|
5 months ago ::
Jan 04, 2013 - 1:42PM
#1
|
Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
|
I finally ran my first session of the playtest (Caves of Chaos): The Kobolds were horrifying. TPK in the common chamber. I liked that. However, the Kobolds' "Mob Tactics" mechanic (as effective as it was) did not seem to represent the flavor I expected of kobolds. It entailed swarming the PC's in melee, which seems the opposite of cunning (i.e. Tucker's kobolds would never do that). That said, I like the "Mob Tactics" mechanic in general for creatures that overwhelm you in melee with their numbers. It's truly frightening. Update: ok, see how this might represent (from the Kobold article) "The kobold that ... directs the kobold swarms with the most effective tactics... can claim the leadership of a kobold tribe".Still, they pretty dangerous for only 10 XP. Maybe the swarm bonus should be capped at +3 (possibly making ranged attacks and corridor fighting more important than pure melee in an open area).
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 04, 2013 - 3:40PM
#2
|
Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
|
I agree with you. Our first TPK also happened in Area 6. Kobold Commun Chamber a year ago during the Friend & Family Playtest. Kobolds were slightly different then but still bring memories.  R.I.P
Melf
Targon
FINGOLFIN
Regnak
Eiron
Yan
Montréal, Canada
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 7:35PM
#3
|
Date Joined:
Nov 21, 2012
|
How many Kobolds did they fight in order to make it so challenging? When I put my group against Kobolds, they stomped the lizards flat in two rounds.
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 9:49AM
#4
|
|
|
I'm not sure about the above poster's situation, but when I ran the initial playtest for my group, they fought upwards of 3 dozen kobolds in the common area.
The crafty wizard tried to put them to sleep, didn't get as many as he hoped.
The fighters (human and dwarven) were mobbed and slogged through a few in the first round.
The cleric healed the dwarf.
The fight wasn't in the party's favor who rushed in without thinking.
The wizard threw his burning hands. It incinerated some kobolds as well as the human fighter.
The remaining party members fled the caved, kobolds chittering and yapping behind them, but didn't pursue them into the bright sunlinght of the morning.
Once back in town, they drowned their sorrows and lifted a mug of ale to their fallen friend and nursed their wounds, fresh with the memory of the tenacity of the diminutive kobolds.
They can be pretty nasty, even as written in the original packet, in quantity.
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 12:02PM
#5
|
Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
|
How many Kobolds did they fight in order to make it so challenging?
20
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 1:14PM
#6
|
Date Joined:
Nov 21, 2012
|
How many Kobolds did they fight in order to make it so challenging?
20
Ah, I used far too few. The bestiary really needs a way of defining how many should be in a group to challenge a party of a certain level.
|
|
|
|
5 months ago ::
Jan 08, 2013 - 1:31PM
#7
|
Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
|
Ah, I used far too few. The bestiary really needs a way of defining how many should be in a group to challenge a party of a certain level.
The Caves of Chaos playtest Kobold Common Chamber description says: Spoiler:
Show
"Up to forty adult kobolds and eight whelps (noncombatants) are quartered here. Half or more of the adults are out foraging, hunting, and raiding, especially at night."
The encounter took place during the day.
|
|
|
|
4 months ago ::
Jan 15, 2013 - 6:39PM
#8
|
Date Joined:
May 25, 2009
|
40 Kobolds is pretty much going to be a TPK. I looked at it as all of the kobolds lived in that room, and subtracted the ones in the other rooms. Then balanced it out a bit by changing out 2 kobolds for one dragonshield, until I was at 3x the number in the party.
Up to is pretty much key here. If you want 40 kobolds to die, have your party run into a few foraging parties. One other thing I used is having two foraging parties coming back after the caves were cleared out and re-populated the kobold cave.
|
|
|
|
4 months ago ::
Jan 16, 2013 - 1:10AM
#9
|
Date Joined:
Sep 30, 2009
|
You put the characters up against 20 kobolds, got a TPK - and your somewhat surprised at that?
I'd say the first thing to remember that DNDN doesnt have 4E focus on continueed fighting, do a DM has to be more mindfull of how many/the strength of encounters he puts the players against.
Also another thing to remember is the adventure modules in the packet are either reworks of old D&D/OD&D/AD&D etc or written to feel like an old school module, and as such they dont provide absolute mathmatical guidelines for encounters, rather frameworks for a DM to create an encounter out of.
The key word in the decription is UPTO, personally I would have had the PC's against a tough encounter mainly using minions ( to get the sense of a large scale fight ) then i would have the chamber either repoulated by harder kobolds (after all the strong ones go out foraging/hunting) or even have them encounter them in the tunnels/other areas etc.
I think the key as i said is that these modules are frameworks to generate encounters around, not specific encounters themselves - you still need to do some work to get the best out of them.
|
|
|
|
4 months ago ::
Jan 16, 2013 - 2:21PM
#10
|
Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
|
40 Kobolds is pretty much going to be a TPK.
Here's the quote again:"Up to forty adult kobolds and eight whelps (noncombatants) are quartered here. Half or more of the adults are out foraging, hunting, and raiding, especially at night". To me this indicates that there would likely be 20 there during the day, and 10 at night. 40 is not really an option, given the text.
|
|
|
