A big thumbs up to the developer(s) of the program.

Defenses on custom monsters are invariably screwed up.  Typically if you have NO modified defenses on a creature that you import from the MB then you’ll get the right AC.  FRW though will typically be broken and broken on the high side like +3 to +6.  If you’ve modified defenses down very far then you’ll see a corresponding increase on the + side of FRW.  So if you have for example FRW lowered by 5 in the Monster Builder you’ll find F up by 5 and RW +11 in Masterplan.

You can fix this in MP by going in and modifying your monsters manually until there author gets a fix out.

My apologies to my players for not noticing this earlier.  Luckily for them I’ve only run two sessions using MP at this time and it really only drastically impacted two encounters.

D

I use the Monster Builder to create the player’s foes and then use the Export as Rich Text in the app to get the data.  I paste that into a page in MS Word where it looks all nice and neat.  Unfortunately the monster colors are far from printer friendly (massive green, well cyan and magenta, ink usage) and they’re not all that legible when printed.   It’s impossible to apply a theme to them due their oddities in format so I came up with this macro to strip out all the coloring and set the text all to black.  Now they’re very printer (and eye) friendly.

Sub RemoveShading()
‘
‘ RemoveShading Macro
‘
‘
With Selection.ParagraphFormat.Shading
.Texture = wdTextureNone
.ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
.BackgroundPatternColor = -603914241
End With

Selection.Font.Color = -587137025
With Selection.Cells
With .Shading
.Texture = wdTextureNone
.ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
.BackgroundPatternColor = -603914241
End With
End With

End Sub

[Edit: Per a reader's comments this is a take on the Taint system from Heroes of Horror, a DnD 3.5 supplemental book.  Thanks for the info!]

The base premise is the characters are exposed to something or do something that ‘bends’ them mentally and or physically.  This can range from pyschosis to turning bestial and many other things. Â  Perhaps wandering the streets of Darkmith and the aura of evil and power that envelops that city might plant a seed of evil in someone.  Or maybe the touch of Liloth’s powers driving one to stab a companion in the throat might leave lingering inclinations to repeat the action unforced.

We will see.

A few snippets from the pdf although a quick perusal shows some missing entries and some small typo’s that could be fixed as well as generalized overhaul to fit my personal needs.

The Touch of Taint
Characters in the Vale that venture into the dark places of the world, or dabble in the waters of evil, run the risk of their minds and bodies becoming poisoned by taint. Mental taint, or depravity, can eventually send one mad, where physical taint, or corruption, can transform a living being into an undead horror.

Acquiring Taint
“Sometimes one’s soul can be filled with evil because of the evil of their actions. Sometimes all it takes is for one to pick up the wrong book…”

Committing acts of unspeakable evil
In cultures throughout the typical D&D setting certain acts earn universal condemnation amongst races and peoples with even the slightest moral code: murder, torture, genocide, and rape as well as fouler acts warp the mind of those committing them and result in the offending character gaining depravity.

This does not represent external evil creeping into the character’s mind, but rather represents the wearing away of one’s moral compass as characters begin to treat others as pawns and toys rather than as individual creatures worthy of respect. Even characters that describe themselves as “hardened” or “jaded” are not immune to gaining depravity in this fashion; indeed, one could argue that being extremely hardened to or jaded about the suffering of others is a sign of one gaining depravity.

Exposure to areas warped by evil
Whether due to the presence of demons, foul creatures from the Far Realms, or simply areas forever marred by evil of a less supernatural variety (such as the execution of an innocent man by a corrupt court, or the shack where a serial killer went to hide his “conquests”) can result in character’s gaining corruption through no fault of their own.

Typically, there are only certain areas in the blighted zone that bestow corruption (the area around the altar where innocents were sacrificed to dread gods), but in the cases of extreme blights, every square foot of the area might potentially bestow corruption. This corruption is typically applied to a character after a certain length of time and isaccompanied by a feeling of instinctive disgust that warn both the player and his or her character that it would be wise to spend as little time in the location as possible.

Certain sanity-rending locations that warp the minds of those who travel through them, like an area tainted by the energies of the Far Realm might very well bestow depravity instead as character’s minds break under the strain of sights alien to any sane man or woman.

Exposure to dread items
While tools and weapons both magical and mundane have no moral significance in and of themselves, the uses they are put to or the techniques used in their creation can sometimes result in them being a vessel of corruption or depravity.

A blade carved from the bones of a whimpering slave carries with it an imprint of the suffering of the one who “donated” the material for the blade and might whisper words of condemnation and hatred to a character who chooses to carry it, slowly increasing his or her depravity. A weapon wielded by a demonic general or an unknowable Far Realm entity might have acquired some of its master’s inhuman corruption, and might plague a wielder with disgusting growths. Then of course, there are weapons and other items specifically crafted by mad cultists or vindictive spell casters that slowly drive their wielders insane with lust for power, or that cause them to rot from the inside out.

Mental Condition –

Treacherous
Foul whispers cloud your mind with images of what you could receive if you struck your companions down. Once per encounter when an ally leaves a space that you threaten, the DM may choose to roll an attack with an attack bonus of your level +3 vs. the will defence of your character to represent the urge to take an opportunity to strike. If the attack is successful, you must make an opportunity attack against your ally. The upside is that your treacherous leanings make it easier to stab others in the back-you gain a +2 bonus to damage against creatures that you have combat advantage against.

Physical Condition

Internal Corruption (Ranked, maximum 3)

Your body is slowly consumed from the inside out by the corruption growing within you. While others cannot see it, it’s effects are all too obvious-for each level of this symptom taken you regain 2 fewer hit points from a second wind and take a -1 penalty to endurance checks. However, the festering growths within your body make you unappetizing to creatures that might otherwise want to make a meal out of you. If a living creature makes a bite attack against you that deals damage, it takes a -1 penalty to all attack rolls and skill checks for each time you have selected this symptom, until the end of its next turn.

Image Credits

I cut out 1″ square foam core pieces, well technically slightly less than 1″ square.  I also cut out 1″ pieces of the flexible magnetic strip.  I cut the sticks into 4″ long pieces.  Using an x-acto knife I cut a small hole in one corner of the foam core and glued a stick into it.  Once those were all dry I peeled and stuck the magnet bits to the bottom.  I have magnetic receptive game mats.

Using photoshop I made some number flags and some condition flags.  The numbered flags were glued directly to the sticks.  THe condition flags were glued to small pieces of drinking straws.

Now during play I can park a NPC on top of one of the flag bases and can easily see what number it is for the purposes of record tracking and announcing. Â  In addition as an NPC gets a condition I can drop a reminder on it.  By dropping them upside I can designate they go away at the end of the turn (turned over) or if they’re right side up they’re a Save Ends.  I made the status flags pretty generic without numbers because frankly having a marker for every freakin’ option is just too much.  +X ongoing, -X to AC (F/R/W), Save Ends, End of Next Turn, etc and so on. The status markers are just visual reminders when a creature has something odd about it.

If you’re mini’s also have magnets on the bottom of them then they all stick together quite well and you can use the status stand to move them around pretty easily.  Otherwise you just have to be careful when you pick them up to avoid the mini from falling off.

Anyway for $10 or so I made 25 of these with a ton of material left over.

Barring dungeon crawls I don’t really do trivial encounters, that long progression of ‘gimmie’ fights that a DM puts a party through to do a slow drain on their resources to soften them up for the BBEG encounter at the end of the work day.  I certainly run multiple fights in one work day but typically they’re not quantified as ‘trivial’.  Each one has a chance to result in death for someone other than the NPC’s.

Let’s face it, the vast majority of us have limited play time and expending that playtime in fights that are ‘gimmies’ seems wasteful.  Many of these single type encounters can be done using Narrative rather than combat.  But there are times that you do need to show the wear and tear on the group as they go through a long series of encounters but breaking out the mini’s for each one just eats horribly into the time you have to play.

Lately I’ve been using skill challenges to drain surges from the group to simulate small but pointless fights as they flee pursuit through the swamps or try to hide from the hobgoblin tribes while making their way home. Â  But those seem rather flat.

So I’m considering something more combat encounter based and let the party use their combat values against some defensive value, kind of an abstract combat.

The key question is how, I like the 3 rounds and you’re out system I use for skill challenges (duh or I wouldn’t use it right?) rather than the three strikes and you’re out that is the official system. And right now three rounds of combat are close to typical for the group at the level it’s at and seems like a good place to start.

So primarily how to abstract something as tactical as 4th Edition combat is the big question.  I need to work in a way for the players to gain some benefit from the various level of powers, at-wills, encounters and dailies with the understanding that a daily used during an abstract combat encounter is a daily they will not have during that work day.  And we need a simplistic way to simulate buffage.

So my thinking is on any of the three rounds the players can elect to use an At-Will (base), Encounter (bonus), Daily (bigger bonus).  They will take their Attack value for that power, added the bonus for encounter/daily, and then roll against an abstract defense of their opponents.  This isn’t so much to abstract their ability to hit as it is to abstract their ability to do damage.  Encounters and Dailies = more damage output.

Enough failures and they will be forced to expend a surge for each round. Â  So the most they can cost themselves is 3(4) surges per A.C.E. which isn’t out of line with a trivial encounter.

But we also need a way to more equitably spread out the surges lost.  As we all know barring really hard fights it’s typical for some (defenders) to go through an asston of surges while classes that can remain out of harms way might spend none.

So as a first draft let’s see how this flies -

Abstract Combat Encounter System or ACES

Purpose:

To simulate resource drain for a fight the party is expected to win without much risk but without having to take the time to move to a tactical simulation.

Procedure:

The party will negotiate 3 rounds of abstract combat.  In each round each member of the party will pick one of the following, At-Will, Encounter, or Daily.  They will roll a d20, compute their attack roll and compare it to the appropriate DC for the encounter using the AC/F/R/W values as set by the DM.

On any round that there failed rolls are equal to or less than successes the members of the party will lose one surge.

On any encounter that the party does not garner at least one success they will be penalized an additional surge.

Details:

Characters /Attacks -

During each of the ACES rounds each member of the party will choose one of their powers to use.  If the power is an attack power that targets a defense, the character must roll against the appropriate DC/Defense as set by the DM.

If the power also enhances another member of the party then the player may grant/add a +2 bonus to another character’s roll using the Aid Other rules.  If the power does not make an attack against an AC/F/R/W attack but it grants a benefit to another character then the player rolls against a DC+encounter level.  If they succeed then it counts as a success and grants a +2 bonus to the other character’s roll.  [NOTE: Yes this grants higher 'value' to non-strikers in general but what the hell let's give them a time to shine.]

If the power is not an At-Will the character receives the following bonuses where appropriate:

• Encounter +5 to attack roll / Additional +2 bonus Aid Other.
• Daily +10 to attack roll / Additional +4 bonus Aid Other.

Monsters / Defenses / DCs –

The DM will determine the defenses / DC’s of the encounter using the average AC, Fortitude, Reflex, Willpower of the encounter creatures.  You can also use the following values as an overall average across all monster types

• AC = 14+Encounter Level
• F/R/W = 12+Encounter Level

All encounters are assumed to be at the Easy level.  If you wish to simulate a normal or harder fight then add +2 per increase in difficulty that you wish to portray.

Experience / Loot-

The party will earn loot for the encounter just like they would have if it had been played out tactically.

They will earn full experience of the encounter divided by 3 multiplied by the number of rounds they succeeded at with a minimum of 33%, even failure teaches us something.  i.e. if they only succeeded on two rounds then they get 2*33% or 66%.

If they win two out of three rounds they’ll also typically earn some mundane items of value.  By winnign three out of three rounds they’ll also earn some items of higher value or items of a magical nature.

Sacrifice –

One per encounter a character can elect to sacrifice a surge and take one for another member. Â  More than one character can sacrifice for a member but each character can only sacrifice once per encounter.

Major Failure / Death-

If the group fails all three rounds then one player determined randomly is assigned a Death Strike which counts toward their three death strikes for the day and as such can only be removed after an extended rest.

Long Term Usage / Wave Attacks -

Sometimes you might want to simulate a lot of minor attacks, wave situations for instance where the party might have to face 5-10-20… etc trivial fights.

In this case you could instead of each encounter being three rounds, you just decide how many rounds per wave you want simulate. Â  Each round rather than once per encounter a player may sacrifice a surge for another player.

If a character runs out of surges they’re considered out of the combat and the remaining characters incur a cumulative -2 penalty per out of commission character on their die rolls to simulate them being forced to ‘take up the slack’.  If all characters are reduced to 0 surges the encounter is considered lost.

High Level Example: Goblin Warrens for Level 1 Party

Setup: The party has been tasked with cleaning out a goblin warren on one of the caravan trails.  The creatures have been causing issues with the caravans, stealing things at night from the strong ones, attack and pillaging smaller ones after driving off or killing the guards.

Attacks against the goblins have proven of little use with only a few killed.  But now the location of the warren where they’re holed up has been found and the party has been sent to insure that one way or another the raids stop.

It’s assumed that trying to deal diplomatically has failed and there’s no point in talking to anyone but the leader of the goblins and the outside chaff won’t talk.

So the DM figures it’ll take 3 minor encounters to get to the inner sanctum of the goblins.  He chooses to do this with ACES to leave time for the big boss fight whether that turns tactical or roleplay.

The first two encounters are truly easy so the DC’s for those are going to be AC: 15, F/R/W 13 as they’re level 1 encounters.  The third one will see the goblin boss throwing in some of his personal bodyguards so he’s going to crank that difficulty up one notch and that fight will be at DC’s of AC: 17, F/R/W 15.

The final boss battle will be played out normally.

Encounter 1 – Party of 5:

• Round 1 – 4 successes – Result: No loss
• Round 2 – 4 successes – Result: No loss
• Round 3 – Only two success – Result: 1 lost surge

Total: 1 surge lost.  The paladin elects to sacrifice a surge for the cleric and loses two and the cleric loses none.  Experience gained equals 66% of the total.

Encounter 2:

1. Round 1 – 3 successes – Result: No loss
2. Round 2 – 4 successes – Result: No loss
3. Round 3 – 5 successes – Result: No loss

Total: No additonal surges lost. Full experience gained.

Encounter 3:

1. Round 1 – 2 successes – Result: 1 lost surge
2. Round 2 – 2 successes – Result: 1 lost surge
3. Round 3 – 3 successes – Result : No Loss

Total: 2 additional lost surges per party member.  The fighter sacrifices for the wizard and loses three surges while the wizard only loses 1.  The paladin does the same for the cleric losing three surges and the cleric loses 1. Â  Only 33% of the encounter experience gained.

ACES results –

• Wizard – Down 2 surges
• Paladin – Down 5 surges
• Fighter – Down 4 surges
• Cleric – Down 1 surge
• Ranger – Down 3 surges

Comments? Thoughts?

Image Credits

Given I’ve got an artificer and they’re going to be searching for artificer type things something like this might actually find a way into their hands.  Given the secrets of the powder manufacture is currently lost it’s a automatically self limited resource.

Obviously the superior ones would require a feat for all to pick up and use well and the martial ones would require a feat for most.

Image Credits

Original idea presented by DMEric on the official WOTC forums -

The goal of my firearms was to make ones that had a historical basis, but presented an interesting option to players as opposed to either an overpowered “must have” item or a slow loading piece of junk outclassed by bows. The martial level of items represent what, stat wise, amounts to a martial level crossbow. The superior level ones are essentially a superior version of the Repeating Crossbow.

Blackpowder is a rare and “expensive” item from the perspective of a peasant(or lord trying to outfit an entire army), but still trivial to any adventurer past the earliest levels, or very well funded mercenaries, pirates, etc.

My firearms come in two varieties, Martial and Superior. I haven’t designed feats yet, but I think in all likelihood they will just share feats with crossbows, since they are used in a similar manner.

Martial Firearms use breech loading mechanisms (they are loaded from the rear- either from the side sort of like a bolt action rifle or from behind like an old style shotgun), and they use paper cartridges with minnie balls. A minnie ball is a special type of bullet that when fired expands slightly to grip the rifling, allowing one to load the weapon at the speed of a musket, but fire with the accuracy of a rifle. (Historically, the difference was that rifles had “rifling”, tiny ridges that spin the bullet, inside the barrel, while muskets were smoothbore. However, rifles took a much longer time to load than muskets since the bullet had to be very carefully seated inside the barrel w/ a rifle, while muskets could use paper cartridges and just be quickly jammed in.)

• • Pistol  +2  d8 5/10   50gp   2lbs Firearm  Load Minor/High Crit
  • Musket  +2 d10 15/30  75gp 4lbs Firearms Load Minor/High Crit

Superior Firearms are special weapons based on the designs of the famed artificer,Vicento Leorezzi. These weapons, while using a smaller bullet, utilize magazines preloaded with primer, cartridge, and shot, allowing the user to reload the weapon from the magazine by way of the weapon’s finely tuned internal clockwork mechanism. In addition, the improved barrel design alows for accurate fire at longer ranges than conventional firearms. Each magazine holds ten shots, costs 3gp, and requires a standard action to remove the spent magazine and load the fresh one.

• • Clockwork Pistol +2 d6 10/20 80gp 2lbs Firearms Load Free*/High Crit
  • Clockwork Rifle +2 d8 20/40 105gp 4lbs Firearms Load Free*/High Crit

You can grab a copy of the monster builder files and a pdf here – [Download not found]

And here’s a basic screenshot of the creature you could print out but it doesn’t include the Animate Trees.  Just grab the download for the PDF.

The basic tactics would entail using the swamp spew on its enemies to weaken them by making them easier to hit, then typically it would summon two animate trees and use the surging wave ability to push creatures away that are trying to get flanking on it while just smashing the crap out of everything that approaches.  It does have a ranged attack as a minor action that it can use where plants near the target lash out at it.  If you use this then I’d recommend you add in some ‘high ground’ for one or two characters, a rock pile where a character can escape the minor attack, that kind of thing.  But its your encounter do with it as you will.

swampwalker

This is just an example of tweaking an existing creature.  I took the Hill Giant which is a level 12 brute, dropped his level in the character builder, reset the damages a bit to nudge him closer to a soldier while keeping the defenses and hit points etc of the brute, and added in a couple of powers as the default Hill Giant would be boring as a boss encounter.  With the other things I’ve got planned for this encounter I think it’ll be a good BBEG level encounter for the group.

