Yesterday I got to run the first session for the second half of my group. This team of players were the more build / tactics oriented game, so I decided to see them hit the ground running. After a little bit of introduction (and some rather interesting party dynamics coming out from the first few lines the characters traded,) I put them into a goblin roadside ambush.
To be fair I decided to scale the encounter to the higher end of “Standard Difficulty” in the DMG. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but after a whole bunch of unfortunate circumstances, the party, which consisted of a Drow Rogue, an Eladrin Wizard, an Eladrin Warlock and a Tiefling Paladin, was soon reduced to the Rogue and Warlock. As the wizard fell first, and the paladin fell beneath the concentrated efforts of the goblins to take down the guy in shiny full plate.
With some fancy invisibility tricks and stealth tactics, the two remaining party members managed to hold their own and whittle down the numbers of the goblins until the goblins declared a retreat and abandoned the field.
If anything, this experience has taught the party about the intricacies of combat, the importance of teamwork, and how even Goblins of this level are a serious threat to life and limb.
Observations:
- Terrain advantage is a big factor – Since it was an ambush the Goblins enjoyed terrain advantage and used it mercilessly to their advantage.
- There is no “I” in team – 4e characters are built to work together, going off solo destroys party cohesion and makes it easier for the opponents to pick off the party one by one.
- Players must establish ooc tactical dialogue with each other - Unlike in WoD games, where I usually make sure that the players avoid OOC tactics discussions in combat, D&D 4e needs this kind of planning when taking on threats.
- Leaders are valuable members of the party - If the team had a Leader (like they were supposed to), they would have had a lot more staying power in combat, allowing them space to make more mistakes without suffering for it.
- Tracking Conditions, Bonuses and Penalties is crucial - One of the things I noticed is that there’s a whole lot of bonuses, penalties and conditions flying around once the battle is engaged. That said, the GM has to set up some sort of protocol where he can trust the players to track their conditions, as he tracks the conditions on the monsters.
Overall it was a good learning experience for me and the players. Even those in the other team (like Heineken) took it as a chance to study how combat works and see how his character (a Warlord) could have reacted to the situations in the fight.
Interesting report, looks like my players are in for a few hard-learned lessons as well if they don’t shed the 3.x power overwhelming attitude in 4E combat.
I have been using cheap poker chips to track conditions and it’s been working out great. Yellow for a mark/quarry/curse, green for combat advantage, blue for debuff, red for bloodied, etc… Works out great and really helps to visually lay it all out on the battlefield.
Hey Questing GM,
It actually got to the point when I was telling them to consider regrouping and perhaps focus on knocking out opponents with focused fire. They managed to rally together but by then they were down to single digit hit points.
Captain Cursor,
Great suggestion! Due to lack of space (we actually play in a local Starbucks) we didn’t have the kind of table space I would have wanted. In fact the map was scrawled on a graphing paper. Still once we manage to score a place where I can use my brand spanking new battlemat from Chessex, I’m definitely grabbing some cheap poker chips.
Damn you Cleric Princess and your 19 CHARISMA!!
You aren’t falling for my manly charms as I (appear to be) single-handedly battle the foul dragon in his dark lair as I tactically position myself for great lighting effect before the backdrop of its glistening mounds of gold with me yelling challenges at it and our epic tableau being directly in your line of sight (as planned)!
(The Paladin was still trying to make his up the steps towards the dragon since she was encumbered with a Plate Mail, the Rogue was dragging the Princess to safety, the Wizard was whiffing badly and was completely ignored by the dragon.)
Someone’s still sore about that dragon thing. Hey, I didn’t run that fight playtest, RV did. Besides I think you had to blame your dice rolls for that one.
xD
Nah. I’m not sore about it.
That was an indirect example of how Tactical Planning is essential in 4e.
;D
But on a serious note:
Another observation is that Wizards seem seem to be complaining about not being powerful enough or spells not being as potent as before. The mystique and allure of a Wizard being a walking nuke is no longer there since most of its spells have been dramatically nerfed.
Like on our Mini-dragon raid.
The Wizard actually only hit ONCE with his Cloud of Daggers (At-Will) during the entire encounter. That was around 20 rounds, 19 of which he missed and wasn’t able to do anything.
Man i love tactic games. I got to try the new D&D. ^_^
Good of you to call it out, Heineken.
The Wizard’s Whiffing issue seems to be persistent, but remember that the spells hardly ever target AC, instead aiming for Reflex or Fortitude, and perhaps Will defenses.
Wizards don’t have the advantage of having a weapon proficiency bonus to their attack rolls, but it’s balanced out by having target numbers that are on average 3 or so points lower than AC.
the wizard should have not aimed for the dragon but near the dragon just like what our wizard has been doing! and good at it to!
[...] together with a combination of good rolling and a measure of more teamwork. As I described in 4e: Playtest Report #2, this team managed to survive a goblin ambush after losing two of their 4 characters to goblin [...]