An update on recent technical problems and more from the admin: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/250292/on-technical-difficulties-mod-coverage-and-other-things/p1?new=1
Options
[DnD 4E Discussion] Assassin is out! GO GO GO!
Aegeri
Tiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered User regular
Tiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered User regular
ITT people try to tell you the way you like to pretend playing as a fantasy elf or dwarf is wrong.
Here is a Dungeon:
Here is a Dragon:
Hence the name. Also, as a bonus picture here is Bane.
He's so dreamy
And no, he's not going anywhere from the OP. He wants you to love his manly pectoral muscles, his huge thigh muscles and bulging tip of the long hard shaft of his spear. Wizards even has a wallpaper of him, clearly showing they do seem to understand the joke at work here.
Speaking of before we go any further here, want to get the perfect way of starting 4E? Don't know where to go though? Try Wizards generously offering both a revised and improved version of Keep on the Shadowfell and the Quickstart rules? What will this cost you?
Absolutely nothing as it's completely free. Download them here.
Dungeons and Dragons is a pretty old game, originally being created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974, both of whom have passed way now. Since then it's had various iterations and editions, with the latest edition being 4th edition, published by Wizards of the Coast. The basic rules consist of three books:
As the name suggests, this is for players and also details the games core rules like combat.
This book details the various monsters and other things that populate the worlds of most DnD worlds.
This is for the DM and contains useful things like how much experience you have to make an encounter, treasure tables and rules for creating your own monsters.
If you want to play DnD, you usually only need the players hand book. Running a game requires those base three books.
Some stuff shamelessly stolen from the original post about the races and classes you can play as in the Players Hand Book, with some additions about the PHB2 races and classes by Terrendos.
Thanks Goose and Terrendos!
Here is a Dungeon:
Here is a Dragon:
Hence the name. Also, as a bonus picture here is Bane.
He's so dreamy
And no, he's not going anywhere from the OP. He wants you to love his manly pectoral muscles, his huge thigh muscles and bulging tip of the long hard shaft of his spear. Wizards even has a wallpaper of him, clearly showing they do seem to understand the joke at work here.
Speaking of before we go any further here, want to get the perfect way of starting 4E? Don't know where to go though? Try Wizards generously offering both a revised and improved version of Keep on the Shadowfell and the Quickstart rules? What will this cost you?
Absolutely nothing as it's completely free. Download them here.
Dungeons and Dragons is a pretty old game, originally being created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974, both of whom have passed way now. Since then it's had various iterations and editions, with the latest edition being 4th edition, published by Wizards of the Coast. The basic rules consist of three books:
As the name suggests, this is for players and also details the games core rules like combat.
This book details the various monsters and other things that populate the worlds of most DnD worlds.
This is for the DM and contains useful things like how much experience you have to make an encounter, treasure tables and rules for creating your own monsters.
If you want to play DnD, you usually only need the players hand book. Running a game requires those base three books.
Some stuff shamelessly stolen from the original post about the races and classes you can play as in the Players Hand Book, with some additions about the PHB2 races and classes by Terrendos.
First off, races now provide only benefits and no negatives.
Here are the PHB I races:The Dragonborn:Not those pussies from 3E's draconomicon, these guys are badasses with a racial breath weapon. They make excellent Warlords, Paladins, and Fighters.
The Dwarves:They're wise and tough as nails, pretty much the best categorization of the tough dwarf I've seen in tabletop roleplaying games. They make great Paladins, Clerics, and Fighters.
The Eladrin:The "Elves" of last edition were split into two different races this time. The eladrin live in ridiculously magical feywild cities and make good wizards, warlords, and rangers. They can also teleport as a racial ability. Sweet sorcery, bro.
also Elves Elves lol.
The Elves:The other half of the elves from last time, they're forest living guys who are really accurate. They make good rangers, rogues, and clerics. See what I mean by Elves lol?
The Half-Elves:Proof that humans will screw anything. They're pretty tough and personable, and make excellent multiclassers. They make good warlords, paladins, and warlocks.
