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I would prefer to see Greyhawk be the default setting, simply because we have not seen anything produced about it in so long, but seeing as how the new edition will be modular, I could see them having no default setting and just have modules for each setting.
"I live for moments when I tell people that I'm going to do something and they're reaction is, "that's impossible."" - Monte Cook via Facebook today
You are most welcome. It has made a big positive difference in my game.
Is there a comprehensive guide somewhere that details how to update creatures from the first two 4E Monster Manuals to comply with the standards of those found in the Monster Vaults and MMIII? I've been collecting Logan Bonner's updates from the official site as he mows through them, but I'd like to do some on my own that I suspect won't be given a complete overhaul in the long run. Thanks! Not official, but I use this to update the monster damage:
... the Quasielemental Plane of Vacuum.Nobody goes there; it sucks. Is it shaped like a Dyson Sphere?
I'm good with either a Planescape or Anniversary edition. I'd buy either or both. If it is 5e, I hope it isn't released until 2014, so I can get more use out of my current books.
I will give it a try and see how it goes, it may turn out good or may not. Have they said when they are going to stop updating the current CB ? If it turns out bad may just switch completely to Herolab. Which is pretty good, just wish they could make there character sheet more like the one from WOTC.Question: Does HeroLab currently require a DDI subscription in order to work with 4E, or can you simply buy a yearly license as with 3.5 OGL and pathfinder? Also, has HeroLab been updated to include Essentials? You need to buy both Herolabs and have an active DDi subscription.
You could print to PDF using CutePDF or whatever PDF maker you prefer, then email the file to the GM and friend. I'm not thrilled with the new direction but I can live with it. They are limiting my access to their app, but at the same time it makes it more fair. I have a yearly subscription that I pay for, while there are some who pay for 1 month out of 6 to get the same thing I get.
...but don't let facts interfere with the hate. This needs to be the official catch-phrase of the 4e boards. When anyone trolls, we just paste this into the reply :)
So spitting nails mad I want to throw all my 4e books into a Whisper Chipper and play My Little Pony RPG
The point was to show that WoTC has not stopped making 4e for Essentials, but split the production. Essentials is not 4.5, but a separate line of product.
Rather than calling Essentials 4.5, I think a better description would be to call it Basic D&D, and 4e Advanced D&D, just like the 2 version in the early 80's.
Every 3.5 book? Are you able to answer the question posed? Heroes of Shadow says it is specifically a 4e supplement, not an Essentials Supplement compatible with 4e. Show an example of a product that came out after the release of 3.5 that was specifically made for 3.0.
Rather than trying to split hairs about the meaning of the above quote, how about this: Did WoTC still produce product for 3.0 after 3.5 was out? I don't mean 1 month after, perhaps something was already in the pipeline, but was there anything several months off that still supported 3.0 like 4e has Heroes of Shadow, due in May of 2011?
Did WoTC tell their customers they could still play 3.0 rules alongside 3.5? You are going to have to be more specific, where?
Did WoTC continue to support 3.0 after publishing 3.5? Did WoTC tell their customers they could still play 3.0 rules alongside 3.5 or did they want their customers to buy all new books? You are certainly within your rights to call Essentials whatever you want, but don't post trollish challenges to "fanbois" to spin Essentials for you.
I'm confused too, so there is a book which explains that you can interchange between 4e and Essentials, which proves to you they are not compatible? You got me, I don't have a way to spin this so you would understand.
What I would do is slide them into the square still standing, and only make them roll if they move into another square with the same conditions.
Well, I'd best clarify that, I have had 13 different players in the life of my current campaign. I currently have 5 players, only 1 of whom has been there throughtout the entire game, from 1st to 14th. As for 3PP Goodman does them. I did use "Mists of Madness", with a bit of modification to fit my homebrew. The Open Design project is a great idea and one I would certainly patron, if I had more free time to participate (family life, work, online gaming addiction, etc).
