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2 years ago ::
Mar 23, 2011 - 2:51PM
#1
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Use this thread to discuss your experiences with week 7 of D&D Encounters Season 4 - March of the Phantom Brigade. For more reports and reviews of Encounters check out these blogs (and please suggest more): Dungeon's MasterGlitterdust
Perpetual Geek Machine
Wielding a Bohemian Ear Spoon
SartredesPlease realize that both players and DMs read these threads, so do not put spoilers in your posts. If your post goes into enough details, then you absolutely must use spoilers. Enclose the spoilery bit in [*sblock=spoiler stuff][*/sblock] (just remove the *) spoiler block tags so that players who haven't played yet don't have the surprise ruined for them.
[*sblock=spoilerey stuff]
blahblahblah
[*/sblock]
will produce
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blahblahblah
once you remove the *.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 23, 2011 - 9:48PM
#2
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Well, once again my table had some new people with the other table having a more steady group. At both tables, the Hexblades force damage was good. Even starting late, we finished quickly. Minions were swept away in pairs and focus fire brought the non-minions down fairly quickly.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 23, 2011 - 11:46PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Feb 26, 2011
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We had 2 tables again this week at The Game Depot in Tempe, Arizona. I had 4 players this week, 3 regulars and 1 new. My table consisted of: Nyla – Elf Slayer
Kiera – Elf Thief
Brandis – Human Cavalier
Velenae – Eladrin Warpriest
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Brother Splintershield took a dirt nap in last week’s session, so the group was racing back to Inverness but saw the red glow of the town in flames.
They tried the skill challenge and failed big time. The 2 elves did pretty well (the Thief using Stealth and the Slayer using Nature), but the Paladin was horrid (not entirely his fault, he rolled 2 natural 3’s on his d20). Obviously, that d20 went back into his dice bag and did not come out again. The Eladrin also failed so the group was noticed by the Phantom patrols, so no bonus for the group in the upcoming combat.
They encountered Malgram, he tasked them with getting more survivors out of the city and on the road to Harkenwold, and that Salazar Vladistone was leading the Phantom Army. He also informed them that Faldyra was missing and most likely being held by Salazar.
Once inside the city, the Phantoms were waiting for them. No surprise round so we went straight to init. With no controller to mop up minions and no force damage, I figured this combat might take a while. I only had 4 PC and they are all still level 1, so I lowered the enemy to 1 Justicar, 1 Armiger, and 5 squires.
Slayer took out 2 squires in the first 2 rounds, the Paladin locked down the Armiger. The Warpriest went after the Justicar and landed a solid blow with Smite Undead. The Justicar waded back into melee after his immobilize wore off and bloodied the Thief in one hit. The Thief also got hit with the Armiger Furious Sweep (which pushed her next to a burning building for some fire damage and knocked her prone). That left her with only 3 HP.
The Warpriest used Healing Word to keep the Thief upright, and she used an Action Point to Backstab the Armiger and landed a killing blow even at half damage.
She also managed to take out the Justicar the next round, thanks to the Paladin moving into his Blind Justice Aura to set up a flank for combat advantage.
The slayer mopped up the minions one at a time during the fight and was bloodied but never in serious danger. Paladin and Warpriest took a couple spectral crossbow bolts each but nothing serious.
The Thief and Warpriest shared co-MVP honors for the killing blows and smite-ing/healing respectively.
Excellent use of Fortune Cards this week. I built 1 communal deck for the players to share and each player used at least 1 this week (the Paladin used 3). Made for some excellent teamwork, in fact, such as when the Paladin used 1 card to knock an opponent prone, setting up combat advantage for the Thief to use Sneak Attack. My 3 regulars all made enough xp to level up to 2 at the chapter break, so they are already borrowing my books to look up what Feats they can choose from and whatnot.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 24, 2011 - 8:21AM
#4
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Attendance was down badly this week (not sure why)... 3 people that haven't missed a night in 3 months were all no-shows. (Gamezilla in Fredericton, NB)
3 sessions ago = 16 players
last night = 8 players
End result, down to 2 tables The encounter went well, as did the skill challenge. I liked the session as it allowed the DM to add even more flavor to the ongoing story.
Had a couple of more players switch back from the fortune cards to the previous reward cards.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 25, 2011 - 11:50AM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 23, 2005
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Alternate Realities Games & Entertainment (Wichita, KS) They have been running 3 tables of 5 to 6 players each week this season. My table of 5 for Session 7 consisted of: 2 Elf Thieves 1 Dragonborn Cavalier 1 Dwarf Knight 1 Dwarf Sun Warpriest Spoiler:
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We were successful on the skill challenge so were able to sneak into town unnoticed. We came out between 2 burning houses and surprised 1 Armiger, 2 Justicars and 6 Squires.
