vageta31
2011-02-19, 01:47 PM
Well I finally got to try my first pnp 3.5e session last night and had a lot of fun. Actually more fun than I anticipated. We had all given our backstories to the DM a week ago and so he set up a scenario where we were all able to meet eachother the first time. He's a first time DM, but I think he did a pretty good job, and since most of us are pretty new I don't think we had any specific expectations other than to have fun.
Cool thing is I was able to use a lot of different skills during this session and got a much better grasp at how combat rounds and overall skill checks work. I've read the PHB front to back, but it was just one of those things I had to actually experience in real time to grasp it completely.
I one shotted a guy in the first 10 minutes of play as I was hidden and threw 2 darts. First one missed but 2nd one got my SA bonus and took him out. That luck turned sour later down in the night when I was attacking a hyena... that I missed 4 rounds in a row while TWF! However the hyena missed me every time as well so we both whiffed 4 attack rounds in a row. I finally get to make a hit while the hyena turns and charges another guy who had just hit him with a crossbow. So basically I can't hit him for **** but as soon as he turns and runs I'm finally able to stab him from behind. Sad but expected as I don't have weapon finesse and my +2 str bonus is just enough to negate the TWF -2/-2. Can't wait for level 2 to take swashbuckler and get my damn weapon finesse.
Some highlights of the evening:
-Dm gives us a piece of paper before we start which basically sets up each of us to how we are going to enter the opening scenario. On this paper he also gives us each a little something based off of our back stories. I walked a way with a free combat reflexes feat. I had put in my backstory that my mentor had trained me how to make precise attacks, taking advantage of my enemies when they were caught off guard. DM adds that I was taught something valuable as my last lesson. While practicing my precision attacks I was knocked out from behind. When I awoke my mentor simply said never be so focused on your own attacks that you turn your back to enemies, and if they ever do so to you then you punish them twice as hard.
Very nice to have a free feat to take advantage of. Also since my story had me grow up in the presence of nobles(though I am not myself), he gave me a +2 bonus to all bluff/diplomacy/intent versus nobility.
-My buddy from work who is playing a half-orc fighter, who is intent on role playing his guy, kept getting himself into trouble. He was tied up and I had pulled my dagger and offered to cut him loose if he understood I was not one of the humans that attacked him. Instead of agreeing he decides to try and yank the dagger from my hand "because that's what a half-orc would do!" he claimed. So I roll and easily dodge his attempt(he doesn't fathom the reflex bonus of a rogue compared to his **** dex hehe) and in return I take a stab at his hand. In which I did 6 damage with my dagger and took him down to half of his hps.
-Half-orc again... Insists on having a donkey with saddlebags. That was our total comic theme for the night, the half-orc and his damn donkey. The guy is a lot of fun but I can see he may not last long. He get's impatient for fighting OOC and his character is extremely impatient as well so it might be a short life for that guy. At least we have a willing meat shield for me to flank with.
-In a situation where I had to leave my weapons in a room, I successfully used my sleight of hand to hide a dagger in my clothes. Ranger buddy spotted me to do and decides he wants to try.. to which he fails horrible and I basically tell him not to try as his dagger is clearly showing.
-Ranger goes unconcious.. twice in the first night. Once in our first fight and was down to -5. Second time during out hyena fight and he got to -3. Our gnome wizard tried to cast while in threat range of a hyena and gets his hand basically bit off trying to cast a spell and goes down to 1 hp. I on the other hand was able to dodge every single attack at me and remained totally unharmed.
-We were investigating a grain mill where someone had gone missing. In which we find hyenas dining on the corpses of a couple dwarfs from the local church. Who happen to be acquaintences of our dwarf cleric. The orc insists on eating the dwarves, to which the cleric immediately threats to attack him if he tries because we were not to mess with the bodies, so I suggested if he was hungry to just eat the hyenas. (The half-orc rolled super wimply size numbers.. basically he's 6`2", 190 and that's after he rolled a 170 and DM said reroll again. So he has this infatuation with eating because he wants to bulk up.) Anyways everyone decides to leave and I tell them I'm going out the back door(from which I had snuck in) and check for anything else and will meet them up front. So of course I search the bodies and take the daggers and gold from the dead dwarves and hastily rejoin the group.
