Author: Ameron (Derek Myers)

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

D&D Game Day: Gates of Neverdeath Preview

Next Saturday, August 6, is D&D Game Day. This year D&D Game Day happens to coincide with GenCon. However, this was an intentional choice made by Wizards of the Coast in order to run Game Day tables in Indianapolis. So no matter if you’re at GenCon or at your local FLGS, everyone can participate in D&D Game Day: Gates of Neverdeath.

Anyone who’s planning to play in the upcoming season of D&D Encounters  beginning on Wednesday, August 10 should make an effort to participate in Game Day. The Game Day adventure, Gates of Neverdeath is a prelude to D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter. PCs run on Game Day can be ported over to D&D Encounters with whatever XP, equipment and magical items they earn.

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DM Resources Player Resources

In Anticipation of GenCon: Convention Tips 6 for Players, 6 for DMs

GenCon, the best four days in gaming, begins on Thursday. With less than a week to go before the annual gaming extravaganza we here at Dungeon’s Master have decided to re-run a few articles from our archive that we felt would appeal to all the gamers heading to Indianapolis next week. Between now and GenCon we’ll continue running new articles but we’ll also be sharing some relevant gems from our archives in anticipation of GenCon. Enjoy.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 12)

As last week’s encounter finished the sun set below the horizon and the PCs shifted back into the Shadowfell. They took a short rest, looted the bodies and then proceeded to the library in search of Vontarin.

In daylight the abbey was in complete ruin. After all, it was abandoned for 50 years. However, in the Shadowfell the Abbey and the library were both in pristine condition. The PCs immediately noticed light coming from the second storey window. Someone was inside the library.

This week we ended up with one table of 9. Had we known that we’d end up so many players we would have divided into two smaller groups, however, three of the players arrived well into the encounter so by then we were pretty much committed to going with just one table. It made for a much longer encounter, but I think everyone had fun in the end.

The party consisted of a Dragonborn Paladin, a Dwarven Fighter (male), a Dwarven Fighter (female), an Eladrin Avenger, an Eladrin Vampire, a Human Druid (with bear companion), a Tiefling Ardent, a Tiefling Warlock and a Tiefling Wizard (Necromancer).

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? Round 2, Vote Now!

Today the winners of What are the Best Feats? Round 1 begin vying for the crown of best feats in 4e D&D. It started with a simple discussion. Were some feats better than others? All evidence seemed to indicate that yes, some feats were absolutely, head and shoulders, better than others. With over 3,000 feats available to level 1 PCs we kept seeing the same few appear over and over again on everybody’s character sheet. Knowing that there was a hand full of superior, more popular feats, our next step was to identify and rank them.

Last week we comprised a list of 32 contenders for the best feats in 4e D&D and asked you to vote. The top two feats from each group in Round 1 advanced to Round 2 which begins today. Round 2 will work slightly differently than Round 1. Rather than put the feats into groups of four we decided to just go with two groups of eight. You can vote for up to four feats in each group.

Since many of these feats received a nearly identical percentage of the votes in the first round, limiting the groups to only four feats each might have unintentionally eliminated or favoured some feats based on which ones they were matched up against. The larger field in each poll should give more accurate results as we try to figure out what are the best feats.

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Player Resources

Forget Training Skills; Let’s Go Back to a Skill Point System

We’ve written a lot of articles about skills. One thing that we’ve mentioned repeatedly in recent articles is the reluctance of some players to use skills they’re not good at. It’s a common problem and we’re still looking for the best solution. While brainstorming we came up with a proposal that we think will work and today we want to share it with you. We look at what’s worked in the past and used that as our starting point. We’re proposing that we ditch skill training and return to a skill point system.

When 3e hit shelves, one extreme change from previous editions of D&D was the introduction of skills and the ability for all PCs to spend points in those skills. This was a great way to differentiate two nearly identical characters. It allowed anyone to spend points in any skill they wanted their character to excel at. Now Pick Pockets or Moving Silently weren’t just abilities unique to Rogues.

With 4e D&D the list of skills was reduced to a mere 17. You no longer spent points in each skill; rather you selected a few skills based on your class that you were trained in. All other non-trained skills were just an extension of the relevant ability score. This change had its ups and downs.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 11)

During last week’s encounter the PCs discovered the crypts of the Pelor faithful disturbed and the remains of many monks transformed into unholy undead. They dealt with the situation and ensured that no more skeletons would be forthcoming from that crypt. The Pelorites could once again rest in peace. With nightfall only a few hours away, the heroes were uncertain of what to do next. So they began this week by searching the crypt for clues.

