Points of Light

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos Review

2012-02-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

Heroes of the Elemental Chaos is the third planar-themed character book, in a similar vein to Heroes of Shadow and Heroes of the Feywild. I really dug Shadow and Feywild because the planes and concepts they focused on were parallels of the natural world, and thus easy--or at least easier--for characters to access early on.

The Elemental Chaos has been largely pegged as a paragon-tier stomping ground, so a lot of the book is options and story ideas on how players can take the chaos out of the Chaos or how it can affect the natural world and its inhabitants: you can basically use any of it without having to give two shits about the Elemental Chaos, though there is a lot of information to help you brainstorm some ideas and hooks.

On another note I really dug the art; the cover is by Wayne Reynolds and thus rules by default, but the interior is of a similar quality as to what we got in Heroes of the Feywild (though it lacks the random background generator). It is a pretty cool book. I'd nab it if you like elemental stuff, though most of it is for arcane classes (meaning, yes, more spells and subclasses), or actually mine these books for ideas.

Chapter 1: Into the Maelstrom
Thirty-one pages of elemental flavor, this chapter has information on the nature of elemental magic, how it can influence the world and some races, a roster of primordials, how it works with other powers sources like divine and primal, primordial cults, planar breaches, how a character might gain it (such as exposure, primordial shards, or just by hitting the books), and more. Of interest to DMs are the last handful of pages, which provides information on choice primordials (including some free ones), and gives you ideas on how--and how much of it--you can work it into your campaign.

Chapter 2: Character Themes
I won't go into detail here since it would just be me talking theme mechanics, which I do in the next section, but this is a sweet and short chapter that adds ten elementally-themed themes to the roster. A lot are tied to specific elements such as fire and water, though one is synced to metal and another associates you with demons.

Chapter 3: Classes
This 62-page chapter provides new options for druids, monks, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards. Yes, this includes new features for subclasses as well as a pair of new subclasses, so que whiners bitching that this is an "Essentials" book or what the fuck ever.

The druid class can choose Primal Wrath, which gives you an attack bonus with energy attacks when not in heavy armor, while the sentinel subclass can pick Druid of the Wastes, which gives you a zephyr companion, bonus to AC and Reflex when using a spear or staff, a bonus to Endurance, and level 13, 17, and 27 features. There are also thirteen new evocations that range across all the levels.

There are two new monk traditions; Desert Wind and Eternal Tide, keyed to Charisma and Strength respectively. Desert Wind gives you scaling fire resistance, and its flurry lets you deal fire damage, as well as impose an attack penalty if the target was not the triggering target. Eternal Tide lets you resist forced movement, as well as shift for free after being moved, and its flurry has a Melee range of 2 and lets you pull the target, slowing it if it was no the initial target. There are also a lot of new thematic disciplines to choose from.

In addition to a bunch of new spells, sorcerers get their own subclass, the elementalist. It uses Constitution as a secondary ability score, dealing bonus damage and able to derive its AC based on it. You have to choose an elemental focus, which modifies the energy bolt spell that they all get, as well as determining the other at-will spells you get and other features; energy resistances, saves, and abilities like at-will flight at higher levels. They also get an elemental escalation, which is an encounter spell that triggers when you make an attack, and basically gives you a nice kicker effect. Even better, you can use it more as you level up.

New pacts for warlocks and hexblades. Yay. The warlock pact has you roll for a random energy type (which you can freely change after using a second wind), and at any time you can swap out various non-elemental keywords on warlock spells to your affinity. The pact boon lets you impose an energy vulnerability on the next creature you curse (oh, and it stacks), so being able to swap damage types freely lets you capitalize on the boon.
Hexblades gain the blade of chaos, which deals 2d4 damage and has High Crit. The boon here gives you energy resistance and lets you shift, while the at-will melee attack lets you choose an energy vulnerability to slap on the creature for a turn. Even better, the level 1 encounter lets you deal energy damage of your choice, strip away any resistances or immunities on the target, and generate an auto-damaging energy aura.
The downside is that there are not a lot of new warlock spells, so while most are tied to primordials there just are not enough to tie the theme together.

Last but not least oh hey it is another wizard subclass, the sha'ir. It is based on Intelligence and Constitution, and its main schtick is that it summons a gen servant that as part of the class flavor provides you with elemental energy to cast your spells. Mechanically you gain Arcane Familiar as a bonus feat, but you do not have to take a gen. Some of the gens have kickers based on your Constitution mod, but I guess the main thing is that you and allies next to your familiar gain energy resistance of your choosing based on your Con mod. Otherwise blah blah more spells blah blah.

Chapter 4: Elemental Options
We get ten new paragon paths--including one for each of the new subclasses, such as the boringly-named Legendary Hexblade--a pair of epic destinies, feats, rules for elemental companions (that anyone can pick up with a feat), and elemental magic items and gifts. The best part of this chapter, to me, is the elemental companions. You need to have Born of the Elements and then take Elemental Companion, which basically gives you a kind of familiar that anyone can have (not just arcanists). I would like to see this extended to other options, allowing characters to run around with a golem or undead companion.

Character Concept: The Voice of the Stars

2012-02-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

I love aberrants--especially when I get to unleash them on my players--as well as things generally associated with them, such as the star pact and psionics. I figure, why not have both?

This character could have been a survivor from an illithid colony, a failed ceremorphosis candidate, got too close to the Far Realm, read a tome she should not have (if you want to tap H.P. Lovecraft), or was otherwise exposed to some aberrant force. Perhaps her psionic talents attracted the attention of an otherworldly entity, or perhaps psionics were part of the package deal.

At any rate, you start with a hybrid psion/warlock, with the telepathy focus and star pact respectively. The theme is kind of iffy; if you have a background for what your character was all about before this went down, you could go with that (like guttersnipe or outlaw if you nabbed the book-that-should-not-have-been-opened), though seer is good if you want to focus on the whole fate aspect.

Powers are pretty easy to juggle, you will just want to make sure that your Intelligence and Charisma are both set to 16. The telepathy focus works out well, as it is linked to Charisma. I think the only real flaw here is that some star-pact spells are dependent on Constitution, which might be a problem if your DM won't let you just pen in "charisma" over the power description.

You will probably want to dump your first feat on Hybrid Talent so you can pick up something extra. After that just nab a rod or orb and you are good to go, though if your DM is cool with it you might want to ask about re-skinning a few more things:

Tentacle Lash: I like the idea of a servant (or slave?) of the stars being mutated by her "gifts". The tentacle might always be present, or extend from her hand or even mouth. You could even go so far as to have the character have an entire face of tentacles, complete with a lamprey-like mouth or beak ala the mind flayer. This is just a re-skinned basic melee attack, or even eldritch strike. I would have it otherwise function as a short- or longsword.
Maddening Drone: More of a warlock power, you have lots of little mouths that whisper secrets and prophecies. This would just deal psychic damage within a close burst. Might not be "balanced", but is thematic and cool. Could have a push effect. If you went with this as a daily I could see it dazing or even stunning.
Mind Blast: You could simply reskin thunderwave to deal psychic damage and swap out of the push effect for something like a defense or attack penalty, or prevent targets from making opportunity attacks for a turn. Alternatively, save kickers for the augmented versions, up to and including a one-turn daze effect.
Thought Shackles: The dominated condition does not start until 5th level, and even then it is for one turn. Still you could deal psychic damage, then have the target make a melee basic attack. Or you could have it so that you can make the target use one until they shake the effect off with a save. Like, they get to take their turn, but on your turn you can take control briefly. Something that seems quasi-mind flayery.

As a fan of homebrew content and sticking to a concept, I would consider my patron star's goals and theme when picking, altering, or creating new spells, as well as how the character's psionic powers develop.

I guess the only bad part about this character is that it is seemingly more suited to a villain, though you could go the route of a kind of grim-dark hero. Depending on the complexity of the star's machinations, the character's actions could coincide with the rest of the party. Hell, one star might have the character move against the other one.

A Sundered World: Episode 104

2012-02-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

Cast

Iron Jack (human warlord)
Dahn (goliath serpent shaman)
Lothelle (moon elf bladesinger)

The doors to the armory close, and without astral essence the ship slowly drifts to the ground. Jack, Dahn, and Lothelle disembark and begin exploring the place. They find a large shaft containing the body of a dormant humanoid, roughly 100 feet tall and made of metal, trapped within a stasis field. Five passages branch off, and a set of stairs descends further down.

Each passage is sealed with a warded door. Lothelle's glasses allow her to read the words, which indicate that certain levels of permissions are required to open them. They find one that is damaged, with mechanical spiders attempting--and failing--to restore the magic bonds that keep it closed. They end up fighting the spiders, which combine to form larger constructs. Eventually they stop after a vibration resonates through the installation, allowing Lothelle and Jack to disable the door and get inside.

They find weapons made of a strange, golden material, and an enchanted javelin labeled as "Tempest", which allows the wielder to summon wind storms and elementals. They manage to access two more rooms, picking up a collection of golden weapons, a pair of linked swords referred to as Lightning Twins, and a golden fleece. The swords require two separate wielders to properly use, allowing them to channel lightning or make a combined attack, while the fleece provides damage resistance to the wearer, as well as allowing him or her to deflect an attack.

Unable to access the rooms for siege and geomantic weapons, they head downstairs, where they find a few rooms that require level 3-5 permissions. They head back up stairs and notice a console in front of the stasis field, and deactivate it. The metal colossus refers to itself as Autocthon, and after reminiscing about the Dawn War agrees to let them take the weapons and go if they promise never to return. They agree, and pick up a magic cannon and a bunch of elemental charges. In the geomantic weapon vault, they find an elemental lance and three fire charges.

They notice a door at the back of the room. Inside is a metal pyramid with elemental cores 200-feet high jutting out of the top (the ones they have found have been roughly fist-sized). The floors open, and green lightning carries raw metals into openings on the pyramid. It speaks to them, asking what their race is, what they are doing, and where they have been. When they mention going to Shom it claims to recognize them, and explains that it was there when they destroyed it. As in, the golden-bug-construct. Iron Jack asks it what it is trying to do, to which it responds that it is going to finish what the primordials started.

The pyramid thanks them for opening the vault, and energy courses along the walls, giving birth to more constructs that begin to pry themselves free and advance upon the party. They flee back to the ship, and thankfully the doors have opened, allowing essence in for the ship to fly. Demons block the door, and they are grabbed by a goristro, which is quickly taken apart by the machines. As they flee, they notice hordes of demons descend upon the armory, but are seemingly easily destroyed.

They make it out of the Elemental Chaos and head to the Feywild. Iron Jack tries to make peace by offering up the elemental lance to Lothelle's father, but he forbids her from leaving. After a lengthy argument, Lothelle's father pits her against one of his elite soldiers to see what she could possibly have learned from a "pathetic, drunken coward". She wins--fairly easily due to a combination of Kia's creativity and Josh's encouragement and taunts--and her father reluctantly drops the charges levied against Jack, takes the elemental lance, and storms off.

They then decide to head to a corpse star to see if Gwynneon can help them out further. On the star Lothelle is greatly sickened, and she has a harder time working magic because of all the cold iron. They encounter "voices"; pale humanoids covered with whispering mouths that disorient the characters. As they try to flee they are stopped by a humanoid with a single large eye and lamprey-like mouth. It offers them salvation if they would but open their minds to the songs of the stars (or at the least help feed the sleeping god). They decline and he uses his psionic powers to mutate the characters and rend the planar fabric, allowing an entity of the Far Realm to try and consume them. Ultimately they prevail, but after Jack slices him open a lump of slimy tentacles slithers off into the darkness.

Next Time: The Depths

Behind the Scenes
I have been waiting a long time to use clockwork horrors in a campaign, and now I finally have. It was fun dropping them in to the pilot episode, and again in Shom. They got to see how outclassed they were, and have now unleashed an army upon creation. I am curious to see how they deal with it, as well as how I will respond to their plans.

They also finally got their hands on a nice collection of magic items (they are level 4, by the by), all of which are custom-made:

The Golden Fleece: Magic leather armor that grants the wearer resist all 1 and lets him use an Immediate Interrupt to deflect a ranged attack against anyone within 5 squares.
Lightning Twins: Magic longswords that have an encounter ranged 20 lightning bolt, but let two wielders use a daily lightning blast that deals way more damage and knocks the target back. How it works is that one person uses their Standard Action, while the other uses an Immediate action. I also told them I would give them a +1 bonus to the attack roll if they gave it a name. They decided on Gemini Lightning Maelstrom, and it is funny hearing Josh and Kiara try to time it.
Tempest: Magic javelin that can create a blast of thunder damage on impact--kind of like a thunder-themed scorching burst--or summon an air elemental, similar to any other summoning power out there.
Elemental Lance: With a range of 100 squares (and a 2-square blast radius) and 5d10 + 50 fire damage, I was surprised that they parted with it even though it only had three shots. Lothelle doubted she could make more since it required "a massive amount of fire energy, condensed in a kind of singularity". Very unstable and difficult to make.
Magic Cannon: Basically a magic ballista that can fire cold, fire, and lightning typed shots. The shells just require elemental cores to fabricate.

There was a hiccup when they went back to Astrazalian. Josh wanted to hand over the elemental lance and try to patch things up, but I figured Lothelle's father would not have any of that. They had a huge argument, but ultimately the right things were said to the point where I figured that he would want them to put up or shut up. The duel was ran as a kind of skill challenge, with some instances Kia and the soldier making opposed attack/defense checks to see what happened. My players realized early on that I am not going to pull punches and that there are plenty of things more powerful than they in the Astral, and there has yet to be a session where they had to flee from something.

I did not expect them to seek out a corpse star, seeing as all I had for Acamar was that crappy drawing I posted awhile back. Given that cold iron comes from corpse stars, Kiara was very much against it as she figured it would hurt Lothelle. She was right to a point; Lothelle feels feverish and her skin itches everywhere. Seeing as I am playing up cold iron's efficacy against magic, it is harder for her to use Arcana to detect magic (skill penalty), to cast spells (attack penalty), and when Dahn missed with Tempest it got stuck in the ground instead of returning to his hand.

Skill and attack penalties; much scarier than any city of aberrant horrors.

Josh is both a clever motherfucker who is not afraid to try some crazy shit. While fighting the voices, he decided to zap the Far Realm entity in the eye with his Lightning Twin's encounter shot, stating that he hoped to "daze it so that it stops grabbing us". He rolled and hit it, so for the next round I figured it would stop grabbing them and also give Kia an immediate save to escape it. For his next trick, he ran into a building and made a Streetwise check to kick down a wall (the walls were not mortared and fairly brittle) and double back on the cultist (who assumed he just ran off), giving him a chance to sneak attack him. He rolled well enough, and leaped out of the shadows, skewering the fucker, ending the fight in a decidedly climactic fashion.

On the downside, for them, Iron Jack got bit, meaning that now I have to come up with some sort of mutating disease (he failed the save), and Kamon actually had Dahn pick up the cultist's rod. I just laughed manically and called the session. Partially, I wanted to keep them guessing as to what was going to happen, but also because I had no fucking clue.

Four sessions in and my players claim that they are having "the most fun they have ever had with D&D". Sure, there are some problems with people remembering who was where, or if they can maneuver into a flanking position, or how far one thing is from another, but..fuck it. I'm tired of running low-level campaigns that barely hit 6th-level before the campaign falls apart and a lot of the shit I have planned never sees the light of day. They like the speed, the flexibility of their skills and powers, and that they are getting shit done.

Multiple Attacks

2012-02-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

How should multiple attacks--if any--be handled? The poll breaks this up by asking if they should be penalized for multiple attacks (albeit by giving you two contradicting polls), or just make one attack that either spreads the love or just lumps extra damage on one target.

If fighters are going to get multiple attacks, then they can not be penalized. This was one of many reasons why fighters in 3rd Edition sucked so bad. Yeah you got multiple attacks faster than in older editions, but you had to spend your full turn swinging and you took a pretty severe penalty to your attack rolls, meaning that you were not likely to hit. If you are not going to give the fighter multiple attacks and instead allow it to divvy up the damage in another way or just deal extra damage, then this needs to come as a feature and not a cost. The fighter should not be forced to spend feats in a futile attempt to remain viable as in 3rd Edition.

Personally I want a fighter to have scaling damage built in. This is one of the reasons why the warblade was sooo much better than the fighter; where the fighter was doling out 1d8 damage, the warblade was stacking an extra 1d6 from a stance, and could easily roll out an extra 2d6 every other round through a maneuver. The best part? She didn't fucking have to spend a full-round doing it. Even better as you got higher level you got more powerful maneuvers that could be used with a single action, so while the fighter was wiffing with extra attacks you were landing one super-attack with a shitload of d6's piled on top.

I guess my answer is to have both: allow fighters to deal scaling damage, make multiple attacks at no penalty, and preferably have some other benefit keyed to a weapon category (so hammers could knock creatures around, swords could give a defense bonus, etc). Oh, and no feat taxes. Fighter players should get what they need to remain viable and spend their feats, talents, whatever on ways to make their character more unique. I would prefer to avoid cookie-cutter fighters of editions past.

Fighter A-Go-Go

2012-02-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Et tu, Schwalb?

Before I go into some of what is wrong with both the article, I will answer that none of the options individually portrays what a fighter is or should be, and they aren't even mutually exclusive. Why cannot a fighter have fighting styles and focus on a weapon? Do any of those things mean she cannot defend her allies?

When I think of a fighter I tend to cleave to the archetype of a tough, strong, skilled warrior clad in heavy armor, usually keeping her allies safe from harm. That is to say that I don't think that a fighter must be a tank, but the archetype is common enough that it should certainly be an option.

Personally I think the slayer and knight best evoke the two strongest fighter concepts; the slayer is all about damage output with a big-fucking weapon, while the knight is more durable and has mechanics that can actually keep her allies safe. I guess my preference would be:

· Exclusive weapon (or preferrably weapon-category) perks of some kind. This can be class features, feats, or exploits that make you better with a weapon or let you do something else with it in the vein of 4th Edition. Like, knock people around with a spear, knock them down with a hammer, etc.

· Stances were a great addition and provide a simple mechanic for allowing a fighter to mix things up without a lot of book-keeping.

· At the least an option for a fighter to actually be able to defend her allies. None of the bullshit from older editions that said you could do that even though you really could not (short of fighting in a narrow tunnel so that nothing could squeeze by your corpse).

Normally I can really get behind the stuff that Rob talks about, but this time? It reads like Monte Cook logged in to his account and is trying to post something in his name, just to see if anyone would notice. Hell, there is a 40+ page thread on RPG.net, and plenty of peole there assumed it was Cook even after being told that it was Schwalb. As someone in the thread put it, these polls feel less like they are actually trying to gather data, and more like they are trying to covince you of decisions that they have already made.

"The fighter is the class you hand to the new player who doesn't know much about RPGs."

Maybe in older editions, where all the fighter did was spam the same attack over and over again while inexorably being eclipsed by the wizard, but current fighters are just as complex and flexible as any of them. Hell even the knight and slayer provide more options and better balance without sacrificing much of the simplicity, making them ideal choices for players that don't want to have to juggle a lot of mechanics around.

At any rate this is a stupid mentality. A player new to a game should be able to play whatever the fuck they want. It is a fantasy game, and if a player wants to play a wizard they should be able to without having to go through an unrelated tutorial class first.

"The fighter also protects his or her allies."

In 4th Edition, sure. In previous editions, how? There was literally nothing from stopping a monster from just walking past the fighter and mauling the cleric or wizard to death. I guess the fighter might be able to make an attack of opportunity in 3rd Edition, but otherwise the fighter cannot do anything about it. This is not a major problem for monsters in the Ingelligence range of nil to stupid, but smart ones that know what magic is or employ tactics are likely to focus on the wizard or cleric.

Of course, none of this matters if the fighter cannot even touch the monster or is easy to take out of the fight, which can happen in the mid-level range due to monsters that can fly, teleport, or just cast a Will-based spell to confuse, scare, or just mind-control her.

"The fighter leads the charge, hacking down enemies with sword and axe, at least when the fighter isn't sitting in the back loosing arrows against gibbering horde."

I really don't like how Schwalb interjects the archer bit in there. It feels forced. Like, Monte Cook-forced. Outside of 4th Edition I have rarely seen players make archers, even with 3rd Edition rangers. He makes it sound commonplace, or that it should be. It sounds more like he is trying to pander to the whiners who did not want to play a ranger (or just multiclass, hybrid, or talk to their fucking DM) and instead wanted a fighter that would basically be the same fucking thing.

"The fighter is the knight, the mercenary, the archer, and the warrior wielding two weapons."

Hey again archer. I like how he slaps it in the middle. Reminds of of that part in the Simpsons where Homer is tryingto buy illegal fireworks.

I am not saying that fighters cannot used ranged weapons (they can in 4th Edition, and lose out on all of a minor benefit), but fighters specifically focused purely on using a bow? This sounds like Schwalb just interjected archer in the list of actual fighter archetypes in the hopes that people would at least overlook it if not accept it. Archers do not make me think of a heavily armored warrior that protects her allies. I think light armor and high mobility.

Like, oh...the ranger, which also no longer has an animal companion or casts divine spells, so...what the fuck is the problem, again? Really the ranged fighter that comes to mind is using her Strength score chucking throwing axes, javelins, and spears. These also have the benefit of being usable with one hand, and I can envision a fighter opening up a battle chucking a throwing axe before drawing her sword and charging in.

"What made the fighter interesting in the previous editions were the choices you made with weapons, armor, and later, feats. Fighter players had a great deal of freedom to build the warrior they wanted to play, whether that warrior was a knight or an archer."

So the fighter was interesting because you got to pick from various weapons that did 1d8, or perhaps 1d10 or even 2d6 damage? Wow. Very compelling. Not as compelling as armor, though; I would start with scale mail, then move up to half-plate or full-plate depending on where I was and how much cash I had. So many options. Why would I ever want a class feature that allows me to go with the weapon style I want, or maneuvers that make my weapon choice actually matter? No, picking my damage die is enough for me.

Sarcasm aside the feats were a kind of class feature patch for the fighter. You picked a weapon you liked and dumped a lot of feats on it in a vain effort to try and keep pace with the numerous other classes that were better than you, and did not have to spend feats to suck. Going for a duel-wielder was an even bigger hassle, especially if you wanted to mitigate the attack penalties by taking two different weapons as they each required their own slew of feats.

No, feats-as-a-feature were bullshit and 4th Edition went a long way ensuring your fighter got what she needed to remain viable without you having to strictly adhere to a build mentality.

"In 4th Edition, the fighter’s focus shifted from total customization and instead grounded the fighter into a particular niche—a role that would continue until the slayer came along in the Essentials products."

The 4th Edition fighter was "locked" into a niche? What...having a larger selection of weapons (as opposed to a handful of "good" choices), class features, feats, and exploits was not enough? What the fuck?

Given that some fighter exploits applied a bonus to one or more weapon categories, this statement is fucking bullshit. Covering attack works with any melee weapon, so if you somehow lose the weapon you are carrying (which happens almost exactly never in any edition), you can still use it with an axe, flail, spear, rock, or your fucking bare hands. Actually at the launch of 4th Edition none of the 1st-level exploits required specific weapons, though tide of iron required a shield, and reaping strike gave you a slightly better benefit if you used any two-hander.

I also like how he says that the fighter was grounded into a niche, even though that the various fighter features and exploits could easily usher you into more of a damage dealer or controller, or just make you damned hard to kill. Hell in Martial Power 2 the fighter finally had a viable unarmed mechanic, and any fighter could go from adding Wisdom to opportunity attacks to chasing a fucker and knocking them down, giving them a lot of mobility.

I am going to quote someone from RPG.net, who mentioned something on this subject that I agree with:

"While it may not be the whole point of the blog, it does present a veritably Straw Man of the 4e fighter.

It points out that the 4e fighter is a defender and (like most defenders) melee-focused. It makes it sound like that's the only thing 4e did with the fighter, force it into a Role (like very other 4e class).

A much more momentous thing happened to the fighter in 4e. It stopped sucking. It became the equal of other classes. It was as good (at least) a defender as the Paladin or Swordmage. It was on the same playing field as casters, able to bring some round-by-round versatility in combat, and some peak-power when really needed. Able to 'nova' in those benighted 5-minute workdays. That balance and near-parity was something the fighter never had before. Never.

And it's not even acknowledged, let alone valued."

"I find myself looking back to the 3rd Edition fighter with a great deal of fondness."

