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!

Welcome back to Dungeons and Dragons Corner.

You can find Character Sheets Here.

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Ok so you have no money, which is generally true for most of us, but you still want to run as cool of a game as possible.

Here are some ideas to save cash and still enhance your gaming experience.

1. Buy bulk minis.  If you are going to buy minis, buy in bulk off of Craigslist or Ebay. (Check my full story on buying minis here.)
2. Spend time in the forums.  People retire from the game all the time (if even for a short time).  See if they are willing to give away some of their old maps, minis, or dungeon tiles.
3. Craft.  No, not the 3.5 D&D skill.  I mean learn to make your own.  There are lots of ways to make figures from origami to inventive uses of hot glue.
4. Second hand stores.  These are excellent places to find stuff that other gamers Mom’s threw out when they went to college.  You can get everything from cards to minis, dice, even books.
5. Print your own stuff.  You can make everything you need from character sheets to Dungeon Master screens yourself.  They may not have the polished look of a commercial product, but they will be useful. If you can find some free art and a color printer, you can make them look even better.
6. Visit DnDCorner often.  Or better yet, subscribe via email (link on the right).  I know, shameless plug, but everything here is free.  I do this because I love the game, and the techniques I use have saved me both time and money.

 Hope these ideas trigger a little less spending, and as always remember to have fun!

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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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Here is a quick and easy to use name generator.  It isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread but it sure will help out in a pinch.

I know that personally I often run into a bit of trouble when I’m trying to figure out the details for my character or if I have a lot of NPC’s that I need to flesh out for a campaign.

One thing you could do is to print up a page of the randomly generated names and have it handy for use when the party walks into the new town.  Now Bob the Orc has a name to go with his ugly mug.

Have fun with it!

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Let’s get one thing straight right now.  I am not an artist.  I make no pretenses about it and I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to make beautiful paintings or how to perfect your minis.  But I can point you in the right direction if you are interested in learning to draw better or if, like me, you like to sketch out your characters from time to time and you want to do it better.

The folks at Manga Revolution have collected some excellent tutorials and advice for drawing.  I love to draw horses myself.  Its just something I started as a child and always enjoyed.  I’ve struggled with drawing faces, and I always seem to get body proportions wrong.  Well Manga Revolution can help with that.

You can find step by step instruction for drawing nearly anything that has to do with manga and as far as I’m concerned that makes it worth the price of entry (which happens to be just one mouse click).

Have fun and draw something cool for your next game!

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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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Ok, there are a few of these little generators running around the internet, but I always get a kick out of using them.  This one I like because it keeps your ability scores pretty well grounded and I think it offers a good perspective on just how out of this world our Dungeons and Dragons characters are.

You can find the quiz and generator here.

For those of you wondering, I scored:

STR: 11, INT 13, WIS 13, DEX 15, CON 8, CHA 14

This was a bit hard for me to take, after all I have a pretty high opinion of myself.  I like to think that I am tougher, smarter and wiser than anyone else on the block.  It turns out that I’m not.  Yes I have my education and yes I keep in shape, but the truth is I’ll never be an olympian and I have no plans on getting my doctorate anytime soon.

What kind of a character would I make myself into?  Well, I’d probably play a rogue and multi-class into warlock, star pact, because it suits my personality.

For those new to the game this generator can be a pretty good eye-opener for those who have questions about what the ability scores mean.  For those of us who have done these quizzes before, well its just plain fun.

Go ahead and post your scores here.  Let’s see how we all fare.

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So you’ve put a lot of thought into your dnd character, optimized it, consulted with the experts and your ready for anything.  Or so you think.  Even the best balanced campaign can offer challenges to survival, especially at lower levels and especially when a group is adjusting to new roles.

Here are a few tips for survival.

• Avoid combat. Exercise your diplomatic skills where possible. You don’t necessarily have to kick in every door, and often that door kick will lead to a trap or other dangerous situation.
• Go slowly. Take the time you need to search for traps and other tricks. It is easy to get caught early on when you lack the powers and defensive capabilities.
• Work with your party. No single character can do it all. A defender cannot rival a striker’s damage dealing ability. A striker will not have the staying power of a defender. If you stray away from your party or try to take over another character’s role, you may find yourself in trouble too deep to handle.
• Search everything. You can’t afford to miss a treasure early on. You’ll need all that cash to buy better equipment as quickly as possible. Don’t skip it.
• Make contacts in town. Find out who is paying and who is not. Where are the stores that have the good stuff? Charging into the dungeon will lead you to treasure, but you’ll probably pass up a lot of help and opportunities if you don’t take the time to find out who the key NPC’s really are. Many times you can even get some cash in town without risking your neck.
• Fight smart. If you are going into combat, make a plan. Talk with your party members and listen to what the others have to say. A careful plan can often see a party through without anyone taking damage.
• Buy the best. You may not have much cash, but spend it on the best you can afford.