You can grab the monster builder file here [Download not found] and an image of the creature below you could print out.

Image Credits

Hill Giant Runt

You can get the Monster Builder files here – [Download not found]

And here’s images of the creature stats that you could print out if you like that kind of thing.

spearguardian

raider

ooze

lackey

gatherer

guard

doan

depthseeker

deadsailors

crabswarm

crab

bolter

bleeder

This thought train this morning was put into motion by the Tattoo’s and Piercing’s article over here.  My first ‘visual’ was one of the demons that escaped from Hell in the TV Show Reaper that had tattoo’s on his body that he could pull off and use.  A tattoo of barbed wire running up his arm became a very nasty garotte, a fire-burst and flame on his neck became a fireball he could throw.

Picture if you will an Assassin tasked with getting close enough to someone, the Duke, the brilliant general of the opposing side, the gray sorcereress who’s keeping the thieves guild from expanding due to threat of extinction, whatever.  She’s going in as an exotic courtesan, a ‘painted lady of the fiery south lands’ where they don’t wear much in the way of clothing but instead decorate their skin with ink.  One of her tattoos might be of a savage beast on her back with the clawed paws coming around to cup her breasts, the tips gleaming in green.  One of those claws when ‘pulled out’ becomes a poisoned weapon to which she’s built up an immunity. Â  She kills the target, stabs herself and lays near death for the guards to find in the morning with some story of some fell shadow assassin that attacked them both. This would require of course some means of preventing Raise Dead, perhaps RD only works when the brain is intact.  Or you could take a page from the Taltos series and certain weapons destroy whatever it is that makes people people and un-revivable.

Anyway, the article is a good read and IMO certainly a viable option if your world supports such things.

Image Credits

Highly recommended for any DM to peruse for use at their table.

There is considerable overlap in some areas with official content, now anyway, but when it was written it was just users filling in the gaps of the original 3 core books.

So while I’m rehashing other news (nothing new there right?) I would like to ensure that this does reach as wide an audience as possible as there’s a lot of work here that deserves to be seen.

Image Credits

This is the first draft and doesn’t include any ‘cursed’ cards.  I’ll most likely make those a separate page definitely and perhaps a separate download completely as they’re not everyone’s cup of tea.  I personally thing good luck should be tempered by bad or it’s not good luck, it’s a given.  So a 1 bad card for every X good card ratio I think would be more pleasing to me but I’m not you so you’ll have to make that decision yourself.

A lot of the cards are set up as Immediate Actions to add a bit of a twist to them since they then compete for the use of the one IA that a character can perform once per round.  You can eliminate that if you want.

You can download the cards here -Player Bonus Cards (82)

If you like them let me know.  I do like feedback.  I just noticed for example that my Quest Card has been downloaded 700+ times and no one’s had any comments on them so I don’t know if it was worth the time to put them up or not.

Also if you have any ideas for similar cards by all means share.

Anyway it’s a campaign planner, has DDI integration, map maker and you can run combats in it and it has the ability to display maps to the players on a second monitor that are not filled in like the DM’s maps. What’s not to like?

And it’s free.  So what do you have to lose?  Go check it out.

This is based on my thoughts on House Rules that are intended to make the game more fun (better hit rate for both sides), less draggy (increased damage), monsters are able to used at a broader range (less work making new ones).

It’s written in dot net so you’ll need dot net installed to run it. I would imagine that if you have the ability to run the Monster Builder then this should work just fine.

No I don’t intend to make it work on a Mac.  Unless you want to give me a Mac to do development on. Then we’ll talk about it.

If it’s not obvious this is a home grown app not designed to be pretty and you’ll see a lot of broken status messages flying through the text window, ignore them.

The file – [Download not found]  [Updated link to version 1.1]

The Read Me -

This app will make certain modifications to *.monster files as exported from the
Wizards of the Coast Adventure Tools Monster Builder application.

Your use of this program is an implicit contract that you will not hold me
responsible for anything it may do down to running away with your cat to
las vegas to get married.

This is designed to help mass facilitate certain fairly common house rules that
people are using.  You can pick and choose which ones you want to try.

To use:

In the Monster Builder, hereafter referred to as MB, export the monsters you
want to ‘house rule’.  For official monsters you’ll have to open them and save
them to get a custom variant.

Run the KOC_Nerfer application.

You can use the Path browse button to select a folder of files to work with or
the File browse button to work with an individual file.

Select the rules you want to implement.  These are designed to be implemented
for both PC and NPC identically.

Remove 1/2 from the creatures defenses.  This helps ‘flatten’ the curve of
monsters and allows for a wider range of usage.

Add 1/2 level to damage.  Helps shorten fights.

Remove 1/2 level from attacks.  This balances the Remove 1/2 level from defenses
and makes no ‘real’ change to the monster as a result.

Change Stuns to Dazes – I dislike stunning powers so I wanted a way to flip them
to dazes.

+/- to level – Does what it implies, boosts the monster level by X.  You have to
be careful with this as some powers in the MB are not based on level but are
hard coded into the text.  But it is a way to quickly drop or increase the level
of a group of monsters.

Multiple HP by .x – Use negative numbers to adust hitpoints downwards and
positive ones to increase it upwards.  -.20 would lower the creatures hit points
by 20%.

Static Attack Bonus – Can be used to boost the attack success rate.  Recommended
that this be applied to both sides obviously.

Tag Name – Let’s you put a suffix on the modified creature.  I use _HR for
instance so I know it’s a House Ruled creature.

After picking your options then hit Process and assuming no malformed monster
files you should get a new set of monster files.  The original files will be
renamed to something.monster.bak just in case.

Now import your new files back into the MB and select either Update Existing
or Create New creature during the process.

Now fold spindle mutilate as needed.

Known Issues -

This requires a properly formated MB file to work.  I haven’t had it fail on
any of the tests but there you go.

When you use the Attack modifier options (remove 1/2 and add static) for some
powers you’ll end up with a number in the text that equates to the modifier.
This is because the powers have keywords in them that my app recognizes as
an attack bonus and changes them even though it’s not a valid attack bonus
node.  I don’t plan on trying to fix that, it’s just not worth the time to me.

Makes for some really good idea fostering since they’re easily ‘consumed’ and aren’t burdened with giant blocks of stats and all that so you can ‘microwave’ them in a minute or two and go “that’s cool” or “meh” without spending a lot of time at it.  Then you can go stat them up into encounters of your own tailoring.

All the listed ones are good but I thought this one in particular would have some really good ‘visuals’ and could be adjusted with custom monsters pretty easily for any level.

Image Credits

XP Encounter Difficulty: Level 7+4
(Used on a level 7 party, but it is a level 11 encounter)

Brief summary: Adult White dragon blasting the snow away from graves awakening the dead.

Area setup: An island in the middle of a icy river with precarious stepping stones. The island has a big graveyard, the graves are covered by snow.

Enemies:
Adult White Dragon Level 9 Solo brute with 20% fewer hp, so award 1600xp
3xChillborn zombie Level 6 Soldier
3xMad Wraith Level 6 Controller

Enemy setup:
The Dragon awakens as the party bicker like hell crossing the river, fights them as they come onto the island. It uses its breath weapon to blast the snow away from some graves awakening the chillborn zombies the following round. It stays flying and uses its breath weapon a few rounds later to awaken the Mad Wraiths in the same way

How it went:
The archer in the party was scouting and noticed the dragon, shot it and started the fight with only two PC’s on the stepping stones. Otherwise it went about as planned. One of the fighter pushed the gravestones over the chillborn zombies as they awakened, slowing them by one round. (I didn’t let them use the aura when they had a gravestone on top of them). The dragon never landed and flew away after getting down to 25% hp.

Actual Difficulty:
The encounter is a little easier than it might seem, as the dragon uses it’s breath weapon to uncover the graves and the undead used some rounds getting up of the graves. Difficulty about as a level 10 encounter. The players used all available dailies.

How well did it work(on a scale of 1-10):
The multiple enemies that had to be handled and the big bad guy made for a very interesting encounter for every character type. The encounter has plenty of suspense and the characters feel threatened but not overwhelmed. I would give it an 8.5.

This involves a group of high school kids getting past the crowds of zombies and into the safety of a shopping mall.  Obviously this is a modern setting but it could just as easily be a beleaguered keep or even just a fortified homestead.  Flavor text is always the DM’s pervue of course.

Anyway pasting it here en masse so I don’t have to go looking if I want to use these ideas.

You can find the original thread here.

Image Credits

Updated version:

Skill Challenge: Getting into the Mall
Complexity: 5 (12 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Diplomacy, Bluff, Stealth, Streetwise
Other Skills: Perception

Victory: The PCs manage to make their way into the mall, without the zombies getting in.

Defeat: The PCs are caught in the full force of the horde and a combat encounter begins immediately.

Acrobatics: Moderate DC (1 Success, no maximum)
The character manages to weave, dodge, or maneuver through the zombies.
Failure: The PC is caught in the middle of the zombies, and they hold him back. He loses one healing surge as they tear at him. Mark a failure.

Knowledge Skills (Arcana/Dungeoneering/Nature/Insight/Religion): Moderate DC DC (0 Sucesses, but provides +2 to next skill check by any PC, failure gives -2 to next skill check)
Your knowledge of Zombie Movies (Arcana), the mall’s inner workings (Dungeoneering), places of natural camouflage (Nature), insight into the zombie’s senses (Insight), and power of faith (religion) allows you to give assist the others on what you should or should not do against zombies.
Failure: -2 to next skill check. You have no clue what you are talking about.

Athletics: Moderate DC (1 Success, no maximum)
The character barrels through the zombies, getting closer to the doors.
Failure: The PC is caught by the zombies, and they tear at him. Lose one healing surge. Mark a Failure.

Bluff: Hard DC (1 Success, no maximum, Gives -2 to next diplomacy check)
The character pretends to be a zombie, and successfully moves forward through them.
Failure: The PC does not fool the zombies. They surge around him, forcing one of the other checks. Once a bluff is failed, that PC cannot attempt this again.

Diplomacy: Hard DC (1 Success, 3 maximum, Gives -2 to next Bluff Check)
The character convinces the NPCs in the mall to help them. The NPCs will begin attacking zombies to distract them and opening the barricades. Success allows for the following options: +2 to any skill check, a reattempt on Bluff/Stealth, or negate the loss of a healing surge when using Acrobatics/Athletics.
Failure: Mark a Failure.

Perception: Easy DC (0 Sucesses, but provides +2 to next skill check by any PC, failure gives -2 to next skill check)
The character notices a path that is clear, which zombies are distracted, or if zombies are hiding where they are going.

Stealth: Moderate DC (1 Success, no maximum) +2 check if another pc failed Athletics/Acrobatics check.
The character evades notice and sneaks to the entrances of the mall.
Failure: The PC is spotted and zombies surge towards him. This forces him to use another skills. Once a stealth check is failed, that PC cannot use this skill again.

Streetwise: Hard DC (1 Success, no maximum)
Using his knowledge of the mall, the pc finds a path closer to the mall without being noticed by the zombies.
Failure: Mark a failure. Took a wrong turn, zombies!

Thievery: Hard DC (1 Success, Maximum 3)
You assist with finding a way through the barricades.
Failure: Mark a failure. You think you know what you’re doing, but the truth is you should just be hammering on the door. The zombies close in.

And there’s another option although this one would be a little more difficult to fantasize but still well worth looking at for ideas.

Destroying the Mall

You must drive the propane truck into the garage, next to the boiler room, without stalling out or getting overwhelmed by zombies.

There are three parts to the challenge.

1) You must get the truck running, sneak and repair the truck or defend the truck while repair it.
2) Drive the truck to the Garage, while the zombies try to overwhelm it and crash it. Defend, Assist, or Drive.
3) The security gate to the Garage is locked. You either have to open the gate or crash through it. Opening the gate without destroying it allows you to close it behind you.

Part 1-Fixing the truck.

4 successes before 3 failures.
Victory: You get the truck started and begin driving towards the sublevel parking garage. Defeat: Combat Encounter starts. Zombies surge the truck and try to force their way through barricades.
Skills: Stealth and Thievery.

Stealth: Moderate DC (1 Success, Max 2)
You hide, keeping the zombies from noticing you in the truck.
Failure: Mark a failure. You are noticed by a zombie, he has not been noticed by others yet.

Thievery: Hard DC (1 Success, Max 3)
Failure: Mark a failure. You fail to get the truck started, but it makes noise. Zombies begin to file closer to the truck.

Creative uses of other skills can add to these checks. If combat breaks out, the zombies will attack. To get the truck started, you must succeed at the thievery checks.

Part 2- Driving the Truck
Complexity 4: 10 successes before 3 failures.
Victory: The truck makes it to security parking gate.
Failure: Truck crashes. Have to leave it behind and fight the big boss without a big propane bomb.

The way this challenge will play is that you have choice to drive, assist, or fighting the horde.

Driving: Hard Difficulty-Any skill or stat can be used with a descriptor, but repeated use of the same skill drives up DC +1. These checks are only ones that can give Successes for Victory

Assistance: Easy Difficulty- Gives +2 to next driving check. Failure gives -2 to next check. Repeated use of same skill gives +1 DC.

Fighting the Horde: Whenever there is a failure on the driving test, a zombie climbs up on the truck. When the third zombie gets on the truck, it crashes. If you choose to fight, make an attack (any attack power or basic attack), if you are successful, the zombie is knocked off the truck and a failure is removed. If you miss, you miss. Encounter powers gain a +1 to attack roll. Daily powers gain a +3 attack.

Part 3- Opening the gate
Complexity: 4 successes before 3 failures
Victory: Gate is opened for truck, but closed before zombies get in.
Defeat: You cannot get the gate open. Your options are to crash the truck through or climb through to fight big bad without propane bomb.
Before this challenge begins, assuming the pc’s still have the truck, they can simply choose to drive the truck through the gate. Make a +8 vs AC attack on each person in truck, for 2d8+3 damage. The downside is that the zombies will follow them into the garage, making escape difficult.

Skills: Thievery, Athletics, both Hard DCs. Do not increase DC for repeated use.
Other skills can assist, giving +2/-2 per normal. +1 dc for using same skill repeatedly.

While this challenge is ongoing, a combat encounter is going on. A skill check for the challenge takes a standard action.

You can use the images below or you can down the pdf’s [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found], [Download not found].  I’m also using the new Export function of the Monster Builder and you can grab the .monster files – [Download not found] if you kinda like these but want to tweak them to your own needs.

It’s interesting but for any non-published stuff I find myself just making my own creatures.  That’s another subtle but very huge draw/benefit of 4th edition.  That you can make almost auto-balanced creatures without any issue that are actually interesting.

Got to take my boys to a birthday party so I can’t really expand on this but surely these can give you some ideas…

Image Credits

Hanged One

Steel Thewed Zombie

Pyre Dead

Tortued Remains

I’ve used Rat Swarms and Drake Swarms to good effect, the adjacent attack can be a constant brutality if you’re rolling well against the players.

Image Credits

Swarm Template (Elite Soldier)

Vulnerability 10 close and area attacks.

Saving Throws +2

Action Point 1

Hit Points +8 per level + Constitution score

The creature gains the Swarm keyword.

Size increases by two steps (tiny > medium, small > large, medium > huge, large > gargantuan). Reach remains the same as that of the original creature.

Mounted creatures can be turned into swarms. Use the size of the mount (usually large) to determine the swarm’s new size. Use the mount’s speed to determine the swarm’s speed.

Powers

Swarm Attack
Aura; the swarm makes a basic melee attack as a free action against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura. The aura’s range equals the reach of the original creature.

Swarm Defenses
A swarm takes half damage from melee and ranged attacks. It is immune to forced movement (pull, push and slide) caused by such attacks.

Swarm Movement
The swarm can enter or move through an enemy’s space; this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. An enemy can enter a space occupied by a swarm, but the space occupied by the swarm is considered difficult terrain, and doing so provokes an opportunity attack. A swarm can squeeze through any opening large enough to accomodate even one of its constituent creatures, i.e. it counts as two sizes smaller for the purpose of squeezing.

The idea is to print and cut these out and then fold them in half. Â  Fill out both sides of the initiative cards, one side that faces the players only has a name on it, the other has some fairly relative information, your needs may vary but this is what I want at a glance.

Drop the cards in initiative order on your DM’s screen, because of the table I use for gamin I’m going to make a simple upside down T out of some oak and plexiglass (mockup over there ->) and hang them on those.  Then you can slide them back and forth etc.

The status tokens are also printed and cut out and you just drop appropriate ones over the cards, that should make it pretty simple and braindead to remember who’s taking ongoing damage, who needs to save for something, whether a condition runs out on a save or end of turn etc.

Anyway if you like them then feel free to use them.

I can see a draw, it certainly avoids the depressing damage rolls where people get 1′s on their damage dice which are arguably more emotionally impacting than maximum damage.  I think rolling a critical hit has a better ‘cool factor’ than rolling a regular hit and then rolling maximum damage.  But that might just be me.

After due consideration I think I’d be willing to give it a try and see how it goes.  Over time the players ARE going to end up with average damage unless they have non-uniform dice or simply don’t roll very often.

This reduces the rolling for each player to a (typically) single d20 to determine if they hit.

Monsters though typically roll very few times for their lifespan though so it’s quite possible that they’ll have very swingy results.  You might have a Solo who can’t seem to roll nothing but ones while another one is consistently hammering out big damage numbers.

Really at what point does one say let’s just do away with random? But in the interests of fairness and curiosity I suppose I could give it a shot.

What would be more interesting I think is simply boosting the attack chances combined with this damage.  Let’s face it, missing sucks ass.  I doubt if anyone will argue that point ever.

So perhaps a ‘mystic werewolf ability’ [Note: inside joke] bonus should be applied across the board?  Perhaps a flat +2 across the board?

Indeed, let’s consider these various house rules I’ve written up or about -

• Remove +1/2 level to all defenses, attack and skill rolls on both sides.  This is a wash and simply levels the playing field by quite a bit so that monsters are more viable outside a straight 1 to 1 level comparison.
• Add 1/2 level to the FIRST damage roll or the first target across the board.
• Add a flat+2 to attack rolls across the board to increase hit frequency.
• Compute the average dice per attack based on the above and use that instead of rolling for damage.

