Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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DM Resources Editorial

My Love Affair With Minions

It started innocently enough. At first just one and then another. Before I knew it minions had invaded my encounters. It was so easy to just add one more. I’ve considered counselling to help me deal with my problem. The last encounter I ran my players through had 23 minions in it. I’m afraid I’ve gone too far. I’m not sure I can reconcile my love affair with minions.

I worry my players may hold the excess amount of minions they face against me. That they may grow bored with encounters as they realize that they have less and less cause to roll damage dice. Worse, I fear they all may recreate their characters and come back as controllers.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 3)

The morning began with a difficult river crossing followed by an unexpected goblin ambush in the woods. With any luck the heroes might actually reach the ruins of Castle Inverness without any other mishaps or violence. This week’s encounter began at dusk, just as the caravan spotted the ruins of Castle Inverness in the distance.

Brother Splintershield, the leader of the new community, called the caravan to a halt. He beckoned the adventurers to come forth along with Malgram and his scouts. Splintershield and his acolytes are planning to perform a ritual on the site of the castle ruins. This will consecrate the ground, protecting it from evil. But before he can begin, he wants to make sure things are safe.

Malgram and his Rangers agree to search the perimeter. Splintershield asks the PCs to check the actual ruins. They look abandoned from here, but better safe than sorry. The party, this week consisting of Belgos (the Dragonborn), Jarren, Keira, Valenae, a Battlemind and another Rogue, agreed to check it out.

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Eberron

The Living Spells of Eberron

Glitterfire (Living Spell)The Mournland is one of the great mysteries of the Eberron campaign setting. It was created by some arcane accident that will never be explained. One of its more intriguing elements are the living spells that now haunt the land. Representing the spells being cast at the time of the Mourning, these spells gained some semblance of sentience and attack when the opportunity is presented.

Eberron is the campaign setting that the Dungeon’s Master team uses for our home game. During a recent stint of encounters the party was investigating strange disturbances that mirrored the effects of the Mournland. In an attempt to keep the party off balance and provide them with a new challenge, some some new Living Spells were created.

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DM Resources Player Resources

You Broke What? – Describing Your Character’s Injuries

Rarely in D&D do we keep track of where our character is wounded. When he gets hit we just record damage and move on. In order for combat to run smoothly this is a compromise we’ve accepted from day one. Until you PC falls below 0 hit points you just assume he’s got full control over his entire body.

Last week I broke my arm and it got me thinking about how to introduce a system into 4e D&D that represented damage to specific areas of the body. The real trick was to do it in a way that actually added value to the game without just slowing things down or adding unnecessary new rules.

The way I see it, tracking specific damage can be handled in one of two ways: 1) strictly from a role-play perspective; or 2) as an actual mechanic that affects the numbers.

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Player Resources

Six Items Every Adventurer Should Have

As an adventurer you discover all kinds of interesting items. Some of the items are mundane and others magical. The most obvious items are your weapon and armour. As you advance, your helm, glove, boots and cloak are all replaced by magical items that you have discovered. Eventually a point of saturation is reached and the only way to increase your power level is by gaining the next version of your current item. Advancing your magic weapon from +1 to +2 and so forth.

As your character advances in level wealth continues to accumulate and there is the ability to find or purchase additional magic items. Many of these items are consumables, but are still worth obtaining. I am a fan of items that require healing surges to power them. Especially for those defenders who have more healing surges than they could ever likely spend during the normal course of adventuring.

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Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 2)

Last week’s eventful river crossing gave the party a chance to work together for the first time. Overall they worked well as a team. No one died (except the stirges) and the only wounds the party received were inconsequential scrapes and bruises. The party’s success was noted by Malgram, the Ranger in charge of leading Brother Splintershield and the settlers to the ruins of Castle Inverness.

A few hours after the river crossing, Malgram and an as yet unknown female Elf approached the PCs. Malgram introduces the PCs to Faldyra. She is an historian who plans to chronicle the efforts of the settlers as they rebuild on the castle’s ruins. She’s also got a green thumb and wishes to collect various plants, herbs, and roots in the surrounding area.

Malgram asks the PCs if they will accompany Faldyra into the nearby forest and keep an eye on her while she gathers the various plants she seeks. He was impressed by the party’s combat abilities and is sure that they could handle any potential dangers that lurk in the woods (not that he believes there is anything to worry about).

Faldyra, already heading off on her own, waves to the party as she get farther away from the caravan. It’s pretty clear that she’s going whether she’s got chaperones of not. The party quickly catches up to her and agrees to watch out for her well-being.

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Editorial Player Resources

Giving Hollywood Stars D&D Levels

Have you ever wondered how NPCs interpret your character’s level? Do they look at you any differently when you’re level 3 then when you’re level 8? What about when you reach paragon tier?

Just because your PC has earned enough XP to advance a couple of levels doesn’t necessarily mean that the world will look at you any differently. But as you continue to gain additional levels you should eventually start to distinguish yourself from other adventurers.

Your level represents a wide variety of things about your character. It’s tied directly to the amount of XP you’ve earned, or in other words the deeds you’ve accomplished. It also reflects the amount of wealth and material goods you’ve accumulated. And don’t forget that as you earn levels you’ll acquire power and influences in social and political circles.

Based on these criteria, I’ve taken a stab at drawing parallels between D&D character level and the career successes of famous Hollywood movie stars. I’ve put together a list of some of today’s most famous and popular stars and tried to rank them according to their corresponding D&D level.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hook: The Mercenary Company

Did your adventuring company meet in a tavern? Perhaps they were recruited by a wise old wizard who needed help clearing out a pesky band of goblins? Of course there is always the village in need of rescue and the PCs just happen to be the only able bodied individuals around. Finally, the PCs might be the heirs of old adventurers destined for greater things.

Regardless of the initial start to your campaign your players will require a long term reason for why they continue to adventure together. Often adventuring parties are composed of personalities that have no real reason to remain together. That is where a Mercenary Company can provide the required glue to keep your adventurers together. Wizards of the Coast recently featured two different mercenary companies, Queen Filfaeril’s Blades and The Last Legion (DDI subscription required). Mercenary Companies allow you to keep the party involved with a long term campaign goal, while still providing other secondary adventures.

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DM Resources Skill Challenges

Solving the Skill Challenge Problem – Ensuring Everyone Contributes

Has this ever happened to you? The DM sets the scene and you realize that the party is about to face a skill challenge. As the fifth or sixth player to act you only get to make one meaningful skill check before the party achieves overall success. It was a good encounter because during some of the low complexity skill challenge you don’t even get to act before the party achieves their goal.

What makes this situation an even bigger problem is that most players try to use their best skill even though in many cases it makes more sense (from a story perspective) for them not to. They know that they’re only going to get one or two shots at making a meaningful contribution to the skill challenge, and they don’t want to be the guy who flubs the check and wracks up a failure.

The Dungeon’s Master team has come up with a way to ensure that every player gets to contribute during a skill challenge and that every player feel comfortable using the skills that make the most sense to complete the objective and not just the one or two skills that they happen to be strongest in. Here’s what we’ve come up with.

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DM Resources

How To Use Traps To Make Combat More Intense

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Paladin – What was that?

Rogue – Sounds like you stepped on a pressure plate.

Paladin – I thought you were keeping an eye out for traps?

Rogue – So I missed one.

Paladin – Is that supposed to make me feel more comfortable about the situation?

Rogue – Honestly, how did you get this far in life? Hold still, let me look… I said hold still, stop with the squirming.

<clank … clank … clank>

Paladin / Rogue – What was that?

Cleric – I have a bad feeling about this.

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