Ben, so we are clear, I have no issues with 3PP in general, I was a big fan of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. I also just want to use the CB for charater creation because from a DM's point of view, I feel there is already enough options in the CB already to not want to bother with 3PP character options. If a player came to me and really wanted to try this option, I'd give it a quick once over and let them try it, but I do not seek out this kind of work. Of my gaming group and the 13 or so players who have played in it, none of them have been interested in 3PP products. I am more interested in other products from 3PP like adventures and new and iteresting parts of them like monsters, skill challenges, and traps/hazards.
When 4e came out I was in the middle of running a 3.5 Ptolus campaign and didn't want to switch, but I was interested in looking at the rules, so I asked for the Gift Set just to look at them. After reading through the rules, I really liked them and wanted to try them, so I started a new 4e game at my FLGS. After about a month later, the other players in my Ptolus game had had a chance to see 4e rules and they wanted to convert the game to 4e. About a month later that game fell through because of personality conflicts and I absorbed one of the players into my new 4e game. I really have no issue with 3.5 or Pathfinder and would play it if someone asked me to, but I will not run it, prefering to run 4e instead. I like the easy of entry into the game, for both player and DM. I prefer games that have easy starting rules, which get more complex as you begin to dig deeper into them. 4e makes it easy to make a character that is not gimped because you don't know the rules, but becomes complex once you begin to look for synergizes with your group members.
Jeremy hit the nail on that one. It may be really cool, but if it's not in the CB, I won't use it.
Sebastian, you bring some very good points, but I thought of another reason, what if sales are going well, but not good enough for Hasbro? Perhaps 4e is selling as well or better than Pathfinder, but Hasbro has determined that they need to sell a certain number and are not hitting their goal? I know it sounds like "Blame the evil faceless corporation", but I am sure there is someone somewhere that has made a determination about how much 4e should sell.
"Unfortunately, we will not have a data update ready for the D&D Insider tools in September. The process of integrating the new changes from Dark Sun and Essentials is taking a bit longer than we expected, and we plan to update the Character Builder in early October. We will continue to keep you informed of any changes to the schedule, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." - WotC Trevor
My FLGS is also running an event, but I am not attending, I have family things to do on Saturday.
lol, not with a "404 Not Found" :)
Perhaps it was delayed so they could add Dark Sun Character themes.
I chose to not let the players know what monsters grant power refreshes so they wouldn't use meta-game knowledge to plan who to kill ("okay, lets kill this guy and use our encounter power cause they'll refresh right afterwards"). Part of the reason I chose the Minions rather than the obvious choice of the leveled up Snaketongue Celebrant was because he was the obvious choice, with his range 10 Area Burst 5 Restrain power with a refresh on a 5. He is still alive, but won't be for long, after his third successful use of the power the group has targeted him, expecting him to have a refresh :) The other reason I chose the melee-only Minions was because I intensionally spread them out in the large room, thinking it would be some time before the group got to them all. If I had to do it again, I probably would have made the Celebrant the Refresh monster, just because of the trouble he has managed to cause the party.
Since no one has tried this I shall let you know how my experience went. I have been running a twice monthly game for a little over 2 years now and the players are now 14th level. They were hired to take out a Yuan-Ti temple to my homebrew death god. I created 4 equal level encounters for 6 characters, including Minions, Brutes, and even some Elites. The party make-up includes 1 Controller, 2 Defenders, 2 strikers, a 2 weapon Ranger and a 2 weapon Barbarian, as well as a Miracle Worker Cleric, so I had no doubts about their ability to deal large amounts of damage and heal themselves. The main Defender of the group failed to show, but I left the encounters as-is, I would rather fudge die rolls in their favor later than have too weak of encounters. The first room contained 10 Minions, a Brute swarm, a Controller, and an Elite Soldier. My initial thought was to have the 1st wave appear after X number of rounds, but instead I decided to wait until the party had killed half the first group because X number of rounds may be too early if they were having a slow start, or it might be too late if they were doing too well. I set an Encounter Power refresh on killing all the minions, and killing the Elite Soldier. The Minion one came too early and not everyone was able to benefit from it, so I should have changed that to another enemy, though I think it was just luck that they wiped the Minions out so early since they were all spread out and there were more important threats in the room. Once the group had killed the Minions and the Swarm, I had the first wave appear at the end of the round; a Brute, an Artillery, and 3 Skirmishers (when I created the encounter, I thought for sure the Brute was an Elite, but discovered too late that it was a Standard monster). I had an Encounter refresh set on the Artillery and an Action Point refresh on the Brute. The Ranger started planning for his replacement character when one of the Skirmishers did over 70 points of damage in one round, but the Cleric had no issues keeping everyone healed. After the group had killed 2 of the Skirmishers and the Brute, I had Wave 2 show (a Skirmisher, an Elite Soldier, and 3 Artillery). The morale of the group took a big drop and they were looking for an exit strategy, when the Cleric dropped a Mass Cure Light Wounds. The whole group cheered and was ready for more. We had to quit here, as this had taken us 4.5 hours (there was some RP before the fight). I think they are in a good position still and they all told me afterwards they really like it, one of the players who also DMs wants to try this in his game as well. Our next game is scheduled for the 20th, after that I will let you know how it all turned out. The Final wave is an Elite Soldier, and Elite Artillery and their target a modified Elite Yuan-Ti Malison Incanter.