This week we had 10 people at our FLGS. That meant one massive table with nine PCs or two tables with 4 PCs at each. We opted for two smaller tables. I ended up with a Dwarven Fighter, Eladrin Wizard (Jarren variant), Eladrin Avenger and Human Druid with bear companion – so a defender, controller, striker and leader. It’s been a long time since I’ve run a party of four and actually had all four roles represented. I was looking forward to seeing how things played out.

The PCs searched the crypt before they ventured onward. While going through the Dark One’s packs they found some notes written on a few loose sheets of paper. On one sheet, Vontarin gave the Dark Ones instructions. These Dark Ones were to keep creating more undead and have them ready for tonight. Other Dark Ones were to keep searching the rest of the Abbey by day while Vontarin searched the library in the Shadowfell. Further down the page Vontarin left very clear instructions that the Dark Ones should meet him in the library as soon as the sun set and Duponde shifted back into the Shadowfell.

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DM Resources Editorial

5 Reasons to Say No

I believe that players should play the characters they want to play. I’m a total 4e, say yes convert. It took me awhile to come around but when I’m the DM I encourage creativity and I say yes… a lot. However, I’ve realized that as much as I want to always say yes, there are times when I probably should not. In a few of these cases it’s actually caused me more grief in the long run.

Players make choices during character creation and between levels during character improvement. Normally I’m very hands off as a DM and let the players do whatever they want as long as it’s legal. But it’s this absolute freedom of choice that often ends up causing the most problems. If I’d only stepped in earlier and said no, a lot of the problems I’ve experienced wouldn’t have been problems at all.

It’s taken me a while but I’ve learned the hard way that just because a choice is legal in character builder doesn’t mean that the DM has to automatically say yes to every choice that the players make. In fact the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that sometimes the DM should step in and say no; especially during character creation. Here are five examples.

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? Round 1, Vote Now!

As we so often do, Wimwick and I were recently talking about our characters. It began as a discussion on the ones we are running, but quickly encompassed the other characters we’ve run in the past as well as those run by the other members of our gaming group. We realized that almost all of the characters we looked at shared about half of the same feats. It didn’t matter what class or race they were, some feats kept appearing over and over again on everyone’s character sheet.

Our only explanation for this phenomenon was that some feats are clearly superior. Not just better, but far better. The result being that everyone chooses these feats. In fact, characters that don’t have these feats seemed considerably less powerful than those that do. It lead us to conclude that if there are some feats that are practically required for all character why do we have to waste a feat slot choosing them? Why aren’t these feats free to all character?

So we decided that moving forward for our home game we were going to allow all characters to take a few of these “superior” feats for free during character creation and see how things worked out. The challenge now was to narrow down the list and determine which feats should be included in the list of the best feats.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 10)

After defending the armory from the undead attack last week, the PCs ended the encounter and took a much deserved extended rest shortly after the morning sun crested the eastern horizon. When they awoke Grimbold met them and they traded tales of what happened the previous night.

Grimbold explained that he was at the Chapel of Peace and led the militia as they defended the church. The undead threat didn’t manage to get inside the church but he did loose a few of his men in the process. As the PCs already knew, many of the townsfolk including members of the militia continue to loose the little hope they had left.

Grimbold explained that the undead he faced were all dressed in the cassocks of Pelorite monks. The PCs confirmed the same adornments on the skeletons they faced. When examining the skeletons in the morning daylight, Brother Zelan speculated that someone broke into the crypts at Saint Avarthil Monastery to awaken these poor souls as undead minions. Grimbold agreed that it was at least worth investigating. He asked the PCs if they would travel to the Monastery, a mere two hour journey from Duponde, and try to figure out what happened. The PCs agreed to help.

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DM Resources

Two-Hit Minions

The two-hit minion isn’t new. We first suggested the idea over two years ago in one of our very first articles, More Than Just Minions. It was a reaction to DMs who felt that the normal minions were lacking something. I’ve felt that way for a while now and a few months ago I decided it was time to start using two-hit minions on a regular basis. The results were fantastic.

During this season of D&D Encounters we’ve been running tables with very large parties. The more heroes there are in the party, the more monsters I’ve placed on the map. However, week after week of just adding more monsters was starting to get a little bit boring, not to mention that it led to combat encounters that were taking a very long time to complete. I knew that I needed to shake things up and my solution was two-hit minions.

When I was using regular minions I found that the players, upon learning which opponents had only 1 hit point, treated the minions differently than other monsters. A lot of the PCs ignored them. The PCs with powers that could target multiple creatures (usually the controllers) would often eliminate all the minions in one round. It was very unsatisfying for the players and for me as the DM. Enter two-hit minions.

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