Categories
Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Bluff

Everybody lies and you can do it better than most because you’re trained in Bluff. But why limit yourself to just telling a convincing lie? Here are 10 new and creative ways to get more out of Bluff.

Bluff is not only applicable when speaking untruths. Any attempt at a falsehood is covered by this catch-all skill. Whenever you pretend to be someone you’re not, or mislead an opponent in combat, you rely on Bluff.

In many situations a Bluff check can or should be accompanied by another skill in order to make the lie more believable. It’s up to you and the DM to determine which situations warrant secondary checks, the appropriate DCs and what modifiers may apply.

Categories
Class Discussions

Rangers: A Breed Apart

Elf Ranger by Devin HarriganYou are the protector of the wild, guardian of forbidden frontiers and shepherd to the weak. You attack your foe with blade, bow or beast. You provide no warning of your attack, dispatching your opponents quickly and decisively. You are a Ranger, and to you falls the duty and the privilege of fighting to protect the natural world.

In a recent poll held here at Dungeon’s Master we asked which class in the Players Handbook was most deadly. The response favoured the Ranger over all other options. As a result I’ve decided to take a deeper look at the class to explain just why it is such a deadly choice.

Categories
DM Resources

More Than Just Minions

Killing minions feels good. So good in fact players do weird things in order to kill minions. Controllers who normally hide behind the defenders will charge with wild abandon to unleash a close blast spell if they believe they can drop more than one minion on their turn. Likewise, strikers will move into the thick of a group of enemies they don’t consider a threat to get their shots in on some easy minion fodder.

Here are a few fun things you can do to exploit the PC’s perceptions of minions.

Categories
DM Resources Humour

Cheating in Dungeons and Dragons

People always look for short cuts or ways to get something for nothing. Why wouldn’t you take an opportunity to get ahead should the right circumstances present themselves?

Role playing games are not exempt from cheating. In fact, the game relies a lot on trust (something we’ll be exploring in a coming article). But what happens when players and DMs decide to cheat? How does that affect the game?

Categories
DM Resources

Campaign Design: Politics and Groups of Influence

The world is starting to take shape, the geography has been defined and named and you have appropriate resources on hand to assist you. Now comes the time to start breathing life into your campaign setting. This entry in the Campaign Design series takes a look at Politics and Groups of Influence. This is a high-level view at the different powers and factions that exist within the world. We will examine particular individuals and NPCs in our next entry, but today it’s all about the organizations.

Categories
Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Focus: Heal

You’re trained in Heal so you can patch wounds and stabilizing dying characters, but it doesn’t have to stop there. Here are 10 new and creative ways to get more out of Heal. Depending on your PC’s background and how you role-play him, Heal can encompass a wide variety of disciplines.

Categories
Editorial Player Resources

I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch!

“I am a defender of the faith, a holy warrior and a vassal of my deity. I am not in the party simply to heal your wounds!”

An interesting debate occurred within our gaming group recently. One of our healers, in this case the Cleric, decided that he will not use his Healing Word or any other power that allows others to use healing surges unless a) they are bloodied and b) they have already used their second wind. He is so adamant about following this guideline that he would rather take no minor action instead of healing the other PCs.

Categories
Player Resources

Reputation (Part 3)

Your deeds define your reputation. Basking in your success is the easy part, but what happens when things don’t go quite as expected? Your reputation is easily tarnished by a few bad outings, and now you’ve got to live with the consequences.

This is the third of three articles examining reputation. Reputation (part 1) appeared on The Core Mechanic a few days ago. It was aimed at the DM and provided him with direction for using reputation as a campaign tool. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) are aimed at the players and provides insight on how PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.

Categories
Humour

Funny Feats

You don’t have to be 6-years-old to find something funny, but it helps. In fact some of the best humour comes from those innocent little children. So with child-like sensibility in mind I’ve created Funny Feats as my contribution to this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Humour and Gaming hosted by A Butterfly Dreaming.

Categories
Player Resources

Reputation (Part 2)

As a PC, your reputation is in your own hands. The choices you make during your adventuring career will have a direct impact on your PC’s reputation. The jobs you accept, the method you employ and even the company you keep all factor in to the bigger picture, which defines your reputation.

This is the second of three articles examining reputation. Reputation (part 1) appeared on The Core Mechanic a few days ago. It was aimed at the DM and provided him with direction for using reputation as a campaign tool. Reputation (part 2) and Reputation (part 3) are aimed at the players and provides insight on how PCs can shape their own reputation and gain the most benefit from doing so.