The Halflings:Short, fat... actually no, these are about as far from tolkien's halflings as a fat american on his couch eating potato chips is from a bush tribesman in africa. Except they both speak english. Halflings continue their tradition of being really lucky and quick, as well as make excellent rogues, rangers, and warlocks.
The Humans:Look in the Mirror. They're good at everything again and are the most adaptable, again. They make good anythings.
The Tieflings:Their ancestors made pacts with devils and we're not half-breeds anymore, also we fought a war against Dragons. We get angry really well as a racial ability. We're also merciless, etc. We make good Warlocks, Warlords, or Rogues.
Also they really AREN'T the same tieflings we've had for 20 years.
We also have a bunch of new races now since PHB II came outDeva: Former spirits under the service of good gods fighting an unending war against darkness. Must remain tirelessly good lest they be reborn into Rakshasa. Good avengers, clerics, invokers, and wizards.
Gnome: Small Feywild natives who learned trickery during slavery to fomorians. Curious, stealthy, and small, these short Elflike creatures make excellent bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards.
Goliath: Mountain-dwelling nomads, covered in pebble-like bone growths that make them extra tough. Tall, massive, and strong, goliaths revere primal spirits and make excellent barbarians, fighters, and wardens.
Half-Orc: Channelling the strength of orcblood and the decisive, resourceful nature of humans, some say these warriors were hand-made by Kord himself. Others consider them an abomination. They don't much care, so long as they've got food and battle. Half-Orcs are excellent barbarians, rangers, and rogues.
Shifters: Descended from lycanthrope ancestors, these animal-like men see nearly everything in terms of hunter and prey. Able to draw on their ancestor's instincts, they are excellent druids, fighters, rangers, wardens, and surprisingly good clerics.
And now DDI is adding a few more to the game as well.Revenant: These guys have come back from the dead or were prevented from dying by some other force (the Raven queen in the default cosmology). They're unique because they actually have the undead subtype and can take feats that make them fully undead. Fun with a cleric in the party that's for certain! They make for decent assassins (another new class coming out in DDI), rogues and warlock.
And if that wasn't exciting enough, we have PHB 3 races on top of that! We're just getting absolutely spoiled now:Githzerai: They are a planar race formerly enslaved by the Illithids whom have curbed their more war like tendencies. They spend their time stabilizing parts of the elemental chaos through the sheer force of their will and practicing being awesome monks. Apparently they make great "seekers" as well as monks, the seeker being a new PHB III class. It's also NOT a psionic class.
Minotaur: The horrible monster of labyrinths and killing people is now... a playable race. Possibly because the 2010 campaign setting could very well by Dragonlance, which has more sociable minotaurs than other settings. Minotaurs presumably will be strength/con; making great Fighters and Barbarians in particular.
Wilden: A new race with all kinds of potential in the world. They were born to fight intrusion by monsters from the Far Plane and are basically plant people.
Then there are the races from the campaign setting books. First Forgotten Realms:Drow: Classic villains turned into PC races by the popularity of Drizzt, essentially another kind of elf with some different powers. I will say they make amazing rogues because of their darkfire and cloud of darkness racial powers.
Genasi: Half-elemental planars who join the ranks of the Deva and Tiefling as being plane touched PC races. They make good wizards and depending on your elemental type they can suit a wide range of classes. They also make good swordmages.
And the Eberron players guide added a bunch of them as well.Changelings: These guys, when you want to be derogative that is are classically known as "Dopplegangers" but most people to be polite call them Changelings. Like the name suggests, they can change how they appear and they make terrific rogues or wizards (they get a choice of stat boost!).
Kalashtar: These are a humanoid race who have bound themselves to dream spirits called Quori. They have some racial psionic talent (communication by telepathy for example) and should obviously fit in well with the Psion and other psionic classes.
Warforged: People usually refer to them as robots but these guys are more of a metal and plant "cyborg" than a robot. They have pretty strong racial abilities and make fantastic fighters and especially barbarians.
