The party consisted of a Eladrin Wizard, Elvish Ranger (talk about the stereotypes), a Half-Elf Rogue and a Dwarven (Dwarvish?) Fighter. Â The encounter was as standard goblin (for me) ambush, artillery to prevent running by shooting the dray animals and generate harassing fire while foot troops go into keep things occupied and in general smash things up.
Players failed passive perception checks to note the 2 Goblin Sharpshooters. The 6 Goblin MInions and 2 Goblin Warriors were for all intents and purposes undetectable they were so far back in the woods along the road. That’s why they didn’t do anything but double move the surprise round and the only attack was the Sharpshooters.
Surprise Round:
Sharphooter A: Shoots, rolls 20, (things are starting off well for the bad guys!) for max damage.
Sharpshooter B: Shoots, rolls hit, rolls only 1 point short of max damage on damage dice.
(DM: I essentially dropped the mule at this point. I know that the riding horse had more points than the bad guys dealt (total of 31) but this mule was old and feeble so I essentially keyed their car so to speak and had it drop in its tracks squealing on the ground tangled up in the traces)
Initiative Round:
Goblins rolled really well on initiative. One 20 and two high teens. But Lacee has Improved Initiative and Mog and Ironfist rolled excellent as well. So the order ended up:
- Lacee
- Goblin Minions
- Mog
- Ironfist
- Sharpshooters
- Warriors
- Darta.
(DM: I’ve put the PC’s current health in parens next to their names at the start of their turn)
Round 1:
Lacee(26): Uses Hunter’s Quarry + Twin Strike on Sniper, miss, miss, uses Eleven Accuracy, hits sniper.
Goblin Minions: Reserve their action still out of sight of the road.
Mog(24) – Uses Sly Flourish with her hand crossbow. Miss. Attaches crossbow to belt as she runs after Sharpshooter on the right.
(DM: The amount of incoming is still unknown, only the two sharpshooters are visible)
Ironfist(33): Shoots his heavy crossbow at sharpshooter on the left. Miss. Move action to reload. He doesn’t want to get too far from the wagon just yet.
Sharpshooter A: Shoots Lacee for 7, moves behind cover, reloads.
Sharpshooter B: Shoots at oncoming Mog, misses, drops crossbow and draws sword.
Warrior A: Moves up into sight. Uses Great Position power and hurls javelin at Darta and misses.
Warrior B: Moves up into sight. Uses Great Position power and hurls javelin at Lacee and misses.
Goblin Minions (DM: reserved to go after warriors): Double moves up into sight passing Warriors and heading toward wagon and assorted PC’s.
Darta(25): Uses Scorching Burst to catch Warrior and two Minions in blast. Misses both minions, hits Warrior B for 7 damage.
(DM: I don’t always record the damage done but if I did I’ll reiterate it here.)
Round 2:
Lacee(19): Shifts one to get out of melee range and avoid OA’s. Uses Twin Strike and gets one crit and one miss on Minions running at her. Same ones that were missed by Darta’s Scorching BLast.
(DM: Characters don’t know who minons are until they hit them.)
Goblin Minion A: Hits Ironfist for 4 damage
Goblin Minion B: Hits Ironfist for 4 damage.
Goblin Minion C: Moves, hits Lacee reducing her to 14 damage.
Goblin Minion D: Tries to move past Lacee to get Combat Advantage. Ends up getting dead from Opportunity Attack from Lacee.
Mog(24): Moves after Sharpshooter again, draws Shortsword, uses Sly Flourish and hits for 11 damage.
(DM: Mog gets +7 damage on Sly Flourish, nothing to sneeze at all. And entirely non-powergamed)
Ironfist(25): Drops his bow, minor to draw Maul and uses Cleave on minions. Hits one, killing it and Cleave damage kills second one.
Sharpshooter A: Failed stealth check, shoots and misses Ironfist.
Sharpshooter B: Swings at Mog, hits taking her down to 19.
Warrior A: Moves at a slant and uses Great Position to hurl Javelin at Ironfist and hits leaving IF with 17 hit points.
(DM: Great Position by the way adds 1d6 damage to the goblins ranged attack if they move 4+ squares from where they started).
Warrior B: Climbs up onto wagon after Darta, wagon ruled Difficult Terrain so he’s unable to do more than move this turn.
Darta(25): Uses Fey Step to move 5 squares in front of wagon away from slavering goblin warrior and uses Force Orb on Warrior A and a minion. Kills Minion but misses Warrior.
Round 3:
Lacee(14): Shifts to get out of melee range, uses Twin Strike on Sharpshooter A with one hit and one miss. Uses minor to Hunter Quarry nearest goblin.
Minion A (last one): Shifts and hits Lacee reducing her to 10 hit points.
Mog(19): Uses Diletannte power, Nimble Strike to shift 1, misses attack, then shift 1 to put Sharpshooter B between it and the wagon so she can see how her friends were doing.
