Bayonet_Chris
First Post
I ran the revised Burning Plague game this Saturday with four friends at All Fun and Games in Apex (NC). We went through some of the character creation rules and came up with the following party:
Dwarven Cleric
Elf Ranger
Elf Rogue (fan pre-gen, because he showed up late)
Tiefling Warlock
I could have scaled the adventure back for four PCs, but I figured I would let the chips fall and see what happened. I'm glad I did. Here are some notes on how it went:
Entering the mines: The Passive Perception was nice in being able to just tell people what they notice (wooden supports being scuffed) at the basic level and having them choose to look at specific things with a perception check (blood stains) if they so chose. It will be easy to set this up in other adventures too.
Encounter 1 (Kobolds!, 300 XP): The map for this module is small and, upon looking at the original Burning Plague map, not to scale. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until later. The corridors were 1 square (5 feet) where they should have been 2-3 squares wide. This had a big impact. The kobolds had a high initiative modifier and choked the PCs off in the tunnel, trapping the rogue (who was scouting) in the front. As the impromptu tank, he managed to stay alive with the cleric's help. The rogue risked some opportunity attacks to go past the skirmishers and allowed the cleric to advance. The ranger and warlock were dropping ranged attacks left and right, although almost all of the kobolds had some degree of cover due to positioning. The warlock used the misty step to teleport into the middle of the room after killing a minion, and that helped considerably.
Encounter 2 and 2a (More Kobolds, 450XP + 100XP): This was a fun fight. The Dragonshields were tough and gave the PCs problems. Instead of the rogue being up front, the cleric lead the way this time. Again with the high initiative, the kobolds swarmed the PCs at a choke point and started pounding the cleric. The rogue had a good idea and the cleric spent his action overturning the nearest table - three of the minions were behind it and one of the dragonshields had jumped on top and used it for combat advantage over the dwarf. The dragonshield was knocked off and the dwarf made basic strength attacks versus the minion reflexes - all three were hit and squished. That turned the tide of the fight and they prevailed.
Encounter 3 and 3a (It's a Trap and Big Bad Kobolds, 550XP + 250 XP): This time, the PCs first combat spilled over into the second one and it almost got ugly. The trap went off and attacked the PCs from behind, hitting the warlock pretty hard before its movement ended. One of the kobold slingers managed to hit the cleric with the glue pot and he got hit with the boulder on the next round. The ranger and rogue ran up the ramp that led to the ledge where the kobolds were situated. The rogue ran up and started pitching kobolds off and stabbing them (whichever was easier at the time). The archer backed off and more minions spilled out (the next encounter). The wyrmpriest was a bit of a shock and they ganged up on him. Two of the party’s four dailies were expended at this point, including the warlock missing with Curse of the Dark Dream on the Warlock, but sliding him off the ledge regardless. At this point, the rogue leapt of the ledge (taking damage) on the prone wyrmpriest and hit with his daily (including backstab). The wyrmpriest was still up, but the ranger finished him off. The rest were not a problem. The party was pretty hurt at this point, but kept moving on.
Encounter 4 (Undead, 500 XP): The cleric was getting rocked by the blazing skeleton and the rogue was using his combat advantage to backstab everything he could until the undead got out of the pit. It was going poorly for the PCs, especially since the cleric rolled poorly on turn undead and missed all three, until the warlock realized that the blazing skeleton couldn’t hurt him in melee combat (maximum of 5 melee fire damage and the tiefling had resist fire 5). The tiefling got up close and personal and just started laying into him. The rogue used the cloak of resistance from the wyrmpriest in the previous encounter to allow him to ignore the blazing skeleton’s aura for a little bit and get in some good backstabs. Still, the battle was almost lost until the ranger expended his daily on the blazing skeleton and one of its skeleton buddies. He critted, killed the skeleton and put the blazing one on the ropes. The warlock finished him off.
Encounter 5 (Hobgoblins, 600 XP): This ended up being the toughest encounter for a variety of reasons – imposing foes and low resources being the biggest ones. The soldiers flanked the party at the entrance, allowing the warcaster and archer to lay into them with ranged attacks. They fought hard and the cleric used his daily to limited effect. They finally prevailed in a hard fought battle, the cleric dropping, the rogue down to 6 hp, the ranger bloodied, and the warlock actually getting through it in good shape.
Epilogue
Everyone had a blast and they figured out their powers pretty quickly to be effective. They chose their attacks well and came up with some interesting solutions to the problems presented. The only things I missed were a few opportunity attacks on the cleric where he used his ranged power in a threatened square and where he should have gotten an immediate save after being knocked over by the boulder trap. I only fudged one roll, when it was getting late and a player missed the hobgoblin warpriest by 1. We played it start to finish in around 4 hours.
The cleric was rolling high on heals early in the tough fights, and rolling well in general in the beginning. The party started having poor rolls in the undead fight and beyond, although a timely critical by the ranger really saved their bacon. They used their action points wisely to get additional attacks on dangerous foes and knew when to use their dailies. They also judiciously used their encounter powers at the right time instead of spamming them off the bat.
I think the small map size hurt the PCs, but they adapted well. If I ran it again, I would adjust the map and I think the mobility would be in their favor. All four guys were sold on the game and wanted to play again – next time we play, we should have two more joining us.
