Can you imagine creating a 4e character without using the character builder? I can’t. It’s become such an important and integral part of character creation that I don’t know what I’d do without it. And that got me thinking about how D&D Next will handle character builder? Will it be revamped to work with the new rule-set? Will Wizards support 4e and D&D Next versions of character builder concurrently? Or will character builder be scrapped all together? If such decisions have been made by the brass at Wizards they’re not sharing the secret with us. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t look at the possibilities and make recommendations.
Month: April 2012
Last week’s encounter ended with the PCs taking a short rest and then stepping through the magical portals in the black obelisk. This week they emerged from the portal and discovered that they were on the road to Easting once again. Before them was Easting’s central square where they spotted the tree-shaded pond, the Thirsty Ox tavern, and the white-plastered temple. Near the edge of the village they saw a building burned to the foundation, the smell of smoke still strong in the air. Déjà vu!
Our numbers held steady with 12 players and two DMs. This has made for excellent consistency and party development. The players have really gotten to know their PCs and the party worked well together now that they have a good understanding of what everyone else is capable of doing. They’ve even come up with a few synergized attacks where one PC will use power X followed by another PC using power Y which results in something really cool. It’s great to see this kind of development at D&D Encounters.
Here’s how the roster shaped up at my table this week.
- Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
- Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
- Firesoul Genasi Barbarian (Berserker) [Ironwrought]
- Revenant (Cindersoul Genasi) Sorcerer (Elementalist)
- Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
- Elf Ranger (Scout)
One of the benefits of having consistent attendance is that five of our six players participated in the initial encounter in Easting way back in week 1. This made it a lot easier for me as the DM to set the mood and they had a much easier time noticing differences between this visit to Easting and their last.
Every hero needs a teacher. It’s a common part of many origin stories; the hero is taught by a washed-up has-been who used to be a great master in his day. Of course the hero doesn’t usually know of the master’s glorious past or the fall from grace that led him to his current predicament.
Training isn’t really a part of the mechanics in 4e D&D (although it was in the previous editions). However, creative DMs can come up with any number of reasons for the PCs to need special training in order to achieve the latest campaign goals. The idea of training and refining skills isn’t limited to just low-level adventurers. No matter what level your PC happens to be, there’s always something he can learn from a legendary sword master.
The key to making any interaction between a PC and a teacher interesting is for the master to be a fully fleshed out characters with a story of his own – the more quirky and eccentric the better. Shrouding a legendary sword master in mystery and intrigue is a sure way to get players interested. Throw in a compelling story motive and suddenly the PCs will do whatever they can to find the legendary sword master.
To help get you started here’s an example plot hook for working a legendary sword master into your game.
- A powerful enemy has returned after a long absence (maybe a demon that was banished a generation ago?). This villain is on the verge of destroying civilization. The only way to stop him is to learn a special fighting style that only a select few sword masters know. The PCs must find one of these legendary sword masters and then convince them to teach the PC the special technique. But convincing the sword master to train the PCs may be more difficult than expected.
Below are examples of six legendary sword masters, each with a background and personality. These six are just the first of many we’ll share in the coming weeks. Feel free to use any or all of them in your next campaign. No matter what kind of adventure you’re running, I’m sure you can find a way to slip one or more of these legendary sword masters into the story. Have fun with them.
Experience teaches player to never split the party. However, there are times when it doesn’t make sense for the party to remain together. This might be because there are many tasks to complete in a limited amount of time or it might be because some party members have skills or powers that make them uniquely qualified to handle a task alone. Yet when presented with any opportunity to split the party, no matter how logical it might seem to do so, a lot of players insist on staying together. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that is not founded in any rational assessment of the situation. It’s an instinctual response based on a previous disaster and a slogan ingrained into them by the Wizards marketing department. Players need to take a deep breath and repeat after me: Sometimes it’s a good idea to split the party.
My gaming group has actually had a lot of success when splitting the party. It’s not something we do very often, but we are certainly open to the possibility when it makes sense. Most often when we split up each group or individual ends up with their own mini skill challenge, but every so often the DM has something else in mind and combat occurs while the party is separated from each other. We’ve found that there are ways to make combat with a split party work. It’s definitely challenging, but our approach to these situations are always fun and rarely result in anyone being left out while their character is off screen.
After last week’s bloodbath which resulted in the death of one character, the PCs took an extended rest in the great shrine. They awoke fully recharged and everyone had advanced to level 3. The heroes were shocked to see that their dead comrade, the Firesoul Genasi Wizard who was killed by the Ooze during last week’s encounter, had returned to life overnight. Sort of.
The Wizard’s desire to complete the party’s task of stopping this cult and finding a cure for the Abyssal Plague was so strong he was granted a second chance and was returned to life (unlife) as a Revenant. His connection to arcane magic was still strong but now it manifested from the recesses of his very being and he became a Sorcerer.
Some of the PCs were a bit freaked out by the transformation while others (especially those with really low intelligence) didn’t really notice anything different or if they did they didn’t care.
