saved out of the paladin daily after a couple of rounds anyway so we really only missed out on one potential attack against me and I had more hp than the pally.

The same round the paladin hit with his daily, I hit with witchfire which gave irontooth a -5 penalty to his attack rolls as well which basically gave us a breather round. As irontooth moved we shifted with him keeping him in this permanent flank of taking automatic damage every round and being fucked if he attacked someone other than the paladin.

The irontooth battle was a lot of fun and it was the first battle where we truly started coming up with some good tactical positioning and team power synnergy.

 

[JayDubya]

I think we should be the one using spoilers, though the fight we're about to have isn't in the book.

 

[slayn]

I was just using them for the benefit of anyone who reads the threads but isn't posting and hasn't yet played through keep, or something. I guess it is pretty silly :lol

 

[JayDubya]

So today we moved the plot along, but we had a lot of technical difficulties. Lots of kinks to be worked out. I think when they finally get the official D&D Game Table completed, it might well be worth a subscription for integrated VoiP / dice rolling / fog of war / character visualization and all that rot.

 

[slayn]

How did your team handle the irontooth fight? From reading it sounds like a lot of teams have tons of problems there and often get all killed.

 

[JayDubya]

How did your team handle the irontooth fight? From reading it sounds like a lot of teams have tons of problems there and often get all killed.

Well. It's a wonder it went as well as it did. Gromm went charging after the kobold wyrmpriest and around the corner for most of that fight. :lol

Triese did a one-two punch with action surge: Guarding Attack and Bastion of Defense - she crit on the second one I do believe. That was about half of Irontooth's HP right there, and the riders on those two attacks were a major boost.

 

[rSpooky]

Posting my log for the day.please don't mind misspellings.


Good game guys

Spoiler

We visted the wizard valverun the presient. asked about dreams and mirrors
clues point to the keep of the shadowfell there are disturbances there. perhaps a rift int he connection between the planes.

keep of the shadow became abandonded after its owner, sir keagan (paladin follower of bahamut) went mad. Killed his own wife kids and staff.

Perhaps we should check it out...

As we do research gromm meets up with triese in the inn. A shout from outside. A man (thomas) barely made it through the gate, bleeding. and keels over. After reviving he explain kobolds attacked him and his party . kobolds seems disorganised.

We sent keth ahead to scout for us.

Gather party and head out.

Keth finds the leftovers of a convoy, ravaged.. dead bodies and kobolds laying around. he presses on a bit more and sees somethign on the ground in the edge of the forest. When the rest of the group catches up we moved closer and the thing was a bunch of bodies

after moving forward some more we noticed a (hob) goblinwho says he was working for his master. selling /trading.(slaves)
triese gets very mad at the idea of slaves. the hobgob has his man bring one out.
gromm buys them off for 200 gold, and then have keth follow them

but a blue hairded guy jumped int he way and stalls them. Triese gets ansy and yells at the slavers to let the guy go, the guys passes, but gromm tells them to not come back in the region again. Fight ensues. we kill them .. gromm gets money back.
loot:
33gp
pot of healing, 35 gp

 

[JayDubya]

For your notes' sake, then:

Winterfell NPCs
Ernst Padraig - Lord Mayor (Triese's Uncle)
Susanna Wrafton - Innkeep
Sister Linora - Priestess of Avandra
Thair Coalstriker - Ye Olde Blacksmithe
Valthrun the Prescient - teh Wizord
Tomas - Caravan Guard (Gromm's CPR patient)

Incidentally, for clarification, the kobolds were what was left of Irontooth's band. They returned to the cave to find it ransacked and everyone dead. Leaderless and angry, they struck out violently, and took their victims to the slavers camped outside the Keep. Atna followed and picked them off (for the sake of my general sanity, we'll just say that's how he got to L2 and got much of his starting gold for this adventure), then followed the tracks back to the slavers. He was assessing how to take on such a large, well-trained group of soldiers when you all arrived. He was planning on jumping the captain from behind when you attacked, only you decided to pay the slavers' ransom instead. :lol

I did particularly love his moral justification - "Those kobolds would have just killed the villagers - we're providing a valuable service to you folks, here!"

