Author: Wimwick (Neil Ellis)

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DM Resources Friday Favourites

Friday Favourite: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From January 7, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: How To Handle A Split Party In 5 Easy Steps.

It happens in every campaign, one player decides to go off and pursue an agenda or lead that only they understand. The player is totally focused on their objective, nothing else seems to matter. No one else at the table understands it. The DM is at his wits end to contain and control the situation. The other players are slowing losing interest and the entire adventure is about to be waylaid.

If you’ve ever sat at a table where you weren’t the player things were focused on, you know the boredom that soon sets in. The frustration at wanting to move forward, but not being able to due to the indulgence or poor planning of the DM. If you haven’t lived through this eventuality you likely haven’t been playing D&D very long, but don’t worry I’m sure it will happen to you soon enough.

In order to make this eventuality less painful for everyone, here are five steps that provide some straightforward advice on how to handle things if one or more players decide to split the party.

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Player Resources

6 Ws of Character Creation

a-to-z-letters-wCharacter creation is perhaps my favourite aspect of Dungeons & Dragons. However, it’s not selecting the class, feats or powers that I enjoy. Sure, looking for synergies and developing a concept around the play style I’m interested in is fun. However, I spend just as much time working on the character’s background. I’m interested in the character’s story as this assists me in role-playing the character effectively. Whenever I’m creating a character I always ask the six W’s: Who, What, When, Why, Where and Weapon. The six Ws combine to fill in and flesh out the details of a character’s history.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today we don’t just have one “W” we have six. We look at how asking the six Ws can help you develop a better character.

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Editorial

Resurrection

a-to-z-letters-rIt’s the ultimate get out of jail free card: Resurrection. No consequence is too severe, no danger too great, no threat too overwhelming. When death has lost its sting does the game just get too easy?

Of course no one likes death. In real life its the great unknown, the end of this life as we know it and there is no coming back for second chances. Fair enough, but Dungeons & Dragons isn’t real life, it’s a game. As a result second chances abound and the Raise Dead ritual provides the ultimate do-over. Granted it is not a true do-over, nor is it necessarily even a second chance at the adventure. What resurrection is in D&D is avoiding losing that character you spent countless hours building and playing.

Resurrection is a good thing. It helps keep the game fun, even if it does have a few drawbacks.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today “R” is for resurrection as we explore the role of the resurrection ritual in the game.

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Editorial

Optimize For Best Results

a-to-z-letters-oOptimize, to make the best or most effective use of a situation, opportunity or resource.

The mechanics of 4e D&D practically demand you optimize your character and your party. Failure to do so can result in some unfortunate consequences. Monsters are designed based on the assumption that you have created your character to gain maximum damage output. Failure to do this, while not catastrophic, can lead to a less than ideal experience.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today “O” is for optimization as we explore the reasons behind why players may optimize their characters.

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Editorial

State Of The Dungeon – Year 3

Today Dungeon’s Master celebrates its third birthday. Three years ago Ameron and I launched the blog with the intention of talking about 4e Dungeons & Dragons. Our goal was to share our experiences of the game and to provide a resource for both DMs and players. Although 4e was still relatively new at the time, we both felt (and still feel) that there was an opportunity for input from the community about this great game.

Since February 1, 2009, we have published new articles every day (excluding weekend and holidays). This State of the Dungeons is our 846 post here at Dungeon’s Master. The best part is that we’ve had a great time with Dungeon’s Master and enjoy being a part of the D&D blogging community.

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DM Resources Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

I love minions.

It has been almost a year since the original article was published and my love affair with minions has not decreased. If anything the infatuation has only increased. Since this article on minions was published I’ve taken the DM hat off and returned to the other side of the screen. Yet, even as a player I love minions. 

I take great joy in watching how my DM deploy’s his minions, how he frustrates me and other players with their tactical usage. It’s most obscene, but I take a perverse joy when all the minions gang up on the controller. I attack something else for a round just to see what will happen. 

In my mind minions truly are the best tool in the DM tool box that 4e introduced. The ability to add swarms of easy to kill, easy to use enemies is fantastic. Minions can quickly change the dynamic of any combat. Player’s are often left guessing on which monster is the minion during the initial rounds of an encounter. Where minions really stack up is when their synergies mesh with the other monsters in the encounter. 