Yeah...being overshadowed by non-fighting classes, having to go toe-to-toe with monsters that could kill you in a full-round action (if they wanted to go toe-to-toe at all), and getting to make the same routine attack over and over again...those were the days. Seriously though, the only reason that you should look back to the 3rd Edition fighter is as a lession to be avoided.

"I liked how a player could customize the fighter in any way he or she wanted."

You mean a one-hander, two-hander, or I guess ranged-guy? Even if you blatantly want to ignore the ranger (even for multiclassing/hybrid purposes) due to the name, and even if you don't want to take lots of bow feats and rely on ranged basic attacks (basically what fighter arrow-attacks where in older editions, but still better) two out of three is not bad, especially given how much more competent and flexible they are.

And, again, there are the six or so class features, two sub-classes (with their own customization options), and exploits. Just throwing that out there...

"As well, a player who wanted to be a damn good archer could just go to the fighter without having to embrace the ranger’s narrative (and attendant features)."

Fuck the narrative. That is a lame excuse. Look at the mechanics; a lightly-armored warrior that could be good at both melee and ranged stuff, which is what I think of when I envision an "archer". A big, tough guy clad in scale or plate mail with a bow? Not so much. As in, not at all.

It feels like that rather than just make a class feature to shut the vocal minority up about their ranged fighters, or trying explain to them how it "okay" to call your class something else, or even just making an entire archer class (that would likely just be a fighter with copy-and-pasted ranger exploits), that they are going to fold and solve a problem that I am not convinced exists.

A Sundered World: Episode 103

2012-02-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Cast

Lothelle (moon elf bladesinger)
Dahn (goliath serpent shaman)
Iron Jack Derro (human warlord)

Heading towards the mountains, the characters are hit by a sound-storm. They continue, undeterred, and discover a white ziggurat at the base of the mountains. Some bereft angels are shuffling about the foundation, but they easily evade them. At the top of the ziggurat they find one passage underground, ominously marked with skeletons.

Inside they find a door with a sound-lock, which Iron Jack manages to open after studying the walls for similar symbol patterns. The room beyond is a ransacked library; they rifle through the papers and find a moldering skeleton with an enchanted pair of glasses. Searching the books, they discover a string of floating, shifting words that they cannot understand. Lothelle dons the glasses and discovers that they translate any language, including the floating words, which happily answers her questions.

After grilling it for information on primordials, weapons, angels, etc they continue searching the ziggurat, quickly realizing that it is much larger on the inside than the outside. Further inside they find an archive with stone tablets and a staff that stops time, preserving certain areas of the ziggurat from decay. They find more information in the archive, and nab some tablets to read later. Across the hall is a scriptorium, which has high quality inks and paper. With books and tablets in tow, they decide to rest for the night before heading back to Gwynneon.

During the night a golden, beetle-like golem arrives, killing all the angels. Lothelle and Danh warn Jack that the copper one they encountered before could channel devastating lightning, right before the gold one unleashes an intense beam of heat, easily cutting through the walls. They get the staff and use it on the golem, causing it to rapidly age until it turns to dust. Before they can rest a colossal stone golem rises from the floor, apparently a defense mechanism. They barely manage to escape as the golem destroys the ziggurat, burying it in the sands.

They return to the ship without further incident and head to Hammerfast to load up on supplies. They show the mimir the stone tablets and staff, learning about some place called the Armory of Autocthon, the use of angelstones, and that the staff was forged by a god and while depleted could gradually be recharged. Iron Jack installs a ballista and buys enough ritual components to make several major ship repairs "just in case". With that out of the way they head to the Feywild.

Gwynneon performs a ritual, using one of the books from Shom, a weapon and shield, and Iron Jack's blood to bind the location of the Armory of Autocthon to his mind; he becomes unable to unerringly locate it within the churning mass of the Elemental Chaos, just one the edge of the Abyss. Dahn offers up a service to Gwynneon in exchange for information about the World Serpent, and she gives him a stone idol.

As they depart, Dahn manages to undergo a kind of vision quest, where he defeats the World Serpent fragment in the idol, gaining its power. Within the Elemental Chaos, they manage to avoid numerous disasters and fend of elemental monsters before arriving at the Armory. They end up having to clamber inside the door to trigger the mechanisms and safety precautions to open it. The session ended with them at the Armory's threshold.

Behind the Scenes

Sound-storms are the verbal components of spells gone wrong, or mispronounced Words of Creation. They just race across Shom, knocking shit around.

Sound-locks are metal rods in doors that open when the rods are struck in a specific order. These pertain to illumian runes, and form a word. The idea was that the players would find a journal, book, or use a Comprehend Language ritual to figure it out. However Josh decided to scope the walls and look for patterns using History (for cryptography) and Thievery to increase his odds.

The script was a kind of NPC that could help give them some information when stuck, or at least give them a foundation to work with. Unfortunately it took them awhile to realize that the magic glasses radiating divination magic could translate languages. :-P

I was really shocked when I mentioned a staff that Kiara did not detect magic on it. They just entered the archive, raided it for useful information, and then left. Hell, they jacked all the ink from the other room! I am glad that they decided to camp so I could throw a random encounter at them, though even then they did not think of going for the staff. What got them to do it was when they asked the script what they should do, to which it replied to use the staff. While not a plot coupon, it was just one of the really rad magic items I promised (+6 staff, though it got reduced to a +1 after discharging all its temporal magic).

Also, it lead to a really rad skill challenge...

The stone guardian was fucking awesome. It kept trying to nab the staff while they characters, pinning Iron Jack, knocking them around, and generally tearing the place apart. As they got into the halls the place started to sink, causing the floors to turn into walls. The best part was when they were stopped by a bereft angel; Kamon had Dahn chuck snakes at her, causing her to fall into the guardian's hand, which crushed her. Their only regret was that they did not get her angelstone.

The low point, for me, was the Armory door. I really was not prepared for them to get that far at all, and was also pretty damned tired. The mechanics to opening it felt rushed--I had actually forgotten to have Gwynneon give them an item that would hePublish Postlp it make sense--and I just think I did not give it the epic feel it deserved. Even so it was a learning experience for me; take notes, maybe plan more. :-P

A Sundered World: Asmodeus Concept

2012-02-05T15:20:00.000-08:00

Th capital of Bael-Turath is Asmodeus. No, not the devil-turned-god, but a hellish metropolis built upon his corpse, chained to what remains of the Nine Hells (an iron spehere).

The city is ruled by a tiefling who claims to be directly descended from Asmodeus himself. Laws are complex and strictly enforced. The denizens are divided into castes, with arcanists and nobility on top and slaves firmly entrenched at the bottom. Devils are commonplace, and souls are a currency, fuel supply, and crafting material.

The players have not been here, and for their sake they might never have a reason to go here. Hopefully--for me at least--they find one. :-)

Character Concepts: The Thief of Wind

2012-02-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

I forgot exactly how and when I came up with this character concept. Maybe it was a character that I would play had I been playing in A Sundered World instead of running it, though it could also be a rad NPC to throw at my party as a part-time antagonist. Like a D&D-based Faye Valentine or Saffron. Basically it is a rogue that managed to swindle a wish from a djinni without it backfiring (or at least, not in an immediately noticeable way), or discovered some kind of item that grants a measure of elemental power, like a could be a djinni's bottle or air elemental core.

Now I could go with elemental heritage (or even windsoul genasi), but I like the idea of a rogue that managed to actually steal power, as it would ideally give a DM a very definitive adventure hook and a motivation for the character.

Mechanically you can get away with this by going with a human rogue and multiclassing into wizard for an encounter thunderwave, re-flavoring it to be a gust of wind instead of a thunder clap. The problem is that that gives you one wind-based power, and only on a per-encounter basis at that. I think what I would prefer more is a hybrid rogue/sorcerer. The problem here is that none of the at-wills really have a wind-motif. Well...storm walk is kind of wind-ish, but I would prefer to reskin thunderwave and just make it a Charisma attack instead of Intelligence.

After that it is a simple matter of divvying up your exploits and spells to taste, and nabbing Hybrid Talent for a sorcerer's storm soul class feature, artful dodger, or weapon talent if that is your thing. Personally I like storm soul because I imagine the part where you lose your energy resistances as wind shielding you from harm.

A Sundered World: Episode 102

2012-02-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Cast

Captain Iron Jack Derro (human made-up warlord)
Danh (goliath serpent shaman)
Lothelle (moon elf bladesinger)

Danh and Lothelle, stranded on the moon, wandered towards a petrified forest bordering some mountains, which were predictably infested with petrified dryads. After killing them they were met by Gwynneon, a hag that offered them food and shelter. Weary after almost an entire day of travel and fighting, they accepted. She offered them the comforts of her surprisingly well furnished cave, putting them to sleep with her magic.

Meanwhile Captain Iron Jack Derro was wrapping up a smuggling deal. He had just dropped off a shipment of efreeti fire-brandy and was looking for another job. His contact informed him about an "oracle" living in mountains near an afore-mentioned petrified forest, and that she purportedly would know of a cache of ancient treasures. Iron Jack decided to take him up on the offer and set sail, arriving at the cave just a few hours after Danh and Lothelle did.

Danh and Lothelle woke at a table, complete with food and tea, as Jack arrived. Gwynneon told them that she could help Lothelle find the weapon she seeked, as well as Jack find untold riches, if they would bring her something that contained knowledge; the brain of an illithid or their memory stones, or books from the archives of Shom. Anything associated with great knowledge. They accepted her deal (even when she used the word "deal"), and decided to set sail for Shom as Lothelle was deathly worried about contact with cold iron.

Before heading out they decided to stop off at Astrazalian for supplies. Unfortunately Lothelle encountered her father, who was not pleased with her three month absence (which to her was only five days). He tried to stop her, but she made it back to Jack's ship after an evaded wall of ice, and they narrowly escaped as he tried to skewer the ship with ballista bolt-sized icicles.

On the first day of their journey to Shom, Jack sized up Danh and Lothelle, and helped train them in melee combat. They also busied themselves with chores around the ship, Danh helping keep a lookout and Lothelle helping Clik'r with the ship's forge. A bladeling warship spotted them, and after narrowly avoiding a collision a gith-mounted red dragon also joined the fight. The bladeling ship managed to clip theirs and breach the hull, but ultimately provided a nice distraction for the dragon; it tore the ship in half, breathed fire in one half while the gith engaged the bladelings in the other. Lothelle poured her magic into the forge, providing a massive boost to speed, but the dragon pursued. They only got away after Jack dumped off a trove of treasure at the dragon, which happily stopped to scoop the gold and jewelry into the remains of the bladeling ship that it was still carrying

The days passed and they continued to train, interact, and in Lothelle's case gradually learn Draconic, and made it to Shom without further incident. Inside the dominion they were met with a vast, endless white desert with a brilliant sun constantly beating on them from above. Setting out into the desert, they encountered an insane, bereft angel that attacked them in a blind rage. After killing it they found a great stone colossus mostly buried in the sand. Lothelle deduced that it was a very advanced golem of some sort that could theoretically teach itself. Standing on top of its remains, Danh noticed some mountains in the distance and we called it a night (having played for about five hours).

Next time: The Lost Library.

Behind the Scenes
This was such an insanely fucking epic session that I am fairly confident that I will forget things and/or retell them incorrectly. Hopefully my players will correct me. As before I improvised almost the entire session. I knew that they would meet Gwynneon and that she would give them various directions, but that was about it. I had no idea if they would go to Acamar, Shom, or somewhere else. I had no idea exactly how Iron Jack would run into the party. Regardless everything fell together, and everyone did an awesome job.

I want to congratulate Josh on not only inventing his own class on the spot (a combination of a warlord and skald), but also a diverse cast of NPCs to crew his ship. I had a lot of fun taking on the roles of a cynical elf, thri-kreen arcanist (whose carapace was graven with arcane formula and symbols), and a dwarf cook that was so ancient he was starting to turn to stone. Josh also did an excellent job of portraying a jaded war veteran somewhere between Malcolm Reynolds and Rooster Cogburn (I particularly liked the part where he was using his war honors to crack nuts).

I want to apologize to Kiara. I kept prompting her for numbers during the course of the game after I asked her what her odds were of bumping into her father. Her response was, "Oh I dunno, about 1 in 20", to which I replied, "I like those odds" while maliciously hefting a d20. I asked her for a number, rolled it, and thus a trend was born; for the rest of the session I kept asking her for one or more numbers, for even or odds, for highs and lows. She was a good sport, and I also thought she did a great job getting into character and describing things.

The fight against the bladelings and red dragon worried me at first. I decided to initially only throw a bladeling warship at them. Once it missed them, Kiara's bad luck caused a red dragon to show up. They decided to leg it, and thankfully the dragon went after the bladeling ship after ricocheting off of Jack's ship, right into the dragon's clutches. After it tore the ship apart and chased them, Josh had the idea of lobbing a chest full of treasure at it. I let him roll a Bluff check, he succeeded, and so I figured it would distract the dragon long enough to let them escape.

The bereft angel got more than a few shocked expressions. When they found it and got its attention, it stalked towards them, muttering phrases like "I cannot hear her", "where did she go", and "what did we do wrong". When it got closer it started accusing them of not believing in Her and blaming them for, well, something. Kiara guessed that it was, "one of those angels David was talking about". What can I say, I have a big mouth... Anyway, it was good that she jokingly suggested looting the sand that it turned into after slain, as angelstones are great sources of condensed astral potential.

They leveled up to two, and in addition to the usual I gave Danh Melee Training (Wisdom) as a bonus feat, Lothelle a +1 on melee attacks, and Jack a bonus on History and Insight checks due to the consistent training drills that they were doing every morning. I am considering foregoing the usual level up process, instead giving them organic bonuses as the situation warrants. If they are up for it, removing the scaling bonuses to attacks, defenses, and skills (as well as those from monsters) might also be in order. They only have one magic item so far, but I told them that monsters do not "assume" attack/defense feats or magic items.

I am sure that I missed some things. There was a lot of social interaction, and everyone was really pleased with how much they did in such a short time. Again none of the encounters used minis, and the skill challenges displayed a huge amount of creativity on their part: while fleeing from her father he tried to trap Lothelle with a wall of ice, so she made an Arcana check to try and dispel it. Even though she failed, she was able to create a gap that her and Danh could squeeze through, taking some cold damage but pushing the story forward all the same.

A Sundered World: The Feywild

2012-01-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how in my improv session my players ended up on the moon (or back, in the case of Lothelle), I guess I should flesh it out some more. This is how things have been going for my latest campaigns: I have a vague idea of what is going on, get the dirt on the characters, and start weaving a story based on a combination of what they tell me I want to do and what I want to do with it.

Kind of reminds me of my high school days, when a bunch of friends and I would be crashing at someone's house, and someone would be like, "I have an idea, roll up some characters!" In a sense it is liberating because I do not have to think of an involved plot right away, but it is also frightening because I worry that my spontaneous ideas and direction will fall flat. If my college habits are an indicator of anything, I guess that it is I tend to work well under pressure.

So...the moon.

During the Sundering the archfey implored the spirit of the moon to save them. It agreed to help, and the archfey used their magic to "unravel" the Feywild from the natural world before too much of it was destroyed, and then "wove" the planar fabric to the moon. So the moon is a vast, gray waste spotted with thick forests, frozen mountains, and wild rivers. The Unraveling and Weaving were not perfect, so the orientation of fey cities and regions are not where they were (not that time and space had much meaning). Some things were also badly ravaged, so forests of spindly white, tree-like shapes and pools of silvery fluid are not uncommon.

The courts still wage their political wars, and the Winter Court's efforts hinder Summer's attempts to spread life across the moon. Due to limited space and resources (and sometimes ideologies), tribes of were-creatures and centaurs clash with the eladrin. The werewolves of Brokenstone Vale are especially violent, believing the moon to be their patron god and that it rightfully belongs to them.

To make matters worse not only did the Feydark get carried along for the ride, but it was also not put back in the right spot, so there is now a region of the moon riddled with jagged mountains and fissures that descend into the Feydark (not sure whether I will call this the dark lands, shadowlands, or something else). Mithrendain is a temporary fixture here, much as it was before, and helps prevent fomorian armies and clans of rampaging lycanthropes from spreading. The Feydark is a hollow space within the moon that is slowly growing as the fomorians expand, which has the side effect of damaging the moon's spirit.

Reaching the Feywild can be done if one manages to spot the moon as it swiftly orbits the Elemental Chaos, though its path carries it through both the Inner Sea and the dark reaches beyond, so the best bet is to find a fey city within the Astral that has a gate.

5th Edition: Jack is Back

2012-01-27T22:16:00.000-08:00

First things first, I got a shout out, made even cooler by the fact that I did not actively do anything to get it. While I had been aware of the RPG Carnival, seeing it here and there, though I am going to make a greater effort to follow it (as well as get featured).

Anywhoo according to the transcript from the Class Design seminar wizards are, at least currently, like 3rd Edition wizards near the end-run; they rely heavily on "Vancian" magic, but can take spell feats that give them at-wills, which remind me largely of Reserve feats from Complete Mage. While I am not a fan of daily resource management, at least rituals seem to still be intact. Rituals are great because it allows me to drop scrolls in adventures that anyone could use (which I did in the first A Sundered World session), as well as provide some flexibility to anyone that wanted to invest a feat.

One upside is that there is supposed to be a kind of "trade-in" mechanic, though I am not sure if it will allow wizards to cash in lower level spells for a higher one on the fly or as they level up. I know that somewhere it was said that fireball would deal a set 5d6 damage, and if you want to make it better you would slot it into a higher level. I like this idea because it would help greatly reduce the "power bloat". Some 4E powers did this, but not all, and I think that would allow a player to keep an iconic ability around without having to find another that works "close enough".

At least Bruce is on record for saying that they want classes to feel and play differently. In 3rd Edition wizards and sorcerers were too similar, what with sharing the same spell list. Though they tried to play up the bloodline angle later on with feat trees, it was not enough to diversify them. I feel that even 4th Edition did not go far enough, and I found it very difficult to properly evoke some sorcerer spell sources (especially dragon, which was the concept I theoretically should have enjoyed the most).

A Sundered World: Episode 101

2012-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

After a brief foray In Search of the Unknown, we decided to start running A Sundered World a few players short. Initially intended to be a delve run, it ended up turning into the "pilot" episode. What happened was entirely improvised, and it was a lot of fun.

Cast

Danh (goliath serpent shaman)
Lothelle (eladrin bladesinger)

Lothelle travels from the moon in search of something that could help her defeat the fomorians. She ends up hopping a few gates to Hammerfast, and learns that while cold iron is highly effective against magic, it is only found in the bones of corpse stars. That, and it is extremely lethal to fey (ie, her). She heads to the archive, where a mimir informs her of a ruined eladrin city several days away. While not exactly unknown, it is the best lead she has so far.

At the same time, Danh arrives on an Ironhand vessel bringing in a shipment of metal from Thunderspire. He is searching for fragments of the World Serpent's spirit form, and so is traveling to as many islands as possible. He also learns about the ruins, and figures that hey, if the fey lived there then he might learn something. They both team up to split the charter fee and, well, safety in numbers.

They arrive at the island after avoiding a psychic storm and bladeling warship. As they explore the island they find the rusted remains of an insect-like golem, and are attacked by twig blights while examining it. After destroying the twig blights a treant helps them find the ruined city. Danh tries to communicate with nearby spirits, but find that the entire area around the ruins is completely devoid of them.

In the rubble they find another golem, which activates and attacks them while they try to find a way through a door. Unable to harm the construct, Lothelle teleports through the door thanks to a tiny hole in the center, and opens it from the other side. The machine almost kills Danh with powerful blasts of lightning, and they barely manage to get the door closed, trapping them inside an ancient laboratory.

They find a pair of trees, which Danh realizes only grow in moonlight. Both trees house weakened spirit-forms, who are barely able to speak. The machine starts wearing down the door's wards, and Lothelle finds a ritual that opens a portal using the trees as a kind of frame. They search for ritual components, and find an enchanted robe with a silver key inside. The key is a focus for the ritual, but still needs energy to activate. The spirit-forms sacrifice themselves to activate the ritual, begging Danh to "stop them" as the trees crumble into dust.

The session ended with the characters stranded in an unknown wasteland on the moon.

Notes
The combat against the twig blights was ran without minis, and was very easy to handle even with the conditions and forced movement. I will probably not use minis for inconsequential encounters in the future, especially because not having to take the time to draw a map helps prevent the tension from ebbing.

Kiara, playing Lothelle, kept burning through her daily spells to restore the wards on the door, buying them additional time. I just had her make Arcana checks with a big bonus to secretly see how many extra minutes they got to ransack the place. It was an improvised way for her to use her magic not explicitly by the rules, and hopefully it will compel her to try doing it more in the future.

Again everything was made up on the spot, including the twig blights' stats, the robe's abilities, the key, ritual scroll, "moon trees", everything. I also had them roll for loot while searching the lab. Basically I was like fuck formulas, fuck existing magic items. I'm going to have them roll for shit and just see what happens.

Back to Basics

2012-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

In light of a looming edition, others are giving older editions a shot, so I figured I might as well subject mine to them as well. Partially because I wanted to see if there really was anything about them that I actually liked, partially because the only edition that some had played before was 3rd. So scraping from the bottom barrel, we started with OD&D, including the adventure In Search of the Unknown.

They managed to get through the first hall, swing a left, and run into an auditorium where they were gang-raped by six kobolds. The game ran roughly a half hour, and most of that was me rummaging through pdfs trying to figure out descriptions and rules (I guess I had heard that doors had a variable chance of being stuck or some shit).

Ultimately, their final opinion was that they "fucking hated it", though I found elements of the play style to have some positive aspects. Let me break it down.

The Bad
My complaints have largely not changed in execution: the classes are very cookie-cutter and "samey", and the premise of going through bizarre dungeons to loot the place for gold because it somehow gives you XP seems very "video-gamey". The rules were not really complete, and I found myself having to keep a copy of Swords & Wizardry on hand to compare and contrast rulings. Basically, it was a fucking hassle and I felt like that I could have done a much better job if I had just made up rules the game myself (which for all I knew I was).

The players were likewise displeased that their characters had changed from competent heroes to paranoid murder-hobos. When you are able to take a few hits before going down, the game is not as swingy; you can get hit by something and usually have a chance to react to it, as opposed to instantly dying. With the characters having between 2-3 hit points each, the odds were better than half that they were going to die in one hit (and almost certainly the first encounter).

The other downside was the rolled attributes. Having complete control of your character, being able to play what you want and how you want is appealing. Personally I would rather use the Gamma World system (rolling for not directly-important stats), or at least have rolled stats be an option rather than the standard.

The Good
For the first time since I ran D&D, one of the players used a mirror to peek around corners. He also used a 10-foot pole, a practice which largely well out of use at some point in 3rd Edition. I think it was more of a nostalgic kick than anything. The player didn't particularly care for it, stating that he only did it because he was afraid of getting randomly killed by...well, anything. To be fair that mind-set made things seem more immersive, I guess, as I would imagine people going to plunder their first trap- and monster-infested tomb being pretty damned paranoid.

The other perk was how quickly combat could start; you just roll a d6, highest goes first. Since everyone can really only make what amounts to a "basic melee attack" it is more of a factor of if the monster you want to hit is within hitting range. They largely did not care for this, as they felt it stripped away any variety and tactical decisions that could tip the odds in their favor; getting bonuses to hit, keeping the kobolds away from the magic-user, etc.

Something that was kind of a plus was the kind of a lack of minis. With no real tactical decisions to be made, terrain to be utilized, or opportunity attacks I could basically just describe the room, let them tell me what they want to do, and have them roll. The real plus was that if a monster popped in the room there was no delay between rolling initiative and setting things up, which in practice kind of drains the suspense.

Would I Play Again?
Heeell no. Not enough variety when making a character, not a lot of note in in terms of advancement. In its favor the lack of hit points helps lay on the paranoia really thick, but honestly I want players to make characters with backgrounds and personalities and go through a story. While I could tack on houserules to make it easier for them to survive, the end result would look more like 3rd Edition without feats, at which point I might as well be playing at least 2nd Edition. Hell, why cannot they re-release 2nd Edition instead of 1st?

