Tag: PHB2

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Book Reviews

Player’s Handbook 3 (PHB3) Review (Part 3)

Psionics. I’ll admit that over the years I’ve never been a huge fan of psionics in D&D. I cringed when Wizards announced that PHB3 would introduce psionic powered character classes to 4e D&D. My initial (and completely uninformed) opinion on the matter was that psionics suck. However, over the past few months as preview material was released through DDI, I got a chance to see some of these new psionic classes first hand. I’ll admit that the preview content started bringing me around on psionics. Now that I’ve actually got a PHB3 with the full builds for each of the new psionic classes I find myself completely turned around on psionics.

In our Player’s Handbook 3 Review (Part 1) we covered the new races and the new divine leader class, the Runepriest. In Player’s Handbook 3 Review (Part 2) we covered skill powers, feats and new magic items. In today’s article we’ll look at psionics.

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Class Discussions Editorial

Is More Really Better: A Look At Character Classes

I’m all about options, I love to have a multitude of choices, doing the research and then selecting the best fit for the vision of my character. These choices don’t just include the feats and powers I select for my PC, in fact the decisions start the moment I open up the Character Builder. I’m first confronted with the choice of what class to play, followed by race and so on. While these two early choices may seem simple, they are anything but. They will serve to represent your character as much or more than any other choice you make.

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Skill Challenges

Skill Matrix Update

We’ve updated the skill matrixes by class and race. The existing skill aides for players and DMs now include materials presented in the Eberron Player’s Guide.

  • The player’s aide has three new races: Changeling, Kalashtar and Warforged.
  • The DM’s aide has the skills breakdown for the Artificer.

We’ve also added a new monster matrix for players and DMs. This is similar to the player’s aide except that it collects the monstrous PC race options presented in the Monster Manual and the Monster Manual 2. Those monsters later printed in other sourcebooks have been included in the player’s aide only.

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Categories
Month in Review

Month in Review: March 2009

March was a good month for D&D and a great month for Dungeon’s Master. We hit our two month milestone and are gaining a strong and loyal readership. Our thanks to everyone who visits regularly and comments often. In March we published 26 new articles on a wide variety of topics. Here are the highlights just in case you missed anything.

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DM Resources Player Resources Skill Challenges

Skill Matrix by Class and Race

The core classes and races now span three books: PHB, PHB2, and FR Player’s Guide. I’ve created two skill aides: one lists skill offerings by class, the other lists bonuses to skills and attributes by race.

I developed these to make things easier when creating skill challenges. They provide quick snapshots of all the skills by class and race, and eliminates the need for me to keep flipping between books.

As an added bonus I’ve found these aides incredibly useful when creating characters. They provide side-by-side comparisons of racial bonuses to attributes and skills.

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Editorial

Worldwide D&D Game Day 2009

gameday2009I spent Worldwide D&D Game Day 2009 at 401 Games, a game store in downtown Toronto meeting new gamers and playing the adventure One Night in Weeping Briar. This was an adventure for five, 11th level characters and was designed to appeal to experienced gamers as well as people trying out D&D for the very first time. Overall, I think it was a great success, but I do have some feedback about Game Day that I’d like to share based on my experience.

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DM Resources

Split the Party

Generally speaking, you shouldn’t split the party. Sure, it might make sense based on the situation the PCs are in, but it’s a nightmare to play it out. What usually ends up happening is that half the people at the table can’t do anything but watch while their companions go left and they go right. It’s extremely difficult to keep the people not in the “active” group focused since PCs not in the scene can’t offer suggestions or actively participate. When I’m the DM, I do everything I can to discourage splitting up.

But an interesting thing happened this weekend during my Sunday night game. We split up and it worked spectacularly. My hat is off to Suddry, that evening’s DM, for taking a usually disastrous situation and making it one of the most memorable nights of D&D we’ve had in a long time. Here’s how it played out and what we learned from it.

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Categories
Editorial

How Many Classes Are Too Many?

Player’s Handbook 2 hits shelves today and in it are eight new core classes. Eight more! In my opinion, that’s too many. I don’t have the PHB2 yet – I wasn’t one of the lucky bloggers to get an advance copy. And you know what? I’m not sure if I’m going to buy it since the character builder will be updated with all the new classes, races, feats and powers at the end of the month anyway. But I have read the tidbits already released through the Dungeons & Dragons Insider and the abundance of new classes infuriates me.

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