Introducing the Classes:
Every class now has a "Role" within the party, and a party is recommended to have every role represented to succeed, though it need not have to. It is considered "pro" to have proper party balance.The Cleric:Is classified as a Leader.The Fighter:
He's the priest of a god with some pretty wicked spells to heal his allies and disable his enemies. Usually at the same time. Rarely will the cleric spend entire turns casting Cure Light Wounds.Is classified as a Defender.The Paladin:
He's a badass with a sword and board or a Two handed weapon, his job on the battlefield is to keep the enemies from stomping his friends, and he can do so with a variety of weapons, which all behave differently depending on how you choose your powers.Is classified as a Defender.The Ranger:
This guy is the champion of a deity, who uses some pretty powerful melee spells to lay waste to the enemy. He does alot of glowing holy magical energy damage, too. He also uses either a sword and shield or two handed weapon. His crappy spellcasting from previous editions has been replaced by a whole host of wicked awesome prayers that can heal his allies and smite his enemies.Is classified as a Striker.The Rogue:
This guy can use either a bow or two one handed weapons to mercilessly mutilate his enemies. He can also designate specific enemies as his quarry, this includes a giant glowing red arrow above their head.
Because this game is now WoW.Is classified as a Striker.The Warlock:
Is only good for picking locks and disarming traps, not really though. Sneak attack has been toned down a bit, but the rogue's huge damage boost makes up for it, because he really tears shit up with some pretty awesome powers.Is classified as a Striker.The Warlord:
Makes soul selling pacts with either Fey, Demons, or Cthulhu. Fires blasts of eldritch energy and murders people. Also, curses people so that he deals even more damage.
Strikers are nuts.Is classified as a Leader.The Wizard:
This is the new class focused on tactics and inspiring your fellows. He's pretty cool and can actually replace a cleric in your party very effectively, and he brings a different playstyle to the table too. Cleric Inc. hates him for breaking its monopoly on this role.Is the only Controller.The Swordmage:
The wizard is good at killing lots of enemies, very fast. He's not as amazingly and unstoppably powerful as he used to be, but still is pretty cool.Is classified as a Defender.
The Swordmage was released in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. He combines arcana and swords to make wonderful stabby magic. But probably not swordchucks.
We also have some new PHB II classes just to add to the excitement and the EPG has the artificer!Class: Avenger
Classification: Striker
Power Source: Divine
Primary Abilities: Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity
"My god has words for you. This blade will show you to him."
Avengers are excellent at isolating and eliminating single targets. Other followers do what should be done. You do what must be done. Pro: roll two attacks under certain circumstances. Con: Reliant on enemies for static damage boosts.Class: Barbarian
Classification: Striker
Power Source: Primal
Primary Abilities: Strength, Constitution, Charisma
"My strength lies in the fury of the wild."
Barbarians are savage warriors, channeling primal energy through themselves and their massive weapons. Darting back and forth across the battle, your fierce shouts make the enemy quake in fear. Pro: Big damage dice, lots of damage potential. Can fly into mighty rages. Con: Rages are daily powers, so don't expect to use them a lot. Also low defenses that get lowered during certain attacks.Class: Bard
Classification: Leader
Power Source: Arcane
Primary Abilities: Charisma, Intelligence, Constitution
"I play the song of my ally's victory over your corpse."
Bards are artists, channeling magic through unbelievable skill with music, drama, or poetry. Your skill with blade, book, and hymn are the stuff of fables. Pro: lots of fancy rituals to help in conversation. Can take as many multiclass feats as she wants. Con: Comparatively less healing than clerics, and less effective hazing abilities.Class: Druid
Classification: Controller
Power Source: Primal
Primary Abilities: Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity
"I am the seeker. I am the stalker. I am the storm."
Druids are the most effective and purist channelers of primal fury and embody all aspects of nature, from the calm of the still leaf to the fury of the thunderbolt. Pro: Alternates between caster form and wild shape for effectiveness in every situation. Con: Too many At-Will choices, fewer burst options than Wizard/Invoker.Class: Invoker
Classification: Controller
Power Source: Divine
Primary Abilities: Wisdom, Constitution, Intelligence
"Mighty Pelor! I beseech ye! Smite these wicked foes with your unending light!"
