So Lori was dis-satisfied with her sword mage, which is too bad since she had such a wonderfully intricate background, being the half-elven half-sister of Cadence, her previous character in our last campaign 100 years in the past. So the sword mage was out and the seeker was coming in! How to do it? (Incidentally, I found the biggest limit to really wreaking some havoc with her sword mage was the 2 square limit to her Aegis of Assault power. If there were a feat or power or SOMETHING that extended this range out to a distance where the free teleport is actually meaningful, it would be a lot more fun than the second rate everything which is how she played out.)
The seeker was an exciting alternative, a week before the PHB3 makes its debut. We had trouble with the Assassin when it first play tested, having a character as the only class information can be frustrating. I have started hand waving many rules for looking up later, unless it is critical. The seeker played out great, flavor text helping to visualize some of the affects. I can’t wait to see what the full class offering has in the book next week.
The party had just finished clearing out level 1 of Keep on the Shadowfell. After resting in the goblin leader’s secret chamber, they fought the blue slime, avoided the kruthiks, then the goblins from the digging chamber waiting in ambush at the top of the stairs near their chamber. They were the last foes on level 1 of the dungeon, other than the undead that lead to level 2. This all happened last week, and it meant that, as the 3rd encounter of the day, the party was getting a little worn down, with few healing surges or dailies left. Luckily they all had a new action point.
The night began as they stood before the door to the undead area, when screams, the sound of jangling leather and steel, and an animalistic howl
were heard echoing from above. They investigate (good players!)
Meanwhile, the seeker had been tracking a group of hobgoblin slavers and was awaiting them from atop a 10 ft ruined wall of the old keep. I used the ruins from the Sinister Woods tileset for this encounter, with only a few ruins tiles along the north edge, followed by a mix of open field with treed areas intermingled.
I wanted to make this battle special. This was their last battle as level 2 characters, a new character was joining, and I wanted to step out of the module and design my own encounter. The previous night, I used the monster builder as a database to build the following:
1 lvl 5 hobgoblin commander (200 xp)
3 lvl 3 hobgob soldiers (450 xp)
3 lvl 3 hobgob archers (450) xp)
1 lvl 6 Elite Cave Bear(!) (500 xp) pulling wagon with 3 elf slaves
This was a 1600 xp encounter, or level 7, for a group of slightly winded level 2 characters. Tough. I will describe how the fight went in my next post, but let me tell you, it was glorious.
It lasted about 11 rounds, and took 3 1/2 hours, the whole night to finish.
There were a couple things that mitigated the extremely high difficulty of this encounter. The first was that the Pc’s got a free surprise round. The second was that the hobgoblins were caught with the archers halfway through the process of staking down the cave bear The bear would spend the first round immobile as it broke free of its bonds automatically.
The first attack was the druid who stepped around a wall to toss her flame seed. This engulfed the two archers tying up the bear. Next the seeker, finding sudden allies, loosed off some attack which missed. Then her elven accuracy missed (drat!) The bard launched a jinx shot at the commander, the ranger moved into a better sniper position, and the barbarian charged the commander who was just within rage.
The next round, the hobgobs were pretty high on the initiative list, and the commander was able to start the counterattack with his Leading minor, shifting his archers out of the flameseed’s embrace (before taking extra damage!) and drawing his three up soldiers around the now surrounded barbarian. Then melee ensued with the barbarian getting pummeled and knocked to 4 hp when all was said and done. The archers meanwhile traded ranged attacks with the bard and the seeker. Everyone had cover, and the Pc’s were wisely prone (and additional -2 against ranged attacks.)
This went on for a couple of rounds. The barbarian took both majestic words, a healing potion, and her second wind, as she fought against the commander and two soldiers. The 3rd soldier chased down the elven ranger and they fought an up close and personal match of blood, sweat, and tears.
The first climactic moment of the battle was when the seeker realized the power of the cave bear: nature and perception check to estimate its HP’s resulted in “well over 100”. She therefore risked it all, jumping from her perch of relative safety atop a 10′ ruined wall, to run across the battlefield, BEHIND the archers and the cave bear, to attempt to free the 3 elven prisoners, who I described as being nearly naked and injured, though known to her as members of her scouting group. She was also bloodied and had no healing to look forward to other than her single second wind. I mentioned to her that she was essentially cutting herself off, letting the enemy get between her and her allies, but she persisted, and it was good that she did.
Instead of attempting a risky lockpicking check, she guessed there would be weapons in the hobgoblins supply bins, and went to search. With a great perception roll, I ruled that the seeker, Poppy, found 2 longbows and a long sword, the captive’s weapons. She passed them through the bars. I ruled that the elves would share the seeker’s initiative, and could make melee or ranged basic attacks using the seekers stats. They had the seekers defenses and also had 1 Hp. They were player-minions, and were smartly fed to the cave bear one by one. Actually the sword elf was the only one eaten by the bear, after escaping by destroying the lock with his sword.
The battle was one of attrition. Every daily, encounter, action point, and magic item usage was expended. The commander, focus fired, was first to go down, followed by the soldiers. The barbarian HP’s went up and down faster than a heartbeat and the druid struck enemies from afar. The archers outlasted all but the cave bear, even though they had fewer HP’s and a lower AC than all the other hobboes. Interesting.
By round 5-6 the Pc’s were down to their at-wills, and the cave bear rampaged all across the field, charging, and close bursting when he could. He finally brought the barbarian down, ate an elf minion, and went for the druid. The bard used the last big power, his daily that does 3w and is an interrupt. It took the cave bear down to bloodied, and the players saw there was hope after all. It took another 3-4 rounds to slay this rampaging, lumbering beast of destruction, and the bard almost went down, but in the end the bear was slaughtered.
It was a long slog of a battle, but the fight was intense with two or three moments where the battle hung on the cusp of disaster. The seekers mad dash and the bards daily were two such moments of held breath and hushed silence as the dice rolled. As well as the mini drama of life and destruction that is the barbarian in battle. If all battles were this long and intense, it would be a chore, and possibly a bore (maybe not!) but a fight like this, long and arduous can lead to some really epic encounters.
Wielding a Bohemian Ear Spoon 