Might make for shorter combats that are more interesting (missing is not interesting).

At first glance this is what I came away with after a quick perusal. The Dragoon is a defender and specializes in shield and weapon or dual wielding. They get a class ability to use spears as a one handed weapon so if you wanted to be a Spartan, now’s your chance.

The class is feature complete, all powers through to 29, paragon paths, feats, it even includes mounts as the dragoons are known as dragon riders. Aerial combat… Add in a bit of Eberron steampunkery and have air ships and you could create world war 1 or recreate it. (ww1 from the speeds). About the only thing missing is flavor items for the class but obviously with the basic items, the Adventure’s Vault and the Adventurer’s Vault 2, there are a metric crapton of items that could be flavor text’ed to fit any mlee class.

The paragon paths are what you’d expect from the base build, either focusing in weapon and shield or dual weapons. Nothing unusual there (or wrong with it).

Damage output seems a tiny bit high for some builds for a defender class but doesn’t strike me as excessive. Not gamebreakingly so.

Dual Attack for instance is the same as the ranger’s Twin Strike, ie. two attacks on one creature and only 1W per attack. It is melee only though so it’s not as versatile.

Brash Thrust, an at-will does 1W+Str and if you’re using a spear (class feature remember) you also get your dexterity bonus. On the downside you give up combat advantage to the target for using this. So that does take away from the extra damage output. Not sure if that would play out well unless you’re really high on dexterity and strength to make up for the getting hit 10% more often along with any specials a creature might have that play off combat advantage. But it is an balancing mechanism.

All in all well worth the look if you’re bored (already?!) of the existing defenders or you just want to try something else.

If you do try it out the by all means give Arius a email and let him know how it worked and any concerns you had or, especially perhaps, if you enjoy it. If we don’t encourage DnD creationists then we’re stuck waiting for Wizards to release books on their schedule, not ours.

In DnD that’s nigh impossible.  In 4th edition it pretty much is impossible unless it’s a striker and they unleash a good daily attack and get a critcal hit with some kind of ‘debuff’ effect that at the least stuns the target.  Or unless the sentry is a minion of course but if you make all the sentries minions then technically the hero can just bean them with a rock and they’ll die.  Not very epic.

Let’s take a look at the Coup De Grace rule – Make an attack against an adjacent helpless target if you hit you score a critical hit.  If you deal the targets bloodied value or greater you insta-gib them.  That’s just pretty hard to do.  And it precludes any ability of an archer taking out a watchmen.

So with that said I thought, what the hell, let’s see if we can make a ‘pseudo’ skill challenge out of a non-minion sentry take down.

So to avoid player ‘sploiting we’re going to set up some ground rules that have to be in place for this to work and of course it’s always going to be up to DM Fiat/Caveat.

1. The target must be unaware of the Hero OR be unknown to be hostile.
2. The target must not be ‘in combat’.

This means the Hero has to typically use some ability suited for the environment to get close enough to the target and that the target can’t be fighting or expecting to be attacked.  Again in any grey areas this is going to be the DM’s call.

Once the Hero gets close enough to attack they need to actually hit the target.  A miss is a miss regardless.  If they do hit the target they’ll hit for double their critical value.  If this value is greater than the target’s bloodied value they’re insta-gibbed much like a CdG and if its less then the target is stunned until the end of its next turn.  This means that this kind of sentry take out is best left to the damage dealers aka Strikers and they’d best use at least an encounter power of some kind.  As an easy alternative you could simply say that if the player gets within range to perform a  STD ( /juvenile chuckle ) and succeeds that you give it to them.  Personally I would lean toward the later since it falls into the rule of a) It’s Cool, b) players would enjoy it and c) it would only be of any real benefit where the DM set it up. It also means if you don’t kill it you have one move to get close enough to do a CDG.  So a double move/run + AP could work if you’re within that range.  Otherwise it’s going to start yelling for help or at least saying OUCH really damn loudly.

Now we’ll also have to define what is close enough to attack.  Obviously melee range is good.  Anything farther away and we quickly reach a point where it’s just not ‘fair’ to be able to one shot someone.  So do we decrease the range that it can be done or just apply an assload of penalties?  I think an assload of penalties fits my playstyle better.  So what about -4 at short range and -8 at long range?

So we have the basis of an idea of a system to allow the Heroes to take down a bad guy in one shot.  Now let’s work on the specifics.

To get into position the player is going to need to make some skill checks.  A good starting point for primary skill checks to allow someone to get within range might be something like this -

Urban environment – Stealth
Crowded environment – Thievery, Diplomacy
Natural environment -  Nature, Stealth

Since I like the three ‘phase’ skill challenge system, let’s break it down that way.

Phase 1: Approach unseen/unnoticed.

Phase 2: Make the attack.  This is a skill check using a standard attack roll.

Phase 3: Perform the Coup De Grace if needed.

So now we have a three phase skill challenge of sorts.  Phase 1 could require multiple skill checks depending on the circumstances or just one. Phase 2 is typically one ‘skill check’ aka attack roll.  Phase three is the finish up phase and could require more skill checks or be a ‘gimmie’.

So while it’s not a skill challenge per se, it does allow a way for the players to potentially perform a single shot take down.

Anyway it’s a start of an idea that may grow into something.  I’ll keep you posted if I come back to it.

Image Credits

[Of course if you want it simple then temporarily turn your sentries into Minions.  If the take down attack hits they're dead.  If it doesn't then you can flip them back to standards, elites etc. for the ensuing battle.]

Thanks Carl for the tip, I’m all about the free stuff given how much how much our hobby costs to get the retail stuff.  Of course we don’t ‘need’ all the supplemental books, miniatures, accessories and yet I somehow can’t seem to stop myself from getting them…

And I can finally give credit and a link for this post of mine where it’s due.

[Alternate Download Link: [Download not found]

Arius over at Bolermos Online has created a Hunter [Working author Link] that I just found out about.  The class feels alot like a ranger but more ‘monster hunter’ than ‘wilderness hunter’ that might be working for profit or as a follower of a church.  I could see this being used for a Van Helsing kind of character concept.

A quick read through it doesn’t come off as grossly out of balance overall when compared to the classes in the PHB 2.

It’s feature complete with new weapons,  items, feats, powers and paths.  It also brings in the Favored Enemy schtick that take extra damage, are easier to hit or make your powers stronger when used against them.  This can be overpowered or underpowered depending on what ‘enemy’ a player chooses and puts most of the pressure on the DM to make sure it falls somewhere in the middle.  No one likes having a power that never comes into play and the rest of the group doesn’t like having one person always ‘shining’.

Combat Advantage at Emerald Press has 8 (so far) PDF’s with some free 4e materials in them that you might find interesting or even useful.  YMMV of course but I did mention they’re free right?

Each publication is pretty short and it might only consist of a single monster but hey that’s a monster that didn’t cost you anything right?

And if you have some ideas of your own they (he/she?) is taking submissions so you could become a famous writer.  Or something.

Like the others I plan on putting together a small binder for the players to put these in along with their quest cards so at the end of the campaign they’ll have a nice log of their character’s lives and times.

You can grab it here – [Download not found]

Image Credits

One thing I’d probably do is make the reload a minor action but apply the penalty of “Reloading grants an Opportunity Attack.”  Just a thought.

Image Credits

Shade Master

And my printer decides to go tits up. And my laser printer doesn’t print colored monster pages very well at all.

So one dissection later and several wooden matches (W.T.F?!) removed later and it’s working again.  Yay!

This is the Shade Master, he’s going to show up with 24 minions of Shadow…

Image Credits

In an effort to be extremely clever and witty I’m calling the module I’m writing for an upcoming session Running With Zizzors. Bow before my awesomeness and weep in joy. This module is for players new to 4th Edition and in the case of one, new to PnP RPG’ing due to hype and hysteria surrounding the hobby in it’s early days.  Ah those were the days, sitting around the pentagrams trying to summon Orcus using the spells out of the players handbook.  Sweet times indeed.

This is my current “Read Aloud” text that I will be presenting the players with at the start of the adventure -

œYou are all residents of a medium sized fishing village on the shores of the Timpani sea.  The climate is moderate with mild winters.  The fishing fleets go out every week and return loaded with fish.  These fish are preserved, some in heavy brine, others dried and the very best ones are subject to rituals by the village ritualist and his apprentice that slow their decay so they can arrive at the city markets as fresh as they were pulled from the waters.

The area has many dangers, bandits from the hills to the south like to prey on travelers, wild animals and worse wander the countryside™s thick forests and low hills making travel a very dangerous thing for the solitary or weak.  To the east lay the dense marshes of Fenglidden (Black Marsh) swamps.  Tribes of reptilian humanoids known as Zizzors live on the edges of these fetid waters and stories abound of the greater dangers that lay deeper inward.

It was a successful trip and you have good news to report to the village, disease has wiped out a good portion of the beef herds so meat is at a premium and your barrels of fish brought a good price. Youre in a hurry to get home and the three day trip seems to drag on forever but finally the trip is drawing to a close.

But what’s this? A sullen glow lines the night sky south.  And as morning breaks, you see billowing smoke columns are on the horizon from where you know your village lies although several hours distant at the speed of the wagons.  You draw straws to see who will take the few horses and hurry on ahead leaving the plodding oxen to continue pulling the wagons of empty barrels.

As you come over the last rise the village lays before you.  Several  houses on the east side are nothing but burning embers,  others further in are partially burned or scorched. Â  Two of the big warehouses and the docks are in ruins.

You hurry down, weapons drawn to find the a pile of zizzor bodies, easily 20 or 30 of them and many shroud covered forms you know to be the bodies of your friends and relatives.

Elders of the village fill you in and answer your questions, a large force of zizzors attacked in the middle of the night setting fire to buildings and destroying and killing.  The villagers fought back but took heavy losses much as the hated reptiles had.

The one thing that sticks out to you from the stories is that the Zizzors seemed to be raiding with a purpose other than just random pillaging. Â Â  A head count reveals that several children are missing and feared taken but the remaining villagers are too few and there are too many wounded and injured to go after them.

But now that youre here perhaps that can change, perhaps a quick chase could recover the children… or their bodies if the worst has already happened.

The party, in my case, will consist of villagers, the best of the best so to speak and as a result they’re the only ones on hand able and capable of going after the zizzors with any speed or hope of success. It could just as easily be a group that’s passing through the village in the time of it’s need by land or perhaps they pulled into dock after spotting the fires and smoke from the oceans, whatever the reason they’re here now and tasked with saving the children.  That’s the good thing about using children, everyone with an ounce of compassion is going to make the attempt.  If the zizzors had raided the Home for Criminally Insane then perhaps it might not be as critical to save them.

And here’s one of the many types of Zizzor’s that I’ve created, not sure why I felt the need to make unique monsters for everything for this module since the people playing aren’t familiar with all the 4E monsters anyway but what the hell right?

Zizzor Spinethrower

This book is nothing but Heroic tier creatures and he (she?) will be continuing the resource into Paragon as well and one assumes Epic.  The collection includes quite a lot of nice (or not so nice) creatures to use in your undead themed encounters or as random undead.

High recommended download for you GM’s and if you like then drop a quick a thank you on the thread.  Creators need encouragement or they stop creating or at least stop sharing all the neat and nifty things they make for their own use.

Image Credits

It wasn’t very long after I migrated to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons from the Basic set that I instituted a mana system to replace the Vancian system I believe it’s refered to, to-wit casters had to memorize the spells they wanted to use for the day in advance of knowing what they might need.  That always struck me as fairly not-fun.  Plus in using a mana system I could then add in Mana Crystals, rare and highly sought after that allowed casters to dump unused mana into them at the end of the day to use the next. Â  And no my casters didn’t overshadow the non-casters, it just made things more fun for everyone.

Anyway, I’m going to add this as a feat, yes yes, it’s a feat tax you might say but your game your rules, my game my rules.

Versatile Repetoire [Wizard]
Prerequisite: Wizard, Int 16
Benefit: You no longer need to memorize Daily or Utility spells out of your possible selections for the day but can instead choose which one(s) to choose at the time that you cast your spells.  This does not allow extra castings per day.

Image Credits

Image Credits

Zombie Swarm Level 6 Brute
Huge Natural Animate (undead) XP 250

Initiative +6 Senses Perception +5
Punching Mass aura 1; At the start of its turn Zombie Swarm makes a free
Zombie Swipe attack against all enemies inside aura
HP 82; Bloodied 41
AC 18; Fortitude 19, Reflex 18, Will 17
Immune disease, poison;
Resist 10 necrotic; half damage from melee & ranged attacks;
Vulnerable 5 radiant, 10 close & area attacks
Saving Throws see Swarm Stability
Speed 4

m Zombie Swipe (Standard; at-will)
Attack +9 vs. AC; 1d10+4 damage

M Zombie Grab (Standard; at-will)
Attack +7 vs. Reflex; 2d6+4 damage; on hit target is grabbed (escape
ends)

M Swallowed By the Crowd (Standard; at-will) ♦ grabbed target only
Target must be grabbed at start of Zombie Swarms turn; attack +7 vs.
Fortitude; on hit target is pulled into the centre square of the Zombie
Swarm, is restrained and takes 10 ongoing damage (until escape, target
takes a -5 penalty to escape checks, on escape creature can emerge in
any square adjacent to swarm); Whilst Zombie Swarm has a target
restrained it cannot move or make attacks other than those granted by its
Punching Mass aura

Swarm Stability
Zombie Swarm reduces all push, pull and slide effects targeting it by 3
squares, and is only affected by ongoing status effects from area or burst
powers

Alignment Unaligned Languages groans and moans
Skills Endurance +9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 16 (+6) Wis 14 (+5)
Con 12 (+4) Int 3 (-1) Cha 3 (-1)

Seems reasonable if you buy into the Paladin’s as charismatic warriors line of thinking.  I would see them, personally, as more Wisdom based as that defines their willpower and to be a paladin, a champion of a cause requires certain strength of will to ignore anything but what you believe in.  As I say, paladin’s know what they know and never let the facts get in their way…

Here’s the gist of Stalker0′s changes but visit the original posting to see any discussion on the idea.

Image Credits

Crusader

Primary Ability Scores:
Charisma: Allows access to the Crusader’s raw divine power, granting him powerful attacks.
Wisdom: Allows a Crusader to channel his divine energies into healing and defensive powers to guard his allies.
Strength: A Crusader’s own natural strength can be used to augment the power of some divine attacks.

Armor/Weapon/Implement Proficiencies: Same as Paladin
HP/Defenses/Surges: Same as Paladin

Channel Divinity – The Crusader is not limited to one channel divinity use per encounter.

Interdiction (used to be Divine Mettle)
Same as Divine Mettle, but uses wisdom instead of charisma.

Divine Infusion (used to be Divine Challenge)
You channel the raw divine energies granted to you to enhance your own power or to increase the fortitude of your comrades.
At-will (once per turn) – Minor Action, Close Burst 10
Target: Special, see below.
Effect (ally): The target gains temporary hit points equal to 3 + your wisdom modifier (6+wis at paragon, 9+wisdom at epic). The temporary hitpoints last until they are used, the end of the encounter, or until Divine Infusion is placed on another target.
Effect (you): The target recharges the Crusader’s Smite power. The target remains under the effects of Divine Infusion until the end of the encounter, or until Divine Infusion is placed on another target. Divine Infusion must be reapplied for additional recharges of Crusader’s Smite.

Crusader’s Smite (used to be Divine Strength)
Same as Divine Strength, except:
Action: Free Action
Special: Can only be applied to melee attacks.
Effect: Damage done becomes radiant damage in addition to the bonus damage.

Healing Hands (used to be Lay on Hands)
Same as Lay on Hands

Crusader’s Weapon – A Crusader can use any weapon he wields as a holy symbol for purposes of implement powers he might use. He can apply the weapon’s enhancement modifier to attack and damage with implement attacks, but cannot use the weapon’s proficiency bonus. Further, if a Crusader is using an implement power from another class, he can use his weapon as if it were the proper implement, and can use his charisma modifier for attack rolls and damage rather than the ability score normally used.

Powers: All powers use Charisma for attack and damage. If the power originally used Charisma, and had a secondary affect that is based on wisdom; that is unchanged. If the power originally used Strength, its primary now uses Charisma and its secondary effect uses Strength.
If a power required that the target be marked, change the condition to say: “If the Crusader is under the effect of Divine Infusion.”

Example:
Righteous Fury (was Holy Strike).
Attack: Charisma vs AC
Hit: 1[w]+charisma modifier radiant damage. If you are under the effect of Divine Infusion, you gain a bonus to the damage roll equal to your Strength modifier.

IFAQ (Infrequently asked Questions)

Q: Why is the Crusader’s primary Charisma and not Strength?
A: Two reasons. First one was that the fighter and warlord already provide a good basis for a fighting strength based class, and the cleric I would change to be primarily wisdom. That leaves the paladin and bards as the charismatic meleers, which is a good mix to me. Second, I found it was far less work to make implement and weapon powers worked together if everything was charisma and not strength.

Q: With the way Crusader’s Smite works, is this class a Defender or a Striker?
A: A bit of both. How a Crusader builds his stats and play style helps determine if he is more striker or more defender/leader. Note though that even with a high strength he does not get a lot of the advantages that other strikers do. He doesn’t get extra attack bonuses, he has to apply his extra damage before he hits while strikers can apply it afterwards, he has to use a minor action every round to keep his damage going, and there’s no bonus on a crit.

Q: Doesn’t Divine Infusion steal the Swordmage’s Aegis of shielding mechanic?
A: Yes and no. I still think the Aegis of Shielding is the best defending mechanic so far. Monsters have low damage and lots of hp….so negating some of that low damage is a better defense than applying a little damage to the load of hp. That said; there are big differences. The Crusader gives less temp HP than the swordmage damage negation, but the Crusader’s temp hp can also apply to more kinds of damage and from multiple sources. The Crusader doesn’t apply a -2 to attack rolls (a big difference!), but doesn’t have to use immediate reactions to activate his ability. The Crusader’s power works if he and the target are attacked. And of course, the Crusader can apply a version of his power to himself, which creates a lot of tactical thinking about how and when to use the power.