Invokers are invested with a pure spark of their chosen god, rather than being merely ordained by corrupt priests and weak rituals. They are the purest of their god's mortal agents. Pro: Arguably a better controller than Wizard, plus gains access to the sweet Channel Divinity stuff. Con: Less overall damage potential, less powerful rituals, and lacking the utility spells that make wizards such good generalists. Also I'm not that fond of the PP choices.Class: Shaman
Classification: Leader
Power Source: Primal
Primary Abilities: Wisdom, Constitution, Intelligence
"The spirits surround me, guiding my movements and obeying my commands."
Blessed with a mighty spirit companion that aids his allies, the Shaman is a primal, spiritual force. His mighty companion serves as both a focus for his attacks and as a shield to protect both him and his allies. Pro: Protector spirit makes an excellent backup Defender or Striker. Con: You have to give up your actions to command it.Class: Sorcerer
Classification: Striker
Power Source: Arcane
Primary Abilities: Charisma, Dexterity, Strength
"The difference between you and me? You wield magic. Magic wields me."
Sorcerers are natural founts of arcane power, resulting from either a history of dragon's blood or a product of mysterious, chaotic forces. Either way, you practically bristle with barely-contained magic, parcelling it out as needed in battle. Pro: Potential for very high damage and lots of cool effects. Con: Those effects are typically random, some of which can hit your allies.Class: Warden
Classification: Defender
Power Source: Primal
Primary Abilities: Strength, Wisdom, Constitution
"Get past me? You might as well try to push the mountain aside."
Wardens are protectors of the earth, drawing on primal spirits to protect their allies from harm, and the natural world from the encroachment of those who would corrupt it. Pro: You are a brick wall, but harder to hit and probably more resilient. Con: You're not supposed to wear heavy armor, and marking all adjacent enemies means you're going to need all that toughness.
and the EPG ArtificerClass: Artificer
Classification: Leader
Power Source: Arcane
Primary Abilities: Intelligence, Constitution and Wisdom
"Let me just help you with your wounds in a minute, right after I finish making this...."
The Artificer is a really solid leader, capable of taking other characters healing surges and making his healing powers out of them. This helps to spread around the parties healing surges so everyone can keep fighting longer. They can use a variety of weapons and fighting styles (ranged, melee and binding constructs like a summoner wizard), making them pretty flexible in general.
finally last but not least is the new DDI exclusive class, the AssassinClass: Assassin
Classification: Striker
Power Source: Shadow
Primary Abilities: Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma
"Please don't mind while I stab you with my Fullblade here - oh you were expecting a dagger? Well that can be arranged after I'm done disemboweling you..."
The Assassin is the first "exclusive" DDI class to be published and is pretty interesting. They can apply "shrouds" to enemies that they can use when attacking to inflict greater damage on their enemies. They also have a wide variety of weapon proficiencies and can teleport between creatures at-will. It's a pretty solid class for a DDI exclusive effort, with the only real flaw being they don't have their Ki-focus elements out just yet.
DM/Player Tools and Helpful Links
- A spreadsheet with all the magic items from the PHB, organized by Item Level and Body Slot (and subtype, in the case of Weapons, Armor and Implements) (Credit DVG)
- RPTools: Pretty useful for playing D&D over the internet. Get Maptool HERE
- Ability Generator from WotC
- Wizards' main site for D&D
- Enworld resource site for tabletop games
- Myth-Weavers Forum's character sheet tool. Has sheets for many games, including 4e
- H1 Keep on the Shadowfell for maptools
- Rescue at Rivenroar
- Asmor.com's Monster Maker makes a cool looking statblock, similar to the MM ones (thanks, Hexmage)
D&D Insider Subscriptions
D&D Insider has gone into subscription beta mode. What that means is, for three preset payment structures, you can access all of the online content Wizards is producing exclusively for Insider members without restriction. There are currently demos available for all the previously released content, listed below:
- D&D Compendium from WotC
- Dragon and Dungen magazines also from WotC
- Encounter Tool from WotC
More and more exclusive content will be added each month. Also, Insider subscribers will be included along with those who signed up at D&D Convention events in the closed beta testing for the new Character Builder application, the next tool on the slate to be released for the Insider. So, what are the prices, you ask?
