Tag: 4e

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Web of the Spider Queen – Preview

The Drow are coming. On May 16 Rise of the Underdark gets into full swing as the Drow take over D&D Encounters season 9 when Web of the Spider Queen begins. This season of D&D Encounters is tied closely to Wizards’ latest product offering Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook which will be available on May 15 (coincidentally the day before the slot 0 character creation week). Below is a high-level overview of what you can expect during the coming season of D&D Encounters. It relatively spoiler-free.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 10)

At the end of last week’s encounter the PCs emerged from the dreamscape Easting in a room made of black stone where they saw the Dwarven cult leader Zarnak addressing a pool of glowing red liquid with gold and silver flecks. “Why does it remain silent?” he asked no one in particular. “No matter!”

As we approach the thrilling conclusion to this season of D&D Encounters we continue seeing most players week in and week out. The other table at my FLGS had their usual six PCs while my table was down to five. The party at my table had the following PCs:

  • Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
  • Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
  • Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
  • Firesoul Genasi Barbarian (Berserker) [Ironwrought]
  • Elf Ranger (Scout)

So far this party has done remarkably well without a leader (much better than I expected them to do). They’ve managed their few healing resources conservatively and began this week with two healing potions in their inventory. Sensible use of second wind and the understanding that dying allies need help has turned this party of strikers into a real force to be reckoned with.

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DM Resources

Epic Level Encounter Design – Part 1: Cut the Fat

Recently I’ve been charged with the task of running the first epic level campaign for the Dungeon’s Master crew. This series of articles will outline my process and some of my ideas for creating that high level campaign you’ve always wanted to run. This first article is about trimming down the game of D&D so that it runs well at the epic tier.

Picking the Right Tools for the Job

The game of D&D is like any other device in that it’s designed with a purpose in mind, and as per the demands of the design it meets some needs and not others. I think of these things along the lines of automobiles, where a station wagon and a race car can both be very effective though not at all compatible. Likewise 4e D&D is very different at level 2 and level 22. Heroic tier D&D is like your mother’s station wagon, if you put another dent in the bumper there’s a good chance that she won’t notice, where epic D&D is like a fine Italian F1 land rocket, which you can destroy in an instant by using the wrong fuel and oil.

Heroic tier D&D has a lot of features that make play interesting at that level that don’t really translate well to later play. We’ll review some of them now and you can decide if you want to cut them or not in favour of a more high performance and race worthy game.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: April 2012

April was a skinny month when it came to content at Dungeon’s Master. I’ll admit that I didn’t come anywhere close to getting articles out every day. However, I’d like to think that what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. The number of visitors to Dungeon’s Master dipped a little bit (which I suppose it to be expected when you go from 20+ articles a month to only 12) but they are still holding strong.

When our iron man publishing streak finally came to an end in March I was really concerned that we’d lose readers. But after seeing the numbers remain more or less consistent I realized that perhaps publishing five articles a week was too much. When you didn’t have to read five articles a week you were more likely to actually read the three we did put out. So moving forward I think well try to hit three or four articles a week and we hope that you’ll continue to visit and comment on everything we do publish.

That being said if you did miss anything in April, this is your chance to get caught up. We’d like to thank all of our readers, new and returning for your loyalty and support.

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Editorial

D&D Next and the Fate of Character Builder

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.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 9)

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.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hooks: The Legendary Sword Masters (Part 1)

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.

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DM Resources Editorial

Splitting the Party Successfully

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.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 8.)

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.

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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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