Tag: 4e

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DM Resources

Adding Favours to Treasure Bundles

“Your reward for rescuing the Duke’s daughter is a magical weapon, a suit of enchanted armor and a favour.”

As D&D characters become more and more powerful they always seem to become filthy rich along the way. At first they reinvest their newly gotten gains in themselves, purchasing new weapons, armor and magical items. But after a few levels they have everything they need and they start accumulating wealth. Massive amounts of wealth.

I have numerous characters at or above level 10 and all of them have thousands of gold pieces recorded on their character sheet. And the money continues piling up as they continue adventuring. Now I can spend the cash for the sake of spending the cash, but honestly there’s nothing that these character want or need. They already have magic items in every item slot of their character sheet. Eventually these PCs hit a point where any monetary rewards become inconsequential. I mean what can you buy with 20,000 gp that you couldn’t buy with 15,000 gp?

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Player Resources

Character Creation: The Importance Of Planning Ahead

If you’re anything like me you spend a substantial amount of time planning your PC’s advancement ahead of time. You debate about feats, powers and item selection. You wonder what each new source book may bring. Will a new paragon path open up a better role-playing opportunity for you? Will a new feat allow you to further optimize your PC in combat? While you may ponder these questions, you realize that in planning ahead you need to work with what you have and make adjustments as new source books are released. Of course if you aren’t like me, then by the time you realize the shortcomings of your PC it’s far too late to do anything about it.

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Editorial

Fighting an Opponent You Can’t Beat

Dragon's Lair by Matt Stawicki

As PCs you think that you’re invincible. You assume that no matter what the DM puts in front of you, you can defeat it. After all, you’re the heroes. Sure some fights may be tougher than others, but if the DM’s read the DMG and set up the encounter according to the rules then every fight is beatable. But what if that’s not the case?

In a recent game my DM created a super-monster that was significantly tougher than the PCs. The intent was to give the PCs an opponent that they needed to work up to. The problem was that the party (me included) assumed that if and when we found the monster that we should fight it immediately, just like we would with any other combatant. When we finally found the creature we (predictably) ran headlong into battle.

After two grueling hours of combat we still had no clue that we were in way over our heads. In fact, we thought we were doing a pretty good job of killing the monster. And then one of my companions said to the DM, “Since we’re down to just our at-will powers, are you willing to call the fight, otherwise this could drag out for a long time?” to which the DM replied, “This monster is no where near dead. I’m not calling the fight.”

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Player Resources

The Shardmind

With the release of the PHB3 we have four new player character races to add to our available choices. Today I want to consider the Shardmind, beings of raw psionic energy barely contained in a body of gleaming crystalline shards.The Shardmind is built for the purpose of supporting the new psionic power source classes. Of course the Shardmind is also capable of doing much more than this as the player can select how they’d like their ability scores distributed. I’m of mixed minds about the Shardmind, part of me wants to love this race, another part isn’t too sure.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters (Weeks 3 & 4)

D&D Encounters is a 12-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over the next 12 weeks.

What’s in store for seasons two and three of the D&D Encounters program? We have some rumours and some facts. But first, our ongoing coverage continues as we share our thought and feedback from D&D Encounters (weeks 3 & 4).

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DM Resources

Time in D&D

Raise your hand if you’ve ever created a level 1 PC, entered a dungeon, killed a bunch of monsters, gained a bunch of levels while still inside the dungeon and then realized that only a few weeks of actual in-game time passed when you emerge. I know I’m not the only one reading this that has his hand up.

Time in D&D is an aspect of the game I find is overlooked way too often. Tracking time in your game may not be that big a deal, but the longer you continue playing that same PC the more important time becomes.

So just how long does it take to go from level 1 to level 2? In 4e D&D it takes about 10-13 encounters or about four gaming sessions. But what I really want to know is how much time passes in-game between levels?

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DM Resources Editorial

I Want Individual Rewards in D&D

Is having a good time reward enough for playing D&D? Hell no! I want treasure and I want XP. I’ve earned it. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I’ll admit that as a player I fall pretty squarely into this camp. Having a good time and socializing with friends is a great part of playing D&D, but what I look forward to most at the end of the session is the reward. And thanks to the mechanics of 4e D&D I’m rarely disappointed.

The rules for rewarding players are so simple and streamlined that I know at the start of the night what I can expect by the end of the night. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing at all. By having some general foreknowledge of what I’m risking my PC’s life for, I’m more strongly motivated to rush headlong into a fight with a dragon or attempt to decipher the ancient glyphs protecting the entrance to the lost treasure trove.

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Editorial

The Miracle Of Divine Power

Divine Sight, Voice of Fate, Water Walk, Travelers’ Feast, Cure Disease, Remove Affliction and Raise Dead.

All rituals.

All miracles.

I’ve always enjoyed the fact that rather than create new spells and powers for divine characters, D&D draws its inspiration from the major faiths that exist today. All of the rituals above are found in the Bible in one form or another. As it’s the day after Easter when the Christian faith celebrates the major miracle of its faith, I thought it only appropriate to take a look at the Divine Power source.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: March 2010

March was a great month for D&D and for Dungeon’s Master. Wizards of the Coast released the Player’s Handbook 3 and they began the new D&D Encounters program. Our article on D&D Encounters (Week 1) was referenced on the Wizards site in their D&D in the News article from Monday, March 22. They also linked to Dungeon’s Master from the Dungeons & Dragons Facebook page. We always appreciate it when we get a shout out from Wizards. For readers who found us through these links, we welcome you to Dungeon’s Master. On the 1st of every month we do a round-up of all the article we published in the previous month. This gives everyone a chance to check out any of the articles that they might have missed the first time around.

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Book Reviews

Review: Avenger

Avenger
(Blades of the Moonsea, Book III)
Richard Baker

A Forgotten Realms novel

Avenger is the third adventure featuring Garen Hulmaster. The Blades of Moonsea trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion in Avenger. The Hulmasters were usurped from their family stronghold and forced to flee Hulberg at the end of Corsair, the second novel. Avenger picks up a few months later as the Hulmasters are struggling to devise a plan to retake their home. But before any plans can be enacted, the family is struck upon by assassins.

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