- $71.40 for 12 months - $5.95 per month
- $23.85 for 3 months - $7.95 per month
- $9.95 for month
To subscribe to the D&D Insider service, click here. Prices went up in July, seems about a dollar an issue for a 12 month subscription.
You can find screenshots of the Character builder here.
Thanks Goose and Terrendos!
The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
Aegeri on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Edit: Good. That solves future space issues. Carry on then.
A lot of stuff has been released currently as well and I have most (actually all) of it, so I'll give some minor thoughts on each and update as stuff comes out:
Campaign Settings
Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
Forgotten Realms Players Guide
Scepter Tower of Spellgard
This was the first of the campaign settings released for 4E Dungeons and Dragons about a yearish or so ago. It marks a significant departure from the previous editions versions of the Forgotten Realms, which is either something people hate a lot, are indifferent to or quite like. It has enough detail that any new DM will find it a useful resource for making a campaign and providing an overall world to set that campaign in. It does not have the depth of lore or similar that previous editions have had, which is what leads to a lot of the negativity surrounding the setting. The players guide IMO is a useful resource even if you don't actually like the realms as a setting. Although a fair chunk of the book is dedicated to the FR, the Swordmage, races (Drow and Genasi) and feats make it a worthwhile purchase for anyone.
The adventure is decent quality, but requires a lot of work compared to the 'core' adventure series to get fully implemented into a campaign. It also starts at level 2, which is a real pain for DMs wanting to just jump right into a 4E campaign with the adventure and some fresh level 1 PCs. We have a thread for FR as well here.
Eberron
Eberron Campaign Guide
Eberron Players Guide
Seekers of the Ashen Crown
We have a thread for Eberron related things here.
Eberron is the second setting released and it's pretty good IMO (maybe I am biased though if you read my campaign threads on this forum). It has a lot of solid themes to the game, as it's based heavily on a kind of pulp action + noir feel that really does work. The books are absolutely gorgeous and especially the main campaign guide is worth mentioning, because the cartography of the map of the world is truly great and its packed full of great ideas and detail about Eberron. It is definitely around the top books released for 4E so far IMO. Like with FR, I feel the EPG is really worth buying as well just for the extra feats and mechanics (dragonmark feats are easily applied to other settings with little mechanical fiddling). I will say though some DMs may not like the more "magitech" feel to the Eberron specific Warforged race and Artificer class, so make sure you check with your DM before buying this for your FR or whatever setting game.
Once again though I must complain that the adventure starts at level 2. Why on earth do they do that? It's very good though and it's a fun adventure, but I still wish they would make these adventures from level 1 so you can jump right into the fun without having to make further encounters (or starting your PCs at level 2).
Dark Sun
The 2010 campaign setting and boy does it look like a doozy! It looks and sounds like they are doing some major changes to this setting for 4E, not just in changes from its original 2E incarnation but how they approach the setting from a 4E design standpoint.
Released books
Adventurers Vault
This is an excellent book for anyone, with a huge swathe of new awesome magical items and other things to bling your characters out with (or so you don't find yourself handing out bags of holding every single game as a DM because you can't think of anything else). This is a fantastic book.
Draconomicon
This is an excellent DM resource or just for anyone who loves dragons as well (It has some great artwork in it IMO). A nice smattering of new monsters, especially in the heroic tier as well as new options, new chromatic dragons and ideas for running encounters with Dragons. I highly recommend this book for any DM, but it doesn't have much utility for players.
Manual of the Planes
Good resource for DMs and a useful introduction to the planes. There is a new "race", Bladeling in the book and some Paragon Paths, but I wouldn't buy this if you're a player primarily. The book makes a lot of assumptions about the cosmology that may conflict with the Forgotten Realms and Eberron as well, which can make life something confusing if you're using those settings. Despite this, it's still useful and will provide plenty of ideas for running planar campaigns.
Martial Power
This is the best supplement for players released since 4E came out. Has a lot of new, interesting and fun options for martial characters, namely Fighters, Rangers, Rogues and Warlords. Good balance as well and has lots of great new paragon paths and more. I can recommend this book to absolutely anyone.
