Tag: Player Resources

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? Final Round, Vote Now!

Before diving into articles inspired by everything that happened at GenCon this weekend, we’re continuing our quest to find the best feats in 4e D&D. With over 3,000 feats available to level 1 characters, narrowing the list down to a cool 10 was no easy task.

We began with 32 feats and asked you to vote for the ones that you felt were the best. After dividing the list in half, we took the sweet 16 and further subdivided the list down to the top 10. Beginning today you can vote for the very best heroic tier feats currently available in 4e D&D.

We began this whole exercise when we realized that an overwhelming majority of players took the same core utility feats for their characters over and over again, regardless of their class or race. It made us wonder if some feats are just better than others. The answer has been a resounding yes.

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DM Resources Player Resources

In Anticipation of GenCon: Convention Tips 6 for Players, 6 for DMs

GenCon, the best four days in gaming, begins on Thursday. With less than a week to go before the annual gaming extravaganza we here at Dungeon’s Master have decided to re-run a few articles from our archive that we felt would appeal to all the gamers heading to Indianapolis next week. Between now and GenCon we’ll continue running new articles but we’ll also be sharing some relevant gems from our archives in anticipation of GenCon. Enjoy.

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? Round 2, Vote Now!

Today the winners of What are the Best Feats? Round 1 begin vying for the crown of best feats in 4e D&D. It started with a simple discussion. Were some feats better than others? All evidence seemed to indicate that yes, some feats were absolutely, head and shoulders, better than others. With over 3,000 feats available to level 1 PCs we kept seeing the same few appear over and over again on everybody’s character sheet. Knowing that there was a hand full of superior, more popular feats, our next step was to identify and rank them.

Last week we comprised a list of 32 contenders for the best feats in 4e D&D and asked you to vote. The top two feats from each group in Round 1 advanced to Round 2 which begins today. Round 2 will work slightly differently than Round 1. Rather than put the feats into groups of four we decided to just go with two groups of eight. You can vote for up to four feats in each group.

Since many of these feats received a nearly identical percentage of the votes in the first round, limiting the groups to only four feats each might have unintentionally eliminated or favoured some feats based on which ones they were matched up against. The larger field in each poll should give more accurate results as we try to figure out what are the best feats.

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Player Resources

Forget Training Skills; Let’s Go Back to a Skill Point System

We’ve written a lot of articles about skills. One thing that we’ve mentioned repeatedly in recent articles is the reluctance of some players to use skills they’re not good at. It’s a common problem and we’re still looking for the best solution. While brainstorming we came up with a proposal that we think will work and today we want to share it with you. We look at what’s worked in the past and used that as our starting point. We’re proposing that we ditch skill training and return to a skill point system.

When 3e hit shelves, one extreme change from previous editions of D&D was the introduction of skills and the ability for all PCs to spend points in those skills. This was a great way to differentiate two nearly identical characters. It allowed anyone to spend points in any skill they wanted their character to excel at. Now Pick Pockets or Moving Silently weren’t just abilities unique to Rogues.

With 4e D&D the list of skills was reduced to a mere 17. You no longer spent points in each skill; rather you selected a few skills based on your class that you were trained in. All other non-trained skills were just an extension of the relevant ability score. This change had its ups and downs.

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DM Resources Player Resources

What are the Best Feats? Round 1, Vote Now!

As we so often do, Wimwick and I were recently talking about our characters. It began as a discussion on the ones we are running, but quickly encompassed the other characters we’ve run in the past as well as those run by the other members of our gaming group. We realized that almost all of the characters we looked at shared about half of the same feats. It didn’t matter what class or race they were, some feats kept appearing over and over again on everyone’s character sheet.

Our only explanation for this phenomenon was that some feats are clearly superior. Not just better, but far better. The result being that everyone chooses these feats. In fact, characters that don’t have these feats seemed considerably less powerful than those that do. It lead us to conclude that if there are some feats that are practically required for all character why do we have to waste a feat slot choosing them? Why aren’t these feats free to all character?

So we decided that moving forward for our home game we were going to allow all characters to take a few of these “superior” feats for free during character creation and see how things worked out. The challenge now was to narrow down the list and determine which feats should be included in the list of the best feats.

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D&D Encounters

D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard (Week 10)

After defending the armory from the undead attack last week, the PCs ended the encounter and took a much deserved extended rest shortly after the morning sun crested the eastern horizon. When they awoke Grimbold met them and they traded tales of what happened the previous night.

