For those of you who’ve been in the game for a number of years this is a throw back to nostalgia.  For those of you new to the game, well welcome to some of my earliest gaming memories re-done 4th edition style.

I’m sure I’m not the only one out there doing updates and retakes on old modules, but this should interest you anyway.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting my changes and updates to Module B2 Keep on The Borderlands, published for Basic Dungeons and Dragons, in 1981.  I doubt that the majority of the readers have the module or access to it, but no need to worry.  I’ll post revised maps, encounter information and all that.  Though I do recommend that if you can get a copy that you do so.  I had a ton of fun re-reading it.

First a bit of background.  This module (like many others put out in the early days) was more of a framework than a complete story.  It has a couple of interesting locations, some hints at possible story arcs, some maps, and some monsters and traps.  What it doesn’t have are fleshed out NPC’s, or a story tied to a larger campaign.

What I’ve done is to redo the encounters into my own personal campaign while maintaining as much as possible the original flavor.  I’ve redone the maps, and fleshed out NPC’s.  I’ll post all of this here, and as I get feedback I’ll make changes that make sense and eventually compile it together as a downloadable .pdf.

Part 1: The Keep

Drell’s Keep was recently re-established on the borders between Cormyr and Netheril by Kavmen Drell.  Lord Drell was awarded this post for his unfailing performance of his duty during the recent troubles with Netheril.  He has been ordered to secure and rebuild the keep and to establish it as an outpost and restocking station.  In order to accomplish this Lord Drell understands that he will have to find some long term resources rather than continue to rely on irregular supplies from Cormyr.

Location: Drell’s Keep is located in the foothills of the Storm Horns near the Stonelands near Netheril.  The exact location can, of course, be applied to any campaign.  I use forgotten realms because I like it.  The keep was originally built centuries ago in motte and bailey style, and is located on a low hill.  There is one road going up the hill and only one gate in.

The area surrounding the keep is a series of low valleys and hills.  The river Shrill, a relatively small river runs out of the mountains into the Stonelands.  The ruins of an ancient abbey lie on a hill across the river, though Lord Drell has no interest in the abbey at this time because it appears to be relatively calm.  More pressing are the caves only a few miles away in a nearby valley.  Scouts have confirmed that these caves are inhabited by various humanoids.  At least two scouts have not returned, and the area is considered to be dangerous.

The map on page 15 of the module shows more or less the general area that the keep occupies.  I didn’t redo the map of the general area because the one in the module is adequate.

Map of Drell’s Keep Wilderness.

Background and History for the DM:

Drell is a good man and an excellent leader.  He is also highly ambitious, though thoroughly loyal to Cormyr.  He hopes that he can draw enough followers here to build a thriving town.  Unfortunately he knows that in order to build a town he will have to encourage industry.  There is lumber in abundance, and he has plans for a sawmill.  Iron, however, still has to be brought in.  The humanoids in the area have been seen using crude iron weapons.  Old trappers tell about mines that used to operate in the past, but which were taken over by raiders.  He would like to clear out the caves and begin mining operations again.

Furs are also available in abundance, but the kobolds and goblins continually raid the trappers.  He is not willing to risk taking his forces out in strength against any single group for fear of reprisals.  He is willing to hire a party of adventurers to either eliminate or negotiate a peace with the various humanoid races that occupy the caves of chaos.

The bottom line is that Drell will have to clear out the caves in order to establish any kind of base.  He has received permission to commission an adventuring group and is willing to pay them 5 gold per right ear of any orc, kobold, gnoll, or goblinoid.  If there are hostiles in the abbey across the river they have not crossed the river to cause problems and can be ignored for the present.

The caves are occupied by refugees from different spellplagued outlying regions.  Small families of gnolls, goblins, kobolds, orcs, bugears, and hobgoblins all fled here when their original homelands were destroyed by various other large forces.  Individual motives and ambitions are given in with their individual sections.  The other major force is the domain of Simiobolt Hold, a priest of Cyric.  Because the followers of Cyric have been outlawed and pursued by most, Simiobolt has come here to find peace and to recruit followers.  Simiobolt has discovered that the keep is occupied again, and has sent his servants to find more information.  Until now Kavmen Drell is unaware of Simiobolt’s presence, though he would eradicate the priest if he knew of his activities.

These rules are posted at the entrance of the keep, as well as on the wall near all government buildings.

