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1 year ago ::
Mar 10, 2012 - 4:43AM
#91
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Date Joined:
Mar 15, 2001
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My primary piece of evidence that the encounter wasn't overpowered? At DDXP, where my group played the adventure, a supermajority of tables that chose to take on the empowered Dagon won. This leads me to believe that the tables that did not defeat Dagon either rolled poorly, bit off more than they could chew, were not a balanced party, were especially underprepared for the encounter's challenge, followed poor tactics, or were the victims of poor clarity on the part of the DM. That's a pretty large set of possibilities, and I'd accept any or all (in fact, it appears that "poor clarity" is probably the largest culprit). All of this is beside the initial point, though, which is that determining the reason a party failed at an encounter is more difficult that it may appear.
Nah, As keithric said, this is an example of a DM being an ass. Dagon is designed to pull people into melee and the DM played him as an Artillery with perfect escape ability. Even a party with multiple lockdown controllers is going to be torn apart by a double acting, control erasing, at-will teleporting, area bursting, non-action clustering bomber. Played with op tactics, if your party lets him act, you're in deep doggie-doo. (Barring a certain Swordmage daily that no solo can cope with)
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1 year ago ::
Mar 10, 2012 - 4:52AM
#92
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Date Joined:
Apr 11, 2008
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My primary piece of evidence that the encounter wasn't overpowered? At DDXP, where my group played the adventure, a supermajority of tables that chose to take on the empowered Dagon won. This leads me to believe that the tables that did not defeat Dagon either rolled poorly, bit off more than they could chew, were not a balanced party, were especially underprepared for the encounter's challenge, followed poor tactics, or were the victims of poor clarity on the part of the DM. That's a pretty large set of possibilities, and I'd accept any or all (in fact, it appears that "poor clarity" is probably the largest culprit). All of this is beside the initial point, though, which is that determining the reason a party failed at an encounter is more difficult that it may appear.
Nah, As keithric said, this is an example of a DM being an ass. Dagon is designed to pull people into melee and the DM played him as an Artillery with perfect escape ability. Even a party with multiple lockdown controllers is going to be torn apart by a double acting, control erasing, at-will teleporting, area bursting, non-action clustering bomber. Played with op tactics, if your party lets him act, you're in deep doggie-doo. (Barring a certain Swordmage daily that no solo can cope with)
If I were to blame anyone, I'd blame the event organizers/designers. Quick, is it appropriate for heroic-tier characters to take on a demon lord and have any chance of success? Heck, even paragon-tier characters should have had no chance. Saying "Oh, the elves' mythal weakens him" is a cop-out. I don't recall seeing Dagon's Intelligence when I ran him, but I'll bet it's high enough for him to know to immobilize melee attackers far away, and ranged attackers near. Is that fun for the players? No (and that's why I didn't do it at my table). But don't put words in keithric's mouth, and don't blame the DM for running the final boss as intelligently as he could.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 10, 2012 - 5:18AM
#93
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2005
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It depends also on the choices the PCs make. They can opt for a ormal fight or for a hard fight. If you go for the hard fight...e xpect a HARD fight. And that does mean all the dirty tricks the monster has.If Don't pick the hard option if you don't want a hard fight that you may loose.
Pierre
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1 year ago ::
Mar 17, 2012 - 9:15AM
#94
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1 - As I pointed out above, my table fought the easier version of Dagon. When the 2-minute warning sounded, we had just barely bloodied him. He managed to jump over the rest of the group and touch a pillar. The only thing between him and the edge of the map was the ticking timer - oh, and me, at 3 HP and down to my Last-Chance Desperation daily (burst, slide, push). I could not get it off in time. Had we had all night, Dagon would have gotten away, with us shooting at him from behind. We were not being immobilized (save ends), we were just being overmatched.
2 - Did whoever wrote up the Myth Nantar certs play 'Dawn to Dusk' at PentaCon? The thing about taking a beholder's eyestalk is exactly my trophy from the last fight there, where I took down the beholder (well, I did have help) and used up both my Dailies to do it.
P.S. Dawn to Dusk works as a 'Special Forces' scenario - PentaCon was really small last year - and it is the only BI that I have been in where that statement is true; most BIs NEED the big crowd to feel right.
Best complements I have yet received: Spoiler:
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Making it up as I go along:
{BRJN}
If I was writing the Tome of Lore, I would let Auppenser sleep. But I also would have him dream.
