Category: Player Resources

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

Star Wars Pre-Gens for D&D Encounters

Belgos, Brandis, Fargrim, Jarren, Keira, Valenae. If you’ve played D&D Encounters over the past year or so than you know these six heroes better than you know your own mother – well, maybe not that well, but they hold few surprises any more. Wizards of the Coast provided copies of these pre-gens with every season of D&D Encounters since March of the Phantom Brigade five seasons ago. This was an intentional and deliberate decision on their part to encourage players to create their own characters. However some players prefer to play the pre-gens and have been clamouring for more. Since Wizards isn’t providing new pre-gens it falls to us, the fans, to create our own new ones.

In our Pre-Generated Character Library we’ve collected all of the official pre-gens and posted many fan-made pre-gens to expand your options. Today we add nine new Star Wars themed pre-gens to the library. These are courtesy of Andrew Asplund and Tales from the Gamer Viceroy.

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Player Resources

Taking a TPK Like a Man

It doesn’t happen often, but when it happens it really sucks – a Total Party Kill or TPK. In 4e it’s incredibly hard for DMs to kill just one character in a party. I’ve seen plenty of PCs fall unconscious but usually the leader has them back in action before they even need to make a death save or an adjacent ally makes a Heal check and triggers their second wind. Worse case scenario they stay down until the encounter is over and then they get the benefits of a short rest. Before you know it they’re on their feet and ready to face more monsters. The only way to guarantee that characters die is for the DM to wipe out everyone with a TPK. After all, if no one’s left to face the remaining monsters once the last guy falls unconscious it stands to reason that those same monsters will take necessary steps to ensure you don’t get back up… ever.

Because the TPK is (or should be) a rarity in D&D it’s understandable that many players are not really sure what do to when they see the writing on the wall. I realized this when we were face-to-face with an inevitable TPK just this week during D&D Encounters. Players can react very different to this situation so I felt it was a good idea to document so ground rules and suggested behaviours that all players should be mindful of when their PC falls unconscious, or worse yet, is just one of the dominos falling in the impending TPK.

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Player Resources

Playing Drow Part 2 – Know Where You Came From

One of the toughest parts of role-playing a non-human character is to give that PC a distinct cultural identity. We often play ever character of every race as if they were born and raised in the Human world. For many races this isn’t a big deal because their societies will parallel Humans’ in many ways. However, Drow are very different from Humans and this should be reflected in the way they are played.

Although your character is an individual and you have the freedom to play him as you see fit, it’s important to consider his upbringing and how that has shaped his personality and attitudes. He might have forsaken his heritage to become an adventurer, but if he was raised in Drow society there are a lot of little details that you should keep in mind when running him. Use these differences to make your Drow stand out from the Elves and Humans in the party.

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Editorial Player Resources

When the Plus (+) No Longer Matters

When an adventurer begins his career he’s always looking for magical treasure. Even in a magic-rich setting a +1 sword is a coveted item. As the character advances he will seek more items with even higher plusses. After all why stick with a +1 sword when you can have a +2 sword? But eventually the plus no longer matters. Believe it or not there comes a time when the player realizes that the plus isn’t the most important part of a magic item. Eventually an item’s power or ability is deemed more integral to the character than one more plus.

Our home campaign recently moved into the epic tier. During a recent adventure the heroes completed a major story arc and were rewarded with treasure suitable to their level as well as a level 30, +6 bow. Although two characters in the party use bows and both currently have +4 bows neither player was interested in the item. They were content to keep their level 17 and 18 weapons respectively than trade up for a level 30 magic item. These are players that are among the greediest I’ve ever played with (and I mean that as a compliment) yet they both felt that it severed their character better to keep their current +4 bows than trade up for a +6 replacement. In both cases it was because of the importance of the power their current weapons gave them.

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

It’s Here! – Lair Assault: Spiderkiller

You’ve braved the Forge, retrieved the Talon and slain the Tyrantclaw, now it’s time to stick it to the Drow! On June 1 Rise of the Underdark continues with Lair Assault: Spiderkiller. Season 4 has the PCs facing off against a small but powerful band of Drow that are up to no good in the Undermountain.

Lair Assault is the Top Gun of D&D. It’s for the best of the best. Normally you don’t win at D&D, but Lair Assault changes that. You create the most optimized character possible (within the confines of the challenge parameters) and try your best to accomplish the goal. It’s not easy and Wizard expects 80% of parties to suffer a TPK during their first attempt to complete the challenge. So if you think you’re a D&D Top Gun than Lair Assault is the adventure series for you.

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw – Round-up

The third Lair Assault has almost run its course and we finally got a chance to run a few sessions at my FLGS. I’m going to assume by now that anyone who is interested in Lair Assault has already played Attack of the Tyrantclaw. That being the case this article will contain a lot of spoilers so that I can speak to direct problems, issues, and tactics. Hopefully it will help DMs who plan to run this adventure again and it will inspire players who haven’t yet defeated the Orcs on Dinosaurs.

There was plenty of interest in playing this season but we had a lot of trouble arranging a time that worked for all of our regulars. By the time we finally got around to playing it was mid-April and the season was half over. But this actually turned out to be a good thing. As the DM for the first event I was able to search the internet for tips and tricks before I ran the first game and am I ever glad I did. Reading about some of the problems other tables experienced gave me time to review some of the rules and be ready to make the right call if similar situations occurred at my table.

Below are tips, tricks, and advice for players and DMs. We’ve also got recordings of three session of Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw below for anyone who was unable to play this season themselves but wants to hear how much fun it was to fight Dinosaurs and try to survive. The first two sessions (which I ran as the DM) resulted in TPKs. The third session (in which I played) we won. Enjoy and good luck!

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Player Resources

Playing Drow Part 1 – Embracing the Evil

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.

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D&D Encounters Player Resources

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.

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Player Resources

Applying the Touch of God to Divine Characters

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.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Dividing Treasure

DM – You’ve defeated the skeletons. As you search the bodies you realize that one of them was carrying a +1 frost weapon.

Ethan the Rogue – As the striker I should get the magic weapon. The more often I hit the faster I can drop monsters.

Barrack the Fighter – Now hold on a second. I may not be a striker, but as a defender it’s important that I hit monsters ignoring my mark. I think I should get the magic weapon.

Delian the Paladin – Excuse me, guys; this was an item from my wish list. I’m working on a whole cold-theme and already the feats Wintertouched and Student of Moil. Using a frost weapon will give me bonuses when I make cold-based attacks.

Sterling the Warlord – You’re all forgetting that it’s my turn to get the next magic item so I believe the frost weapon is mine.

How often does this happen in your game? As soon as it comes time to divide the treasure everyone tries to lay claim to the best stuff. This is usually a bigger issue when a party is lower levels and there aren’t as many items to go around, but even when the group advances into the paragon tier there can still be some bickering about the division of items.

Over the years I’ve seen many groups handle the division of loot in many different ways. There are certainly pros and cons to all methods and it’s really up to the groups themselves to figure out which method works best for them.

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