I am planning to try a Long Fight as detailed in DMG2 page 55 and wanted to elicit advice from people who have run them before. How did it go? Was is grindy? How many encounters worth of monsters did you use? What frequency did you grant benefits? Did you give your players meta-game knowledge about the benefits? Any advice or observations would be appreciated. Thank-you,
A new MMO coming from Cryptic in 2011: I always liked the graphic look of CoH, I hope they contimue with this title.
So, what I am getting from those that insist that Essentials is 4.5 is that if I were a new player and wanted to learn D&D, I should pick up 4.5. If I find I really like the system and want to try more advanced rules, I should then buy 4.0?
Thank-you Uchawi. I have tried that to a minor extent, like when an NPC used Speak with Dead to question a skull the players carried, but I should try weaving them more into the plot. Then again, my players are a bunch of blood-thirsty hack-and-slashers and may just throw poo at a book of rituals ;)
According to China Tea Shop, the current price for Premium Grade Loose Black Tea (250gms) is $40.95. Because someone in a suit got scare of pirates they removed digital books from sale. That has nothing to do with them removing the hard bound Core Books from sale.
I have only used WoTC products, not for any sense of loyalty or elitism, but I have the plot for my game planned out all the way to 30th level, so I haven't the need for premade adventures. I actually have too many and realized I needed to remove one because it was just too many stories to try to cram into the Paragon levels of my game. I have been interested in Goodman Games Book of Rituals, but my group who will be 14th at the end of my next session have not had an Arcane Caster or anyone interested in using rituals beyond Enchant Item since 7th level. I even gave them a book full of all the Arcane Rituals from 1st to 6th level way back when they were 5th level and no one ever used it.
Of course, the interviewer didn't ask The Question: "Will the starter books (PHB/DMG) be still in print and sale once the Essentials are out ?". Do you think WoTC will require stores pull them off the shelves? My FLGS still has them in stock.
Interesting but not a big surprise. I liked the philosophy of no extra books, but also realze that things change. Imagine that the new Dark Sun setting sells more than both the FR and EB settings combined and fans are clamoring for more content. WoTC would be crazy to not produce more content.
Thanks Neuro, that was a great into. I was going to skip this, but now I'm thinking of getting one got my 5yr old daughter for Christmas. We already play NewbieDM's Role Playing with Kids, so this might be a cool treat for her.
Playing with it some more I realized you can now Import and Export your custom monsters. So those doing conversions of adventures can just have the files available (I'm looking at you Scott ;^) ).
They updated the Monster Builder and it has the new format like Monster Manual 3. I thought I read it would be too hard to convert everything. Even my custom created monsters have been converted!
Thank-you all for the kind words.
Just as an update, I built the 3D map for the encounter I discussed, here. I'm actually quite proud of it.
