Re: Skill Challenge in H1

On Jun 9, 7:26 am, tussock <sc...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Justin Alexander wrote:
Justisaur wrote:
Justin Alexander wrote:
H1 is extremely sloppy and I wouldn't take much of anything from it
as being an example of how the system is supposed to work.

Yeah, I'm getting that impression. That's really bad for what is
supposed to be an introduction to 4e module.

Yeah. I'm absolutely baffled that:

(a) Mike Mearls and Bruce Cordell designed this mess; and (b) That WotC
let this serve as the inaugural product for 4th Edition.

I ran my first playtest session of it yesterday. It failed pretty
miserably.

Sigh. I was hoping to run it. I want to run my own adventure, but
I'm having a hard time grokking how to design it, so was going to rely
on this.


Encounters A3 and A4 are a disaster. I had modified them to
make them more palatable and reduce the difficulty, and my players still
got plastered.

What mods did you make?

And they got plastered when we reset and reran the
encounters a second time with foreknowledge. They managed to eke out a
victory the third time by (a) splitting up the encounter into several
easier encounters and (b) getting very lucky with a sleep spell.

It's for 5 PCs, otherwise you're supposed to lower the number of
monsters proportionately, not that H1 tells you that. I presume you mean
A2 and A3, where the slinger warns the guys in the cave and starts the
clock early in there.
I get the idea that if the encounter gets away on you like that,
you're supposed to wait outside in the runes until they come out, or even
bug out and come back next day.

Plus, you *need* a Cleric, so when people inevitably go negative you
can Healing Word them back to 0+surge+1d6+3, and giving 3 HP/round to
anyone under fire is handy. Also, Wizard for the minions, Scorch away
(missing with Burning Hands makes things /much/ harder in a big fight).

Or so I've read. One class from each group isn't really as optional
as they make out.

Makes me wonder what his party composition is... Warlords can also do
some healing mojo. If he's using the pre-made characters He's got a
cleric and a wizard so shouldn't be bad.


Hmm. It's wierd that they took away 2x critical hits as being "too
variable", then added in encounter powers that can turn the fight
depending on the one roll.

I thought you were supposed to have a separate attack roll for each
monster in an area effect. Even if you aren't that would certainly
even things out, and I'd house rule it right off the bat.


And these 1st level monsters you've got to hit four times to knock
over? When you can only hit them half the time? So much for swords being
dangerous. 2d6+4 vs 5 hp is /much/ more sensible for a Kobold.

Hey, you'll love this then, Kobold PC stats in the MM have +2 Con +2
Dex... They went from being really weak, to being very tough.

The minions still fall over in one hit, since they only have 1 hp
though, so there's your weak Kobold.

- Justisaur
.

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