Anyway, we'll make efforts to reduce technical difficulties next time.

* * *

Next item of business: do we wish to invite anyone else from GAF that wanted to play?

Hey Slayn, has your party talked with Valthrun yet? I think I was supposed to have him talk with the PCs before Irontooth. Whoops!


Oh my goodness.

Look what someone else has already done.

So much prettier than my scribblings on GameTable, and they have the rest of these files, too, shared.


I have to admit, I'm intimidated and out of my element here - I'm no digital artist for sure. I don't even know how to take a big map image, slap it down on MapTool, and apply fog of war... yet.

If anyone is good at this sort of thing, let me know. :lol

 

[slayn]

Hey Slayn, has your party talked with Valthrun yet? I think I was supposed to have him talk with the PCs before Irontooth. Whoops!

That the dude in the tower? I'm bad with names, here is the people we have talked to:

chick that runs the inn
guy in charge that wanted us to kill kobolds. Lord something.
dude in tower, wants us to find his friend, go to burial site place.
blacksmith
shop owner

we really spend a minimum of time with the npcs. none of us are actors/roleplayers/whatever. We play for the battle system and the exploration.

 

[slayn]

Hey jaydub, for the irontooth fight did you do anythign to make it easier for your guys?

After talking with my dm afterwards, I learned that it was normally a level 6 encounter and even experienced min/maxed characters are annihilated by it if the dm plays it straight. I guess he did some things to make it more beatable for us.

Apparently:
1. If the slinger outside gets away, irontooth and all the rest are supposed to start spawned instead of coming in after 3 turns
2. It sounds like technically the players shouldn't be able to take a short break inbetween the outside fight and the inside one?
3. When bloodied, irontooth has the potential to do something like 50 points of damage/round which can start dropping things fast.

Our DM had read beforehand that this fight is impossible without some concessions so for us even though the slinger got away, he still gave us the 3 round grace period before the 2nd wave showed up inside. He let us take a short break after the outside fight. And he took away irontooth's extra bloodied damage (this one he could have left in and we still would have been ok).

I think its the 3 round grace period that does it really. If you follow the rules, most players probably aren't going to drop the slinger before he can make a mad dash for the cave. And starting the inside battle with irontooth, the dragonshields, and the slinger active from the beginning sounds brutal.

 

[JayDubya]

Well, they shot down anyone before they got inside the cave for starters. And yeah, if you "aggro" the whole cave all at once, you've got a really big problem. You shouldn't allow the players a short rest, either - that's too much time. Irontooth would reasonably be expected to notice in five minutes that all his men outside are dead.

And then you get all of them pouring out of the cave all at once.

 

[slayn]

I guess it depends on when the dm decides to have the slinger run. When he's near death? After a few minions drop? The map is too small for the pcs to really have any warning that he's going to go warn irontooth since pretty much regardless of where he is he can make it one turn as soon as he decides its time to run.

How much movement does a slinger have? 6? So he could sprint 16 squares on his turn to make it to the cave. That's like the whole map.

 

[JayDubya]

Yeah, I dunno, I had him right at the edge of the waterfall after his move. In retrospect, I guess I could have double run.

* * *

Well guys, I think I'm going to really gun to kill you so you can make PHB2 character classes.

Seem like a good idea?

 

[chapel]

Yeah, I dunno, I had him right at the edge of the waterfall after his move. In retrospect, I guess I could have double run.

* * *

Well guys, I think I'm going to really gun to kill you so you can make PHB2 character classes.

Seem like a good idea?

I don't know if that's a great idea but whatever happens happens. Guess I won't waste any time on a good back story then.

 

[JayDubya]

No worries - I've noticed it's rather hard to kill a 4E character.

 

[slayn]

No worries - I've noticed it's rather hard to kill a 4E character.

...until you decide to randomly spawn orcus of course.