In his dreaming he re-activates the innate powers of (some) mortal minds. Or his dreaming changes the nature of reality - currently very malleable thanks to Spellplague &c. Or whatever really cool flavor text and pseudo-science explanation people react positively to.
{Lord_Karsus}
You know, I like that better than the explanations for the Spellplague.
My plot device: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/ … #489880509 (The reaction is the next post.)
Prepped ahead of time:
I started the thread "1001 Failed Interrogation Results"
{ADHadh}
These are all good and make sense! I just can't come up with something that's not covered here and is not completely ridiculous.
My characters: Spoiler:
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Active Characters:
LFR Half-elf StarLock6 Gondolin Nightstar
AoA Dwarf Guardian Druid6 Narvik from House Wavir
Character A-building:
Neverwinter Dwarven Invoker / Heir of Delzoun / worships Silvanus (!)
"Truenamer" - speaks Words of Creation
Concepts I'm kicking around:
"Buggy" Wizard - insect flavor on everything
Halfling Tempest Fighter - just because nobody else is doing it
Shifter Beast-o-phile Druid - for PoL campaign
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1 year ago ::
Apr 03, 2012 - 10:14AM
#95
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Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2009
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I notice this mod is still not available on the public play request, although DDXP was over two months ago. Are there some revisions occurring? I'd like to request this for a convention over Memorial Day weekend.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 03, 2012 - 6:25PM
#96
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2011
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If you are reading this post and wishing that you had a chance to play this BI, join us on April 21st in Columbia, MD! Details are available at: warhorn.net/columbia-md-dnd/
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 12:56AM
#97
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Having just played the game at Columbia, I wanted to ask about the XP. The numbers for this, and From Dawn til Dusk seem disturbingly low compared to the earlier BIs, for an AL 16 table with total sucesses on 4/6 of the tasks and the entire 2nd half (or total sucesses in every encounter in ADCP 3-2), you earn 2800 less xp than you would for the same number of encounters in Swarm of Chaos or 4660 less xp than Paladin's Plague. Heck, the P2 High xp from Paladin's Plague was higher than the AL 18 xp in this one or fDtD by roughly half an encounter.
I know you've switched to this base xp + objective xp system, but it certainly feels like we're being cheated out of 2/3 of a mods worth of xp here.
"Invokers are probably better round after round but Wizard dailies are devastating. Actually, devastating is too light a word. Wizard daily powers are soul crushing, encounter ending, havoc causing pieces of awesome." -AirPower25 Sear the Flesh, Purify the Soul; Harden the Heart, and Improve the Mind; Born of Blood, but Forged by Fire; The MECH warrior reaches perfection. My Guides
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 3:37AM
#98
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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I am sure the admins will thank you for pointing out the errors in the XP rewards of the older BI's. They were obviously too high, but I think it would be unfair to ask the players of Swarm of Chaos or Paladin's Plague to deduct XP from their current total. Too much time has passed.
Additionally the concept of "being cheated out of XP" is just weird to me.
To DME, or not to DME: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous powergaming, Or to take arms against a sea of Munchkins, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more;
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 11:47AM
#99
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Date Joined:
Aug 21, 2008
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I am sure the admins will thank you for pointing out the errors in the XP rewards of the older BI's. They were obviously too high, but I think it would be unfair to ask the players of Swarm of Chaos or Paladin's Plague to deduct XP from their current total. Too much time has passed.
Additionally the concept of "being cheated out of XP" is just weird to me.
Battle interactives are harder to run and play. I have to wonder why they're not worth any more than two standard modules. It doesn't really match the expecations of high risk, high reward: I'm better off playing two SPECs, if that's what I want. Honestly, the last two SPECs that I played were cakewalks compared to my BI experiences.
I killed Aleena.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 12:02PM
#100
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2005
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I didn't write, edit or do the xp/gp for this particular adventure, so I can't speak to what the intent was or should have been, but I will say that if you are only playing solely because you want xp/gp/story awards and not any enjoyment of the unique sort of experience, yes, you would be better off playing easier adventures and getting the same rewards. If, however, you played it for the fun and challenge, well, its hard to find anything else like a BI. I know I have always LOVED them myself and I try to never turn on down, even though I know not everyone will be spectacular.
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