Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

Categories
Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 11)

During their time in the library last week, the party discovered the floor plan to the Monastery. They knew only two rooms were on this floor. Even if there was more undead within, how difficult could it be to explore those two rooms and kill anything that shouldn’t be there? The heroes were about to find out.

This week at our FLGS we ran a double session at both tables. The heroes had the opportunity to explore the two rooms that made up the main floor of the Dwarven Monastery before heading down to the caverns below. The adventure said that the PCs could explore the rooms in whichever order they wanted to. Since the rooms were likely to just be two back-to-back, hack and slash encounters with minimal role-playing, we decided to run them both tonight. My table decided to explore the Meditation Room (the week 12 encounter) first. The other table decided to explore the Sleeping Quarters first. But by the end of the night we’d all completed both encounters.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 11)”
Categories
Class Discussions

Exploiting Racial and Class Features: Fey Step

Knowing you can teleport once per encounter as a move action is like having a get out of jail free card in your back pocket. No matter how bad things get, if you’re conscious on your turn you can get yourself out of a bad situation. It doesn’t matter if you’re prone, bound, marked, surrounded or immobilized – Fey Step will give you options other characters in the exact same situation just won’t have.

There are also amazing, non-combat and role-playing implications that accompany the ability to teleport. Regardless of your class, your Fey Step will often give you access to areas that other characters can’t get to as easily, if at all. All you need it a glimpse of where you want to end up and if it’s within your range you’re there instantaneously. This makes it exceptionally difficult to keep Eladrins anywhere against their will.

Fey Step may not have any offensive implication like other racial powers (take the Dragonborn’s Breath Weapon for example), but you can just as easily build a competent and interesting character around this power. Improving your Fey Step has the added bonus (in most cases) of improving any other teleportation your character makes. With that in mind there are a few classes that provide access to a lot of great teleportation powers and really let you exploit Fey Step.

Continue reading “Exploiting Racial and Class Features: Fey Step”
Categories
DM Resources

Building Better Monsters Part 2: More Than the Sum of Its Parts

In Building Better Monsters Part 1 we talked about the inspiration for monsters and how to identify the ideas that make up a monster design, mainly the monster’s form and its function. This time around we’re digging into the stat block. Every DM has read a stat block before but they’re worth paying close attention to. Stats are the functional manifestation of the monster, and stat blocks are the way that your ideas about monsterhood will be recorded. As such stat blocks are a sort of monster design fundamental, a rudiment for DMs.

You’ve come up with your own idea for a monster so it is time to realize these ideas mechanically. You want to have your design support your plans for your creature as elegantly as possible so that when you get to the table your creature behaves how it ought to with as little effort from you the DM as possible. You have an idea of what you want that monster to do, and good design will let you do that more easily. In order to put all the parts together gracefully a monster designer needs to have a good understanding of what all the parts at their disposal are so that they can put them together creatively.

Continue reading “Building Better Monsters Part 2: More Than the Sum of Its Parts”
Categories
DM Resources

Building Better Monsters Part 1: Meet Your Maker, Monster

This article is the first in a series of four on designing monsters from scratch, getting the most out of your homemade monsters and understanding the mechanics of monsters so that you can use and build them creatively in your game.

  • Part 1 deals mostly with the larger ideas behind monster design so that you’ll be able to build the monster that fits the bill.
  • Part 2 is about the stat block, what it means and the relevant in-game and out-of-game factors that can change your understanding of the stat block.
  • Part 3 is about designing statistics for your monster and how various interpretations of the statistics can change the way your monsters will function as part of a narrative.
  • Part 4 is about implementing your designs and the process of review. Now let’s begin.
Continue reading “Building Better Monsters Part 1: Meet Your Maker, Monster”
Categories
Book Reviews

Review: Elminster Ascending

Elminster Ascending
Ed Greenwood

A Forgotten Realms Novel

Ed Greenwood’s Elminster Ascending: The Sage of Shadowdale omnibus collects three novels – Elminster: The Making of a Mage, Elminster in Myth Drannor and The Temptation of Elminster – that tell the story of Elminster’s origin.

Dungeon’s Master again welcomes Soklemon, our Forgotten Realms book reviewer. He is a Dungeon Master, Forgotten Realms fan, aspiring writer and high school student (in that order). We welcome his latest contribution and hope you enjoy his review of the Ed Greenwood Omnibus: Elminster Ascending.

