Hello and well met all, I wanted to point you toward my other blog: oocrant.wordpress.com – it’s OOC, out of character, also may be doing more things under that banner in the future, stay tuned!
Hey folks, wants to drop in and apologize that I haven’t made a post yet, we are playing a new game and I need to set some time to update with the plot of this new game. Will try to do so after the new year, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!
Hello all my “readers” just letting you know that I am going to let one of my players, Clint take over DMing for a little bit, I’m kind of DM-blocked so I will just play in his game for a little bit, now we only have 2 players, I’m playing 2 characters, so it’s all good!
I know this is going to upset someone, but some abilities are OP completely. I am going to disallow ranged non-daily multiple strike attacks (like dual strike) from hitting the same target twice. This was leading to an INSANE amount of damage from range, and quite frankly, it’s unfair and unfun (except for one person).
So far we have the following house rules:
-A roll = defense is half damage (glancing blows)
-Only need to roll attack and damage once on AoE attacks
-Ranged Non-Daily Multi-Target attacks (ex. Dual strike) cannot attack the same target twice.
As far as I can remember, that is it. I will allow 1 re-talent for that ability if wanted, but in the interest of fun and profit, this will go forth, and obviously is included for NPCs as well.
Well, after a bit of a RL hiatus, we’re back baby!l Let’s get started:
The heroes finally got to Winterhaven! But… it’s way too quiet. Our rather …rash… heroes decide it is a good idea to attempt to BURN THE CITY DOWN out of fear of undead (cowards). A dagger is thrown through a thrown torch, and a familiar voice sreeches out “KILL HIM! He’s the one who defiled me!” This is followed by a green blast hitting Thorn and knocking him back several feet, burning him, and makes him unresponsive. Green chains at the same time grab the rest of the group by their hands and feet. Thiera (the Drow assassin from last week) shows up, emanating evil energy, stronger than before. She immedietly runs up to Moralios, running her dagger up against his throat. Moralios retorts with assorted insults that anger her greatly, she starts to drag her dagger against his throat. She then looks into Moralios’ eyes and they are pure black, with a green cats/dragons slit in them. Thiera is then knocked aside by Thorn, who is then stopped in mid air.
The group finds themselves surrounded in a green aura/mist, and a eerie mysterious voice speaks to them all. “She speaks and works on her own, but I work for my master. You are extremely powerful, and if you survive his task, you’ll be able to meet him.” Green bolts hit Nadiia, Temonicas, and Thorn, making them evaporate. Our warrior (who again is nameless, stupid retcons) and Moralios are still trapped there, they begin to feel like they are being stretched to the point of breaking in half, and their midsections begin to evaporate, then they feel like they are slammed together with an incredible force, and everything goes black, but the pain persists…
They wake up, with a scorching heat on their backs, which is hot even to the Dragonborn, but not anything evil. They stand up to gather their bearings, to see if their party is there, as they have not heard anything from them. Nadia, temonicas, and Thorn are all missing, but there is a tall, pale female humanoid laying there, with a glowing blue marking on her back. After getting poked over and over again, she wakes up. After some discussion, it is found out that this warrior is Nadiia!
From in the distance, horses and wheels come up to them. A human and a dim-witted elf hop off of there, after some banter, they say they want the heroes as slaves, surrounds the group with elves and dwarfs.
The Leader, Kaldren ( I think, I forgot his name as of this posting, I’ll retcon it later.) a must more rational elf then shows himself, calls down the others down, introducing himself as a mere trader, but he does have one slave to present to the Sorcerer-King.