Q: Why doesn’t the Crusader use a mark like all the other defenders?
A: Because I hate marks. There I said it, wow I feel better I love some of the game design in 4e, I hate marks with a passion. They are a pain to track on the board (especially because they are reapplied every round often to different monsters), and they provide too little benefit innately, it’s always about the secondary thing the defender does that makes the mark worthwhile (doing damage, negating damage, negating movement, etc). If I happen to make alternates to the fighter, swordmage, and warden…you can be guaranteed they won’t have marks either.

Q: What’s the purpose of the Crusader’s Weapon power?
A: The reason I called the class the Crusader (besides every other alternate Paladin out there called a Crusader, thank you very much B09S) is the Crusader’s Weapon magic item that counts as a weapon and an implement. I don’t think its right that some classes need one magic item for offense and others need two. It gets even worse with multiclassing. While WOTC fixed some of the multiclassing issues, this one is still left as a sore thumb. A cleric/wizard for example may need 3 magic items, weapon, holy symbol, and orb. The class ability was designed to fix that, something I would incorporate into nearly all classes should I ever get around to making alternatives. However, it’s an easy ability to drop if you don’t want to mess with multi classing too much.

Image Credits

Image Credits

Feaster of Shadows

Typically his guardians, at least the outer ring were comprised of the below minions (not in the 4th Edition sense of the word though) he created known as Shadows of Kyrell.  Further in were typically stronger versions with more varied powers.

In this case the party will run into these guys in a room comprised of a series of pillars at floor level, i.e. it’s a jumping puzzle but the Shadows will be flowing along the walls sniping at the party if they try to cross the room.  The pillars will be a trap that will make an attack against reflex defenses and if the attack succeeds then the character will fall off the pillar.  [For those outraged that a pillar is 'attacking' a character this is really nothing more than the old saving throw versus reflex (dragon breath) etc. just the DM's is rolling it rather than the player and it's called an attack versus a save]. Â  The traps will gain a +1 to hit for each successful attack from a Shadow that each player takes. Â  The fall which will be 20′ down will be to a spiked floor that will have another attack against AC to deal damage.

And that’s just the first guarded chamber of which there will be three and in the last chamber will be a solo level boss shadow guarding something which I won’t go into as people do read this…

Image Credits

Shadows of Kyrell

To that end here’s some zero level rules that would allow you to run something a little lower level.  Example: The players are early teens and from a small village so they all know each other and as summer is drawing to a close they’re out moving herd over to the winter pastures and encounter a small force of shikar who are on their name quest and are going to raid the herds.  Perhaps the players were shirking their duty on this day and before they knew it the sun was going down and they still had the herds to move.  They’re driving the cattle in the dim light of dusk when shrill yip yip cries blast from the darkness and arrows start to flit past their heads.

So armed with herding staves, belt knives, slings they defend the herds and drive them off.  As they celebrate they notice one of their friends is missing and a blood trail leads off into the now night.  Familiar with the shikar they know their friend is unlikely to survive an hour and it’s 2 hours back to the village and back even in daylight.  So a rescue attempt is made and our lowly herdboys track down the shikar and rescue their friend and run into a search and rescue party of villages that was formed after they didn’t show.  Now bloodied and having taken and saved lives our party of herders and villages are now level 1 adventures and out of those that were in on the herding the 5 players now have a taste for it, the trailing after the evil, the rush of the rescue, the thrill of the fight. Â  Little do they know that most adventuring consists of boredom, hardship and misery with interspersed moments of terror and life threatening danger and disfigurement.

Anyway the following is from a post which you can find here as well as a PDF file of these rules and thoughts.

Image Credits

 

Creating 0-level rules for 4e.
In creating these rules, I looked at the different 0-level rules created for previous editions for inspiration. I didn’t like how, in all the rules I looked at, that the rules were a completely different set of rules used just for 0-level characters and that it didn’t feel like the D&D game from 1st Level and on.

I wanted to create rules that made 0-level characters play the same way as any other level characters in 4e just with more limitations, and without the DM having to keep track of an alignment table or which weapons you have swung and how many times you swung it.

Why play a 0-level character?
Because there are some great roleplaying opportunities with a 0-level character that you truly cannot have with 1st Level characters.

Here are a few reasons to start players at 0-level;

Extremely new player: This person has never played and RPG of any kind. They don’t even know what RPG stands for. By starting this player at 0-level you limit their choices in combat and don’t overflow them with multiple at-wills, encounters, and dailies. You teach them the basic a little bit at a time.

Backgrounds: Maybe you have some free time on your hands before the campaign starts but a player really wants to play. You can create his character as a 0-level and you guys go through his background getting him to the place he starts in the campaign. This will give him a whole lot more detailed background and might even spark a few other ideas for the campaign as you play.

Nostalgic “Feel”: Remember the days when the starting characters were so weak that a scratch from a housecat could kill them? Well 4e 0-level characters are not that weak but playing them will remind you of the days when your characters were truly scared to go into that dungeon.

What do the players get for playing a 0-level character?

The game usually starts players at 1st Level, as heroes ready to save the world. Starting out as 0-level will make the campaign longer, taking longer to reach 30th Level, gives the players less powers than if they had started normally. Not to mention that characters can die really easy as 0-level characters.

It is suggested that players willing to go through with the 0-level start should receive something a little extra upon reaching 1st Level. Fitting within the current guidelines of the character advancement table in the PHB, we will add to the 1st Level Ability Score section a +1 to all ability scores for reaching 1st Level.

Note: According to the PHB page 11, when you round down you must end up with a whole number. Now the smallest whole number you can have is 0. So the number that is half of 0-level is 0.

Creating a Character
You follow the same 9 steps listed in the PHB (page 14) when creating a 0-level character as you do when creating a 1st Level character. Though there are a few changes to the steps as listed below.

Character Creation Steps
1) When choosing your Race you gain all the abilities of that race. If an ability specifically states that the ability is gained at 1st Level then you will not get that racial ability until you reach 1st Level. For example; the half-elf’s Dilettante ability or the Human’s Bonus Feat ability.
2) When choosing your Class use the following Template to help figure your class traits;

3) Your ability scores are determined as normal or as you DM sees fit for his campaign.
4) You are only trained in skills listed in your Race (Eladrin Education) or predetermined skills for the Class you have chosen (Arcana for Wizards). You cannot choose training in any other class skills until you reach 1st Level.
5) Starting Characters only start with bonus feats given to them from their chosen Class. There is another Feat option listed in the Special 0-level Rules Section (see below) that can be taken if the player wishes.
6) 0-level characters start the game with one 1st level At-will power offered by their chosen Class. (Humans receive a second one).
7) Check with your DM to see how much starting money your character begins with to purchase equipment.
& 9) These two steps remain the same as described in the PHB.

Note: If you are playing with regional background bonuses you will receive this bonus at 0-level.

Character Advancement
Character Advancement works just like normal D&D except 0-level characters begin the game with -500 XP. When a 0-level character builds up his XP to 0, he advances to 1st Level.

0-level characters are not part of the Heroic Tier, they are part of the special Novice Tier. Mechanically the Novice Tier works as if it was the Heroic Tier when it comes to choosing feats and such. The separation is noted only for future reference incase I want to expand on these rules. (yes of course I have ideas filed away)

The Character Advancement Table from the PHB (page 29) is updated here:

Advancing to 1st Level
Once you become 1st Level you will gain the following:

• You now have access to your Classes Armor and Weapon Proficiencies.
• Your Classes Bonus to Defense will be as described for the class you have chosen.
• You will gain hit points as described under your Classes ‘Hit Points per Level Gained’.
• You are now able to choose training in Skills as described in the class you have chosen.
• Any Racial abilities that require you to be 1st Level are now accessible.
• You gain 1 Feat
• You gain one 1st level At-will attack power, one 1st level encounter attack power and one 1st level daily attack power.

 

Special 0-level Rules

1st Level At-will Powers: Any 0-level character with a 1st Level At-will power is able to use it while at 0-level.

Action Points: 0-level characters start with no action points. They can only gain action points by reaching a milestone. After taking an extended rest they lose any action points they haven’t spent and upon waking up, have 0 action points once again.

Second Wind: 0-level characters cannot perform the heroic Second Wind combat action. They must rely on other means to use their Healing Surges.

Fumbles: Since 0-level characters are not fully trained they are susceptible to the fumble rules detailed in the DMG page 189. Once they become 1st level they will no longer have this hindrance.

Rituals: Characters that have access to rituals at 1st level also have access to the rituals at 0-level. 0-level characters can cast 1st level rituals at twice the time it would take them to cast the spell at 1st level. Everything else, including the component cost, remains the same.

Cantrips: Characters with cantrips gain the use of all their cantrips at 0-level instead of 1st Level.

Retraining: While there is nothing different about retraining in the 0-level rules, I just wanted to indicate that it can be done at 1st Level.

Feat instead of At-will: The player has the option to choose a feat rather than choosing an at-will power from his class. If he takes this option he does not gain a new feat at 1st level, but instead gain two at-will powers at first level instead of one.

Class abilities that deal extra damage:
Some class abilities deal extra damage in certain situations, sneak attack for example. When a 0-level character uses these abilities, they are performed as if they were a 1st level character, but with the damage halved.

 

Running a 0-level adventure should be like running any other level adventure. There is no extra alignment charts to keep track of, no “testing” weapons and spells by counting the number of times a player uses them.

The main thing to remember when running 0-level characters is to avoid making it feel like a 1st level adventure. Players with 0-level characters want to feel as if there characters are learning the ropes, and while not quiet a hero yet, they want to slowly become heroes.

Some ideas for 0-level campaigns:

Apprenticeship: The characters are still learning their chosen profession. They have a mentor teaching them.

Adventure idea: The mentor sends the characters on a coming of the age quest, or the mentor is captured and needs the help of his students.

Peasants: The characters are farmers, herdsman, peasants who show great promise of making something of themselves.

Adventure idea: Their town/farm/sheep is under attack by some recently moved into the area monsters. With no real adventures around to help, these characters take to arming themselves and taking matters into their own hands.

Slaves: Born into slavery or peasants recently captured and turned into slaves. They usually start out with nothing.

Adventure idea: Either the characters escape their masters or are released; they must now fend for themselves.

Children: The characters are just reaching puberty and are now finding out what kind of trouble they can get themselves into.

Adventure idea: Finding themselves the target of a double-dog dare, the children leave their safe point of light and head into the darkness or a group of bandits came through their village killing all the adults, the adventurer children escape capture but now must figure out how to survive.

Finding Instructors: The characters are on the verge of becoming heroes but need to be trained.

Adventure idea: The entire 0-level portion of the campaign can be a hunt for someone skilled at the player’s class so that they can be trained into 1st Level.

Prisoners: The characters have or are spending years of time in a dungeon. They usually start out with nothing.

Adventure idea: The characters were framed for a crime they didn’t commit and now must escape and prove their innocence. Or maybe they did commit the crime but after escaping must live the life of an adventurer or face the consequences of their crime.

Actions the Rules Don’t Cover
The Actions the Rule Don’t Cover on page 42 of the DMG is very useful when dealing with things outside the printed rules, but it doesn’t include 0-level characters. Well here is the updated table for those actions.

0-level Monsters
Using the guidelines in the DMG page 174 you can turn a 1st Level monster into a 0-level monster by decreasing its level by one. You can also create your own 0-level monsters as described in the DMG page 184 (remember level equals 0 and zero times any number is zero.)

You can use the Normal Damage Expressions and Limited Damage Expressions tables above to determine damage dealt by the 0-level monster you’ve created.

Here is the XP values for the 0-level monsters you create.

Creating Encounters for 0-level parties:
For the most part you do things as normal. Here is a modified Target Encounter XP Total table from DMG page 57. It should help spending an XP budget for the encounter.

One more cool thing about 0-level encounters is that you can finally create easy encounters for your 1st level parties as well.

Treasure
1st Level characters begin the game with 100 gp to spend on equipment, weapons, and gear. They don’t start with any magical items or things of the sort. This puts a damper on handing out treasures for 0-level characters.

If we look at treasure in a slightly different way for 0-level characters, you can instead of having the players purchase their gear, use this unique opportunity to make the equipment, weapons, and gear BE the treasure the players find.

This means each 0-level character will have 100 gp worth of ‘treasure’ to acquire during their 0-level adventure.

For those partial to the parcel system here is the recommended parcels for one 0-level character.

The parcels listed above are total gold. You can break this up anyway you see fit. For example using parcel 6, the character gets a suit of chainmail armor (40 gp) and a short sword (10 gp) as gifts from his father before heading out on his adventuring life.

Additionally, you do not have to start players out with nothing. You can give them one of the parcels during character creation to purchase starting equipment. Of course this all depends on the DM and the starting 0-level campaign he has planed.

For each additional character you add one Parcel equal to 100 gp, so a group of 5 characters will have a total monetary treasure vale of 500 gp with 10 Parcels of treasure.

When coming up with ‘treasure’ for the 0-level characters, listen to what kind of characters the players want to play. Don’t give the rogue a suit of plate mail or the wizard a falchion. Wish lists are especially useful for 0-level characters.

Some DMs like to give out gifts or magical heirlooms to players before starting the game. This is of course outside the 100 gp Parcel system. 0-level games allow DMs to hand out these items during play without it feeling artificial.

Well here you go, my take on the 4e 0-level characters. Drop me a line if you like it, or even if you don’t. Suggestions are great as well. Attached is a PDF version of this blog for those who want to print out a copy of these homebrewed rules.

Thanks,
King Nate

Follow the link to see the thread in it’s entirety and read the discussion on it.

Image Credits

Design Goals:

My goals in designing this system were as follows:

1. Create a system which is generic enough that it can be applied to just about any kind of business or market activity that PCs might want to engage in in a game. This means avoiding complicated rules about specific goods and services, and instead creating rules that can be applied to any good or service.

2. Make it so that all the choices in the system are fairly balanced, so for example, businesses mostly focused on sales won’t be systematically more profitable than businesses focused on crafting, or vice versa. While this can obviously be changed based on the needs of a particular scenario, we want to set up a starting “baseline” with no obviously superior choices, so that choices can be based on elements specific to the scenario.

3. The system should be a framework that it is easy to add elements onto, like “purchasable items” such as upgrades, special events like shortages of materials that affect prices, etc.

Overview:

In this system, there are three main categories of activities that players can engage in. They are:

Purchasing: Trying to purchase items, whether raw materials or finished products, and get the best price.

Production: Also known as “crafting” in some circles, this involves converting raw materials into finished products.

Sales: Selling your wares for money!

What’s in here? A client server app that lets the DM run the server app on a machine that he can see the screen on and remote users could then generate dice rolls and send them over.  The biggest thing is it removes any and all questions when a remote user seems to roll nothing lower than an 15 to hit and always rolls above average damage. Â  It can happen of course and often does, such is randomness of dice rolls.

The actual programs are tiny, about 150k for each of the two, client and server (and 2/3rds of that is literally, no kidding the icon.  Without the icon they’re roughly 45k each. Â  The majority of the file size is some dice sounds I recorded (my dice and my gaming table) that are played when the players roll dice.

Feel free to use the apps for their intended purposes.  You may redistribute them  as long as they are not sold or their source is removed, altered, obscured or otherwise changed.  Read the below for full details on your rights to use them.

Image Credits

The license for release is noted as below –

KoC Dice Machine by Dennis Dollins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Scratch and his band, a mixed back of orcs and humans with the standard assortment of goblins as lackeys and chaff/fodder for the battle, live in a series of caves off the main trails.  A sequence of goblin watchers keep an eye out for possible victims on the trail although their reliability isn’t that great even with the circumstances of what happens to them when caught sleeping.  Scratch’s goblin forces have a lot of churn to put it mildly.

Barring an especially sweet plum of a caravan Scratch typically does not get far from the caves, electing instead to send one of his lieutenants with a force of berserkers with his human crossbowmen as ranged support to take the caravan.

Image Credits

So without further ado here’s the new lurkers that I hope will cause no end of grief for my players in a old abandoned temple set in the side of a dormant volcano in 2 or 3 levels.

Image Credits

I think I’d like to see some kind of leader aura power on him and him bumped up 1 or 2 levels though but still well worth recording here for my future use in one form or another.

Image Credits

Hobgoblin Slavemaster
Even more than other Hobgoblin’s, the Slavemasters are natural tyrants and seek to subjugate others. Any under them soon learns to fear the lash of their whips.

Hobgoblin Slavemaster Level 3 Elite Controller
Medium Natural Humanoid XP 300
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +8; low light vision
HP 92; Bloodied 46
AC 19; Fortitude 19, Reflex 15, Will 15
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6
Action Points: 1

Basic Melee

Melee

Melee

Close

Five

Six

Hobgoblin Resilience (immediate reaction, when the Slavemaster suffers an effect that save can end, encounter): The Slavemaster rolls a saving throw against the effect.

Tyrant’s Ire (free, when first bloodied, encounter) The Slavemaster’s Whip Fury recharges and the Slavemaster uses it immediately, even if Whip Choke would normally prevent it doing so. If the Slavemaster currently has a target grabbed due to Whip Choke, the target immediately and automatically escapes.

Alignment: Evil Languages: Common, Goblin
Skills: Athletics +10, Intimidate +8, Endurance +8
Str 19 (+5) Dex 15 (+3) Wis 12 (+2)
Con 14 (+3) Int 10 (+1) Cha 15 (+3)

Equipment: Battleaxe, whip, hide armour, keys

Hobgoblin Slavemaster Tactics
The Slavemaster is a bully, and will seek to isolate a single opponent. He will then use his whip against the opponent, using a shift action after his attack to help limit the targets actions. Should he be engaged by more than one opponent, he will use Whip Fury to reduce attacks against him, and call upon his allies for help. Should his enemies be getting the upper hand, he will use whatever trick he can to even the odds or, should he be bloodied, will not hesitate to flee.

Hobgoblin Slavemaster Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.

DC 20: Just as hobgoblin’s live to make war, they also live to take the spoils of war, those spoils including slaves. Naturally, someone has to keep those slaves in line, which they do with the lash of their whip

DC: 25 Only the nastiest and most tyrannical hobgoblins become Slavemasters. Underhanded even by goblinoid standards, they will do whatever it takes to protect themselves and come out on top.

