Player-killing. Wanna a song about it? Like to hear it? Here it goes...Over the weekend, our gaming group got together to try out the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. I'll just say that so far this module is quite brutal. I'm not sure that I've got anything good to compare it to, as I'm not personally familiar with anal penatration but it's pretty harsh. An ill-timed fight with one of the adventures mini-bosses ended with a total party kill, forcing us to make a whole new set of characters. This was after our original 1st level party of a human wizard, dragonborn paladin, dwarf cleric, and halfling rogue lost it's before-mentioned paladin (he was replaced by a human fighter). Even though we probably could have won the battle with the goblin brute mini-boss if we'd rested and recovered our daily powers, it would've still been an uphill battle. Our next iteration of the party was comprised of a tiefling warlord, eladrin wizard, half-elf warlock, elf ranger, and half-elf paladin. This very pointy party made easier work of the brute and his remaining lackies, despite his nasty damage output and 106 (!) HP. We've now learned that these fiends are in league with a cult that wishes to reopen a rift that could flood the world with Orcus' undead hordes. At this point we called it a session and we'll be finishing up the module over the next couple of weeks.
Overall, I'm enjoying the module and the new rule revision so far. The bloodbath of PCs has actually been pretty educational, as we've now seen all of the PC races and classes in action. So far, my impressions are:
- 1st level guys are a lot more interesting, especially the wizard and cleric. In 3rd Edition, a 1st level wizard with an 18 INT had 3 1st level spells per day, or 4 if they were a specialist. A 1st level cleric with an 18 WIS had 4 1st levels spells as well. Both classes also had 3 0-level spells that were mostly useless. In 4th Edition, a cleric or wizard has at least 2 powers that he can use as often as he wants that are just as good as most 1st levels spells with the exception of magic missle, grease (which is sadly absent) and possibly Summon Monster 1. Both classes, as well as all other PC classes, also have a power that renews with each encounter and a power that renews every day. This gives every single class a depth at first level that's a lot of fun and very interesting. This isn't new information, as the preview material listed the power advancement for the classes. Playing is believing, and I'm now a fan of this whole new power scheme. Mostly.
- While the lower levels are interesting, I can't help but think that at higher levels there won't be the same kind of variety. This is especially true of the classic spellcasting classes of cleric and wizard. Even martial adepts from The Book of Nine Swords have more maneuvers than any of the 4th Edition PC classes, and those maneuvers are more easily recovered and reused, even for swordsages.
- I'm still not entirely convinced that a party can go without a cleric. We'll soon see as my Warlord tries to fill the leader role in the new party. Even so, it looks like while it's not essential to have a leader providing additional healing in a fights, it's still pretty fucking important. Second winds and healing surges are nice, but it's still something that most characters can only do once in a fight. A paladin seems to help in a pinch, but that's still a more limited resource than a 3rd edition cleric that can turn nearly all of his spells into a cure spell of some sort. The jury's still out on this.
- More to the point of healing and hit points, everyone has more of them. I mean they really have a lot MOAR of them. As I mentioned before, the goblin brute mini-boss had over 100, while my first level wizard had 29 HP. The only "people" that seemed to have gotten the short end of the HP stick are the minion-typed monsters, who each have a single hit point while retaining OK defenses and damage output. While this makes wading through mooks more succinct and easier for the DM to track, it's made up for by all the other monsters types having just as many or more hit points than the PCs which can make for some very grindy fights. The damage output of the PCs is somewhat higher than before to make up for this, especially from rogues and rangers. Still, it can make for a somewhat prolonged fight when it gets down to the last few guys in an encounter.
- All of the skill mechanics are simplier and more streamlined, even relating to social encounters. This seems to give the DM a lot more latitude in using these skills as he sees fit. Gone are the days when you can just waste skill points on that Profession: Sous Chef or Perform: Bass Accordian. Now the skill catagories are more broad and seemingly more useful to both the DM and the PCs.
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