Anyway building characters takes some significant time especially if you’re just familiar with the system and the players aren’t at all so it’s very much a bit of a learning curve still. But we persevered and got the characters statted out. Then I just continued the little Tower encounter with the two of them tagging out the Fighter and the Warlock to go downstairs and clean out the basement.
As they got to the top of the stairs and gazed down into the darkness of the steps leading down we realized that we’d neglected to equip them with equipment. At this point the Paladin kind offered to let the Warlord go first. A quick trip to the store and we’re back with a chain covered Warlord wielding a Maul (Why a maul you ask? Because it’s a 2d6 weapon.) and a Plate wearin’ Paladin with a Battleaxe, hand axe and crossbow.
They make a bundle of burnable stuff, light it and toss it down into the room below. A quick glance around and they see a room littered with dark shapes, barrels, boxes, piles of lumber and the like. Our brave Paladin heard some scuffling noises and was pretty sure that there were more goblins down there.
They descended the steps and out leaped five goblins and initiative was rolled. The group met near one side of the room and the goblins quickly ended up surrounding the Paladin in the first round with one keeping the Warlord busy. As the Paladin was dealing as best as he could a goblin blackblade emerged from the shadows and got in a good strike due to the combat advantage bonus they get.
But our duo was ready to rumble and through the use of the Warlord’s ability to arrange the battlefield they got the Paladin with his back to a wall next to the Warlord negating the upper hand the goblins were getting from flanking and they proceeded to destroy the goblins. The blackblade attempt to move in order to stealth behind some of the debris in the room but the Paladin had a watchful eye on him and his attempt failed. As the goblins dropped like rain (they were mooks), one turned and ran and escaped, another turned and ran and was cut down in its tracks due to attacks of opportunity.
The Blackblade was defnitely thinking stealth might be the better part of valor when a sling bullet hit him in the noggin which decided it for him. He broke and ran for the stairs and caught the hand axe in his left ass cheek as the Paladin let fly.
They gave chase but as they stopped to attack, the blackblade was able to put on a burst of speed and disappear outside from there it was over as there was no way they could have caught him.
All in all the Warlord is a pretty cool class IMO with the way it can direct attacks and shift comrades around although it does require a cohesive front line for some of its abilities to work well. Players scattered willy nilly negate a lot of what the Warlord can bring to the table. The Paladin was what it was, a big hulking tank, filling that front line and keeping the evil at bay.
If I get a chance I’ll do a fictionlized write up as well but don’t hold your breath waiting. My writing skills are atrophied and it’s slow going.
Obviously these two images aren’t quite right but lets see you find a Tiefling Warlord and a Dragonborn Paladin image on short notice.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
[...] and Mog the Rogue (and here she is) have made another trip to town leaving the other four members (and here’s something on them) back at the tower working after the goblin attack left them bereft of a palisade around their [...]