The heroes stop him, explaining what happened, he then explains to them they are on a plane called Athas, and a few days drive from a large city named Tyr. It is mentioned that there are no Gods anymore, and Arcane users ruined the planet and are now persecuted without prejudice. Any “defilers” (arcane users) are either meant to be killed on site or brought to a Sorcerer-King and you will be rewarded. He reveals a Drow in the back of his caravan with arcane seals on his hands and mouth, but he is looking pleadingly to the group. Kaldren then explains that he got the name “Malakai” from him, and wondered if the others had known him. Moralios explains that 2 of their members are missing, and considering the radical change of Nadiia (who Kaldren tells them is really a Changeling, just brought up as a Dwarf, until the spell broke her Spellscar) this drow could be one of them. They decide to figure that out after they get to Tyr, because the first sun is going down, and “may the Fallen Gods have mercy on your soul if you are out after the Dark Sun rises”.
On the road the group’s first SKIIIIIIILL CHALLLLLLLENGE comes up, which they have no problem succeeding in. The second skill challenge proves to be a little more problematic, as there was a storm brewing and their horses were getting scared a lot, but they succeeded.
After they get to Tyr, they hop off of their horses and stretch their legs, but the group senses something is going wrong, and head back to the caravan, but an elf with superhuman speed has unlocked Malakai and he is now standing up. He explains to them that he is not evil (as he is put to a very sharp swordsedge courtesy of Kaldren) and he can prove it, he has never used his arcane spells to defile anything.
Just then, screams erupt from the trade quarter, Kaldren pushes the group including Malakai away from them. “My first priority is to my goods, I will catch up! GO!” Suddenly balded objects are flying from the sky from a group of elven snipers as they are transversing the large town (Malakai knows the way) to the market quarter.
When they get there, there are several multi-legged horse/demon/camel like beasts (kanks) and the elven assassins destroying innocents. It is up to our heroes to stop them! (battle ensues)
During the battle, the main thing of note is when the elf comes out of his tent, there is the sound of a screaming beast before he shows up. He is promptly and without mercy filled with arrows from Moralios, without a chance to even act. This does anger the Kanks enough for them to spit acid (literally). There are a couple of close deaths, until Nadiia discovers that instead of her divine powers, she still has the power to heal, but with her words, she now speaks with a natural melody, and an increased charisma naturally (yes, dwarf priest to changeling bard). Malakai is also found that when he uses his Sorcerer abilities, he focuses very closely, bringing his arcane abilities from himself, as opposed to the planet around him. When he uses his power, nothing around him is changed or drained.
The battle is won, but Kaldren shows up telling them they have to move quickly or else…
PHEW one hell of a week, so much happened…. tune in next week!
by Wimwick on June 22, 2010
One of the first articles published at Dungeon’s Master was our take on the Necromancer. Since that time we’ve produced a revised version of our heroic, paragon and epic tier take on the class, along with a general write up on different kinds of Necromancers. The Necromancer as envisioned by us was developed to address the fact that there were no Wizard specialists in 4e D&D. Along the way we’ve toyed with the idea of releasing a build of the class that is built on the Warlock and Cleric structure as well.
However, the article by Bartoneus on D&D 4e: The New Player’s Option at Critical Hitshas put any thoughts of developing alternate powers for the Necromancer on hold for now. Wizards of the Coast is releasing Player Options, Hero’s of Shadow. This will feature the Necromancer, Assassin and Hexblade.
I’m very excited about this release for a number of reasons. First, the Necromancer is finally getting some love and will be featured as its own class. Consider how iconic this class is in fantasy literature I’m surprised that we haven’t seen something official earlier.
In my mind the Necromancer could fill any of the Striker, Leader or Controller roles. It will all depend on what kind of a spin WotC decides to place on it. I think it would be very interesting to see the Necromancer as primarily a Striker, with Controller as a secondary role.
I envision it as a class that can summon minor undead who would attack from melee. These summoned undead will probably deal the Necromanscers primary damamge in much the same way the Beastmaster Ranger’s pet does. The Necromancers other powers would have more of a controller feel to them, with weakening and immobilizing attacks being prominent. Of course these summoned undead could employ more controller options, almost acting like a horde of minions that are under the control of the Necromancer.
Imagine the Necromancer summons several skeletons and they rush towards the enemy. The damage the do is minimal, a flat amount based on the Necromancers level. However, if two or more of these minions are adjacent to an enemy they cause additional damage or employe some type of effect.
