Tag: Dungeon’s Master

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Player Resources

Creating A Character That Can’t Be Killed

I’ve been perusing the D&D Player’s Strategy Guide since I received it as a Father’s Day gift this past Sunday. My reading hasn’t been focused on building the best character, as I have already done that. Of course my best character may not be your best character and that’s ok, I forgive you your delusions.

One of the interesting sections in the Player’s Strategy Guide is the “How To” section that runs through page 62 – 81. The section covers everything from gaining the highest initiative, being the best healer and having the most hit points. What it doesn’t offer is how to build a character that can’t be killed. As a result here is my take on how to build a character that simply won’t die. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll run some variations on this theme of “How To”.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 3)

What do you get when four PCs are attacked by goblins from high atop a rocky outcropping? One hell of a tough encounter. Week 3 was another grueling session for the players at my table. They eventually defeated all of the monsters, but the toll on their personal resources was costly. If they thought encounter 3 was tough, encounters 4 and 5 will be nearly impossible without a significant turn of events.

There they were getting pelted from above when we took stock of party’s ranged attack options. Yuka, no ranged attacks. Phye, no ranged attacks. Shikirr, no ranged attacks. That left Barcan. The same Barcan with only 2 healing surges remaining. Barcan with the poorest defenses of all the pre-generated characters. After only 5 minutes we knew this was going to ugly.

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DM Resources Editorial

5 Errors I’ve Made as DM

DMs aren’t perfect. There I’ve said it. Any DM that claims he’s never made an error when running a game is lying. Even the best DMs make mistakes. Over the years I’ve made plenty of errors while playing D&D. I’ve found that the best thing to do in these situations is to try and learn from the experience. So today I’m going to share with you the 5 biggest and most egregious errors I’ve made as a DM. I think you’ll find that these are fairly common mistakes made by DMs across the board.

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Editorial

The 4e Necromancer Has Been Announced

One of the first articles published at Dungeon’s Master was our take on the Necromancer. Since that time we’ve produced a revised version of our heroic, paragon and epic tier take on the class, along with a general write up on different kinds of Necromancers. The Necromancer as envisioned by us was developed to address the fact that there were no Wizard specialists in 4e D&D. Along the way we’ve toyed with the idea of releasing a build of the class that is built on the Warlock and Cleric structure as well.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Change, Change, and More Change to RPGA Play

Last week both the RPGA Character Creation Guide and the Living Forgotten Realms Character Creation Guide were updated. Both documents are effective tomorrow (June 22, 2010). This is the last update scheduled for either document until October. So if you play Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) or you’re planning on going to GenCon to play D&D then you should check out these updates. This is probably the largest single update since 4e was released. Here are the highlights.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Embracing The Total Party Kill

It’s not something we like to think about, the death of the party, the end of the campaign. On occasion it is the right thing to do. Earlier this week we discussed Avoiding The Total Party Kill. This task falls jointly on the shoulders of the DM and the players. Embracing The Total Party Kill, falls on the players and is a decision that only they can make.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 2)

This week I got a double dose of Dark Sun. I was on vacation last week, but before I left I made arrangements with 6 players to skip the first week and run encounters one and two back-to-back this week. After just two sessions of Fury of the Wastewalker I have to admit that I like this adventure a whole lot more than Halaster’s Lost Apprentice.

D&D Encounters is a 15-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over 15 weeks.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 7)

Even though we’ve spent a lot of time discussing Dark Sun over the past few weeks we still play our weekly game in Eberron and are still committed to bringing you Eberron-specific articles. With this latest installment in our ongoing series, Secrets of Eberron Revealed, we look at how Dragonmarks are permanently removed and how Dragonmarks can be made to manifest for a short time.

  • Every member of a Dragonmarked house knows that one of the harshest punishments they can receive is to be excoriated – permanent banishment from the house. But when the house brings in The Effacers the punishment becomes so much worse.
  • Have you every wished you had a Dragonmark, even for just a short time? The Drakes may be able to help you.

Click on the Eberron tab above the Dungeon’s Master banner to find the previous installments in this ongoing series as well as many other great Eberron articles and resources.

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DM Resources Player Resources

Avoiding The Total Party Kill

The party is in the middle of combat and the plan of attack quickly falls apart. Within rounds the party finds themselves with several PCs making death saves. Things have gone from bad to worse and a total party kill is looking imminent. Options begin running through your head, do you go down swinging? Is it still possible to defeat the encounter? Is retreat the best option? If you do retreat what about your already fallen companions?

No matter the cause of a total party kill, it can have devastating consequences on your campaign or adventure session. From derailed campaigns, frustrated players and torn up character sheets every TPK is going to have it’s own ramifications. The key to avoiding these difficult situations is to avoid the total party kill in the first place.

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Book Reviews

Monster Manual 3: An Early Review

On shelves tomorrow, Monster Manual 3 is exactly what you’d expect from the new creature catalog. It’s chalked full of new monsters – some brand new and many other old favourites that have been noticeably absent from 4e D&D. There are about 300 monsters in the Monster Manual 3. About 125 are heroic tier, 100 paragon tier and 75 at epic tier. With more of us playing at paragon and epic tier, these new creatures give DMs more high level foes to throw at those poor unsuspecting PCs.

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