1.    The gate is closed after dark.  It is opened for nobody.
2.    Cursing in public. Fine 1 sp.
3.    Spitting in public. Fine 1 sp.
4.    Loitering. Fine 1 sp.
5.    Public drunkenness. Fine 2 sp.
6.    Public indecency. Fine 2 sp.
7.    Brawling. Fine 5 sp.
8.    Use of weapons to commit violence.  Fine 1 gp
9.    Use of magic without authorization. Fine 10 gp
10.    All persons not registered as permanent residents shall be able to provide proof of employment or purpose to remain more than 3 days within the keep.

More to come later …

Welcome back to Dungeons and Dragons Corner.

You can find Character Sheets Here.

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One of the basics of survival in any combat oriented rpg is to kill the bad guys.  In Dungeons and Dragons there are nearly limitless ways of accomplishing this task, and the less work that your character has to put into it the better.

Online D&D forums are full of all kinds of hints and tips about how to maximize your ability to dish out the damage, but there is far less information about how to eliminate the painful necessity of doing damage at all.

If you are clinging to 3rd edition, you have a few more options here, but 4th edition also has plenty of room for strategy.  In some ways even more.

The first key to keep in mind is that unlike many computer games the bad guys to in fact damage each other.  One of the greater fears about spell casters and their ilk are area attacks that can take out the entire party at once.  Often these types are paired with minions or partners whose job it is to bunch the party together.

Your strategy in these situation should be to always make sure that as many enemies as possible are within all possible areas of effect.  In other words if the caster wants to hit any two party members they should also be forced to hit at least one of their own allies.  This is most easily accomplished by keeping an enemy between the party members.

Next, look for opportunities to force the monsters to use hazardous terrain or to provoke opportunity attacks.  If you have a decent rogue type along then few traps should surprise the party.  Knowing which squares to avoid makes combat not only less dangerous but can be used to your advantage.  Skills such as intimidate and bluff can be used to good effect.  Also, using ranged attacks and blocking the good squares with skillful fighters can force enemies to either risk hazerdous terrain or opportunity attacks or be picked apart mercilessly at a distance.

Finally, never forget about compulsion effects.  3rd edition (and earlier) had many ways of taking control of an encounter.  These can be very powerful effects, starting at first level with charm person.  If you do manage to take control of the enemy, abuse the power mercilessly.  Lesser effects such as suggestion and charm person won’t allow you to cause an enemy to attack an ally or damage himself, but can be used to maneuver them into more vulnerable positions or to trigger traps of which they are not aware.

Always keep in mind that just like a real combat, D&D encounters are more than dice and numbers and the outcome can be swayed very quickly by using strategy and good jugment.

And be sure to have fun!

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Ok, so is the new D&D Draconomicon worth buying?  Is it worth stealing? (C’mon you know someone who has a bootleg electronic copy, and if you don’t you wish you did).  Well, personally I’m just a fan of hardcover D&D books - if for nothing else the art and the feel of a solid hardback book in my hands.  Draconomicon meets those criteria - but does that mean I’m willing to shell out the cash for it?

Lets start with the good points - Art.  The art is good.  I like dragons.  Who doesn’t like dragons?  And a book about dragons better have pretty dragons in it.  Draconomicon delivers pretty dragons.  So on a scale of 1 to worth it - the art gets a worth it.

DM useful.  Again I have to give it a worth it here.  There are those out there who may diss on Chapter 3: Dragon Lairs, but personally I find 75 pages of stuff I don’t have to write myself very useful.  Can’t use it all the time - but can and will use it when needed.  Get an electronic copy (scanner anyone) drop an image into Microsoft Excel and bam you have a game grid sized map - I explained how to use Excel for maps a while ago.

Cool New Creatures - Mostly worth it.  Once again I tend to shamelessly use what is already printed.  Why then only a mostly worth it?  Draconomicon just doesn’t meet all my flavor expectations.  My opinion, my bias - essentially me just complaining for no real reason. Purple dragons - not so much.  Gray Dragons - reminds me of the stone guardians outside of the castle in Bard’s Tale.  I prefer dragons with color (just not really purple).

Overall flavor - Take out the Purple Dragons and Draconomicon will pass muster.  I like dragons, who doesn’t?  A whole book about them - well Wizards ought to publish at least a few.

For your convenience (and my own) I’ve placed a handy link to buy the product here at the end of the post.

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I’ll be honest I never heard of Eladrin until I picked up the 4th edition Players Handbook and then I thought – um so they put sun elves into the PHB and changed their name.  Then I read the entry for elves and thought – so they changed the magic loving elves that I grew up with since Basic Dungeons and Dragons into wood/wild elves which have been an expansion only race since the beginning.