And here’s a complete list of monster cards from level 1 to 10 and 11 to 18.  Now these are pretty heavily into a grey area if not downright black but they are being listed on the official 4th edition forums, the threads have been there a long time now and no one from Wizards has said “Uh no, you can’t do that.” so if they don’t care why should we I suppose?  The downside is they’re on Rapidshare rather than some other less limited free file host so you’re going to be awhile downloading them all because of the limits between downloads and the total downloads per day cap for non-paying customers.

Image Credits

The thing had something like 4 pages of critical hit results for each and every damage type.  Piercing weapons, thunder keyword powers, fire, cold, the list was pretty exhaustive. Â  And it failed to scale in a lot of places where a ‘less major’ result would insure death while a later one wouldn’t.  Stunning someone for 5 rounds is worse than IMO than a escalating -1 penalty to hit that then recovers after a certain point.

Anyway, if you really really like critical hits to matter more than just max damage then someone’s gone to a LOT of trouble to give you a ton of options. I’m trying to recall the commercial system that had similar critical hit charts but I”m drawing a blank right now but it was very old school, back in the 80′s is when I played.

But can you imagine for every 20 rolled (or a 19-20 for things with improved critical ranges?)  digging through 50 pages of charts to find out what it did?  Then trying to keep track of the results, because most of the results were pretty varied.  (-2 for 6 rounds but only to rolls that involve the lower body when the moon is in the house of jupiter and the sun is over your left shoulder).

Okay I kid, a little, but seriously if you like lots of charts and more (semi) realistic consequences from rolling a 20 then this book is for you.  Everything you could possibly hope to find is in this exhaustive set of charts.  Otherwise it’s good for the occasional chuckle as you glance through the many pages see just what happens when someone takes 250 points of damage from one blow from a necrotic blast.

So final word: For those who’d enjoy it, it’s worthwhile, for the rest which is I’m betting most, it’s not.

Non-success increases the difficulty in the upcoming fight by adding in more troops  while any successes adds to the power of the group by boosting the NPC’s abilities and reduces the number of initial orcs they face so the skill challenge isn’t a black and white affair. Â  Anything other than total success has the result of helping them in another way by shifting the number of forces they have to face at any one time and makes it more ‘wavey’.

Image Credits

S1: Setting up Defenses
Skill Challenge level 2 (Variable xp)
Setup
“Reaching the farmstead you’re met by several farmers, brawny men and women of various ages and several children. As you tell them of the large band of orcs coming up behind you the farmers produceswords and crossbows tucked away in easy to reach locations and some run inside one of the barns with others shouting to grab armour for everyone.”
The farmers are prepared for such encounters having survived for several years out here unsupported and they keep the means necessary to repel invaders.
Someone will lead the group’s children to join their own children in the hiding hole which in this farmstead is concealed through a large boulder pile which has a hollow under it large enough for all the children.
DMs Note: This skill challenge varies the total difficulty of the actual combat encounter E1 by removing or adding forces to the orcs.  Adjust these values accordingly to the overall condition of your players.  If the players fail on the skill challenge then this, as written, will increase the forces they face.  For an understrengthed group or one that’s not doing well tactically this can lead to very rough times so plan accordingly and be prepared with an exit strategy if you need one.
Setup: Once the players have arrived at the farmstead and brought the farmers up to speed the skill challenge can begin.
Level: 2
Complexity: 3 (requires 8 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, History, Insight, Nature, Perception, Thievery
Diplomacy (DC 18): With soothing words of encouragement and persuasion you boost morale and calm fears allowing the farmers to enter the fight calm and level-headed. (Can only be succeeded once)
Perception (DC 20): You determine the the way the orcs are moving to engage the farmstead and arrange the farmers into the best positions to help repel them.
History DC (15): You are familiar with the battle tactics of orcs and their likely ways of attack and can help allocate resources, ammo, manpower, for the defense.
Thievery DC (15): You can construct a nasty surprise for the orcs in a likely place of approach. (The group can make a maximum of one attempt per round and only two successes total)
Insight (DC 18): You swiftly gauge the abilities of the farmers and pair them off so that the weaker ones are supported by a stronger one.
Bluff (DC 18): With some strong words playing down the strength of the oncoming force you fortify the idea in the farmers that they’ll be able to easily prevail. 
Intimidate (DC 18): Swearing vengeance on the farmers if they manage to get you killed you threaten them into fighting harder.  (Failure here adds a -2 penalty to Insight and Bluff checks.  Can only attempt once)
Athletics (DC 15): Working swiftly you shore up the defenses, reinforcing weak points with lumber and rope.
Success: For each success remove 200 xp points of orc from the E1 encounter as having been defeated due to the player’s abilities to lead and award that much exp to the group.
Partial Success: For each success made add +1 power bonus to both To-Hit and Damage to the farmer’s attacks.
Total Failure (0 successes): On a latter round (6-9) through the orc encounter have another 600 exp point band of orcs join the fight. Note: This can make the fight extremely difficult for a group of level 2’s so use this with caution and tone it down if they are not doing well. (Ex: Orc Raider x2 (300xp), Orc Drudge x7 (298xp))
Major Failure (1 successes): On a latter round (6-9) in the initial encounter have a 400 exp band of orcs enter the combat.  (Ex: Orc Berserker x2 (350xp), Orc Drudge x1 (44xp))
Partial Failure (2 success): On an earlier round 3-6) in the initial encounter have a 200 exp band of orcs enter the combat (Ex: Orc Drudge x4 (184xp)

This little guy is going to be in my next encounter, which as I mentioned I’m ‘professionalizing’ to something I’m comfortable at handing out to others.  It’s going to be a tough encounter, it’s aimed at a level 2 party of 4 and is a level 6 party with 1204 exp points worth of monsters.  But the mobs are very ‘wavy’, intentionally so and it’s really roughly two back to back encounters without a pause between them.

Anyway without further ado, the Orc Deadspeaker.

So, the below at least gives them a chance to possibly take out a sentry without a sound.  The intent of course is to allow the ranger/warlock to snipe the sentry or the rogue to stealth up behind it and gank it. It only works for a single attack and never if the target is on alert much less in combat.  So I don’t think it’s going to be horribly exploitable and provides some incentive I think to try for the sneak attack.  We’ll see how it goes.

And yes I know you could just make all sentries Minions but that’s not necessarily the way I want this particular encounter to go, most of the minions will come in waves after the fight starts.

Image Credits

Total Surprise – In the event that a character takes another character by complete surprise i.e. the target is unaware there is any danger,  then the first attack against it (includes attacks that have multiple attacks per power) automatically does critical damage on a successful hit. Â  In addition the target is stunned (save avoids). Â  If the target takes its bloodied value or more damage from the total surprise attack it suffers a -5 penalty to the save to avoid being stunned.

You’ll pay about a dime a page give or take a few cents so it seems a bargain in that respect.

It starts off with telling us how undead are ‘born’, their origins and what makes them up, their physiology and all that.  Very similar to the Draconomicon in that respect.

Then we have some information on undead drives and ambitions, their un-life’s plan so to speak. Â  Some vaguely interesting stuff here, I found it less interesting than the dragons by a lot as well, they’re undead, who cares how and why they are?  They’re sword fodder as far as I’m concerned.

Some sample adventures left me a a little meh, and they turned an attack of the Zombie Horde into a skill challenge.  Uh what?   Some campaign story arcs examples are handed out but nothing we haven’t seen before.

Then we have some phat undead lewt.  I didn’t pay much attention to it to be honest, hey I don’t get paid to review stuff, just offering my thoughts on it.  The warforged-esque undead bits and bobs that can be grafted onto people were more interesting.  These are aimed at NPC’s much more than PC’s but I could see some possibilities there.  I had an Iron Lord LONG before Eberron’s Warforged were even a thought in someone’s head much less a published world setting so grafts, especially unasked for ones are something I’m familiar with.

Again very much like the Draconomicon we have some sample lairs, encounters and such with a handful of new monsters and traps and rituals.

You get more new undead monsters in this one than new stuff in other books in my opinion. Â  While some may not be ‘new’ per se but rather variants of existing creatures it’s still worth the price of admission for that alone I think.

Anyway the outline and layout is VERY much like the dragon book as are the contents.  Fortunately for Wizards I love undead so this was almost a mandatory buy for me. Â  If you don’t like undead or are just neutral on them then this is more of an iffy purchase.

Overall I’d give it a 8 out of 10. Â  Mainly for the loads of new undead it adds so I don’t have to make them.  I’ve done the “Boneland” wars in the past and I’ll do it again in the future.  The site of a massive ancient war the Bonelands as they’re now known was the mass grave and burial mounds and tombs of 100′s of thousands of warriors, spell casters and support people over a bloody and massive 3 year war.  The ground is permanently rusted from the iron in the blood spilled there by the lake full.  Nothing grows but stunted twisted plant life that seems to harbor a malevolent hatred of life full of thorns and poisons. Â  Dark things creep out of the Bonelands when the sun hides its face and people who dare to live close to it vanish leaving nothing but blood spatters and the echos of screams.

Chain deamons are very ‘hellraiser’ ish in how they deal with people. The larger or more powerful ones especially would give even Pinhead reason to walk lightly.

All their abilities have a reach of one but still I’d probably run them with some kind of archer and a brute or three just to keep things away from them.  Their ability to reach out and tag someone, knock them prone, take away their ability to use items momentarily should make for an interesting fight.

Image Credits

Image Credits

Giant Bee Worker Level 6 Minion
Medium Natural Beast XP 62
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +4
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC 20; Fortitude 18, Reflex 19, Will 16
Speed Fly 6 (hover)

:meleebasic: Sting (Standard; at-will)
+ 11 vs AC; 5 damage, and makes a secondary attack Only Stings Once against the same target.

:melee: Defend the Hive! (Standard; encounter)
The bee shifts up to its movement, and makes a basic attack
with a +2 bonus.

Only Stings Once (encounter)
After a successful sting attack; +9 vs Fortitude, 5 poison damage, and
slowed and 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends). If successful, the
worker bee dies instantly.

Alignment Unaligned Languages
Skills Acrobatics +12, Endurance +10
Str 16 (+6) Dex 18 (+7) Wis 12 (+4)
Con 14 (+5) Int 10 (+3) Cha 8 (+2)

As a result two low level goblin darkshrouds are being sent out on their bloodquest (yes goblins have quests) in an attempt to extract true goblinoid revenge. These creatures are outlined below.

Image Credits

Image Credits

By Mesh Hong -

Here are some plant monsters I used in my campaign a while back. You might find something here that you could use.

1: Rage Creeper – level 5 Brute
2: Drag Vine – level 5 lurker
3: White Orchid Painbloom – level 5 elite artillery
4: Fungal Grazer – level 6 soldier
5: Fungal Grazer Alpha Male – level 8 brute
6: Fungal Insect Swarm – level 3 skirmisher (swarm)

———————————————————————–

1: Rage Creeper
Rage creepers look like dense patches of plant matter, they typically roll into a surprisingly heavy ball shape made up of vine like tendrils and writhe and slam opponents. They are particularly nasty when cornered.

Rage Creeper Level 5 Brute
Medium Fey beast (plant) XP 200

Initiative +4 Senses Perception +2; blindsight
HP 76; Bloodied 38 see Bloodied Rage
AC 17; Fortitude 19, Reflex 16, Will 15
Immune fear, poison;
Vulnerable 5 fire
Speed 5, Climb 5

MCreeper Slam (standard; at-will)
Attack +8 vs. AC; 1d10+5 damage

mHeavy Slam (standard; at-will)
Attack +8 vs. AC; 2d8+5 damage; on hit secondary attack +6 vs.
Fortitude; on hit the target is pushed 2 squares and knocked prone

Reactive to Danger (immediate reaction, When Creeper takes damage)
When Damaged Rage Creeper may shift 1 square; if it takes fire damage it
may shift 2 squares and make a free Creeper Slam attack if possible

Bloodied Rage
When bloodied Rage Creeper gains a +2 bonus to all attacks

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Endurance +10
Str 20 (+7) Dex 14 (+4) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 16 (+5) Int 8 (+1) Cha 3 (-2)

———————————————————————–

2: Drag Vine
Drag vines lie in wait for their victims to get close to them, then attack with lashing vines hoping to grab as many targets as possible, when they have dragged a number of targets close enough they release spores to hopefully render their victims unconscious so that they can rake them to death.

Drag Vine Level 5 Lurker
Medium fey beast (plant) XP 200

Initiative +7 Senses Perception +15; blindsight
HP 46; Bloodied 23
AC 19; Fortitude 16, Reflex 18, Will 16
Immune fear, poison;
Vulnerable 5 cold
Speed 4, Climb 4

MThorn Rake (standard; at-will)
Attack +10 vs. AC; 1d6+5 damage; on hit target takes 2 ongoing Poison
damage (save ends)

mDrag them in (minor; at-will) (ONLY grabbed target)
Attack +8 vs. Fortitude; 1d4+2 damage; on hit target is pulled 4 squares;
on miss target is pulled 1 square

rLashing Vines (standard; recharge 456)
Ranged 6; attack +6 vs. Reflex; 1d8+5 damage; Drag Vine makes up to 4
attacks (each attack must be a different target); on hit target is grabbed
and takes 2 ongoing poison damage (whilst grabbed); escape Athletics DC
16, Acrobatics DC 18

cSpore Release (standard; encounter) ● Poison
Burst 2; attack +6 vs. Fortitude; 2d8+2 poison damage; on hit target is
weakened (save ends, +2 bonus to save); first failed save target falls
unconscious for 1d6 rounds (a heal check DC15 as a standard action will
bring an adjacent character round)

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Perception +15, Stealth +12
Str 14 (+4) Dex 20 (+7) Wis 16 (+5)
Con 10 (+2) Int 10 (+2) Cha 3 (-2)

NOTE:
My players had a couple of encounters that included pairs of these guys, I really liked them. My players hated them; mind you one of them did manage to make 3 PCs unconscious. The Spore Release one save and become unconscious may be a bit nasty but I still don’t think it is unbalanced, and there is a +2 bonus to the save which increases the odds of success.
They were designed to use Lashing Vines to drag people in then use Spore Release, however in practice they always seemed to just move up the PCs and then use Spore Release. This is probably just another example of practical implementation vs. design intent.

———————————————————————–

3: White Orchid Painbloom
The White Orchid Painbloom is a large and beautiful flower on a single thick stem, sometimes reaching up to 10ft high. Its base is a mass of woody roots and thick greasy leaves. The Orchid will hold its action point in reserve for when it needs it, namely when enemies get too close, or if it can get 4 people with 2 jets of acid.

White Orchid Painbloom Level 5 Elite Artillery
Large fey beast (plant) XP 400

Initiative +7 Senses Perception +2; blindsight
Acidic Haze (Acid) aura 2; Enemies entering or starting their turn in the
aura take 3 acid damage; (When Bloodied aura increases to 5 size and 5
damage)
HP 100; Bloodied 50 (see Acidic Haze)
AC 19; Fortitude 18, Reflex 21, Will 15
Immune fear, poison;
Resist 10 radiant; 10 acid Vulnerable 5 necrotic
Saving Throws +2
Speed 4, Climb 2
Action Points 1

MLeaf Slap (standard; at-will)
Attack +10 vs. AC; 1d8 damage

RAcid Glob (standard; at-will) ● Acid
Range 10/20; attack +12 vs. AC; 1d10+5 acid damage

rJet of Acid (standard; at-will) ● Acid
Range 6/12; attack +12 vs. AC; 1d12+5 acid damage; 2 attacks different
targets, targets must be within 3 squares of each other

rStinging Acid Glob (standard; at-will) ● Acid
Ranged 10/20; attack +12 vs. AC; 1d10+5 acid damage; target takes 5
ongoing acid damage (save ends)

aBlinding Glob of Acid (standard; recharge 6) ● Acid
Area burst 2 within 8; attack +8 vs. Reflex; 2d6+5 acid damage; on hit
target is blinded (save ends)

aSticky Squirt (standard; encounter) (zone – lasts as long as encounter or 5 mins)
Area burst 2 within 15; covers an area with a sticky acidic gooey
compound; considered difficult terrain for non-plants; any enemy
attempting to leave a sticky square must make either a DC 10 athletics or
a DC 12 acrobatics check; failure negates movement and ends the action.

Alignment Unaligned
Str 10 (+2) Dex 20 (+7) Wis 10 (+2)
Con 14 (+4) Int 12 (+3) Cha 3 (-2)

———————————————————————–

4: Fungal Grazer
Fungal Grazers are similar to bulbous white/grey cows with wide stubby legs. Their round head ends in a thick bunch of tentacles which it feeds through.

Fungal Grazer Level 6 Soldier
Large fey beast (plant) XP 250

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +10; darkvision
HP 70; Bloodied 35
AC 22; Fortitude 18, Reflex 15, Will 15
Immune poison, charm, disease, sleep
Speed 5

MHead Slam (standard; at-will)
Attack +13 vs. AC; 1d10+4 damage

mCharging Slam (standard; at-will) (ONLY as a charge attack)
Attack +14 vs. AC; 2d8+4 damage; on hit target is pushed 2 squares;
secondary attack +6 vs Reflex; on hit target is knocked prone

mFace Tentacles (standard; encounter) ● Acid
+10 vs. Fortitude; 3d6+4 acid damage; on hit target is stunned until the
end of the Grazers next turn and takes 3 ongoing acid damage (save ends)

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Endurance +10, Perception +10
Str 18 (+8) Dex 15 (+5) Wis 14 (+5)
Con 14 (+5) Int 8 (+2) Cha 5 (+0)

NOTE:
I have toned Face Tentacles down slightly from experience, this was originally a recharge 6 power. During play it became instantly apparent that it should be an encounter power.
I would also advise against using too many Grazers in the same encounter, or at least watching the Face Tentacles alpha strike. I had an encounter with 5 of these and 5 lots of 3d6+4 damage is maybe a bit harsh.

———————————————————————–

5: Fungal Grazer Alpha Male
The Slightly larger herd leader of the Fungal Grazers, they have broader front feet and wider shoulders than the standard Grazer, though their face tentacles are shorter. Alphas are very aggressive.

