1. You ran the healing surges correctly. A healing surge is not the same thing as a Second Wind. A Second Wind is just a Encounter Power to spend a healing surge -- there are many ways to spend healing surges.
2. The main reason you don't always use twin strike is that it is one of the few powers that DOESN'T give you ability modifiers to the DAMAGE rolls. While most of the daily and encounter powers for Rangers give you the full damage modifier, the at-will does not. In any case, two attack rolls, but slightly less damage, means a great power, but not a stupidly overpowering one.
And yeah, that one caused me to double take when I first read the power, but I see the logic, even if it is a special case.
3. My feeling from the session I've run and my perusal of the rules is that ongoing effects are far easier to keep track of than in 3.x. You really just need to know the effect, you aren't tracking durations. The time required for a bunch of saves might end up more annoying, but it definitely hasn't been so far.
4. Almost immediately in the first session, I asked people to say "I rolled xx versus yyy" "I rolled a 26 versus AC". Pretty much a requirement I think for smooth play.
5. Wizards: In my mind, the wizard excels because of the minion rules. He can and continues to hit lots of opponents at once. In my game, we watched the wizard pummel any minions that were even modestly close to each other.
Sleep wasn't used in my game (my players were very conservative with daily powers), but my read on it is that it isn't a bad spell, but other players have to be ready to take advantage of it promptly. But that's generally true of all ongoing effects. Also the slowing effect is probably best if the party wins initiative, as you can really pin down a group of enemies before they rush the party.
One good strategy for the wizard is to stand just a bit apart from the party so that if he does get swarmed by minions, he can blast them all with Burning Hands. Close attacks do not cause OAs -- but you want the party to all be at least 3 squares away from the wizard to enable that.
Bottom line is: Wizards no longer win the battle for everyone else with a single spell -- but they are a great team player.
6. Prep Time
In a nutshell, the DMG rules are: Take the xp value for the encounter level you want and multiply it by the number of characters. Then spend that xp budget on monsters within a reasonable level range of the players. For example, a level 1 encounter is 100 xp per player.
A standard level 1 monster is also worth 100xp. Minions are 25 xp, elites 200 xp, and solo monsters 500 xp at that level. Or you could mix in some higher level monsters in there. But basically, you spend the xp budget and you are done.
You don't go too much out of the level range of the players...more than 4 or 5 levels up and the monsters either hit too often or are too hard to hit. More than 5 or 6 levels below, and the monsters aren't a threat any more.
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Date: 2008-06-19 05:35 pm (UTC)1. You ran the healing surges correctly. A healing surge is not the same thing as a Second Wind. A Second Wind is just a Encounter Power to spend a healing surge -- there are many ways to spend healing surges.
2. The main reason you don't always use twin strike is that it is one of the few powers that DOESN'T give you ability modifiers to the DAMAGE rolls. While most of the daily and encounter powers for Rangers give you the full damage modifier, the at-will does not. In any case, two attack rolls, but slightly less damage, means a great power, but not a stupidly overpowering one.
And yeah, that one caused me to double take when I first read the power, but I see the logic, even if it is a special case.
3. My feeling from the session I've run and my perusal of the rules is that ongoing effects are far easier to keep track of than in 3.x. You really just need to know the effect, you aren't tracking durations. The time required for a bunch of saves might end up more annoying, but it definitely hasn't been so far.
4. Almost immediately in the first session, I asked people to say "I rolled xx versus yyy" "I rolled a 26 versus AC". Pretty much a requirement I think for smooth play.
5. Wizards: In my mind, the wizard excels because of the minion rules. He can and continues to hit lots of opponents at once. In my game, we watched the wizard pummel any minions that were even modestly close to each other.
Sleep wasn't used in my game (my players were very conservative with daily powers), but my read on it is that it isn't a bad spell, but other players have to be ready to take advantage of it promptly. But that's generally true of all ongoing effects. Also the slowing effect is probably best if the party wins initiative, as you can really pin down a group of enemies before they rush the party.
One good strategy for the wizard is to stand just a bit apart from the party so that if he does get swarmed by minions, he can blast them all with Burning Hands. Close attacks do not cause OAs -- but you want the party to all be at least 3 squares away from the wizard to enable that.
Bottom line is: Wizards no longer win the battle for everyone else with a single spell -- but they are a great team player.
6. Prep Time
In a nutshell, the DMG rules are: Take the xp value for the encounter level you want and multiply it by the number of characters. Then spend that xp budget on monsters within a reasonable level range of the players. For example, a level 1 encounter is 100 xp per player.
A standard level 1 monster is also worth 100xp. Minions are 25 xp, elites 200 xp, and solo monsters 500 xp at that level. Or you could mix in some higher level monsters in there. But basically, you spend the xp budget and you are done.
You don't go too much out of the level range of the players...more than 4 or 5 levels up and the monsters either hit too often or are too hard to hit. More than 5 or 6 levels below, and the monsters aren't a threat any more.