Another alternative would be a leader who doesn’t heal hit points with the Necromancer equivalent of Healing Word, rather the Necromancer would provide temporary hit points equal to the value of a healing surge, plus a bonus based on level and appropriate ability score. This would place a unique spin on healing in combat as these temporary hit points would still expend a healing surge. At the end of combat the temporary hit points would disappear, possibly leaving a PC very low on hit points.
The next reason I’m looking forward to this release is the Assassin. As a player I’ve recently discovered the joy of playing this class in our ongoing home campaign. As a result I look forward to even more powers and Assassin based goodness with which to destroy my enemies. Of course I’ll need to wait almost a year, but I’m sure it will be worth it.
In all of this I do have one area of concern and it surrounds the Assassin. This class was made available to DDI subscribers as a bonus. My understanding, which may be flawed, was it would not be released via any other source. As a result the class wouldn’t see many new additional powers, but that’s ok, it was after all a freebie. A reward for being a subscriber.
This isn’t the first time that WotC has taken material released through DDI in either Dragon or Dungeon and then published it in another book. Several sections of the DMG 2 on skill challenges were found in various Dungeon magazines. While the content is solid, a bad taste is left in my mouth when I realize I am paying for material twice. This however, is not a rant about the state of the DDI, I’ll save that for another day.
In closing I’m excited about this upcoming release and I look forward to the new material. This change in approach for player supplements should hopefully keep things fresh and allow 4e to stay viable as a brand for some time to come. I’m sure as we advance upon the release date that more snippets and details will be released to us about the new classes and how their powers will work. Will it be the standard power system, the Psionic point system or some sort of hybrid? We already know that the Assassin uses the standard power system, but will alternatives be introduced for the new classes that are being released. Time will tell.
from Dungeon’s Master
(taken from dungeonsmaster.com)
by Ameron on June 2, 2010
A couple of weeks ago we ran the Player’s Primer for the upcoming D&D Encouners: Dark Sun. As a part of our Dark Sun week here at Dungeon’s Master we felt we should post this again for anyone who might have missed the original article.
Welcome to Athas: A Quick Player’s Primer
The world of the DARK SUN Campaign Setting is unique in several ways. Many familiar trappings of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game are missing or turned on their heads. Athas is not a place of shining knights and robed wizards, of deep forests and divine pantheons. To venture over the sands of Athas is to enter a world of savagery and splendor that draws on different traditions of fantasy and storytelling. Simple survival beneath the deep red sun is often its own adventure.
Newcomers to Athas have many things to learn about the world, its people, and its monsters, but the following eight characteristics encapsulate the most important features of the DARK SUN campaign setting.
The World is a Desert: Athas is a hot, arid planet covered with endless seas of dunes, lifeless salt flats, stony wastes, rocky badlands, thorny scrublands, and worse. From the first moments of dawn, the crimson sun beats down from an olive-tinged sky. Temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees by midmorning and can reach 130 degrees or more by late afternoon. The wind is like the blast of a furnace, offering no relief from the oppressive heat. Dust and sand borne on the breeze coat everything with yellow-orange silt. In this forbidding world, cities and villages exist only in a few oases or verdant plains. The world beyond these islands of civilization is a barren wasteland roamed by nomads, raiders, and hungry monsters.
The World is Savage: Life on Athas is brutal and short. Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and hordes of inhuman savages overrun the deserts and wastelands. The cities are little better; each chokes in the grip of an immortal tyrant. The vile institution of slavery is widespread on Athas, and many unfortunates spend their lives in chains, toiling for brutal taskmasters. Every year hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent to their deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion, kindness—these qualities exist, but they are rare and precious blooms. Only a fool hopes for such riches.
Metal is Scarce: Most arms and armor are made of bone, stone, wood, and other such materials. Mail or plate armor exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings. Steel blades are almost priceless, weapons that many heroes never see during their lifetimes.