Alpha Fungal Grazer Level 8 Brute
Large fey beast (plant) XP 350

Initiative +6 Senses Perception +11; darkvision
HP 106; Bloodied 53 (see Howl of Despair)
AC 20; Fortitude 21, Reflex 19, Will 18
Immune poison, charm, disease, sleep
Speed 5

MHead Slam (standard; at-will)
Attack +11 vs. AC; 2d6+5 damage

mCharging Head Slam (standard; at-will) (ONLY as a charge attack)
Attack +12 vs. AC; 2d10+5 damage; on hit target is pushed 2 squares;
secondary attack +8 vs. Reflex; on hit target is knocked prone

mStomping Feet (standard; at-will)
2 attacks; attack +10 vs. AC; 1d8+5 damage; Grazer rears up and attacks
with its front hooves

cGout of Acid (standard; recharge 6) ● Acid
Close blast 3; attack +8 vs. Reflex; 3d8 + 5 acid damage; on hit target
takes 3 ongoing acid damage (save ends)

cHowl of Despair (immediate reaction, When first bloodied; ) ● Fear
Burst 3; attack +7 vs. Will; on hit target is pushed 3 squares and
immobilised (save ends)

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Endurance +12, Perception +11
Str 20 (+9) Dex 15 (+6) Wis 14 (+6)
Con 16 (+7) Int 10 (+4) Cha 6 (+2)

———————————————————————–

6: Fungal Insect Swarm
Fungal insect swarms live on and around other plant creatures, they are made up of thousands of tiny biting and stinging crawling and buzzing creatures. They have evolved to mimic the spore release of the plants they feed on.

Fungal Insect Swarm Level 3 Skirmisher
Medium fey beast (insect swarm) XP 150

Initiative +4 Senses Perception +0; darkvision
Swarm Attack aura 1; the swarm makes a basic attack as a free action
against each enemy that begins its turn in the aura.
HP 42; Bloodied 21 (Swarm takes half damage from melee & ranged attacks)
AC 17; Fortitude 15, Reflex 15, Will 15
Immune charm, sleep;
Vulnerable 5 fire, 10 Close and Area Attacks
Speed 6

MA Thousand Bites (standard; at-will)
Attack +8 vs. AC; 1d6+2 damage

cPoison Spore Cloud (standard; recharge 56) ● Poison
Burst 2; attack +5 vs. Fortitude; 1d10+3 poison damage; on hit target
takes a penalty of -1 to all defences (save ends)

Tide of Insects (move; at-will)
Fungal Insect Swarm can shift 3 squares as a move action

Alignment Unaligned
Skills Endurance +6, Stealth +9
Str 14 (+3) Dex 16 (+4) Wis 8 (+0)
Con 10 (+1) Int 6 (-1) Cha 3 (-3)

Image Credits

From the original thread here.

My take on the lizzies (I’m using Flash_Plasma’s racial traits as base)

—————————————
Another Lizardfolk (I loved those in 3.5)

—————————————

Lizardfolk feats

Heroic racial feats

STRONG TAIL
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, Tail Slap power
Benefit: If you hit with your Tail Slap power, you can push the target 1 square.

ANKLEBITER
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, small size
Benefit: Against large or larger creatures, you gain a +1 racial bonus on damage rolls.

CLAMPING JAWS
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk
Benefit: If you successfully grab a target, or sustain a grab (normally a minor action) against your target, you deal damage equal to either your Str or Dex Mod to your target.

MARSH STALKER
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, Swamp Walk racial feature.
Benefit: You gain the benefit of concealment in difficult terrain related to your Swamp Walk racial feature.

REACTIVE SKIN
Prerequisite: Poison Dusk Lizardfolk
Benefit: When adjacent to a wall, you gain a +4 racial bonus to stealth checks.

—————————————
Paragon racial feats

GREENSCALE WARRIOR
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, Tail Slap power
Benefit: Your Tail Slap power gains the Reliable keyword.

CLINGING POISON
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, Poison Spittle power
Benefit: If a target is dealt extra damage from your Poison Spittle power, it also suffers ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends).

—————————————
Channel Divinity feats

MARSH MYSTIC INITIATE
Prerequisite: Channel Divinity class feature, aquatic subtype or Swamp Walk racial feature.
Benefit: You can invoke the power of the marsh to use Swamp’s Grasp

POISON SHAMAN
Prerequisite: Channel Divinity class feature.
Benefit: You can invoke the power of nature to use Bog Cloud

Some parts of it I don’t care for but I don’t have any rules for firearms and every now and again I feel a little steampunky. Â  The obscuring of the squares around the shooter being obscured for instance.  While it’s a little realistic I suppose it’ll I feel just more exploited than anything else, to get rogues stealth or to hide behind, that kind of thing.  So I’d yoink that first off.

The more modern weapons, probably not so much.  Breech loaders and muskets fit but a machine gun, not so much.

Image Credits

Firearms for D&D 4

Anyway, here you go, this is certainly a different take on it with the it’s an amorphous blob of energy or lifeforce or whatever rather than an actual black cat or snowy owl.

Image Credits

Ritual of Binding
Level: 1
Category: Binding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: Permanent
Component Cost: 100gp
Market Price: 150gp
Key Skill: Arcana (no check)
This ritual calls a familiar, which is a magical being of arcane
origin with no true physical form, to the target of the ritual
and binds it to them. It usually takes the form of an animal of
some type that reflects the caster’s personality. However, it
can assume any shape of a natural animal of tiny size, at-will.
Regardless of form there is always some signifying mark that
makes it stand-out from other animals of its type and is unique
to it. The master also gains this mark on some part of their
body.
From that moment on, the familiar and caster share a hit point
total. Therefore, whatever damage one takes, they both take.
When together (sharing the same square), they are considered one
entity for the purpose of taking damage, and so do not suffer
double damage from an attack that would hit both of them at the
same time.
Whenever the familiar is targeted, use the caster’s defences. If
the familiar is required to attack, it does so at the expense of
the caster’s attack. The connection between the two is so
fundamental that the strain of combat forces one to be active
and the other to be passive.
The familiar has a +3 to hit with natural weapons in addition to
the normal level bonus and does 1d4 damage plus 1 damage every
two levels.
The familiar only acts as a separate entity when the master
wills it. There is no distance penalty for separation, however
if the familiar is destroyed, then the master is reduced to 0
health and must make death saves as normal or be stabilised.
At this point, the master loses all benefits associated with the
familiar, including any feats gained. They lose all healing
surges and regain them at the rate of one per day. After this,
they may gain another familiar through performing this ritual
again, at which time all benefits, including feats previously
gained, return.
The familiar can fly (hover) with a speed of 6 as long as it
assumes a form that can fly. It has the same type of vision as
the caster and uses the caster’s skills as its own, therefore if
the caster can Stealth, so can the familiar.
The familiar and caster share an empathic link. Only images,
sounds and feelings can be conveyed. There is no range limit on
this ability. The familiar can speak all tongues the master
knows.
It has the same Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom &
Charisma as the master, however it has a Strength of 3. It
shares many personality traits with its master, especially
dominant traits, however it is its own entity for the purposes
of personality. Despite this, the master can command it to do
what he wishes.
Multi-class Familiar
If an owner of a familiar wishes, they can enhance the
connection between themselves and their familiar by taking
feats.
This works almost exactly like the multi-classing rules. The
only difference is that the powers are chosen for you and you
have the option to upgrade them as you go up in level.
Whenever a level is gained where you have the choice to replace
a power, you can instead upgrade one of your familiar feats.
Each feat lists the benefit of upgrading and these benefits
stack with each other.
Familiar Attunement Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma 13.
Benefit: You gain a +1 to Perception and Stealth.
In addition to this, you can use your familiar to do the
following:
Sensory Attunement Familiar At-will Power 1
You attune your senses to that of the familiar’s, enabling you
to see, hear, smell, taste and touch everything the familiar
sees, hears, smells, tastes and touches.
At-will • Arcane
Standard Action Ranged 20
Effect: until the end of your next turn, you can command the
familiar to move to any square within range. Forgoing your own
sensory input (making you unable to see, hear, smell, taste or
touch through your own senses), you attune yourself to your
familiar. You do not need line of sight for this ability to
work.
Sustain Minor: you can sustain this power for up to one hour per
level with a minor action every round.
Upgrade: Add +1 to Perception and Stealth. Increase the range of
Sensory Attunement by 5.
Enhance Familiar I Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 4th-level.
Benefit: You gain a +3 hit points (does not stack with
Toughness).
In addition to this, replace your 3rd-level encounter power with
the following ability:
Sacrifice Familiar Familiar Encounter Attack 1
By merging its soul with your own the familiar can sacrifice its
physical form, protecting you from harm.
Encounter • Arcane
Immediate Interrupt Melee or Ranged special
Trigger: You are attacked by a creature.
Target: the attacking creature.
Attack: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma vs. Reflex.
Hit: 1d8+Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma force damage and you
get to use your Second Wind ability after the target’s attack
has been resolved.
Special: the familiar cannot be used for the remainder of the
combat and reforms after a short rest. The familiar must be
within a range determined by the Sensory Attunement power for
this power to function.
Upgrade: Add +2 hit points (does not stack with Toughness). Add
+1 to hit with this power. Gain an extra 1d6 to the amount
healed by using Second Wind as a result of this power.
Enhance Familiar II Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 8th-level.
Benefit: Add +1 to damage when using this ability.
In addition to this, replace your 6th-level utility power with
the following ability:
Spell Conduit Familiar Utility Power 1
Any spell that you can cast can be cast as if from the
familiar’s location instead of your own.
Daily • Arcane
Minor Action Ranged special
Effect: cast a spell as if the point of origin is your familiar.
You must still have line of sight to the target unless also
using Sensory Attunement, in which case line of sight is
determined from the familiar’s position.
Special: the range at which the familiar can be away from the
master for this ability to still work is equal to the range of
Sensory Attunement.
Upgrade: Add +1 to damage when using this power and becomes an
encounter power. Each successive replacement ability used to
upgrade this power adds +1 to damage with this power and another
use per encounter.
Enhance Familiar III Heroic Feat
[Multiclass Familiar]
Prerequisite: Familiar Attunement, 10th-level.
Benefit: Add +1 to hit when using this power.
In addition to this, replace your 9th-level attack power with
the following ability:
Simulacrum Familiar Daily Attack 1
You divide your essence into two halves and imbue your familiar
with the other half, empowering it for a short period and making
it look exactly like you.
Daily • Arcane
Move Action Ranged special
Target: special
Attack: special
Hit: special
Effect: choose a square within range. The familiar moves to that
square and becomes an exact duplicate of you. You can then use
any power or ability you wish and both forms will produce the
same effect, targeted at the same area, using separate attack
and damage rolls (based on your own attack and damage
modifiers). You can flank an opponent using this power. Once the
power has been used, you can choose which square to ‘reform’ in,
either your own or the familiar’s.
Special: the range at which the familiar can be away from the
master for this ability to still work is equal to the range of
Sensory Attunement.
Upgrade: For each successive replacement ability used to upgrade
this feat, add +1 to hit and damage when using this power

Image Credits

A Simple Algorithm for Generating DCs

As has become something of a habit for me lately, I wrote an adventure on the plane ride home from GenCon. Lately, it’s rare that I have 3 to 4 consecutive hours to do anything other than (sometimes) sleep.

I’m a big believer that laziness is the mother of insight. Many folk see a tendency toward sloth as a bad thing, but if not for sloth, we’d still be living in caves, hunting brontosauruses, and hiding from thunderstorms. It’s the human capacity for laziness that drives us to make short term sacrifices (inventing science was no easy feat) for long term pay offs (computers for everyone!).

Thus, I found myself writing an adventure while wedged into seat 24D with a pencil box, a notebook, and two Forgotten Realms sourcebooks (the new 4e one and the DM’s book from the old gray box). I had put my D&D books into my luggage because, frankly, I didn’t want to carry them around.

The monsters were pretty easy to generate for the adventure – I either remembered their levels, or I built them from scratch (the formulas are easy peasy to memorize, and again my commitment to laziness pays off – I don’t need to carry the DMG).

However, I was a little annoyed when working on traps, terrain features, and just general stuff that needed DCs. I couldn’t remember the DC progression. I puzzled over it for a few minutes, then realized that my laziness had saved me once again. In an insight so obvious that I feel like punching myself, here’s Dr. Mearls’ Patented, Super Easy, Instant DC Generator:

1. Start with 10.
2. Add half the trap, encounter, or challenge’s level.
3. Do you want only people trained in the skill to have a shot at success? If so, add 5.
4. Think of the stat a PC would need to have a 55% chance of success, assuming the PC is trained if you want only trained guys to have a chance of success. Add that stat’s modifier.

Voila! Instant DC.

Here’s an example:
In a dungeon aimed at 6th level PCs, there’s a locked door. It’s a really good lock, so only a rogue or someone trained in Thievery has a chance to open it, but someone who is trained doesn’t need much natural talent to open it.

So:
10
+ 3 (half of level 6)
+ 5 (assume training)
+ 1 (a Dex 13 character who is trained should be able to handle this one)

Is a total DC of 19. Voila! An untrained character with a good Dex still has a 30% chance to open the lock.

If you know the PCs’ stats, you can achieve a fine control of the DC by using the process above, plugging in the PC’s stat mod, then adding 1 to the DC for every 5% you want to drop the success chance.

The nice thing about this method is that it pushes you to think of what the PCs can do, and it’s simple enough (IMO) that you can use it on the fly.

OK, back to taking care of all the chores that have piled up since I’ve been away. I’ll talk about GenCon later this week.

Posted by Mike Mearls

Anyway if you’d like to offer your players the ability to have a dwarvish equivalent to Drizzle then here you go.

Image Credits

Duergar
Natural humanoid (devil)

Average Height: 4’3” – 4’ 9”
Average Weight: 170-230 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed 5
Vision: Darkvision

Languages Common, Deep Speech, Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: Dungeoneering +2, Arcana +2

Impregnable Mind: +1 racial bonus to Will defense, +2 Will defense vs. powers with the illusion key word
Tartarean Blood: Resist 5 fire, 5 poison

Duergar Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the warhammer or war pick (choose one when your character is created).
Encumbered Speed: You move at your normal speed even when it would normally be reduced by armor or a heavy load. Other effects that limit speed (such as difficult terrain or magical effects) affect you normally.
Beard Quill: Once per encounter, you can pluck a poisoned quill from beneath your beard (hair if female), and throw it as a minor action – you gain the Beard Quill racial encounter power.

Play a Duergar if you want…
to be resistant to fire, illusions and poison
to possess dark ties to fell heritage
to be a member of a race that favors the artificer, swordmage, and warlock classes.

The duergar, also called gray dwarves, were once a settlement of shield dwarves in the dwarven kingdom of Shanatar. The shield dwarves that eventually became the duergar lived in certain strongholds that fell under attack of mind flayers, or illithids, and were captured. During their captivity, which lasted for generations, the illithids performed many cruel and unusual experiments on the dwarves. Eventually, the dwarves rose up against their captors and gained their freedom from the mind flayers. Believing Moradin abandoned them in their long captivity, duergar turned to evil dwarven deities (like Ladaguer and Deep Duerra) and infernal powers, strengthening their stock by breeding with devils and seeking power in dark rituals. When the evil dwarven deities perished in war with the Moradinsaman, the duergar took Asmodeus as their favored deity. Now the duergar inhabit volcanic areas of the Underdark and have been left as cruel and evil as their former captors and quite withdrawn from their experiences.

Physical Qualities
Duergar are similar in appearance to their distant cousins, the dwarves. Short and strongly built, duergar stand about 4 ½ feet tall and weigh roughly 200 pounds. All duergar have fiery amber eyes, and their skin is usually gray to sooty black. Their hair is generally white to gray, and males are bald (although they wear facial hair). Their long association with devils and infernal magic has left them strongly resistant to illusions, fire and poison. Nearly all duergar have long, stiff spines concealed within their beards (for males) or hair (for females) that carry a burning venom. They can pluck and hurl these quills like daggers. In public, duergar wear drab clothing designed to help them blend into their environment. In private, they may add subdued jewelry and well-wrought metal bracers, armbands or torcs. They share the love of their surface cousins for mining and metalcraft, and excel at artifice.

Playing a Duergar
Grim and ruthless, duergar grow up like their infernal relations valuing strength and endurance, and despising weak sentiment or behavior. Courageous, duergar are fierce enemies with little sense of fair play. Even more than their surface cousins, duergar are insular, looking inward and little valuing those outside of their clans. They never forget their enemies, and will wait patiently for a chance to take their vengeance ten-fold for any harm done to them. They always pay back a debt; if you are lucky enough to be on the good side of a debt with a duergar, he will grudgingly make it good to the letter of the agreement. But if you have taken advantage of him or dishonored him in his own mind, he will add you to the tally of those who deserve ten-fold vengeance. Duergar are patient and will spend years if need be preparing a revenge that leaves their enemies humiliated, and in ashes or eternal servitude. It is not uncommon for a duergar’s vengeance to fall onto those one or two generations down from the person or creature who offended them, especially when dealing with shorter lived races.

In the chance that an adventurer wanders across a duergar on the surface, that adventurer is likely to notice facial and arm tattoos that mark the gray dwarf as a traitor to duergar society.

Racial Feats

Improved Tartarean Blood
Prerequisite: Duergar
Benefit: Fire and Poison resistance increase to 10.

Aberrant Slayer
Prerequisite: Duergar
Benefit: +1 bonus to attack rolls against aberrant creatures, and +2 saving throws versus power effects of aberrant creatures.

Avernal Bloodline
Prerequisite: Duergar, Constitution 13+
Benefit: Once per day, you can use either the invisibility or expansion duergar racial powers.

Racial Powers:

Beard Quill Duergar Racial Power
Encounter
Minor Action Ranged 3
Attack: Str +2 vs. AC
Hit: d6 + Con, Ongoing 2 poison and -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends)

Expand Duergar Racial Power
Daily Polymorph
Free Action
Trigger: When first bloodied
Effect: You become Large, occupying 4 squares instead of 1. Any creatures in the squares that you come to occupy are pushed 1 square. You also gain reach 2 and a +2 bonus to your melee damage rolls. You remain Large until the end of the encounter.

Invisibility Duergar Racial Power
Daily Illusion
Minor Action
Effect: You turn invisible until end of your next turn. You become visible if you take a standard action

Ever wondered why there aren’t more halfbreeds in typical Dungeons and Dragons?  You got your half-elf and your half-orc.  What about half halfling or half-gnome or… well you get the picture.