Anyway, next week we are going to give 1st Edition and Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun a run. They will be 5th-level, so we'll see if we can eke out another 10 minutes of game time with this one. :-P

A Sundered World: Inspiring Images

2012-01-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

While re-playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow last night, I reached Necromancer's Abyss. Simply put, this level is awesome. Actually a lot of the stuff in this game is awesome, but the floating rocks and drifting pieces of broken titans was inspiring. It could give me something to show my players to give them a better feel for what things looked like, as well as help describe things.

And then there is also stuff from Magic: The Gathering.

D&D Next: +1 or Better to Hit?

2012-01-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

Robert Schwalb talks about the dated "+1 or better to hit" mechanic. This was something I saw in 2nd Edition, might have been in 1st Edition, existed kind of in 3rd Edition, and surprise sur-fucking-prise...I hated it.

On one hand, having a monster that can only be harmed by magic sounds like it could make for some interesting challenges. If the fighter lacks a magic sword, or his plus is not big enough, then it is up to the wizard or cleric to save the day (which given how fighters do not scale sounds less interesting and more like foreshadowing)! On the other hand having a monster that can only be harmed by magic sounds really fucking frustrating.

The thing is, some monsters in older editions used to be immune to all damage from non-magical weapons, meaning that you needed a +1 or better weapon to hurt them. What if you group does not have a wizard or cleric? What if the wizard or cleric died or ran out of spells on the way? What if the cleric or wizard used up their offensive spells, or even the utilitarian ones that could just lock them down via save-or-screw? What was even lamer was that if the monster needed a +2, but you only had a +1? Fuck you. No benefit, period.

3rd Edition made things a bit easier by making it so that a fighter could hammer away at a golem, but you have to shave away damage from each attack to the tune of like, 20+ points of damage. The problem was that, oh yeah, fighters do not scale, so that basically meant that you were not going to do shit. Yeah, the wizard or cleric could buff you (and to be fair against golems they basically had to given the magic immunity), but in cases not involving golems it was probably better to just attack it with spells that A) were not affected by resistances, and B) scaled.

Revised Edition made things much, much better. Fey required cold iron to overcome, lycanthropes required silver, skeletons took full damage only from blunt weapons, zombies from slashing, and all the plusses were simply rolled into "magic". Oh yeah, and the amount was dropped into the 5-30 range (as opposed to topping out around 50 or more). So it sucked for the melee classes, who were already floundering in it, but did not render them obsolete.

That is basically how I would like it: make it have an impact, but not so much impact that classes have to pack it in and go home. Earth elementals I guess could be resistant to non-magical weapons, but do not make it so that the fighters just shrug and watch the spellcasters win the game. On a similar note, I don't want to see monsters outright immune to magic, or even item-eating monsters. I guess, ultimately, one could include both systems. Use damage resistance with an option for a DM to flip it to damage immunity or just ignore it.

A Sundered World: Acamar, The Corpse Star

2012-01-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

In a Sundered World most of the aberrant stars drift in the Deep Astral, having escaped the Far Realm since the Living Gate was destroyed. Where they go they herald destruction and insanity, warping reality and birthing nightmarish horrors that can strip one's sanity with a mere glance. Though many were destroyed before, during, and even after the Dawn War their shattered corpses are still dangerous; aberrants cling to them like parasites, and deranged cultists flock to them in hopes of rousing any lingering vestiges of intelligence or finding some way to restore them to what passes for life.

Since I plan on having my players go here at some point, I don't want to reveal too much about the corpse star Acamar. Suffice to say, it is hollow, surrounded by a ring of debris from when it was slain, and has a massive city constructed on part of it:

Oh yeah, astral sharks.

5th Edition Musings: Playing With Powers

2012-01-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Note: There is no official information about 5th Edition, here. This is merely some thoughts on the direction I would like to see WotC take. I guess think of it like me throwing ideas around to see if any stick (or if anyone else has a better idea).

Powers are a really nice 4th Edition addition, especially for classes previously that did not get many options, were rapidly eclipsed by spellcasters, and/or lacked the "scalability" to remain viable for more than a handful of levels (coughfightercough). It was nice being able to make a fighter, rogue, or ranger and have interesting things to do that helped separate you thematically and mechanically from each other instead of spamming a routine melee attack over and over. My problem with the power system was that for all the powers that exist, there are still occasions where I cannot create the character I want without having to invent my own powers. This is fine for me and mine, but I know that groups that only allow "official" content (and not even all of it) are legion.

What would really fix this whole power bloat issue, while helping ensure that players still get what they want, would be for WotC to just give us a formula or system that would help us create our own content. Like, recommended damage, conditions, ranges, effects, etc. It could be a point system, where you just buy everything with a power budget based on the level and power frequency. Keywords could be used to restrict effects based on power source, so that martial cannot get their grubby hands on teleportation. Also, a shitload of examples with components would be handy (and allow for drag-and-dropping other elements) would be handy.

They could also try moving away from the power system as-is. I would not mind seeing something along the vein of Essentials, where martial characters can choose effects or kickers that they could add to their attacks like power strike. They could adopt a power-point like system, so that martial characters utilize "stamina" or something to boost their attacks. This would make things more flexible and help avoid the whole "argument" of why you can't hit something really hard more than once (not that I paid any heed to the latter). While I wouldn't use it for every class, I could also see this being applied to wizards using a magic point system, and there could possibly be a mechanic for burning healing surges to give you a stamina/magic boost (kind of like 3rd Edition's Body Fuel feat).

Someone also suggested using pre-reqs for various powers, which sounds similar to how Exalted works. Some powers might require a combination of ability scores, so fighters would need a good Strength and Dexterity for heavy blade powers, or good Strength and Constitution for hammer and axe powers. Hell, you could just make a huge-ass list of martial exploits and let rogues snatch up exploits thematic for them, while allowing characters with good Intelligence or Charisma nab leader-like exploits. Want to take it a step further? Skill training could open up more stuff, or if you want skill ranks (whether numbers or descriptors).

What do you think?

A Sundered World: Thunderspire

2012-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

One of my players wants to play a goliath shaman, while the other wants to try a human warlord channeling Malcolm Reynolds.While two leaders is not normally a problem, a shaman with a snake spirit that is also carrying a fragment of the World Serpent's shattered form and seeking to be joined with the other fragments is, especially when there really are not enough evocations around to emphasize the concept.

So...I let him whip up some new evocations that did.

Strangling Serpent: This is a nifty melee attack that originates from the spirit companion, which wraps around a target and makes it hard for them to properly defend themselves. In game mechanics the target grants combat advantage from the next attack made against it.
Snake Swarm: A swarm of spirit snakes writhe and bite enemies within an area 1 burst. It is friendly-fire, does not do a lot of poison damage (Wisdom modifier-only), but gives allies a power bonus to damage rolls against them.
Tail Sweep: The player likes the idea of the snake being able to trip someone up, so this encounter attack deals damage, knocks the target prone, and for a turn any enemies that start next to the spirit are immobilized. More of a controller-type thing, but he wanted some of these powers to be kind of controller-y anyway.
Spirit Cascade: This is his daily, and we wanted it to be a doozy. Basically the character calls upon his World Serpent fragment, causing it to manifest briefly and rushing through enemies, poisoning them. Enemies take poison damage and ongoing poison damage, while allies get a defense boost based on his Constitution.

Are they balanced? Dunno. We used existing shaman and controller powers as benchmarks. The better question is if I give a shit, and I don't, because this is for a homebrew game and I want my players to be able to do shit that they expect their characters to do.

On the topic of inventing things we also created his "home base", as I had not considered the origins surrounding goliaths. Honestly I was hoping that people would play the more fantastical races like gith (zerai or yanki), bladelings, shardminds, and devas. I even wanted to reskin kalashtar to be humans infected with intelligences encountered from corpse stars or sailing along the edges of the Far Realm. What we came up with was this:

Welcome to Thunderspire. This island is presided over by a blue dragon, who permits a guild to mine the mountains in exchange for tribute. The island is also inhabited by a goliath tribe, and possibly orcs and ogres. I often needlessly fret over the ecology of this sort of thing, so I initially designed it to be quite large in order to support some manner of life. Ultimately it is not important. What is important is that Kamon's character hates the dragon for devouring his mother, and will ultimately go back to slay it and claim all the accumulated treasure.

Really the only problem I ran into was trying to justify the forests and rivers. Rivers I am going to say are either due to elemental vortices created during The Sundering, or are spirits (so are forests, mountains, some islands, etc). Astral stuff, I have decided, it is mutable through conscious effort, and how the gods crafted their dominions and how the gith create their silver swords. It can also be channeled into living things via worship, granting them power. So spirits need the prayer of mortals, as it causes astral-stuff to empower them, allowing them to perform miracles and thrive. Theoretically if enough mortals worshiped another mortal they could ascend to godhood given enough time, but they do not yet fully understand how the Astral works.

5th Edition Musings: From Concept to Character

2012-01-14T18:11:00.000-08:00

Note: There is no official information about 5th Edition, here. This is merely some thoughts on the direction I would like to see WotC take.

With a new edition of D&D coming out, one of the things I am largely concerned about is what characters will ultimately end up looking like. While I am not worried that they will be reduced to the handful of cookie-cutter classes that were introduced in OD&D, I am legitimately worried that we will see character diversity and class flexibility shored up to be more inline with 3rd Edition's often rigid class structure.

I sometimes wonder if D&D should get rid of levels. On one hand, I like classes and levels because they make it very quick and easy for a player to figure out what the class is good at, as well as generally how tough they are. As a DM this makes things extremely easy to design and challenge my players. However, the level and class systems as executed lack the granularity of other games, namely Dresden Files and Exalted. As a player it makes it easier to figure out if my bonuses or whatever are average, good, or the best of the best.

To compare, in Dungeons & Dragons if you make a fighter, then you can wear heavy armor, use most weapons (and use them pretty fucking well), and are pretty damned tough. 4th Edition even went so far as to provide mechanics that made weapon categories matter more and give them a way to actually keep monsters from mauling her allies to death. In Exalted you do not have classes. You choose a caste, which basically just lets you know which things are easier to learn and improve. For example, the Dawn caste are your archetypal melee warriors, and can learn skills like Melee and War faster than castes.

The drawback as I see it is that it is more difficult to accurately peg challenges for your party, and probably even harder to make challenges in which everyone can meaningfully contribute. I ran into this problem in 3rd Edition when designing monsters; things that were hard for the warblade to hit were basically impossible for the cleric, bard, and rogue, and if I made stuff that they could hit about half the time, the warblade was basically guaranteed to fuck it up. Same with monster attacks and saves; the cleric and warblade's Will saves were so far apart that the warblade could not hope to make without rolling a nat 20.

The benefit is that if you want a fighter to have a knack for magic that you can have greater control over how much. In 4th Edition you could multiclass into wizard and pick up a spell--which makes more sense than spontanously blossoming into every cantrip and a bushel of 1st-level spells--or find some way to hybrid a fighter and wizard into a functional character (especially with an understanding DM). A system similar to Exalted would let you adjust the dial and probably very easily make a fighter/wizard that requires less houseruling and optimization just to "make work".

Even better, as your character advances you could advance the character in a direction that makes sense, picking up a bit more magic or improving her martial skills organically. Hell, you might even find yourself branching into something else entirely. Mind you, I do not want to return to 3rd Edition's wonky multiclassing that unfairly hinders spellcasting classes, but I think a more flexible system is in order. I don't want it to be FATE or Exalted, because then I might as well just play those games. Ideally I would like it to be some kind of modular class system where you could, I dunno, drag and drop a power source, role, and shuffle some other bits around to basically build your own class that best evokes a concept you have in mind.

Of course, I have no fucking clue how, or if, this system would work. I think that done properly we could avoid having classes like the swordmage, which by the way I am not knocking: I just think that it kind of sucks for people who want to play a fighter/wizard and have to end up waiting for WotC to invent a class that lets them do that from the start. That will be one of my barometers for 5E: can I play a fighter/wizard type at the start of the game, which having to fallback to houserules or stretch my character too thin.

A Sundered World: The City by the Sun

2012-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my draft post, during the Dawn War almost all of the gods and primordials destroyed each other, before the world was in turn destroyed. One of these gods was Pelor, and the remains of his body--a massive, brilliant sphere of divine energy--is now the location of a multi-tiered theological city that for now I am just calling Horizon (until a worse cliche or something actually inspiring hits me).

The primary purpose of this city so far is to largely serve as a home base for the campaign. It is seen as a light in the darkness, as a shield against evil forces such as the gith, rampant demons, disassociated angels, astral storms, and other hazards of the Astral Sea. This makes it ideal as a trading post where travelers from other cities visit to trade, re-supply, and even hire adventurers for voyages seeking lost dominions, remnants of the primordials, or realms from beyond the Astral's edge.

The priests worship his remains, which they can draw from to perform miracles, enchant items, and even attract the services of angels. They are interested in holy relics--whether magical or not--especially those tied to Pelor, giving adventurers an easy way to cash in art items and the like that they find while venturing in the Astral. Other organizations seek to use the energy as a weapon, absorb it to attain godhood, or restore Pelor to his former form.

Here is a rough, unfinished sketch.

5th Edition: Keepers, Wants, Don't Wants (Part 1?)

2012-01-10T20:15:00.000-08:00

The D&D Next group is purportedly the place to be for the latest information (despite other sites already offering up more information), but is also home to almost thirty pages of comments consisting of things people want to see, don't want to see, and those oh so fucking tired MMO declarations still being made almost four years after 4th Edition was released (despite being made and disproved before the game was even launched). I figured I would pitch in my 2-cents here, where they can be immortalized in such a fashion as only the internet can instead of being drowned in the page count.

I will probably do another one of these as I think of them, though for now I think this is lengthy enough.

KEEPERS
Racial ability score modifiers, but only the way 4th Edition did them.
One commenter in his ignorance wants these to go away because by making a race slightly good at specific classes that it killed a promise of "any race, any class". Racial bonuses were not required to maintain the curve, making them attractive but not required; I have seen players try goliath bards and halfling fighters to great effect, so his claim of "of you want to play an illusionist have fun with a gnome" are very misleading. No, racial bonuses are fine, so long as they do not come with penalties, which was the real class-shoehorn.

Point buy should remain standard.
The only game that I have read recently that makes you roll for stats is Death Watch and Black Crusade, though Gamma World has you roll for stats that do not directly impact what your origins use for attacks. A player should not have to cross her fingers in the hopes that she can “finally get to play a paladin”. I find this particularly odd that old timers selectively espouse this, yet think it is find to not force players to roll their gender, race, skin/hair/eye color, and by extension a bunch of background events.

Fighters should have shit to do at all levels.
I do not want to go back to Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards. I do not care if in some fantasy media that magic is better; D&D is a game, not a novel or movie. I also do not want the Pathfinder solution where I need to spend feats on the “right” ones in order to deal bonus damage that frankly should have been packaged into the class. The class should provide you with the things you need, while feats should make you better at things/change the way they work.

Wizards should feel like wizards.
Except for the part where the game becomes Wizards & Those Other Guys. I like being able to cast spells all the time without being relegated to an ineffectual crossbow- or sling-wielding liability. At the same time I do not want wizards to have abilities that let them completely ignore hit points, skill resolution, or shape reality on a whim. Rituals were a big step in the right direction, though some refinement would be great. Again, I do not care what book series Gary cribbed the idea from, as D&D is a game and not a novel.

Variable resource management.
I like that 4th Edition classes had a variety of balanced ways to track resources. Initially every class had at-will, encounter, and daily powers, but eventually martial classes got classes with only at-will and encounter exploits. This was great for players that wanted to set their own degree of complexity, but what made it even better was that despite that they will still useful across all levels. I think that they could do something similar to power points, but call it stamina or mana for martial and arcane classes respectively.

NPC’s play by their own rules.
NPCs should not needlessly utilize the same mechanics as a player character, especially not stock monsters. Keep it simple. A blacksmith does not need to "have" blacksmithing just to justify that he can make swords. I mean, fuck, the only time I recall having some pointlessly complex NPCs was when 3rd Edition came out. I want to be able to come up with a monster’s stats on the fly, not pore over books for an hour or so methodically—and, again, needlessly—ensuring that all the formulas add up proper.

Every class should get some tangible improvement at each level.
I do not care if it is a feat, perk, talent, power, ability score boost, or whatever, but it needs to be more than just some hit points and/or skill points.

No save-or-die effects.
These arbitrarily up the difficulty level by largely removing skill from the game and turning your longevity into a crap-shoot. I do not care if in mythology looking at a cockatrice or medusa was an immediate death sentence as, again, D&D is a game. Neither I nor my players want to play a game where your character and her backstory are cast aside (regardless of what impact it has or might have had in the bigger picture) due to one shitty die roll. Am I saying that characters should be unkillable? No, even though people will claim that. What I am saying is that life or death should not hinge on one die roll regardless of circumstances.

Multiclassing.
Holy fucking shit, I like multiclassing almost exactly as is! I always felt it made no fucking sense how a fighter could clobber some orcs and then spontaneously master all cantrips, a shit load of 1st-level spells, and conjure up a familiar. Screw spending years studying in a tower, you can go from 0 to magic missile over the weekend. Apparently? No thanks. That makes no sense in context of the game, even if you go with the contrived "I have been studying another wizard" line.
In 4th Edition you burn a feat and get skill training and basically a feature of another class. It makes sooo much more sense for a fighter to pick up scorching burst over a weekend, especially usable only once per encounter. Makes a lot more sense, though I could go without having to spend feats to swap out encounter and dailies later on (which I do).

WANT
More elaborate rules on crafting.
Particularly special materials and magic items. Older editions allowed you to have adamantine and cold iron weapons and armor, which could in turn could still be enchanted. Metals and materials should have inherent functions, and if possible there should be rules or guidelines on using parts from monsters in place of costs when making magic items. For example, a red dragon’s blood might be useful in making a flaming weapon.

More elaborate rules on minions.
I am a huge fan of summoners and necromancers, and would like "offiical" rules on being able to boss around my own minion(s), whether conjured or cobbled.

Skill challenges need a closer look.
I am not a fan of arbitrarily ending a skill challenge after a pre-set number of successes or failures. A chase and exploration skill challenge should end when appropriate in context for the narrative. Hell, for all I care there could be different methods depending on the type of skill challenge.

Even more flexible characters.
When it comes to making a character 4th Edition offers up the most flexibility while making it very difficult to fuck yourself over (I am looking at you, 3rd Edition multiclassing). I would like to make it easier to make functional hybrids, or fuck, just make classes as modular as possible, allowing a player to drag and drop class features to build almost precisely what you want. I guess, something like Exalted (though "not" Exalted), but also with archetype "loadouts" that tell you what you should pick in order to make a fighter, wizard, cleric, etc.

DO NOT WANT
First and foremost, I do not want to “go back” to an earlier edition.
The faults of yester-year's editions were much, much worse than anything 4th Edition might have done. I am all for taking a look at what made those games fun, but try to avoid relying on nostalgia for your judgment. Games and game design have become more informed, and there is nothing wrong at looking at current role-playing games (digital and analog) and seeing what makes them fun as well. I would rather D&D result with unfamiliar-yet-superior mechanics than going back to a lapsed edition.

Rolling for stats.
I know I mentioned point-buy in the keepers section, but this is just so, so fucking retarded. The only time I recall players actually enjoying this was when they rolled really well. I think this only survived as long as it did because in 2nd Edition stats did not tend to do a whole lot until they got to 15 or higher. In 3rd Edition when they really started to matter the DM let my fighter reroll his Strength because it was so low that I could barely hit anything. Players should be in control of their character. I do not give a fuck if it is not like “real life”. By that logic, you should have to roll for gender, weight, height, race, and probably on a laundry list of character generation tables to see how you were brought up.

Rolling for anything, really.
For the same reason, rolling for hit points is also a really stupid idea and can result in gimped characters.

Rewarding lucky players.
On a similar vein I do not want to see classes have prereqs, especially if that class is superior to the rest (2nd Edition paladin, if I recall correctly). That is basically rewarding the lucky player with yet another advantage, and I have no idea why anyone with any game design experience would go along with that. While I am on the tangent of rewarding lucky players, no bonus XP for having a high stat (and likewise no penalty, either). I mean, really?

Charging for background skills.
Craft/Profession/Perform skills should not require a skill or feat expenditure, especially if all they do is help justify a character’s background prior to actually adventuring.

COMMENT COMMENTARY
Here is a handful of comments that stood out. I might do more of these as I blog more about 5th Edition; there is plenty of material.

"Go back to the 2nd Edition proficiency system; it allowed for better character customization."

Umm...what? Are you fucking shitting me? I remember having a fighter that knew how to ride a horse and build fires. I also burned a slot at later levels so that I could reroll my miss percentage against targets that I could not see. So, I guess what I want to know is how being able to automatically ride a horse, build a fire at no cost, and have a reasonable chance of doing any number of other things is less flexible.

"I miss the heroes that aren't a carbon copy of each other if they go with the same builds. I miss the diversity that [an] older edition was able to give [us]. Sure if we got down to the grit a lot of characters were carbon cutouts but not every player got theirs the same way."

I am really confused how on one hand, playing a fighter in 2nd Edition or even 3rd Edition made it less of a "carbon cutout", especially given that 4th Edition further divides characters from each other thanks to class features and exploits. Like, if two people play human fighters in 3rd Edition the main difference is your weapon and skills.
Most weapons are basically just damage with little mechanical differentiation beyond damage. 4th Edition fighters on the other hand get to pick class features and exploits, so even two human fighters packing longswords could end up doing very different things.

"How about for arcane characters you can choose a class, and that determines how you learn spells and how many. You could have one that is Vancian, one that is AEDU, one that is more like a 3rd Edition sorcerer. Each caster chooses a school and the school determines the spell list, and the spell lists are the big determinant of what spells do."

First, fuck Vancian spellcasting. It was a terrible idea and served to grossly shift a player's usability, for good or ill, too far and too easily. This is what resulted in groups blowing through spells and then resting up to repeat it all over again. Second, arcane casters already work like that in 4th Edition: how wizard's learn magic is not how warlocks learn magic is not how sorcerers learn magic, even if they all use the same resolution mechanic.
No, how they did it in 4th Edition was mostly alright. My gripe with some classes like the sorcerer was that there were not enough spells to make an appropriate thematic character. Like, there are only two at-will spells for a sorcerer that seem to work for the storm spell source, and not nearly enough for the dragon spell source. My complaints can--and in my games at least are--resolved with the simple inclusion of some new spells.

Legends & Lore: Charting your Course for D&D

2012-01-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Also known as "zOMG 5E!"

Before I get into it, you can check the announcement here (as well as sign up for the open playtest when it comes out), check out a 60+ page on RPG.net here, and read an article on The Escapist here.

So, yeah, 5E (or whatever, that is not the real name, but for sake of ease I guess that is what we are going with).

When 4th Edition was announced I was apprehensive that I would hate it. As more of it was revealed the apprehension turned to excitement as I realized that I was really liking what I was seeing; classes besides spellcasters had shit to do and did not become obsolete, and monsters were much easier to create on the fly and deal with. In actual play I was surprised at the flexibility of classes that previously had rigid progressions and options, such as the monk, ranger, and paladin, the ease of which it was to realize concepts like dual-wielding fighters and fighter/wizards, and how different classes felt despite being non-magical melee archetypes.

Basically it was dropped like a bomb without any build up (thread upon thread of random forum speculation does not count).

This time there was build up in the form of Monte Cook (of system mastery fame) being rehired, along with a slew of ill-received columns where he pitched existing concepts, posted polls with loaded choices, and seemed to do his best to illustrate that he did not actually read the 4th Edition rules. So with him as one of the heads of the chimera that is the 5th Edition team--the design one no less!--and the popular theory being that his Legend & Lore columns were his attempts to try and sell us on his ideas that, regardless of poll results, were going to be effected anyway...well, let us just say that I am again apprehensive.

Really all I have heard so far is that the rule set will be modular--allowing groups to set complexity to taste--and also be an edition that will somehow cater to fans of every edition. Just going off of my years of experience on the forums over the past few editions, to put it mildly this sounds like an impossible order to fill. After seeing how well it worked for Paizo and Pathfinder, even the prospect of an "open playtest" does not fill me with much hope (though I signed up anyway).

What I am hoping is both that Cook can be kept in check, and that things do not go back to the days of Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards. The guy on The Escapist mentioned that we would "be surprised" which rules make a comeback, and I am hoping that those are good surprises. Ultimately I do not think that I will hate what comes next, though this is the first time where the thought of skipping an edition has crossed my mind. Eh...if that is the case I still have my books.