And there is nothing stopping people from multi-classing into the new classes. I was just telling someone that the barbarian and avenger multiclass feats both look pretty awesome.

Roll twice and use the higher value for my daily attack? Yes please.

 

[JayDubya]

...until you decide to randomly spawn orcus of course.

I reckon it's basically fair game for the villains to focus fire and coup de grace anyone when they can; otherwise, I don't think anyone would realistically ever die, die.

Unless it's the end of a prolonged fight and all the encounter heals have been used already... then it's possible, but only for the unlucky.

 

[slayn]

I reckon it's basically fair game for the villains to focus fire and coup de grace anyone when they can; otherwise, I don't think anyone would realistically ever die, die.

Unless it's the end of a prolonged fight and all the encounter heals have been used already... then it's possible, but only for the unlucky.

If you can keep dropping someone and they make some bad rolls I imagine it would be possible. Remember that death strikes don't reset just because you got back up. So if you get two strikes, get healing, fall again, its one strike and you're out.

 

[chapel]

If you can keep dropping someone and they make some bad rolls I imagine it would be possible. Remember that death strikes don't reset just because you got back up. So if you get two strikes, get healing, fall again, its one strike and you're out.

remember as well that you have to sleep for the rolls to reset. Though I think you die at 3 failed death saving throws and not just going down.

 

[JayDubya]

remember as well that you have to sleep for the rolls to reset. Though I think you die at 3 failed death saving throws and not just going down.

True. But - I'd imagine it's a rare party that doesn't stop and extended rest when someone's at -2 death saves.

 

[slayn]

Unless of course the dm is evil and doesn't let them rest =P
It should be pretty easy to come up with a series of encounters that can't be rested inbetween due to location or time sensitive events.

 

[chapel]

Are we playing today?

 

[slayn]

How far have you guys gotten?
We finished up the dragon burial site and have had a couple encounters within the keep. All have been extremely simple. I guess the module decided to make things easy for a little while after irontooth. So not much to really mention that was very exciting.

We also reached level 2. I noticed that basically all of us ended up taking the expertise feat from PH2. It seems like that feat is way overpowered compared to others considering everyone in our party took it without a 2nd thought.

I also decided to multiclass ranger. Curse + Hunter's Quarry = awesome. I crit something for almost 30 damage last night.

 

[JayDubya]

Bump for imminent maybe gamage?

 

[JayDubya]

Tomorrow?

 

[slayn]

You guys still going? We've been making slow progress lately, generally 1 encounter/session.

I'll use spoilers since you might have gone on a different path than us. In the keep, we went in a generally eastern direction I think.

Spoiler

Most of the encounters have been absurdly easy. The first encounter inside the keep was pretty hilarious though with pit trap. Our warlord tried to charge the goblin and down he went.

East was a little tougher, but still pretty wasy because we are so range heavy. Paladin blocked the steps, the archers were no match for warlock + ranger + wizard.

South again with the rats and ocre jelly was a joke.

However, tonight we faced the blue slime. This one nailed us pretty good. No one was knocked down or anything but it was quite a step up from the previous three. We got nailed bad by the slime's initial debuff since it nailed both our strikers and the ranger spent half the battle dazed and weakened. And I don't think the warlord hit with an attack the entire battle.

The rechargeable burst 3 explosion power was also pretty bad. Thankfully, no one got stuck on the island because I jumped across and then teleport back. So we were mostly able to hide in the hallway and have the paladin block it off as a choke point since the slime was too large to get by.

As a whole, we have really started to come together as a team. I think our ranger could stand to be closer to the front lines a bit, but she is content to sit 20 squares back and shoot arrows all day long.

But the paladin, warlord, and my warlock have really started to get a handle on party formation. Provoking attacks against something the paladin has held down is a wonderful thing. Paladin and Warlord are generally working together to control the positions of the tougher enemies and keep us at a tactical advantage, meanwhile I can flit in and out and behind the front lines to help keep everything pinned down.