(DM: That had no real tactical value but was a roleplaying thing)
Ironfist(17): Moves up to Warrior A and misses. (Probably Sure Strike but didn’t note it)
Sharpshooter A: Shoots at Darta and hits reducing her to 19 health and moves to gain concealment.
Sharpshooter B: Misses Mog
Warrior B: Moves off wagon using Great Position to hurl javelin and hits Darta reducing her to 11 hit points.
Warrior A: Stand its ground against the dwarf and jabs him with a spear hitting Ironfist and reducing the warrior to 12 hit points.
Darta(11): More than a little concerned, getting shot from two locations, uses Acid Arrow against Warrior B and hits.
(DM: Actually splashing acid on the mule and finishing it off at this point)
Round 4:
Lacee(10): After calculating the moves, tosses her bow down, pulls scimitar with minor, pulls dagger using move action and uses Twin Strike on minion. She hits with scimitar and dagger both, dead minion.
Mog(19): Shifts 1, uses Sly Flourish, misses.
Ironfist(12): Uses Sure Strike and misses.
Sharpshooter B: Uses shortsword against Mog and hits reducing her to 14 health.
(DM: Kinda humorous, two stealth classes ending up in a shortsword duel where neither can use their best powers against the other)
Sharpshooter A: Gains stealth and shoots Ironfist in the back for 15 damage taking our doughty warrior down to negative three.
(DM: Man down! Man down!)
Warrior B: Takes 5 damage from Darta, moves and uses Great Position and hits Darta reducing her to 1 health.
(DM: Ouch.)
Darta(1): Uses standard action to use Second Wind. Spends Action Point to use Magic Missile and rolls exactly what she needed to hit and drops Warrior B one square away.
Round 5:
Lacee(10): Minor action to Hunter’s Quarry Warrior B, moves to melee and Twin Strike for a miss and a miss.
Mog(14): Sly flourishes Sharpshooter B and htis for 13 damage. With the dwarf down and Darta reeling, uses Action Point to use Sly Flourish again and hits one more time for 12 points of damage. Go go rogue! Sharpshooter B is down.
Ironfist(-3): Death save, no change.
Sharpshooter A: Moves out of sight behind bushes and trees with two move and run actions to pop up near Warrior A.
Warrior A: Move, uses Great Position, misses Lacee.
Darta(7): Moves up to Ironfist and performs Heal Check against DC 15 with 0 skill. But manages somehow to stop the bleeding and Ironfist is stabilized.
Round 6:
Lacee(10): Picks up bow and Splits the Tree, shooting at Sharpshooter and Warrior, first roll a miss, second roll a hit! 15 damage to both.
Mog(14): Sheathes sword, unsheath crossbow, moves up.
Ironfist (-3): Lays unconcous
Sharshooter A: Shoots Darta and hits for 10 damage. Reducing her to -3 and down goes the wizard.
Warrior A: Moves at an angle to get clear of sharpshooter so Lacee can’t keep hitting them both and uses Great Position and hits Lacee reducing her to 3 health.
Darta(-3): Death save but no change.
Round 7:
Lacee(3): Two Fang Strike on Sharpshooter. One miss and one hit for 14 damage and down goes Sharpshooter A.
Mog(14): Reloads crossbow, moves (gaining flanking), shoots and hits Warrior A for 13 damage
(DM: Leaving it with 1)
Ironfist(-3): Contemplates things in his stabalized unconcious state.
Warrior A: Charges at Lacee with spear and rolls…. a one.
Darta(-3): Death save but no change.
Round 8:
Lacee(3): Hunter Quarries, has Combat Advantage from flanking, Twin Strikes Warrior hitting once and killing it.
Mog(14): Moves to Darta and tries to Heal. Fails.
Ironfist(-3): Dances a jig, okay actually he’s still unconcious.
Darta(-3): Rolls a 20 and self stablizes and spends healing sure.
Wrapup:
We get Ironfist properly stablized to the point where he can spend a surge and everyone surges up to full health and they take a break to get their encounter powers back. Darta and Lacee both used their Dailies, Acid Arrow and Splitting the Tree to good effect and Darta would almost definitely have dropped before stabalizing Ironfist if she hadn’t. Warrior B was one square away from ripping her a new one.
So now we have four characters stuck on the road several miles from camp with a heavy wagon load of supplies and four characters back at the tower working on it and it’ll be a day or two before they start to wonder what’s wrong.
Things that could have gone better were a few. The use of Second WInd earlier before things got critical. Ironfist could have used his Comeback Strike but Cleave was a better option at the time and he wanted to use it on that javelin flingin’ son of a bitch but delayed one round too long.
Mistakes, I was handing out bonus damage in a couple of places where I was adding in +STR or +DEX when it should have been weapon only.
But there you have it a round by round byplay of an encounter in 4th Edition.
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