Thunderspire Labyrinth, Episode 3

2012-01-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Cast

Amne (female dragonborn)
Kariok
Riven
Shen
Stirling

After resting the characters learned that the Bloodreavers competed against the duergar at the Grimmerzhul Trading Post for the slave trade. They made a deal with the duergar to help "take care" of the Bloodreavers while Riven--who was watching the prisoner--ended up dealing with some Bloodreavers who noticed that he was guarding one of their wagons with their members. They gave them some money while trying to cart the cart off after some heated exchange and met up with Amne, a dragonborn ranger whose sister was taken by the Bloodreavers.

Thanks to the duergar's map they were able to find the Chamber of Eyes with no difficulty, and after killing the guards realized that the slavers were being run by a beholder. They made a deal with the Bloodreavers to take care of the beholder in exchange for Amne's sister and to stop preying on Winterhaven's villagers. The killed the beholder and made it back to the Hall with the Bloodreaver's word and Amne's sister in tow. The session ended with them running into a robed figure in a gold mask flanked by a pair of bronze minotaur golems.

Next Episode: The Mage's Request

DM Notes
This was a short session that marked the introduction of a new player, unfortunately via Skype since the player giving the ride didn't make it. Despite the slow pace things went unexpected as the characters decided to deal with the Bloodreavers to help them with their beholder problem instead of just slaughtering them all. True to their unaligned nature, they were content to make a verbal agreement with the Bloodreavers and just walk away with one slave. In addition to adding the beholder I also had the hobgoblins mention that the duergar had captured one of the mages, and were planning on forming an alliance with the Bloodreavers to help take the Hall.

Drafting a Sundered World

2012-01-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of DMs I keep a document of ideas for settings, adventures, NPCs, characters, monsters, etc handy "just in case". It is something I learned in my Writing 121 class: keep a notepad handy to write shit down when you think of it, partly because you never know if you will come back to it later, but more than likely because you will probably just forget. Of all of them there was one that was such an out of there concept, that I never thought would begin to see anything remotely approaching fruition until yesterday (as of this writing, anyway, more than likely when I get around to publishing this it will have been last week).

Some of my weekend group wants to try getting together on Fridays to get some more game on. Of course yours truly will be DMing because fuck me. I rattled off a few ideas I had kicking around in my head; a Dark Sun sandbox (no pun intended), playing Firefly in Eberron (including an airship at 1st-level), running Gamma World using the theme of Star Wars, Knights of Cydonia, or Prince of Mars, trying to stop Khyber from waking up, and a bunch of others. They have always wanted to play in a pirate-themed campaign, which is probably why they settled on what could easily be described as Mass Effect meets Spelljammer.

A Sundered World

In the implied setting the primordials made the world, the gods wanted it, and so in human fashion they waged a huge war for the rights to it and ended up on top. In this setting the Dawn War resulted in mutual destruction: the gods, primordials, and world were destroyed (though a few gods might be hiding, I haven't decided yet). For purposes of having an actually playable setting they thankfully had created life before everything went to shit, and the mortal races have largely managed to make do on the remnants of creation that drift through the Astral Sea, along with the occasional corpse of an aberrant star, god, or primordial.

While I have not sat down to map out the world--such as it is--I am envisioning it roughly in the shape of a galaxy that blatantly ignores the laws of physics (so I guess how a lot of sci-fi operates). In the center is the Abyss, created on accident when Tharizdun tried to destroy the Elemental Chaos using a shard of evil, which now surrounds it. From there countless fragments of creation's remains spiral off into the endless Astral Sea. The moon is one of the more powerful surviving spirits that is responsible for creating changlings and lycanthropes, and I am waffling on making it the physical manifestation of the Feywild (including having eladrin cities built on it). The Far Realm exists deep in the outer reaches of Astral "space".

Various races, mostly Player's Handbook stock, have managed to form their own kingdoms, baronies, and what have you on collections of landmasses. Initally things were survival of the fittest, so the tieflings ended up draining the shattered vestige of Asmodeus to give themselves an edge. Other humans build a city around what is left of Pelor, which is kind of like a star (he exploded on death, so think something like a small-scale Dyson sphere). Dragonborn might live on the corpse of Bahamut, if for no other reason than to protect it from desecration because their bodies contain admantite and other astral stuff useful for divine-type things. I'll probably end up making the Red Hand into a league of evil-aligned dragonborn that followed Tiamat. Even better the locale makes it easier to work in extraplanar races like gith and bladelings, and in my opinion shardminds make more sense as well.

Currently I am fleshing this out using personal wiki software and plan on running it next Friday (possibly the week after), but if following the creative progress is something that is of interest let me know in the comments.

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth: Demonic Minotaurs

2012-01-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the whole "minotaurs can eat hearts and gain strength" theme, I wrote up a couple other minotaurs to include in the Well of Demons bit near the end of Thunderspire Labyrinth; respectively they are the results of eating the heart of a vrock or canoloth.

Thinking of making a soldier variant of the demonlasher that uses the tongue seize power to drag marked enemies back or trip them if they violate the mark.

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth: Gharbad

2011-12-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

When I was going through Thunderspire Labyrinth and adding in some more stuff, I read through some Dragon articles on minotaurs and their entries in every Monster Manual. Somewhere there is a bit about how they gain powers from eating the hearts of other creatures, which gives you a vampire minotaur and I think even a gorgon one. I liked this heart-eating idea, and so decided to make a minotaur NPC in the Seven-Pillared Hall that would be a pathetic wretch who comes to the characters and offers to reward them if they bring him the heart of a powerful monster.

What he becomes depends on what the characters bring; there are hobgoblins, other minotaurs, duergar, and even demons running amok, so they got options. It reminds me a lot of a quest in Fallout: New Vegas, where you can bring a brain to fix up a dog NPC; each brain gives a different bonus, like more health or damage. I was waffling around on what he might offer them as a reward--if anything--and the more I thought about it the more he reminded me of Gharbad the Weak, and since I didn't have a name at the time decided to just go with that.

Though Gharbad was pretty pathetic, even if I souped this guy up considerably I cannot see him holding off an entire party of adventurers. I am thinking that he might teach them a ritual that will allow them to gain bonuses (or a one-time permanent bonus) from eating hearts, or even give them an item for their help, but ultimately I see him becoming a villain later in the campaign. He might even show up in the final encounter to help thwart everyone and take control of all the bronze warders while they are duking it out with whoever the final boss is (P-something?).

Heart of the Scar Review

2011-12-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

Looks like whatever the Chaos Scar was supposed to be is finally wrapping up. At least with Blackdirge on the job it will go out with a bang.

Literally.

If you are going to play in this adventure, stop reading and go make your DM run it now. Bribe him or her if necessary. If you are a DM then you are probably already running it, or preparing to murder the characters in your current campaign to pave the way for this one.

SPOILERS

The adventure backstory reveals that the meteorite that carved out the Chaos Scar was actually the heart of a Far Realm entity known as Shoth-Gorag. After it landed a group of Banites ascertained that it was a gift from their god, and decided to built a fortress around it that would become known as Hallowgaunt. After construction was complete the heart began attracting monsters and influencing the Banites--who named themselves the Brotherhood of the Scar--forcing them to help build it a new body using the flesh of captured victims. Not all of the Banites were affected, but while transporting a weapon highly effective against denizens of the Far Realm most were captured.

Fortunately one managed to make it to the King's Wall as the characters are passing by...

The adventure assumes that the characters help out the fleeing Banite, who is then more than happy to divulge the truth about the meteorite, as well as the hidden passage he used to escape. After that it is an action-packed killfest of taking on crazed Banites, foulspawn, mimics, and finally Shoth-Gorag.

This adventure was fucking awesome to read. In particular I loved the encounter with the mimic: when the characters find Farbane, it is on top of a mimic disguised as a basalt slab. When they approach it transforms and eats the hammer if they don't remove it before hand. A mimic disguising itself right beneath a magic item is pretty rad, but the best part is that once it is dropped to 50 hit points it spits the hammer out and reverts to its slab form in the hopes that the characters just leave it alone (meaning that it could come back later).

The grand finale is the best part, though. Shoth-Gorag is a minion-spawning, triple attacking solo brute with threatening reach, an auto-damaging aura, and a very painful recharging blast. To make matters worse when he is bloodied he spawns minions for free, and can have more than usual active at once. If the characters manage to defeat him and shatter his heart with Farbane, they are rewarded with a collapsing base skill challenge worthy of any action flick.

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth, Duergar

2011-12-25T16:42:00.000-08:00

I am probably not the only person that doesn't like beard-chucking duergar, so while working on updating Thunderspire Labyrinth I also decided to give them a new conic power to spare myself having to describe the original.

I wanted to avoid stepping on the toes of the tiefling. I figure if any of my players actually play one I'll let them take it instead of the quills, and also add in a duergar feat that lets them deal fire damage to nearby enemies after using a second wind.

Tile Trek: A Knight in Shadowghast Manor Review

2011-12-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

For a dungeon delve designed to showcase the Shadowghast Manor tile set, this adventure sure tries to pack in backstory content.

The short of it is that the ironically named Shadowghast family used to be big-ass heroes. One of their sons suffering from Elric Syndrome makes a deal with the devil so that he too can be a hero, until they pull a Darth Vader and demand that he tries to turn his family to the dark side in order to keep his power. Possibly praying that they do not alter the deal further, he somehow succeeds and the family begins recruiting stock mid-Heroic tier fodder. He then repents and the family fades into obscurity for awhile. Anyway fast-forward, someone named Arcturas is doing more bad stuff, and the characters have to go through the delve-standard in order to win.

Basically I found this delve to be pretty damned boring. It sucks if the author was instructed to work with what he got, but frankly I think I would have preferred some example tile layouts--both with just the one set and with others--to give people ideas on what they can do (given that the adventure uses just the two layouts out of the pack, I cannot even say that I get that). Instead it is a forgettable string of encounters against a forgettable villain. My advice is that if you just want to use the tiles to run a delve just whip up your own encounters, you would be hard-pressed to do worse.

Homebrew: Map of Erui

2011-12-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

One of my players says I take too long drawing maps. I dunno, I like the payoff.

Paragons of Fey Virtue

2011-12-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

The last time I ran Erui one of the highlights was when the characters defeated some Winter Court agents and jacked their magic shit, which resulted in Beth's character gaining a figurine of wondrous power that was an ice unicorn. Immediately after using it the game devolved into a bunch of Charlie the Unicorn jokes, which was fine because I can do the voice alright and they started it.

This time around I had initially intended to try and shoehorn in another unicorn for her, partially because it is a Feywild game, and partially because it is generally a safe bet that a female gamer--and to be fair some male ones--will want one.

Unfortunately Beth threw a curve at me by not only playing a male character, but a pixie of all things, which is why I find this article of fey-themed paragon paths deliciously ironic.

White Horn Knight
This would actually have worked out if you did not need to be able to wear heavy armor. Most of the features and powers have a decidedly leader-like quality, allowing you to dole out temp hps to adjacent allies when burning a healing surge, or allowing a nearby ally to heal when using the attack powers. There is some passive stuff, like a bonus against diseases and poison, as well as being able to ignore difficult terrain when charging due to rapid teleporting.

Really though the point of this path is being able to summon a unicorn at level 12 that you can ride around on, which gives you a bonus when charging, has its own kick attack, and can teleport and dole out a saving throw once per encounter.

Moon Hunter
Despite its focus on shapechangers I really dig this paragon path, which is basically a individual empowered by the Maiden of the Moon--or otherwise attuned to it--to help remove lycanthropes from the world. With the exception of the level 12 utility all of its abilities work on anything, but gain a bonus against shapechangers or creatures affected by a polymorph effect. It is alright, but will definitely work better if the DM makes it clear that the campaign will include were-critters or if the party has someone who can dole out polymorph effects ahead of time (witch, anyone?).

Soaring Rake
This paragon path demands that you either be fey or at least have a fey-pact going on, and be trained in Acrobatics. In exchange you get the ability to fly by doing basically anything part of it: spend an action point? Fly. Use the level 11 attack? Fly. Use the level 20? Everyone. FLIES. Hell, at level 12 you gain a once-per-round at-will that lets you fly. Whether or not the lack of faerie wings is a benefit depends entirely on your taste and/or orientation.

I like this article but while my players are not too far ahead to benefit from it, two are channeling concepts more at home in Kara-Tur, and the third is too small for a unicorn and can already fly. Oh well, maybe I can kill 'em off and start over.

Demons & Devils

2011-12-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

Hordelings
Hordelings were first featured in Book of Vile Darkness, presented as a Gargantuan swarm that could spawn 1-4 minion brutes once per round when it got hit. This article adds the greater hordeling, which is more in line with what I remember from Planescape--and possibly 3rd Edition, I honestly don't remember--as you choose from any monster role except soldier, and then roll on a bunch of tables to generate the rest of its capabilities; size, speed, sight, special attacks, and even appearance 9which has 17 tables to go through). It is a nice throwback to their roots, and I highly endorse it.

Infernal Prince
It is really too bad that Blackdirge cannot be a full-time member of the staff as I really dig his stuff, and the infernal prince theme is no exception. A character with this theme is directly related to an infernal lord, most often Asmodeus and Mephistopheles, which sends a tutor to them to basically school them in the ways of horribleness.

The starting features give you a power bonus on fire attacks (I am sooo going to make another tiefling pyromancer), in addition to hellfire heart, an encounter kicker that can be used on any attack you make, dealing scaling fire damage and imposing an attack penalty for a turn. 5th-level gives you a bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy, in addition to a reroll against natural humanoids if you roll too low, and at level 10 you recharge hellfire heart when bloodied (and it does more damage if you use it against that target).

Devil's Due (level 2 daily): When you grant an ally a power bonus or let them burn a surge, you gain a defense bonus for the rest of the encounter and temp hps. On the downside your ally's surge value is halved for the encounter. So, good for leaders?
Liar's Lure (level 6 encounter): A friendly-fire AoE that lets you make a Bluff check to gain combat advantage against each target for a turn.
Infernal Inheritor (level 10 daily): A polymorph effect that imposes an automatic attack penalty for a turn, and then gives you darkvision, fire resistance, and a bonus on Fort and Will for the rest of the encounter. Unfortunately, the fire resistance doesn't stack or boost existing resistances.

Thunderspire Labyrinth, Episode 2

2011-12-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

I cannot even remember the last time my weekend group got together to keep plodding through filtered WotC adventures. I suppose I could just scroll down and check the date for episode one, but...eh, screw it.

While wandering through the labyrinth with a bound hobgoblin for a guide, they run into a gelatinous cube shadowed by a dwarf wraith. After a ridiculous battle in which the characters beat it mostly to death from inside, they discovered that the dwarf had been following the cube ever since being digested by it, and once the cube was destroyed it nabbed a piece of its magic armor and drifted off. At least they got to keep an adamantine axe for their troubles.

They ran into more trouble when a group of Bloodreavers tried to ambush them. They managed to talk them down until they noticed the hobgoblin captive, though the fight didn't last long after Riven managed to take down the leader with a well-placed crit. Once they bloodied the warcaster they all surrendered and discovered that they had captured a goblin trader named Rindel. They freed him, and he was more than happy to guide them the rest of the way to the Seven-Pillared Hall as thanks (his fire-beetle driven cart had nothing else of value).

In the Seven-Pillared Hall they were informed by a minotaur sheriff named Asteron that since slavery is legal that they would not be able to simply kick in the door to the Bloodreaver's enclave (but that they could try to sell the captured Bloodreavers to them as an ironic statement). They stayed the night at the Gorging Gorgon before calling it an actual night, with the intention of hitting up the Bloodreaver's next time.

I was really happy with how this session went, as the players are in a very unique situation. First they cannot just go to the authorities, as slavery is legal and the actual powers are enigmatic wizards with a horde of programmed golems to enforce their will. Second most of the inhabitants of the Hall are denizens of the Underdark or otherwise montrous; bugbears, orcs, and goblins, with a good deal of dwarves but only a handful of humans and the like.

I am really curious to see how they handle the problem, as well as if Shen is going to try and get his hands on a control amulet.

Steading of the Hill Giant Chieftain

2011-12-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

Part one of a four-part re-imagining of Against the Giants is up, written by Chris Perkins no less. I have been a huge fan of Perkins ever since he started doing the Penny Arcade podcasts, and his Dungeon Master Experience column has been invaluable in writing my own loose, sandbox campaign.

I never read or even played Against the Giants (or for that matter, Revenge of the Giants), but I am guessing that the plot is basically the same: groups of various giant types have been ruining the shit of people on a fairly large scale, and it is up to the characters to deal with them (actually to be fair, in the adventure it mentions that your group isn't the first to try and tackle the problem). Fortunately the giants follow general RPG logic and the nearest settlement also features the lowest level fare.

Since the adventure revolves around breaking into a hill giant's steading, it is location based and features ten "combat encounters" (well, eleven but it is also intended to be able to dealt with via social role-playing), which is not a big deal when you take a step back and realize just how big the steading is. The monster load out is pretty diverse, yet still makes sense in context: of course there are giants, but they also have ogres, bugbears, umber hulks, and a couple other giants holing up with them for various reasons (diplomats from other clans and a fire giant that is making weapons for them).

Even so it is not a massive, drawn out slug-fest and there are quite a few things about this adventure that I really dig, such as being able to negotiate with the big-bad if you find the proper leverage, little details such as the random junk table and a specific mention of a giant's crossbow breaking if it is used as a melee weapon too many times, being able to sneak past encounters using Bluff and/or Stealth checks, and barrel-, pot-, and cauldron-hurling hill giant cooks.

A good start so far. A much better reason to break out all the Large minis than Revenge of the Giants, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest (even if I never get to run them).

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth, Part 3

2011-12-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

We ended up cancelling the game again, so I spent some time working on a new map for the Horned Hold because I really did not like the layout.

Here is the uncrumpled sketch that I liked the most:

I just realized that the lower-right part looks like a hand pointing.

And here is what I got so far for the finished product:

I am also axing all the orcs and instead populating it entirely with duergar, devils, and perhaps some minotaur slaves (or allies that have eaten devil or duergar hearts). There are some lava flows and pillars to add something for combat challenges, and a few secret passages to mix things up. The slaves will be kept in an area across the chasm, where they toil in a mine and are used for blood sacrifices when they cannot work anymore.

Book of Vile Darkness Review

2011-12-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

"Bound in human flesh and inked in blood, this ancient Sumerian text contained bizarre burial rites, funerary incantations and demon resurrection passages. It was never meant for the world of the living."

While that would be a pretty rad product, that is the description for another book. I'm here to talk about the Books of Vile Darkness. For $30 you get almost 130 pages divided into two books--one for DMs and the other for players--and a double-sided map, packaged in a sleeve featuring some sweet Wayne Reynolds art featuring Kyuss (or maybe just a run of the mill worm that walks).

This product is not for everyone, especially groups with players that like to use evil alignments as an excuse to be douchebags. You know the type; "I only kicked your unconcious body into the pit of lava because it is what my character would do!" (Which actually happened in a 2nd Edition game.) Even so DMs will get a lot of nice, crunchy content to throw at their players, along with lots of advice on making "vile" encounters and villains. Oh yeah, cursed items. More specifically, the kind you cannot use Arcana to fix.

So if you are a DM I would pick it up even if you are not interested in running an evil campaign (the player's book accounts for about a fourth of the package). If you only play I wouldn't, as there is just not enough for you that you couldn't just get out of DDI.

For Players
While the player's Book(let) of Vile Darkness barely peaks the 30 page mark, it contains a lot of useful flavor and crunch content on playing the bad guys: some considerations for running an evil game and ideas on how to keep the party tied together, villainous archetypes, themes, feats, paragon paths, and an epic destiny to top it off.

The advice is pretty sound; don't steal from, maim, or murder each other, make sure everyone is on the same page, and try not to use an evil alignment as an excuse to just go apeshit and be a complete asshole (I am looking at you, Chaotic Neutral). They also replicate the section on role-playing from the Player's Handbook, just modified for evil, and break up some of the ideas based on power source (including an evil primal spirit and some brief information on tailoring psionic content for a more sinister angle).

My favorite theme is infernal slave. While I like the infernal pact, your boon does not have to be arcane power; material wealth or other good fortune are all fair game for a Faustian bargain (and any race and class can benefit from it). Of course being able to use hellfire is a nice bonus. Two of the features act like double-edged swords, benefiting you but also potentially harming you, which is nice.

I am also a fan of the vermin lord which makes a re-appearance as a paragon path for evil druids. You start out by being able to deal automatic damage and shield allies when you spend an action point, represented by swarms of insects bursting from your body, gain scaling poison resistance, and unleash a torrent of maggots that cause each target to grant combat advantage and impose vulnerability 5 to everything for a turn.
I dug the level 12 daily, which lets everyone communicate telepathically, prevent enemies from gaining combat advantage by flanking, and let you use your move actions to move them instead.

Divine characters will be happy with the new Divine Devotion and Divinity feats; Asmodeus's Fiery Command causes an ally to gain scaling temp hps if they hit a target, or take damage as well as damaging each adjacent creature if they fail, while Disciple of Darkness grants you a massive Stealth bonus as well as causing you to become invisible if you use a second wind when in dim light or darkness.

For the Dungeon Master
The DM's book is three times as meaty and features advice for creating "evil" adventures and encounters, example ideas, campaign arcs, new monsters and monster themes, organizations, magic items (including cursed and sinister items), and an even an adventure tied into the movie.

The infamous NPC dialogue featured in each section ranges from campy to good, and I can actually envision Robert going up to each of them with a clipboard and pencil, grilling them with questions about the nature of evil.

Robert: "So Azalin, what can you tell me about curses?"
Azalin: "Do not speak to me of curses!"
Robert: "..."
Azalin: "Just...look, look, I'm sorry. It's just that, man, I have seen some shit."

Chapter 1: Evil Unearthed
A very short chapter, you get a product overview, lots of dialogue from Vecna (including his origins and upbringing), an in-depth description of the book of vile darkness, and the facets of evil in D&D.

Chapter 2: Evil Campaigns
As with the player's booklet, the advice on evil campaigns is helpful for ensuring a party that slays well with each other regardless of alignment. I like that in addition to suggesting having a patron keep them in line, it points out that they are still playing a cooperative game. There is also the notion of a common enemy and positive connections like love and friendship, which evil people can still have.

The section on evil adventuring gives you some ideas for running evil adventures--like ambushing a caravan or performing an evil ritual--in addition to a sidebar on running a reverse dungeon (which was an actual D&D product an edition or two ago). A section on campaign themes gives you some ideas of the bigger picture, such as the tried and true deicide and/or destroying the world, and there are even a couple campaign arc examples in case you needed some more to work with.

Chapter 3: Vile Encounters
This chapter opens up with guidelines on making encounters more, well...vile. The main factors that stood out to me were to ensure that there were consequences extending beyond the encounter (such as a demon going on a rampage if they failed to stop it) and using a combination of the new terrain features, traps, and curses. I guess some of the other stuff could work to, like making sure that the players know where the undead minions came from (slaughtered village), or get to see sacrifices being executed to power a fell ritual.

Chapter 4: Villains & Monsters
This chapter opens up strongly with an extended look at villain construction; concept, scope, archetype, motivation, etc. Advice that has been seen before, but good for newer DMs or those that want it packaged in a current source. There is also a lot of monster themes like Moilian Dead, and some new monsters like hordelings (a level 11 elite swarm that can spawn level 11 minions once per round when it gets hit).

Chapter 5: Dark Rewards
This chapter comes in two flavors: cursed and sinister. Unlike the items in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, the bad parts of these items cannot be removed. In fact you cannot remove them either without slamming them with Disenchant Item, Remove Affliction, or something similar. For example, a cursed weapon acts normal until you hit someone, after which you take a -2 to attack rolls if you attack anyone but the original target until it dies or the encounter ends. Sinister items sometimes have good or bad effects, or just do "siiiinister" things. Bracers of suffering reduce your hit points by 5, but give you a bonus on saves against charms, stun, daze, and dominate, while a girdle of skulls lets you summon skeletal warriors.

Chapter 6: The Vile Tome
A paragon-tier, four-encounter romp that features the book. Since it is an adventure I'll go into this more in another review.

Erui, Episode 1: Edgewood

2011-12-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since we last visited Erui. This time I am taking a looser, more "sandboxy" approach as opposed to planning lots of stuff about. I spent a lot of time just drawing vague maps, creating factions with goals, and generally just giving myself and my players a lot of legroom to basically do whatever they want. I am not really going to break things up into adventures and take a more episodic approach, as well as make up magic items, creatures, effects, and just level them up whenever I feel that they have hit a point where they have "earned" it.

