“Kobold Hall” is a simple D&D adventure for five 1stlevel
player characters. It is short on plot and decision
points; it’s simply five combat encounters in a row. The
adventure is intended to give you something easy to
run the first time you try your hand as the Dungeon
Master, while allowing the other players at the table to
explore their characters’ abilities and learn the game.

Area 3. Skull-Skull!

This encounter includes the following creatures.
2 kobold slingers (S)
2 guard drakes (D)
4 kobold minions (M)

Tactics
The kobolds try to batter the PCs into submission
while avoiding melee.
The kobold minions split up, two on each platform.
Two take turns activating the skull-skull trap, one
throwing a spear on a turn when it isn’t activating the
trap. The other two minions remain on the stairs, out
of sight, ready to replace a fallen comrade and keep
the trap operating.
The slingers fire at the PCs, hoping to use their special
shots to harass characters and make them easier
targets for the rock.
The kobolds’ pet guard drakes remain on the other
side of the door. They rush up the stairs to attack a PC
who climbs up to the platforms. Otherwise, they attack
anyone who breaches the door.

Features of the Area
Pit: The pit is 10 feet deep, filled up to a depth of
4 feet with a thick green sludge. The sludge has two
important traits.
First, it is sticky. Any character who falls into the pit
is immobilized. A DC 13 Strength check allows a PC
to break free.
The sludge is difficult terrain. Creatures can walk
in it, but a creature that ends its move in the sludge is
immobilized as described above.
Climbing out of the pit requires a DC 10 Athletics
check. A creature that falls in takes 1d10–2 damage,
since the sludge provides cushion against a fall.
Door: The door has 20 hit points. Bashing it down
requires a DC 16 Strength check.
Skull-Skull Stone: This weird device counts as a
trap. The kobolds normally swing it down to hit a skull
on the coffins below. The object of the game is to get
a skull to stick to the rock, and then grab the skull as
it comes back to the thrower. When the PCs arrive
on the scene, the kobolds are happy to use the rock
against them.
Platforms: There are no railings for the raised platforms.
Climbing the wall up to the platform from the
floor requires a DC 15 Athletics check. Scattered on
the floor in a small pile in the northern platform are
100 gp in coins, a ruby worth 50 gp, and two garnets
worth 25 gp each.

Paladin Dido, Cleric Callie, Wizard Gale, Ranger Rolen, Warlock Shina.

ROUND 1!  Standard rules!  No house rules!  (Keep in mind this is considered an average difficulty encounter.  NOT a boss fight.)

7 rounds of combat plus 1.5 rounds of CPR to stabilize dying paladin.  PCs dealt a total of 183 damage, ranger: 70, wizard (nothing but magic missile ever) 49, warlock 41, paladin 17, cleric 6.  (yes 6.  half the fight she spent her turn on her back after failing athletics to try and climb up to help paladin on upper level.)  Monsters dealt a total of 90 damage.  To the ranger: 36 (of his 27, but healing word helped there).  To the paladin: 54 (no healing word for you!  but lay on hands?  2nd wind?  didn't matter.  downed the next round.)

The trap never hit anything.  Kobolds really didn't have a chance to use it.  Gale kept popping the minions with magic missile so inevitably the kobolds dropped the ball... literally.  Glue pot hit the 2-blade style ranger twice.  Fortunately I had given him a bow, so that wasn't too bad.  But he was critted twice and max damaged a 3rd.  But that was only -9-9-9 damage from the lvl 1 slingers.  Guard drakes do 1d10+9 so they shredded the paladin bad.  None of the other PCs were ever damaged.  Shina was targeted but never hit.

This is the first no house rules run through of this encounter.  The DC of the climb and busting the door should have been dropped down to eratted levels, but it's still a usable comparison for house-ruling stuff.  Wouldn't hurt to run the encounter again with the new DCs to see if that makes a significant difference.  Actually I should just run it again with no changes to see if dice rolls make things vary wildly from one standard encounter to the next.  Which I expect to be the case.  Those were some very bad rolls.

ROUND 2!

Didn't adjust the DCs.  Nearly 8 rounds of combat.  PCs dealt a total of 209 damage, ranger: 31, wizard (1 use of icy terrain, 1 use of scorching burst, MM the rest of the time) 61, warlock 76, paladin 20, cleric 21.  (died once.  Wasted a turn trying to kick open the door.)  Monsters dealt a total of 95 damage.  To the ranger: 13, warlock: 23, wizard 16, paladin 17, Callie 26.

The trap hit Shina once, but that's all it did.  Glue pot hit Dido, but he sacred flame broke him free.  Guard drakes shredded Callie and Shina bad, dropping them both.  Dido was able to salvage them with lay on hands and Callie followed up with a daily to patch things up the rest of the way.

ROUND 3!  Testing doing 1/2 mod per miss with most powers.  Twin strike does 1 damage on a miss per attack.  Minions still immune to miss damage.  They did 2 damage on a hit, 1 on a miss.  Drake's 1/2 mod damage was 2 on a miss.

DID adjust the DCs.  DC5 to climb / open door.  Nearly 7.2 rounds of combat.  PCs dealt a total of 151 damage, ranger: 24, wizard (2 uses of MM) 57, warlock 42, paladin 17, cleric 11.  (nobody died, but ranger was left with 1hp and dido bloodied in 1 hit.)  Monsters dealt a total of 75 damage.  To the ranger: 31, warlock: 5,  paladin 35, Callie 4.

The trap hit rollen and callie once, but that's all it did.  Glue pot hit Dido, and callie, and trying to make saves were very annoying.  Guard drakes critted paladin.  Both the ranger's and the warlock's encounters missed.

Strange that overall both PCs and NPCs did LESS damage overall, but makes some sense considering that miss damage edges enemies closer to dead instead of "2 hp left, striker deals 14 damage or nothing."  Tim and I's impressions: it didn't really make that much difference.  Sure I felt like "at least I didn't do NOTHING when my encounter misses," but 2 damage for a miss is little consolation.  Would of course be even less consolation for missing a daily, but no dailies needed this time.