I guess the more I think about it, I am realizing what everyone here is saying. The best way to do it is make it a terrain feature. I think what I was planning would have made it too abstract to take into account the players being creative with the rescue, like lowing ropes. With it being a terrain, I can just make the rules for ways to stop the damage, including things like using the intimidate skill to prevent the damage. Thank-you all for helping me work this out.
The plot: The players (13th level) are going after an enemy who stole a quest item from them. His fortress sits in the middle of a Raptor farm (Rage Drake Ravagers, sorry I forgot I renamed them when I modified them so long ago, I've just gotten used to calling them raptors) where he raises them for mounts for him and his followers. To get to his villa, the group will need to cross a bridge above where the raptors roam free to a platform in front of a tower with a locked door. Upon the platform are guards, 2 Wardens, 2 Barbarians, and 1 shaman. On top of the tower looking down are 2 seekers. within the tower are another set of guards, a stair going up and down, and a door on the opposite side leading out to another bridge that connects the tower to the villa. Up leads to the top and the seekers, down leads to a stables with raptors and riding gear. I envision the raptor area to be full of them and not a place the group would want to spend any time in (the raptors have been trained to not attack the guards, possibly because of something they wear, I have not decided yet), so instead of making it a nasty encounter, I thought I'd make it a place you just want to get out of if you fall in, akin to a pool of piranhas. Because of this, I thought it might be better to make it abstract (Skill Challenge) rather than a specific combat. As for using any skill, I always allow players to do that, they just have to convince me of the validity of what they are doing. I believe in the word, "yes".
When I first envisioned this encounter, the raptors were just going to be added to the encounter as additional monsters. I had every intension to stat them out, but have been looking at an alternative way to run that part of the encounter. The idea of making it a Skill Challenge is an attempt experiment and add a different feel this specific encounter. I am certainly able to make it a standard encounter, and may end of having to, but I wonder if there are other ways to handle this aspect to the encounter. As for specific skills, since this is SC within a combat encounter, I was thinking I would not have to play to all character's skills. Those characters who do not have useful skills can just participate in the combat, rather than the skill challenge. Perhaps I could allow the person in the pit to use more physical skills to try to extricate themselves, while those on the bridge could use social/knowledge skills.
I have dabbled in Skill Challenges in my game, but it has been hit or miss in the past. For my upcoming adventure I want to make one and wanted to get some advice on how to make it work. Here is the basic premise: The group is 13th level and will have to cross a bridge to get to the bad guy who stole their quest item. The pit below them is a holding pen for young raptors. The bad guy's lackeys are going to try to push someone into the pit in the middle of the fight. I'll have some different ways to do this, but I really only want one player in the pit. Now in order for the player to survive, they and the rest of the group will have to try to distract the raptors long enough to allow the fallen player to get to the ladder (6 successes before 3 failures). After the third failure, the player in the pit is pulled under and will be eaten. Skills:
Ok, is this too harsh? I started my game at 1st level and have never killed a PC, so I'm not a killer DM, plus the party has easy access to Raise Dead, so it would not be permanent unless the player wanted it to be. What about some valiant PC who jumps in to same their friend? Any advice to make this work would be much appreciated. Thank-you,
When I pass out unique magic items or Ritual Books, I use a sheet of blank Magic Item Cards that is an editable pdf. I am limited as to where I can surf here at work, so I can't give you a link, but maybe someone else can link it or you can just google it.
This weekend I tried the increased damage and I must say it made for a much more fun game. One of the player who also runs a game said he was going to try it with his game when the players hit Paragon level. At one point I had 3 players at bloody status on the map. I hadn't seen that in a very long time. I dropped the Defender to 0 hit point and then the cleric cast a heal that almost made him unbloodied, so I don't feel the combat was too hard.
I run my game at my FLGS, so I cannot modify the ambiance like the adventure suggests. The players loved it when I finally dropped the name "Father Dagon" on them, though they did force it out of me sooner than I would have wanted. The final battle was loads of fun, The Voice stayed in the water and would charm the Barbarian who had a low Will Defense. While the barbie was pounding on his friends, The Voice of Dagon kept to the deeper water and would use it's swim 10 to get away from anyone who got close.
"The reflex is a lonely child just waiting by the park"
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