I used Neverwinter Campaign Setting to give myself a good idea of how to approach this--mostly the amount and depth of content--and was pretty happy with tonight's results; there was one combat encounter, and the rest of the night was filled with the players interacting with the scenery and NPCs, and being pulled in various directions by hooks that they chose to bite. I also had fun telling the players to describe NPCs to me. I envisioned Mirri as fairly young, but when I left it to Beth to describe her, she came out as somewhere in her mid 40's. I dunno...giving creative licence to the players is pretty nice, and probably makes them feel more invested in the story.

Heroes

Moon Piercing Fist (male halfling monk)
[Randy] (male goliath runepriest); he had a name, but I totally forgot it.
Treetoots (male pixie swordmage)

Non-Player Characters

Ynvgarr (male human): Captain of the Scraghammer.
Kasaki (female human): Captain of the Sword Guard.
Einar (male human): An old man that they found in the Arcane Circle. He was able to open a hidden stair that lead to a forge by speaking, and he seems to be stronger than Randy despite his age.
Chisel (male personality warforged): A squat, broad warforged that speaks with a dwarven accent. His hands turn into a hammer and chisel, and he knows a lot about runes.
Enorian (male noble eladrin): An eladrin baron that serves as the voice of the Summer Court in Edgewood.
Sabd (male deer spirit): A servant in the Summer Court enclave.
Seliana (female swan): A servant in the Summer Court enclave.

Earthday, Ghael 6th

As the Scraghammer makes port in Edgewood it is attacked by a hydra. A hydra with black scales, horns, and acidic breath. While trying to evacuate the ship, an assassin tries to kill Mirri using cold-iron bolts. Treetoots notices that the hydra is charmed and sends her Sidhe servant after the assassin while she tries to protect Mirri. The assassin kills the servant using a cold-iron bolt, and both Moon and Randy manage to corner the assassin before a White Owl traps him in an icy prison and teleports away.

Treetoots is debriefed by Kasaki before escorting Mirri to the Summer Court enclave, where Enorian is saddened to learn of the jarl's words. He charges Treetoots with learning about the charmed hydra and assassin. Treetoots then leaves to find Moon and Randy, who after trying to trick the owner of a rundown inn out of his business decide to investigate the Arcane Circle for information about runes. There Randy speaks to Einor and Chisel, who helps him refine his fire runes.

After investigating Edgewood for signs about Randy's missing mentor a crow warns Moon that "they are watching," before flying away. The characters then head to the Summer Court enclave to rest. In the middle of the night they are awoken by screams. As they take up arms and head to the street, Moon looks up to see that several of the stars look like monstrous eyes. When he blinks, they look normal again.

Next Time...

The characters want to followup on the White Owls and figure out why the assassin tried to kill Mirri. Of course that might change once they figure out what is going on in Edgewood...

Notes

The hydra seemed to be combined with a black dragon (and ended up with seven heads before the charm wore off and it just fled).
The White Owls are a secretive organization that deals with fey matters. They employ lots of cold-themed magic to restrain targets.
In the Arcane Circle they saw a large, spherical object covered in runes. Einar said that it was similar to something they found in Mithrendain, though they modified it a bit (with a beholder's eye).
Chisel was able to help Randy refine his fire-based runes (giving him a +1 bonus to damage), and told him that he should seek out Cindervault if he wanted to learn more. He also said that if Randy found anything, to let him know and he would teach him more of what he knows.

Making Race Count, Part 2

2011-11-30T19:38:00.000-08:00

Despite starting up a campaign with its roots firmly entrenched in the Feywild, none of my players are playing races that benefit from an article that gives drow, eladrin, and elves the option of taking racially thematic powers.

Drow

Glimmering Forms: A level 2 at-will that seems reminiscent of dancing lights from previous editions, functioning as a souped up version of light; you can move it, and you can also alter what it appears like in an attempt to trick people.
Vanish From View: A level 6 encounter interrupt that lets you make a Stealth check when hit and you have concealment or cover. If you beat the attack roll, it not only misses but you gain combat advantage for a turn.
Quell Magic: This level 10 daily lets you drop an area-effect attack on all conjurations and zones, destroying them if you hit.
Dark Doorway: While hidden this level 16 daily lets you teleport, but you must be able to hide in the destination.

Eladrin

Sense Magic: This level 2 encounter lets you auto-detect all magic within range and then roll to identify each source at the cost of one minor action.
Eladrin Escape: A level 6 utility that lets you teleport for free after being missed with a melee attack.
Recursive Thought: When you save against a daze or stun, this level 10 daily lets you stun or daze them for a turn.
Spiral Dance Assault: Once per round when you hit an enemy in melee, this level 16 at-will lets you teleport to any square adjacent to them.

Elf

Long View: This level 2 encounter lets you gain combat advantage for a turn against an enemy that you attack with a long- or shortbow.
Leave No Trace: A level 6 daily stance that lasts until your roll initiative, end it (for some reason), or until eight hours have passed. While it is up, creatures have a much harder time tracking you, and you and all adjacent allies gain a bonus to Stealth.
Determined Accuracy: A level 10 daily that lets you reroll a spent elven accuracy again, with a bonus.
Communion: This level 16 encounter lets you burn a healing surge to gain temporary hit points and heal an adjacent ally (so you need to have at least one left).

Book of Vile Darkness: Demonologist

2011-11-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today's excerpt has garnered some negative criticism partially for the outfit, but largely because of the quasit's anger issues; most of the time it gets along just fine, but if you are unable to give it orders--like you are stunned, dominated, or sleeping--then it "acts under the Dungeon Master's control as your enemy".

Despite this drawback it is still a pretty sweet package; adjacent enemies take a save penalty, it doubles up on ability score damage (determined by you, no less), can turn invisible whenever it wants to, can grant you a skill bonus, and can even save-ends daze a target that attacks you. Since it can communicate via telepathy, you can have it scout places while invisible and get some excellent intelligence because it has to do what you say.

And that is just the start. You still get your action point benefit--adjacent creatures take variable energy damage and you gain resistance for the encounter against that type--and an encounter attack that lets you bind a demonic essence to a creature, which lets you slide a target, have it make an attack with combat advantage and a damage roll. If the attack hits? The attacker is then also dazed for a turn. Very nice.

At 12th-level you can levy an evil-eye type effect against an enemy as an interrupt, imposing an attack penalty and causes them to grant combat advantage for a turn. It is an effect, so no attack roll required.

The level 16 feature causes your quasit and all summons to gain a damage bonus, so there is extra incentive to take summoning magic (not that I needed more).

Finally at 20th-level you can summon a huge blast of hordlings that deals damage and prones targets. It also creates a zone that lets you spend a standard action to deal automatic damage and prone all creatures inside (or more damage if they are already prone). Oh, the zone lasts the entire encounter. The only downside is that it is not friendly, so you gotta be careful not to tear up your allies.

I like this paragon path because it is very thematic. I do not really give a fuck if the quasit can be abused by douchebag DMs, as you can always kill it and summon it later anyway (I would just allow a character to dismiss it). Otherwise I can see it bringing some interesting social roleplaying to the table, giving suggestions and trying to tempt the character. I would have honestly preferred it to be an imp (devil), because then it could literally play devil's advocate.

Beyond the Crystal Cave: Encounter 1

2011-11-27T18:43:00.000-08:00

Given that the day I am scheduled to run Encounters at Knightfall Games fell on a holiday I did not have the chance to run it, so instead of a play report I am just going to give my thoughts on how the first encounter is written.

The session opens up with the characters waiting for Count Varis, who has summoned them for various reasons. He feeds them the plot--two people have gone missing, and if they are not found there could be problems between Crystalbrook and Sildaine--gives them some cash, and sends them on their way. While going to Crystalbrook they are attacked by xivorts, which after defeating them gives them the street cred required to talk to Lady Tamora, who gives them more information before they go to Sildaine to talk to the quest herald there. Eventually the session wraps up under the assumption that the characters are going to the Crystal Cave.

At a glance the hook is pretty weak, and a lot of the interactions and dialogue seem rushed, which is understandable because the Encounters format is intended to be wrapped up in an hour or two. This also leads me to the other problem, which is that I could see players who did not attend week 0 (which in my store no one did), and having the issue where they end up having to shoehorn their character into the plot. I ran into this in the past while running Songs of Erui; a player showed up with a warforged fighter and basically had to tag along with the rest of the group because they are on a time-sensitive mission. It can work, but it can also easily detract from social roleplaying.

The actual encounter part looked alright. The characters face off against a band of seven xivorts, some bloodied and one missing an encounter power, as they harass some locals of Crystalbrook. There is some difficult terrain, but the real heavyweight is the mist, which creates a really big lightly obscuring zone that moves at the start of each turn. The townsfolk kind of hang around the edges. I guess you could have them try and jump in if things go badly (which they should not), or just give the characters someone to actually rescue besides an empty town square.

Things I Would Change
I would have added more buildings (and actually furnished them if they were going to be open) and just yanked the food carts. It does not looks like a half-ass mashing of a street and market square. Also some things that the characters could drag and drop to give themselves cover against the ranged attackers (like a barrel or something). Finally, even if I did not want to actually have guards in the combat, I would at least add in some flavor text indicating that the guards were actually there doing stuff. Failing that, I would at least have been dead guards on the map to show that they were around to do their job.

Oh yeah, I would also have someone aside from the town drunk be the one to vouch for them after everything was said and done.

Feywild Themes

2011-11-25T23:01:00.000-08:00

I am really pleased with the timing of the recent Feywild love, because my group has pressed me into re-visting Erui, a homebrew campaign that I ran and shelved over a year ago.

The first article is really in name only intended for the Moonshaes, a region in Forgotten Realms (which as an aside has an interesting-looking related article that I will write about later). In addition to giving some advice for reskinning some existing themes out of Neverwinter Campaign Setting, we also get the Sarifal warden and Callidyrr dragoon themes and a new varient elf.

Sarifal wardens start out with a turn-long aura that grants scaling energy resistance/vulnerability to your allies and enemies respectively. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Nature and lets you cast Spirit Fetch once per day for free, and level 10 gives you a Fortitude bonus.

Sarifal Advisor (level 2 daily): You can summon a pixie that cannot attack, and is better than you at Arcana, Nature, and Stealth. It can also talk to natural and fey animals, and you can use its senses for a turn. Mostly I can see this being good primarily for social roleplay situations.
Light of Sarifal (level 6 daily): A sustainable aura that imposes a damage penalty based on your highest stat.
Level 10 is different; instead of choosing from a specific power, you can instead choose from blur, mirror image, shadowed moon, or warlock's leap.

Callidyrr dragoons are like elite knights that are geased, but are generally charged with going on adventures anyway. On the plus side, violating the geas just causes a memory wipe, which could have some interesting side effects. You start out with Mounted Combat and a free martial weapon of your choice, making it ironically not too well suited for the types of classes that I would most often expect. Level 5 gives you a bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate, and at level 10 you can use Diplomacy instead of Heal for triggering a saving throw or second wind. Oh, and you can do it at a distance. Fucking sweet.

Dragoon Warding (level 2 encounter): An adjacent ally gains a AC and Fortitude bonus, and you take hits on melee and ranged attacks.
Dragoon Parry (level 6 encounter): An interrupt that gives you a bonus to AC and Reflex against a melee attack targeted at you, and the enemy grants combat advantage for a turn.
Dragoon Summons (level 10 daily): You summon an ancestral defender, which I guess is a natural animate that packs a damage boosting aura, can heal as a minor action, and take hits for allies as an interrupt. The downside is that it cannot attack, but then it is a defender.

Llewyrr elves are eladrin that can swap out their Arcana bonus for Insight and use long- and shortbows at the expense of Eladrin Weapon Proficiency.

The second article is a tad shorter, giving us the wild hunt rider and oracle of the evil eye.

Wild hunt riders give you a Perception bonus, but only when looking for a creature. On the plus side you ignore partial concealment entirely. At level 5 you can use Phantom Steed once per day for free, using Arcana or Nature (whatever is best). At level 10 you gain a bonus to save against effects that hinder your movement.

Wild Hunt Leap (level 2 encounter): You can jump your speed, and gain combat advantage for a turn if you land next to an enemy.
Moonfire Aura (level 6 daily): A small aura that negates invisibility and concealment. It is not friendly, so you gotta be careful.
Relentless Pursuit (level 10 encounter): If an enemy moves away from you, you can teleport next to it as a reaction, and you do not need line of sight. Awesome.

Oracles of the evil eye are unfortunate victims that undergo a ritual that results in them gaining a fomorian's iconic...well, eye. You can an at-will minor power that causes a non-marked creature to take a piddling amount of automatic psychic damage after damaging you. Like "normal" evil eyes it only works on one creature at a time. At level 5 you gain a bonus on Bluff and Intimidate, and at level 10 you gain low-light vision (or darkvision if you already had low-light vision).

Eye of the Fomorians (level 2 daily): You can a bonus to Perception and can see invisible creatures for the encounter.
Urge of Destiny (level 6 daily): An ally deals bonus damage for the encounter. If the creature marks them, they deal even more.
Evil Eye Mesmerism (level 10 encounter): A reaction that prevents a creature from attacking you at all for a turn if it misses you.

Aside from the elf variant I pretty much liked all the new themes for one reason or another. The oracle and dragoon can introduce some interesting adventure hooks--such as a key villain or memory loss plot hook respectively--and social roleplay elements to a game. I am also liking the ritual freebies, which if nothing else will hopefully encourage players to try more out (especially with the heroic rituals article).

Legend & Lore: A Different Way To Blah

2011-11-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

This picture does not work at any level.

What? No...just...what?

Having actually played 3rd Edition, attacks of opportunity might not have actually come up all the time--though they were pretty common--but the fact that they existed affected how characters moved and what they did. For example, if the wizard was on the ropes the fighter might want to go save his ass, but in the process might take an ogre's greatclub in the face for his troubles. Does he provoke it and try anyway? Up to him. The fact is, we knew the rules, even if knowing the rules just made us do shit to not have to use them.

No, the rules should not become more complex simply by leveling. Being able to run circles around an orc or fire an arrow in his face while right next to him from levels 1-5, but not at levels 6 and up, is both inconsistent and makes no fucking sense. It would be fine to simply have a modular ruleset where you can simply ignore them (which you already can), but it would be best to just make a game that is simple and elegant to learn and play, which 4th Edition already is.

To me the game already gets more complicated the higher level you get. Having players pick up more abilities, class features, feats that can change more, and magic items that can do more is sufficient complexity. At low levels the players mainly concern themselves with a handful of powers and feats with varying complexity. I have seen players just default to feats that give them passive bonuses to their stats because they don't want to have to think too much, and avoid powers that have triggering requirements.

I remember trying a paragon tier barbarian and having plenty of trouble remembering that oh, I spent an action point so this happens, and because I have these feats and I am raging I also get some more bonuses. On top of all this, you want to also increase the rules as you go along? Call me crazy, but the fact that not all groups even hit paragon tier probably makes it even more likely that these level-based rules would be ignored or forgotten.

Heroic Tier Rituals

2011-11-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

So...rituals. Well, also ritual feats. Rituals have been a tricky thing in my games, despite my including them--both in book and scroll form--with the specific intent to give my players an edge, components to use them, and reducing the casting time on a lot of them.

Who knows, maybe new Ritual Feats will give them the last bit of incentive they need? You need Ritual Caster as well as some rituals to pick them up, but they let you use your skills in flexible ways and eliminate the cost of using a ritual once per day. For example, Binding Mastery lets you use Arcana or Religion in place of Diplomacy and Intimidate against unnatural creatures, as well as a bonus. I like the flavor behind this, using your knowledge of binding magic to threaten or bargain with the fey or a devil. Warding Mastery is also pretty nice, giving you a bonus on Perception to find traps and hazards and checks to disable them (as well as casting warding rituals).

The new rituals include classics like Alarm, Hold Portal, and Explosive Runes. Most have castings times of only 1 minute, though Hold Portal clocks in at an outstanding one standard action. Frankly I wish more rituals had shorter casting times, if only to give them more utility when time is a factor. I mean, in a lot of cases the players did not use one simply because they did not have the time, but to me charging them each time is punishment enough. Speaking of casting costs, a lot require healing surges in lieu of cash, or a small amount of cash in addition to your surges.

I also like this, as it represents a caster exhausting herself from using magic (as well as giving the wizard a way to use healing surges). A pretty good article. I am going to reduce more rituals to a minute or less casting time and see what happens. I might also let them burn healing surges more often (perhaps at an exchange rate).

Thunderspire Labyrinth, Episode 1

2011-11-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

Cast

Ceriok (male eladrin hybrid ardent/fey-pact warlock)
Sterling (male vryloka paladin)
Riven (male halfling vampire)
Reyn (male human bard)
Shen (male tiefling infernal-pact hexblade)

A month had passed since the characters slew the dragon leading the kobolds, and defeated Kalarel before he could open a portal to the Shadowfell.

Lord Padraig summoned them and as wardens of Winterhaven tasked them with investigating the disappearances of villagers. The few that managed to evade capture blame a group of hobgoblin slavers known as the Bloodreavers, which are believed to be based out of Thunderspire Labyrinth. He recommends that they talk to Valthrun before leaving to get some more information.

Meanwhile Reyn has arrived in Winterhaven and is searching for something that he believes to be hidden within Thunderspire. The rest of the characters run into them as they are preparing to leave, and so they all head out together after convincing Valthrun to buy horses for some of them.

When they arrive in Fallcrest they split up to try and gather more information. Shen runs into a hooded stranger who offers to pay him well for a control amulet that the Mages of Saruun use to command golems. Riven sees his former family, but evades them. Reyn learns that a dwarf jeweler has an estranged cousin twice removed that stole an immense amount of money for him 20 years ago, and true to dwarven memory is both still angry and willing to pay someone who can find him. They meet up outside and exchange information before proceeding on.

The night before they arrive at Thunderspire a blue dragon ambushes them at their camp, but they manage to convince it to let them go in exchange for 200 gp and a horse. They decide to push onward to Thunderspire to finish resting, and encounter a slave caravan entering the labyrinth, which they successfully ambush. One of the hobgoblins is spared and reveals that the Bloodreavers serve a kobold, and in exchange for his freedom agrees to lead them to the Seven-Pillared Hall.

Next Time: Rendil

Legend & Lore: Out of Bounds

2011-11-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

I have really gotta stop reading these things, because all they do is confuse, frustrate, and make me wonder exactly what game Monte Cook was allegedly playing “back in the day”.

Does the game present players with challenges that have pre-made solutions?

Kind of? There are useful guidelines and suggestions for the budding DM—such as how to unlock doors, scale walls, and disarm traps—but ultimately it is the DM’s decision to design, place, and either limit or encourage how the players overcome them. Just because a trap can be disarmed with a Thievery check or have its hit points smashed out of it does not mean that there could not be a clearly visible lever that shuts it off, or a password that disables a magical trap.

For example, can all monsters be defeated in straightforward ways, which is to say, attacked with swords and magic missiles until they die? Can all physical obstacles (walls to climb, narrow ledges to traverse, rivers to cross, and so forth) be overcome with die rolls? Are those die rolls achievable given the PCs’ level and abilities? Is the solution to every puzzle available to those with the right skills or spells? Is the counter or resolution to every problem hardwired into the game?

Generally yeah, monsters can be defeated in the ways that players expect, and this has been globally true over the course of every edition. I am wondering how Cook handled climbing walls in 2^nd Edition. Did he require a die roll? Did he just decide on a whim whether they succeeded or failed? Did he give them a bonus/let them succeed if they described their technique well enough? I mean if there is a wall, and the players want to climb it, and there is a consequence for failure, then yeah I will make them roll.

I fail to see how requiring dice rolling to determine success for meaningful actions or challenges corresponds to every challenge (or any) having a hardwired solution. Just because I require players to make a Strength check to bash open an iron-bound door or a Thievery check to pick the lock, does not mean that those are the only solutions I will allow. If a player wants to try conning a guard out of a key, or get someone to open the door by making noise, pose as another NPC, or just bash it open, then I can make a judgment call (and again probably require a dice roll, like a Bluff check).

As a DM I have never just thrown random shit at my players and assume that they would just figure something out. Generally I had at least one solution to the problem even if that solution was in the next room (or even the next dungeon). Hell, they might find a door with a very high Thievery check that they will have to come back to later. It might even be guarded by constructs that are way too tough for them to defeat.

Looking back at the game’s roots, the answer to these questions was usually no. In the early days, the game’s mechanics rarely provided solutions to the problems the characters faced. Players stretched beyond the bounds of the rules and looked for solutions not covered in the books. Player ingenuity was always the key to winning encounters. And very often, the DM didn’t actually have a set solution in mind ahead of time. He expected the PCs to come up with something on their own.

To put it nicely, this is not the way I remember it. Players generally relied on their characters’s strengths, which was usually something to the effect of stabbing or blasting monsters, picking locks on doors, bashing doors open, etc. Things that all required dice rolls. I remember playing a fighter and trying to lie to a NPC to get them to let their guard down, and the DM had me make a Charisma check to see how well I pulled it off. The only thing that has changed over time is that actual, solid mechanics have been provided to help DMs adjudicate their decisions and players get a better bead on stuff that their characters could reasonably do.

This isn’t true of more recent expressions of the game. There are few encounters that can’t be won simply by using the PCs’ straightforward powers and abilities. For example, consider fire immunity. In older versions of the game, the red dragon was immune to fire. If you’re packing fireballs, you’re just out of luck. In the most recent version of the game, the designers decided that it’s no fun if the game tells you that the choices you made were wrong, so red dragons are resistant to fire, but not immune. You can still use your fireballs.

The game still “punishes” them, it just does not render them utterly useless. If you fight a red dragon then fire attacks can do something, just not nearly as well as they otherwise would. It still has an impact. It still has meaning. Aside from making some thematic characters take a back seat during what will probably be an epic battle I see no benefit to this, and I thought Monte Cook had moved away from the whole system mastery philosophy?

That’s a viable design approach. You make sure that no choices are bad choices. You make sure that every lock has a key that can be found. Every barrier has a way past it. You ensure that the PCs are never presented with a challenge that they can’t somehow overcome. You encourage the players to roll some dice and then move on to the next thing.

There should be no "bad" choices. Again just because the game makes it more difficult for a character to be rendered obsolete, does not mean that every challenge has to have a way around it. Not having “bad” choices does not mean that everything has to have an obvious or immediate solution. These two things are not related.

Now imagine a simple dungeon room. There’s a pile of treasure on the far side. The PCs come in and quickly discover that an impenetrable force field blocks the far side of the room from them. In an “old school” dungeon, the players would be forced to figure out a way to get past the force field or somehow get beyond it to reach the treasure. The DM might have no preset solution in mind. It might very well be impossible for the characters, given their resources, to get the treasure.

Which differs from recent editions how? I can throw a forcefield in a dungeon on a whim with no clear way of getting past it. I can even say that it cannot be damaged. I could throw in a monster that cannot be hurt by non-magical weapons, or weapons period. Or even hurt by a specific weapon. The closest parallel I can think of are 2^nd Edition monsters that were immune to weapons without a minimum bonus, and if DM’s really want to do that then they still can without needing WotC’s approval.

As the game developed over the years, solutions were inserted into that encounter’s design. Perhaps there’s a lever somewhere else in the dungeon that lowers the field. Maybe a spell or the right combination of spells would bring down the barrier. Perhaps a secret passage circumvents the force field. Or maybe just pounding on it long enough will destroy the barrier.

This statement bothers me for two main reasons. The first is because he seems to believe that spells that let players instantly bypass challenges—comprehend languages, detect secret doors, knock, break enchantment, disintegrate, dispel magic, passwall, find the path, miracle, etc—did not exist before. If anything 4^th Edition has reduced the number of abilities that allow characters to say fuck all and just skip obstacles.

The second is that he acts like that DMs who designed encounters just plopped shit down on paper without any clue as to what players might do about it. Maybe it is just me but as a rule of thumb when I design encounters I consider my group demographic and at least one way for the players to get by. Well, assuming I want them to.

