Thrawn183
2007-10-04, 11:37 AM
I just started a new campaign starting at level 1 that is inteded to reach level 15. I'm writing this because there are some interesting classes being used and its always useful to hear about real world uses of classes rather than just the math.
Party: I'll post my build, and at least the partial builds of others.
-Al: male elf beguiler1
-To be added drow cloistered cleric 1(starts as an elf, gets stats of drow but not SR at level 2 for 1 LA, never gets SR)
-Cordel Stuart: male human ninja 1 (me)
Able Learner, TWF, Improved Initiative (flaw: vulnerable)
-melee type swashbuckler maybe (wasn't present for first day)
We're playing an eberron campaign, and everyone present can make at least a mechanically decent character. (In this case it means choosing something possibly suboptimal and then optimizing within those constraints).
Encounters:
Warforged, warforged and more warforged! It became an overnight joke to run around saying "Godd***** warforged!" I may even try to take a level in ranger just so that I can take favored enemy "godd***** warforged. It'd c hange the class progression I've planned out but it might be worth it. We've been running around Sharn, in Breland, doing missions for a woman from one of the houses. It involves one of the old forges used to make warforged, hence the warforged who think we're evil trying to slaughter us at every chance they get. First time I've ever fought a kobold. They were so pathetic it was almost laughable. We leveled a significant way through the session, and are about to travel to a different country either by boat or by train.
So onto the report!
1) Color Spray is amazing! Its difficult for enemies to spread out in cramped spaces and seeing 4 of them go down in one shot.... just wow. Virtually no-one was able to make the save.
2) TWF penalties hurt. A lot. Maybe its just that we fought so many shifters and warforged, but my ninja only managed to hit enemies two or three times. Though I think I killed every enemy we faced except one by coup de grace'ing the ones taken out by the Beguiler's color spray.
3) LA hurts even more than TWF. We made it to second level a while through the session, and having the cleric still only be able to cast a couple of healing spells in the entire day was not cool.
4) The Healing Belt (MIC) is amazing. It and a wand of Lesser Vigor made the cleric less of a heal bot, which meant the player of the cleric have a lot more fun. It also made us much less screwed when the cleric got knocked unconcious (the first time the DM was nice enough to on the fly stick a healing potion in the loot to revive her with)
5) You can never have too many skill points. Every character present had 6+ int per level. 2 out of the 3 could search for traps, and the third could at least search for hidden doors and such. It really made for a group that felt like they could support eachother, just a whole lot of fun really. Let us get really creative and such.
6) Surprisingly, low hp at such low level wasn't much of an issue. My ninja and the cleric each got knocked unconcious only once. And that was even without a real tank.
7) Sudden Strike is significantly weaker than sneak attack. There were plenty of times I got into flanking with the cleric solely for the +2 bonus. At least I still got to use it on coup de grace attempts. Oh, and Taking improved initiative was... a very good call on my part.
8) Level 1 was really fun! I'm used to playing anywhere from level 5-15, this was just.... I don't actually know how to describe it, but it definitely felt different.
Suggestions? Comments? Criticism of layout/intent? (Keep it constructive though, pls)
Party: I'll post my build, and at least the partial builds of others.
-Al: male elf beguiler1
-To be added drow cloistered cleric 1(starts as an elf, gets stats of drow but not SR at level 2 for 1 LA, never gets SR)
-Cordel Stuart: male human ninja 1 (me)
Able Learner, TWF, Improved Initiative (flaw: vulnerable)
-melee type swashbuckler maybe (wasn't present for first day)
We're playing an eberron campaign, and everyone present can make at least a mechanically decent character. (In this case it means choosing something possibly suboptimal and then optimizing within those constraints).
Encounters:
Warforged, warforged and more warforged! It became an overnight joke to run around saying "Godd***** warforged!" I may even try to take a level in ranger just so that I can take favored enemy "godd***** warforged. It'd c hange the class progression I've planned out but it might be worth it. We've been running around Sharn, in Breland, doing missions for a woman from one of the houses. It involves one of the old forges used to make warforged, hence the warforged who think we're evil trying to slaughter us at every chance they get. First time I've ever fought a kobold. They were so pathetic it was almost laughable. We leveled a significant way through the session, and are about to travel to a different country either by boat or by train.
So onto the report!
1) Color Spray is amazing! Its difficult for enemies to spread out in cramped spaces and seeing 4 of them go down in one shot.... just wow. Virtually no-one was able to make the save.
2) TWF penalties hurt. A lot. Maybe its just that we fought so many shifters and warforged, but my ninja only managed to hit enemies two or three times. Though I think I killed every enemy we faced except one by coup de grace'ing the ones taken out by the Beguiler's color spray.
3) LA hurts even more than TWF. We made it to second level a while through the session, and having the cleric still only be able to cast a couple of healing spells in the entire day was not cool.
4) The Healing Belt (MIC) is amazing. It and a wand of Lesser Vigor made the cleric less of a heal bot, which meant the player of the cleric have a lot more fun. It also made us much less screwed when the cleric got knocked unconcious (the first time the DM was nice enough to on the fly stick a healing potion in the loot to revive her with)
5) You can never have too many skill points. Every character present had 6+ int per level. 2 out of the 3 could search for traps, and the third could at least search for hidden doors and such. It really made for a group that felt like they could support eachother, just a whole lot of fun really. Let us get really creative and such.
6) Surprisingly, low hp at such low level wasn't much of an issue. My ninja and the cleric each got knocked unconcious only once. And that was even without a real tank.
7) Sudden Strike is significantly weaker than sneak attack. There were plenty of times I got into flanking with the cleric solely for the +2 bonus. At least I still got to use it on coup de grace attempts. Oh, and Taking improved initiative was... a very good call on my part.
8) Level 1 was really fun! I'm used to playing anywhere from level 5-15, this was just.... I don't actually know how to describe it, but it definitely felt different.
Suggestions? Comments? Criticism of layout/intent? (Keep it constructive though, pls)