Character is dnd die often. Sooner or later, if you keep playing it will happen to you. If you want to avoid it, play smart to maximize your survivability.

Have fun, and keep playing!

fye.com: Movies.Music.Games & More

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Like many people I don’t have an inexhaustible gaming budget. So, I look for deals where I can get them. As a DM I like to provide as entertaining a Dungeons and Dragons session as possible, including handouts, a magnetic game grid, and minis, but I don’t have the hundreds of minis it would require to have a unique mini for each monster my players will find.

Here are some solutions I have tried.

• Buy in bulk and re-use. Find a site offering bulk minis, or a collection on ebay, and pick them up inexpensively. Use the orc minis to represent not only orcs, but also goblins, hobgoblins, humans, gnolls, etc.
• Visit your local second-hand stores. Many times these minis get stuck in the toy section of your local goodwill or other second hand store, where you can pick them up for a dime (or less).
• Use tokens instead of minis. Gameboard tokens, chess pawns, etc. can fill the role of kobold minions nicely. Save your nicer looking minis for the bosses. Sure this allows for some meta-gaming (since the players always know who the boss is), but that may not always be a bad thing.

The key to remember is that most of the monsters will be long forgotten by the time the players reach the next encounter. If you are careful about how you reuse the minis you do own it can draw attention to the NPC’s you want them to remember.

On the flip side there is nothing wrong with painting fabulous minis or investing in some nice pre-sculpted and pre-painted minis as well. If you have the luxury of access to dozens or even hundreds of minis then by all means, use them.

Thanks, and enjoy the game!

Get the latest in mobile software for your HTC TyTN II at Handango!

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Character Optimization (CO) is the practice of building the best possible character for dnd or another rpg. The question is what a player means by “best”. For most optimizers (min/maxers, munchkins, power-gamers), this means a character with the best mathematical chance of performing an effective action in the game, usually an attack.

Everyone who has read the Player’s Handbook knows to add strength to their melee fighter. Not everyone sees the synergy of multi-classing their ranger with a rogue to increase their damage potential.

Spend a little time in the forums at Enworld or Wizards of the Coast, and you will see just how far many players will go.

The question of the day is why and how far should a player go when optimizing their character.

Whenever I speak with players about why they do various things, it always comes down to increasing their potential for having fun. A character optimized to be effective in combat will generally die much less often in combat, and character death is not fun (usually). However, if they play with me, they will soon discover that there are many ways of effectively ending a character’s life/career outside of combat.

I am then not surprised to find the players optimizing against or in reaction to whatever their last horrible situation was. As an example, I was DMing for a party that had no rogue. They had wonderful healing ability, and could dish out damage left and right. They walked through most combats easily. Every time they found a trap the party had a serious challenge to deal with. Eventually they found a trap that killed a party member and hamstrung the party. Next session, the player whose character died showed up with a rogue – optimized against traps. The party did much better.

The moral of the story is that as a player when you build your character you should think of it in terms, not only of your character concept, but also in terms of survivability.

I love to build backgrounds for my characters in dnd. I will spend up to forty hours building a single character (yes, overkill, I know). I consider where the character came from, who their parents are, their likes, dislikes, favorite phrases etc. And then I go and optimize feats, skills, powers, and everything I can think of to keep that character alive – all within the concept of who that character is and what they want to do. Because spending a week’s worth of work to build a character only to have it die in the first session is very, very unfun.

I don’t recommend that you obsess as much as I do. That’s just insanity. However, I do recommend striking a balance between theme and mechanics. If you wish to play a Dwarf wizard with a penchant for drink and an eye for Halfling women that is fine. Just remember to make him a useful wizard, and give some thought to what will happen when the party eventually leaves the tavern.

The other side of the optimization coin, is when it goes too far. Many players would suggest that there is no such thing. Respectfully I disagree. All things can go too far. When you find yourself debating energetically and emphatically with your Dungeon Master or with other players, take a step back. You may have crossed the line into the realm of unfun. If your build is making life unfun for the Dungeon Master, you can bet that he or she will make life unfun for you, either they will target you unfairly or they will stop running the game for you.

If other players complain, I suggest you listen. They are not whining at you. They are warning you, and often not so subtly, that you have crossed into unfun territory and that your actions are not welcome. If those players are your friends, then you owe them the respect of listening and working with them to restore fun to the game.

Build the best character you can, and have fun with it!

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Let me preface this post with a link to a post on the WOTC D&D Forums.

Link

This is a wonderful concept, and the downloads (which you can find in the post) are exceptional.

