Now add an Autocannon Head Turret and a Shoulder Mount Missile Lancher
Prelude to a Nasty Shock
As stated in Part 1, the first combat encounter was designed to be among the hardest hitting one my players had yet faced in D&D 4e while still being designed with an XP budget that stood somewhere between level 15 and 16 (the PCs are still 14th). The goal was to totally challenge the PCs while having monsters close in levels (from 12-16) without having the players clamour for an extended rest right after.
All monsters had near maximized damage expressions (unless they caused status effects), so did the numerous traps and terrain elements featured on the elaborate map I drew for the event. I also had recurring effects that screwed with player movement: Slow, Immobilized, Forced Movement and Knocked Prone. I was however very careful to add no stun or dazed effect.
Flash Forward to Great Mecha Justice!
When Magma (Franky’s Genasi Swordmage) charged in, the towers blasted him with lightning, cooking him out of a few tens of HPs as he ran behind some cover inside the compound, far enough into the compound to see an ogre-sized clank standing near the factory’s entrance. Standing 10′ tall, it had a giant axe as its right hand, a Hammer as its left, a turret as its head and a rectangular box with 6 square doors sitting on its shoulder.
All the players screamed ‘Battletech!”.
As the players scattered on the very large map, smaller clanks appeared: Heavy-set, dwarven-like ones with Greataxes and insectile, hovering ones with a Gatling-like cannons.
Players: Now it’s Final Fantasy!
Chatty: Shut up! I’ll steal from everyone until the suits come!
The hover-clanks were minions that shot poison dart clouds that caused a Slow to Immobilized status progression when PCs missed saving throws. The squat Heavy-Clanks were 2-hit minions (killed in one 50 HP blow or 2 hits, regardless of damage) and the Titan Clank was an Elite with a few twists twist:
- An extra Minor action to use either:
- a Head-mounted Incendiary Autocannon (high damage, ongoing 10 fire) or
- a Shoulder-mounted Missile Launcher that dealt thunder damage, pushed 3 and knocked prone.
The fight started and another Titan showed up. PCs were lit on fire and tossed about by Thunder missiles and their game plan was as solid as a lace thong after a 5-alarm chili fest.
But things were just getting started…
The Claw!
At the end of the 1st round, I unveiled my next surprise. The Wrath of Melora, Eric’s Avenger, was climbing behind a lightning turret to deactivate it when:
Chatty: The immense crane sitting at the back of the map activates. Standing one hundred feet tall, you see its arm turn with great speed and a gigantic chain-claw apparatus aligns itself just over your PC
Eric: Oh Shit…
Chatty: Like those money eating machines kids pester us with, the Claw drops on you! (clatter, clatter) and misses you. It crashes on the dusty ground, piling up its chain all around it before the automated winch starts winding everything up.
Some other player asked: “Hey what are those little drawings at the base of the crane?”
Chatty: Hmm, they sure look like levers now don’t they?
Players: Oh look! A control box!
And, probably because everyone was in ‘oh crap we’re all going to die’ mode, they all promptly forgot about the Crane’s controls.
Up Next: The Wrath of Melora invokes the rule of cool.
Dang dude, friggen awesome.
.-= dwashba´s last blog ..Tuesday Terrors =-.
as solid as a lace thong after a 5-alarm chili fest.
Chatty, hold off on the awful mental-image inducing analogies, OK? 🙂
You’re *this* close to trying out Rifts, Phil. Search your feelings–I know it to be true.
.-= Zachary´s last blog ..Picking A RPG System Part 2: Jekyll & Hyde =-.
@dwashba: Thanks man. I’m getting serious dismemberment threats from my Twitter friends that clamour for longer posts. 🙂 I’ll go back to my normal beat once I’m done with the seminar stuff.
@Rechan: I’ll try to keep that in mind. I blame Vanir’s arrival here.
@Zach: I’m also stealing from them ya know… I read the original, 1st edition book of the game… I recall finding the Glitterboys cool… and being 14.
And here I was worried about overwhelming MY players XD
Forgot…
Not really.. just knee deep in more pressing matters as the damn Mecha with their 3 attacks a turn that where shredding us to piece a lot faster than the crane was…
That is, until you post part 3… I’m starting to be a tease like you Phil.. 😉
@Marc: I wasn’t quite done yet!
@Yan: I did say that you were knee deep in crap at the time. But grabbing a Mecha (which I didn’t originally plan for) would also have been interesting, if risky.
Yeah, that idea came to me only when the combat was for all purposes over… I was not at my best for that game (though week at work). Would have been cool to think of this earlier.
would love to see the stats for those mecha!
WOW..
I discovered with the 4th edition, we can really crank up the difficulty and the PC’s can and will defeat higher leveled encounters (if they get their sh*t together).
I threw 1 Lvl 6 and 2 Lvl 7 encouters at my players (lvl 5) at the end of the Shadowrift of Umbraforge. Why? I have some serious min/maxed players with very hard hitting attacks. A lvl 5 encouter is usually done in 3 rounds, so i think it would give the wrong feeling if it was a breeze to invade a hostile tower of a notorious arms dealer.
The first went as planned, almost downed a lvl 8 controller and lvl 10 lurker (will o wisp). The second went badly, since poor rolling from the PC’s and my dmg rolls maxed made for 3 PC’s in the negatives. The third went very well with my bad rolling (6 attacks and i roll 2-3-5-6-4-4 on my d20, needed 7 to hit..) except when the Umbral Panthers joined and started attacking (each 4d6+4 with CA). They where lucky i rolled bad when the battlechampion and his panthers attacked the paladin (that would be a 10d6+8dmg). The Ranger let himself be flanked and got 8d6+8 dmg and went down in the second round. They eventually nerfed the Battlechampion (damn Symbol of Pelor) and even sent a nice twist to my story. Thank you players!
End account : They vanquished everything and i have 3 villains who want them dead even more (1 because they bloodied his son, 2 others becaused they double-crossed both of them)
I can’t wait to see their faces when the baddies come back for revenge.. Bigger, badder and a whole lot more pissed.
EPIC MECH! EPIC MECH! This sounds utterly amazing.
.-= Andy´s last blog ..A Twist of Fate =-.
@Greg: I may post the stats later in the campaign when I get a little more breathing space… right now they are so cobbled together that you can read 3 monster names in the stat bloc.
@Andy: That’s what I’m talkin’ about!