I suppose it’s because humans are so… virile?  Fecund?  Universal? that they get to knock boots with pretty much anything and either impregnate it or get impregnated by it.  Which makes little sense to be honest but hey it’s a land where dragons can fly and etc.  Who are we to argue over a little bit of biology?

To this end there’s the new Mul aka Half-Human and Half-Dwarf…

Image Credits

Post Credits

Mül (Half-Dwarf)

Tough as a dwarf, and as stubborn as a human

RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 5’6″-6″2″
Average Weight: 160 – 230 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal

Languages: Common, Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Athletics
Dual Heritage: You can take feats that have either dwarf or human as a prerequisite (as well as those specifically for müls,) as long as you meet any other requirements.
Indomitable Defense: When you use your second wind, you gain an additional +2 bonus to all defenses until the start of your next turn.
Sterner Stuff: You gain a +5 racial bonus on saving throws against ongoing damage
Defiant Even Unto Death:You can use the Defiant Unto Death Encounter Power.

Defiant Even Unto Death Mül Racial Power
Your mixed heritage makes you tougher than either of your parents.
Encounter
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Effect: When you fail a death save, reroll that save. You are forced to take the second roll, even if it’s lower.

Very rarely do dwarves and humans mate. When they do, the couples are more often than not biologically incompatible to bear offspring. In the unlikely event that the parents are capable of produce a child the result, regardless of parentage, is always a mül.

Born to mixed couples they are often the subject of prejudice in both their native societies. Due to their inability to bear children many find solace in religious sects or in leadership positions where they can be a figurative father or mother. Their hardy physique makes them very capable fighters and warlords. Fortunately their natural toughness makes them apt candidates for adventuring.

Play a mül if you want . . .

• to be able to shrug off ruining pain, survive in the most unforgiving environments and stand firm against waves of enemies.
• to show a world its not who you were born to but what you do that determines your greatness.
• to be a member of a race that favors the fighter, warlord and cleric class.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Müls are as slightly shorter than their human parents and typically not as broad as their dwarven parents. They are born hairless and only grow eyebrows and eyelashes, along with nose & ear hair, within a few weeks of being born. That is all the hair they will ever grow. Skin tones and eye color run the typical gamut of human and dwarf norms.
Many villages frown upon the birth of a mül child as they are all sterile or barren and cannot produce offspring to help sustain a community. Thus, many are led to live violent and arduous lives of the second-class citizenry. Most of the relatively few müls to exist become warriors.
There is no commonality to mül society. One might say there isn’t one since there are so few of them in the world. On the off chance that two of these beings should ever meet they’re just as likely to rejoice in commonality as to manifest an instant dislike for the other because of what they represent, an outcast in a cruel and unfair world.
Müls don’t live any longer than their human parents but like their dwarven parents manage to stave off the effects of old-age right up until the last few months of life.

PLAYING A MüL
Inheriting the best parts of their mixed parentage müls are ideally suited to live the life of an adventurer. They typically see the world from the perspective of a victim as they are usually treated unfairly by a world that doesn’t want them. That is not to say that they are all anti-social misanthropes but most members of the mül race are at least cautious when first introduced to new people.
One trait that is universally shared by all müls is their almost iron built bodies. They are able to endure beyond the limits of any other humanoid race. They can perform grueling, intense labor for days at a time without rest, food and with very little water. This, unfortunately, makes them especially attractive to slavers and more than a few of these rare breed beings have been captured and sold into unwilling servitude.

Mül Characteristics: Angry,cautious, defiant, hard-nosed, lonely, uncouth

MÇ•L ADVENTURERS
Three sample mül adventurers are described below.
Rikus was born into slavery but his spirit was always free. Pitted to face horrible creatures for the amusement of a cruel king for most of his life he was at last able to secure his freedom when he helped over throw the corrupt monarch and slavery was outlawed. Now, Rikus uses his sword to lead mighty legions against slave owning nations in a bloody crusade to end slavery across the land. Negotiations, after all, are for more civilized races.
Ezekiel was abandoned at birth on the doorstep of a church dedicated to Moradin. He was raised as a ward of the church and trained in the holy texts of the creation god. Now a grown man, Ezekiel has begun a pilgrimage to preach the word of Moradin and do good deeds in his name. He ultimately hopes to create a great cathedral to his patron god and fill it with his converted followers. They will be his children and he their father.
Tulg was raised by the cruel world that rejected him. The streets were his home and from them he learned self-reliance, pride in himself and that the strong must do whatever it takes to survive; even take from the weak. Tulg resents his life and wonders what it would be like to live the charmed life of a noble. Perhaps when he accumulates enough wealth he will find out.

Racial Feats:

ARENA BRED
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Mül, Martial Class
Benefit: You gain proficiency with the Whip, the Bola, or the Net, and gain a +2 feat bonus to damage with your choice.

STUBBORN AS A MÃœL
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Mül, Defiant Even Unto Death racial power
Benefit: When you use your Defiant Even Unto Death power, you gain a +2 racial bonus to the reroll. In addition, any time you spend a healing surge because you rolled 20 or higher on a death saving throw, you gain a number of additional hp equal to your constitution score.

I spent most of my time working on left 4 dead maps, watching movies, eating pizza, having nerf gun fights with the boy’s christmas presents etc.

I’m now back at work and getting caught up on you know actual work and slowly browsing my way through data pools to find anything worth remembering.  So far not much to be honest.  I found this little tid bit so far which I’m posting for posterity because I am old school and fondly remember green sliming people. Â  It was almost like they were saying, “I don’t know.” all the time.  Bonus points to anyone that gets that little reference (correctly).

Image Credits

by Mike Mearls

Green Slime Trap
Level 3 Obstacle
Trap XP 150

Trap: The two squares at the bottom of the stairs have a tripwire
that drops a bundle of green slime on the triggering character.

Perception
DC 25: The character notices the tripwire.

Trigger +4 Initiative
The trap attacks when a creature enters one of the two squares
at the base of the stairs. Once it is triggered, it does not attack
again.

Attack
Opportunity Action Melee
Target: The triggering creature
Attack: +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d8 acid damage and ongoing 5 acid damage and -2 AC (save
ends both).
Miss: Ongoing 5 acid damage and -2 AC (save ends both).
Special: A creature suffering ongoing acid damage from this trap is
covered in green slime. On a successful save, the creature removes
the slime but a randomly chosen creature adjacent to it is now
covered in the slime. If no creature is adjacent, the slime occupies a
square chosen by the creature.
If the slime is in a square, it repeats the attack above against a
random, adjacent creature on its turn. If no target is adjacent, it
does nothing.

Countermeasures

– A character who makes a successful Athletics check (DC 6 or
DC 11 without a running start) can jump over a single tripwired
square.

– An character adjacent to the tripwire squares can disable the
trap with a DC 20 Thievery check.

– An character adjacent to the tripwire squares can cause the trap
to attack a creature of his choice adjacent to the tripwire squares
with a DC 20 Thievery check.

– The slime is destroyed if a creature suffering its effects takes 20
or more points of fire damage, or if the square it occupies takes that
damage.

It’s at least fully equipped with all levels, paths and the like. Â  Of course with the preview and Player Handbook II coming out it might be a case of a little late but what the hell, enjoy it you like.

Image Credits

An excerpt:

Characteristics: Your powers concern the management and disposal of multiple enemies – often from a position right behind the front line. Many of your utility powers affect you personally, and your Spellsurge class feature offers you powerful offensive and defensive effects when it occurs. Your hit points and arsenal of close-range powers are greater than other controllers, however, your lower Armor Class and inability to handle individual foes mean you most likely cannot afford to fight near the front for extended lengths of time.

Religion: Sorcerers most commonly offer faith to gods of chance, travel, and freedom, such as Avadra, or particularly powerful entities they feel worthy of respect. Evil-Aligned sorcerers often worship Tiamat, or in more primitive cultures, more destructive entities such as Gruumsh.

Races: Tieflings and half-elves make excellent disruptor and destroyer sorcerers, but will excel in either role. Humans are also strong sorcerers, and dragonborn and halflings are also capable.

I could see this in use although for me personally it would be a little anachoristic for a fantasy game but not to the point of forbidding it.  I can remember Psionics in the old school terms and they were a little over the top IMO.

Image Credits

But in its defense in 20 years of DM’ing I’ve never gone astral traveling although I’ve certainly gone plane jumping but more of a Slider’s kind of thing to use perhaps a more widely known reference.

It both feels short and reads short, without having it here at work, I’d guess maybe 150 pages?  Most of the sections are short and while perhaps evocative, not filled with a ton of information.  I’m certainly not a “need the full recipe with step by step to enjoy my banana bread” type of GM I do want a little more than “use flour, sugar, eggs, bananas to make yourself a tasty treat”.

YMMV as always and it’s certainly better than nothing but…

You’ll get a few pages for the planes as they exist now, Feywild, Shadowfell, Astral Sea, and the Elemental plane and that’s pretty much it.  Each of those is broken dow into anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 a page of information describing some of the points of interest in each plane.

Another chapter will give you a few (very few) new critters for the PC’s to run into and are most devils/deamons that IMO should have been in the Monster Manual but that’s a bitch of a another color.

It’s rounded out with a few pages on new paragon paths as related to planar activities, some new rituals, again dealing with planar travel and tracking and the like and a few new magic items.

All in all none of it is really jam packed with goodness to me. Â  Sigil gets about 4-6 pages and is about the most indepth individual location as described.

So if you want planar travel and you want to make sure it’s based on official stuff so you don’t end up going old school and your players are all “uh that’s not right” then get it.  But unless you have pressing need for planar travel then it’s value is iffy.

Image Credtis

I just watched the monster builder tutorial and it was fairly inclusive and seemed feature rich.

It’s java based *boo hiss* but seems fairly quick in spite of that and of course that typically means it runs on windows and macs and linux and whatever.

Anyway…

Martial Power is the melee splat book. Adds new powers, options, builds for Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlord. Â  I don’t consider it an outstanding purchase for a DM like the Draconomicon but rather a viable purchase for the Melee player and as always once you start branching things outside the core the DM will need to monitor power balance and creep.  For instance Melee’ers get a new key word on powers, Invigorating among others.  If you successfully use such a power you gain temporary hit points equal to your con mod.  Sure it’s only once per turn and you have to hit and and they don’t stack but that’s a ‘free’ 1-x hitpoints per turn to absorb some damage.  But that’s how power creep starts.  A minor ‘nifty’ here and a tiny ‘ooooh’ there and pretty soon we’re back to pun-pun.

Also the powers start blurring the lines between classes which can be good or bad or neutral.  Warlords were the premiere ‘re-arrange the battlefield’ class for example IMO.  But now the fighters (just as one quick example) are getting more powers that let them shift things up, swapping places etc.

This also includes ‘companion’ rules for Ranger to get a pet and almost exactly like the community based ones the pet uses up a action of the owners so if you want it to attack then you forgo your attack action etc unless you spend an action point.  I see the Familiar rules for the arcane folk working identically to be honest.

But if your players or you’re a player who likes melee and you’re chafing at the lack of options for powers at each level then this will certainly give you more, most of the new stuff for each class easily more than doubles the powers (5 new level 1 dailies and 6 new level 3 encounters to choose for fighters as an exmaple) you can select from for each.

The new powers are also IMO addressing to a large extent some of the ‘concern’ (aka outrage) that the pissy people shouted from the forumtops about how each character of the same [insert class] feels exactly like the next one.  Many of the new powers are weapon or tactic centric, i.e. with things like “If you’re wielding a light blade or spear, you can either shift 2 squares before the attack or shift 1 square before and 1 square after.” and “If you’re using a shield you do not provoke opportunity attacks when using this power.”

So while I’d rate the Draconomicon (scroll down) a 10/10 this would get perhaps a 8/10 if it fills a need for you and is primarily for players although certainly NPC’s could gain from this. Â  If you’re happy with the state of the Melee classes then perhaps a 5/10 just for some of the new builds, paragon paths and the like.

We’re introduced to the Gray, Brown and Purple dragons, (stone, dirt and psychic respectively) as well as a loving documentary of all the old favorites.

You’ll get details on their history, anatomy, what they like and don’t like, why they do the crazy things they do.

There are two outlines for using dragons as a major plot line for a campaign and a good handful of adventure ideas using dragons at various levels.

Several lairs are described complete with maps and rules for generating dragon hordes can be found to fill them with phat lewt for delvers to come across.

Oddly enough we finally get breakdown of what ‘stuff’ costs with this book which is an odd place to finally get it.  Honestly I’d of looked for it on DDI or in a Dragon issue but hey here it just adds value to an already pretty worth it book.

As a DM I’d rank this one as a higher purchase priority than the Adventurer’s Vault, (as a player it would easily be the opposite of course).

Anyway if you like dragons this is a definitely must have if you’re a DM.  It’s available at your local brick and mortar’s I’m sure and you can always get it at amazon.

Essentially (and the explanation is repeated below) you roll X dice to make a check.  If any die shows it’s maximum number you get to keep that number and reroll it and add the new roll to your total although I prefer simply letting the player have another die to roll so they’re all on the table when it’s time to do the counting.  This lets a player have a chance, admittedly slight sometimes of beating ANY DC roll if he gets enough exploding dice.  It’s a system that allows for some memorable checks like a puny mage chained to the wall of a slave galley breaking his chains on a strength check while the raging barbarian next to him can’t budge them.

Anyway it’s worthy of consideration I think.

Skills Get Sea’d

This one is more 3E than 2nd edition and brings in the aforementioned classes, also the ones that the community was the first to create and post.  Obviously not the same builds etc, just the same classes although there’s going to be some overlap as there’s only so many ways you can build a power in 4th edition per level.

With the FFS barbie you get your stereotypical raging barbarian.  The class has been around a long time and there’s not really anything new here in that regard.  This barbarian though has totems, you get your choice of bear, eagle or wolf which affect the output of various powers much like a warlock.

I could probably just say this about the three offerings.  The [insert class name] is similar to the 3e [inert class name] as much as it can be and is similar to the community offerings for  [insert class name].

Don’t get me wrong, what’s in this book is certainly servicable.

In addition to the classes, you’ll get a smattering of new feats to go with them although some of them are pointless like Quick Sling which is just Quick Draw for your musical instrument.  I don’t know of any DM that wouldn’t let you use Quick Draw to sling your guitar so you’d be spending a feat slot on something that’s less useful. Â  YMMV of course.

You’ll also get some magic items appropraite for the new classes and smoe that are appropriate for any class.

One of the more inteesting things is the ‘magic items’ for the Monk which are called secret techniques.  These have a heavy ‘scroll of the dragon warrior’ vibe where only one person can know these technique at a time and if you pass on the knowledge then you lose it.

No index and no table of contents do detract from the value of the book.  To look anything up you’ll be doing a lot of page flipping.

It was spell checked but again not a perfect job of proofing.

Artwork is borderline bad/good.  Don’t expect epic color art depicting vast battles.  You’re going to be disappointed.  This is another book that if there was no artwork, you probably wouldn’t miss it.

Value?  You’re getting 88 pages for $19.99.  On this one I’d have to say no unless you just want it.  The classes in it are all official wizards classes that will probably be the same in flavor and style and you know you’re probably going to buy the PHBII regardless as well official splat. Â  If you just have to ahve one of the classes IMO there are some in the community that are as useful to you.

As always you may have a different opinion.

Frankly I like the concept enough I plan on using it the next time we roll characters up.  I’ll probably tweak it to some extent but I’m liking what I see here.

Image Credits

Character Creation (4th edition)

The 4ed ruleset matches ADMC vision better than 3ed did, the only mandatory change is to make all player characters human. For this reason races are replaced with aptitudes. All other rules are used (at this moment) as written.

Aptitudes

Sets of human innate characteristics that correspond in game terms to fantasy races. The characters all look human and can be part of any of the myriad human cultures, only their spiritual or physical qualities set them apart. No more monocultural “races” that act like humans in funny costumes!

Brave

Courageous and determined character. Throws himself with abandon even to impossible seeming challenges, and will not willingly back off from the chosen path. The bravery could stem from irrational berserk fury, blind faith to higher powers, pure stubbornness, or tragic fatalism.

Disciplined

Character with better than average training, both because of innate wits and learning ability and tight self-discipline. Wants to continuously better his skills and abilities — goal is to become a master in his chosen speciality. Success is based more on spiritual than physical qualities.

Quick

Fast, alert, and agile character whose sharp senses help to focus on the task at hand regardless of distractions. Has better than average control of his movements, so is a natural dancer or acrobat.

Sinister

Aggressive and ruthless character, who is at risk to become vengeful and cruel. Does not hold society’s norms — customs, morality, or religion — in a high regard, which can lead to rebellion against (imagined) oppression, or a status of a criminal and outcast. Success is based on a no-holds-barred attitude towards own goals. Sometimes may have supernatural heritage.

Social

Open, talkative, and likeable character. Naturally curious, so gathers information and skills from many sources and seldom focuses on a single tight speciality. Communicates well and can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, but is also good at convincing others to adopt his view on things.

Tough

Solid and tenacious character, who can take more physical punishment than most. Willingly exerts himself in hard labor or training. Rugged and hardy, but can be brawny or wiry, short or tall.

All aptitudes

• Ability Scores: +2 to one ability score of your choice
• Size: Medium
• Vision: Normal

1. Mobile Retribution: shift 1 square before making basic attack triggered by Furious Retribution
2. Precision Weapon Training: proficiency with all spears, +2 feat bonus to damage when using a spear or light blade
3. Heavy Weapon Training: proficiency and +2 feat bonus to damage with axes, hammers, and maces

Although a little late, there’s a horror based module for your use if you’d like it and it can be found here.

Here’s a little snippet:

This island was once the hold of a dwarven runesmith and his family. Given his skill and talent, the smith had his own forge and foundry, along with a small village of his clan that had come to join him. The smith chose this island both for its reclusive locale and its abundant natural resources. The island is the tip of a long-dormant volcano, and not far below the surface are ferrous ores rich in the minerals the runesmith needed for his crafts.

