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D&D Encounters Dark Sun Player Resources

Dark Sun Characters for D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Dark Sun begins on June 9. Wizards of the Coast has provided six pre-generated characters – all of them highlighting unique aspects to the upcoming Dark Sun setting for 4e D&D. Today we’ve provided copies of all six characters for your review. They’ll be available from Wizards next week, but we’re giving you a first look.

Now available: The pre-generated characters for D&D Encounters Season 3: Keep on the Borderlands.

Barcan

Male Human Cosmic Sorcerer
(Veiled Alliance)

Level 1, Good

Download (2.4 MB)
Castri

Male Elf Marauder Ranger
(Gladiator)

Level 1, Unaligned

Download (2.5 MB)
Jarvix

Male Tiefling Telepathic Psion
(Veiled Alliance)

Level 1, Unaligned

Download (2.5 MB)
Phye

Female Human Enlightened Ardent
(Noble Adept)

Level 1, Good

Download (2.6 MB)
Shikirr

Male Thri-kreen Quick Battlemind
(Wilder)

Level 1, Unaligned

Download (2.6 MB)
Yuka

Male Mul Brawling Fighter
(Wasteland Nomad)

Level 1, Unaligned

Download (2.5 MB)

This is Dark Sun week at Dungeon’s Master. We’ll be sharing more details from the upcoming D&D Encounters: Dark Sun, including information about the Encounters program and new rules from the Dark Sun campaign setting. We’ll also share our review of The Outcast, a Dark Sun novel.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

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32 replies on “Dark Sun Characters for D&D Encounters”

Thanks for these Ameron. I think I will actually be playing in these Encounters. Looking forward to it.

Though, when I run my own Dark Sun game, I’m not sure tieflings will be allowed . . .

Didn’t see a way to edit my posts, so sorry for the quick follow up. I meant to add I can now go through my collection and pull out the necessary minis as well.

I didn’t see anything for leveling up, anyone have an idea on how it will be handled? I thought leveling would happen at a specific time, and no XP would be rewarded. The cards will make it difficult to make any changes.

While it’s nice you are sending out copies of the pre-gens, saying you are giving a “first look” is really not true. All FLGS involved with Encounters got their Dark Sun packages this week, and WotC did not say we had to wait until next week to let players see the new characters.

It’s nice that you posted them for players to see, but be a bit more honest about it next time.

DanversGM

@The Last Rogue
Having never playing in the original Dark Sun campaign setting, I have no preconception about what should or should not be included in the world. I assume they’ll come up with some kind of explanation for why the new races (including Tieflings) are suddenly in a world they were never in before. we’ll see soon enough.

@Tom Allman aka Yoohootom
I can’t imagine Wizards would miss such a lucrative opportunity. Given how cool some of the Dark Sun monsters look, I may actually have to pick up some of the new minis.

@Lahrs
D&D Encounters: Dark Sun is 15 encounters broken into 3 parts. The PCs automatically level after each chapter. I’ll be providing more details about the actual adventure later this week.

@DanversGM
Welcome to Dungeon’s Master. You’re right that anyone who received the kits has likely already seen the pre-generated characters. So when I say “first look” I don’t mean exclusively. I’ve had a lot of requests to share any info on the pre-generated characters for Dark Sun as soon as I got my hands on the kit. When I posted this article I still hadn’t seen them anywhere else online. So to most of our readers this is their first look. It was certainly not my intent to mislead you.

By Post Author

Neat! I’m hoping to play through this season to get my Dark Sun fix before the product is released. I did think it was good of them to include a Tiefling to allow folks to ease them into their own settings. With the strange things found on athas, I personally don’t have too hard a time figuring out how to fit in some of the races.

I did notice that they gave him a cool background and an interesting flaw – he only has one horn. I’m surprised they couldn’t grab an artist or ask for a quick photoshop to make the image match the description. Nonetheless, I wasn’t interested in playing him at all until I read the background. After looking them over, I think I’ll be happy to play whomever is left over.

I noticed that all of the characters are either unaligned or good alignment. Why is this so in a barren wasteland full of bandits and whatnots?

Bad news:I will not be updating my blog until 1 of July. Hey, it’s the summer holidays, you know!

Disappointed by the pregens, especially by the numerous problems on the cards. The Tiefling Psion, for example, has the game rules for the pre-errata Infernal Wrath, and his Perception bonus is incorrectly listed as +10 when it should only be +4 while his Bluff is +4 when it should be +10 (assuming he is trained in these skills).

I really hate these flashy cards. I wish WoTC would supply full character builder files and sheets for the pregens instead of hiding the mechanics — especially given how often these cards are flawed.

The characters are relatively weak considering the challenges they are expected to face in the module. I hope they can stand up to it.

@Dungeon Newbie

Removing evil characters greatly reduces the chance of getting screwed over by another player. That could be problematic with players coming and going. It also reduces the stress on the DM. Encounters are not set up for a lot of diverse role playing, which you would expect in a normal session of D&D.

@mc_monte
There are even some misspellings, which should not be on a finished product. However, they will not detract from the game, so that is not a big deal. The bigger problem for myself is I didn’t see any character that jumped out at me.

Looks like the ardent is the only leader, and we like to go with two leaders in our group. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but two leaders makes a team much more durable.

I am complaining too much, especially before I have even tried it.
I should think positive. : ) 15 weeks of RPG goodness.

@Jeff
I’ll be posting a PDF document containing all 6 characters later tonight.

By Post Author

Be prepared to take a lot of notes from the errata that will be coming out on every single one of the characters. There was 1 post on the D&D forum already, and unless I am over-looking it…. the characters are also missing the changes intended for when they make level 2.

I think the characters are great but I think it is always disappointing when a product is released with incorrect information or typos. Editors should catch most of these problems. But it’s not something I’m that concerned with.

Anyway, I think the party composition makes total sense as the DM’s Guide recommends doubling up on defender 1st, then striker. I’m kind of surprised no dwarven characters, elemental clerics, or warlock defilers made the cut though.

Thanks much for posting these! I wanted to try to grab and paint my mini as fast as possible as that’s a goodly portion of the fun for me.

Don’t know if the mini I ordered will arrive on time, but I know it will definitely arrive before the 2nd game.

@Jonathan
If new character sheets are provided in the next kit I’ll certainly post the level 2 versions of the characters. However, I’ve heard a rumour that Wizards isn’t providing updated versions of the PCs. Rather it will be up to the players to level up themselves. I hope this is nothing more than a rumour. It would be nice to see the level 2 feat for at least some of the characters come from the new Dark Sun rules (something that won’t happen if we have to level the PCs ourselves).

By Post Author

@Ameron
You haven’t received the next kits yet? I’m surprised! What’s provided is the “level up information.” You get the following text…
——————————————
Barcan: Level up to 2
+1 to modified rolls (including skill checks)
+1 to all defenses
+1 to all attack rolls
+1 enhancement to all attack rolls and damage rolls
Hit points 27 (bloodied 13, healing surge value 6)
Gain Action Surge feat (+3 to attacks when using an action point)
Gain veiled arcana power
Veiled Arcana — Minor/Personal/Encounter. Target you or 1 ally you can see within 5 squares of you; the target gains combat advantage on its next arcane attack before the end of your next turn.
——————————————–
… and so on. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to post.

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