TiamatZGhost punsThe Banette of my existenceRegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
OK, found the pages regarding Stealth:
Pg. 188 in the PHB1
Pg. 222 in PHB2 for revised/updated rules
As for skills, all players have access to all skills, but are more proficient to those they are trained in (check your class details for what skills can you train in).
Ryadic, do you mean powers? If so pg. 29 will show you the amount of powers each level has (racial abilities not added).
Right, this is one thing that's been bugging me, can rogues stealth in combat? And how do you determine if a perception check made by a creature can see a character in stealth?
Also, probably the most important thing going, How exactly do you tell if a character enters stealth based off a roll? Is it just a DC that the DM sets or what?
The DC you want to go against is usually a monster's passive perception score. The DC to see a character in stealth is that character's stealth roll.
If you have the PHBII available to you, definitely use the rules printed there. If you don't have PHBII go up on the wizards website and get the Errata for January 2010 and under player's handbook it has the updated rules printed. Those rules are basically hands down better. Use them.
The DC you want to go against is usually a monster's passive perception score.
I see what you mean, but the monster stat blocks don't have a passive perception score, it includes information such as +1 modifier to perception, but no clear criteria for passive perception. Where do I find passive perception?
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TiamatZGhost punsThe Banette of my existenceRegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
It's the same as the PCs, where you just add 10 to the default roll eg. if the creature has +5 to perception, it's passive perception is 15.
It's the same as the PCs, where you just add 10 to the default roll eg. if the creature has +5 to perception, it's passive perception is 15.
Aha, that makes more sense. This way i understand the +'s and -'s in the skill blocks now, and now i know that goblin sharpshooters can ninja a lot (stealth +12). Thanks for the help.
Alrighty then. Friday looks like the day we will begin the Keep of the Shadowfell adventure. So to make it easier for them to all jump in and stuff, I figured it'd be better to roll up characters myself instead of having them do it. That way they just choose from what's available.
Do you guys have some preset characters or links to some that I can use. It's taking me longer than expected to roll up 7 characters. So far I got the fighter and cleric. There will be 4 PCs.
Alrighty then. Friday looks like the day we will begin the Keep of the Shadowfell adventure. So to make it easier for them to all jump in and stuff, I figured it'd be better to roll up characters myself instead of having them do it. That way they just choose from what's available.
Do you guys have some preset characters or links to some that I can use. It's taking me longer than expected to roll up 7 characters. So far I got the fighter and cleric. There will be 4 PCs.
You can use the free trial of the character creator to print out fully made characters of up to level 3, with power cards. Makes your life quite easy. It's also got digitals of KotS with updated encounters.
The Quick Start Rules there have a few pre-made characters in them, as well.
EDIT: Make sure to save the characters you make, so that when they pick their characters out you can just level them up and print out a new character sheet.
Alrighty then. Friday looks like the day we will begin the Keep of the Shadowfell adventure. So to make it easier for them to all jump in and stuff, I figured it'd be better to roll up characters myself instead of having them do it. That way they just choose from what's available.
Do you guys have some preset characters or links to some that I can use. It's taking me longer than expected to roll up 7 characters. So far I got the fighter and cleric. There will be 4 PCs.
You can use the free trial of the character creator to print out fully made characters of up to level 3, with power cards. Makes your life quite easy. It's also got digitals of KotS with updated encounters.
The Quick Start Rules there have a few pre-made characters in them, as well.
EDIT: Make sure to save the characters you make, so that when they pick their characters out you can just level them up and print out a new character sheet.
I'd suggest if you want to get the best taste of the story for KOTS to use the dragon burial site hook, the updated version of it fits into the story much better than the original version of it. I made the mistake of going with the finish the map quest, which has no clear conclusion so I'll probably go and make my own ending for it.
We've managed to complete KOTS, all characters bar the cleric (he got killed by masses of zombies), are around level 5 now because everyone just wanted to kill every single creature around, including
Splug(who ironically got killed by Kalarel, which really annoyed the players.)
One thing I wasn't sure about is if certain things are prestidigitated (is that even a word?) do they have similar effects to the object its meant to be, e.g does a prestidigitated torch still emit light?
I'm asking because in the second to last encounter the
wizard prestidigated the sun into the center of the room, and vaporized the vampire minions because of their weakness. Cue me looking through the rulebooks to see how that works, so we came to the conclusion that because its the sun, those vampires are deader than my first xbox 360
While an excellent instance of players thinking outside the box, it's not actually possible to summon a faux sun in the middle of a dungeon to vaporize vampires. Particularly with an at will fluff power with no real mechanical impact. Since they were minions, he could have done the same with any of his at wills, so it's probably not a big deal.
Kudos, though, for letting him get his moment of awesomeness. I would just be careful about letting it happen again in the same way.
Yeah, you definitely want to encourage that kind of creativeness, but that seems a little much. A good way to think of prestidigitation is that it can do anything you want, as long as it's not actually useful.
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HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
edited March 2010
The text for prestidigitation specifically says that "Nothing you create with this cantrip can deal damage, serve as a weapon or a tool, or hinder another creature’s actions. This cantrip cannot duplicate the effect of any other power."
Prestidigitation is pretty much only useful in role-playing encounters.
The text for prestidigitation specifically says that "Nothing you create with this cantrip can deal damage, serve as a weapon or a tool, or hinder another creature’s actions. This cantrip cannot duplicate the effect of any other power."
Prestidigitation is pretty much only useful in role-playing encounters.
Honestly, if it were me I probably would have had the player make attack rolls against the minions like he/she was using an attack power. Hit vaporizes, one hit and one miss dazes the second target, two misses does absolutely nothing establishing firmly that that's not how this works.
Afterwords I'd probably talk to the player about it and let them know that I appreciate them trying that sort of thing, but I'm probably not going to let them turn Prestidigitation into an extra At Will attack power.
