GM Commentary: Session 4 wrap-up

This was the first time we had the whole party together. Austin joined us via the internet, so I had a webcam rig set up so he could watch the action take place on the battle map. That seemed to work pretty well.

It sucked that the party didn't have enough healing surges available, in particular Jym was completely out from the last session when he was run as an NPC and got beat up frequently. I found the healing potion rules to be lame. Players are used to thinking of healing potions as extra hit points, but in 4e they've been nerfed. They actually require a healing surge, restore a set amount of hp instead of a healing surge value, and use an minor action. For some characters the set amount is better than their surge value, but for others it's weaker. The same problem comes when a leader type tries to heal a companion that has no healing surges left. Do they get the extra healing? It is unclear. What about when someone is dying? If they don't have a healing surge left how can they recover?

I made a house rule judgement that all potions work without consuming a healing surge. This makes them more powerful than before, but retains the feel of potions from 3.5e. Also I would allow leader powers to restore the extra hp even if there is no healing surge available.

I think the battle with the rat swarms was a bit disappointing. For one, it's lame when a heroic group defeats with ease all the important villains and then is almost killed by a trap or a minor encounter. Swarm rules are troublesome because of the half-damage from non-area effect attacks. The party only has a few of these, and none of them are at-will abilities. They have the encounter powers acid-breath, scorching burst, and spike-wire, and a single daily power of blinding barrage. These are not enough to effectively take out two swarms. The party could have improved their chances by backing down the passage way and forcing the swarms to come at them in a close packed formation. Doing this would have ensured that each area attack would have a chance to hit both swarms, but it still would not have guaranteed destroying them outright. I'll have to avoid swarms for this group in the future. Unfortunately there's another swarm encounter coming up in this adventure...