And maybe that’s really the takeaway here. The rules are not the sum total of the game. The game is larger than that. Breaking the rules, circumventing the rules, or ignoring the rules does not take you out of the game. The game encompasses that type of play. It’s built upon it, in fact. So why shouldn’t the design of the game also be bigger than the rules? Why shouldn’t those kind of assumptions be taken into account? It puts the responsibility back in the hands of the players, rather than the DM or the designer. Success or failure lies within their own hands again.

More importantly how the hell does doing away with a solid foundation of mutable rules put responsibility back into the hands of the players? As a DM I like having something to go off of, and as a player I like generally knowing what to expect when I try to do something. Personally it sounds like WotC already has a plan for an upcoming edition, and at least these articles are steeling for me a change that I seriously doubt I am going to like. Maybe I am just reading it wrong, but the threads on the WotC forums and RPG.net are not giving me much hope.

Excerpts: Evil Campaigns

2011-11-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

The first look at Book of Vile Darkness concerns campaign themes and an arc that will hopefully unify an evil party to work together long enough to see results. Staples such as conquest and destroying the world are present, along with working against other evil forces and killing gods. Running an evil campaign can be a tricky business, and in my experience players tend to use it as an excuse to wreak havoc without any direction. Kind of like Chaotic Neutral, except that there might be more murder depending on your groups definition.

There is not a lot of information, and hopefully these concepts are expanded upon. At the least I hope that it offers better stuff than a bunch of weak-ass feats and prestige classes that we got from the original Book of Vile Darkness.

Critical Failures: What Color Was That Dragon, Again?

2011-11-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

This happened like, the session before we stopped running my first homebrew 4th Edition campaign over a year ago. I had gotten Player's Handbook 2 months before and was itching to run something with a tight primal/Feywild/celtic theme. The main quest was that the players were searching for pieces of a song that had been written by a long-dead bard that for some reason a bunch of other major players--eladrin, drow, and fomorians to name a few--were also looking for.

Over the course of some ten levels, they plundered an eladrin crypt, found the ashes of someone who knew the location of one part, had a ghostspeaker pry the information out of it, liberated a town from a haunted castle, navigated a forest half stuck in the Feywild, delved into an ancient druid pyramid, and eventually found the first piece. They also found a map with two parts clearly marked: an island far to the north, and a dwarven city that was pretty close by. They decided to go to the dwarven city first, and were surprised to find it occupied by drow.

Not that they get along with any elves, really.

Even so, they somehow managed to sneak inside and make their way to the castle, only to be spotted while scaling the gate. At some point while they were fighting off drow, giant spiders, and web golems I decided to throw in a dragon to mix things up. Not just any dragon, mind you, but something that I felt best represented what the Underdark had to offer: a purple dragon.

Now, I chose a purple dragon because they also lived underground, and I figured that drow could strike a bargain with one. Also I had never gotten a chance to use one before, and have the mini and everything to go with it. Unfortunately having never used them, I was not privy to a very specific weakness until several rounds into the battle, that being sunlight. When purple dragons are exposed to sunlight they react almost the same way as most vampires do, in that they can only take one action a round and take a fuckton of damage to the tune of 160.

Each round.

They are like the mogwai of dragons.

What should have happened was that the dragon should have instantly exploded, probably like the boss at the end of the first Blade movie, just to drive home how silly the mistake was. I ended up retconning the dragon into being a black one, dropping its level considerably as a concession since I could not conceive of a situation where a purple dragon would ever venture to the surface during the day. In retrospect I should have read more carefully (or just kept my mouth shut), but in all fairness this was the original 4E statblock format, so the weakness was mentioned almost at the very bottom.

Critical Failures: So, You Had a Twin Sister

2011-11-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

This is just a story about something that a player did--or rather, did not do--during one of my campaigns that we still bring up from time to time.

About a year ago I had started running a campaign set in Eberron's Shadow Marches, which relied heavily on aberrant cults gradually weakening Gatekeeper seals, raising sunken cities, summoning aberrant stars, etc. When planning a campaign I like to get input from my players on their character's history, motivation, and goals so I can fine tune the campaign (similar to how it is done in Dresden Files). My philosophy is if i can get the players to step up and willingly do something without having to be prodded, I am good. The only real stipulation was that the characters had to have a reason for heading out to a remote mining town deep in the Marches.

Well, one of the characters wanted to play a changling rogue named Moxie, so we worked out a background where her sister had joined up with a guild in Zarash'ak when they were young in order to make some quick cash to pay for her illness (the character had a Con of 8). Her sister stopped coming home at some point, and after discovering the guild she joined Moxie signed up because they were not exactly going to give anyone a roster (not that looking for a changling exactly helped). So she toughs it out, does some menial jobs, and eventually gets signed up to do quite a bit of dragonshard smuggling from a remote mining town called Shardpit to the tune of 3,000 gps.

Fast forward six levels and a couple star-worshipping hellholes, and the characters are finally back at Zarash'ak with only a couple thousand gps worth of dragonshards to their name. Mind you, two characters went to Shardpit due to terrible visions (and belonged to the Cerulean Sign), and the other was a guide. Moxie's player divulged any information about who she was or what she was doing, and in fact in character they were not even aware that she was a changling.

They head to the Tharashk enclave in order to be debriefed, explaining what happened in Shardpit and Greyshore, and hand over their pittance of shards after learning about the shortages (other mining towns are being raided by orcs) before hitting the town to sell their loot, buy new stuff, and catch up with key NPCs.

Once they were sufficiently split up they run into some hired muscle, who threatens to kill Moxie unless she can come up with the dragonshards within a very short time frame. The party is now surprised to learn that she is part of the local thieves guild and that she was supposed to smuggle dragonshards. They ask her if she has anything else she'd like to share. You know, like her motivation (or at least her race). She tells them no, and decide to take the offensive and attack the guild. They ask around, beat up some people, find an entrance, and proceed to cut and blast their way through their ranks.

Once they are almost done, they run into something a bit different.

In the midst of the usual suspects of brutish thugs they run into a cloaked figure who is dashing and flipping about, wielding sword and dagger, dealing sneak attack damage with a flank, and faking them out like a changling would. Since Moxie's player was not getting the hint I even described the opponent's fighting style as "very similar to Moxie's".

It didn't work.

Eventually, everyone is dead and I describe how the cloaked figure reverts to its true form in changling fashion, and basically have to spell it out that she is Moxie's sister, the player evidently having completely forgotten what she was doing the whole time. Everyone at the table is surprised to learn that A) she is a changling, and B) that she even had a sister. Moxie's player is also surprised at this, despite knowing that this was the guild her sister joined and that she fought in an almost identical manner, tricks and all.

So...yeah. It was just one of those things that probably would have had an impact at all if the player had actually divulged any information to anyone and/or paid attention.

Heroes of the Feywild Review

2011-11-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Heroes of the Feywild is a player-centric supplement with a bunch of options and flavor material for players that want to make fey and/or primal characters. It is very focused, and I highly recommend it for any player or DM with a preference that cleaves to its mission statement. My main nitpick is some of the art; there are pieces that aim to feature iconics and tell a kind of story, and those I like.

What I did not like were the Wayne England pieces (just go to the section of pixies and you will see what I am talking about). I really think they should have tapped Tony DiTerlizzi for this project. Despite that it is a superb player resource.

Chapter 1: Into the Bright
The first fifteen pages depict the Feywild from the perspectives of both an outsider and native, as well as taking a close look at major locations there. This is great food for thought for helping players set their expectations, as well as figure out how much they know, and how much do they think they know. The rest is great for players making fey creatures, as well as DMs that want some great adventure sites (as well as a roster of the fey courts). One of the themes set in this book are Bard's Tale sidebars, which tell short stories that might give you ideas or at least give players an idea of what stories they have heard before.

Chapter 2: Races of the Fey
What with the previews we already knew a good deal about the pixie and satyr, and the hamadryad by name at least.

Hamadryads are nymphs that have decided to become dryads, and are stuck in a transitional phase. They get a bonus to Wisdom and either Intelligence or Charisma, gain a bonus to Diplomacy and Nature, are female only, fey origin, can ignore difficult terrain that is based around trees and undergrowth, can last a lot longer--and gain a bonus--when dealing with starvation, gain a bonus on saves against daze, dominate, and stun, and can use hamadryad aspects.

Hamadryad aspects is kind of like the original version of a drow's lolthtouched racial, in that each time you use it you can pick from two different effects, causing each enemy that can see you to grant combat advantage or gaining damage resistance for a turn (making it better than a goliath's stones endurance). They can also pick from racial utilities that allow them to do stuff like gain temp hps and a bonus to AC and Fortitude (with the side effect of fire vulnerability), or gain phasing and insubstantial for a turn along with a short-shift.

Seeing as the pixie's stat block was already previewed, discussed, and condemned for ruining games, so I'll just note that their racial utilities let them--among other things--use a minor action to automatically affect a creature with a random effect, turn invisible for a turn, and grant all adjacent allies flight for a turn (and that one is only 6th-level).

As with pixies, satyrs also got their stats revealed. Their utilities let them jump really far, cause a creature to regain more hit points or take more damage than normal, and turn into a "satyr of the night", which gives them concealment (or invisibility if they'd normally be concealed) and heavy necrotic resistance.

Chapter 3: Classes
There are four new subclasses, complete with backwards compatible powers for their parent classes.

Berserkers are martial and primal defender and strikers. One of their defining features is that they gain a passive benefit depending on which terrain they favor: arid desert gives you fire resistance and a huge bonus to AC and Reflex in cloth armor, frozen land gives you cold resistance and a bonus to Fort and Will, and temperate land gives you a damage bonus when using a shield and a boost to Speed when charging.

Like knights they have a defender aura, but when they get to smack someone for violating it they deal scaling bonus damage. They cap out at hide armor, but gain a bonus to AC while their defender aura is up (putting them on par with fighters so long as they have are at least pulling 2 more points from somewhere). The problem is that when they use a primal attack--either an encounter or daily attack--they enter a berserker rage, which lasts for the rest of the encounter and shuts down the aura, but you deal bonus damage and some of your attacks gain extra benefits.

This creates an interesting class dynamic in which you start out as a defender (though your triggered aura attacks gain a damage bonus), but can switch over to striker as the situation warrants. Not all of the encounter and daily powers are primal, so you can opt to just take the martial ones if you want to stick with a defender. All of the attacks and utilities have levels, so even if you are going with the core barbarian you will have a bunch of stuff to choose from (though the at-wills are kind of lame in comparison unless you let barbarians always benefit from the Berserker's Fury bonus).

Skalds are an arcane and martial bard variant. Their key schtick is skald's aura, which allows any ally within it to use a minor action to heal themselves or an adjacent ally, which a starting cap of twice per encounter. Skalds use their at-wills and dailies to modify the other affects of the aura, granting allies that hit enemies temp hps, or a bonus to their damage, attack roll, or defenses. Like most subclasses, they are centered around basic melee attacks. Not only can they use their Charisma modifier when handling them, but their encounter spells trigger on successful hits.

There is also a pretty extensive section of class features at the start of the section that you can swap out with existing bard features, giving you benefits of attracting attendants when in town, gain an audience with a political figure, or get free stuff like carts or carriages.

Sentinels were kind of a step back to 3rd Edition druids in that they could heal allies and got an animal companion. Protectors kind of remind me of 2nd Edition druids in that they belong to druidic circles (though you still don't have to fight anyone to level up). You start with nature's growth, which creates an encounter-long zone of difficult terrain with a scaling area of effect. Depending on your circle the power also lets your allies heal more when they burn a surge next to or inside it, or simply ignore it as it does not come equipped with friendly fire.

The real meat of this class is its key feature: summon nature's ally. You do not gain daily powers as you level up, instead gaining the ability to summon more--and better--monsters over time. For example, at 1st-level you can summon a giant cobra or desert hawk, but once you hit level 15? Time to call in the bulettes and/or giant scorpions. Eventually you can conjure blue dragons and rocs, but baby steps, ya know? Otherwise they still get a nice collection of evocations to choose from, including dailies for other druids.

We got a taste of witches previously, and since this section is going on long enough will just gloss over it. It is a wizard subclass that gets a familiar right out of the gate, which lets you swap out your daily attack and utility spells. Basically it is a spellbook with no limits. You also pick a coven, dark or new moon (which means generally evil or good respectively). Finally, you can cast an augury once per day in order to gain a vague notion of something similar to cleric spells from older editions.

As with the mage subclass and all the new schools they got later on, there are a shitload of new spells that you can use with any old wizard (though the forums will rapidly argue that there is no "classic support"), including lots of polymorph effects for the budding transmuter out there.

Chapter 4: Character Options
This chapter has new themes, paragon paths, epic destinies, feats, and loot both mundane and magical.

Skipping over the fey beast tamer we get the sidhe lord. These guys are fey only, and start you out with a daily summon that basically spends most of its time taking hits for you until it runs out of hit points. The level 5 feature has some good social applications, allowing you and your allies to receive free room and board in any place that recognizes your house. At level 10 when your summon teleports you can also teleport with it as long as you are next to it.

The utilities allow you to have an ally burn an action point to take a standard action, gaining the action point if they do so, move you and your summon with a speed bonus with the same move action (and gaining temp hps to boot), and--my personal favorite--create a pact with an ally, allowing them to yank your encounter and daily powers to recharge their own, as well as nabbing their healing surges for your own personal use.

Tuathan are basically fey-touched humans or half-elves that can gain shapechanging abilities, but start out gaining a bonus on death saves or rolling Athletics checks twice. At 5th-level you ignore cover and concealment after using second wind, and at level 10 you can change into a bird if you picked up the level 2 utility that lets you change your shape, or treat modified 20 death saves as a nat 20 (with the added perk of standing up as a free action).

These guys get to choose between two utilities. At level 2 you can pick from rolling a 20 and saving the result for later or changing into a tiny fey or natural beast, at level 6 you can force a target to always speak the truth or mark a target (gaining temp hps each time you hit the target), and at level 10 you can force an attack to be redirected to another target or generate an aura that causes all weapons to gain Brutal and slow enemies, or burn it during an extended rest to reduce the time to 4 hours.

Last but not least is the unseelie agent. Any race can go with these guys, gaining the ability to conjure a magical, shadow-wrought weapon as an encounter spell. It can be ranged or melee, and the enhancement bonus scales as you level. Not bad, which is nice because the level 5 feature lets you speak the Unseelie Fey language, making it about as useful as Druidic or Theives Cant in past editions. Level 10 wraps things up by letting you roll Intimidate twice.

Moving on to paragon paths, there is one intended for each of the subclasses in the book. My favorite is the legendary witch, predictably an extension of the witch subclass that gives you varying spells based on your coven (except for level 16, where they all gain a sustain fly encounter). Mostly I like it for the level 20 daily, which lets you turn into a nightmare or unicorn depending on your taste.

There are only three epic destinies. One has you become the champion of Queen of Summer, a master of the Wild Hunt (complete with a daily 26 that lets you summon hounds), and a witch queen that is good for even vanilla wizards.

There are also a lot of pretty cool feats, including race support--if a bit anemic--for everything fey. For example, High Elf Kin lets elves use teleport after using elven accuracy, Fey Thievery lets eladrin use fey step to make a Thievery check at a distance, and Teeny Target grants you cover while in an ally's space (which asmRandy pointed out would make pixie defenders even more annoying). There is some old stuff like Totem Expertise and Arcane Familiar, though two-handed weapons get some love with Two-Handed Weapon Expertise (bonus damage when charging).

Feywild gear is a lengthy list of mundane stuff, like cold-iron shackles (fey cannot teleport), faerie puppet (can move on its own, making it nifty for a distraction), and a rain stick (break it to make it rain in a huge radius). A lot of this stuff seems better fleshed out, I guess? Like stuff you saw in Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, where some of it might require DM interpretation to arbitrate.

There are not a lot of magic items, and one of them is your run of the mill magic totem. There are some interesting bits though, such as the hill tamer crook, which reduces a hill to level terrain. Definitely room for player creativity, especially given that there is no maximum size. The hag's doorknob was already previewed, but I have to call attention to it again: it is a doorknob that you can attach to a section of wall, and open it as if it were a door. Since it is level 12, this is not something that just anyone will have, and I could see a short adventure where players have to steal one of these things.

Fey magic gifts are divine boons and grandmaster training by another name, though I do like a system by which you can rewards players with intangible "items". The lowliest gift allows you to give a bunch of critters with the Mount keyword a speed bonus outside of combat, with the best allowing you to sense birds within a half mile of you, and see through their eyes if you want. Oh hell yes.

Chapter 5: Build Your Story
This is a really cool chapter that is basically a massive random background generator, and why oh why has WotC not made one of these for the implied setting? I remember one of these things in 3rd Edition's Hero Builders Guidebook, which even if you did not use it word for word it could still throw you some interesting flavor curveballs, and this one is no different. Without going through all the potentials you determine who raised you (eladrin nobility, feydark refugees, etc), and depending on the result get to choose from several areas where you grew up, ranging from an eladrin city to the Isle of Dread to one of the fomorian cities.

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth, Part 2

2011-11-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

This time I am going to talk about the Chamber of Eyes. The idea is that, if your players are following the plot of Thunderspire Labyrinth then they will quickly learn about the Bloodreavers, go looking for them, and end up a shrine formerly dedicated to Torog. Inside they find a bunch of hobgoblins, defeat them, and learn that the slaves were conveniently sold to some duergar, meaning they now have to go somewhere else to find them. If it were not for the XP and treasure this entire mini-dungeon would be entirely pointless.

In the module the Bloodreavers generally leave the denizens of the Hall in peace, more out of fear than anything else. In my vision I treat them as a military force to be reckoned with, and while they do not mess with anyone in the Hall consider others found outside its limits—like Rendil—to be fair game. Since the law of the Mages does not extend out of the Hall, this means that anyone who has been wronged by them does not have a valid complaint. It also means that outsiders are ideal in helping them exact justice…or serve as potential victims to get sent off in order to get caught.

Having the Bloodreavers be a thorn in more than a few sides could provide you with more adventure hooks to get the characters involved. In addition to going after slaves someone important could have been captured by them (an ally of Surina or one of Brugg Asteron's friends?), one of the Mages might give them a task (being unable to directly interfere in affairs), or Rendil or Gendar might ask them to retrieve some goods stolen from them (or in a twist try to sell them out).

Renovating The Chamber of Eyes
Oddly the front door depicts a crude image of a beholder, despite A) the actual art not showing one and B) there being no beholder to be found. Maybe the author had hoped that players would see it and think that, shit, there is a beholder coming up. I mean players from older editions probably knew that they could turn you to stone, put you to sleep, or just, I dunno, kill you instantly. While 4th Edition threw out almost all of the save-or-screws they are still nothing to sneeze at, especially at 4th-level (hell, the mini beholder is a level 5 solo). I am actually going to keep it because I intend to make good on the foreshadowing.

Aside from the statues, the decor is almost entirely nondescript. For a temple dedicated to Torog this will just not do. I decided to changes the statues from winged demons (why?) to crawling humanoids, bound in changes, with jagged crowns that cover their eyes nailed to their heads. If you saw the Silent Hill movie, then the janitor tied up in barbed wire is a good indication of where I am going with this.

Has a greater impact than another generic "winged-demon".

The walls also look like that the hall was carved out by massive claws, and supported by pillars composed of victims bound in bladed chains...

Like that, but in pillar form.

...and the double doors are kind of like the Gates of Hell.

Could probably do with a minotaur head on there.

These additions will hopefully better convey the atmosphere of an ancient temple dedicated to a sadistic god that crawls through the depths of the Underdark.

A Closer Look
The map I drew up uses the original, with some minor modifications. I tried to include rooms that I would expect to see in an actual temple, including a place where they might hold ceremonies and perform fell rituals. Not all the rooms needed change, and in some cases the encounters and layout is mostly good enough to work with.

1. Narthex
This chamber is basically the same, though the rubble has been repositioned to help conceal the hobgoblins that stand guard in this room. I figure hobgoblins would actually try to modify the terrain in their favor, and I changed the archer to a spear-thrower. I added a few fissures in the floor that just serve as difficult terrain (though I would also have a character make a save or Acrobatics check to avoid falling prone if they are forced into them), along with a pit since Torog is all about pits.

Suspended above the pit is a former “saint” of Torog, chained up and wrapped in bloody linen. The characters can use it to climb up to the balcony, which I made easier than taking the walls (which while scoured are also concave). If the characters learned about Torog while in the Hall (or just make a really nice Religion check), they might know that they can gain Torog's blessing by making an offering into the pit. In this instance characters that do so gain Torog's lamentation of the shackled, which will give them an edge against the upcoming beholder and exarch.

Area 4. Guard Room
This room is a bit larger and is filled with bedrolls, not beds (which are probably a pain in the ass to drag all the way down here). Characters can use a standard action to yank on a bedroll that a monster is standing on to deal damage and knock them prone (use knockdown assault as a benchmark, though you might want to make it a little better to encourage players to give it a shot).

If the hobgoblins in this room get surprised, remember to use Aid Another to give the front-liners a bonus (and also emphasizing their phalanx formation), or have them run around in order to catch the characters with a pincer attack.

Area 5. Bath Chamber
I changed this to a slave pen and cistern. For some reason I like the idea of minotaurs having a primitive form of plumbing, and this is where their water comes from. Other rooms have levers and valves that dispense water, and areas with fire pits can dispense heated water.

I would actually keep a few slaves here that can inform the players that some got sold to the duergar. Some of the slaves might even be related and beg the characters to find their significant others/brothers/sisters/children/etc, or have lost family heirlooms that they would like returned (either or both could be minor quests).

Area 6. Sitting Room
This is now an impromptu dining hall and secondary quarters. I guess I could have added a pantry or make it more kitchen like, but I doubt my players will really notice much. Mebbe some crumbling walls to add in more terrain variety (something that could be knocked over).

Area 8. High Priest's Quarters
The hobgoblin's new leader stays here ever since the previous one got disintegrated by the beholder. A good spot to keep treasure. I could see the new leader making a deal with the characters to help get rid of the beholder.

Area 9. Refectory
I changed this room up to be both a kind of archive and ritual chamber. The first part has been repurposed to be a kind of armory, where they use the firepit to make repairs to weapons and armor. If the players get caught, this is where I would keep their gear. I suppose if you use martial practices then you could place Forge Weapon and Forge Armor here.

The other part has been sealed up because of a terrible monster--similar in appearance to all the statues--that inhabits the pit. If the players go in here, they can kill it (and gain either a magic spiked chain or flail weapon, or some kind of binding wondrous item), as well as take a secret passage directly to the balcony in Area 10.

Area 10. Torog's Shrine
Where the characters normally would deal with a dire wolf and some hobgoblins, they now face off against a beholder. Granted it is de-leveled to 6, but the terrain features should help make this a very epic fight to wrap up the Chamber. I also placed a pair of duergar here that came to bargain with the beholder for an alliance against the Hall. The beholder intends on killing both the duergar and the characters, so that he can later claim that assassins from the Hall killed them and hopfully incite the duergar to attack.

By going this route I can give the players an out if they end up losing; the beholder keeps them alive as proof, and they could be taken directly towards the Horned Hold, where they will have a chance to escape. If they defeat the beholder (as planned), then they can speak with the duergar, who while evil are still grateful that they were rescued. Depending on how the social role-playing goes, the duergar might "owe" the characters, or agree to see them later if the characters want to try talking their way into the Horned Hold. In other words, you give the players some options instead of just kicking down the door.

Alter: I added in an alter used for sacrifices. It looks like two chained minotuars holding up a bloody stone slab. It has a latch that causes it to slide back, revealing a pit where sacrifices were dropped and digested by oozes. This could be a good spot to put another encounter and/or some treasure. Characters adjacent to it gain a +1 power bonus when using powers that can slow, immobilze, or restrain a target (ideal if they get the divine boon in area 1 and the chain from the monster in area 9).

Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Review

2011-10-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

Warning: Adventure spoilers abound, here. In a nutshell I like it well enough. I mean, the art is not all that great (having been cribbed directly from the original), but it is free and has some pretty cool stuff. Based on the level and cultural theme of this adventure, it could work really well as a sequel to Going Ape!.

If you DMed a session of Lost Crown of Neverwinter soon enough, then chances are you got this adventure as an added bonus sometime last week. It is basically the 1980's competition module of the same name, updated for the current edition. Having never played the original, and while I am not sure how close they hit the mark the original authors seem to be pretty happy with it.

The adventure starts out with the characters legging it from a bunch of angry, savage warriors, presumably after trespassing on a sacred burial ground.

