Revenge of the Iron Lich - episode 02
Channel: Stephen Chast
Date: 2013-04-07

This is the session of Revenge of the Iron Lich that I ran for International Tabletop Day.
Our thanks to Kirwan's Game Store in Catskill NY for allowing ups to use their basement and for the loan of the camera equipment!

This game has a 4-hour time limit and no scheduled breaks. This is part 2 of 9. 

Meet my players! (from left to right)
Anthony: Human Swordmage/Artificer
Jen: Eladrin Wizards (battlemage)
Tom: Halfling Rogue (Essentials' Theif)
Todd: Dwarven Cleric (unknown)
Grace: Elven Ranger (unknown)

Last session: We begin the game. The players get bogged down in the first room when they draw The Summoner from the Deck of Mortals. A balor appears and the players make their first moves.

This session: This entire session is the remainder of the fight with the balor. The players try to effect a fighting retreat and manage to make good use of the columns as cover. The enemy is knocked prone, allowing those in melee to safely disengage.

This is the second time that I've had a group draw The Summoner. The first group chose to fight and managed to bloody the beast before it vanished at the end of the third round. This group took it down by about 1/3.

You'll notice that Todd is very busy with his character sheet. He and his wife, Grace, made their characters the night before. Not familiar with 4e, they broke down and subscribed to the Insider for access to the character builder. I think they were overwhelmed by the choices offered and, as such, they didn't build as good or familiar of a character as they might have if they stuck to the first PHB.

In fact, the reason why we started an hour late was because we re-build Todd's dwarven cleric on the spot just before the game. Grace's elven ranger seemed much better put together at a glace, so nothing was done with her character. In this segment, Todd notices that she had a melee focused power despite being a ranged fighter. He made a substitution at the table, which I allowed this once due to their unfamiliarity with the system. 

After the game, Todd mentions that he would have liked to see this game at a lower level. I assured him that I have plenty of low-level adventures in a similar vein that I can run. I sincerely hope that their experience with high level play didn't sour them from trying the other adventures some day.

If you noticed that Tom's sheet looks different, it's because I made it for him. Several weeks before, I helped Tom create the an Essential's rogue, took the notes home, and typed them up. I did all the pre-calculations, made notes on strategy, and even color-coded the powers (though his printer did screw up the colors).