I was a bit disappointed – but I can accept it.  At least they gave them reasonably decent art in the PHB, which is more than I can say for the Tiefling or the Dragonborn.  Sorry, but those need to go.

So what is an Eladrin?  Well it is much like the Tolkein elf that you would find in Rivendell whereas the “elf” is more like the Tolkein elf that you would find in Murkwood.  Oh I’m sure there were other influences but I doubt you’ll find any stronger than that.  Wizards couldn’t very well take the Middle Earth names so they chose Eladrin.  Either that or somebody was sitting around with the Forgotten Realms Players Guide from 3rd edition and realized that players often opted for ether sun elves or wood elves given the choice because the stats for high elves were kinda blah.

Personally I would have switched the two.  I would have kept elves as the magic loving race they have been since the beginning and then made the Eladrin into the wild dexterous tree huggers that elves now are.  I think for the sake of continuity this would have worked out better.

All that said, why has my experience been playing an Eladrin?  I ran an Eladrin wizard and I like it.  It has taken me a moment to get used to them, but they are probably my favorite race.  I have a soft spot for magic.  My very first character was a magic-user (died a horrible death on the Isle of Dread) and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I can’t say I would always pick Eladrin over other races, but I would certainly pick them over the new elves and I won’t be rolling up a Dragonborn anytime soon.

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The D&D rules changed quite a bit in 4th edition.  Most of you are probably aware of these changes, but here is a quick overview of the main points.

• No more penalties to ability scores – all the races give only bonuses.  This is part of a wider theme to remove negative modifiers where possible.
• Pretty much everything is now 10 + ½ your level + other bonuses.  This goes for the various attacks as well as for things like armor class and defense bonuses.
• No more saving throws (well pretty much).  Older versions had saving throws vs. poison, traps, spells, etc.  Then in 3rd edition it became Will, Fortitude, and Reflex saves. Now these are static defenses just like armor class and different attacks target those defenses.
• Simplified combat system from 3rd edition.
• Multiple attack rolls if you do an area attack.  The old fireball was one attack and 20 saving throws.  Now it is 20 attacks and no saving throws (targeting a static defense score).
• Skill challenges.  Rules for handling non-combat encounters.
• Magic items creation.  Greatly overhauled.  If you have the item creation ritual (available through feats and class features) then you can make any item of your level or lower by paying the price.
• Every class has powers that work very similar to the way spells used to work, i.e. special abilities useable only so many times a day/encounter.
• The old spell system done away with.  Now every class works the same mechanically (yes it is more balanced).

There are quite a few other changes to the D&D rules, but this is a start.
I have posted other information, some more specific, about the D&D rules for 4th edition.  Feel free to check them out.
As always, have fun!

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Upsetting the DM is a pretty common fear. After all the Dungeon Master can pretty well screw you over anytime she wants to.  If you want to survive to level five, or higher, making her life easier is just a good idea. Here are seven things you can do as a player to make her life much simpler, and every aggravation off her shoulders is one less excuse to give you grief.

1. Do all your character preparation work ahead of game time. Some dungeon masters require character creation and leveling up to happen at the table, many don’t. Even if your DM wants to see you do the work, you can still make all your leveling and creation decisions off-line. Just bring a short list of all your choices and let your DM look them over. If your DM is okay with it you can even e-mail your character sheet ahead of time.
2. Stay focused during the game. If the DM catches your attention wandering, don’t be surprised if she reels you in by sending a few extra attacks your direction. There will be distractions at many game tables, but if you show up with a laptop or are constantly looking at your blackberry or answering the cell phone, the DM may take some action.
3. Don’t roll your dice if you don’t have to. Anytime dice roll at the table, heads will naturally turn to follow the sound. Even worse, when you’re just playing with the dice the odds that they will roll onto the floor increase. If you’re picking your dice up off the floor I guarantee the DM (and probably the other players) will be a least a little annoyed.
4. Pay attention to actions of other players. It is easy to get distracted when it isn’t your turn, but very often the actions that other players take will have a direct effect on what you will do. If you have to spend a full minute every time your initiative comes up reviewing the table, you can bet the DM will notice, and not in a good way.
5. Bring snacks. At the very least, chip in your full share if you agree to go in on pizza. Thank your DM for her hard work and you’ll may catch a few breaks when you need them.
6. Don’t argue the rules. Even when you’re right, if you argue with the DM during the game you’re wasting your breath. Even worse, you’re wasting the valuable time of the other players. Drop the DM an email after the game. Cite the rules correction, and be polite about it.
7. Learn the house rules and follow them. If your DM has special rules, pay attention to them. If you have a particular objection to any of them, then discuss them away from the game and find out why. Understand that most Dungeon Masters aren’t terribly flexible with a rule if they’ve taken the time to write it down. And if a group has been together for a long time things don’t change very quickly.

