Newsgroup: it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd
Titolo: QUARTA edizione 4th - angelo della vendetta

la profezia della sacerdotessa e l'angelo della vendetta
http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=52462&pagemode=2&blogid=2948
4E Campaign Report - Creating Dynamic Encounters
Posted By: WotC_GregB, 3/24/2008 5:12:08 PM
It's been some time since I've talked about my Prophecy of the
Priestess campaign, so I've decided to devote some time talking about
last week's encounter.
    For the past several months, the characters in my campaign have
been relentlessly making their way toward a barbarian nation in an
effort to avert a war. During our last game session, they finally
crossed the border into the hostile nation of barbarian tribes. This
triggered several events, the most significant of which was a
challenging fight.
    For the past few sessions, the PCs have faced exhausting fights as
they fought their way through abandoned smuggler that led under a
river and into the barbarian lands. Each fight became harder and
harder (and it didn't help that two of the fights had only three PCs
present). However, grells and six-headed hydras could not compete with
the climactic battle that was to take place in town on the night of
the PCs' arrival.
    The choice of creature was determined by several factors. I always
try to delicately choose each creature that appears in my campaign.
Each creature has a reason for appearing where it does, even if the
PCs don't always discover that reason. I knew I wanted a formidable
creature--something that would shake the PCs resolve, and I wanted it
to have some tie in to the story. I had an inkling of an idea, which
led me to search a pdf of the monster manual for the word, "revenge."
The result gave me the creature: an Angel of Vengeance.
    In 3E, I was always reluctant to unleash an angel on the PCs and
instead used them as allies and NPCs. However, I have no such
reservations with 4E. At first, I was concerned because the creature
was 9 levels above the PCs and an elite to boot. My concerns were
quelled, though, by my desire to see how the character would handle
the challenge.
    The coming of the angel was the result of the actions of Gerheart,
the mischievous pyro wizard played by Chris Tulach. He and the elf
paladin (who was trying to keep the wizard out of trouble) played by
Michele Carter managed to thoroughly *** off a seer who was the head
of the church in the nation they'd previously been traveling through.
(How they angered the seer is another story altogether). The seer had
been biding her time, waiting until the PCs crossed into hostile lands
before releasing this creature upon them.
    As usual, the encounter went not at all how I expected. The angel
tore through the side of the inn and into the room where the PCs were
staying. It immediately scanned the room and found the target it sought
--Gerheart--who had incurred most of the seer's wrath. However, by a
stroke of fortune (for Gerheart), Valinae (the paladin) managed to act
before the angel and issued a divine challenge to the angel.
    Well that got the angel's attention (and also spared Gerheart from
being the target of the angel's sign of vengeance). The angel turned
its full attention to Valinae, unleashing ice and fire. The group
members at first attempted to attack, but they quickly realized that
the creature's defenses were great, so a retreat was called.
    The only problem was that over half the group wouldn't retreat.
Valinae remained fighting the thing even as it did 40-50 damage per
round. She was trying to cover the escape so the others could get out.
However the warlord, Mal, refused to leave Valinae alone to fight it,
and the rogue, Whisper, wouldn't leave because he just didn't want to
leave. So while half the group jumped out of the window, climbing (or
falling) the 50 feet down to street, the others remained in the room
fighting, unleashing daily powers and hoping for criticals.
    Eventually (after Valinae had gone through about five times her
max hp), she was able to urge Whisper and Mal to leave, following just
behind them. The angel was relentless, though, and it quickly followed
after them. The result was that the battle was taken to ground level.
The warlord, meanwhile, was joined by three NPCs (who the characters
had successfully befriended in a previous interaction), and headed
down the stairs to join the fight.
    The dragonborn rogue, Kriv, and Gerheart had recovered the horses,
hoping to outrun the angel, and they were just riding up as the battle
moved to the street. At about that point, out of the darkness emerged
a chimeric form that the PCs recognized as the malignly transformed
priestess (after whom the campaign is named; see my previous playtest
reports for more info). The PCs had recently come to suspect that she
might be an ally, and so in a valiant effort to show friendship, the
paladin threw down her sword, despite still being engaged by the angel
of vengeance. Encouraged by Valinae's actions and their calls for
help, the chimeric form descended on the angel, joining the fray just
as the game session came to a close for the night.
    Half the PCs were without encounter and daily powers, and they had
not yet even bloodied the creature. Still, the encounter promises to
be a climactic battle because with the PCs now joined by allies, they
might just stand a chance. I'm eager to see how it all plays out.
    This encounter goes to show that it's difficult to predict how the
PCs will handle an encounter, and it becomes even harder to anticipate
their recourse as the encounter's difficulty goes up. I would have
never anticipated they'd stay fight as long as they would, nor that
they would gain the trust of all the NPCs.