Open Grave
IMO, hands down the best supplement for DMs released thus far if you want your campaigns to have anything at all to do with the undead. Good adventure hooks, a wide array of excellent new monsters from filling out low level undead to providing even more high level undead monstrosities, this is an absolutely terrific book. Of course, if you don't like the undead much you won't find anything of interest in here and in a similar manner to the Draconomicon, there is nothing here for people playing in games to really make much use out of.
Dungeon Delve
Delayed somewhat and contains a large bunch of adventures of various levels and such. Is actually fairly interesting and really handy if you need an adventure now to put into your game in rapid time. I recommend this actually, especially if you have a collection of Dungeon Tiles.
Players Hand Book II
I think this was a big moment for 4E in many ways, a really good balanced and thought out book would vindicate many of the decisions in 4E as well as really add some more depth and variation. A bad book however would probably really derail the success 4E has enjoyed thus far and the general verdict is it's an excellent book. It's well balanced with the first book, a couple of feats and epic destinies aside but everything in general is really well thought out: most especially the new classes are great and so are the new races. It's really added a lot to the game and IMO is one of the best supplements (and most important) supplements in 4E. I would almost say if you're a player this book is as much a must have as the original.
Arcane Power
This is an excellent book if you like the pew pew style of classes. The summoning wizard is a great option and the new wizard at-wills are amazingly good. Tomes are a terrific new addition to implements and every arcane class got some more new and awesome feats, powers and paragon paths. I highly recommend this book, but be aware that like Martial Power there are some things in here just a bit out of whack power wise. Nothing game breaking though, but certainly more powerful than core book options.
Monster Manual 2
Overall this is a very solid book and seems to have taken some new directions with regards to solos and minions. Solos have less HP and defenses, but do more damage and seem to have more actions per round. Minions have been given control functions or do plain annoying things on death (like immobolise whoever killed them). Has a bit of a sense of humor as well compared with other supplements (Bullywug and such are notable for being a bit out there).
Divine Power
This has given a really substantial power increase to divine classes (for example Clerics now clearly rule the roost in terms of healing potential), Strength paladins now don't suck as much and it again provides lots of new options. It does feel a little on the power creep side in some ways though.
Adventurers Vault 2
This is a pretty solid book in terms of new magic stuff. It doesn't manage to go as overboard in my opinion with the power levels of many items as the original adventurers vault did as well. There are always going to be specific items that will be problematic in certain campaigns, but it's a nice addition and can really expand the variety of items you can give out to your PCs.
Released Adventures
The H series of adventures are essentially dungeon crawls with varying quality. To be honest, you're expected to do the footwork in writing the background and story for many of these, which are often somewhat flimsy.
H1: Keep on the Shadowfell
This is a straightforward dungeon crawl. It's worth noting that it can be downloaded for free now and in an updated form here! Like many of the adventures in this series, I am certainly not kidding when I say that it really is a very long dungeon crawl. It has a lot of combat encounters and a loose story connecting them, so it does require some work in that department. Still the fold out maps are nice and its a decent adventure (especially with the improvements in the downloadable version).
H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth
This is a really solid adventure and is one I enjoyed a lot. It's again, a dungeon crawl (but you should expect that from all of these) but has some really fun encounters and some interesting traps.
H3: Pyramid of Shadows
Personally this is the one I didn't really like all that much after running it. Although it's a zany adventure it has a few problems with some encounters being fairly poorly balanced and I felt it was way to long to have my PCs stuck somewhere. I ended up cutting it short by a lot.
P1: King of the Trollhaunt Warrens
This was a really fun adventure and was a good introduction to the paragon tier. I also liked the backstory behind it and the general design of the dungeons. It also has by far one of the most useful maps that I own, which is a small section of a town.
P2: The Demon Queen's Enclave
Again I really enjoyed this map and the backstabbing between the various Drow factions and politics that you can potentially insert (if you so desire). It has my least favourite of the fold out maps, but still a nice adventure anyway and they really are doing well with making interesting encounters.
P3: Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress.
One of the main reasons for buying this was so I could see the stats of Shadow Dragons and while they are okay, they don't really do enough damage and can be very tedious to fight (blinding people constantly for example). The adventure itself is still pretty nice though and I approve of it.