The Drow are an evil race. This is a fact. The overwhelming majority of dark Elves live and thrive in evil societies, and are led by the most evil of their ilk. Yet no matter how often I’ve repeated this most players who create Drow PCs choose to make them good, or at least not as evil as you’d expect them to be and it drives me crazy. I realize that this is your character and that you can ultimately determine their outlook on life as you see fit, but you’re ruining the best aspects of being Drow by making them all good. Play evil! Relish in playing evil!
All of this grief surrounding good rebel Drow adventurers can be traced back to Drizzt Do’Urden. What most players forget is that Drizzt Do’Urden is not your typical Drow. This is a big part of what makes him so endearing to his fans. The early books in the Legend of Drizzt series constantly juxtaposed Drizzt’s atypical behaviour and misaligned morale compass when compared to the overwhelming majority of other Drow. Practically every other Drow you meet in Salvatore’s books is clearly evil.
After a quick breather following last weeks battle in the great shrine the PCs began their search of the now eerily quiet room. When the party freed Malgrym during Week 5 he warned them of a Amorphous One, a blue ooze that sleeps in the altar of the great shrine and guards the way deeper into the temple. Now that they were alone in the shrine they decided to proceed with caution and search everything before attempting any serious examination of the altar.
We were back up to six players at each of our two tables this week. We lost the Halfling who worshipped his Genasi companions as deities, but this week we gained a brand new player who brought another striker to our offensively minded party. With the party facing a solo monster this week, another heavy hitter could make a significant difference. The party ended up looking like this:
- Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
- Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
- Firesoul Genasi Barbarian (Berserker) [Ironwrought]
- Cindersoul Genasi Wizard (Sha’ir) [Primordial Adept]
- Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
- Elf Ranger (Scout)
Categories
The Drow Are Coming!
“Sightings of dark elves on the surface have grown steadily—turning from dismissible rumors into disturbing reports. Brave heroes are needed to discover what plot or purpose is driving the children of Lolth to so boldly intrude upon our realm.”
This is the teaser Wizards gave us Monday when they launched their Rise of the Underdark website hub. It looks like 2012 is going to be the Year of the Drow. In 2011 everything revolved around Neverwinter, in 2012 it’s all about the Drow and the Rise of the Underdark. According to Wizards this cohesive storyline will run through 2012 in three distinct phases, one of which is the next season of D&D Encounters (more on that below).
I thought Drow were cool from the very first time I saw them in the original Fiend Folio. Like so many others my admiration grew when R.A. Salvatore introduced us to Drizzt and the world of the dark elves. Since then I’ve devoured anything and everything Drow that I could get my hands on. When I visited Wizard of the Coast in December one of the things they revealed was their plans for the Drow in 2012. I was simultaneously ecstatic to hear what they have in store for the Drow and frustrated that I was bound to the NDA. But now that the cat’s out of the bag I can finally start to talk about it. In the coming week’s we’ll have multiple articles here at Dungeon’s Master featuring Drow.
If you haven’t already visited the Wizards Rise of the Underdark website hub I strongly encourage you to do so (as soon as you finish reading this article). There’s a load of information about what’s coming up including product descriptions, novel previews, and Drow wallpapers for download. If you’re not excited yet, you will be when you watch the preview video which we’ve copied below.
When creating a divine character it’s strongly encouraged that you choose a deity. Your PC should try to follow the teachings of this deity and wherever possible spread the god’s message throughout the camping world. But in most 4e D&D adventures I’ve run and played in the divine character is usually just the PC who heals wounds and deals radiant damage. No one seems to realize that there is a “Power” behind the power.
In previous editions of D&D a lot of emphasis was placed on which deity your divine character worshipped. It helped the player develop the role-playing and it often granted access to unique powers. But in 4e D&D there is no requirement to choose a deity and there is no down side for skipping this step. All you have to do pick a divine class and continue with character creation. Players involved in games that emphasize combat over role-playing likely have no idea which god their resident Cleric even worships, despite the fact that it’s this unknown deity that’s enabled the Cleric to heal their wounds. What’s even sadder is that a lot of the players running those divine characters don’t know either.
With the desire for all 4e characters to be balanced, the divine classes were dumbed down from what they once were. This may make things easier for new players but I think it really hurt divine classes. Playing a divine character should require work; at least more work than playing a character with another power source. You shouldn’t just be playing your character, you should be playing a set of ideals, rules and beliefs set out by the character’s deity. After all, you are the vassal for your god. You commune with deities. This certainly seems to me like it should be more complicated than playing the character that swings his sword at the monsters.
During last week’s encounter the PCs entered the Sunset Shrine, fought some of the Dwarven fanatics who had taken up residents and then after defeating them explored the east wing of the dungeon’s first level. When we joined the party this week they picked up back in the main entrance of the dungeon shrine and now had the opportunity to explore the dungeon’s west wing.
Our numbers dwindled a bit this week as we only had three of our regulars for our all-Genasi party. Fortunately the other table had six players and one person graciously jumped ship to join us. And what do you know; he was playing a Genasi so that worked out really well for our party’s theme.
Our party shaped up like this:
- Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
- Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
- Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
- Cindersoul Genasi Swordmage [Ironwrought] (player from the other table)
The group ended up with two strikers and two defenders. Still no leader but they seem to be getting adept at playing without a healer. However, the healing potions are starting to run out so things may get ugly soon.