Or jacking gold idols. They take that shit seriously.

In an M. Night Shamwowian twist the characters actually end up just stumbling into the ass-end of the dungeon and have to find their way out, dealing with the spirits and undead that inhabit it. To make matters worse there is also a poisonous gas that prevents them from taking an extended rest, while at the same time paring off their healing surges the longer they stick around. Fortunately a lot of the encounters are not well padded, throwing only a couple of monsters at a time at the party, and some do not even need to be fought.

There are a lot of little things in this adventure that I really like: neat dungeon dressing, logical traps and hazards integrated with monsters, monsters willing to actually talk, a deadly game of pelota, will-o-wisps that try and draw you into traps, and more. There are even rooms that just contain traps, and now that anyone can notice and deal with them I am curious how they will be received. I also like a lot of the monster design, such as the vampire in Area 7; he cannot cross running water, can turn into a cloud of bats whenever it wants, and lacks a double-attack mechanic until it can pick up its axe (which is a cursed item), after which it can use it as a minor action.

It is a damned shame that this is not something that anyone can just buy without spending a ridiculous amount of cash on eBay. At the least it would be nice if WotC would post it as a pdf download.

Class Acts: Runepriest

2011-10-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Runepriest support with an "asian" twist? Okay I am hooked. In addition to a few pages with some sidebars of flavor on how runepriests could fit in Kara-Tur, we also get a new runic artistry, prayers, paragon path, and a pair of feats.

The flavor parts are interesting, touching on the Path of Enlightenment (which was apparently written on cliffs with red lightning), and depicting rune magic as more commonplace in Kara-Tur, with "homes adorned with sutra scrolls of varying sizes, that burn with red lightning when focused on or read". There is also a sidebar on calligraphy, which along with the code of honor syncs well with the whole oriental thing they got going on. Great if you are running such a campaign, but you could still use stuff like the sutra scrolls--changing them to runestones or what-have-you--and lightning in other games.

Each of the existing runic artistry gets a few paragraphs for re-flavoring their place in Kara-Tur. Defiant words are pretty common, wield longspears or halberds, and they tend to serve in a standing army or serve as temple guards. Wrathful hammers use testubos (aka greatclubs), lacquer their armor in red, and tend to stick to the Plains of Horses and hilly regions. They also spend most of their time hunting demons, giving them a solid adventuring concept.

Serene blade is the new artistry. These guys embody the runepriest devotion to the sigils granted by the Celestial Emporer, wield longswords, and typically wander the land teaching literacy and the Path of Enlightenment. In game mechanics picking this class feature gives you proficiency with military heavy blades, lets you add your Wisdom to AC when wearing light armor (allowing you to stick to the red robes that they like so much), and gives you scaling temp hps based on your Wisdom once per round aftering getting hit.

New Prayers

Words of Bravery (level 3): You hit each creature adjacent to you, you and an ally can make a save, and you either allow an ally push an affected target or dish out a bonus on the save.
Words of Compassion (level 6 daily): You or an ally regains hit points and gets a bonus to saves for a turn. Level 6, daily, and a standard action? Er...shrug.
Words of the Reflected Karma (level 9): A friendly-fire blast that targets a NAD (and Will at that), with an effect that causes the target to take lightning damage when it attacks. Veeery nice.
Protective Scroll (level 10 encounter): You burn a healing surge to scribe a sutra scroll, that can be used as a minor action to heal another creature and grant a huge bonus to defenses for a turn. These things last until you take an extended rest, meaning you can pretty much use it every encounter to basically give yourself a minor-action heal WITH something extra. Also, anyone can use it.
Words of Fiery Fidelity (level 13): Single target, hits Fort, deals fire damage, heals adjacent allies, deals ongoing damage as an effect (that also heals allies whenever the target takes ongoing damage). Oh, and depending on your rune state the ongoing damage and healing is either double, or the range of allies that it affects is increased.
Words of Ancestral Bravery (level 15): Single target, hits Will, deals radiant damage with prone on a hit, half damage on a miss. As an effect if allies end their turn next to you they got a lot of temp hps and a bonus on saves for a turn.

Enlightened Word Paragon Path

Only non-evil runepriests need apply.

Cloud Step (level 11): A new rune state that lets adjacent allies shift as a free action if they hit an enemy. You can also end it in order to fly.
Shared Enlightenment Action (level 11): You can burn an action point to have an attack originate from a nearby ally, using your stats and giving them temp hps for their troubles.
Celestial Lightning (level 11 again): A ranged, friendly-fire area-effect that targets Fort, deals radiant and lightning damage. It has to be centered on an ally, but in addition to not giving a fuck the ally also deals lightning and radiant damage for a turn (in addition to whatever they would normally do, making it very unlikely that resistances will factor in). In addition, depending on your rune state the ally either a bonus to damage or their healing surges.
Touch of Hope (level 12 daily): You or an ally that you can touch make a save against every effect on her, regains hit points, and can stand up if prone.
Radiant Cloud Step (level 16): When flying by dismissing your cloud step rune state, you are also insubstantial and phasing.
Words of Celestial Heaven (level 20): A solid melee attack that deals lightning and radiant damage, stuns with a save end, and causes the target to make an attack against an ally after saving against the stun. Hit or miss you also deal bonus lightning and radiant damage for the rest of the encounter.

New Feats

Heavenly Halberdier: You can use glaives and halberds, in addition to sliding targets of your at-will runepriest prayers.
Scribe Sutra: You can use Warding rituals as well as Brew Potion, Gentle Repose, and Magic Circle. In addition, making scrolls takes half the time.

Excerpt: Fey Beast Tamer

2011-10-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Only four themes? Really?

The main attraction to this theme is the beast companion you get, which can be a blink dog, displacer beast, fey panther, or owlbear, all of which seem pretty strong for what is in all honesty an optional option.

Yeah they only have half your usual hit points as a cap, but—for example—allies adjacent to a displacer beast gain a +1 power bonus to all defenses, while those next to a blink dog can teleport to another square next to it as a move action. In addition the level 5 and 10 features let you have combat advantage against any enemy next to your companion, and communicate normally with it and similar enemies respectively. Like spirit companions if they die you burn a healing surge and can just conjure it again from the Feywild as a minor action (though if you wait for a rest it comes back with full hit points).

The powers let you heal them for free, use a move action to send it back to the Feywild, and transform into whatever your companion is. None seem particulary neat; though safe banishment is an at-will, it takes a move action to remove and re-summon it. I think making it an immediate interrupt-encounter to save it (and a healing surge) would have been a lot better and more thematic. On a similar vein, companion form gives you your companion’s aura, but the use of any power ends the effect. Kind of meh.

Anyway, I guess the balancing act is that their defenses are rather tame (13-15 to start with), making them tempting and frail targets. Oh well, the only player I expect to pick this up is Randy, and that is just to have an owlbear companion as part of an inside joke from a previous campaign.

Wrapping up Keep on the Shadowfell..

2011-10-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

...for like, the third or fourth time.

Here is the map before the characters went inside. The green pillars contained souls of previously sacrificed victims, and could be used to charge up Necrotic powers, and the moat of blood concealed zombie minions.

The characters managed to sneak in before the paladin botched a Stealth check, causing Kalarel to open up with a blast of grave dust that dealt necrotic damage--which he resisted most of--and left a zone of damaging terrain. Shen (tiefling hexblade) leapt on top of the portal, surprising Kalarel but still missing with an eldritch bolt.

The zombies are up after a turn of failed ranged attacks. I held back due to all the bad rolls so as not to immediately overwhelm them all.

The dead body on the alter turned out to be a ghoul playing possum. After Shen leapt off the portal and knocked Kalarel over, it charged her, somehow missing despite charging and her being prone.

After luring the zombies up, Kamon fey stepped off the high ground into melee with Kalarel to help out Shen. Unfortunately, the defender and other striker were stuck with a trio of zombies.

This was quite a few turns later. They managed to kill Kalarel and stopped him from opening the portal any further (though he got it far enough to deal necrotic damage to adjacent living creatures). At this point they were just playing mop up with the ghoul and zombies.

Almost done. The ghoul decided to leg it, and eventually was killed off with a well-placed vampire slam and blood drinker.

Monk Basics

2011-10-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

This is a nice tutorial article that gives you an in-depth look on each of the monk’s class features, as well as giving you tips on ideal races—including a sidebar on what race best matches which tradition—and multiclass options, and a sidebar with some ideas on naming your personal style.

New Feats

Flurry Resounding: You can burn an action point to use flurry of blows again, even if you have already used it this turn.
Internalize the Basic Kata: You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for melee basic attacks, as well as use flurry of blows on an opportunity attack.
Master of the Fist: A multiclass feat that gives you training in either Athletics or Acrobatics, Unarmed Combatant, and ki focus proficiency.
Piercing Palm: You can use Sneak Attack with a monk’s unarmed strike.
Shielding Whirlwind Style: This is great for monks with a quarterstaff. You gain partial cover against ranged and area attacks for a turn after using flurry of blows, and also do not grant combat advantage for flanking.
Slashing Kama Style: You can use a sickle, and when you use flurry of blows with one you deal ongoing damage instead of just plain old normal damage.

New Disciplines

Deflect Arrow (level 2 encounter): An immediate interrupt that not only gives you superior cover against ranged weapon attacks for a turn, but allows allows you to shift as a free action each time you are missed.
Wind Through the Willows (level 3): This seems like a much more elegant way to handle an attack that is supposed to represent you moving through a bunch of enemies and beating the shit out of them; instead of telling you to shift and make an attack against enemies you move next to, you instead affect a close blast and can shift into a square in the blast or directly next to it (hit or miss). As for the actual attack, it does decent damage for an area-effect, and also slows and prevents charging for a turn, and the movement part lets you swap places with an adjacent target.
Water Gives Way (level 5): Another immediate interrupt that lets you deal damage against a target, slide it, and then knock it prone. The best part is that if the target charges you, you get a nice bonus to the attack and damage roll. The downer is that while you do not expend the power on a miss, you cannot try to use it again for the rest of the encounter (making it bad for delve runs, one-shots, or boss battles).
Brilliant Counterstrike (level 7): The damage seems kind of low, but any enemy that attacks you for a turn takes automatic damage as a free action. The move portion lets you either end a grab or mark, and shift a couple squares.
Stone Warrior Training (level 9): This is a really nice “training montage” power that lets you teach an ally how to better work with you. In game terms until your next rest, whenever you hit an enemy with an attack your ally gains a damage bonus equal to your Strength modifier.

Ecology of the Banderhoob

2011-10-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Aside from the articles on hengeyokai and ninjas, Ecology of the Banderhobb (and its accompanying Design & Development article) is my favorite article of the month, and I do not even plan on using these things for quite some time. Not because they are "officially" pegged as paragon-tier threats mind you--I can just de-level them to make them work with the low-heroic range--but because I am running Dark Sun.

In addition to a bunch of new traits and powers to customize your own banderhobbs--incuding the ability to chase creatures that try and run out of turn, teleport through shadows, and even chase you at full speed in cramped quarters--it adds a lot of flavor content that helps set the tone and feel for how to use these guys, including some descriptive text, poems, and even a short story on an adventurer's experience inside one's stomach (which has a random loot table!).

Hopefully at least one player knows of these things and the level that they should be expected at. I think that, coupled with some of the new stuff, will go a long way in freaking them the fuck out. Yeah, it is focused, but this really should be a monthly article, and done well you can get a lot of great ideas on how to use, describe, and customize a monster.

The Heirs of Ruin, Play Report 9

2011-10-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

After a three-week hiatus we finally managed to get in a short session. Having liberated some treasure from some gith mummies, they proceeded through the canyon until they reached the entrance to the gith's cave. A bunch of gith were gathered outside, doing gith things and playing gith games. Some were stationed on top of rocky spires (using a terrain feature out of Creature Catalog).

The group was able to sneak up and gain a surprise round, though no one bothered trying to topple the spires, which sucks because that would have made it easier for them to take out the hobblers. Did you know those fuckers deal like, 2d6 + 5 damage on their default ranged attack? Even worse, they can roll on a save-ends immobilize, which made it hard for Branor to keep them off of his allies. Despite the elevated terrain and minions, the battle dragged on for awhile due to all of the terrible, terrible rolls, though eventually they succeeded and entered the cave to look for silver and captives.

Deep inside the cave they found a whole bunch of gith gathered around firepits, dining under the light of psionically charged crystals on what could only have been the torsos of human-like victims. Again, despite Branor's heavy armor and lack of a Dexterity modifier, they managed to gain another surprise round. Most of the encounter was a cluster-fuck of gith minions coupled with a handful of artillery that hung back and tried to pin them down. Again, bad rolls caused it to drag out again, as well as deplete them far worse than it had any right to.

At any rate, that is where things ended. Long night, longer fights. Hopefully next week there will be better pacing and a stronger focus.

Ecology of the Hengeyokai

2011-10-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

My first brush with hengeyokai was in 3rd Edition's Oriental Adventures, and I am happy to see them make a healthy comeback in this whopping ten page article. Aside from paragraph upon paragraph devoted to their appearance, personality, culture, and place within Forgotten Realms (and a side bar for the Nentir Vale and Eberron), there is also a section on example monster stat blocks, advice for making your own hengeyokai monsters, and a full racial write up on par with what you got out of Heroes of the Fallen Lands/Forgotten Kingdoms.

For previous fans, they still get to choose a Tiny animal form, can turn into it whenever they want, and gain a benefit in your animal form, such as a burrow, climb or even fly speed. If you though the pixie having an altitude limit of 1 and being able to fly at-will was overpowered, crane and sparrow hengeyokai have a fly speed of 6 and no altitude cap. Granted you cannot do anything in your animal form, but I am sure that fact won't stop people from complaining about how it already ruined their game.

This is the kind of stuff that I like to see. While intended by default for Forgotten Realms (specifically Kara-tur), it is actually great for any campaign with Feywild elements (certainly better than, say, the wilden). My only gripe is that there is zilch feat support, which I won't hold my breath on.

The Five Deadly Shadows Review

2011-10-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

The Deadly Shadows gang have recently assassinated the magistrate of Kudoku, and only the characters can be bothered to do anything about it! The Five Deadly Shadows is the adventure for this month's "asian" theme, and I gotta say I was expecting something a lot better to showcase the whole thing. The fact that the adventure is intended for late heroic does not mesh well with the fact that the content we have seen so far plays best with low heroic, not that much about the rest of the adventure was particularly compelling for me.

For starters, the backstory does not make a lot of sense. From what I gather a gang called the Deadly Shadows shows up in a town called Kudoku and goes about corrupting the place in stock fashion; the monks leave, the merchants take their trade elsewhere, and so the government responds logically by dispatching one person to handle it. To his credit he manages to parse their numbers down to five and convinces one to join his cause (despite not being Liam Neeson or Chuck Norris), but ultimately loses and has his soul bound to this world. Oddly it's not the people leaving, murder, or extortion, but the soul-binding that caused the townsfolk to think, "Oh shit, we are fucked."

Not only does the plot confuse the hell out of me, but the adventure hooks are pretty weak. It starts out by recommending that you tie character involvement with character backgrounds or themes, which while good advice is also the bare minimum that I expect from a DM. From there the suggests are having a governor ask the characters for help, a merchant sending them over to figure out why shipments of "fine silk" are no longer coming in, and...sigh...one of the characters has a dream. Out of all of these having a government official is the most solid by technicality. I mean, the plight of the village should be well known once you learn how it got the way it did, so a merchant wondering what the hell going on just makes no sense. And the dream? At best it is a cliche, and at worst it is passive-aggressive railroading.

It is not just the background and hooks that bug the hell out of me, but the rest of the adventure. The characters start out in Kudoku and after earning the trust of the villagers, learn that the last magistrate tried to stop the Deadly Shadows and was killed, and that the Deadly Shadows haven't made a move to consolidate their power (despite having nothing stopping them from doing so). Presumably the characters go visit the new magistrate, who despite readily admitting that he sucks will not relinquish his position of power, and basically serves to direct the players to the tea house to fight the first boss.

On the way to the tea house the characters run across a monk trying to carry some wood. I guess they are supposed to help him as part of the virtue of honor (?), but they basically need to in order to get some orange robes that are important later (special characters appear on them as they progress through the adventure).

The only difference is that a laser-shooting sword has some
obvious applications.

Aside from the robes he also provides some very basic story information about being unable to fulfill the tasks given to him by his master, that his master (who I call Second Boss) is cruel, and so is the First Boss at the tea house. It is at this point that the characters can choose to hit up the tea house or go to the monastery (I guess do deal with the douche of a master).

At the tea house the characters have the option of going through a tea ceremony skill challenge in order to gain a very minor benefit during the following battle. Basically they have to strip down, put on white kimonos, and succeed on some skill checks in order to succeed. If they botch it then they are attacked by First Boss, and if they succeed then the boss's cronies literally just leave with some parting words to the effect that "they have shown courtesy so fuck you". Oh yeah, if the characters stripped down their gear just teleports back on whether or not they beat the challenge (though they have to burn a healing surge in the latter case).

As little sense as that whole scenario makes, the monastery is not any better. In fact, I think it is worse. The monastery is in a bad state, you see, and as part of the benevolence virtue they can opt to repair it while they climb (not that anything really hints at the fact that repairing the monastery is in keeping with the virtue). If the characters pick up on trying to fix up the place, they are constantly taunted by Second Boss. If they manage to go through enough repair-montages, then they gain a flight ability during the combat challenge. Otherwise they do not get it, and the water deals poison damage when they enter it.

Without some heavy maintenance I can just see my group plodding through this adventure, brows furrowed in confusion as to what they are doing, why they are doing it, and why NPCs are making them do things. Ever watch an anime and ever get confused when a character says and/or does something? It is like that, but stretched out into an entire adventure.

Lair Assault Play Report

2011-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

I ran my first Lair Assault session on Thursday to the tune of a total party kill, which took all of my resolve to follow through with given a life-time of running games in which I also want to see resolution. The four-man group consisted of a kobold rogue, human paladin, tiefling hexblade, and dragonborn knight. Not optimized and leader-less? How could I expect anything less...

Entrance
Here is where things started to go south. This room is comprised one-part narrow walkways, four-parts pits filled with oil. The opposition? A fire elemental and a hell hound. The pools had fish that you can eat in order to shave off 10 points of fire damage, but the downside is that you need to burn through two minor actions in order to pick one up and eat it. I think really the only upside is that the fire elemental only deals ongoing damage, meaning that you need to spread out its attacks in order to get any major impact, so hopefully whoever it spends the most time bitch-slapping took Superior Fortitude.

So the tiefling opens up with diabolic soul for the extra damage and fire resistance, giving her a grand total of 4. Whee. For the first round or two they were stuck on the starting platform fire-spamming themselves until they realized that having a powwow around the fire elemental was a bad idea. To try and make things easier I had the elemental provoke opportunity attacks whenever it could, such as when the paladin legged it across an oil pit to take on the hell hound mano-a-mordida, getting consistently by the fire-breathing statue.

Eventually they decided to just get the hell out of the room, leaving the paladin to take on both the hound and elemental at the same time. The hall lead to another fire-breathing statue, which the rogue easily took out with a simple Thievery check (much more economical than trying to chop through 50 hit points).

Forge
Running into the Big Bad Evil Guy on the first guess? Not bad, especially considering that you are A) on a time limit, and B) cannot take a short rest. This is good for groups trying to get the glory award for winning in 5 rounds or less.

A gotta say, Mordai is pretty fucking hardcore. Mebbe it is just my home games, but this guy was able to take an entire round of beatdown without me having to whip out a Bloodied token. He managed to use his scepter to smack the kobold into some fire, which got worse seeing as we had just hit the end of round 4.

With the temple engulfed in flames, the paladin ended up falling into lava, knocking her "unconscious" (it was super effective). So with one of the defenders down Mordai was basically free to lock everyone in place and blasting them with his minor action attack, while the elemental caught up and continued to light people on fire. The group basically hit a death spiral as the kobold was slid through more fire and then into a pool of lava, the knight mauled to death by a hell hound and Mordai's flunkies. Next round the hexblade bit it and then it was game.

Commentary
So...I think everyone lasted six rounds. I think that they would have had a chance had there been a leader, especially if it would have upped their group to five characters. Taking Superior Fortitude is great, especially because it shaves off 3 points of ongoing damage and is untyped. Better than taking a fire resist 5 item. Another good tip is for melee types to snag fish out of the pools on any turn in which they do not move: ignoring 10 points of fire damage is basically the same thing as ignoring a single hit from the fire elemental, and most if not all the damage that the hell hound would dish out.

Rebuilding Thunderspire Labyrinth, Part 1

2011-10-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

My Friday group has almost wrapped up H1: Keep on the Shadowfell, so I have been spending time making H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth a better place to adventure. Like H1, this adventure is pretty bad; the plot, locations, and monster composition does not make any sense. There are a lot of missed opportunities, (like the whole minotaur culture), false alarms, and a lame payoff at the end.

I really, really do not want to treat the labyrinth as a normal location. I want the characters to feel like they are strangers in a strange place. In the module the labyrinth is woefully underplayed, and players literally walk down a straight shot to get to the Seven-Pillared Hall, which is a wide, open chamber with some buildings strewn about. The Hall is essentially a quest hub, where the players pick up locations of dungeons and then go straight there. With the exception of an ogre and a drow, the rest of the citizens are races taken out of Player's Handbook, offering all of the commodities that one would expect from a typical city (and not, say, a glorified trading post teetering on the edge of the Underdark).

None of this remotely evokes the feel and theme of mazes or minotaurs, especially given that it was allegedly part of a minotaur city.

GETTING THERE
Originally there are four adventure hooks: investigating the Bloodreavers, rescuing slaves, dropping off an item, or "just because". Investigating the Bloodreavers and slaves goes hand in hand, and in my notes for Keep on the Shadowfell I made it a bigger point to illustrate their activities and consequences, so hopefully it makes these hooks all the more compelling. Since I am trying to make the labyrinth more of a dangerous and mysterious place, the delivery quest does not really fit and I am just going to axe it.

Finally, instead of Valthrun just telling the players that it is a super awesome place and they should totally go, I am going to have him play the role of an aging explorer eager to have one last, great adventure. He has heard rumors and read aging documents about an ancient minotaur city, and wanting to see it for himself, offers to either come with them (if they have other business there) or hire them as an escort.

Given that the labyrinth is inhabited by monsters and the Mages of Saruun are not too keen on making the place a tourist trap, there is no straight shot from the entrance to the Seven-Pillared Hall. Lanterns would just be destroyed, or more cunning denizens like drow would create their own lanterns to intentionally misdirect travelers. With no guiding star and a vast maze of passages to navigate, safely getting in and out requires a map, a guide, and lots of muscle.

Going this route gives me the chance to have the players go through a skill challenge to find their way, as well as throw them random encounters from stuff like oozes, hungry ghouls (travelers that died from hunger), lost ghosts (helping them find their way might be a minor quest), spiders, or most importantly, hobgoblins.

In the adventure right before the characters get to the Hall they overhear the Bloodreavers mugging a halfling named Rendil, and have the option to help a guy out. I changed this so that as the Bloodreavers were returning to the Hall they ran into the halfling, and decided to just take all his shit--including him--and bring it back to the Bloodreaver enclave. As they are going through his stuff, they hear the characters arriving and try to set another ambush, and crazy antics ensue.

Once the players defeat them, they not only save Rendil--who is a goblin, not a halfling--but also end up saving a bunch of would-be slaves who were taken from the region between Winterhaven and Fallcrest. In this way they end up making a friend and saving some people, and potentially learning more about the Bloodreavers if they leave any alive to interrogate (though Rendil could offer up some information as well).

THE SEVEN-PILLARED HALL

I changed the overall layout of the Hall to be more geometric. There are seven pillars, but that is because an earthquake collapsed part of the Hall, destroying one of them and creating a big-ass chasm from which aberrant horrors sometimes slither forth. There are also a lot more buildings, using up most of the space. Most are built like ziggurats, and there are plenty of stairs and bridges spanning structures, giving the city a kind of maze-like appearance (think mini-Sharn from Eberron). Geometric symbols and demonic busts and bas-reliefs cover them, clearly indicating the past culture's history of demonic worship.

Brugg got changed to a minotaur, as they really do not get any representation. He is still in charge of keeping the peace, and hires a variety of races in addition to having the support of the bronze warders (which are situated throughout the city). I also put in a minotaur guide that the players could use as a hireling, partially because I wanna use the hireling rules, but also because my group hates the complexity of companion characters.