E1: Deaths Reach.
I haven't really had a lot of time to read this in depth!
E2: Kingdom of the Ghouls.
By far, this has the greatest final encounter in any of the modules that I've seen. It's also awesome all the way through and is by far and away my most favourite module out of this series.
E3: Prince of Undeath
This is the final of the adventures and should be coming out next month; highlight is new (hopefully non-sucky) stats for Orcus. I am very curious to see if Orcus has friends or not for that fight and its EL.
There is also another series of adventures coming out after this starting next year.
There are also larger "super" adventures too.
Revenge of the Giants
Tomb of Horrors (which is out next year).
Upcoming Stuff
Dragon Magazine Annual (Personally I am not excited about this as I have a DDI subscription).
Dungeon Masters Guide 2
Revenge of the Giants
Primal Power
Draconomicon 2
The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos
Underdark
Future Release Speculation and Rumours
There was a release schedule for late next year published as well, which includes the Monster Manual 3 (with Lloth apparently in it, making a good trio of high level Daemons - albeit Lloth is also a God so I am curious how powerful she will be in comparison).
There will be a book on Daemons later next year probably in the line of Open Grave or Draconomicon. Personally that is the book I am looking forward to the most.
Future Assassin article will cover "Ki-focus".
Useful Stuff Provided By Wizards and other people
To go with some of the links provided from the previous threads, Wizards have an Art and Map Gallery here. This is free and provides a lot of useful maps and art for use in your games to pillage at will. The OP dungeon is shamelessly stolen from there
Additionally I recommend this site, which has a wide collection of fantasy art and such forth. Some of it is distinctly NSFW however, so consider yourself warned. They love naked women.
Another useful site is the Cartographers Guild forums. Many talented map artists at this site who make a range of maps, both large scale continental maps, town maps and dungeon maps. Some of the maps here IMO are a bit too fancy, with excessive mapsizes for use with maptools but there are some real gems on here as well. Incidentally, the guy who did the cartography for the Cormyr article in Dragon Magazine posts here as well. Here's an example.
Infidel has provided us with a handy 4E stat calculator. Especially useful if you don't have the character builder to do it for you. The most common problem I find with 4E games is people messing up their initial point buy by a couple of points. In an unexpected twist, this is because some people tend to give themselves less points overall and accidentally gimp their character as opposed to going over the limit.
He's also produced a handy online character sheet device, which can be found here. Seems to work pretty well.
There is a general campaign design and advice thread that I have been writing for a while over here. If you're a new DM this might be worth checking out.
Also, as a reminder, don't discuss pirating books in this thread. It's not going to get you anything except some infractions and probably a ban. So just don't. Not to mention Chris Perkins is totally going to come around to your house and ruin your shit.
We have a general CF IRC channel too if you're that way inclined. You'll need some chat client to use it, or something.
irc.slashnet.org
#criticalfailure
Apparently this was SUPERSAGAs idea.
... he says as he rolls one with hopes of obliterating goblins with it.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
Comments:
Phasing overland flight is interesting, unless you mean it should just have phasing movement in general. Phasing makes it quite mobile actually so that would be a nice idea.
You forgot to finish the text on bore into brain, which I assume is either killing the target to restore HP or a permanent no-save dominate until the creature is killed.
Phasing strike has a really powerful push effect. It's probably okay at near epic tier though.
It's breath weapon is really solid. I approve.
Overall it looks like a well designed solo. I would run it as is.
I do have this power, though, that I'm considering for a Dalek Racial Paragon Path:
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
Corpse is actually a bigger stat block than her (mostly because I've gone overboard on the bizarre powers). I am looking forward to the end of that module very much in Sorrow of Heaven. It's not every day where I get an encounter I don't have to do anything in (muahahhah).
The player characters consisted of a Bard, a Fighter, and a Rogue, so it was pretty balanced, but I did prove to myself they can take on two level 3s with 6 minions. Tough, but doable.
An elite would be an interesting challenge.
dont mislead the people aegeri...