Dwarven Cleric
Elf Ranger
Elf Rogue (fan pre-gen, because he showed up late)
Tiefling Warlock
I could have scaled the adventure back for four PCs, but I figured I would let the chips fall and see what happened. I'm glad I did. Here are some notes on how it went:
Entering the mines: The Passive Perception was nice in being able to just tell people what they notice (wooden supports being scuffed) at the basic level and having them choose to look at specific things with a perception check (blood stains) if they so chose. It will be easy to set this up in other adventures too.
Encounter 1 (Kobolds!, 300 XP): The map for this module is small and, upon looking at the original Burning Plague map, not to scale. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until later. The corridors were 1 square (5 feet) where they should have been 2-3 squares wide. This had a big impact. The kobolds had a high initiative modifier and choked the PCs off in the tunnel, trapping the rogue (who was scouting) in the front. As the impromptu tank, he managed to stay alive with the cleric's help. The rogue risked some opportunity attacks to go past the skirmishers and allowed the cleric to advance. The ranger and warlock were dropping ranged attacks left and right, although almost all of the kobolds had some degree of cover due to positioning. The warlock used the misty step to teleport into the middle of the room after killing a minion, and that helped considerably.
Encounter 2 and 2a (More Kobolds, 450XP + 100XP): This was a fun fight. The Dragonshields were tough and gave the PCs problems. Instead of the rogue being up front, the cleric lead the way this time. Again with the high initiative, the kobolds swarmed the PCs at a choke point and started pounding the cleric. The rogue had a good idea and the cleric spent his action overturning the nearest table - three of the minions were behind it and one of the dragonshields had jumped on top and used it for combat advantage over the dwarf. The dragonshield was knocked off and the dwarf made basic strength attacks versus the minion reflexes - all three were hit and squished. That turned the tide of the fight and they prevailed.
Encounter 3 and 3a (It's a Trap and Big Bad Kobolds, 550XP + 250 XP): This time, the PCs first combat spilled over into the second one and it almost got ugly. The trap went off and attacked the PCs from behind, hitting the warlock pretty hard before its movement ended. One of the kobold slingers managed to hit the cleric with the glue pot and he got hit with the boulder on the next round. The ranger and rogue ran up the ramp that led to the ledge where the kobolds were situated. The rogue ran up and started pitching kobolds off and stabbing them (whichever was easier at the time). The archer backed off and more minions spilled out (the next encounter). The wyrmpriest was a bit of a shock and they ganged up on him. Two of the party’s four dailies were expended at this point, including the warlock missing with Curse of the Dark Dream on the Warlock, but sliding him off the ledge regardless. At this point, the rogue leapt of the ledge (taking damage) on the prone wyrmpriest and hit with his daily (including backstab). The wyrmpriest was still up, but the ranger finished him off. The rest were not a problem. The party was pretty hurt at this point, but kept moving on.
Encounter 4 (Undead, 500 XP): The cleric was getting rocked by the blazing skeleton and the rogue was using his combat advantage to backstab everything he could until the undead got out of the pit. It was going poorly for the PCs, especially since the cleric rolled poorly on turn undead and missed all three, until the warlock realized that the blazing skeleton couldn’t hurt him in melee combat (maximum of 5 melee fire damage and the tiefling had resist fire 5). The tiefling got up close and personal and just started laying into him. The rogue used the cloak of resistance from the wyrmpriest in the previous encounter to allow him to ignore the blazing skeleton’s aura for a little bit and get in some good backstabs. Still, the battle was almost lost until the ranger expended his daily on the blazing skeleton and one of its skeleton buddies. He critted, killed the skeleton and put the blazing one on the ropes. The warlock finished him off.
Encounter 5 (Hobgoblins, 600 XP): This ended up being the toughest encounter for a variety of reasons – imposing foes and low resources being the biggest ones. The soldiers flanked the party at the entrance, allowing the warcaster and archer to lay into them with ranged attacks. They fought hard and the cleric used his daily to limited effect. They finally prevailed in a hard fought battle, the cleric dropping, the rogue down to 6 hp, the ranger bloodied, and the warlock actually getting through it in good shape.
Epilogue
Everyone had a blast and they figured out their powers pretty quickly to be effective. They chose their attacks well and came up with some interesting solutions to the problems presented. The only things I missed were a few opportunity attacks on the cleric where he used his ranged power in a threatened square and where he should have gotten an immediate save after being knocked over by the boulder trap. I only fudged one roll, when it was getting late and a player missed the hobgoblin warpriest by 1. We played it start to finish in around 4 hours.
The cleric was rolling high on heals early in the tough fights, and rolling well in general in the beginning. The party started having poor rolls in the undead fight and beyond, although a timely critical by the ranger really saved their bacon. They used their action points wisely to get additional attacks on dangerous foes and knew when to use their dailies. They also judiciously used their encounter powers at the right time instead of spamming them off the bat.
I think the small map size hurt the PCs, but they adapted well. If I ran it again, I would adjust the map and I think the mobility would be in their favor. All four guys were sold on the game and wanted to play again – next time we play, we should have two more joining us.
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