    In addition to trying to make every encounter have some tidbit of
story behind it, I'm also learning how to create more dynamic
encounters. This is something I've observed from Chris Perkins's game.
There's almost always some kind of twist, surprise, or dynamic element
of the encounter. Sometimes its subtle--after all, if you do a surprise
every time, it makes each surprise less significant. It could be a
trap that springs mid-battle, or a creature that calls another
creature to its aid, or the terrain could turn out to be a dangerous
slime that grasps at your feet. Forcing the PCs to adapt to different
situations and circumstances encourages them to think outside the box,
which in the end, makes the payoff much greater. Providing subtleties
that characters can use to their advantage gives a sense of
satisfaction when a player picks up on that detail, and it encourages
all the players to pay closer attention to what's going on. Maybe this
isn't the best kind of encounter for the hack-n-slash player, but even
the hack-n-slash player can enjoy the encounter when he takes
advantage of a giant chasm into which he pushes an enemy. These days,
I'm thinking about upcoming battles weeks in advance, brainstorming
ideas when I'm driving my car or going to bed, trying to think of the
next best way to bring originality to the encounter.
ricordo solo che una differenza di 9 livelli è meno grave di quel che
era nella 3' edizione, anche se questo è un elite e quindi lo rende
più impegnativo ma i personaggi hanno il vantaggio del numero.....
--
Fabio

profezia della sacerdotessa dal punto di vista della giocatrice del
paladino
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4126942&postcount=20
*laughs* Maybe I can expand on this a little. Interesting encounter--
to me, it really highlighted the defender role and the worth of the
paladin as a damage-sink. I knew it before, but seeing it in full
action was impressive.
(It was, BTW, Gerhart who did most of the aforementioned ****ing off.
Valenae tried to keep him out of trouble, but failed; by this point,
she has determined that she is no longer responsible for his actions.
Will fight beside him, yes, but she is not going to sacrifice herself
for his troublemaking again. Even a paladin has limits.)
But they wouldn't @#%%#@$ retreat! (Although, to be honest, when the
thing showed up Valenae didn't really think there was any chance of
escape anyway. What, an *angel* is going to be deterred if we jumped
out a window?) It was clear very quickly that we could barely hit the
thing, much less damage it, and Valenae was all set to cover the
retreat...which kept. Being. DELAYED because people wouldn't leave.
Went "through about five times her max hp"--yep, and used every
healing resource I had, and those of the party, to do so. I think
she's got a handful of healing surges left, but no way to access them,
so tonight's game should be interesting. Still, I *liked* the fact
that I could soak up that much damage and keep the rest of the party
from harm.
"the paladin threw down her sword"-- desperation move. We saw the
priestess's form in the sky, and Valenae knew that she was at the end
of her rope...and if the angel started hitting other party members,
they were dead. In my head, it was more elegant than described: she
turned toward the creature, bowed, laid her sword down on the ground
in front of it as a sign of peace and allegiance, and turned back to
engage the still-challenged angel with only her shield and her fists.
Like I said, she's out of healing options and down to at-will powers
(that aren't hitting anyway), so tonight we'll see how long Valenae
lasts....
__________________
Michele Carter, RPG Senior Editor, Wizards of the Coast
--
Fabio

Profezia della Sacerdotessa
dal blog di Greg Bisland
http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=53126&pagemode=2&blogid=2948
qualche info su i rituali (speack with dead, raise dead) e il fatto
che sono meno certi nell'uso
qualche info su spell di wizard (varie di attacco elementale,
invisibilità e blur)
come cambia un mostro a bloodied (esplosione, riduzione difese)
cosa s'intende per un incontro bilanciato (un mostro di 8+ livelli
maggiore del party ha difese quasi insuperabili)
alcuni modi per superare queste difese (i daily che fanno metà danni
anche quando falliscono)
buona lettura
4E Campaign Report - Part 2
Posted By: WotC_GregB, 3/27/2008 12:43:29 PM
This is a follow-up to my Monday blog, in which I described the PCs'
encounter with a creature far beyond their level. The creature they
faced was an Angel of Vengeance, a level 19 elite brute. As a result
of being a brute, the creature was doling out massive damage. By the
time we resumed the encounter on Tuesday, the party had no healing
left. Valinae had used all her lay on hands, and the healing word and
inspiring word powers were exhausted as well.
As the battle resumed, things were looking grim despite the allies the
party had gained.
The angel continued to focus its attacks on Valinae, dividing blows
between her and the Bear Queen (the chimeric creature that had joined
them at the end of last session). Valinae was forced to resort to
basic attacks in an attempt to circumvent the angel's resistance to
her radiant attacks. Meanwhile, the chimera's elemental attacks were
also of little aid because of the angel's resistances. Although not
normally high on defense, this brute was high enough in level (and had
a special ability to reduce attack rolls) that PCs and NPCs alike were
doing everything to try to hit the creature. The NPCs (who were at or
below the level of the PCs) ended up using the aid another action to
help the rogues hit.
