Editing User:Bill/Thunderspire Mountain Enhanced (section)

===Session 1 - May 25, 2011===
The introductory encounter for the adventure pit the players against four hobgoblins and a hobgoblin warcaster. To beef up the opposition, I added a bugbear strangler. I set the scenario up by telling the players that their characters knew each other and had worked together before. I consider this to be an important thing to establish, simply to smooth over the awkward getting to know you phase of play and reduce inter-group conflict. In my experience there's a lot less opportunity for douchbaggery, like the rogue stealing from the other party members, when you establish that everybody is already friends.

In play this worked out to be a less than threatening encounter. A group of six player characters, made up of Cleitemnestra, Dyzan, Helfyn, Sarsariel, Seleme, and a death cleric created by Thomas, slowly and awkwardly took down all six monsters while suffering very little damage themselves. I generally prefer combat to run a little more quickly and to be a little more dangerous than how this worked out. The hobgoblins were completely ineffective and the party pinned down the bugbear before it could do much. I expect that the players will become more effective as they gain greater understanding of their characters' powers and develop some coordinated strategies. And, while that will address the speed at which the encounter is played out, it will only make the monsters less dangerous. For now I'm not going to worry too much about it. In the long run, if I continue to use 4e, I'll need to write my own monster profiles from scratch in order to tailor combat for the pace and drama that I like.

In all it was a good session for me. I learned a good deal regarding the inner workings of the game. The players made one small fumble though and killed the NPC intended to give them some essential clues. I probably could have fudged that or otherwise permitted them some kind of way out, but I strongly prefer to let the players work out their own problems.