Arcane Magic Defiles the World: The reckless use of arcane magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a wasteland. To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the living world nearby. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks animals and people, and the soil is sterilized; nothing can grow in that spot again. It is possible to cast spells with care, avoiding any more damage to the world, but defiling is more potent than preserving. As a result, sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are generally reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless of whether they preserve or defile. Only the most powerful spellcasters can wield arcane might without fear of reprisals.
Sorcerer-Kings Rule the City-States: Terrible defilers of immense power rule all but one of the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some claim to be gods, and some claim to serve gods. Some are brutal oppressors, where others are more subtle in their tyranny. The sorcerer-kings govern through priesthoods or bureaucracies of greedy, ambitious templars, lesser defilers who can call upon the kings’ powers.
The Gods are Silent: Long ago, when the planet was green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods. Today, Athas is a world without deities. There are no clerics, no paladins, and no prophets or religious orders. In the absence of divine influence, other powers have come to prominence in the world. Psionic power is well known and widely practiced on Athas; even unintelligent desert monsters can have deadly psionic abilities. Shamans and druids call upon the primal powers of the world, which are often sculpted by the influence of elemental power.
Fierce Monsters Roam the World: The desert planet has its own deadly ecology. Many creatures that are familiar sights on milder worlds have long since died out or never existed at all. Athas has no cattle, swine, or horses; instead, people tend flocks of erdlus, ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots. Wild creatures such as lions, bears, and wolves are almost nonexistent. In their place are terrors such as the id fiend, the baazrag, and the tembo.
Familiar Races Aren’t What You Expect: Typical fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes. In many DUNGEONS & DRAGONS settings, elves are wise, benevolent forest-dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of evil. On Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable river-folk; they’re xenophobic headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill trespassers in their mountain forests. Goliaths—or half-giants, as they are commonly known—are brutal mercenaries that serve as elite guards and enforcers for the sorcerer-kings and their templars in many city-states.
Now, what does this say for our current playthrough? Nothing, because if I can’t get my hands on a PHB for Dark Sun, I can’t run a game, and those are expensive (ugh) but it does sound FUN, it has weapons breaking, glancing blows, all the fun stuff from before, that makes everything a bit more difficult, plus, completely throws magic on it’s head, which is an amazing idea! I hope I can get a game started with it once I can get the book!
Sorry about the lack of updates folks (and I am surprised I actually have readers!) We have been down for a couple of weeks due to personal fun things. We should start up again in 2 weeks. We were going to try an online fight, but MapTools erased ALL OF MY DATA! Gah!!! Oh well, have fun everyone, hope you all roll high!
After all the talking was done, Moralios goes over to the Assassin and searches her body. On her body he finds a sealed scroll with the black dragon with green eyes insignia and several seals and sigils on it, he gives it to Temonicas, who begins pouring some excess energy into it, he breaks 1 of the 20 sigils on it. He continues pouring some energy into it, but he soon realizes that simply pouring energy into it will not destroy all of the symbols, but it seems to make them stronger. They also find some gold (about 10g) and some ritual components (about 20g) he checks her pulse and feels none. They then begin walking away, when they feel a gust of wind behind them, and the assassin is gone, but a black burn mark is where she was at. Thorn crinkles his nose and sneezes, looking confused. He says “that smells horrible… like evil”. They continue on their way to Winterhaven…
Hey, we have names for the characters! The wizard’s name is Temonicas, the Fighter’s name is Crystalyne, the Cleric’s name is Nadiia (retconned to this, sorry guys) the Hunter’s name is Moralios(I had to try REALLY hard to not type your name wrong), so it will be a little easier to make them out other than “the <class>” if I can remember their names of course. Let’s get onto the story, shall we?