Nonetheless, the battle started to drag a bit. As characters exhausted
their daily and encounter powers, it became obvious that the battle
was going on too long. In the future, I think I'll avoid throwing
creatures of such higher level at the PCs (even if they have allies).
Although a challenge is good, it's frustrating to miss so frequently.
This is a danger with throwing higher-level solo monsters at a party
as well. The higher defenses drastically reduce the baseline PC attack
success. In Chris Perkins's game, our group often gets around high
defense monsters by using indirect damage, such as ongoing damage or
the marking effect imposed by the paladin's divine challenge. Many
daily powers do half damage on a miss, and this also helps bring down
high-defense, high-level monsters. However, this group had few such
powers that could beat the creature's resistances. If it had been 5
levels lower, that probably would have been more reasonable.
A few rounds after the battle started to drag, things turned around
and got more interesting. The paladin, Valinae, was felled by one of
the angel's hits, and though an NPC was there to stabilize her, she'd
already used her second wind and so couldn't rejoin the battle. At
about the same time, Kriv scored a critical hit for about 40 damage,
finally bloodying the angel. The result was an explosion of fire that
consumed the 5 or 6 characters surrounding the creature. Not only
that, it knocked Valinae precariously close to death. However,
bloodying the creature also had the benefit of lowering its defenses
some, so the battle started to speed up.
The angel was doing about 20 damage with each hit, but Whisper (and to
some extent Kriv) were able to do almost that amount when they got
sneak attack. The angel was focusing its attacks on the toughest of
the adversaries (the chimera), but after a few powerful hits from
Whisper, the creature turned its attention to the rogue and felled him
in one round. This shows a good distinction between the paladin (who
managed to tank the angel for about 10 rounds) and the rogue...who
managed to tank it...not very long. Rob also built Whisper has a high
damage yield rogue, so while his damage output is good, his durability
is poor.
He was revived and retreated out of harm's way. At this point, the
wizard finally rejoined the battle from a distance. Gerheart had made
a tactical decision (and a wise one at that) to stay hidden from the
angel. He remained out of sight using a combination of blur and
invisibility (and probably survived because of it). He faced a dilemma
because most of his elemental spells would do little or no damage to
the angel, so he turned to one of his few non-elemental spells--
stinking cloud.
The combination of the NPCs aiding the rogues in their attacks, plus
the chimera's vicious attacks, plus the persistent poison damage,
quickly reduced the angel's hp, but not before it was able to fell the
chimera. When we'd started the battle in the previous session, I
suspected the PCs might be able to kill the angel before this happened
(given they had acquired the NPC allies). Unfortunately with Sammy
(the warlord) out this session, it tipped things back in the favor of
the angel. So despite having used its second wind, the chimera was
mortally wounded just as the group was able to finish off the angel.
What followed the battle was a surprise to me. During the fight, the
town's barbarian clan fighters had carefully watched the PCs. I
expected a fight to ensue, but the PCs successfully delayed an
encounter until after they recovered. Afterward, they spoke to the
town's authority who was prejudiced against them. An argument over the
body of the Bear Queen ensued, but through a strange combination of
honesty and deception (in the form of a social encounter), the PCs
were able to not only escape the town without a fight but also were
able to leave with the now-transformed corpse of the queen of the
barbarian nation. Next session should be interesting when they use the
Speak with Dead ritual.
There was some talk about attempting a Raise Dead ritual on the Bear
Queen, but I think the players have gauged what the result would be.
Because many rules and rituals are not so cut-and-dry as in 3rd
edition, it leaves the DM the prerogative to do what's best for the
story. For that reason, the characters might glean some information
from the Speak with Dead ritual because it can help the story without
giving everything away. On the other hand, if they were to raise one
of the main NPCs who has been at the crux of the story and conflict,
it would, in a way, cheapen the story.
I feel that if important personages can just be raised with a simple
Raise Dead ritual, then assassination, intrigue, and even war become
somewhat obsolete. With a ritualist always standing by to perform
Raise Dead, it would eliminate a lot of potential plot material. I
never much liked the resurrection and raise dead spells in 3rd
edition. In fact, for almost 4 years my DM ran a campaign without
them, and we never really missed them. Character died often enough to
make death feel like a threat. Yet it was never that frustrating. In a
story driven campaign, I like to feel like death is more a plot device
than a mechanics piece. If my paladin was to sacrifice himself to save
the rest of the party, I wouldn't want them to turn around and raise
him. I suppose that's why 4th edition gives the DM more prerogative.
Although you want your players to be happy and enjoy the game,
sometimes it's important to make a call for the good of the story and
not for the consistency of mechanics.
--
Fabio