A lot of times it can be difficult to get a seed started to generate ideas from. A randomly generated back story is a great way to get the juices flowing, even if you end up rejecting some of the generated information.

It works pretty well in conjunction with the ideas that I presented here and here about developing a character when you don’t know what character to play.  Once you have a basic idea of where the character is going it becomes much easier to put together the details in terms of rules and mechanics.

The beauty of a random back story is that it doesn’t really matter what system you are playing because it is really all about developing the flavor of the character that you are going to be playing.  In any relatively balanced system the class or path that you choose shouldn’t affect your character’s ability to be successful, but many players find it difficult to be successful with a character that they don’t enjoy.  Getting a story behind a character that a player can enjoy is a huge step forward towards playing a successful, interesting character.

Check it out and have fun!

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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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Here is a pretty common dilemma for both experienced and new D&D aficionados alike.

For new players, they often don’t know what to expect from any of the individual classes so they just stare at the Player’s Handbook and hope someone tells them what to do. More experienced players have already seen it and done it and don’t want more of the same.

Today we’ll address the new player.

If you’re new to the game or if you’re helping someone new, the first thing to remember is to focus on the personality you want to play.

Don’t get overwhelmed with the rules and specifics of any powers or classes. Instead focus on the kind of hero you want to play.

Do you want to:

• Bash face at close quarters?
• Be mysterious and sneaky?
• Use spells to help the team?
• Strike from the shadows?
• Become a forest guardian?
• Serve in the town guard?

The idea is simple. Decide on the character’s place in the world and go with it. Your DM or a more experienced player can help you with the math and filling out your character sheet.

Another pitfall common to new players (as well as experienced players) is focusing too much on what the character could become. Dungeons and Dragons is a game about progress and change. There will be roughly 300 encounters, some 100 sessions between level 1 and level 30. If you play once per week that means that any plans you make for your character won’t be happening for several months at a minimum. Thinking about what the future could bring often stifles the decision making process of today.

Dungeons and Dragons offers you the ability to pretend to be whoever you want. Character creation gives you the chance to pick that person. If you focus on who you want to play in the future you may end up disappointed as the campaign may well go a completely different direction.

If all else fails, you can always play a random or premade character. There’s no harm in using someone else’s ideas until you get your feet wet.

Hope this helps, and as always have a great D&D night.

Click Here For Part 2

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Many Dungeons and Dragons players get caught up in the quest for treasure and level advancement, which is understandable as these are primary goals of the game.  However, there are other ways to gain an edge in the game.

• Min/Maxing.  Careful character building can give you a serious edge over non-optimized characters.  Taking training in the perception skill while maximizing your wisdom score simply makes sense.  If you couple that with a feat that gives you a bonus, then you have effectively freed up an item slot from requiring a perception bonus.  This same principle can be applied to any skill, though it is important to understand your particular group and DM to know which skills will be the most important.
• Understand the direction of the campaign.  Some skills will be used session after session.  Some skills will sit there as unused numbers on your character sheet.  Nearly every dungeon has a secret door or two.  If you are playing a premade module, you can guarantee that there will be a couple of perception checks required.  If you are playing a more role-playing intensive campaign with diplomacy and intrigue, you may want to consider insight.  Similar arguments could be me made for most other skills.
• Play to your strengths.  All too often players will min/max their character, focusing on melee or ranged combat and then spend their time doing the complete opposite.  It doesn’t do you much good to max your insight skill if you don’t engage the NPC’s.  If you’ve maxed your stealth ability but charge into combat every encounter the points you’ve placed won’t do you much good.
• Help your party.  There are some items that can help nearly any character.  Other items are much better only in the hands of specific characters.  If you don’t need an item, don’t horde it.  If that ring could be used by the mage and you only need it as a spare, you may want to pass it along to increase the overall effectiveness of the party.  Sooner or later, in a well-balanced campaign, every party member will need to perform at their peak.
• Take advantage of terrain.  If there is a well in the middle of the room.  Push the bad guys into it.  No reason to face them in a straight fight if you don’t have to.
• Role-Play.  Towns and villages can be much more than just a quick stop for clues and shopping.  Milk every NPC for all the information you can find.  Many times the clues to walking unscathed through the encounter is waiting to be uncovered by talking.  Many times you will be able to convince someone to act as a guide or scout.  Having an NPC helper is worth more, in terms of power, than earning a level.  DM’s enjoy the interaction and will often reward an enjoyable role-playing exchange.

Paying attention to the details of the game outside of the advancement tables and treasure charts can pay big dividends.  Nobody likes to lose a character to an unfortunate combat incident or stray trap.  You can do a lot to avoid these tragedies by playing a smart game and taking advantage of all the resources presented.

As always, have fun!

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