All in all a good time and looking forward to next week. The DM gave us all our exp points and then gave us each a bonus of 100 points to give to the others in any way we pleased based on our roleplaying. Which I think was really cool so it will encourage others to roleplay their character more. I walked away with an extra hundred which was nice. Really can't wait for next week, we have a good mystery scenario going.
Cool thing is I was able to use a lot of different skills during this session and got a much better grasp at how combat rounds and overall skill checks work. I've read the PHB front to back, but it was just one of those things I had to actually experience in real time to grasp it completely.
I one shotted a guy in the first 10 minutes of play as I was hidden and threw 2 darts. First one missed but 2nd one got my SA bonus and took him out. That luck turned sour later down in the night when I was attacking a hyena... that I missed 4 rounds in a row while TWF! However the hyena missed me every time as well so we both whiffed 4 attack rounds in a row. I finally get to make a hit while the hyena turns and charges another guy who had just hit him with a crossbow. So basically I can't hit him for **** but as soon as he turns and runs I'm finally able to stab him from behind. Sad but expected as I don't have weapon finesse and my +2 str bonus is just enough to negate the TWF -2/-2. Can't wait for level 2 to take swashbuckler and get my damn weapon finesse.
Some highlights of the evening:
-Dm gives us a piece of paper before we start which basically sets up each of us to how we are going to enter the opening scenario. On this paper he also gives us each a little something based off of our back stories. I walked a way with a free combat reflexes feat. I had put in my backstory that my mentor had trained me how to make precise attacks, taking advantage of my enemies when they were caught off guard. DM adds that I was taught something valuable as my last lesson. While practicing my precision attacks I was knocked out from behind. When I awoke my mentor simply said never be so focused on your own attacks that you turn your back to enemies, and if they ever do so to you then you punish them twice as hard.
Very nice to have a free feat to take advantage of. Also since my story had me grow up in the presence of nobles(though I am not myself), he gave me a +2 bonus to all bluff/diplomacy/intent versus nobility.
-My buddy from work who is playing a half-orc fighter, who is intent on role playing his guy, kept getting himself into trouble. He was tied up and I had pulled my dagger and offered to cut him loose if he understood I was not one of the humans that attacked him. Instead of agreeing he decides to try and yank the dagger from my hand "because that's what a half-orc would do!" he claimed. So I roll and easily dodge his attempt(he doesn't fathom the reflex bonus of a rogue compared to his **** dex hehe) and in return I take a stab at his hand. In which I did 6 damage with my dagger and took him down to half of his hps.
-Half-orc again... Insists on having a donkey with saddlebags. That was our total comic theme for the night, the half-orc and his damn donkey. The guy is a lot of fun but I can see he may not last long. He get's impatient for fighting OOC and his character is extremely impatient as well so it might be a short life for that guy. At least we have a willing meat shield for me to flank with.
-In a situation where I had to leave my weapons in a room, I successfully used my sleight of hand to hide a dagger in my clothes. Ranger buddy spotted me to do and decides he wants to try.. to which he fails horrible and I basically tell him not to try as his dagger is clearly showing.
-Ranger goes unconcious.. twice in the first night. Once in our first fight and was down to -5. Second time during out hyena fight and he got to -3. Our gnome wizard tried to cast while in threat range of a hyena and gets his hand basically bit off trying to cast a spell and goes down to 1 hp. I on the other hand was able to dodge every single attack at me and remained totally unharmed.
-We were investigating a grain mill where someone had gone missing. In which we find hyenas dining on the corpses of a couple dwarfs from the local church. Who happen to be acquaintences of our dwarf cleric. The orc insists on eating the dwarves, to which the cleric immediately threats to attack him if he tries because we were not to mess with the bodies, so I suggested if he was hungry to just eat the hyenas. (The half-orc rolled super wimply size numbers.. basically he's 6`2", 190 and that's after he rolled a 170 and DM said reroll again. So he has this infatuation with eating because he wants to bulk up.) Anyways everyone decides to leave and I tell them I'm going out the back door(from which I had snuck in) and check for anything else and will meet them up front. So of course I search the bodies and take the daggers and gold from the dead dwarves and hastily rejoin the group.
All in all a good time and looking forward to next week. The DM gave us all our exp points and then gave us each a bonus of 100 points to give to the others in any way we pleased based on our roleplaying. Which I think was really cool so it will encourage others to roleplay their character more. I walked away with an extra hundred which was nice. Really can't wait for next week, we have a good mystery scenario going.