The Deepgem Company got changed to a pair of dwarves that operate as much as a pawn shop as anything else, allowing travelers to exchange gems for as little coin as possible, then turn around and sell them to ritualists or other traders at a hefty markup. Whenever they get a sizable stock on hand they risk shipping it out to Fallcrest. I entertained the idea of making them members of a disgraced clan (or just disgraced themselves), but none of my players were dwarves. Even so it might make for an interesting quest hook.

The temple of Erathis I just kind of chucked in favor of Torog, whose temple is a broken ruin located near the chasm. Travelers often chuck an offering into the pit in order to gain his favor. It is maintained by a collection of crippled and/or insane humanoids, giving the players a chance to learn some stuff about Torog that will come in handy when they go to the Chamber of Eyes (including recognizing the symbol on the door).

Bersk gets swapped out for a scarred human that just goes by Scuttle. Scuttle's Den serves as a stable of sorts, selling riding spiders and lizards, as well as wagons. He does not rent, because it is way too easy for someone to just run off with his goods (and all those demihumans look alike). He is assisted by a bugbear, and they also sell poisons, spidersilk rope, and antitoxins under the table.

I got rid of all general stores and replaced it with a bazaar, though the Grimmerzhul outpost and Gendar's are still there. Here players can interact with more unusual creatures like drow, gargoyles, troglodytes, alongside humans, dwarves, goliaths, and minotaurs. Though most of them are a bit more personable than usual, the main reason they are kept in check are the bronze warders (the Mages can control way more than one).

That is it for part 1. I think I covered all the major stuff in the Hall. I changed the plot concerning the Mages and what they are up to, and will get into that in a later update. The next post will be about the Chamber of Eyes.

Ninja-Assassin

2011-10-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

No, not the craptacular movie, but something of actual merit. Since I have been extensively playing D&D since 2nd Edition I have read plenty of articles on ninjas, ninja-like things, and their place in the D&D world so I'm basically skipping to the crunchy parts. Unfortunately there are only six new powers, two new magic items, and a new weapon (fortunately it was already easy to make a ninja, even before the article was considered):

Ninja-to Rush (level 1 at-will): "Ninja-to" in this case is a short sword. It is a straightforward attack that can be used while charging, and you gain combat advantage if you jumped, fell, or flew on the turn you use it.
Poisonous Shuriken (level 1 at-will): While you do not add your Dex modifier to the damage roll, you can attack 1-3 creatures. Another good part is that if you use poison, it applies to all of them.
Whirling Kusari-gama (level 1 at-will): This is a two-parter. The first attack targets Reflex, deals Dex damage, and knocks the target prone. Even better, you can followup with another attack that deals damage (sans your Dex modifier). All in all, very evocative in its execution.
Smoke Bomb (level 2 encounter): This is a rad ability that lets you create a lightly obscured zone all around you after an enemy moves next to you, and then shift your speed. As with whirling kusari-gama, this is a very evocative power.
Feathery Tread (level 6 encounter): You float until the start of your next turn, ignoring difficult terrain and can stand on water.
Veil of a Thousand Faces (level 10 at-will): You create a disguise, and gain a bonus on Bluff checks to avoid detection.
Manual of Ninjutsu (level 3+ uncommon): Basically a ki-focus with brutal 1 when you use assassin strike. Higher level ones let you reroll lower numbers.
The ineffable Secret of Death (level 15+ rare): For an opener the crit dice are upped to d10s, and it deals bonus necrotic damage against anything you have combat advantage against. One daily power lets you maximize you assassin strike damage against a bloodied target, while the other lets you target the lowest defense on the target. Finally, an encounter powerlets you turn insubstantial and gain phasing after dropping someone. Very sweet.
Kusari-gama: A flail/light blade that deals 1d8/1d6 damage, with the defensive, reach, and off-hand properties.

Its a nice article that makes we really want to run something using Oriental Adventures. Really looking forward to that runepriest article, now.

Lair Assault Gameplay Thread

2011-10-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

So the first play-by-post Lair Assault game is going on, and if you want you can follow along here. Props to Perico for the interactive Google doc, which is making things WAAAY easier.

Keep on the Shadowfell Notes

2011-10-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm running this thrice-damned adventure module again, and I recall sometime last year someone read my session reports and actually wanted some compiled notes on the changes I made. Well I did just that, and you can get them--along with some custom monsters for Adventure Tools--here. Just a warning, this is not a completely independent adventure. It does not even have maps. It is really a bunch of notes that I formatted so that it is easier to read and hopefully help you make the adventure better...assuming anyone actually still tries to run it. On that note, hopefully this group actually finishes it and sticks around long enough to venture into Thunderspire Labyrinth, which I also fully intend to convert into something more structured and, well, fun.

The Wee Folk

2011-10-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Pixie stats are up, ready for you to use under the assumption that you are not entirely reliant on Character Builder. The ability score spread came out as expected--though I could also have seen Wisdom instead of Intelligence, if for no other reason than to make them good at primal classes--but I had assumed that since 3rd Edition pixies were Small that they would follow suit, but these guys are literally Tiny. As we had been told, they can fly but have an altitude limit of 1, get a racial bonus to Nature and Stealth, can "communicate with natural and fey beasts", have a reach of 1 instead of 0, take a -5 to break things, and get two racial powers; pixie dust and shrink.

Pixie dust lets them channel some Peter Pan, allowing one ally within 5 squares to fly as a free action (happy thoughts are optional). It is a nice little leader-type ability, though it takes a Move action to use. On the other hand, shrink seems to be best suited for allowing a pixie to arm herself with whatever loot the party finds, without having to fallback to a ritual in order to get it properly sized...or have the DM start populating dungeons with Tiny magic items. However, since it works on any unattended object "sized for a Medium or Small creature", it will be fun to see what types of creative uses the players will come up with. If the pixie is not carrying it around, the effect wears off during the next extended rest, but that is plenty of time for a pixie to sneak around and shrink the bad guy's weapons, armor, and/or plot devices.

This is a nifty looking experimental race in that it is both Tiny and can fly right out of the gate. There is a 30+ thread on the forums where people are "discussing" whether or not it is too good, and while the pixie can simply fly over difficult terrain, and avoid some traps and hazards, I really do not see how it would be game breaking. Unless of course none of your encounters feature monsters with ranged attacks, and there are lots of terrain features that they can safely perch on. However looking back on my rendition of Keep on the Shadowfell, the pixie's flight would not have kept in safe in any encounter, even the ones without artillery. At best it would have been able to avoid the difficult terrain (not that other characters cannot simply walk around).

My Friday grouped joked about trying out an all pixie party for a delve-night, and if we do go through with it I somehow doubt that it is going to be remarkably easier.

A Closer Look

2011-10-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Quick side tangent: has anyone tried taking a page from Gamma World, giving D&D characters 2-3 set ability scores and rolling the rest? For example, for a heavy blade fighter might have a Strength of 18 and Dexterity of 16--before bonuses--and rolling the others. This could create some odd results, with a fighter or paladin having a really high Intelligence (and thereby making them better suited for some multiclassing), but also have more than one below average ability score. Anyway, just some food for thought.

In the comments section of this post, Gerald asks that I go back and post something in regards to how I might "develop and improve" the system which currently exists. While I cannot say for certainty that I can improve it (probably not), I will try to explain in better detail why I do not like Cook's concept, and what I might do differently to make it better in my opinion. First, let us compare how Passive Perception works now, and how Cook's concept changes it.

Currently if a player wants to try and notice something, she makes a Perception check, and if the result meets or beats the DC, she notices it. Characters automatically notice stuff that their Passive Perception meets or beats.

Cook's pitch as, I understand it, works as follows:

The DM assigns a rank to something like, say, a hidden passage, and the rank to find it is 3. If a player's rank is higher than 3, they notice it automatically. If it is 3, then they have to roll to see if they can find it. If it is less than 3 then they cannot normally find it unless they interact with the object. Where I am a little fuzzy on the details is whether a player with a Perception rank of 2 can get away with specifying that they want to check the statue for hidden passages, thereby lowering the rank to a 2 (and allowing the a roll), or if they need to describe how they are interacting with it; pushing, checking for scratches or seams, wiggling the teeth, etc.

As I said before, the main difference is that Cook essentially gives the characters a bonus for describing how they interact or search something, though his theory is that it will encourage players to interact with stuff rather than just say, "I'm looking for hidden passages," and making a roll.

However it is really just another form of system mastery, which given his track record is not surprising to me. Players are going to very logically compile a routine that they will go through whenever they encounter a statue, door, look for a hidden passage, etc. From a narrative point it makes perfect sense: a party of professional grave robbers is going to have a routine that they will go through, so it becomes less interacting with the environment so much as taking time to go through a list of procedures. And when the players start a new campaign, what then? Do you allow the players to just toss the list at you again, or do you make them pretend to not know what to do, like how some DMs try and force players to not act on knowledge for classic monsters like trolls, mind flayers, beholders, and the like?

Talk of fleeting system master aside, Cook's idea of "Zorking" the terrain can work in the current system by simply adding guidelines for giving characters a bonus on their skill checks for describing their actions and hitting the right notes; there is no need to restructure the rules to change from a numerical bonus--which has the added benefit of granularity--to ranks. Basically the only meaningful thing his concept adds is the possibility that players might go into more detail when making a skill check.

So getting around to what Gerald asked me to do in the first place, what would I do were I in charge of it (or at least trying to pitch ideas at WotC)? Currently I do not feel that the system needs changing or improvement. It does what it is supposed to do, does it well, and follows the basic concept from other games I have seen.

I guess if I had to think of something I would give characters a bonus for having certain backgrounds or training in relevant skills? For example, characters trained in Dungeoneering might get a bonus on noticing secret doors in structures, while characters with Nature might get a bonus on Heal checks in the wilderness. Makes sense and might help avoid skill-spamming, where all the characters just try using Aid Another without care for what the bonus or penalty is--though to avoid this I always tell my players that if they try Aid Another and it fails, that they instead impose a -2 penalty.

Legends & Lore: Magic & Mystery

2011-10-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Sigh...I guess I'll just take it from the top...

What I can gather is that Cook wants to remove magic items from character advancement altogether, rewarding characters with better loot for tackling harder shit, and "re-injecting the magic back into magic". While I can get behind this mission statement you can already resolve the first two "issues" using current rules in 4th Edition thanks to inherent bonuses, and a DM being able to place whichever monsters and magic items that she wants. Nothing he is saying is exactly new or innovative, and like many others makes me wonder if he has even read about the game that he is writing articles about. There is however a problem with how he wants to solve this problem:

His example cites a 4th-level character packing a +3 sword, with the understanding that if a character is smart and/or lucky enough, that she could feasibly get one and be better off for it. Since generally campaigns--whether adventure paths or episodic--involve the DM planning stuff with a rough challenge level and treasure already in mind, this is something that I guess I could see happening in a non-structured sandbox game where the players could hear about monsters and explore them at their leisure, though it does carry some problems:

The first is that if I am running a campaign and the characters hear about a dungeon or something with monsters consistently higher than they are, and still try to tackle it that they are most likely going to die. Maybe not in the first encounter, and maybe not in the second, but once they start running out of resources (or run into a bout of bad luck) if I do not start pulling punches then I could easily be out a party, or forced to find some contrived way to keep them alive.

The second is that if they succeed, then I either have to find some way to try and balance the encounters so that the guy with the good loot is challenged without making it impossible for anyone else to contribute, or run things business as usual, making things much easier for her (basically 3rd Edition Syndrome all over again). Here is a fun fact: if you want to reward your characters with better items than their level would indicate without drastically altering game balance, you can always use the rarity and artifact rules, which yet again already exist.

As for the mystery of magic items, he claims that this was lost in later editions--ie, 3rd and 4th--both because magic items are "expected" and because players can buy whatever the hell they want (though the rarity system introduced last year prevents you from buying uncommon and rare items).

This is one of many arguments that detractors of 4th Edition have made in the past, and it makes me wonder what version of D&D they played before: ever since 2nd Edition at least, magic items and spells have always had clearly defined effects, which more often than not could be gleaned through a simple identify spell (though 4th Edition made it easier with an Arcana check). However as one forum-goer put it, there are plenty of examples from mythology of clear-cut magic and magic items, so I am not sure they were ever very mysterious.

In a nutshell, everything that Cook proposes can be handled using the rules you already own, and if this was not disappointing enough he wraps up things with a very black and white poll: why does it have to be something that is decided by either the DM or the player? It does not. There is nothing wrong with players being able to buy some things and craft others, while still leaving the DM with some control.

The Heirs of Ruin, Play Report 8

2011-09-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

The characters arrived at South Ledopolos and met with the Stoneblood clan to inform them about the fate of Baranus. They buried his bones and held a wake, telling stories and drinking drinks the likes of which could even get a dwarf drunk. Branor asked about any legends concerning the purported city to the west, and got some stock-legend tropes about it once being a great dwarf city that was destroyed during a great war. If nothing else, it reinforced the fact that something was out there. Maximus met with a former war buddy of his, who--after hearing about him being tried with treason, the murdered family, and having to flee Balic--offered him a job cleaning gith out of a cave that he strongly suspected contained silver.

Seeing as they were preparing a trip to the Giant's Rib Mountains, he figured that extra coin couldn't hurt.

The next day after their hangovers were cured they set out for the nearby hills, but quickly got caught in a sandstorm. While waiting it out they saw would could only be described as a massive chunk of ground drift overhead, and though the storm soon ended they were quickly spotted by foraging jhakars. They killed the jhakars and scavenged them for survival days before pressing on. After another hour of climbing--or teleporting in the case of the shardmind--they found a cave entrance sealed by a boulder, with a strange symbol painted on it. Being seasoned ~~grave robbers~~ adventurers, they moved the boulder and soon realized from the smell that it was a tomb containing a trio of gith mummies.

Though their touch prevented Maximus from healing Branor--who was toe-to-toe with all three of them--they were able to rapidly destroy them, and once they got it down to one Sardis just marked it with her aegis and kept away, making it very difficult to land any additional hits. Later I realized that I had intended them for a party of three, and with five people I really should have added a fourth. Oh well, easy 750 XP for them. My main regret is that no one contracted mummy rot.

Living Spell Six-Pack

2011-09-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you with a DDI subscription that also want more monsters--specifically living spells--I have uploaded six heroic-tier threats here:

Living magic missile
Living magic missile mote
Living magic missile salvo
Living storm pillar
Living acid mire
Living fireball

A Matter of Perception

2011-09-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

Cook's Legend & Lore debut involves him essentially recreating the Passive Perception wheel, ie the system we have now, except that instead of using Passive Perception as-is with numerical DCs he proposes a rank system (novice, journeyman, expert, etc). That is it, and it just feels like he is arguing semantics. The fact that the rules for Passive Perception have existed for years, including in part in 3rd Edition's take 10 rule, has lead some to believe that perhaps Cook was trying to make a (bad) joke.

Currently if a character's Passive Perception meets or beats the DC to find something, then they notice it. Easy. Otherwise they can declare that they are searching a room and make an actual roll, giving them the chance to find something that a cursory examination missed. You can adjust DCs up and down to account for player actions and methods, or even for having other trained skills (for example, you might consider giving a character a bonus on Perception checks to find hidden doors if they are also trained in Dungeoneering).

Cook's system gives things a rank, which is used to determine if characters automatically succeed, have to make a roll, or just cannot succeed. The difference between the trained and untrained characters is that a rank that you cannot succeed at can be rolled against, and one that requires rolling is an auto-pass. Additionally players can describe their actions and methods, potentially reducing the rank, which can give a character that otherwise could not roll a roll, or a character rolling an auto-pass.

It sounds very similar, but there are some issues that crop up on further examination.

One issue is a lack of granularity. Currently Cook cites only five labels, while DCs can be any number you like. This allows you much better control over fine-tuning a DC, as well as the modifiers that items and circumstances provide, as opposed to simply saying that you pass, can roll, or are fucked. It also vastly increases the opportunities characters have at succeeding at tasks, even if the odds are stacked against them, without having to resort to "Zorking" or pixel-bitching.

I do not want my players to have to result to zorking just because they lack a sufficient rank to make a roll to try and succeed at something. Cook uses a statue as an example of this method, describing a situation where a player can ask if the teeth can be moved in order to "make the impossible possible", and honestly the only difference I see between allowing a roll by default and requiring them to ask me 20 questions in order to get a roll is wasted time.

Cook claims that this method will avoid the purported issue of players assuming that a low roll--or the DM rolling in general--means that they must have overlooked something and trying to rationalize another roll or continuing to muck about anyway, but I do not think it will change anything; if the DM simply tells them that they do not find anything, it could be that it was an auto-pass or auto-fail, and if they have to roll they could still jump to the same conclusions.

I do not need to have labels. If I want--or need--the players to succeed, then I can just make the DC really low, or better yet, not require a roll at all. Sometimes I even allow characters to automatically succeed on some skill checks if they are trained in the skill (something I saw in an adventure that I cannot remember). If I for some reason want to peg it at an area where only some characters can auto-succeed, I can make it so that the DC can be passed on a low number, even a 1. I think that really the only thing I can not do (or at least not easily/reliably do) is generate a DC that untrained characters just cannot pass, while trained characters can still roll; there almost always seems to be a slim chance that even untrained characters can succeed.

Cook's proposed "changes" to the skill system seems to hinder more than it helps, and again I think it is important to note that you can easily do what Cook is "suggesting" using the current system without giving it an overhaul: just give out bonuses to the character if they suggest something clever, which is something that DMs honestly should have already been doing.

The Heirs of Ruin: Broken Bonds Adventure

2011-09-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

The compiled and organized notes for the first adventure from my home campaign, The Heirs of Ruin, can be found here.

The belgoi commands it.

Temple of the Weeping Goddess Review

2011-09-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Temple of the Weeping Goddess is a short, 0-level adventure intended to give you both an example and opportunity to use the 0-level character optional rules from this month's Unearthed Arcana article. The characters play orphaned teenagers that are sent into the Elemental Chaos to free a trapped aspect of Avandra.

Yes, that is right, kids are being send into the Elemental Chaos. At first I was both surprised and excited to see that most of this adventure takes place in the traditional extraplanar paragon-to-epic tier stomping ground, not only in the heroic tier, but without a level (or class) to your name, but both feelings quickly faded as I continued to read the adventure.

SPOILERS

Basically, the adventure opens up with the characters stealing some loot from actual adventurers off camera, utilizing a skill challenge to ideally escape without getting the hit points beat out of you (keeping the treasure even if you do). Once that gets wrapped up everyone heads back to the orphanage, where your caretaker does a big reveal in which he explains the true purpose of founding the orphanage in the first place; round up a bunch of kids to toss into the Elemental Chaos to do a job for him because he is "too physically weak". In the very likely instance that the players ask why the hell wouldn't he hire people with encounter and/or daily powers, he dismisses this with the idea that kids might have a better chance of talking to Avandra's aspect.

Okay...so the hook is pretty damned weak but hey, Elemental Chaos bitches, let's do this!

Weeell...the temple is a partially collapsed structure on a perfectly serviceable chunk of earth. So...the caretaker cannot travel here on his own because he is too old, despite the fact that it is all level terrain? If he can get up stairs, then he can walk around whatever puddles or collapsed statues that amount to difficult terrain, here. The lack of an Elemental Chaos feel could be covered up by the use of native fauna, but the only monsters to be found here are goblin pirates that got sucked into a vortex and survived, a handful of elementals, and some undead that are for some reason hanging out with Avandra's aspect. Basically a 1st-level, stock-standard bestiary that can be found in most adventures (and a mid-level cleric could potentially solo given a few days).

Really, this entire thing could take place in the natural world and you would not have to change much except for how the characters get there. Hell, drop it on an earthmote in Forgotten Realms and see if anyone notices. The actual dungeon has a lot of little things for the characters to find that can help them out later, such as an alternative exit when they have to flee, and inscriptions that give them bonuses when dealing with the aspect. I also liked that the NPCs had their own sections for their goals, motivations, fears, weaknesses, and more. These will go a long way to giving DMs a solid foundation for how to work with the NPC.

This adventure reminds me of Keep on the Shadowfell in that while you could run it as written, it both lacks the feel that I was expecting and there is just enough there to make it work if you are willing to put in the time and effort to re-work almost all of it.

For example, why not have the characters figure out that Denek is seeking the goddess themselves? Instead of running from a bunch of adventurers that they somehow conned out of a lot of money (yet do not retrieve it if they get caught), have them discover a secret room or underground archive and stumble upon the ritual necessary to open the portal to the Elemental Chaos themselves. There could have been some extensive social roleplaying going on here, and the players could have taken their own initiative to help out someone who for years had been like a father to them. Hell, have him go into the portal and have the rest of the characters follow him to see what he is up to.

I understand that there could be a time crunch on this whole thing, but he could still have divulged his desires to a character trained in Arcana or Religion under the assumption that such a skill character (or characters) could help him out from time to time. If none of that panned out, then I guess you could still stick with the original hook of an orphan caretaker looking for "exceptional people" to send into the Elemental-fucking-Chaos for a stroll. Even if you have to stick with the original hook, that still does not excuse...

Goblins.

Why did it have to be goblins? If I sent my players to the Elemental Chaos or Astral Sea and threw goblins, orcs, gnolls, hobgoblins, or really anything short of elementals, angels, or demons they would paddle my ass with all of my Monster Manuals while forcing me to walk on four-siders. It would be like the nerdiest pledge initiation in history. The author could have de-leveled some elementals or demons and thrown those at the zeroes, but since these are supposed to be teenagers it is not like you would have to have them fight and kill a threat in one encounter; it could be a recurring thing like Nemesis from Resident Evil or handled with an ongoing skill challenge. Of course sticking to critters that you would expect to find in the Elemental Chaos is a good start, but having everything take place on level terrain seems like half-assing it. This is why...

The "dungeon" should not be a two-story temple on a level island that has weathered the Elemental Chaos for decades.

When I think of a ruined template drifting through the Elemental Chaos, I think of a weathered chunk of rock with a shattered ruin that barely perches on it. Chunks of the building and debris orbit around the whole thing, and perhaps a geyser of flame constantly shoots a spiral of slowly flowing lava out into the plane (could be a terrain feature during a fight, could be just for looks). Rocks could collide with the temple during an encounter or during a skill challenge, or be part of the terrain during a fight (like mobile, floating platforms). It is the Elemental Chaos; fuck physics and go wild with the scenery. At this level it should be the dungeon equivalent of being able to witnessing a supernova, except that you get to explore it.

And when the players finally got to Avandra? Instead of undead, why not have a bunch of angels guarding her, weakened from years of being disconnected from the Astral Sea (explaining their level 1-ness)? There could also be a demon in the mix somewhere, perhaps trying to destroy Avandra's aspect or trapped, and something the characters do frees it or allows it to get to her (and they get a chance to help defeat it).

The adventure I was hoping for is nowhere close to the one I got, and the one I got both feels like that the Elemental Chaos was tacked on for an entirely unnecessary reason (ie, because), and does almost nothing to showcase it. I really cannot recommend this adventure except as a training exercise to give the 0-level character rules a routine try.

Adventure Tools Lets You Build Monsters Now

2011-09-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

It looks and builds like Character Builder, but for monsters. To give you a thorough look, I'll go mostly step by step through the process of updating a monster.

You start out by picking the role and whether the monster is a standard, elite, solo, or minion. A radio button at the bottom lets you toggle the leader sub-role.

Then you can name your monster and determine its level, origin, type, and race and keywords (if any). In this case, our raggamoffyn is a Small natural animate with the blind and construct keywords.

The default values for hit points and defenses are already filled in, but you can fine-tune them as before. When entering new movement types, you can select the drop down menu to adjust the speed and add details like "(hover)" to fly or a range on different senses.

When choosing powers attacks automatically got set as Standard actions, while utilities seem to get set to Minor. I have already created slam as a basic melee, but let us take a closer look at the menus.

This is what the power editor normally looks like. If you want to add in details like range and targets, you have to choose Power Body on the left-hand side...

Which looks like this. This is kind of annoying that I have to go to another section to add what are often routine details, but whatever.

Skills is fairly spartan and straightforward. I have added Stealth, making it more likely that the raggamoffyn will get the jump on characters.

Finally we wrap things up with ability scores, alignment, languages, and gear.

And voila, we have a new monster ready to challenge (or embarrass) your players.