We opened the session at Moralios’ cabin in the woods, where the party went to after the fight, because the sun was going down. They discovered that (among with each others names) the reasons why everyone was in that area. Temonicas and Crystalyne were on their way to Winterhaven when they noticed the battle, and rushed in. Nadiia, however, released that she was on a mission from the High Church of Bahamut with about 20 others, and over the course of many many months has dwindled to herself. The mission is that the Allfather of Bahamut was taken directly from His chambers. This is a man who is the primary avatar of Bahamut, and was supposed to be untouchable by the Darkness. The found that a sect of Drow are taking responsibility for the crime, they are going toward Winterhaven. She also discussed that when something is going wrong or she is lost, a silver glow leads the way toward Winterhaven (or so she thinks). They then rest for the night, to awaken to Nadiia sobbing inconsolably. She then pleads to their better senses, Temonicas and Crystalyne were on their way to Winterhaven anyway, and Moralios goes to “shut the damn Dwarf up and get these people out of my house”.
On the road (and boy is it early, we learn that Moralios hates the mornings) they meet up with a very old, very frail woman is screaming “HELP ME” on the roadside. Moralios wants to shoot her and move on, but Temonicas steadies his hand. The old woman realizes that Temonicas is obviously the most stable of the group, so then grabs him, pleading to help her. “They stole the honor of my clan! They stole it! Please! They stole the Light of the clan Wildhammer (another retcon, this one sounds cooler).” She noticed that “they” were some kobolds and a couple Drow, and pointed them to the forest where they came (I like forest battles).
In the forest, the group is followed behind by the old woman, who then screams and is dragged into a bush, blood flying everywhere. Then they hear chomping and gnashing, and chattering from in the trees. Moralios immediately locates the origin of the sounds (Temonicas is distracted by a squirrel at this point) and announces what is coming. Out steps a very obviously unstable necromancer and 5 hobgoblin skeletons surrounding him. They are dispatched pretty easilly, a few claw swipes and a tree blasted by eldrich energy (Tem’s squirrel died in the blast) everything fell pretty easily. Then suddenly a crossbow bolt hits Nadiia in the shoulder, they look behind them only to see a Drow assassin who is simply radiating evil energy laughing at them. From the other side of the forest step out 5 Drow who are talking about “He died again! We need to replace him again!”. Crystalyne sees the Assassin as the obvious threat, runs over to her with an intense speed, grabs her by the breastplate, swings the Drow over her head, swinging her flail afterward, smashing her in the face with enough power that it almost knocks her unconscious with a single blow. At this point, a kobold priest shows up a little late to the party. The assassin launches a blinding smoke bomb, and ducks back, launching 3 poisoned arrows into Crystalyne’s skin, running back to the priest in an attempt to be healed. Just then, a piercing howl echoes from all around the forest, and a flaming blue figure rips through the forest, blasting the Kobold in the back, almost destroying him in one blow, then running to in front of group, giving them a look of “why are the rest of you here?” He then turns around and faces the rest of the enemies, baring his fangs and growling. Temonicas points his orb toward the priest, it glows a dark purple and pulses twice, and the priest and assassin hold their heads, the priest almost dies from pain, as all of their nightmares come true in their minds, the assassin just grits her teeth, glaring at him with a deathly gaze. The assassin is healed, but then Moralios takes aim, launches two arrows, magically charged with Ice, directly at the cleric and the assassin at once. One arrow strikes the Drow right in the heart, almost peircing her full through, and completely freezes and launches the kobold back about 20 feet, shattering him completely. The other drow assault the party, but are pretty easilly handled by the rest of the group.
After all is done, they all take a short rest, looking at the wolf very closely. Nadiia pokes him with her hammer over and over (and over and over) until he just snaps at her. She stops, but then asks him what he is doing there. The wolfman looks at all of them “I was bored, what are you guys doing in my forest?” The group then introduces themselves to him, saying they are on their way to Winterhaven. The Wolfman introduces himself as Thorn the Razorthorn. Crystalyne looks at him, sensing kind of a kindred spirit, and asks him to come with the group. He accepts, and after a rest, they are back on the road to Winterhaven…
Many thanks to our substitutes for assisting with everything during this session because of the absence of a couple player.
D&D 4th edition blog 