But there was a problem. The gnome rogue struck me (literally; I'll explain in a minute) as being over-weaponed.
Our group was a dwarven Battlerager Fighter, a Sentinel Druid, a Rogue1, a chessmaster Warlord1, and a dual-stat StarLock3 (me).
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The Fighter, carrying the MacGuffin, went in the cave first, followed by the rest of us a few turns later. This gave him enough time to sass the archers, and the gnome rogue was setting up to attack him from behind when I arrived at the top of the cliff. I fired off an Encounter on the gnome, who turned invisible without taking any damage or status effects. (If this was Fade Away, our DM made a mistake.) On his turn, the gnome teleported behind me - granting him combat advantage - and attacked. He rolled a CRIT. In addition to all else, the power had a push effect, so I also was blown off the cliff.
Grand Total: 52 HP damage.
This took me from intact to 3-HP-above-Death. In one shot. Now, I just want to point out that if the gnome had unloaded this attack on anybody but the battlerager (who was in combat by now and had some THP), that character would have been one-shot-killed-dead.
Next on the scene was the Warlord. Fortunately, he heard me scream and fall, so he came in with an Inspiring Word at the ready. I survived (barely).
Then he and our Rogue went after the gnome, pinning it in a corner and pounding it to a pulp over the next four-ish rounds. I noticed that the DM quit rolling to recharge the gnome's Invisibility and Daily powers.
The fighter and the Sentinel (and his pack) chased the archers away while I provided covering fire from a healthy distance the extreme limits of my range.
I want to suggest that this gnome rogue needs defanged a bit, especially for low-Heroic players. I happen to be a member of a CON-secondary class and was near the high end of my bracket (L3 of 4) at the time; I can 'take one for the team' when need be. But the Rogue, Warlord, and (probably) Sentinel would all have been out of the module should they have been the target. (Can a Sentinel play as his animal companion until his human body gets a Raise Dead?) The battlerager would have survived that hit ONLY because of his class feature for THP.
The Fighter, carrying the MacGuffin, went in the cave first, followed by the rest of us a few turns later. This gave him enough time to sass the archers, and the gnome rogue was setting up to attack him from behind when I arrived at the top of the cliff. I fired off an Encounter on the gnome, who turned invisible without taking any damage or status effects. (If this was Fade Away, our DM made a mistake.) On his turn, the gnome teleported behind me - granting him combat advantage - and attacked. He rolled a CRIT. In addition to all else, the power had a push effect, so I also was blown off the cliff.
Grand Total: 52 HP damage.
This took me from intact to 3-HP-above-Death. In one shot. Now, I just want to point out that if the gnome had unloaded this attack on anybody but the battlerager (who was in combat by now and had some THP), that character would have been one-shot-killed-dead.
Next on the scene was the Warlord. Fortunately, he heard me scream and fall, so he came in with an Inspiring Word at the ready. I survived (barely).
Then he and our Rogue went after the gnome, pinning it in a corner and pounding it to a pulp over the next four-ish rounds. I noticed that the DM quit rolling to recharge the gnome's Invisibility and Daily powers.
The fighter and the Sentinel (and his pack) chased the archers away while I provided covering fire from a healthy distance the extreme limits of my range.
I want to suggest that this gnome rogue needs defanged a bit, especially for low-Heroic players. I happen to be a member of a CON-secondary class and was near the high end of my bracket (L3 of 4) at the time; I can 'take one for the team' when need be. But the Rogue, Warlord, and (probably) Sentinel would all have been out of the module should they have been the target. (Can a Sentinel play as his animal companion until his human body gets a Raise Dead?) The battlerager would have survived that hit ONLY because of his class feature for THP.
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The Gnomish Spectral Assassin has a power called Assassin's Fading which is an immediate interrupt to melee or ranged attack, which lets it turn invisible and slide 1 square. Depending upon what encounter attack power you used (assuming you hit), that may have eliminated damage.
The gnome does not teleport, but has a Great Leap that lets it leap 7 squares. I suspect the DM used that to move the gnome next to you.
If your table was playing LOW, then damage should have been 23 + 1d10 from his attack, you get a save to avoid falling off the cliff, plus 1d10 if you fell. Damage from crit dice (the d10) and the fall would not be maximized. High tier is a bit higher (7 hps I think).
Did he use an action point perhaps to hit you twice? Did you get a saving throw to stop being slide off the cliff? Did he max damage for the fall? Did he say the cliff was higher?
