Author: Wimwick (Neil Ellis)

Categories
Class Discussions

Necromancer Paragon Path

black-mage-colourWith the launch of Open Grave, Wizards of the Coast have begun to release powers and rituals geared towards Necromancers. They have also announced that the Arcane Powers source book will have a Necromancer Paragon Path. While I’m glad that this is upcoming, I still believe they provided a disservice by not having any specialists in the first PHB.

Building on the Necromancer: Heroic Tier we published a few weeks ago, we now present the Necromancer: Paragon Path, an option for you to play until the official version is released. If you are interested in the Necromancer at the Epic Tier, visit our article about that.

We see the Necromancer as an individual who fights for good but is often mistaken as evil. Just like the early practitioners of medicine in our own world, who dug up graves to study anatomy. A practice that was deemed unethical and morally wrong at the time. The Necromancer is an individual who walks the dividing line of ethical behaviour.

Continue reading “Necromancer Paragon Path”
Categories
Technology

Is A Blog Right For Your Game?

The advent of technology has had a large impact on the RPG community. I can still remember several years ago pulling my laptop out for my regular Sunday night game. I explained I’d found a new mapping program I wanted to use for the game. That was the beginning of Maptools for my group and we haven’t looked back.

It seems everyone is getting in on the digital action. Even Wizards of the Coast has jumped on the digital initiative with DDI. It simply the next step in gaming. 

Continue reading “Is A Blog Right For Your Game?”
Categories
DM Resources

Campaign Design: Next Steps

You have decided to design your own Campaign World and you have the necessary resources in place.  Now you’re wondering what are the next steps? It’s time to consider how you’re going to approach game design. There are a number of different ways to begin working on your campaign and there are still a few questions you need to consider before you begin. We’ll take a look at several of them.

Continue reading “Campaign Design: Next Steps”
Categories
DM Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Challenge: Information Gamble

Yesterday on At Will Gamefiend wrote about Branching in skill challenges. This is a way to add to the complexity of skill challenges to make them fresh and interesting. At the end of his article he mentioned Nesting as the next in the series.

The skill challenge below entitled Information Gamble is one we’ve been working on for some time. It incorporates some of what Gamefiend mentions about branching and so its release today ties in nicely with the discussion about skill challenges. The sub-challenge contained within the main challenge may also be what Gamefiend refers to as Nesting. I’m looking forward to his next article as I feel that there is a lot of room for skill challenges to grow and evolve.

Information Gamble

The PCs are attempting to learn some information from an NPC. During the conversation they learn the NPC has a weakness for gambling.

Continue reading “Skill Challenge: Information Gamble”
Categories
Top 10

Top 5 Fantasy Characters

Edmund Blair-Leighton: The Accolade
Creative Commons License photo credit: freeparking

There are a lot of great characters in fantasy literature. From powerful mages to dashing knights, fantasy has it all. The genre has inspired many cliches and archetypes that have been reused by countless authors and DMs. The question the staff at Dungeon’s Master asked was who are the greatest figures in fantasy literature? Who are the giants that the rest are only pale shadows of?

We pulled countless ancient tomes from our dusty library and consulted sages near and far. We narrowed the field and complied below are the top 5 fantasy characters as selected by the team at Dungeon’s Master.

Continue reading “Top 5 Fantasy Characters”
Categories
DM Resources

Campaign Design: Resources

Ethan the rogue worked patiently on the lock. Never before had he experienced a lock of this complexity. Adjusting his thieves tools slightly he disabled one of the magical wards. With sweat dripped from his brow he was aware of Braddoc standing over his shoulder ready to break the door down with brute force. “Back off Braddoc” the rogue said, “if this wizard has half the treasure we’ve been told of we can’t risk you setting off an explosion!” With that said Ethan made a few final adjustments and click. Turning the door handle Ethan opened the door of the chamber. Inside stacked on shelves were the wizard’s tomes, countless millennia of knowledge.

Before you begin the quest of designing your own campaign world it would be wise to equip yourself with the appropriate resources. Just as your Fighter wouldn’t go into battle without his armour and trusty sword, neither should you wade into the task of campaign design without an arsenal of tools to assist you.

Continue reading “Campaign Design: Resources”
Categories
Book Reviews

Review: Adventurer’s Vault

Adventurer's VaultThe Adventurer’s Vault has been out for some time now. However, that isn’t going to stop me from giving it a solid review.

The first thing you need to realize about the Adventurer’s Vault is that it is a much needed addition. By including magic items into the PHB, Wizards of the Coast handicapped themselves with the amount of space they could dedicate to each subject. A few area’s got the short end of the stick, one of them was the amount of magic items available for players to drool about.

Continue reading “Review: Adventurer’s Vault”
Categories
Humour

What Alignment Is Your Dungeon Master?

Dungeon Masters GuideSitting at the end of the table the Dungeon Master planned his next move. If the party burst through the door as was their habit he had a nasty surprise in store for them. Without fail Braddoc the Fighter pushed Ethan the Rogue aside, kicked the door down, and charged into the room.

“Braddoc,” the DM explains, “as you enter the room you are assaulted by the smell of sulphur! Rising out of the gloomy room a large Red Dragon belches out hot flame at you!” The DM was waiting for this moment all night! Grabbing his d20 he rolled his lucky die, come on he thought. Looking down at the die he was dismayed to see a 1 come up. Good thing I roll behind a screen he thought, “Natural 20! That’s max damage Braddoc, this is going to hurt!”

Continue reading “What Alignment Is Your Dungeon Master?”
Categories
DM Resources

Campaign Design: An Introduction

Planet Earth (III)
Creative Commons License photo credit: Aaron Escobar

Welcome to the Dungeon’s Master series on Campaign Design. This series will be available on a weekly basis to help new and experienced Dungeon Masters to design their own Campaign Settings. Throughout this series we’ll look at the various challenges and complexities associated with creating your campaign world.

Continue reading “Campaign Design: An Introduction”
Categories
Class Discussions

Necromancer: Heroic Tier

As I look forward to the release of the Players Handbook 2 and the Complete Arcane, I find it useful to look back at the content that was already released for 4e. By identifying the gaps I can try to guess what will be released in the future. One of the most prominent gaps that I see missing is the Wizard specialization by school. Gone are Illusionists, Conjurers, Necromancers and Invokers. Gone is the plentiful array of Wizard spells. Now we are left with a limited selection of four or five powers per level. We are left with an arcane controller class that has some elements of the specialists, but is really a generalist Wizard.

Continue reading “Necromancer: Heroic Tier”