We’ve added a new feature to Dungeon’s Master, the Staff Pick. These are older posts from our archives that Ameron and I wanted to highlight. Look for our Staff Picks in the left navigation below our five most popular posts. We’ll update our Staff Picks regularly with articles we think new readers might find interesting and that long-time readers may benefit from discovering again.
On Monday the 2009 ENnie Award nominees were announced. Even though our fledgling site didn’t earn a nomination this year, the team at Dungeon’s Master wants to congratulate the five finalists in the Best Website category.
Oh my god Divine Power is a very cool book. Although not officially released until next week, I have a copy of Divine Power now. It provides new powers, feats, paragon paths and epic destinies for divine classes as well as introducing new rules for divine domains. If you play a divine PC you need to get this book.
The first four chapters are dedicated to the four divine classes. Contained within each is exactly what you expect: new builds, new powers and new paragon paths. Here are the highlights.
Last week Wizards of the Coast updated the Character Builder with the first release from the Player’s Handbook 3 and what an update it was. I really believe that WotC delivered on the promise they made back in June. What we as DDI subscribers are receiving is full content well ahead of its publication date. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the new classes, races and feats from the PHB3 over the next nine months.
I’ve got the Eberron Campaign Guide. Get an advanced preview of each and every chapter including information about The Lord of Blades, King Kaius III and the brand new Dragonmarked House: House Tarkanan.
Before I get into the chapter by chapter review I wanted to comment on a few of the overall elements. The art in this book is fantastic. You’ll be blown away when you see Wayne Reynolds’ cover painting of The Lord of Blades, Ralph Horsley’s adventurers battling a huge Warforged, Chippy’s Warforged hanging off the side of the airship and (my personal favourite) Chippy’s dragon emerging from the water grasping a swordfish. Almost all the art is new (I only recognized two pictures from previous books).
Having a magic sword is one thing but having an intelligent magic sword is a whole new level of coolness. So far there are no mechanics in 4e Dungeons & Dragons for creating intelligent magic items. However a creative DM can always introduce one as he sees fit.
Continuing our look at magic items that began in yesterday’s article What’s a +1 Sword?, today I’m going to share some of the pros and cons I’ve experienced by introducing an intelligent magic item to my campaign. Over the years I’ve have many games that included intelligent items. It’s not something I would recommend for everyone, especially new gamers, but it can add a new and unpredictable element to your game.
“That’s a beautiful blade,” noted the barkeep as he served the adventurers their ale. “Is it magical?”
“It sure is,” replied Delian the Paladin. “I found this in the ogre’s lair. It’s a +1 sword.”
“What’s a +1 sword?”
How often do you refer to your PC’s gear only in gaming terms? Sure the people sitting at your dining room table playing D&D know what a +1 sword is, but how would you describe the same weapon in character to an NPC? You’d sound pretty stupid if you called it a +1 sword. Not to mention that no one would understand what you mean when you call it a +1 sword.
This week Wizards of the Coast released their first complete preview class from the forthcoming PHB3 through DDI and the Character Builder – The Psion. This is the first of many new classes relying on the new psionic power source, a useless and altogether unnecessary addition to 4e D&D. To put it bluntly: psionics suck.
If you want to survive any D&D adventure you need to plan ahead. The better your advanced planning the more likely your chances of survival, and in the case of the Ultimate Dungeon Delve, the better your chance of victory. At this year’s GenCon they are running the next Ultimate Dungeon Delve: Fall of the Tower at Windrock. I’m signed up to play and I’m looking for an adventuring company.
As a DM, I often draw inspiration for my D&D games from the most unexpected places. This weekend I saw the movie The Hangover and afterwards I realized that the way the story is structured would work beautifully as a D&D game. For those readers who haven’t seen the movie, I won’t present anything in this article that will ruin it for you. The high points that I’m going to cover are all revealed in the trailer.