As a player I feel truly heroic when I dispatch multiple foes with a burst or blast attack. Sure, they only have 1 hit point, but that isn’t the point. The point is what minions truly represent in the game. The fodder. My characters are supposed to be powerful, there are opponents that I am supposed to be able to vanquish with impunity. Minions fill that role. 

I hope you enjoy another read of this article. Since it was first published it has become one of our most searched articles and whether you are a DM or a player I’m sure you’ll find the value, joy and satisfaction that minions inject into combat. As I’ve said, my love affair with minions stands. I don’t see us breaking up anytime soon.

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Player Resources

Greatest Hits 2011: Exploiting Racial and Class Powers: Dragon Breath

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

My very first LFR character was a Dragonborn Warlord. For years I played this character with no clear direction of how I wanted him to develop. I only thought of him as a Warlord and a leader. Then he reached level 11 and I discovered the Honor Blade paragon path. After that everything fell into place. Instead of focusing on a paragon path that was tied to his class, I decided instead to focus on a paragon path that focused on his racial abilities, in this case the dragon breath. It didn’t take long for this character to get a reputation as a Dragonborn first and a Warlord second. It was the first time in 4e that I’d seen a character with such intense specialization in his racial powers or abilities.

The first time any of the Dungeon’s Master gaming group saw my LFR Dragonborn in action was at GenCon last summer. It was Wimwick’s first GenCon and his first LFR experience. He was so impressed by the power my Dragonborn PC possessed that he started playing with character builder that night to see if there was a way to refine the build and maximize the powers even more. It didn’t take long before he had a Dragonborn Warden that could deal more damage more often with his dragon breath than my Warlord. Even though we promised ourselves that we’d never run an article that was nothing more than “let me tell you about my character” he felt he had to share our builds with our readers. From there, this series on exploiting racial and class powers was born.

What was supposed to be a clever insight into one racially superior build became a series that featured some of the most popular races in 4e D&D. In a very short time we had an article on the Dragonborn, Eladrin, Dwarf, Elf, Drow, Tiefling and Warforged. They were extremely popular and people had a lot of additional suggestions on how to really take advantage of a racial powers to make a truly unique (and often unstoppable) character.

Since we ran these articles we’ve discovered the immense role-playing satisfaction that comes from playing a PC that focuses on his race before focusing on his class. In my regular group three of six PC have taken paragon paths that only have a racial prerequisite. This campaign is certainly one of our best and it’s due in no small part to the excellent role-playing and character development that’s come from a really focused examination of the most unique aspects of those races. These paragon paths may not always be the most powerful in terms of numbers, but the character development that this choice has encouraged makes up for any shortcomings in the combat mechanics. – Ameron

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Technology

Heroes of Neverwinter: Adventure Bundle Giveaway

Heroes of Neverwinter continues to enjoy success on Facebook. As part of the ongoing promotion of the game Dungeon’s Master is pleased to offer 25 Adventure Bundle codes to our readers.

If you’d like to receive one of these codes all you have to do is leave a comment below telling us which Dungeon’s Master article you’ve most enjoyed and why. With over 800 articles in our archives there are plenty to choose from.

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Technology

Interview With D&D: Heroes of Neverwinter Developer Ed Del Castillo

D&D Heroes of Neverwinter was released to the general public earlier this week. The game is a great way to get 4e Dungeons & Dragons fun in a short amount of time. Dungeon’s Master was fortunate enough to get 100 Beta Codes to give to our readers early in September. We are following-up on our coverage of Heroes of Neverwinter with an interview with the game’s developer, Ed Del Castillo. Ed took the time to answer some questions about the game and his background with all things D&D.

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Technology

Heroes of Neverwinter Review

I felt like I was playing Pools of Radiance. This was my impression 30 seconds into playing Heroes of Neverwinter. Why is this significant? Pools of Radiance was my gateway into the greater world of Dungeons & Dragons. It was like getting a shot of nostalgia right in the arm. I was hooked and there was nothing I could do about it.

Early in September we offered Beta codes for Heroes of Neverwinter to 100 readers. Now that the game has been officially released I’d like to share my thoughts on the game and hope to solicit yours. Also, be sure to stay tuned to Dungeon’s Master in October as we will have an interview with the Heroes of Neverwinter developer, Ed Del Castillo.

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