Just looking at the math, the ranger should be doing far more damage than me, but I've found being willing to take risks and move in and out of the front lines to try and get better tactical positions than 50ft back has really paid off and thus far I think I'm winning in terms of dpr.

Also after the last encounter we were laughing for a good 15 minutes over, "don't wet the nodule"

edit:
I would say I have a small complaint in terms of treasure. Maybe we've missed some stuff or we just haven't gone in the right direction or its just the way 4th edition is, but for being halfway to level 3, I have yet to have a single magic item. I'm still using the base rod (ie, the inanimate carbon rod!)

 

[JayDubya]

I can't wait for some of those fights, slayn.

They went the other way, though. They went SW, and what you're describing is in the SE.

Also, Spook - I'm making my first PC and finally getting a chance to play, my rolled stats would make for a shitty proper Dwarf Fighter (not enough Strength without racial bonuses), but I'm thinking you might get a lot of mileage out of the first level encounter power Shield Bash - you charge a lot and you have a high Wisdom (and only Dwarves get the bonus Wis damage).

The stats? 15 14 14 14 13 11.

The party so far? Half-Orc Rogue (Brutal Scoundrel) and Gnome Bard (Cunning).

So we've got high DPR and modest-to-decent heals as well as a party face. We need a defender. Game starts at L2, Forgotten Realms.

What I'm thinking?

Human Strengthadin.
Str 17, Con 13, Dex 14, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 14

EQ:
+1 Vicious Fullblade
+1 Lifegiver Plate

Feats:
Action Surge
Weapon Proficiency (Fullblade)
Righteous Rage of Tempus (Channel Divinity)

Spend the minor action to get an auto-crit on your next attack if you hit, spend the action point to get your bonus to-hit, use the 3[w] daily... If you hit, you're looking at 40+1d12 high crit+1d12 item damage.

Nice, huh?

My stats are too crumby for a decent Warden or Swordmage, I think - Heavy Blade fighters or Paladins, however, are a little more MAD, though, and I can get more mileage out of all those 14s and 13s.

 

[slayn]

That paladin seems well set up for the heavy blade/gamble with a glaive. I'm not sure if the paladin has any awesome at-wills to use though for that and you wouldn't have anywhere near your current damage but I still think it would make for an amazing defender.

requires paragon, str15, dex15, wis15 (which are usually hard stats to get, but you would have them at paragon).

glaive + heavy blade opportunity + polearm gamble + that feat that gives +2 to op attacks with heavy blades.

You would have a reach of 2, and any time an enemy steps up to be adjacent to you, you get to hit them with an at-will before their attack and you get +2 to that attack roll.

So imagine you divine challenge an enemy from your full reach. If the enemy goes after someone else, they get -2 and take damage. If they step up to attack you, you get a free attack against them at +2.

The downside is that the glaive is the only weapon this works with.

 

[JayDubya]

Sounds like something to do if I got a high-end glaive - I could just retrain WP:FB to Polearm Gamble, and in the mean time, any Focus or Expertise feat or whatnot applies just the same to any Heavy Blade.

Retraining is so awesome - lets you use the magic items you have efficiently.

But yeah, I was planning on Armor Specialization (Plate) and Heavy Blade Opportunity for the Paragon Tier. Probably no multiclass feats, though Paladin has some shitty levels for powers. Utility 2 and Daily 9 in particular are truly ugh.

Probably Champion of Order for the PP, too.

This guy will have no trouble qualifying for feats, he's just got a suboptimal accuracy and damage with a 15 before racials in his key stat, no matter what class I pick.

 

[slayn]

I don't think having a 17 in your attack stat is too bad. I considered it for my warlock with 22 point buy to try and get some better feats.

To me, 18 is the ideal unless you are something like a ranger who is purely devoted to dex, and only because dex gets you so much (ac, reflex, initiative, skills, your attack, your damage). And dex seems to be an overpowered attribute in general.

So half the time you are perfect, and half the time you are at -1. And at the cost of the -1, you'll probably have more well rounded defenses and be able to do some more creative things with feats.