I firmly believe that the right call in a situation like this is to let your player feel like they pulled off something cool. But I also believe that boundaries need to be established to keep it from becoming routine.
Ran my first game last night and, well, it was odd. Did KotS and one thing I didn't like is how right off the bat you're in an encounter on your way to Winterhaven. I think that really lost their interest. Then once they arrive in Winterhaven, some of them seemed to love it. They wanted to speak with everyone and find out what they had to say. The hook I went with was the one where they were sent to map out the remains of the ruins. While in town I let it slip from one of the people there that there were rumors being spread around by the town drunk that there is a cult there trying to raise the demon that was sealed there.
Unfortunately as they asked more questions, I realized I didn't know shit. So, I'm thinking screw the premade adventures and I'm going to make my own. I just gotta be very very imaginative. All in all, I had a great time as the DM.
Biggest problem was getting everyone in the mood to RP. Lots of jokes were being told the whole time and it was difficult to get them to do certain things. They also ran into points where they just didn't know what to do, so I had to give them advice. For the most part, though, they figured it out fairly well.
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HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
Unfortunately as they asked more questions, I realized I didn't know shit. So, I'm thinking screw the premade adventures and I'm going to make my own. I just gotta be very very imaginative. All in all, I had a great time as the DM.
Make a list of names to have on hand, for the naming of random NPCs that you need to make up on the spot. You can avoid the "Aerith and Bob" problem this way.
Back when I ran my 1-8 open world 3E game, I got very good at taking bits of text from anything around me and making random NPC names out of it. The basic formula was; (Last 2-6 letters of one word) + (First 2-6 letters of the next word) = NPC name.
So this;
The cult fanatic makes a dagger attack against each adjacent enemy
Might give me Hecul, Ticma, Sadag, Ratta, Kagai, Stea (Stay-uh), Chad, Jacen & Tenem.
Any one of which is perfectly acceptable for a random NPC. Some even moreso if you're running an adventure set in a frat house.
Posts
Pg. 188 in the PHB1
Pg. 222 in PHB2 for revised/updated rules
As for skills, all players have access to all skills, but are more proficient to those they are trained in (check your class details for what skills can you train in).
Ryadic, do you mean powers? If so pg. 29 will show you the amount of powers each level has (racial abilities not added).
The DC you want to go against is usually a monster's passive perception score. The DC to see a character in stealth is that character's stealth roll.
If you have the PHBII available to you, definitely use the rules printed there. If you don't have PHBII go up on the wizards website and get the Errata for January 2010 and under player's handbook it has the updated rules printed. Those rules are basically hands down better. Use them.
First page of each class has this information. It's in the same block as things like HP and Healing Surges.
I see what you mean, but the monster stat blocks don't have a passive perception score, it includes information such as +1 modifier to perception, but no clear criteria for passive perception. Where do I find passive perception?
Aha, that makes more sense. This way i understand the +'s and -'s in the skill blocks now, and now i know that goblin sharpshooters can ninja a lot
Do you guys have some preset characters or links to some that I can use. It's taking me longer than expected to roll up 7 characters. So far I got the fighter and cleric. There will be 4 PCs.
http://wizards.com/dnd/TryDnD.aspx
You can use the free trial of the character creator to print out fully made characters of up to level 3, with power cards. Makes your life quite easy. It's also got digitals of KotS with updated encounters.
The Quick Start Rules there have a few pre-made characters in them, as well.
EDIT: Make sure to save the characters you make, so that when they pick their characters out you can just level them up and print out a new character sheet.
I'd suggest if you want to get the best taste of the story for KOTS to use the dragon burial site hook, the updated version of it fits into the story much better than the original version of it. I made the mistake of going with the finish the map quest, which has no clear conclusion so I'll probably go and make my own ending for it.
We've managed to complete KOTS, all characters bar the cleric (he got killed by masses of zombies), are around level 5 now because everyone just wanted to kill every single creature around, including
One thing I wasn't sure about is if certain things are prestidigitated (is that even a word?) do they have similar effects to the object its meant to be, e.g does a prestidigitated torch still emit light?
I'm asking because in the second to last encounter the
Kudos, though, for letting him get his moment of awesomeness. I would just be careful about letting it happen again in the same way.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Prestidigitation is pretty much only useful in role-playing encounters.
Afterwords I'd probably talk to the player about it and let them know that I appreciate them trying that sort of thing, but I'm probably not going to let them turn Prestidigitation into an extra At Will attack power.
I firmly believe that the right call in a situation like this is to let your player feel like they pulled off something cool. But I also believe that boundaries need to be established to keep it from becoming routine.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Unfortunately as they asked more questions, I realized I didn't know shit. So, I'm thinking screw the premade adventures and I'm going to make my own. I just gotta be very very imaginative. All in all, I had a great time as the DM.
Biggest problem was getting everyone in the mood to RP. Lots of jokes were being told the whole time and it was difficult to get them to do certain things. They also ran into points where they just didn't know what to do, so I had to give them advice. For the most part, though, they figured it out fairly well.
Make a list of names to have on hand, for the naming of random NPCs that you need to make up on the spot. You can avoid the "Aerith and Bob" problem this way.
Aerith is from FF7, right? Unless you're referring to something else.
What I mean is this:
"In the center of the town lives the blacksmith, Thoridan."
We'll visit him later. Right now I need beer. What's the barkeep's name?
"Uh... Steven."
So this;
Might give me Hecul, Ticma, Sadag, Ratta, Kagai, Stea (Stay-uh), Chad, Jacen & Tenem.
Any one of which is perfectly acceptable for a random NPC. Some even moreso if you're running an adventure set in a frat house.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
The barkeep? His name is... Kobayashi.