The Gnomish Spectral Assassin has a power called Assassin's Fading which is an immediate interrupt to melee or ranged attack, which lets it turn invisible and slide 1 square. Depending upon what encounter attack power you used (assuming you hit), that may have eliminated damage.
The gnome does not teleport, but has a Great Leap that lets it leap 7 squares. I suspect the DM used that to move the gnome next to you.
If your table was playing LOW, then damage should have been 23 + 1d10 from his attack, you get a save to avoid falling off the cliff, plus 1d10 if you fell. Damage from crit dice (the d10) and the fall would not be maximized. High tier is a bit higher (7 hps I think).
Did he use an action point perhaps to hit you twice? Did you get a saving throw to stop being slide off the cliff? Did he max damage for the fall? Did he say the cliff was higher?
Thanks for the reply.
We were playing on H1 High. This was my first time doing so.
Starfire (actually Witchfire, PH1) does 2d6+mods and gives a -2 penalty to hit until EoYNT. Of course, when you roll a natural 20 for your next to-hit, it doesn't matter if you're penalized or not. I don't know if the DM took HP off him for my hit or not; based on his reaction I believe not.
It doesn't really matter if the Assassin flew, teleported, jumped, or Wished his way back up the cliff; he was invisible to everybody at the time. I was about range = 4 and 10 feet up from him at the time; a Jump7 would cover where he landed.
I took so much damage from just the hit that I was unconscious. Because he rolled a crit, everything was max'ed out, including his 'if you have CA' feature. I don't remember getting a saving throw to avoid falling, maybe because I was already out. I rolled a '7' on 1d10 for the fall - I was thinking that if I max'ed out this one too, that would be the end of THAT - and just avoided insta-death.
I've never had a chance to read an LFR module so I don't know how they are designed. (So the following may be total ignorance talking.) Do the modules give scaling damage dice for low/high level and low/high ends of the tier?
I've never had a chance to read an LFR module so I don't know how they are designed. (So the following may be total ignorance talking.) Do the modules give scaling damage dice for low/high level and low/high ends of the tier?
The older ones (pre-2011, such as this one) have different stat blocks for "low" and "high" tier. The higher-level version of a monster will almost always have a somewhat better chance of hitting with its attacks, and will do somewhat more damage when it hits (though the difference is usually in the "plus" added to the dice, rather than the damage dice themselves). There isn't any scaling other than the "low" and "high" tier versions.
It ended up being a very memorable encounter because of its difficulty. I question the wisdom of playing that mod on high with so many level 1s, that might have had something to do with your nearly-dying issues, but even with a party of 3s and 4s, we struggled with him.
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Due to your usage of a ranged attack (Witchfire), the immediate interrupt the gnome uses which turns him invisible and slides him 1 square changes that hit into a miss. If it was an immediate reaction, then the damage would still occur. At least that is how I understand it, and, yes, I think it is a curious power. That specific fading is rechargeable (5-6)
The gnome gets a bonus die when it crits, but like all crit dice, that should be rolled rather than maximized on a crit.
The gnome is an elite lurker so in game design principles, it should take 2 PCs to take him on.
The gnome gets a bonus die when it crits, but like all crit dice, that should be rolled rather than maximized on a crit.
The gnome is an elite lurker so in game design principles, it should take 2 PCs to take him on.
In my party, the Warlord and Rogue pinned the gnome in a corner ("upstairs") and pounded him to a pulp. The DM quit rolling for his rechargable powers. I think my experience dissuaded him from using the gnome to its full capacity.
However, the nasty little bugger would fit nicely into an H2 or H3 module.
P.S. Does anybody have a Bag of Holding full of Glitterdust (I'll also have to provide myself a blowgun) for use on invisible enemies?
Most of the fun as a DM was almost having the NPCs get away with the macguffin... thrice!
I had some issues in that a few things were not worked out as I would have desired, but with some tweaking it worked out in my game in the end.
Oh, no trouble with the gnome. He was challenging, but not overpowered imo.
Most of the fun as a DM was almost having the NPCs get away with the macguffin... thrice!
The closest we got to that was when the spooks in the graveyard ganged up on our McGuffin carrier.
I wish I'd've remembered at the time that many undead have Vulnerable Radiant ... and my daily has a Sustain clause so I can keep shooting sparks of Radiant all night! Alas that I am the kind of player who holds his Dailies until the Big Boss Fight At The End Of The Module.