Remember that the Dungeon Master has probably put more time into the campaign than you have. Odds are good that they deal with the game both before and after the session, and a lot of that prep time is fairly repetitive and uninteresting. Reward that time with a little respect and preparation of your own and you will find the game runs smoother all around.

Of course the most important thing is having fun. You are there to have fun and so is everyone else in the group, including the DM. The more everyone can do to increase the fun, the better off everyone will be.

Enjoy your Dungeons and Dragons session!

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Ok, I’m presenting some links, and a few general thoughts on each 4^th edition character class. So many others have done so much to get guides and advice on character building together. This is simply a short primer on what each class can do with links to much more extensive advice on optimization and character building, by class.

Warlock Guide

Warlocks have many options, but there are also a lot of decisions to make at first level. All of the eldritch pacts can be useful and effective. This is a choice that comes down to style and preference. If you are worried about survivability, though, remember that you can really maximize your hit points by taking the infernal pact route as your constitution can start at 18 or even 20 quite easily.

If you would rather play a more sneaky or deceitful route, then you can also maximize your charisma to good effect and remain a force on the battlefield. Your choice of skills should support your main ability score choice and also the way you decide to play your character.

Ranger

Rangers can do excellent damage, as well as have awesome mobility. The decision between ranged and melee Ranger is a crucial one you need to make when you create the character. You can’t really do both and still be effective.

Put your ability scores where they will help you hit as often as possible. Rangers can do a ton of damage, but only if they hit, so be sure to maximize your hitting potential. Also, they tend to have lower hit points than other characters, so get them some solid armor as well.

Paladin

A Paladin won’t generally be able to main heal your party. For that you will want to look at the Cleric or Warlord. But they can do some great things for controlling the battlefield, and can have awesome hit points.

They get plate mail to start with, and there isn’t a good reason I can thing of not to go with it. Maximize your defensive capabilities. Don’t worry if you can’t hit as hard as some of the other classes. Focus your ability scores where they will maximize your ability to absorb damage and nullify the enemies’ attacks.

Cleric

Keep in mind that your Cleric is there to support and help the party. Sure they can deal some good damage, especially against undead, but their main purpose is going to be to help others.

They don’t tank as well as fighters, and they don’t hit as hard as rangers, so don’t expect them to. Be prepared to help those around you when they need it. Put your ability scores where they will increase the effectiveness of your powers so that your healing powers work when you need them to.

Warlord

Remember that a Warlord is out there to help his teammates. Of all the characters in the party he is least equipped to go it alone. You won’t find the warlord solo killing any bosses, so don’t try it. Put your points (INT, CHA, STR) where they can be used most effectively to give your party a boost.

The warlord needs some mobility, but also needs to keep his defenses high. Invest in good armor and armor capabilities. Often when he takes too much damage he has to spend time and resources getting himself out of trouble instead of helping others. So make the effort to give yourself some decent defenses and survivability.

Wizard

Perhaps the biggest challenge to overcome is understanding that wizards as a concept have changed in 4^th edition. Personally I find nothing wrong with that, in fact I think there are a lot of things right about it, but that isn’t the point of this article.

In general, if you want to play a good wizard, then find the spells that are going to help you stay alive early on. Magic Missile, as always is a solid spell. You’ll want to put your stat points where they will help out your attacks more than anything. You will find yourself under attack from time to time and early on you’ll need that protection as you won’t be doing as much damage as other players at early levels.

Also don’t forget about the potential of the rituals. These are often overlooked, and can add depth and power to your character.

Rogue

You probably won’t find any better information that what you can find on that thread.

Keep in mind that your rogue is designed to do big damage, but they don’t generally have the hit points or defensive capabilities of other characters.

Rogues have the advantage of being able to diversify their abilities quite easily, but like all characters they will benefit greatly if you try to specialize in an area where your party needs the support.

That’s if for today. Until next time, have fun!

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I’m an old gamer so when I cracked the 4e PHB and found that Dragonborn top the list of races (alphabetic order or course) I did a double take.  Understand that I’m not a big fan of playing walking lizards. 