Grimbold explained that he was at the Chapel of Peace and led the militia as they defended the church. The undead threat didn’t manage to get inside the church but he did loose a few of his men in the process. As the PCs already knew, many of the townsfolk including members of the militia continue to loose the little hope they had left.

Grimbold explained that the undead he faced were all dressed in the cassocks of Pelorite monks. The PCs confirmed the same adornments on the skeletons they faced. When examining the skeletons in the morning daylight, Brother Zelan speculated that someone broke into the crypts at Saint Avarthil Monastery to awaken these poor souls as undead minions. Grimbold agreed that it was at least worth investigating. He asked the PCs if they would travel to the Monastery, a mere two hour journey from Duponde, and try to figure out what happened. The PCs agreed to help.

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Player Resources

Choosing An Epic Destiny Is Harder Than You Think

No matter what level my current character happens to be I’m always looking ahead to the next level. Usually I’m looking even farther ahead that that. Every time Wizards releases a new product – be it the next PHB, one of the Powers book, or an issues of Dragon – I scour through it to look for that next great “something” that will help my character become truly awesome. But as the characters in my regular game approach the epic tier I find that even though I’m still eagerly looking ahead at powers, feats, items and epic destinies, the criteria by which I judge those things is really beginning to change.

Usually when I look ahead I’m trying to discover the things that will help my PC the most – and when I say “help” in this context it’s always a number crunch. The feat that will give me the best attack score modifier, resistance or way out of a jam, or the power that will target the most enemies, deal the most damage or instill the most debilitating effects. It’s always a numbers game.

But as I look ahead at the epic destinies that my PC qualifies for, I find that the number crunching suddenly seems less important. Of all the criteria I’m using to decide upon which epic destiny to take for my PC, the numbers have become significantly less important. My priorities as a player have changed.

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Editorial Player Resources

Are You Willing to Provoke an Opportunity Attack?

One of the more difficult things that new players have trouble remembering is that moving away from an opponent will draw an opportunity attack. As soon as players hear that moving their character more than one square away from an adjacent creature will result in that creature getting a free attack, all tactics that involve moving are thrown out the window. It’s almost as if they believe that drawing an attack and possibly taking the hit is the absolute worst thing that they can do on their turn.

As an experienced DM I’m going to tell you that you need to be willing to take an opportunity attack once and a while. From a mechanics point of view all opponents know as well as you do under what circumstances they’ll get to make a free attack on you. If you move away they’ll attack you as soon as your back is turned. If you try to use a ranged attack while standing next to them, they’ll see the hole in your defenses and attack you. And if you try to crawl away while prone you bet that you enemy will kick you as you scurry away.

But so what if they do? In most cases a monster’s basic attack is just that – basic. It usually is a straight up weapon attack, be it a sword or claw. Yes, it has the potential to hurt you but you need to weigh that against the value of taking the action that draws the attack in the first place.

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DM Resources Editorial

D&D Math – Adding the Numbers

Player – I rolled a 15, plus 7. Do I hit his AC?

DM – What’s the total?

Player – Um, hold on. 15… (Counts under breath) 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. (At full volume again) 22! Does that hit?

DM – Yes it does. His AC is 14.

I’ve been playing a lot of public-play D&D over the past year; mostly D&D Encounters but also a fair amount of LFR. This is of course in addition to my regular weekly game. Playing in all of these games allows me to see how other people play and lets me learn from the experience. It also highlights problem areas in my game and in the game of the other players and DMs.

One disturbing trend that I’m seeing more and more is players that don’t (or possibly even can’t) do the math. They roll a d20, call out the result and then give me their modifiers and ask if they hit. In many cases the roll is high enough to beat the monster’s defences, so I know they hit even without the modifier added in; however, I always ask for the total before confirming a hit or miss. And it’s not only happening with attack rolls. It’ happens with damage rolls too.

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Editorial

Should PCs Charge Other PCs for Services?

What if, during the heat of combat, when you’re down to your last few hit points and in desperate need of healing, the Cleric only agrees to use Healing Word if you promise to pay him 500 gp? What about a Rogue who won’t disarm and open a locked treasure chest unless he gets half of whatever’s inside it? Should characters be able to charge party members for performing unique services?

Normally this kind of behaviour isn’t tolerated at any D&D table. The game is cooperative and everyone’s supposed to get along. It’s assumed that all character brings something useful to the party dynamic. In the end everyone will contribute as necessary to accomplish the greater objective and by doing so everyone is entitled to an equal share of the spoils. But isn’t it reasonable to assume that every once and a while a PC will feel that what they bring to the table far outweighs that of the others? And in these circumstances is it wrong for them to take advantage of the situation for personal gain?

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