So ends chapter three (and that was a long one, at least compared to the previous two).
Feedback? At all? Of any kind?
My thoughts:
You may have noticed I've been applying more personality to Selowen. As Gaia has not posted here in over six months now (can you believe the game has been going that long) nor logged in since January, I've asserted more control over the character. I decided to give her a hint of vanity, a slight flair for melodrama, and the typical elven reverence for life (hence her disgust at Targin talking about killing the stag and arguing with Karathos whether it was necessary to have killed the goblins). Hopefully this makes her seem more fleshed out without making her too annoying. Although I suppose if you all do find her annoying, I can say not to fret. I intend to drop her from the party after this adventure regardless of how it goes.
You may have also noticed this chapter was quite combat heavy compared to the other two. There's a reason for that. See, this module has the least amount of combat at all of any I've seen to date. So much so, I wasn't sure there was any chance of Erastin or Jinali reaching level 2 by the time it ended, in fact.
If you don't include random encounters, this is all of the combat in the entire module:
1) The assassin at the very beginning.
2) The duels in chapter two
3) The boar hunt in chapter two (which you guys skipped)
4) The final showdown at the end
Yep, that's it. So I took some of the random encounters on the way to Solanthus and instead of rolling for them, mandated them. There are eight total, and I've used four so far (the stag, the goblins, the kender and the bandits). Half of those were non-combat encounters. (If you're wondering, no, I don't intend to use all eight. There's only one day left to reach Solanthus anyway, and a few of them were not very interesting to me).
There wasn't much point to the stag, unless the party tried to hunt it. But it did spark some roleplaying, so that was good. The kender, too, was really just designed to see how the party reacted to them. The module even says as much. The module also suggested I swap out some equipment from the party's inventory with other stuff, because of the kender's tendency to borrow. I'm a little disappointed that apparently nobody thought to check their gear afterward to make sure...
The goblins...it was very clear to me that this encounter was set up deliberately to go easy on the players. I usually frown on that sort of thing, but I decided to use it anyway, as is, because I wanted to see how tough the PCs were and what kind of strategy they would use. It would basically serve as a way for me to see what they are capable of, so I don't over- or underestimate them in the future.
Hilariously, Breila and Nuke decided to negate the main advantage they had in that battle (the fact that the goblins started the charge way too soon), but nevertheless, the battle was won without a single HP lost among the PCs. Although I was disappointed in just how easy the fight was, it wasn't a total loss, because I learned two valuable things: First, this party has no coordination whatsoever and two, they are really powerful for their level. Those goblins needed a natural 20 to hit Targin or Erastin (anything less would have been a miss), and an 18 or better to hit Karathos. Consequently, I didn't give the fighters their combat XP bonuses for the battle (10 XP per level of each HD defeated) on account that they were never in any real danger. (Also, Selowen and Jinali didn't get any of that XP, as neither of them contributed to the fight.)
When I read the encounter for the bandits, I was pretty annoyed. Like with the goblins, the encounter was deliberately skewed to the party's favor. While goblins are stupid, though, so it was at least understandable, the module made a big deal about how clever Erek is. Then it proceeds to say that the party should win surprise automatically without a roll. And, to make matters worse, none of the bandits had bows!
After seeing how easy the goblin fight was, I decided to up the challenge here. I gave the bandits bows, I rolled for surprise (ironically, both groups lost), and I added the bear traps (it just made sense they would have taken some precautions to protect their camp). The decision to make one of the bandits Erek's daughter was to add some ambiguity to the situation. Part of the reason for this module is to see what kind of people the party members are, especially as one of them is gunning for knighthood. It worked perfectly, I thought. And I thought the battle itself was much more fun than it would have been as written.
So, I learned a lot about the party in this chapter. They've all very strong, but they have significant weaknesses. Weaknesses that a clever DM might seek to exploit in future encounters
Anyway, I'll be putting up chapter four soon. Onward to Solanthus!