:P
Google docs screws up the formatting and the idea is to have them available for anyone to download and use. Both of them for example are designed with six players (as that is the number all my campaigns use), so it would be nice if someone could just download and then modify at whim (which is fairly easy to do with the way I've set them up; they assume DMG guidelines of 10 encounters and 10 treasure parcels, with 5 magic items per level).
The item sets in the AV 2 preview look interesting.
There's not much there that would qualify as a big boost, though there's definitely a lot of good material. The biggest boost was to small races, who also needed a boost, and I think the +AC feat and a couple of other nice ones helped fill in the gap nicely(and it'd also make a good multiclass for any other small sized barbarians.)
I was assuming that it is till either the end of the encounter or when they want to end it?
Stances last until the end of the encounter or until the character using them takes some action to end it (usually a minor).
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
We were in a room with a large spiral staircase heading up, with a 50 foot drop in the middle of the room, and a harpy flew up the central hole to engage us. She used some sort of blinding burst ability to blind pretty much the whole party. Being a dragonborn paladin in heavy armor, I weigh a lot, so I decide to blindly grab the harpy, and jump down the hole, hoping that I'll stay on top and the 5d10 falling damage she'll take will be enough to put her down.
I roll to grab. Success. (standard action) Move to the edge of the stairs and jump. (move action) Decide to burn her on the way down with dragon's breath (minor action) I roll an 8 for fire damage. She absorbs 10 fire. Crap. I use my action point to make an acrobatics check to move on top of her. The DM rolls a nat 20 for her acrobatics check as a defense. She beats me by 5 points. I hit the bottom of the pit, taking 36 damage, and she only takes half damage because she was on top. She uses a burst 10 massive fire damage spell that would have wiped out a couple of the party members above at this point, but since we're 50 feet straight down the hole, it only hits me. I soak the fire damage.
Luckily, I manage to keep holding her (I rolled a nat 20 on the next turn for sustaining my grapple). I let go and use a daily power (Martyr's Retribution and miss, naturally) but the half damage from it manages to take her out. At this point, I'm down to single digit health. I figure I'm going to spend the rest of the encounter failing athletics checks to climb up (the pit was deeper than the staircase).
Oh no, the next turn, a gargoyle 50 feet above me dislodges from the architecture and turns back to stone, falling directly on top of me. It misses, thankfully and cannot turn back to stone until its next turn. I use my OTHER daily (Radiant Pulse) with a sustain minor of continuing the damage. I manage to drop the gargoyle just before it hits me and takes me out. At this point, I manage to actually make my saving throw against blindness.
Our warlock had to use a ritual to get me back out of the pit, as we had used all of our ropes in the last room.
Roleplaying an honorable paladin who self-sacrifices for the good of the party is going to get my character killed.
Though on reflection it probably does mean I play farrrrr too much 4E DnD when I can recognise specific encounters now in specific modules.
Edit: Also that was a clever way of dealing with that encounter. How did the party handle the gargoyles out of curiosity? They are really annoying depending on the level they are encountered at.
Stances last until the end of the encounter or you use another stance
Well, we have four level 10 PCs at this point, so it wasn't terribly difficult. There were only two gargoyles, and I killed the one. I think the warlock used a power to immobilize the other one 5 feet off the ground and the rogue backstabbed it to death.
In other news, I'll be purchasing a safewing amulet in the next town we visit.
It was funny when the Rogue got pushed off the edge and failed her saving throw, plunging down and going splat with a really loud cracking noise. She was almost completely dead at that point and when she was bleeding to death one of the Gargoyles came down. If it hadn't been for the heroic actions of the Warlord and the fighter the rogue was toast.
They were really irritated by that harpy, but thankfully for them it generally rolled poorly on its blinding attack and got sniped out of the air pretty quickly by the warlock and wizard.
That module goes on for a really obscene amount of time though.
Aegeri, make sure there is a rather large fire demon over a chasm and a bridge next time and I will make sure he doesn't pass. Also, my longsword has just been named Glamdring. That is all.
Good. As it should be. =P
It's all explained in the OP, but the thread is basically there as a repository for RL game updates and discussion in the same way the FR thread was, but for every setting and every system.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3