The smith lived and prospered here for over two hundred years. On the eve of their two hundredth year celebration, the runesmith’s wife fell from the keeps parapets and died. Over the next weeks and months, the runesmith called in all of his favors with local lords and kings who had benefited from the dwarf’s quality wares. Priests and arcanists were shipped in from lands as far away as the green coast (which, at the time, was the property of the black kings). Unfortunately, no form of resurrection seemed to work, and as time drew on, the runesmith became more and more obsessed and deranged. Many of his clan attempted to bring him to reason, but being dwarves, they had no choice but to trust in and honor their quickly degenerating lord. Then, exactly one year after the accident, the entire keep’s contact with the outside world cut off. Not long after, when ships arrived to restock the dwarves’ supplies, they found nothing but old bones, decrepit and brittle with extreme age.

After a small amount of deliberation I thought it would be better to broaden the categories over the original idea. So to that end I offer the following thoughts.  Perhaps they’re dumb or genius but the big thing is are they workable and useful in any fashion. Â  For the people for whom they really miss crafting I think it might work well without ‘nerfing’ their characters badly which is always a risk one takes when you require a character to spend resources that could be applied to combat.

Crafting requires a Feat as such:

Crafting (Heroic Tier)
Prerequisite: Wis 10
Benefit: You can learn crafting of various items.

By spending a feat on the above this allows the character to learn any of a variety of crafting skills.  It has the restriction that at least a basic set of tools necessary to craft the items in question as well obviously the materials to do so and in some cases the area to do so.

Making it cost a feat is perhaps a bit of a penalty for some and of course a DM could do away with that but then they might end up with a party of crafting adventurer’s where everyone knows how to build something.  If nothing else making it a feat will separate the roleplayers from the rollplayers.  The latter would be unlikely to give up a feat that would empower their character in some fashion for something that is essentially fluff.

A character with Crafting can learn to craft any broad category of items both large and small subject to the DM’s discretion. This can range from the obvious most desirable things

Some general idea’s below:

Picking up any particular crafting skill requires one week of intensive training.  This isn’t realistic but hopefully you’re not playing 4th Edition in a simulationist style of play.  Typically each set of skills is set to 100 gold for training to cover the costs of the trainer’s time, materials used in the training etc.

Weapon Crafting, one for each category of weapon type (Axe, Bow, Crossbow, Flail, Hammer, Heavy Blade, Light Blade, Mace, Pick, Polearm, Sling, Spear, Staff) :

Craft [Weapon Category]

Time: 2-5 days
Component Cost: Cost of the weapon
Market Price: 100 gp

Armour Crafting, one for each category of armour type (Cloth, Leather, Hide, Chainmail, Scale, Plate, Shields):

Craft [Armour Category]

Time: 2 to 5 weeks
Component Cost: Cost of the armour
Market Price: 100 gp

This can be extended as far as you like obviously.

Craft Small Boats

Time: 2-5 weeks
Component Cost: Cost of the vehicle
Market Price: 100 gp

Craft Wagons

Time: 2-5 weeks
Component Cost: Cost of the vehicle
Market Price: 100 gp

Craft Wooden Building

Time: 1-3 months
Component Cost: Cost of the building
Market Price: 100 gp

And so on, the skies the limit.  You could even make a chain of dependencies and create a skill tree.  To craft a stone tower might require the knowledge of how to craft a wooden building etc.

Image Credits

Getting those items out of the dungeon of course, intact in some cases or just brute forced in others was another story.  And once the party leaves and news of the BBEG’s death spreads like wildfire, just how long do you think the loot they left behind will remain or at least remain unclaimed?  Not very would be the proper answer to that one.  Is there much greater pleasure than watching a party fight for the second time to get the treasure they’d already won?

To that end, here-in lies a thread filled with all kinds of items that you can offer your players instead of just a flag bag of gold or even worse, in convienent mixed gemstones, easy to carry out.

And there’s TONS more thoughts in the thread, I just include a very tiny little snippet below for your bemusement.

10gp
*ceramic figurine/statuette. about 6″ long and hand-painted. Can be of anything: rustmonsters w/ pink bows, beholders, orc-Hobos. Be sure that any statue type (such as Orc hobo or rustmonster) as an entire series of statues by a famous ceramic statue designer that the PC can collect. (collecting rare statuettes can make for interesting side-quests and annoy fellow PC’s)

*Scrimshaw. Ivory with design etched onto it. Usually boats & nautical themes as it is a popular hobby with whalers. Put scrimshaw on regular items to make them worth more treasure room… like pocket knife handles.

*Electrum whiskey glasses (emblazoned with the name of a famous tavern)

*Gold body jewelry

*

55gp.
*hand-crafted chairs (pair), in Teak, Walnut, or Mahogany. Certain to be comfortable and add some flair to any dungeon chamber. Geometric patterns, leaves, or skulls carved into the chair-arms along with an upholstered seating area (embroidered to taste) are common at this range. Remember that any BBEG worth his salt is going to have at least 8 chairs around any masterwork dinner table (105gp).

*Copper framed wall mirror. The hand-wrought frame surrouns a mirror of silvered glass. dragons & leaves are common styles. They make really good treasure ’cause they break easy!

*Painting. It might be still-life, surreal, or maybe Orcish impressionism of the third age. But 55gp paintings are usually ho-hum and 24″x36″.

*silver flatware. The eating utensils. made of silver. Service for 8

*Masterwork cooking pots. Ceramic enamled cast-iron baking goods available in most colours. Add a +1 to any Cooking skill DC.

*Leatherbound, gold leafed book. A tome on any skill or knowledge, determined randomly. A character may use it to refrence at time of spending skill points… or just sell it.

*Crystal decanter and wine-glass set.

Image Credits

And then there’s one of the leader roles, the Slavemaster. A savagely barbed whip

Slavemaster

Without further ado, the Kartel Thug and Kartel Slavemaster.

Image Credits 1 Image Credits 2

These are folks that have a relationship to the kidnappers of the first module and eventually characters will find themselves at odds with this amoral group.

Below find the upper echelon of the mass members of the Kartel, the Skirmisher and the Archer.

Skirmisher

A typical patrol will be ship based and include one or two Slavemasters, one senior to the other, one or two Hoods, a handful of Skirmishers and another handful of Archers, followed by roughly twice that number in Thugs.

The ship itself will have a separate crew, typically equal to thugs but that never leave the ship and a leader although all are subject to orders and whims of the Slavemasters and Hoods.

The ship will be a typical misery loves company cargo ship where the living cargo is packed into the hold with little space to do more than turn around and up to 20% losses between end points in the cargo are the norm. Â  More valuable cargo will have slightly better care and the highest priced cargo are held in special cabins near the leader’s quarters.

Image Credits One / Two

And that’s great when they’re the good guys, but what about the bad guys?  How do you hold a caster prisoner without him simply teleporting away, killing all your guards, summoning deamons to rip open the jail doors, etc. ad naseum.

In some lands they resorted to blinding, ripping out the tounge, puncturing the ears and cutting off the fingers.  A bit drastic for the petty thief with some arcane knowledge and not guarenteed for the higher levels.

Well here in the Afar* labs I’m happy to say that we’ve developed a unique and in our opinion humane and most importantly nigh guarenteed way to keep those pesky casters in check until after their trial (or more likely the simple decision of whatever magistrate holds authority).

Our gifted dwarvish mage-smiths have devised shackles.  Not just any ordinary shackles these, they’re constructed of adamantine with layers of arcanaium crystals fused into them during the forging.  Pretty?  Yes, most certainly, but functional to boot.

But you’re saying, “Won’t they just ‘knock’ their way out of them or teleport away leaving the shackles behind?”

No sir, they will not and I’ll tell you why.  The CADS or Cast and Die shackles as we like to call them around the office turn any magical energy released in their vicinity into lightning which is carried immediately into the body of the wearer. The stronger the cast, the more powerful the lightning bolt. that’s generated.  Indeed it doesn’t take much of a spell before the caster has simply insured his own death.

But you’re asking, “Aren’t these expensive?  I’m just the headman of a small village, how am I going to afford something like this?”

And that’s a valid point but being made of adamantine as they are, which yes is very expensive, but its also very very strong and thus the shackles can be made of links so fine that many a noble lady would be envious as she looks at the large ungainly links of her own necklace.  And we offer special discounts on volume purchases and have a generous leasing and monthly payment system.  I see a lot of strong young boys and girls in the crowd, surely a few of those are simply extra mouths to feed and we could make some arrangements I can assure you, please stop by after the demonstration.

Arcatine Shackles -

The gleaming purplish golden metal of the shackles seem to glow with an inner light.

Level 4    -   1d6 per level, strength to break 22, 840 gp

Level 8    -   1d6 per level, strength to break 30, 3200 gp

Level 12  -   1d6 per level, strength to break 36, 13,000 gp

Property:  Channels the power of spells cast by the wearer or on the wearer or on the shackles into lightning damage that is discharged throughout the wearer’s body and prevents the original spell from working.  This affects all known caster types.  Higher level manacles are created using thicker links and are inherently stronger.  Some manacles are designed to generate only subdual damage and rarely kill their wearer, double market price for this variant.

Image Credtis

Between tokens and flags and such the latter two weren’t important enough to me to put on mine, I keep track of them in other ways so this might be of use to you.

He’s also has a pretty good campaign blog going in a forum thread that makes for some good reading.  It’s always fun to read about other groups apparently having a great time.

Image Credits

Some of the mightiest heroes of D&D make the Forgotten Realms their home, and now your character can prepare to become part of that august company. With the epic destinies in these pages, your character can join ranks with those who have shaped the Realms in ages past. Learn about the eladrin high mage or become a leader among one of the Realms’ favorite secret organizations as a Harper of legend.

• See it now! (850 kb PDF)

The Forgotten Realms campaign setting is famed for the powerful characters who have appeared in Faerûn over the years. Epic characters are a longstanding tradition in Abeir-Toril, ranging from the dreadful lich Larloch — the most powerful of Faerûn’s mighty wizards — to heroic figures such as the Seven Sisters or Elminster, the Sage of Shadowdale. With the advent of the Spellplague and the passage of a century, many of Faerûn’s famous residents have departed to their eternal rewards (or punishments), but others still survive … and the boldest and most successful of player characters can hope to someday join their ranks.

I’m looking at some of the ‘optimization’ stuff people are doing with the new hex hammers and how they’re reading/interpreting rules and even how the CSR folks are coming out and going OMG it’s starting again.  A ‘hammerlock’ can now, based on RAW/Interpretation, average 23/25 points of damage with a _basic_ hit at level 2. I know warlocks are strikers but averaging 25 points of damage for a basic attack at level 2 strikes me as definite power creep.

Image Credits

After a few years experience the only thing I’d truly map out with a lot of planning and forethought was the campaigns beginning and ending and usually middle.  A campaign without a good beginning and ending is crap and you should have some idea of where it goes.

As an example for my Heart of the Universe campaign I knew the characters would start off by dying and would end by dying. Sounds morbid but it worked, trust me on that one. Â  I knew who the recurring bad guy would be and how he would work through proxy to avoid detection and a rough idea how that would limit him. I knew the characters would end up plane hopping and encounter strange lands, dead end worlds at the end of their life cycle and dark gods of chaos festering away in their imprisonment at the far end of the (un)known multi-verse.  But on a week to week basis I might show up with three pages of notes scribbled down at work about the current situation and together the player’s and I would forge the plot threads.

Anyway, I ramble the download links are below.  If you can deal with rar’s then download that one, it’ll be faster for you, otherwise the two links are identical.

Download links:

Module with Battle Maps Zip format (slower download): Savage Worlds Die Roller V3 (91)

Module with Battle Maps Rar Format (faster download):[Download not found]

The RAR aka faster download is smaller (hence the faster download) but you will need a decompressor that can handle rar format.  There are several out there, WinRar, UltimateZip, 7-zip that can handle this type of format.  And of course Windows can deal with Zip files directly.

And if you like them, please comment or send me an email through the comment form.

So one of the encounters in the module has some lantern’s that are powered by essentially Continual Light spells so I had to include the ritual for those as well.

Anyway, for you amusement, bemusement or just to roll your eyes at, I give you the Light Everylasting ritual:

Light Everlasting Ritual
You infuse an item with the energies of the netherweb and it glows softly with a gentle light for the rest of eternity.

Level: 2     Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â          Component Cost: 75 gp
Category: Creation           Market Price: 100gp
Time: 1 hour     Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Key Skill: Arcana (no check)
Duration: Permanent

Through the use of this ritual you can imbue a small item of 3” in size or less and less than six ounces in mass with a glowing light effect.  This light can be adjusted during the ritual to generate light of various hues.  The brightness of the light can be determined through the use of the Arcana skill and can intentionally be set to a lower level if desired although the skill check must still be successful.

Arcana Check Result    Radius / Brightness
10 or lower                        3 squares dim light
11-15                               5 squares dim light
16-20                               5 squares bright light
21-25                               10 squares bright light
26+                                  15 squares bright light

In this particular case I’d make the young power a recharge to avoid bookkeeping and to keep the minion count down to a manageable level for the players.  As it stands, one minion a round is going to overwhelm a group that doesn’t take the mother out quickly I think given the typical hit ratio.  Making it a 4+ or 5+ recharge gives a group the ability to have one character designated a minion killer and that’s what they do while the rest tries to burn down the big one.

An inheritance should be something you enjoy, but not for Valmour Tessount. His father’s mine stopped producing long ago, and only an unexpected discovery in his father’s papers has the estranged son eager to explore his new acquisition. But then miners went missing, and Valmour is doing anything he can to salvage the situation. But more importantly, what lurks in the depths of Tessount’s Folly, were it to get loose, could cause problems for more than the mine’s owner.

• See it now! (2.9 Mbs PDF)

The black-sheep son of prominent aristocrats, Valmour Tessount found himself written out of his father’s will when his hedonistic behavior shamed his family once too often. In an uncharacteristically public display, the senior Tessount announced that he would bequeath his entire estate to Valmour’s younger brother Sanoped. In response, Valmour pilfered a sizable cache of gems from the family vaults, took up the path of the warlord, and embarked on a life of debauchery and ill-fated adventures. Now, the prodigal son has a chance to restore his fortunes, but a deadly curse stands between him and the wealth he claims as his birthright.

I was debating making the ghast a leader type but decided to make the aura a weaken instead.  Ghoul’s don’t really listen to leaders anyway but they do acknowledge that the ghast is a superior form of their peculiar undeadness.

Each ghast in an encounter will typically have 2 to 4 ghouls associated with it to fill out the ranks.  They’ll try to get in close to immobilize and poison targets as well as keep the bad guys weakened and doing little damage.  They’ll use their great speed and climbing abilities to get to ranged attackers or to get around defenders to the soft targets in the back.

Image Credits

At first glance it comes off as a tiny bit OP possibly, I’d want to do a direct compare against the other strikers and see how it balances against them.

The class write up is a little light on fluff and isn’t completely fleshed out but if you have a big warrior type in your group, especially one that might be using any of the 1/2 orc racials, heck I’ve got one of those just for one of my players, off to the right there under Resources, then this class might be of interest.

Image Credits

Anyway the new sheet now has little circles you can check to show the skill is trained.

Dennis

Image Credits

Unlike some of the others this one is more player oriented and visual with the various graphics.  If I had an unlimited supply of money I’d print them out.  As is some of the simpler line wall drawings are more my speed.

I could be wrong of course. It is a rough draft.  Oh and it ain’t ‘pretty’ it’s deisgned for readability first, information second and well nothing for the third.

Anyway here’s a direct link Savage Worlds Ally / WC Sheet (73) and you can find it over here on the resource page with all the other cra… treasure.

Image Credits

The Scales of War Adventure Path kicked off last month in Dungeon #156. This month, we offer you a chance to customize your character uniquely to Scales of War with these character background concepts. Although intended for use with Scales of War (future adventures might incorporate some of these background elements as plot devices), they’re eminently suitable for any D&D campaign.

• See it now! (1 mb PDF)

The setting of the Scales of War Adventure Path is more implied than actual. That’s intentional on our part. We want you to make the world your own rather than define it for you (beyond the degree of definition required to place future adventures).

But from “Rescue at Rivenroar” onward, the characters at your table will come to life and develop their own backstories, goals, and agendas. As a launching pad for those backstories, we offer this slate of character backgrounds.

Goblin Standard Bearer’s or Gesubs are selectively picked at during their formative years, only the biggest and strongest and most intimidating are taken and taught to plant a standard and hold it.  Armed with a goblin war club, a large wooden club spiked with shards of rusted metal, pieces of chipped rock and covered in the dried blood and gore of their training they defy anyone to take down their standard.

Once they plant a standard they will only leave the standard’s general area as long as they’re sure that no one can get close enough to take it down.  Typically they’ll also be assigned one or two archers or minions or even a Goblin Boomer to help protect the standard.

Those goblins within its affects are made more fearless and believe they’re better than they are to the goblin’s enemies.  One of the downsides of the Gesubs training though is if the battle shifts it can render them snarlling and snapping at nothing while the fight moves elsewhere.  Clear thinking is not the demense of the Gesub.

On a metagame note, I know these aren’t all that ‘awesome’ especially for an elite given their lack of damage output, they’re really buffers and not much else and hard to take down.  A smart party will simply back off at range and force the other goblins to react and shift out of the range.

Typically Gesubs will be deployed at chokepoints or around their big bosses.

Image Credits

In a side note, my children have passed on some viral thing they had that took me out for the entire day yesterday and I’m not feeling all that great today.  Of course for them it lasted maybe 12-18 hours.  But then I’m old and my systems aren’t working as well as they used to across the board.

Not sure where the image came from the original posting doesn’t credit it.

The goblin’s have been hard at work and have come up with a goblin boomer (no relation to the L4D boomer).  This little guy carries a variety of ingredients in packs and pouches and gourds and flasks that he mixes up as he needs to create bombs.  These bombs degrade very rapidly and have to be used within a few minutes of their being mixed up.

The boomer is always going to be a support class and accompanied by warriors and the like and will prefer to work from the fringes.  It’ll use the smoke to provide cover and stealth opportunities for its brethren, the bomb to reduce the actions of any party that runs into them and the goo to keep creatures away from itself and the other ranged attackers.

More advanced boomers are said to be working on additional chemical mixtures but their existences is still something only rarely rumoured over ale in the taverns.

And yes I know the picture kinda blows, if you know of a better image then please pass it on this way.