The first novel’s title, The Making of a Mage, is a misnomer in some ways. For most of the first novel, Elminster abhorred magic and all who used it, hunting and killing many of them. He ran into the Magister early on and was awed by the power that magic could bring, but his mind was yet to be changed. The later two novels deal with Elminster apprenticing himself to various other Mages and Sorcerers, and occasionally only being beholden to Mystra, the goddess of magic herself.

Continue reading “Review: Elminster Ascending”
Categories
Editorial

D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 10)

“Salazar Vladistone is a hero.” At least he was during his lifetime, according to Faldyra. After last week’s battle against the ghosts of Hammerfast, this week’s encounter began with a quick breather in the library. The PCs found Faldyra pouring through old dusty tomes in the library’s basement archives. She’d discovered information about the leader of the Phantom Brigade as well as a possible way to defeat him once and for all.

This week at our FLGS we were running with a skeleton crew. My table had only three players, but one of the veterans was willing and able to run both Belgos and Valenae. The other two players were running Jarren and a new addition to the party, a Dragonborn Fighter. The other table at our FLGS had five players, all of them still sore from the TPK they suffered last week and looking to get back into the game.

Continue reading “D&D Encounters: March of the Phantom Brigade (Week 10)”
Categories
Player Resources

Exploiting Racial and Class Powers: Dragon Breath

Be All You Can Be. This was the recruiting slogan for the U.S. Army for over twenty years. When you create your D&D character do you design them to be the best they can be?

Of course, the term ‘best’ is subjective. Everyone has their own idea of what the best really is. It is also situational, what is best for one situation may not be the best for another. However, there are undeniably certain power builds that exist within D&D. Some are certainly better than others, but all are worth examining.

The Dragonborn’s dragon breath is an interesting power. At first glance it’s a useful and intriguing encounter power that only requires a minor action to use. It gives these characters an extra option during combat and if we’re honest the idea of breathing fire or acid is pretty cool. It lets us get our geek on.

Continue reading “Exploiting Racial and Class Powers: Dragon Breath”
Categories
DM Resources

Foregoing a Short Rest

How important is resting in D&D? The rules allow for characters to rest between encounter in order to heal and regain the use of encounter powers, but just because the rules state that characters can rest does that mean that character should rest?

At low levels DMs always try to find ways to keep the party moving forward. Without a compelling motive, many games end up suffering from a bad case of the 5-minute work day. The players don’t want their characters to die so they’re always looking for an excuse to rest and regain the use of their best powers.

However, I’ve realized from my own recent gaming experiences that as characters get tougher the players are a lot more willing to keep their PC’s adventuring without resting between every single encounter.

Continue reading “Foregoing a Short Rest”
Categories
DM Resources

Designing Social Encounters

Creating combat encounters is a lot easier than creating social encounters in D&D. When it comes to combat most DMs have a really clear idea of what they need to do to prepare. Social encounters by their very nature tend to be less predictable, catching many DMs woefully unprepared for the decisions and actions the party chooses. Although there are guidelines on how to set up and run skill challenges, more complex social encounters that rely on role-playing and interaction with NPCs can become more complicated than fighting Orcus himself.

Most social encounters are played out as skill challenges, if the DM even feels that there is a significant challenge involved. If the goal is merely to meet an important NPC or find out a particular piece of information while hanging out at a bar, than a little bit of role-playing may be all that’s required. However, if the goal is more complex and if there are consequences for failing, then a skill challenges is likely the best way to adjudicate the encounter.

The amount of work required by the DM to create these encounters is really dependent upon the group’s play style. If they’d rather just bash monsters with their weapons and spells, then social encounters will be looked upon as the filler between fights. But for groups that enjoy the role-playing side of things, a social encounter presents an opportunity for them to really develop their PC and use skills more heavily then they usually do during combat. Once you know which type of group you’re designing the encounter for then you can decide if you want to do it the fast way or take the detailed approach.

Continue reading “Designing Social Encounters”
Categories
Player Resources

Character Catchphrases

“I’ll be back.” “D’oh!” “Go ahead, make my day.” A clever catchphrase is an easy way to make a run-of-the-mill character more memorable. As you play more and more characters over time they’ll likely start to blurring together in your memory. Distinguish you next character by giving him a catchphrase.

If you’re playing a public game at your FLGS or at a convention then you often end up at a table with six complete strangers. What better way to distinguish yourself and your character than with a clever catchphrase.

The Wizard that shouts in a funny voice “Heeeeeeeeeere comes my missile” may seem annoying at first, but I guarantee that when you tell your friends about your last D&D game you tell them all about that PC. Meanwhile the other characters all fade into the background.

Continue reading “Character Catchphrases”