We got off a couple of attacks and some movement as our surprise round. We mostly ignored the Squires for the combat and concentrated on the Armiger and the 2 Justicars. But to our surprise 1 more Armiger and 1 more Justicar came out of the buildings to join in the fray.
One of our Elf Thieves selflessly maneuvered himself into a position on the porch of a burning building to gain combat advantage and was able to take out one of the Justicars before he himself fell unconscious as the burning building did him in.
In the end it was a TPK for all 5 of us. We all ended up failing 3 death saves to end our lives. There were 2 Squires and 1 Bloodied Armiger remaining in the end.
We had no way to do force damage to the monsters so the insubstantial reducing damage by half each time really hurt us in the end.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 25, 2011 - 2:59PM
#6
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5 characters is balanced for 2 Justicars and 1 Armiger. To add another Armiger and Justicar, you would need seven PCs, or six PCs with some very strong teamwork and tactics.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 25, 2011 - 5:07PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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Use this thread to discuss your experiences with week 7 of D&D Encounters Season 4 - March of the Phantom Brigade.
For more reports and reviews of Encounters check out these blogs (and please suggest more):
Dungeon's Master
Glitterdust
Perpetual Geek Machine
Wielding a Bohemian Ear Spoon
Sartredes
Please realize that both players and DMs read these threads, so do not put spoilers in your posts. If your post goes into enough details, then you absolutely must use spoilers. Enclose the spoilery bit in [*sblock=spoiler stuff][*/sblock] (just remove the *) spoiler block tags so that players who haven't played yet don't have the surprise ruined for them.
[*sblock=spoilerey stuff]
blahblahblah
[*/sblock]
will produce
spoilerey stuff
Show
blahblahblah
once you remove the *.
From The Keep in Fort Wayne Indiana. I ran two tables. Here are the details...
spoiler
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Table 1: 6 players: Drow hunter, Dwarf cavalier, Elf Hunter, Human avenger, Elf Wizard, and Eladrin Psion. They passed the skill challange and entered the town undetected. Then they came across a group of phantoms kicking people out of their houses. They attacked.
The Drow hunter moved and took out three minions on is first attack. He then used an action point to take out two more. With the battlefield mostly cleared, the Avenger moved up next to the Armiger and tried to parley. He told the phantoms that if they let the heroes go, they will gather the rest of the townsfolk and leave peacefully. The Phantoms agreed. The Elf hunter went next and burried an arrow in the Armigers eye. The battle continued. The rest of the surprise round went well with lots of damage being dealt. When it got back to the Avenger, he was so upset with his companions, that he walked off the board to search for Fayldera. The rest of the heroes had no trouble taking down the rest of the phantoms without the avenger. What will happen to the Avenger next week? Tune in next week.....
Table 2: 6 players: Human cleric, human Paladin, Minotaur Barbarian, Elf wizard, Dwarf Warpriest, and a Dwarf avenger. This group failed the skill challange and the phantoms were waiting for them in the town. Everyone bunched up in the middle of the board for the fight. This allowed all of the burst and blast attacks to go off. The most effective was the turn undead. It didnt take long for the group to wipe out the phantoms and continue searching for Fayldera.
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2 years ago ::
Mar 26, 2011 - 4:37PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2007
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Another fun adventure, leaving the players waiting with anticipation for next week! Spoiler:
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The Twitter buff was key this week, being the Defense buff that allowed other players to discard their current card and use a Defense card another had played. My dice were rolling crits left and right, and luckily for them a couple of players have earned the "Impervious" reward card, allowing for a Crit to become a regular hit. This saved them a boatload of damage.
The players had done well on the challenge to sneak into the settlement. They used their suprise round to rush into one of the burning houses. It proved to be a double edged sword, giving them cover from the ranged attacks, but the Phantoms were able to phase through the walls. They also clumped up allowing the Arminger to get off its aoe blast with its bardiche nearly every round. Still the PC's rallied to the cause and started to focus fire and burn down the Phantoms one by one.
We ended with them searching for survivors and find "their elven princess" as they started calling Faldyra for some reason being threatened in the graveyard by Salazar Vladistone himself! They really like/hate, partly because of my funny 'Russian' accent I play him as, and his deathless devotion to his wife! A great tragic villan!
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