Back in the day we had lizardmen and they were just nasty to deal with.  Anyone else ever run the old Quagmire module?  (Sorry I can’t even find a link to it).  Anyway to point is that the art in the player’s handbook reminded me of lizardmen (not the new fangled lizard folk).  So I didn’t like dragonborn from the get go.

The only other point of reference is to the Dragonlance setting, where the bad guys were generally the draconic creatures.  If you ever played the old Dragonlance AD&D computer games (me and my commodore 64 spent many hours together), then you know the frustration of fighting these bad boys.  Everytime you killed one you either lost your weapon or got exploded.

But the 4th edition dragonborn have a different spin.  They are honorable, loyal, courageous - all of the good things you would want in a paladin leading the fray.  They sound pretty cool.  Also they get a nifty breath weapon, and that can be plenty of help in a pinch, I don’t care who you are.

My problem is still that I don’t like playing a lizard.  I guess I’ll just have to buckle down and get over it.  I have actually played one - but I can’t say I like the idea of being a talking lizard.  Like so many other aspects of the game it will grow on me.

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If you’ve taken the time to get yourself a magnetic gaming field, the next step is getting things to stick to it.  This really isn’t as hard as it sounds and can save you tons of frustration, especially if you play with a more energetic crowd.

You’ll need:

1. Magnetic Tape
2. Minis
3. Hot Glue (maybe)
4. Scissors (Heavy duty, not the little blunt paper cutting scissors you had in kindergarten).

 You can get Magnetic Tape at nearly any department store (Wal-Mart, etc.) in the craft section.  Just ask for it.  It comes in a couple of sizes.  I prefer the 1″ size.  Bigger is better, you can always cut it down if it doesn’t work.

Now take the scissors and cut the tape to match the size of your base.  If you are using the DnD minis, the bases will actually hid the magnets for you.  For Reaper minis and the like, the magnet will show, but nobody will notice, and for those minis with the narrow bases this is a real frustration saver.

A few words on making “permanent” changes to collectible minis.  First of all, for most of the minis this will not be a permanent change.  The magnetic tape comes off.  For those that you decide to make permanent via hot-glue, well, I recommend not doing this to your rarest minis unless you really don’t care.  The magnetic tape sticks pretty good to most plastic, metal, and ceramic surfaces.  It doesn’t do as good with wood, but by and large it should stick to your base without damaging it.

If you are going to be playing with a mini on a regular with a magnetic playing field it is worth the trouble to magnetize them.

A note to DM’s out there.  While I love this and I have used it many times in my games I don’t require my players to put magnets on their minis.  After all, some people collect things and collectors can be very particular.

Cheers, and have a great game!

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The genasi in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons have been completely overhauled.  Whereas in 3rd edition the genasi were all different races depending on the element they were descended from, in 4th edition the genasi are all planetouched from the “elemental chaos.”

This means that they all get the same base ability bonuses.  But you get to choose from one of five elemental manifestations to start with.

Earthsoul
Firesoul
Stormsoul
Watersoul
Windsoul

Each manifestation has a different power associated with it and as you progress in levels you can take feats to get access to more manifestations or to boost your elemental powers.

Personally I like the windsoul manifestation the best.  The ability to fly is hard to come by, and being able to fly as an encounter power gives a lot of flexibility.  Because of the mechanical change of putting them all as one race, the flavor of the genasi has shifted a little bit from their original roots, but I can understand why WOTC would want to make this move.  It does make the game a bit simpler.  I would favor having each genasi being their own race myself, but as a DM I do like this implementation.

Which genasi do you like?

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Last time we talked about the specific difficulties that newer players may have when deciding what kind of character to play. Today we’ll address the same concern with a more experienced player who may be feeling a bit burned out.

So you think you’ve played everything under the sun. Well, I’m sure you have. What’s more, you’ve played with people who have played everything you weren’t interested in trying out yourself. When we play with a group we experience pieces of each character in the party, almost as if we were playing those characters ourselves.

So what do you do?

Option one: Play the stand-by character. Go back to the tried and true. Your old favorite. Re-create the first character you ever played.

Option two: Ask your DM or party what they need. A lot of times other members of your group will have decided what they want to play and they just need something to round the party out. This will at least give you an idea of where to start.

Option three: Play a random character. Use any random number generator to choose a race and class.

If none of these ideas work, then look around for inspiration.

• Scan the internet. Plenty of D&D sites and forums out there.
• Look at your fantasy books (you know you have them).
• Watch an action movie.
• Look at some old TV. shows.

If all else fails, drop me an email and I’ll tell you what to play

As always, remember its about the fun!

Click here for part 1

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